To contact the Council Please telephone, fax or e-mail the Parish Clerk: Telephone/Fax: 01227 831085 E-mail: clerk@bridgevillage.org.uk Bridge Parish Councillors Selwyn Lewis Chairman, KAPC 01227 830186 linsel@tesco.net John Hill Vice Chairman, Planning, Parish Plan 01227 830215 john.e.hill@virgin.net Colin Beesty Recreation Ground, KAPC 07989 495202 cbeesty@hotmail.com Barbara Beinder Planning, Village Hall 01227 830514 John Corfield Recreation Ground 01227 830976 john@blackvanilla.org.uk Pam Dobson Village Hall, Rural Youth Bus, Allotments, Parish Plan, Mill Centre 01227 832369 pam_dobson@hotmail.com Ann Edmonds Planning, Parish Forum 01227 830795 edmonds@highamlane.fsnet.co.uk Mark Esdale Police Forum 01227 832740 mark.esdale@bridgevillage.org.uk Mervyn Gulvin Recreation Ground, Sports Trust, Mill Centre 01227 830881 mervyn@gulvin92.freeserve.co.uk Parish Plan The Committee were thrilled with the turnout for our open day in November, which proved popular with the villagers and gave added credibility to this work being carried out. The Bridge Parish Plan is continuing to make ex-cellent progress. At the moment we have the data being entered onto computer and the statis-tical analysis of that data will commence within the next few weeks. The response to the questionnaire was magnifi-cent with over 200 completed forms being re-turned for analysis. The results from the Plan can then be used by individuals, groups or indeed the Parish Council to show evidence of village need, as identified by the Villagers of Bridge them-selves! Ian McNeill Secretary SPRING 2005 NEWSLETTER You are invited to the Annual Parish Meeting Open to all in the village 7.30 pm Thursday 24th March 2005 Bridge Village Hall There will be a talk by Jennifer Shaw, Rural Housing Enabler, on ‘Affordable houses for Bridge’ Also reports from Parish, City and County Councillors and from organisations in the village. Refreshments provided after the meeting, when you can meet your Councillors and other parishioners. Bridge Village web site for Agendas & Minutes of Council meetings and lots of other village information. Parish Plan Committee members:- Next Parish Council meeting Chris Coshall, Pam Dobson, Joan Hill, John Hill, 7.15 pm Planning Committee Ian McNeill (Secretary), Bill Oakey (Chairman), 7.30 pm Full Council David Powell, Amanda Sparks (City Council), Thursday 10th March 2005 Ailsa Williamson Powell (Treasurer). Bridge Village Hall - All welcome Youth News Finances Streetscene The Rural Streetrunner youth group has moved from the Mill Centre to the village hall. Our first session at the village hall was February 8th 2005. We have a new start time of 7 pm, still fin-ishing at 9 pm, on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of each month, in Bridge Village Hall. If you are aged between 10 and 18 and haven't tried the Streetrunner group yet, why not give it a try? We have PS2, indoor sports games, a drum machine, art activities……or just come along to chill out with your friends. You need to fill in a registration form before you attend a session and then you’re a member. It’s free to join and attend so….call Ian McDon-ald at Canterbury City Council on 830325 or Pam Dobson at Bridge Parish Council on 832369 to get your registration form. Streetscene We’d like to thanks all those who had a tree on their house in the High Street – we had a re-cord number of 48 - and those who helped us put them up and take them down. Thanks go to Canterbury City Council and to SERCO, especially Loui. Without working un-der their auspices, we could not have the an-nual tree display. Each year, around November, the Parish Council prepares a budget. The Council estimates its costs for the coming year (which starts in April); some of this is done by quotes, some by increasing the current year by a figure to allow for inflation and some by sheer guesswork.! We also have to predict what projects we might want to undertake in the next year and what non-recurrent costs might pop up – for example, does it look like something is going to need replacing at some point between April 2005 and March 2006? Having prepared a budget, it is submitted for approval to the November Parish Council meeting. The Parish Council get its money from two main sources. One is the “precept”. This is like a village tax – it goes directly to the Parish Council and can only be spent on items in the budget identified as Precept items. The second source is Canterbury City Council and is called “Concurrent Function Funding”. The Parish Council also get a small income from bank interest. Normally, the Parish Council cannot spend money that has not been allocated in the budget. There are some special situations where extra money can be spent, but there is a limit. So, please, if you feel the Parish Council should be spending money on something, raise it with a councillor before the budget is prepared. The Parish Council has spent a long time discussing traffic issues with Canterbury City Council. The two main concerns are parking and speeding. Several ideas have been suggested and the Parish Council was asked by the City Council to prioritise some of the more important ones. We agreed to the following order: Traffic Calming on Bridge Hill. Before deciding on what measures to request, we have asked the City Council to monitor the speed of traffic both down and up the hill, to ensure we are tackling the right problem. We have requested flashing speed signs, but may not get them. Pavement Extensions. These will jut out into the road on the High Street at the junctions with Aunt Betsy’s Hill, Union Road, Western Avenue and Brewery Lane. They will physically prevent cars parking right on the corner, aid visibility and increase the amount of parking available by removing some yellow lines Parking outside the shops. We are investigating the possibility of having “nose-in” parking instead of the lay-by arrangement. This will increase the number of cars that can park there. We are also looking into marking out parking spaces on the tarmac area in Western Avenue. Bus stops. We have asked for a pavement extension by the bus stop on the bridge. Speed limit on Patrixbourne Road. It was felt that bringing the 30 mph limit nearer the village will help reduce the speed of traffic coming into Bridge from Patrixbourne. We get a lot of comments asking us to do something about people speeding down the High Street, yet also asking to stop people parking there so they can get through quicker. We feel that people parking on the High Street is one of the most effective traffic calming measures there is.