Chairman’s Report for North Wraxall Parish Council (NWPC)
I would like to thank my fellow parish councillors for their support and input throughout the year in their various roles and generally. This year we say good bye to Will Holder who is stepping down after 18 years on the parish council. I thank him for his input over the years and most recently with planning. Graham Worsnop is also stepping down this time. He has served as Vice Chairman and highways officer. I’d like to thank him for his tenacity in engaging with Wiltshire Council. We really hope we can engage new representatives for Mountain Bower and Ford so we can work with those communities to address their needs.
I would also like to thank Glenys for her advice and counsel as ever.
We continued to try to find a compromise with WC for improvements to the C151 in Ford. Unfortunately, the work was not implemented properly and we are still waiting for remedial work to be carried out. We hope that we can get them to implement other improvements – Possibly something similar at Mount Scylla to that on Cuttle Lane at Biddestone.
A crossing for pedestrians was implemented at Ford but Wiltshire Council (WC) would not agree to improving signage despite my insistence that it is needed.
We are still waiting for WC and associated legalities to implement the agreed speed reduction on the bends at Ford.
At The Shoe, we have had several severe accidents in the past year and the usual array of shunts which go unreported. The recent election caused delays in the protracted processes due to purdah but I engaged with the Gazette and Herald to publicise the worsening plight. We hope that WC will improve their process so that we have a right of appeal to remedy the glaring factual inaccuracies in their speed assessment report.
Planters were purchased for The Shoe along with signage and they are both in place now, plants will be going in shortly and more clearance work will be done for visibilty at Fern Farm. I’d like to thank members of the community for helping get those in place and providing a plant plan (Jenni Tame). I’d like to thank Clint for his help with this and for making the frame to lift one of them up to road level. Thanks to Bill Edwards who has donated sleepers to help form an embankment at the other end of the village and has been maintaining that area. A private contribution also provided a bench by the one next to the Queen’s tree.
We have acted upon various matters raised by residents across the year including drainage. The maintenance work we asked WC to carry out has improved some areas but not all so please continue to keep us updated on the local situations.
We are also considering look for funding to re-instate the listed mile marker at The Shoe. For Upper Wraxall, we have started looking in to possible restoration of the base of the St Adhlem cross and re-instatement of a cross with some research being published on the parish council history pages.
I have continued to cover the IT needs of the parish council and have maintained our government website pages posting the minutes, agendas, rolling action lists and bank reconciliation details after meetings. I have also published several posts/articles on the website and have written articles for Take5.
I have worked with our local Neighbourhood Watch community partners and we do hope to get a volunteer in Ford. There is new signage in the villages in the parish which are engaged in the scheme. I have maintained the neighbourhood watch details on the NWPC website.
We continued with the usual mechanics of a local parish council and made comments on 21 planning applications for 24/25 and 5 so far 25/26.
I look forward to working with you all in the coming year to the benefit of our parish.