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

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.

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.”

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.”