Serving the Burton Joyce Community

Burton Joyce Parish Council

BJ Parish Council  Latest News

7th July 2009 Burton Joyce Parish Council appoints three New Councillors to join at a busy time.  Cllr Jenny Gale, Cllr Paul Hyde and Cllr Terry Hazard will be officially “commissioned” in September when the Parish Council meets after the August Break. All are long time residents of Burton Joyce and came highly recommended Well done to get past the new interview panel and questionnaires. More details soon

Best Kept Village of the Year  Burton Joyce in top 4 and through to next round of Best Kept Village of Year 2009 awards sponsored by Campaign to Protect Rural England CPRE with positive comments about tidiness and state of Playground . Well done Burton Joyce please keep gardens and pathways clear and neat.

BJJFC Contracts July 2009

Burton Joyce Junior Football Club Contracts have been approved and signed 2009/2010 onwards  paving the way for additional capacity and revenue for the Poplars in line with BJPC revenue plan. In addition Summer football pitch and Friday night fees agreement reached. Additional capacity has been specified to BJJFC which they have  filled entirely from Burton Joyce Home Teams. Senior BJFC contract to follow. This is the first time since the start of the Poplars a capacity has been stated and filled and an approved contract signed. Cllr Greenfields negotiating team will continue with BJ Cricket and Bowls club to maximise revenue and improve facilities.

Burton Joyce Come second in CPRE Best Kept Village of the Year Competition

The judging for the Nottinghamshire CPRE Best Kept Village Competition is now over and the results have been received. 42 villages entered the competition and there were 4 categories relating to the size of population. Burton Joyce was the runner up in the larger village section and will receive a cheque for £50 and a certificate. A campaign spokesman said, “it becomes more difficult each year to judge the competition as the standards continually become higher, one of the objectives of this competition is to get local residents to take pride in their village and this is obviously happening”.

Thanks to all the residents and businesses who ensure there tidy fronts, gardens and presentations helped us get this far. As well as our groundstaff and street cleaners .

 Cemetry Copper Beech Tree. September 09

 One of the copper beech trees standing adjacent to the path running through the centre of the cemetery, has numerous fungal brackets around the base of the trunk. This fungus is Giant polypore (Meripilus gigantius) which attacks the roots of the tree. It is commonly associated with Beech and is likely to lead to a complete failure from windthrow. As this fungus attacks the wood within the trees roots, the fibrous roots that take up water and nutrients still function so the tree can have a healthy canopy and appear to be in good condition. Once the fruiting bodies of the fungus have appeared it is then apparent that this is not the case. 

The Parish Council has been advised that there is no viable pruning operation that will make the tree safe and allow for its continued survival. The Assistant Forestry Officer at Notts County Council has recommended its removal as the only viable option that will make the area safe. The tree will have to be replaced with another Copper Beech planted in a different area of the cemetery. Quotes are now being sought for the work to be done.

Annual Accounts – 2008/09

The Parish Council has approved the financial accounts for 2008/09 and these are now available for public inspection. The Parish Office will be open between 25^th June and the 24^th July (Mon/Fri – 9.30-11.30) should anyone wish to inspect the accounts and related documents. Alternatively, copies of the accounts will be made available on the website or on application to the Parish Clerk. A full notice has been posted on the Parish Notice Board,  An electronic version should be available when the clerk returns from Holiday

Poplars Income up 65% 2009/2010 period

As part of the BJPC plans to improve revenue and reduce subsidy to the BJPC residents for the Sports facility of the Poplars Ground. The BJPC improvements are now starting to come through . As part of an initial 2 year plan  involving increased capacity for the football usage and additional usage on the ground. We are now fielding 18 team this season up by 5.  Confirmed income based on signed contracts and current usage show a revenue up 65% from last year. This is particularly pleasing as only parts of the revenue increases are active. This excludes any Bowls, Cricket or Pavilions hire  changes still under negotiation which will occur in the next period and have yet to be finalised. Still along way to go but going forward.!!

Wind turbine worries or comments contact us on

 windturbines@

burtonjoyceparish

council.org.uk     

Oct 09 BJPC passes Annual External Audit with flying colours

The Audit of the Parish Council’s accounts for the year 2008/09 was concluded on the 6^th October 2009 by Clement Keys.  The Auditors gave an un-qualified opinion ( which means all aspects were correct) on the accounts and stated “on the basis of our review, in our opinion the information contained in the annual return is in accordance with the Audit Commission’s requirements and no matters have come to our attention giving cause for concern that relevant legislation and regulatory requirements have not been met.”

The Parish Office will be open by arrangement with the Parish Clerk between 9am and 11am on the following dates for anyone wishing to inspect or take copies of the Statement of Accounts and Auditors Certificate and Report: Monday 26^th & Tuesday 27^th October Monday 2^nd November

This is one of the final hurdles to us applying for Quality Parish Council Status in the near future

November 2009 Burton Joyce Play ground refit gets approval . BJPC Council has approved an outline plan for the total refurbishment of the Roberts recreation Ground . next to the Nelson Pub. The plan involves finance and grants from 4 sources including BJPC funds to a maximum of £250k.  Securing funding and the operational experience  of Groundworks UK (who completed  Lambley Playground recently) will take approximately 6months. Provisional design and consultation phase will end at the end of Summer 2010 for construction over the least used winter phase. Provisional date for start of  refit is November 2010.

Public meeting Results :Following the public meeting Nov 19th 2009 at the BJ Village  hall in excess of 200 residents turnout on an ironically windy night to listen to three presentation on the proposals by Severn Trent Water Authority for the erection of the Very Large wind turbines (125 – 132metres) tall  in the fields within 450metres of houses at Burton Joyce.

Residents were shown three PowerPoint based presentations by three different parties within the meeting. Burton Joyce Parish Council hosted the meeting  with a target of making information available to the residents of Burton Joyce, Stoke Bardolph and Gedling and letting them make up their minds on the effects on Burton Joyce and its environment.

P1 : Severn Trent Waters Authority  David Wood  Renewables Division Manager gave an insight into the goals and aspirations of STWA on the Stoke Bardolph Sewage Treatment and outlined the mitigation and scoping reports that SWTA is undertaking to comply with planning regulations prior to putting in a full planning application. Details included likely output to the Grid and savings in C02

P2:  BJPC Cllr Steve Cluff presentation was  on the likely impacts on the village  of Burton Joyce and its residents with the information known to date about the proposal. This covered a series of CGI visualisations around the village indicating size and scale of the turbines, noise and shadow flicker  projections against specific roads and houses and comparisons of this proposal with other wind farms . It also covered the possible closure of all or parts the Poplars sports ground due to Health and Safety /Nuisance issues of placing a 132metre wind turbine within 50metres of  cricket and football pitches.

P3. Resident Villagers Oppose Local Turbines RE-Volt resident action group Byron Crawford presented a view on homeowners within the affected area with comments on  the out of date ETSU 97 noise guidelines and  MP Peter  Luffs attempt to legislate  for correct set back levels of Wind Turbines to heavily populated areas.  Further information was given on the health problems encountered by locals to other sites in close proximity to turbines.

After the presentations and hour of Q&A and open forum from residents including requests for a referendum, subsidy levels for SWTA and confirmation that Burton Joyce will receive no benefits in terms of energy supply or reduced bills.

The meeting adjourned after a unanimous vote to reject the current proposals.

Precept Charge to Remain the Same. BJPC precept charge is to remain the same . The Addition to the Council Tax will stay at £42.57 for another year 2010/2011. This is due to better fiscal and efficiency control at the BJPC from the new 2009 administration.  The BJPC has been able to increase its revenue from other sources notably less subsidy to the Poplars sports Ground and  increases from Cemetery fees. Additional cost controls have been made and better purchasing. Our Sports Clubs have  assisted us greatly in renewing their contracts to commercial rates.

Therefore the budget for 2010 is to actually increase services with a £200k total refurbishment of the Roberts Recreation playground by the Nelson pub by Sept 2010. Addition resources have been found to increase street cleaning in association with Gedling Borough Council. Further details will be made soon and the budget published.

Wind Turbine Update 11/2/10. councillors Interests :The BJPC is expecting a planning application imminently from STWA for wind Turbines next to Burton Joyce. In the format presented to us in December we cannot recommend this application to the residents as over a third of our residents will be compromised or affected detrimentally to it/( some severely so). The close proximity to the Poplars also puts the viability of the Sports Ground in jeopardy as we cannot operate safety with blades with 50 meter of our pitches.  The BJPC has set  up a 25 strong Working Group to respond to the application when it arrives –more details to follow.

Normal low level  advisory guidelines indicate that councillors should declare some sort of “interest” if they know persons ,or may be personally affected by items on the agenda to avoid allegations of bias or misrepresentations.  These guidelines are only for standard procedures and large scale development affected large areas have a different  method of operation. As the councillors have to live in the area to be elected it is clearly non sensical if they cannot vote on items affecting the whole community of Burton Joyce. In the initial meetings relating to Turbines some councillors declared an interest as a cautionary approach, however after further investigation and consultation with the Standards Board this appeared to be  over cautious.

Due to the scale of the application  BJPC councillors have applied for special dispensation to deal with items relating to the Wind Turbines from the Standards Board. We felt that all of the councillors were likely to know or be affected by some aspect of the development as it affects and area of over 1500m . i.e. most of Burton Joyce. Hence the special  application for special dispensation to BJ councillors to allow us to vote and continue to serve the residents of Burton Joyce. This dispensation has been granted now by the Standards Board

 

 

 

Severn Trent Fan Noise Update : As of Feb 11th 2010 STWA should have completed the noise reduction to the Centrifuge fans at Stoke Bardolph

The whining noise has been the cause of many complaints carried from the works as far up as Lambley Lane. Thanks to resident Ian Taylor at the top of Lambley lane for being so diligent and STWA for recognising  the  issue.  Further work will be looked at now at the Chettles yard next door.

Roberts Recreation Playground refit : BJPC has released the first part of funds to start the enabling works at Roberts Recreation ground. The £200k spend should begin in the winter of 2009 subject to funding grants arriving.