Arnside Parish Council

Maintenance of Footpaths.

For some years now, the Council has been very unhappy about the standards of maintenance of public footpaths, in our area. The responsibility had been delegated from the County Council to the District Council, but late last year, SLDC decided that the County Council was not providing enough money, for an adequate job to be done, so they decided to return the duty, as from April this year. When Members heard about this, they made the point that the Parish Council should be in a position to make a better job of it, and so we asked the County Council to re-delegate the duty to us, and to provide appropriate finance.

Rather than risk any mis-representation, the text of the reply is as follows (except that we have highlighted, in red, some words which appal us):

CUMBRIA COUNTY COUNCIL

The Courts Carlisle

Cumbria CA3 SNA

tel- 01228 606060

fax-01228 606302

email-john.harwood@cumbriacc.gov.uk

From John Harwood

Interim Chief Executive

28 April 2004

Mr P Challenor

Clerk to Arnside Parish Council

“Tanglewood”

New Barns Close

ARNSIDE

Cumbria

LA5 OBL

Dear Mr Challenor

I am now in a position to reply more fully to your letter of 3 April.

I can confirm that the County Council has now taken over responsibility of the maintenance

work previously done by South Lakeland District Council in respect of public rights of way.

Parish Councils are certainly permitted to carry out work on footpaths and bridleways within

their parish area, as described in Section 43 of The Highways Act 1980. Enclosed is a

photocopy of the relevant pages for your convenience. Subsection 2 of this enables the

County Council to contribute to the cost of this work. There is therefore no legal reason why

parish should not maintain the public paths within its area.

The County Council, through its agent, Capita, inspect the rights of way and organise

contractors to carry out maintenance work. This is done on a parish-by-parish basis, with the

intention of visiting each parish once every five years. Due to budgetary constraints I am

afraid this has slipped to eight or nine years. It is therefore unlikely that the County Council

will be able to make any contribution to the Parish Council, other than during the year when

your parish falls within the maintenance cycle.

I have requested that Capita contact you prior to carrying out any maintenance work within

Arnside Parish Council to undertake the work.

The Parish may wish to consider undertaking some minor works (strimming, brush-cutting

etc.) using the Parish precept but I can confirm that the County Council would not be able to

contribute to this.

JOHN HARWOOD

“Jubilee Gardens”

Many residents have commented on the excellent work done by the group of volunteers, who have been looking-after the Jubilee Gardens, on The Promenade. Our Parish Contractor has been using his own sit-on mower to cut the grass, as and when time has permitted, but it is not really a suitable machine for the lawn. Members of the Group volunteered to cut it, but we were unable to supply them with an appropriate machine. When this came to the attention of the Community Fund, generated by customers of the Albion Hotel, the Licensee very kindly offered to donate £376.18 to enable us to purchase a lawnmower and strimmer.

Many thanks to our volunteers (and encouragement to continue), and, of course, all those patrons of The Albion who have made this improvement possible.

Children’s Playground

We have received our Annual Safety Report, and it is not good!

At the time of writing, we have not yet had a chance to fully appraise the extent of the work required, or the cost, but it looks as though it could be expensive. The impact-absorbing tiles have really had their day, and are lifting. The modern ideal solution goes under the name of “Wetpour”, but we are looking at a cost of around £3,400, just to provide it for the swings.

Once again, the Community Fund, has started to help, with a donation of £100, for which we are very grateful. However, we are going to have to do some serious fundraising, if we are not to raise the parish Council’s portion of the Council Tax by a large amount.

Any suggestions?

Cemetery Chapel

Our Cemetery Chapel Development Committee (which includes residents who are not Councillors) held another Open Day, on April 24th. It was very well supported, and we might now be able to proceed with the installation of essential services, so that the building can be brought into use, on occasions other than warm sunny afternoons. Watch this space, or the Parish Council Minutes, over the next few months, to see some signs of progress (we hope).

It also seems appropriate to mention that there is a suggestion of establishing a Local History Society, to be based at the Chapel, with semi-permanent displays. Essentially, this will be independent of the Council, but anyone who is interested is welcome to contact our Clerk (clerk@arnside.gov.uk), who will pass the details to the appropriate person.