STRETTON & LOCAL NEWS

28th August - Stretton Parish Council's next meeting will be at 7pm on Tuesday 1st September at the Priory Centre, where a main topic of discussion and information will be the proposed war memorial statue - a bronze soldier on a plinth, planned to be erected on the Peace Garden opposite the church. Anyone interested is most welcome to come along.

26th August 2009 - There was a public meeting at The Beech Hotel on Derby Rd tonight (Weds 26th Aug) regarding traffic, parking & pedestrian crossings on Derby Road, past Burton Albion FC.

The meeting was chaired by Eton Ward ESBC Councillor Ron Clarke, Trevor Raison of Staffordshire County Council came along and Craig Chapman represented Stretton Parish Council.

After much debate, Craig Chapman's proposal was unaminously agreed - that a set of traffic lights, with a pedestrian crossing sequence included, would be applied for at either the junction by The Beech Hotel or by McDonalds. This would serve to address local speeding problems by breaking up the traffic flow, allow local residents to cross the road safely and also give both the residential and business traffic a safer time when turning out of the numerous roads that feed onto Derby Road.

The roundabout near Shiptons Cars will continue to only have low level flowers and shrubs not exceeding 600m in height for safety reasons.

The chairman of Burton Albion, Ben Robinson is having meetings with Andy O'Brien of ESBC to try and address the increased parking problems around the ground on match days. The residents of Derby Rd and its side roads have asked for temporary no parking signs to be placed outside their houses and they have been advised that they can call ESBC to report any cars parked across dropped kerbs, as this is now an offence.

22nd July 2009 - Popular Alliance apologise to Burton police, as the information presented at our Parish Council meeting in February and printed below (blue italics), that cast doubt over the official police statistics, was in fact incorrect information. Perhaps this does beg the question, why is conflicting information being circulated online on official websites ? We are advised that the 2 sets of figures represented below refer to (i) Stretton and (ii) Stretton and some other nearby Parishes, hence the differences.

Police road checks on Derby Road, Stretton recently have turned up 42 drivers not wearing seat belts (???) and 2 using their mobile phones.

The Stretton PCSOs have been doing a very good job so far this year and reports of unruly behavoir are very low.

Parking at Burton Albion is becoming a big issue for residents at the south east end of Stretton. Having attracted an average of 1,600 fans to most games last season, we can expect close to 7,000 for several games this year in League Two. The ground provides parking for a very small percentage of that capacity, so it requested that as many local fans as possible walk to the stadium. We all wish Peschi and the boys well in this first season in League Two.

4th Feb 2009 - It was revealed by Councillor Milner that the February Stretton Parish Council meeting that the policing / crime figures presented by Inspector Jav Oomar were very likely incorrect. The Staffordshire Police Authority website actually shows 2008 report figures as :-

20 Burglaries, 0 Robbery, 31 Vehicle Crimes, 20 Acts of Violence, 153 Anti-Social Behavoir incidents, totalling 232 crimes in all.

He reported Incidents of Criminal Damage as 207 in 2007, falling to just 96 in 2008. The website lists the 2008 figure at 153.

He also claimed that Anti-Social Behavoir was down, whereas the website lists it up 66%.

It will be interesting to hear the outcome of this. Either the local Police Inspector is misinformed or the website is. Popular Alliance will write to the Staffordshire Police on this matter and we will hold back commenting further until we receive an answer either way.

Stretton drivers look out, the Community Speed Gun will be action over coming months.

I asked that the gritters who kept Stretton's roads clear during the recent snow storms to be thanked. Having driven around many Midlands areas these last couple of days, I can confidently say our villages roads were the clearest by far. 

2008 - Brian & Craig have kept up their involvement in many matters tackled by all the members of Stretton Parish Council.

Perhaps 3 areas where we have really contributed to make a difference has been (i) initialising the petition system whereby more pressure has been put upon Staffs County Council to install more road safety measures in our village - we are promised a new pedestrian crossing outside the Post Office and the removal of parking bays on an "S" bend in January (ii) The 15+ applications for Community Police Roles and (iii) in helping some local residents oppose and reduce their neighbour's unpopular extension and other planning schemes. 

A Parish Council does not have an all-powerful ability to achieve every measure required locally. We have all been very frustrated by some Borough, County and National policies that prevent or delay us solving some of the complaints brought to us by the local residents, however the Council has in the last year re-built the Hillfield sports changing rooms, updated the memorial boards at the church and maintained the park and public areas to such a standard that many local have felt the need to comment as such.

Stretton Parish Council have also lowered their annual precept and challenged the East Staffs Borough Council to do likewise. Although not initially proposed by the Popular Alliance guys, we immediately threw our support behind this motion as we feel it falls in line with our smaller government and lower public spending policies. We realise that this move will not, on its own, make a big saving for local rates payers, but we hope that other Councils follow our example and do likewise.

It was reported by Inspector Jav Oomer of Staffordshire Police at the January Parish Council Meeting that reports of anti-social behavoir in Stretton have fallen from 99 in 2007 to 43 in 2008 and that incidents of criminal damage fell from 207 to 96 in the same period.

Conservative Borough Councillor Len Milner also asked everyone to publicse a leaflet entitled "4 Facts For You" being distributed locally, offering Stroke Prevention services. Whilst not illegal, the services are not cheap and are readily available via NHS surgeries free of charge.

Parish Council meetings are held at The Priory Centre every first Tuesday in the month. If you have a local issue that requires attention and are unable to attend the meetings (or not keen to do so) please call Brian on 01283 542115 or Craig on 01283 537699 and we'll do our best to ensure that such matters are heard and discussed. 

A LANDMARK Burton pub ravaged by fire eight months ago is set to officially reopen this week.

 The Beacon, in Tutbury Road, has been shut since the fire - caused by a faulty light fitting - ripped through its roof in March.

The total rebuilding bill for bringing the pub up to scratch could be as high as £1 million.

Reconstruction of the roof is complete and major work has been carried out to the interior, where most of the damage was caused by water from firefighters' hoses. A new bar and carpets have now also been fitted.

Beacon regulars have rallied around to show their support to the Gaskin family since the fire struck, holding fund-raising events and by keeping its pool team going - even though they have had to play elsewhere pending the refurbishment.

Now landlord Simon Gaskin has revealed that the landmark pub will officially reopen on Thursday.

Staff will be looking to use the Christmas rush to boost the pub's return to trading after eight months out of action.

Mayor of East Staffordshire Liz Staples will be visiting the watering hole at 1pm on the opening day, ready for a weekend of celebrations beginning with music played throughout Saturday.

Derby County fans are in for a treat when the pub - the long time base for the town's branch of the Rams supporters club - revives its park and ride coach service taking supporters to home games, and there will be a weekly quiz on Sundays.

Mr Gaskin said: "It is really good that we now have an actual reopening date. It has been a long time in the making, but we are looking forward to getting everything back to normal as quickly as possible."
 

Dust Bin Fines - your thoughts please.....

East Staffordshire Borough Council has released details of its aim to warn and then fine residents who leave their dustbins out for more than 24 hours either side of the regular refuse collection days.

A resident would first receive a letter advising them that their wheelie bin/bins have been left out for a period of 2 days or longer. Should that resident continue to leave their bin/s out, they would receive a fine of £70.00 

Popular Alliance do agree with this system to a point, in that big wheelie bins are both an obstruction and an eyesore - and many smell quite bad too. Simply leaving the bin out for days on end is an act of quite slovenly laziness and does no neighbourhood any favours. 

Where we do raise questions however are :-

i) If a resident has gone on holiday on (eg) the Tuesday and left their bin out for a Wednesday collection, are they resposnible for that bin to be tidied away whilst they are away, or are the council relying upon good neighbours to help out ?

ii) The refuse collection teams have a habit of not returning the bins to where they found them. Many people leave them at the end of the driveway or grass border, only to return home and find it half down the footpath, sometimes up to 30m from their house. In this situation, yes, the bin is blocking the footpath but it is the council's own fault.

iii) Many residents do also leave their bins out for a cleaning contractor to visit and clean the bin. Usually this would be on the same day the bin collection, however such a hygienic practice surely cannot be legislated against.

We look forward to some local input and will be raising the question at Parish Council meetings this month.

Comments to c.chapman@popularalliance.org

ARRIVA BUS SERVICE - PETITION

A group of residents are trying to get an Arriva bus service reinstated along Jordan Avenue and Claymills Road.  They are asking for as much support as possible and we can all help by signing their petition in our Post Office and other shops.

Many elderly and retired people depended on this bus route to get into Burton and back.

Come on Stretton Residents let's get those petition sheets filled up. 

ARRIVA BUS SERVICE SOUNDS FISHY

News that concerns us is that Arriva buses have cancelled the local No 5 service that many older folk use to get around Stretton and Burton on Trent. We accept that such a service does need to be financially viable in these days of Maggie Thatcher inspired private enterprise, however alarming news reached us that over recent months, Arriva drivers have not being registering passengers using their service (bus passes have not been scanned and some passengers were told to travel free) which moves us into the area of fraud, if false figures were being used negotiate public service contracts.

If anyone else has noted such practices, please do contact either the Parish Council or C.Chapman@popularalliance.org.

If indeed the service was running at a loss, perhaps combining 2 services in a figure of 8 fashion would be the answer. OK, the service is less frequent, but at least it runs and people can adjust their movement to the new timings.

Stretton Parish Council represents approximately 9,000 residents of the Parish of Stretton, just north of Burton on Trent, Staffordshire. 2 Popular Alliance members are elected Parish Councillors here. There are approximately 6,400 residents on the electoral roll, with close to 3,500 houses.

Stretton is one of the largest villages in the UK, according to various information on the internet, it has a larger population than approximately 43 UK "towns."

The William Shrewsbury junior and primary school is the biggest in Staffordshire, which feeds De Ferrers Technology College, again the biggest in Staffordshire. The number of school children heading backwards and forwards to school every day is very high and the Parish Council and parents alike are forever calling for more safety measures to be brought in.

The area enjoys a very high employment rate and most houses are in the C-E banding for council tax, therefore the Parish, Borough and County Councils receive very high levels of income per capita, and yet we still have to raise petitions to get basic safety installations along the very busy, winding Main Street, whilst other areas of Burton on Trent and Staffordshire are most certainly subsidised by Stretton. Of course we accept that this is the normal situation across the globe, however so little has been spent on Stretton in the past few years, we are more than overdue some much needed road safety upgrades.

June/July 2008

Parish Councillors are presently taking turns in getting a petition signed and presented to install a pedestrian crossing linking the main village Co-Op supermarket and car park, to the village post office. These are situated near to a dangerous S bend which for some ridiculous reason has parking bays on it, making cars approach a busy pedestrian area, often on the wrong side of the road.

The Parish Council intend to eventually have these parking bays removed, 20mph speed restrictions clearly signed and a pedestrian crossing installed, just far enough away from the S bend to make it clearly visible. Staffordshire County Council have dragged their feet for several years over such obvious and common sense proposals, so we ask everyone locally to come along and sign the petitions being held outside the Co-Op and Newsagents on Saturdays , or to go the Post Office to sign a copy.

Thank You