GDPC Chairman's Report - Great Doddington Parish Council

CHAIRMANS LETTER - May 2013

Well Spring seems to have arrived at last, the daffodils are out and as is the norm the village Gardening Team have done us proud. Aside from the normal Parish Council business of parking and potholes three items have dominated the agenda, the affordable housing scheme, the crematorium and more recently the solar farm, updates are as follows:
Affordable Housing

Lancaster Land and Planning Limited, along with Northants Rural, have been investigating possible sites within the village to place affordable housing. The favoured site is opposite Glenfield Drive on Earls Barton Road.

The proposal is for a mixture of 10 rental properties and 3 shared ownership properties and each would have 2 parking spaces. The people who would live in these properties would need to have a local connection to the village and be on the Borough Councils waiting list. The parish council raised some concern about highway issues and access to and from the development and also regarding the flooding that came from the fields. The developers have agreed that they would carry out some investigation regarding this.
Crematorium

Mercia Crematoria Limited submitted a planning application to the Borough Council for the development of a crematorium on land in Doddington Road, Wellingborough near to the boundary of Great Doddington.

The Parish Council have expressed concerns over the level of additional traffic coming through the village. Outline planning permission was granted on 19 December 2012.

In March Mercia Cremotoria Limited sold the land along with the planning permission to the Borough Council who are now investigating options for a crematorium. We are now waiting for the detailed plans to be drawn up and our opportunity to comment.

Solar Farm

Lark Energy a South Lincolnshire based company are proposing to submit a planning application to the Borough Council for a solar farm on land behind the prison and below the proposed crematorium.

At the April Parish Council meeting Lark Energy presented a draft copy of their proposal. The Parish Council suggested and Lark Energy agreed that it would be beneficial to hold a public meeting in the village to enable parishioners to attend and view the proposal. The meeting will be publicised using a leaflet drop.

For all these developments I would suggest that you take time to view the proposals and if and when they go to planning make your points of view known to Wellingborough Council.

Other areas that we have progressed are the grit bins (brought into use far quicker than we thought) picnic benches in the park, a seat in memorial garden, repairing the fencing around the tennis court and repair of the plant holders in the centre of the village.
The Jubilee fund raising committee has switched its focus to help the memorial hall which needs funds for a new roof. Amongst other events soon to be publicised a village ball is being planned, the provisional date is 12th October 2013, I urge you to support this worthwhile cause and pencil this date in your diary. When I attended the Memorial Hall AGM it brought home to me the varied number of groups using this facility - it is one of the hubs of our community. I would personally like to thank the Memorial Hall committee led by Brian Elgood for all their hardwork.
I would also like to recognise my fellow Councillors for all their hard work and efforts.

Finally, a thank you to all of you, there is a real community spirit which does make Doddington Great lets keep it going.

Chris Davies
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