News

Your Parish Needs You!

Beckington Parish Council is involved in an ever-increasing number of projects and so requires more residents that want to become involved in them:

• Planning applications

• Tree works applications

• Local development

• Traffic control / road safety

• Footpaths and rights of way

• Cycleway development

• Your local environment and the open spaces

• Highways maintenance and improvement

• Acting as the Parishes rep to Mendip District Council

• Forging links between the Parish Council and Local groups

• Coordinating grant funding

• Consulting with residents to find out with the local priorities are.

The above are just some of the areas that the Parish Council operate in. If you are interested in becoming involved, then why not attend the council's meetings to see what is involved. Or contact the Parish Clerk.

Planning Barrister Appointed:

The Parish Council has been working with Norton St Philip and Rode Parish Councils and earlier in the year commissioned a joint report by DLA Piper to respond to Mendip District Councils plans to allocate a further 505 homes to this area of the district.

The same Planning Barrister has been engaged by the Parish Council to respond to the Redrow planning application for 30 houses at Great Dunns Close.

The three Parish Councils have also agreed to use the barrister to represent all three councils at the public hearing looking at the Local Plan Part II and the additional allocation of 505 houses. By the end of the summer the Parish Council will have spent around £6,000 on legal fee attempting to undertake parishioners wishes that the Parish not have any further significant house building at this time.

Cycling Strategy Feasibility Study:

The Parish Council has commissioned a local company that has been working with Frome Town Council to carry out a feasibility study in the Parish with the view to improving cycling access and safety, both on the highways and non-highways routes. The cost is £1,200 and the repost should be ready by the end of September of the Parish Council to consider.

Online Council Meetings:

The Parish Council has moved online for all its formal meetings. They are still taking place at the same time (7pm) and on the same day (second Tuesday of the month). But instead of sitting around on the Clifford Suite together, Members now sit in their own homes and joint the meeting online. Anyone with a PC or smart phone and internet access can join the meetings, its extremely easy, you do not need to buy any special software. You simply go to the Zoom website and put in the meeting ID (a long number) and the meeting password (a short number) and that is it.

The meeting ID and Password will be printed on every agenda, along with the Zoom website address. Or you can email the Clerk and you will be sent a special link that takes you straight into the meeting without even having to enter the meeting ID or Password code! It is likely that the Parish Council meetings will remain in this format for quite some time (the current date is until May 2021).

Annual Charity Donations & Community Grants:

In July, the Parish Council made awards to three local charities.

• Mendip Community Transport - £75.00

• Mendip Citizens Advice - £100.00

• Somerset Air Ambulance £125.00

The Council also has funding available for community groups that operate within the Parish or possibly outside the Parish but are used by residents of the Parish. See the Council's website for the full policy and application form.