SEPTEMBER 2017
SEDGEMOOR DISTRICT COUNCIL
Mark and Wedmore Ward
Polly Costello – polly.costello@sedgemoor.gov.uk 01934 713564
Will Human – will.human@sedgemoor.gov.uk 01278 641795
Will and Polly were on holiday this month when Full Council was held. The item of business was the retirement of the CEO and his replacement plans. It has been agreed to promote one of the senior officers to the role whilst seeking a successor, which will probably take 6 months. Polly attended the Licensing Committee which discussed seating capacity in licensed taxis in the area.
MARK PARISH COUNCIL
Mark Parish Council has sent the following response to Sedgemoor District Council objecting to Planning Application 2017/1838/VRC to vary condition 3 of Planning Permission 85439/001 refers from E.J. Godwin Peat Industries Ltd, Burtle Road, Westhay (Chipmunks) for the erection of replacement factory building to enable the building to be used for the storage, processing and manufacturing of horticultural products and wood products for animal bedding and biomass.
Mark Parish Council is equally concerned as the Parish of Burtle about the planning application of EJ Godwin Peat Industries Ltd to vary its application to support its business in Westhay.
Burtle Parish Council has adequately described that the business of Godwins has changed from one of largely extraction of peat to one of multi processes supported by laden HGVs needing to access Westhay.
Mark is on the route regularly used by HGVs transiting between Westhay and the A38 at Brent Knoll and then onto the M5. The route in the Parish runs from River Bridge to Tile House Road across Mark Moor via Butt Lake Road to the Harp Rd junction, across the B3139 and then along Harp Rd to the junction with A38. This route is totally unsuited for the current cohort of HGVs. It is narrow with sharp bends at River Bridge, the River Rd/Tile House bridge junction and a dangerous Z-Bend on Harp Rd bordered by watercourses. The regular HGV traffic has seen an increase in crashes, damage to roads in the Parish, damage to River Bridge, which took months to repair, and a HGV collapsing into the ditch opposite to Riverside Farm. The overall result is County Highways closing the approaches to River Bridge to effect repairs, thereby necessitating a long detour, and deep verges causing damage to cars, in particular, bicycles forced onto verges, and punctured tyres.
Mark Parish Council has previously raised its concerns about the increased HGV risk with County Highways with its County Council Councillor on several occasions – with little positive result. As far as can be determined, there has been no offer of reparation by Godwins to ameliorate the damage caused to local infrastructure.
While Mark Parish Council strongly supports the development of local businesses, this should not be at the expense of significant risk to people and their property and damage to infrastructure. Godwin may claim that the variation is minor, however, acceptance of the application will have a significant impact on the Parish including increased toxicity from diesel-powered HGV traffic, increased mud and dust and raised risks to other vehicles and their occupants. .
Highspeed Communications. The Parish Council has received this letter from a company called TrueSpeed who are looking to install high speed communication to villages, thus:
Please allow me to introduce myself - I am the Director of Business Development for TrueSpeed based just outside Bath.
TrueSpeed are a new age ISP who invest in communities by building brand new physical communication networks and operate the service over the top of them - we have recently received funding of £75m to help us grow our network right across the South West. Unlike BT Open reach, we only deliver Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) technology which means that our ultrafast network is much quicker (guaranteed speeds of 100Mb/s down and 100 Mb/s up is our lowest package). This makes us a future proof solution so we can easily provide more to our customers before they need it - something that copper networks cannot do.
We are providing a network to Badgworth, Biddisham, Stone Allerton and Chapel Allerton which is why I am getting in touch with you; we would like to expand this network to encompass more of the surrounding areas including Mark and Watchfield. We would like to hold a Question and Answer session with the communities in the village halls so that people can learn more about us and ask us any broadband questions they may have.
The Parish Council has invited Truespeed to the Parish Council on 5 September to discuss this matter.
NEXT PARISH MEETING
The next Parish Council Meeting will be held at the Village Hall beginning at 7.30pm on Tuesday 5 September 2017. Members of the public are invited.
Nick van der Bijl
Mark Parish Council
SEPTEMBER 2017
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