West Lindsey District Council

THE NEWSLETTER FOR PARISH AND TOWN COUNCILSTHROUGHOUT WEST LINDSEY

Parish Matters

We’re talking rubbish!One of the biggest service changes

for years is being made by WestLindsey District Council and we’re

organising a special seminar to explain it toparish councils.

Triple bin refuse collections are beingintroduced from September 7 followingsuccessful pilot schemes in Caistor, Keelbyand Cherry Willingham.

The scheme means that everyone on theservice is now entitled to free green bingarden waste collections.

It also means that residents still have aweekly service with blue recycling bins andgreen garden waste emptied one week,and black, non-recycling bins are emptiedthe next week.

We want parish councils to feel part ofwhat we are doing and that is why we haveorganised a seminar just for you onThursday, August 27 from 7 - 8.45pm at theGuildhall in Gainsborough.

Recycling Officer Steve Leary said: “Weare aware that there are some concernsfrom parishes about potential negativereactions from the public who may see afortnightly black bin collection as a drop in

service and there may also be health wor-ries.

“We understand this is a major changeand there will be officers from the Councilat the seminar to answer questions andgive reassurance about the scheme.”

In the pilot areas there have been veryfew problems and the recycling rate hasreached a peak of 65% so far comparedwith an average throughout the district of40%.

Mr Leary added that letters and informa-tion have now been delivered to all homesin West Lindsey and anyone unsure abouttheir collection day can visitwww.west-lindsey.gov.uk/mybinday. Allyou have to do is type in your postcodeand select your address and details of col-lection days will appear on screen.

The parish seminar will be facilitated byCllr Irmgard Parrott, Chairman of theCommunity and Waste Committee, and Cllr

Making a Difference � Continued on page 2

Welcome toYOUR newsletterWelcome to the first edition ofParish Matters.

Our aim is to publish bi-monthlyand to feature issues that affectparish councillors throughout WestLindsey.

We know that in the past thedistrict council has been criticisedfor not talking to and consultingmore with parishes.

We’ve taken that on board and inrecent times we have discussed ourbudget priorities with you andlistened very carefully to what yousaid during the Flooding Inquiry.Then, most importantly, we acted onit.

This newsletter is taking that worka stage further because we want toknow more about what people atgrass roots level think about ourpriorities.

We are running training sessionsfor our staff so that they understandyour role and needs more fully andyou will see in this issue how we aretrying to get information to you in amore orderly way.

We hope you find this newsletteruseful. Parish Matters is compiled byCommunications Manager, GeoffO’Neill, so please send yourthoughts or contributions to:geoff.oneill@west-lindsey.gov.uk

Our new Triple Bin scheme goes district-wide in Septemberand we want to explain it to you at a special seminar

AUGUST 2009

Campaigning district and parish councillor Meg Davidson hashad a paper about a burning issue close to her ward pub-lished in a prestigious special scientific publication.

Underground gas storage: worldwide experiences and futuredevelopment in the UK and Europe is now on sale and amongst allthe technical papers written by leading geologists and expertsfrom the oil and gas industry, is a chapter written by Meg about thelocal issues around the proposed gas storage project at theWelton oilfield.

Cllr Davidson’s 12-page contribution follows research by Megand her fellow district councillor Sue Rawlins into proposed under-ground gas storage and the implications for the local community.

Cllr Davidson presented a copy of the book to the Council whenshe was congratulated by fellow members on her ‘labour of love’which was the result of hours and hours of dedicated research.

Chairman of the Council, Cllr Jessie Milne said: “This is a won-derful example of a local councillor taking hold of an issue of majorconcern in her community and following it through to find out thefacts and then making those facts known for the benefit of all whomight have been affected.”

ContactsExplaining how the chapter came into being, Cllr Davidson said:

“It goes back to contacts made at an international conference inAberdeen back in 2004. It was suggested that I might be a con-tributor to this special publication and although it took a hugeamount of work and research, I managed to produce a paperwhich got through the peer review process at the BritishGeological Survey and was accepted for publication.

“It is almost unheard of for a lay person to have a paper accept-ed for a scientific publication of this calibre and although at times Iwondered if it would ever happen, it is now on sale at the book-shops. It took an incredibly long time but now it all seems worth-while,” said Meg.

Her interest in the gas storage proposal – eventually turneddown by the county council – was stimulated by strong local con-cern about the plans to store 56 million cubic metres of gas under-ground at the Welton oilfield.

“The research carried out by myself and Cllr Rawlins uncovered

that not enough attention had been given to community safetyissues and that a full and thorough assessment of all potentialrisks associated with this type of activity needed to be undertakenand safeguards put in place to protect the local community,” saidMeg.

In her paper, Meg recalls that originally public awareness wascentred on part of the proposal which included wind turbines butfew people knew the plan also included gas storage.

But the mood changed when a member of an action group with30 years experience in the oil and gas industry said that using adepleted onshore oilfield for underground gas storage was anuntried and untested technique in the UK and that he had seriousconcerns about the proposed scheme.

Residents living in the area around the oilfields mostly reactedwith horror at the thought of vast quantities of gas being storedunder their homes.

‘How will they know exactly where the gas will go?’ and ‘Isn’tthere a risk of leaks and explosions?’ were common concerns.

“These were not unreasonable questions,” said Meg.Meticulous investigation

Cllr Rawlins and Cllr Davidson decided that the application ‘hada case to answer’ and began a meticulous investigation into safe-ty issues, experiences in other parts of the world, and views fromthe United States which included : ‘The important question is not ifthe storage facility will leak, but rather when.’

When all the evidence had been weighed, the ward councillorsconcluded that their research had identified a range of planningand safety issues which needed further attention and assessmentbefore UK gas storage was increased in line with government pro-posals.

Cllr Davidson wrote: “The ward councillors do not believe thatthere has been sufficient recognition of the difficulties of maintain-ing well integrity in underground gas storage facilities so far.

“There is no sign yet of a sufficiently robust and rigorous systembeing put in place in the UK to monitor, detect and deal with leak-ing wells and gas migration.

“No matter how urgent the need for additional gas storagecapacity in the UK, this does not absolve the relevant authoritiesfrom addressing these vital issues before pressing ahead with newunderground gas storage schemes.”

Championingthe causeMeg takes the lid off underground gasstorage to help parishes in their battle

Cllr Davidson pictured with the book which features herinvestigation into proposed underground gas storage.

Triple Bin parish seminar� From page 1

Owen Bierley will also be on hand to provide an insight into onelocal Parish’s experience of the triple bin collection scheme.

Refreshments will be provided on the night, but everyone with aninterest in attending is urged to let us know before hand so we canestimate how much food we will need.

Each year households in the UK throw away 6.7 million tonnesof food waste and the last thing we want to do is add to the prob-lem!

If you would like to attend please contact Steve on (01427)675176 or email steve.leary@west-lindsey.gov.uk

If you can’t make this meeting, Steve has already given talks tomore than 20 parish councils and would be happy to try and fit onein for you too.

There is also a programme of roadshows that give informationabout the scheme. A roadshow timetable is published in the cur-

rent issue of West LindseyNews but if you haven’treceived your copy yet you canview it on line atwww.west-lindsey.gov.uk.

2 Parish Newsletter

3Parish Newsletter

Playtime inthe parishesA portable skate park and Play Ranger activity sessions are thehighlights of a summer full of fun in the West Lindsey villages.

Free outdoor play activities in community spaces have been run-ning since July and will continue until September for young peo-ple aged between five and 15 thanks to funding from the Lottery.

The play sessions are unique as children can come and go freelyand choose how they want to play and what they play with. Arange of equipment is transported right into the heart of localcommunities and remote areas of the district are included on arolling programme to deliver challenging play within a safe andsupportive environment.

The project is having a verypositive impact on communitylife. One youngster said: “I likePlay Rangers because you can dowhat you like. It’s really good, youcan just come and play and bewith your friends.”

Parishes taking part include: Ingham, Bardney, Scampton,Cherry Willingham, Saxilby,North Kelsey, Hemswell,Brookenby, Nettleton, andNewtoft.For more details contactWill Saville on(01427) 676609

Diary Date: The training for clerks and chairmen on theroles and responsibilities of district councils has been

fixed for October 20. More details soon.

Understanding and communicating betterCurrent understanding between the

district and parish councils is not ashigh as it could be.

That’s not anybody’s fault particularly;it’s just fact.

To help put this right district council staffare undergoing training on September 10when parish councillors and clerks will betalking about their role and how districtcouncil officers can help them be moreeffective.

Similarly, training is being organised forParish Clerks and Chairs on What aDistrict Council Is and on the priorities thatWest Lindsey District Council has setitself.

Director of Strategy and Regeneration,Rachel North said: “We have always gotsomething extra to learn and I am surethat if we understand each other better wewill all be able to achieve much more forthe communities we serve.”

The district council is also streamliningits communications with parish councilswhich tend to be paper-based and canlead to parish clerks - often part-timers -being bombarded by piles of paper.

At the moment the district council co-ordinates postage to parish councils butwe don’t summarise large documents andweed out the important papers from therun of the mill information and this oftensleads to confusion.

From September 1 that will change.From this date we will be communicat-

ing with you in a much more co-ordinatedway.

� All mail will be co-ordinated by oneperson and there will be one mail out aweek unless circumstances dictate other-wise.

� Large key documents will be sum-marised on one page of A4.

� A contact name and number will beprovided on all correspondence

� Staff will be asked to think throughwhat they want from sending a particularpiece of information to the Parish Counciland then put it through the print roomrequesting one of the following colouredpapers:� Information/officer action documentswill remain on white.� Documents requiring urgentattention will be in red� Documents needing a writtenresponse based on a decision by theparish council will be in green

We hope our new colour codes willavoid this

Got a housing problem?

Avision of West Lindsey as aplace where people can choosea home and community that

meets their needs and aspirations hasbeen painted by the district council.

The authority recognises that thereis a lot to do to achieve its goal andthat it can’t do it on its own.

Housing and Renewal ServicesManager, Grant Lockett said: “Weare developing new plans and ser-vices for housing in our district – cov-

ering areas like finding a suitablehome, developing affordable housing,

improving the quality of existing houses –things that matter to people in West

Lindsey.”The Council has got some ideas about

what needs to improve and has started tomake changes – but it is always keen to

hear from residents, communities and part-ners to help shape what it does in the future.

The Council is developing its housingplans for the future around three keythemes: People, Places and Homes. Itthinks the big priorities should be:� People: Meeting the challenges of anageing population and assisting vulnerablehouseholds� Places: Developing Gainsborough as agrowth area and tackling poor housing in thetown� Homes: Increasing the supply of afford-able housing particularly for local people inthe villages.

A detailed list of all the Council’s respon-sibilities as a strategic housing authority canbe obtained by contacting the office on(01427) 676676.

We can help you find a solutionat a surgery near where you live

Talk to us at a HomeOptions surgeryHousing staff will be available to talk to you atHome Options Surgeries. They will be held onthe following dates at the venues detailed below:

August19: Caistor Multi Use Centre, 9am - 12 noon19: Market Rasen Festival Hall, 1-4pm20: Keelby Village Hall, 9.30am - 12.30pm21: Bardney Village Hall, 9.30am - 12.30pm

September9: Cherry Willingham Millennium Hall,9.30am - 12.30pm14: Saxilby Village Hall, 1.30am - 4.30pm16: Caistor Multi Use Centre, 9am - 12 noon16: Market Rasen Festival Hall, 1-4pm18: Bardney Village Hall, 9.30am - 12.30pm24: Keelby Village Hall, 9.30am - 12.30pm

October12: Saxilby Village Hall, 1.30 - 4.30pm14: Cherry Willingham Millennium Hall,9.30-12.30pm15: Keelby Village Hall, 9.30am - 12.30pm16: Bardney Village Hall, 9.30am - 12.30pm21: Caistor Multi Use Centre, 9am - 12 noon21: Market Rasen Festival Hall, 1pm -4pm

November9: Saxilby Village Hall, 1.30 - 4.30pm11: Cherry Willingham Millennium Hall,9.30am - 12.30pm18: Caistor Multi Use Centre, 9.30am - 12 noon18: Market Rasen Festival Hall, 1-4pm19: Keelby Village Hall, 9.30am - 12.30pm20: Bardney Village Hall, 9.30am - 12.30pm