Welcome!
Welcome to the first monthly mailing of 2019, and you’ll notice a slight restyling of the format; we hope you approve.
The Council has just agreed its budget for 2019/2020 and the information will be submitted to Bradford Council and form the basis of the precept request for the coming year. We give details below.
Our Green and Clean activities resumed earlier this month with a forum focussing on recycling. Next dates for your diary are a further forum on 2 February and the first litter pick of the year on 9 February. All these events are open to anyone interested, so please note the date and come along.
We’re looking forward to the Annual Town Meeting on 7 March – all welcome. In addition, a series of consultation events on the initial draft of the Neighbourhood Plan for our parish starts on Friday 22 March. More details below.
Finally, there was a fabulous turnout to plant new trees at St Ives – thanks to everyone involved.
Best wishes,
Ros Dawson
Chair, Bingley Town Council
Budget for 2019/2020
Having considered a number of drafts since October 2018, the council set its budget for 2019/20 at the full council meeting on 22 January. The monthly meeting was held earlier than usual in order to meet Bradford Council’s budget deadline.
Anticipated expenditure in the year is £234,713, and the precept for the year for a Band D property will be £20.00 (£16.31 in 2018/19). This means the precept in the Bingley Town Council area is still one of the lowest in Bradford District and represents excellent value given the progress and projects achieved by the council for our community. More information about precepts in Bradford District can be found here: https://www.bradford.gov.uk/council-tax/general-council-tax-information/council-tax-bands-and-amounts/
The Council will continue its many very popular and valuable activities including: investment in Christmas lights, seasonal floral displays throughout the parish, events to increase footfall in the town centre, efforts to improve tourism, free summer holiday play in the park events and the highly popular and effective grants scheme which has helped many local organisations. Our efforts to improve the environment are ongoing (see Green and Clean update below) and a new part-time Environmental Warden will be employed to mitigate some of the effects of district council cuts.
Green and Clean update
 A very well-attended Green and Clean Forum on 13 January started with a brief outline from Jane Stone of the work of the Plastic Free Bingley campaign group. She drew attention to the Terracycle units for hard-to-recycle materials that the group had placed in various locations in central Bingley. These are as follows:
- Biscuit and cracker wrappers: Bingley Library
- Beauty products: Boots, Main Street
- Toothpaste tubes, toothbrushes and toothbrush packaging: Co-op, Bingley
The main speaker was Edith Grooby, Bradford Council’s Recycling Manager. Edith spoke about the dos and don’ts of recycling in the district and described the challenges faced by Bradford Council in finding a market for some of the types of rubbish we throw away today.
The meeting was pleased to hear that Bradford Council is currently itself planning to introduce Terracycle units. Edith also referred to the Recycle Now website – https://www.recyclenow.com/local-recycling – where you can enter your postcode to get a list of local places that will recycle specific waste items.
Another Forum is to take place at Cardigan House on Saturday 2 February, 10 am to 12 pm, when George Corbett, Project Officer with Bradford Council’s Parks Department, will be talking about edible planting. All welcome!
Annual Town Meeting, 7 March 2019
Preparations are being made for the Annual Town Meeting, which is to be held at 6.30 pm on Thursday 7 March at Cottingley Community Centre. This is an opportunity to hear from local speakers about activities in the town and to ask questions of your Town Councillors.
Organisations that have received grants from the Town Council during the year are being invited to provide a display giving information about their activities.
 Office/toilets conversion project
The project to take over the now closed toilet block in Bingley from Bradford Council and transform it into offices for the Town Council and two standard accessible toilets continues to make progress. An initial meeting was held with project managers Bowman Riley on 14 January. Bowman Riley will now finalise the designs for the project and start work on preparing a planning application.
Solicitors for the Town Council and Bradford Council are continuing to work to agree the terms of the Community Asset Transfer (CAT) of the toilet block. Once the CAT has been agreed and the necessary planning permission has been obtained, the Council will be agreeing a revised business case and putting in an application for borrowing approval.
Picture below: Locality
Litter pick dates for 2019
 Dates for the Council’s community litter picks in the coming year have now been agreed by the Green and Clean sub-committee and are as follows (Saturdays unless otherwise stated, meeting at 10 am):
9 February (starting at the 3 Rise Locks)
Friday 22/Saturday 23 March (Great British Spring Clean)
27 April
8 June
10 August
12 October
7 December
 All are welcome, and all equipment is provided, but please wear old clothes and sturdy shoes. Children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult.
Tree planting at St Ives
In June, the Council awarded a grant to the Friends of St Ives to go towards the cost of spring-flowering, native trees and shrubs for a pathway in Betty’s Wood at St Ives. A highly-successful planting session on 5 January brought out a large number of volunteers who got the job done very quickly!
Neighbourhood Plan consultations
Bingley Town Council has started to prepare a Neighbourhood Plan. Neighbourhood Plans comprise policies that enable local people to have greater say over any form of development in their communities, under the Localism Act. In addition, having a Neighbourhood Plan means the community will receive, through the Town Council, 25% of any CIL (Community Infrastructure Levy) charged on new development in the parish by Bradford Council.
The Neighbourhood Plan Working Group includes both councillors and residents of Bingley parish. The group meets regularly and is currently preparing an initial draft plan which will be shared with the public at a series of consultation events. These will be held on:
Friday 22 March, 1 to 8 pm, Bingley Methodist Church
Saturday 23 March, 9.30 am to 2.30 pm, Bingley Methodist Church
Thursday 28 March, 6 pm to 9 pm, Crossflatts over-50s Community Centre
Friday 29 March, 9 am to 12 noon, Cottingley Community Centre
Monday 1 April, 1.30 pm to 5.30 pm, Eldwick Memorial Hall.
Local council elections
Please note that the initial three year term of the Town Council comes to an end in April this year, and all seats on the council will be up for re-election in May. This will bring the council in line with the cycle for other local elections, and the next term of office will be the standard four years – 2019-2023.
More information will be available nearer the time, but we would like to encourage anyone interested in standing to visit the website of the National Association of Local Councils (NALC – https://www.nalc.gov.uk/our-work/elections) for general information about becoming a councillor and what you can bring to your community. A strong group of elected, rather than co-opted councillors, will give the council extended powers to take action to benefit Bingley.
For further information about the Bingley Neighbourhood Development Plan please contact Ruth Batterley, Bingley Town Clerk by email at:Â Â townclerk@bingleytowncouncil.gov.uk.
Pictures below: Parkrun, Myrtle Park
Dates for your diary
Green and Clean Forum, Saturday 2 February, 10 am to 12 pm, Cardigan House, Ferncliffe Road, Bingley
Community Litter Pick, Saturday 9 February, 10 am to 12 pm, 3 Rise Locks and surrounding area
Annual Town Meeting, Thursday 7 March, 6.30 pm Cottingley Community Centre
Next Town Council meeting
The next meeting of the Town Council is at 6.30 pm on Tuesday 26 February 2019 at COPWA, 18-20 St Aidan’s Square Bingley BD16 2BN.
You can see all our meeting dates in the calendar of the Events section of our website, and a full listing is available as a separate document, updated weekly, in the Documents section of the site.
Bingley Town Council contacts
Bingley Town Council, Cottingley Community Centre, Littlelands, Cottingley, Bingley, BD16 1AL
Town Clerk: Ruth Batterley
Administrative Officer: Laura Jowett
Email: enquiries@bingleytowncouncil.gov.uk
Tel:Â 07703 188660
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