Castle Bytham Parish
Castle Bytham Parish Council Clerk can be contacted as follows …
Muriel Cooke
40 Station Road
Castle Bytham
Grantham
Lincolnshire
NG33 4SB
Tel: +44(0)1780 410502
R E G U L A R S
N E W S
BT Telephone Box – Opposite the Castle Inn (added 30/08/15 : MG)
The Parish Council has recently voted (Summer 2015) to adopt the phone box opposite the Castle Inn.
The question arises – having got it what can we do with it. A quick troll through the internet revealed a vast array of converted telephone boxes. Just search ‘BT phone box art‘. Some of them are quite brilliant.
An ideal opportunity for the younger residents of Castle Bytham to get involved. All bright ideas or suggestions will be considered. Have a go – you might end up in the village hall of fame.
So- if you have any bright ideas of what should or could be done with the box – send your ideas to the Clerk to the Council – castlebythamparishcouncil@yahoo.com
Letter to Castle Bytham Parish Council (From Glenside News, June 2015 : added : 11/06/15 : MG)
From Councillor Frances Cartwright
Portfolio Holder for Economic Development and Planning at SKDC
“There are no sites allocated for Gypsy and Traveller use in either the Core Strategy or the Site Allocation and Policies DPD. The Core Strategy identified an unmet need for 11 additional Gypsy and Traveller pitches for the period to 2017. This need has been met by additional site provision in the north of the District at Fulbeck Heath. At the current time the Council is satisfied that the established need for Gypsy and Traveller pitches can be accommodated on existing Gypsy and Traveller sites within the District. Further information can be obtained from our Core Strategy which is online.”
Notice of Meetings for 2015 (added : 11/06/15 : MG)
Castle Bytham Parish Council will meet at 7.30pm in Castle Bytham Village Hall on the following dates in 2015 …
24 June
5 August
16 September
28 October
2 December
There will be a 10 minute public forum at the commencement of the meeting when members of the public may ask questions or make short statements to the council.
Election of Parish Councillors (added : 08/06/15 : MG)
The result for the Parish Council Election which took place on Thursday 7 May 2015 was as follows …
Nigel Allsopp – 212 votes – Elected
Herman Bakker – 179 votes
Patrick Beese – 210 votes – Elected
Patrick Candler – 274 votes – Elected
Margaret Dennis – 203 votes – Elected
Kathryn Goodman – 259 votes – Elected
Yvonne Hamblin – 149 votes
Alan Harvey – 210 votes – Elected
Peter Hinton – 233 votes – Elected
Peter Martindale – 211 votes – Elected
Jennifer Webber – 239 votes – Elected
Turnout 74%
The Pond (added 30/08/15 : MG)
From the Glenside News, April 2o15 …
The pond will be drained in the first week of April for four to five days. We will be making raised, duck proof, beds ready for planting reeds. Why, because Tim Smith wants to play with his little digger. Bloke i/c the Pond.
Parish Council Elections (added 30/08/15 : MG)
From Harry Bakker writing for the Glenside News, April 2o15 …
Having retired as a Merchant Navy Officer in 1994 I became interested in the workings of the Parish Council and went to the meetings as a member of the public – often the only one. There had not been an election for many years due to a lack of candidates and I senses the decision-making was partisan rather than objective. My letter in the April 1999 Glenside News asked people – especially young people – to stand as Councillors. This stirred people up; there were 16 candidates and thus 9 Parish Councillors were elected. The turnout in Castle Bytham was 50%; quite good compared with the national average of about 29%.
A former American President said “You can please some of the people some of the time but you can;t please all of the people all of the time.” The same goes for Parish Councillors, but we always try to serve the whole community to the best of our knowledge and ability.
There may be another Parish Council election on 7th May (2015). In the Parliamentary Election – on the same day – you can vote for only one person. To the best of my understanding, for the Parish Council the electors can vote for one or more candidates, up to a maximum of nine. Meaning you can place a cross against the names of up to nine candidates.
Nomination papers for people wishing to become candidates are available from the Parish Clerk – Mrs M Cooke, 40 Station Road, Castle Bytham Tel 01780 410502. These papers have to be completed and delivered to SKDC Council Offices in Grantham before 4pm on Thursday 9th April (2015).
Harry Bakker
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Vacancy for a Parish Councillor (added : 06/12/11 : MG)
Castle Bytham Parish Council has a vacancy for a Councillor following the resignation of Cllr Williams. If anyone is interested in joining the Parish Council, please contact the clerk on 410502, or email castlebythamparishcouncil@yahoo.com or alternatively write to the Clerk at 40 Station Road, Castle Bytham, NG33 4SB
Parish Council Election Results 2011 (added : 19/04/11 : MG)
As there were only six nominations for Parish Council elections in Castle Bytham and nine places were available the following people have been elected as Councillors without contest …
Nigel John Allsopp
10 Castlegate, Castle Bytham, Grantham, NG33 4RQ
Herman Gerard Bakker
11 Glen Road, Castle Bytham, Grantham, NG33 4RJ
Patrick Beese
5 Pinfold Road, Castle Bytham, Grantham, NG33 4RG
Margaret Yvonne Dennis
The Old Reading Room, Pinfold Road, Castle Bytham, Grantham, NG33 4RG
Yvonne Bridget Hamblin
The Priory, 14 Station Road, Castle Bytham, Grantham, NG33 4SB
Peter Norman Hinton
16 Cumberland Gardens, Castle Bytham, Grantham, NG33 4SQ
Parish Council Elections 2011 (added : 28/03/11 : MG)
On 23 March 2011 notice was given of an Election of Councillors to Castle Bytham Parish Council to take place on Thursday 5 May 2011. Up to nine Councillors can be elected onto the Parish Council. Nomination papers are available from The Returning Office (Council Offices, St Peters Hill, Grantham, NG31 6PZ), which must be returned by noon on Monday 4 April 2011.
Castle Bytham Parish Council v Lincolnshire County Council (added : 14/03/11 : MG)
From the Glenside News (February 2011) …
On May 14th 2010 Castle Bytham Parish Council (CBPC) lodged an official complaint against Lincolnshire County Council (LCC) citing 14 separate errors and/or omissions in respect of an industrial planning application eventually received on 7th May 2010 – just 3 days before the final hearing of the LCC Planning Committee in Lincoln. My two previous reports refer to events leading up to the second Hearing on June 6th at which a decision published on the LCC website on 25th May 2010 was waived through, without further discussion, unanimously.
As the only official route for a Parish Council to complain against a higher authority is via Corporate Complaint we followed this route for 3 more months. At this stage the department we were complaining against were the only people dealing with this complaint. They had, necessarily, a vested interest in coming out of this procedure with a ‘clean sheet’. After several exchanges of long and intensely ‘government speak’ letters we managed to extract, and accept, apologies for some of the errors made. However as excuses given for these errors included “the member of the Management Team was on a research course in connection with a University project” and “it is understood that a temporary member of staff dealt with this using an old database”, it often raised more doubts about their internal management systems than it answered.
After I, as an aggrieved individual, contacted the Ombudsman regarding the outstanding items for which we still required anwers LCC elevated the complaint to “Stage 3”, which turned out to be the internal investigation by the Deputy Chief Executive that we had asked for 2 months previously. On November 8th we received a 5 page communication detailing Mr O’Connor’s findings. Much of his report contained extracts from letters written by Mr Freeman, Head of Spatial Planning, who had been our original correspondent. One outstanding issue was why their planning application advertisements had only been published in the “Grantham Journal” when 80% of local newspaper sales are for the “Stamford Mercury”. Mr Freeman had been surprised that a Stamford paper should be read in Castle Bytham and that the “Grantham Journal” was still seen as the ‘most appropriate’ fo our village. Mr O’Connor assured us that their Communications Department decide the most suitable publication by postcode and that the Planning Department had acted properly in taking their advice. Also, that, in this instance, ‘word-of-mouth’ was considered an effective method of consultation. We have asked LCC to put on record that the “Stamford Mercury” is the publication to be used if they wish the majority of residents of Castle Bytham to see their communications.
I quote the last paragraph of our final letter to LCC verbatim …
“The defence of LCC’s strategy regarding the dating and signing of Planning Reports and the date of the Planning Committee Hearings will never be acceptable to us as being either fair or transparent. However, as there does not appear to be a way around the entrenched position of either party to this dispute it hardly seems worthwhile to take the matter forward to the Ombudsman. Our understanding is that the Ombudsman would merely refer the matter back to yourselves and we would still be going round in circles.”
And that I’m afraid is that!
Vicky Dennis, Chairman, Castle Bytham Parish Council
Parish Council Notices : July 1995 (from the Glenside News July 1995 : 17/12/11 : MG)
Will parents please ensure that their children are not using the Playing Field as a race track for motor cycles or bikes. The Parish Council are not insured for this kind of activity and it could be dangerous to other users.
Residents are asked not to throw garden rubbish onto the playing field. There are rubbish dumps available.
Will parents please ask their children not to play football in the Cemetery. A playing field is provided for this activity. The cemetery is consecrated ground and there has been damage to graves which is upsetting relatives.
The Parish Council are looking for someone to repair the bus shelter on High Street. If anyone is interested in doing the work will they please submit an estimate of the cost to Joan Williams, 3 High Street, before 10th July.
It would be appreciated if dogs were not allowed on the cemetery for their exercise. There has been a considerable amount of dog faeces recently which is very unpleasant for the gardener.
Added : 13/03/11 : MG
Last Updated : 30/08/15 : MG
