Your Town Council

The Town Council - A Quality Council

What does the council do?

Perhaps with the council about to enter a new electoral cycle, it may be helpful to provide some information about what the council does.

The services that the council provides  include: the cemetery in Whitby Road; the maintenance and inspection of seven play areas and the area of burial ground in front of the parish church; cutting 44000 sq ms of verge; the maintenance of public seats and litter bins and footway lighting. The council is responsible for two areas of open space: Riverside Walk and Smiddy Hill. The council is always interested to know your views about its services and how they can be improved and particularly appreciated the favourable comments about the maintenance of the verges and the cemetery.

The play areas are sited at Manor Drive and Hawthorn Lane (equipment for pre-school children and into the early teens); Greenlands (a goal post), Paddock Close and Garden Way (equipment for young children and up to fourteen), Otter Drive and Troutbeck Close (equipment for pre-school children). We remain grateful to those Pickering people who lock and unlock the play areas for us.

The council office deals with many enquiries each week: from those who call in at the office, phone calls, e-mails. Some of these deal with activities for which the council itself is responsible; others can be the responsibility of the district or county council, a utility company. The list is  almost endless. Helping people find the right person to talk to is a service we know that you value.

Councillors meet together each month and work to an agenda. This can include issues that deal with specific council responsibilities. There are usually planning applications to be considered – from an extension to a dwelling, to a housing estate. It may be helpful to know that the council cannot decide whether a planning application should be approved or rejected. That is the responsibility of the district council, the district’s planning authority. But the district council is interested in the town council’s views. With such an item, the council is acting in its representational role. And there may be other items on the agenda where the council is acting in this capacity. The agenda is available on the Wednesday preceding the meeting either from the council office or from its website.

The council also takes initiatives. The latest have been the Exclusively Pickering publication – a project to help promote Pickering’s businesses - and a Youth Town Council. 

You have a right to attend council meetings and time has been allocated to enable members of the public to address the council. Most representations from members of the public are on planning applications, but over a four year electoral cycle, people will have come in to talk about a wide range of issues. 

The Lidl Store

The company has stated that it is unlikely to start work on the former coal yard site before 2012. The county council has assured the town council that it is not stopping the company from beginning work on the site. There are issues relating to the proposed improvement to the junction to be finalised but this does not mean that work on the site could not begin. What the town council is doing is to lobby the company to clear up the site if work is not to begin in the near future. The sight is an eyesore.

Footway lights

It is understandable that responsibility for street and footway lighting causes confusion. As a general guideline, lights on the A170 and A169, together with those in the newer estates are the responsibility of the county council. Should you wish to report a fault, you can ring the county council on 0845 3669504. Please quote the column number, street and the name or number of the nearest dwelling. Other lights, for example, those in Firthland Road, Middleton Road and Potter Hill are the responsibility of the town council. Town council lights usually have a number on a blue square. For these lights, please contact the council office.

Town council lights are inspected each year so that any structural faults can be identified and attended to. This year several concrete columns have been earmarked for replacement, for example, in Beacon Park First Avenue and on Middleton Road. Whilst the replacement does not take much time, the council is entirely dependent on the electricity supplier to connect the new column. This can take some time.

Grants

Voluntary organisations whose activities benefit the residents of Pickering are eligible to apply to the council for     consideration for a grant from the moneys allocated each year in the budget for this purpose. Please contact the council office for further information.

Town Council Office

Kitching Room, Memorial Hall, Potter Hill, YO18 8AA.

9am – 1pm, Monday to Friday.

Tel: 01751 476503.

e-mail: townclerk@pickering.gov.uk 

website: www.pickering.gov.uk

The town clerk is Andrew Husband.

The council meets in the Memorial Hall on the third Monday of each month at 7pm. The next three meetings are on 20 June, 18 July and 15 August.