Archive for category: News

At one time the Parish Council owned and paid for the maintenance and power for all of the lights in the Parish but used the Borough Council as their Agents to do so.

Starting in 1993, when there was pressure to replace existing lighting which had 3 core wiring- principally to the Gough Cooper estate- the Parish Council, aided by grants from the Borough Council, replaced all of the streetlights in the built up part of the village with adoptable schemes. To be adopted the scheme had to meet County Council design criteria about lamp intervals, placing etc. and involved new columns (except for Francis Road). Once installed the new lamps were adopted by the County Council and were no longer a Parish Council responsibility. These adopted lights are periodically inspected by the County to identify where action is needed. The County have a set of criteria about speed of response with ‘Keep Left’ signage the highest, if a fault is discovered instant action is unlikely but the sooner a fault is reported hopefully the sooner it will be fixed. If the fault turns out to be concerned with the wiring a specialist is often called in, meaning a further delay before the repair is done.Some lights, however, do remain the responsibility of the Parish Council, namely those between the War Memorial and the Station, upgraded in 2003 to help walkers, and several isolated lamps along Mill Lane and Riding Lane and in the passageways. These lamps are maintained for the Parish Council by a Contractor.

To avoid confusion any fault discovered with ANY light should be reported to the Parish Clerk .
 

A Parish Council can provide or help fund a burial ground. In 1966 to meet this task an agreement was reached between the Church and the Council for the Council to assist with the cost of maintenance.

 

A 1999 revision agreed that for the next 25 years the Parish Council would take responsibility for:-

 

1) Mowing and treating the grass within the area used for burials at any time.

 

2) Tree surgery and care of the shrubs in the same area.

 

3) Maintenance of the wall alongside the B245 and any hedges within the area used for burials at any time.

 

4) Any initial capital costs associated with the extension of the facilities for burial existing in 1999 (including that used for ashes) such as new hedges walls, fencing and drainage works so as to extend the existing areas to ready them for use.

 

The definition means that as well as the car park , lych gate and the paths a considerable area of Church land remains their responsibility, for example the grass by the car park.

 

After the 1999 agreement was reached, work began on the extension of the burial ground into the Glebe Field.

 

For the last few years, the Borough Council has made a grant to the Parish Council to meet the estimated cost of mowing the Churchyard to a standard similar to that at Tonbridge Cemetery.This, together with a population based grant and one towards street lighting, is done as part of an attempt to offset the extra cost imposed on residents by the Parish Rate on the Parished areas compared to un-parished Tonbridge.

 

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