Longhoughton Parish Council: Road repairs, skate-park plans and parish precept rise

Longhoughton county councillor Kate Cairns told last Monday night's meeting that quarries in the area will be looking at making a contribution towards repairing roads in and around Longhoughton.
The entrance to Longhoughton Quarry.The entrance to Longhoughton Quarry.
The entrance to Longhoughton Quarry.

It follows continued complaints by the parish council and residents about the state of the local road surfaces.

○ Discussions are taking place about the possibility of building a skateboard park or mutli-use games area (MUGA) in Longhoughton.

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Coun Adrian Hinchcliffe said that the schemes have been mooted by Longhoughton Village Development Trust, but talks are ongoing.

There is currently £40,000 of Section 106 funding available and it has been suggested that this could be used.

Coun Hinchcliffe said: “At the last development trust meeting, we discussed a skateboard park. We also talked about possibly updating the children’s adventure play area or even changing it to a MUGA.

“We are looking to recruit a few more trustees at our AGM in a few weeks’ time, to see if they could run this sort of a project properly, and then we will bring it back, probably in March or April.”

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RAF Boulmer representative Simon Buist said there was a need for a skateboard park and MUGA in the village.

○ The parish council has agreed to put its precept up by £1,000 for the 2017/18 financial year. This will take the annual parish precept up to £17,000. It was agreed that the additional £1,000 would act as a buffer zone for any potential costs which come the council’s way.

○ Councillors have agreed to postpone talks about the possibility of starting a neighbourhood development plan until after the May elections. Coun Adrian Hinchcliffe said: “It would be a big commitment and if we have new councillors, they should be part of the decision-making process.”

○ Coun Carol Green hailed the village’s Christmas tree and lights festival as a great success and said it will be repeated in 2017. She told members: “It attracted more than 120 people and Westfield Park was chock-a-block. We will do the event again this year.”