Trawden Forest Parish Council

News from Around the Parish

Parish Council Vacancy

Are you interested in joining our team and becoming a Councillor?

A Parish Councillor represents the electorate. You must meet the qualifying criteria in order to become a Councillor and be voted in, in this case, by co-option.

Your application form will be circulated to Councillors and form the basis on which they make the decision whether to co-opt you onto the Council.

You will be invited to join the next Parish Council meeting, where your application will be considered.

Responsibilities of Councillors:

Represent the views of the electorate.
Vote at meetings and take part in discussions in an orderly manner.
Must attend meetings. Non-attendance of meetings, for 6 consecutive months without accepted apologies, will result in disqualification.
Bring any issues or complaints to Council, to be resolved on behalf of parishioners.
Follow the Code of Conduct and Standing Orders, unbiased.
Act as part of a corporate body; not on an individual basis.

Details of the Parish Council responsibilities can be found on the 'Home' page, and applications must be received by the Clerk by 5pm on 30th April 2024. The adopted Policies of the Council relevant to this position can be found on the 'Adopted Policies' page.

Application Form

What is expected of a Parish Councillor?

Notice of Poll for the Borough Council Elections and the Police and Crime Commissioner Elections.

Can you help us?

We are looking for someone who is able to replace the tarmac patches at the entrance to the bus terminus, with traditional stone edgings.

If you're able to cost this for us, please send the information to a.waddington@trawdenparishcouncil.org.uk.

Here is an example of the patches I refer to.

Work has been completed at Lanehouse Lane Playground!

There was a big team preparing the area for the installation of new equipment and re-surfacing the existing areas.

Here we have the photos of the preparation of the site. They estimated that it would take 3 weeks to complete which included the groundworks to sign off.

Due to the great British weather in January and February 2024, this was extended by a week. The contractors worked through 2 named storms and the snow. Still, to complete this task in four weeks was amazing.

Completed playground pictures

Photographs of the finished article. Credit to JT Photos for the fantastic drone shots.

All works were completed by Live Play Educate Ltd, of Nelson.

I've received many compliments about the work and friendliness of the workers on site. I cannot thank Mark and Rebecca Eden enough for everything that they have done to get this completed within a short space of time, with absolutely no issues at all.

From the initial presentation of the proposed equipment, by the Parish Council Clerk to the Council in July 2023, I think that it has been a great achievement to have this completed by mid February.

The RoSPA report has been received and the site passed with flying colours. I'm very proud of this achievement.

Public Participation at meetings

We encourage our residents to attend Parish Council meetings and the item below is the guidance to how this part of the meeting will be conducted.

Each item will have 5 minutes only - and one of the Councillors will set a timer. You must make your conclusion within these 5 minutes. Councillors may ask questions following this 5 minutes, but no decisions will be made.

With reference to planning applications; if your application is on the agenda for discussion, you are welcome to attend and give the Council any information, other than that on the application, that you may have. You will not be permitted to speak during the Council's discussion of the application, unless invited to do so, by the Chair.

What to do if you find an issue

Residents often become aware of problems that the Parish Council cannot rectify.

We are here to help, but if you see any of the following, these are the phone numbers/web links to report them direct:

Highways issues including blocked drains, street lights, gritting issues - these should be directed to Lancashire County Council via the LoveCleanStreets App.

Refuse collections, full litter or dog fouling bins - these should be directed to Pendle Borough Council on 01282 661166 or go to: www.pendle.gov.uk.

If you have a query about housing benefit, council tax benefit or the like, please go to www.pendle.gov.uk/benefits

If you need to report an Environmental Health issue report it via www.pendle.gov.uk/info/20005/your_environment

Defibrillators

You probably know that there is already a defibrillator outside the Community Centre, and in addition to this, the Parish Council have recently installed 2 more in the Parish.

One is outside of the White Lee Head Club (Cockhill), at Lanehouse and the other is at the Recreation Ground.

They are live and available on The Circuit site which means they are visible to the Ambulance service. If you ever need to use any of these machines, please call 999 and they will give you the code to access the box.

£2 bus services

New timetable extensions started on 26th November thanks to new government funding for buses supported by Lancashire County Council.

Services 1, 3 and 5 which link different parts of Burnley will have a number of extra journeys in the evening, operating until around 11pm from Monday to Saturday, and until 9pm on Sunday.

A later departure will be introduced on the 'mainline' M2 service from Burnley to Clitheroe via Padiham and Whalley, with the last buses leaving from Burnley and Clitheroe stations at 10.58pm from Monday to Saturday.

There will also be later services on the 'mainline' M6 route from Burnley to Barnoldswick via Nelson and Colne from Monday to Saturday.

The last bus from Burnley to Skipton will leave at 7.45pm, the last bus from Burnley to Colne will leave at 11.30pm, and the last bus from Skipton to Burnley will leave at 8.55pm. There will also be some minor tweaks to the rest of the timetable.

Another later journey will also be introduced on the Witch Way service X43 from Burnley to Manchester via Rawtenstall, departing Burnley for Rawtenstall at 10.40pm. This service from Monday to Thursday will complement the later services already operating on Fridays and Saturdays.

The improved services have been made possible thanks to additional 'BSIP plus' funding received from the Government in support of Lancashire's £34.1m Bus Service Improvement Plan, and will be operated by Burnley Bus Company in partnership with Lancashire County Council.

Colne Youth Action Group

Covid 19 changed everything it seems.

Residents and the Police reported an unprecedented rise in anti-social behaviour, not just in Colne, but in Trawden, Laneshaw Bridge and Foulridge too.

Planters were turned over. Trees were uprooted. Play equipment was damaged. But why?

Margaret Foxley and Sarah Cockburn-Price set out to find out. After speaking to Police, schools, businesses and councils they realised that something had to be done to create societal change locally, as the generations were in conflict.

They also realised it couldn’t be a short-term fix. From this, CYAG was born. It was soon clear that lots of other people agreed with them and they are indebted to them for their support.

Purposes:
To advance in life and help young people living in Colne and the surrounding areas through:
The provision of recreational and leisure time activities in the interest of social welfare, designed to improve their conditions of life. Providing support and activities which develop their skills, capacities and capabilities to enable them to participate in society as mature and responsible individuals.
Discouraging anti-social and criminal behaviour by showing young people the consequences and likely outcomes of such activities.

To find out what's going on, please visit https://cyag.org

Donations 2023/4

Each year, the Parish Council budget for donations to local charities and community groups.

We also have a grant's fund, should your organisation need a small amount of additional funding for capital projects. The application form can be found on our Policies page.

During the 2023/24 financial year, the Council chose to support the following:
£300 towards upkeep of the Church clock.
£300 towards the running costs of the Friendship Group.
£700 towards Trawden Celtic Junior Football Club for installation of a storage container.
£300 to Mountain Rescue
£300 to Air Ambulance.
£500 to Trawden Community Library and Shop towards installation of a cycle repair station.

We hope that you agree that these donations are very worthwhile for the whole community.

CCTV Cameras

The Parish Council own 2 sets of CCTV cameras.

One is on the Church corner, and the other is the set on Wycoller car park.

They run 24 hours a day and are not monitored, but footage can be retrieved by the Clerk should there be an incident within the vicinity.

The cameras are registered with the Police, who will request footage, should there be an incident in the area.

The purpose of the cameras is for the detection and prevention of crime.

The policy for CCTV cameras can be found on our Policies page.

Precept Position 2024/5

Re-opening of the Victorian Pissoir

These are the photo's that were taken at the re-opening of the Victorian Pissoir on 30th April 218.

On behalf of Trawden Forest Parish Council..... Thank you to David and Barbara Whalley - the Mayor and Mayoress - for attending the opening and cutting the ribbon.
Thank you to Sarah Cockburn-Price, Paul White and Margaret Foxley, the Borough Councillors for funding part of the renovation project.
Thank you to Martin and Jacquie Watson and Keiron Melling from Marlyn Engineering for completing the work.
Thank you to Craig Smith for taking up the old cracked concrete floor and replacing it with the black limestone flags.
Thank you to Gillian Greenwood for taking the photo's.
We have already received some lovely messages saying how good it looks and that people are glad that it has reopened.

Repair of wall at Skipton Road

Sections of the boundary wall on Skipton Road have been falling down for quite some time now, and at the end of last year (2017), quite a large section fell into the road.

With the support of our County Councillor, the wall was repaired on 12th April 2018, and as you can see, it looks much better and more safe than in recent years.

This issue has happened again, at the end of July 2023. We have received confirmation that the wall is the responsibility of Lancashire County Council and works are being planned.

Planting the replacement Cotton Trees

Following on from the decision from an independant report which stated that the existing 'Cotton Trees' located across from LBS and Trawden Road, were dangerous and had to be removed, yesterday (28th November 2016) replacement trees were planted.

Anne and Geoff Wolfenden, the owners of LBS and the land where the trees were located, purchased 5 replacement specimens to be planted along the side of the river around the Cotton Tree bend. 3 trees were removed, which are thought to be almost 200 years old. They kindly invited Trawden Parish Council, the Ward Councillors and the local press to attend the replanting.

Michael Crawshaw took the Councillors to the area of planting from his farm with his quad bike and sheep trailer.

We were able to use the Trawden Spade which is kept at Nelson Town Hall, for this planting which was an honor, as it was first presented to the Village when the first sod was cut for the light railway at Cotton Tree.

We hope that these trees, which are very rare, will last as long as their predecessors.

There will be a full report in the Colne Times.

"Be prepared" flood campaign launched in Lancashire

Lancashire County Council have launched a flooding awareness campaign today. The campaign aims to help inform residents about their role during severe weather and seeks to contribute to an overall increased level of awareness, preparedness and resilience in the event of future floods.

The campaign messages focus on the fact that, although flooding can never be totally prevented, the impact to people and property can usually be reduced. It promotes self-help messages for those members of the public who have been affected by flooding in the past and those who could be affected in the future.

It also encourages householders and businesses to be more prepared for floods that may occur in the future. They aim for it to help manage expectations around surface water flooding, while contributing to and reinforcing the work all agencies have been doing in some way to increase the level of community resilience in relation to both property level flooding and surface water flooding.

Please visit www.lancashire.gov.uk/flooding where you will find information, advice and short animations designed to help people prepare for and deal with flooding.