Vacancy
There is currently a vacancy on the Parish Council. Anyone interested in becoming a Parish Councillor should speak to Bob Spence on 797854



County Councillors Monthly Report
Cllr Mrs Marianne Overton
Independent member for Cliff Villages at North Kesteven District Council and for Branston and Navenby District on Lincolnshire County Council
Tel: 01400 273323 Fax: 01400 273003
E-mail: Marianne.overton@biosearch.org.uk

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Local County Councillors Monthly Report

PARISH COUNCIL NEWS

SEPTEMBER 2007
Best Kept Village Competion
Potterhanworth has won Class 2 of The Best Kept Village competition for Lincolnshire.
The competition is sponsored by the Lincolnshire branch of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England.
Class 2 relates to villages having apopulation of between 501 and 2000 people. This is the first time that we have won it and it is a testament to the hard work put in by the villagers, John Eversfield the village handyman and Malcolm Hawes, responsible for the grass-cutting contract. Our thanks go out to all those who have played a part in keeping the village looking clean, smart and well turned out.
We can all be very proud of our achievement and strive to maintain or even improve on our current excellent standard.
The Parish Council will be considering ways in which we can signal our success to visotors to the village, possibly by signage at the village entry points.
Thank you all once again.

NOVEMBER 2006
Requests for Grants
The Parish Council is once again requesting applications for grants from local village organisations. Requests for grants will be discussed at the December council meeting. Please send applications in writing to Bob Spence, Clerk to the Parish Council, 24 The Park, Potterhanworth, before 30th November.
Vacancy
There is currently a vacancy on the Parish Council. Anyone interested in becoming a Parish Councillor should speak to Bob Spence on 797854
Decent Homes Standard
Under The Decent Homes Standard, grants are currently available from North Kesteven District Council of up to £5000 for Home Improvements.
Grants are only available for households on means tested benefits and to low income households. There must also be children under the age of 16 or disabled or older persons living at the house. Please telephone 01529 414155 fot more details.
Best Kept Village Competition
The village successfully progressed to the second round of the competition. However we failed to make it to the final short list of three villages (the ultimate winner in our class being Ingham). The Judges were impressed with Potterhanworth and we scored highly in all areas.

October 2006
Residents,particularly those living on the main route through the village from Nocton to Bardney,will have noticed a recent and significant increase in heavy goods traffic,with associated noise and vibration. The majority of this traffic consists of container vehicles moving goods from Bardney Sugar Factory, coming in empty and leaving full. The contract for this work expired on 14th September, we understand, and hence there should already have been a noticeable reduction by the time you read this.
British Sugar management are unable at this stage to comment on whether the contract will be renewed in 2007.
Nocton and Potterhanworth Parish Councils have agreed to set up a small sub-committee, led by Nocton PC, to try to contact British Sugar to try to influence any future contract in terms of possible alternative routes, numbers of trips, hours of operation etc.
Please note however that the passage of HGVa through the village is not illegal and Highways Dept. will not, and cannot, impose weight restrictions on the B1202, quoting the need for legitimate HGV traffic terminating at sites within the two villages to have access.
We should not expect our approaches to have a very significant on difficult and complex commercial decisions by British Sugar, but we will try.

Press release: 14th August 2006
NAVENBY AND BRANSTON SURGERIES BY CLLR MRS MARIANNE OVERTON
Our County Councillor for Branston and Navenby is holding surgeries on Tuesday 15th August (Navenby), Saturday 19th August (Branston), Saturday 16th September (Branston) and Tuesday 17th October (Navenby) and invites any resident to attend.
Independent Councillor Mrs Marianne Overton will be at the Navenby access point, The Village Office, 19 High Street, Navenby from 10am and Branston Community Library from 10am also. She is inviting questions on County Council matters from the Division’s residents and wants people to join her, air their views and have their say with their elected representative. Marianne does also attend almost all Parish Council meetings and many events during the year. Her reports and contact details appear in the village magazine and on the web. A report is also available in the library. The Branston and Navenby Access Points are designed to enable residents to easily access council services and four staff have been trained to deal with enquiries about District and County Council matters. The Parish Council remains a common “first port of call”, and Marianne is keen to work in partnership with everyone, together supporting many of the issues raised by residents.
“Previous surgeries have raised issues of lower tax levels, improved road safety and access for the disabled, health service improvements, school repairs and support for village projects. We have had some good successes recently with the Branston Booths and Coleby Village Halls, bio fuels being produced using Lincolnshire crops, way-marking signs up at Blankney and safer crossings in Lincoln. I have had further meetings with both the local police and with Chief Constable Tony Lake, working to get better neighbourhood policing in our villages.

If anyone has issues they want to discuss, I would be most pleased to support improvements and help bring them to fruition. "

If you wish to make an appointment, there are several ways you can contact Marianne: Telephone: 01400 273323 E-mail: Marianne.overton@biosearch.org.uk Fax: 01400 273003

Results of traffic speed survey

Lincs. Road Safety Partnership carried out a traffic speed survey at the Parish Council’s request on Station Road over a 7-day period from 10th November 2005. Sensors were positioned approximately 150 yards on the village side of the 30 mph limit and some 200 yards from the T-junction with Moor Lane/Main Road. The results make very disturbing reading not only because of the extremely high percentage of drivers exceeding the speed limit, but also the speeds recorded; plus the fact that the position of the sensors is sufficiently far from the incoming speed limit signs to make the usual driver’s defence of “I was just allowing the vehicle to slow down to the speed limit” completely untenable. Many must have entered the village at speeds way above the limit to still be doing the excessive speeds shown below. In addition, the grossly excessive speeds recorded for many of the vehicles leaving the village from what would probably have been an essentially standing start after making the turn from Moor Lane/Main Road is indefensible. The readings recorded were as follows:

Inbound from B1188

Total number of vehicles: 7946

Vehicles exceeding speed limit: 5629 (70.9%)

The Road Safety Partnership state that 85% of all the vehicles logged were in the range from 30 mph (or lower) up to 43.4 mph – this is how they report their statistics. This means that 15% of vehicles, some 1190 vehicles, were travelling at speeds above 43.4 mph!

Outbound from Moor Lane/Main Road

Total number of vehicles: 7143

Vehicles exceeding speed limit: 6044 (84.6%)

The Road Safety Partnership state that 85% of all the vehicles logged were in the range from 30 mph (or lower) up to 44.4 mph. This means that 15% of vehicles, some 1070 vehicles, were travelling at speeds above 44.4 mph whilst still some 150 yards from the national speed limit sign!

The Road Safety Partnership has supplied the local Police Inspector with these details and has been asked to provide speed enforcement at this location as and when resources permit. We recognise that a proportion of all vehicles recorded will be from outside the village but the majority of vehicles are likely to be driven by residents of Potterhanworth. These high speeds are both totally unnecessary and dangerous. Does someone have to be killed before we modify our driving standards? Speed limits are imposed to reduce risks to both pedestrians and drivers to an acceptably low level – please stick to them.