Dear resident

Lots to report, as ever, this month including: the Climate Emergency Working Group, Bingley Pool Community Asset Transfer and the recruitment of a new Environmental Warden who will be working alongside others to maintain and improve Bingley’s appearance and keep our green spaces in good repair.

As highlighted last month, Bingley’s community consultation – on Council priorities, the Neighbourhood Plan and CIL expenditure – is now underway, and we hope you will take the opportunity to give us your views on all these important issues before the closing date on 25 September. Details of events and how to get involved are given below.

Our Annual Report for 2018/19 is now available and a copy should be popping through your letterbox any day now. It is your record of the Council’s activity and spending in the past year.

If you’re part of a community group that needs some funding, a reminder that the next deadlines for applications to the Town Council’s grants scheme for community groups are 15 September 2019 and 15 January 2020.  So far, over £30,000 has been given to support local groups who are contributing in a huge variety of ways to our community. The application process is straightforward: please find the full criteria and application documentation in the Documents section of our website here or email enquiries@bingleytowncouncil.gov.uk.

Kind regards,

Ros Dawson

Chair, Bingley Town Council

 

The consultations started on 7 September, with an event at the market and the Arts Centre and one at Eldwick on 9 September. Please have your say on a variety of important issues for Bingley.

Our Neighbourhood Plan Working Group has produced a draft plan and they’d like your feedback on it. Please also tell us what you think Town Council priorities should be for the three-year period from April 2020 and give your suggestions on what we should spend Bingley’s Community Infrastructural Levy funds on (£16K to date).

The consultations run until Wednesday 25 September and you can talk to Councillors and members of the Neighbourhood Plan Working Group at the following events:

  • Thursday 12/09/19 – Crossflatts Community Centre (COPWA), 5.30pm-7.30pm
  • Monday 16/09/19 – Bingley Methodist Church 1.30pm-3.30pm
  • Tuesday 17/09/19 – St Wilfrid’s, Gilstead, 7pm-9pm
  • Friday 20/09/19 – Cottingley Community Centre, 10am-12pm
  • Wednesday 25/09/18 – Bingley Business Expo, Bingley Arts Centre, 10am-3.30pm

A paper questionnaire will be available at these events or from the Town Clerk. Copies, and a reference copy of the draft Neighbourhood  Plan, are also available at Bingley Library.

You can also make your views known via an online questionnaire at https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/BTCCommunityConsultation.

Further information is available on our website at:

https://bingleytowncouncil.gov.uk/bingley-community-consultation-share-your-views-on-important-issues-for-our-town/

Neighbourhood Plan

This is a document that creates policies that will influence building and development in the Bingley Town Council area until 2030. It will also entitle Bingley to receive a greater proportion of Community Infrastructure Levy monies.

Priorities

To help the Town Council set its agenda for 2020 to 2023, we would like residents to tell us what they think the most important areas of work or project/s are and to give us any suggestions as to what the Council could also consider achieving.

Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL)

CIL is a charge paid by developers to Bradford Metropolitan District Council. As Bingley has a Town Council it receives 15% of any CIL paid on development in the parish. When Bingley has a Neighbourhood Plan, the town will receive 25% of any CIL. CIL can be used to fund a very broad range of facilities such as transport initiatives, play areas, parks and green spaces, cultural and sports facilities, healthcare facilities, academies and free schools, district heating schemes and police stations and other community safety facilities.

New Environmental Warden post

 The Council is to recruit a part-time Environmental Warden. The purpose of the role is to help maintain and improve the local environment by taking appropriate action or reporting any relevant issues that affect the environmental quality of the parish and to assist with related monitoring and day-to-day council processes.

Overall responsibilities for this 20 hour a week role will include a range of practical environmental or cleansing duties, such as litter picking, clearing snickets, maintaining hedges and leaf-sweeping. The post holder will also be responsible for a number of related Council monitoring and management tasks, e.g. relating to grit bins, floral display and noticeboards and will assist the Administrative Officer with the Council’s allotments. Recruitment details are currently being finalised and it is hoped to advertise the post in early October. The post will be offered at Point 5 on the NJP SCP scale (£18,795 pro rata, i.e. £10,977 for 20 hours or £9.77 per hour).

Climate Emergency Working Group

The Council’s new Climate Emergency Working Group comprises five councillors and three non-councillors and held its first meeting on 4 September. The aim of the group is to work alongside local groups and statutory organisations to reduce Bingley’s impact on the climate, mitigate the effects of climate breakdown and become resilient to changes caused by the climate breakdown.

Members will be attending a meeting of the Bradford Council Parish Councils Liaison Group on 11 September to hear about climate-related actions currently being undertaken by Bradford Council. In the meantime, other initial actions agreed were to create a list of local groups already working on the climate emergency agenda, to write to Bradford Council for an update on climate-related policies for potential inclusion in Bingley’s Neighbourhood Plan and to contact venues in Bingley where the Town Council currently holds meetings and events to ask about energy saving measures in place.

Annual Report for 2018/19

The Annual Report for 2018/19 Summer 2019 Newsletter has now been published and is being delivered door to door across the parish. You can also find it online here.

Bingley Pool Community Asset Transfer

At the end of July, a representative from the Friends of Bingley Pool (FOBP), explained at the full council meeting that the Community Asset Transfer (CAT) of the pool from Bradford to FOBP, which it has been working on for over two years, is in danger of collapse.

The Town Council wrote urgently to Bradford Council asking that the Community Asset Transfer (CAT) of Bingley Pool to FOBP be prioritised and that the pool remains open for a further year at Bradford Council’s expense to enable the transition to take place. The town council also requested a meeting about the CAT with the Chief Executive. A reply is still being pursued, but at the August meeting the Town Council was advised by FOBP that the pool closure date has been extended by six weeks to May 2020.

FOBP also requested a meeting with the Town Council after the Friends have had another meeting with Bradford Council. The Town Council offered to attend the meeting with Bradford Council to support FOBP. FOBP wishes to discuss with Bingley Town Council its role in ensuring the pool CAT process is successful and FOBP’s proposal that Bingley public toilets and town council office space could be accommodated in the Bingley Pool building. The Town Council has asked that FOBP runs through the Friends’ transition plan for the pool up to the end of March 2020, scenario planning, their project plan and communication plan to update and inform FOBP members and residents about progress with their CAT, as well as providing various supporting documents.

 Both meetings are due to take place in the next couple of weeks and an update and next steps to support FOBP and their plans to keep open Bingley Pool will be discussed at the town council meeting on Tuesday, 24 September.

Office/toilets conversion project

There’s progress on the Town Council’s project to re-provide public toilets in Bingley through a Community Asset Transfer (CAT) of the redundant Jubilee Gardens toilet block, closed last year by Bradford Council. The four tenders received in August from contractors interested in undertaking the work of converting the toilet block in Jubilee Gardens into two standard accessible WCs and central offices for the Town Council have now been scrutinised by the Council’s Project Manager, Bowman Riley. A process of value engineering is underway in order to achieve the best outcome and value for money from the bids.

Budget setting process

The process for setting the Council’s budget for 2020-2021 will begin at committee agendas in September, with costed proposals being brought to October committee meetings. A draft budget will be prepared for the November Finance and General Purposes committee, which will then be considered at the November full council meeting. The town council budget for 2020-2021 needs to be agreed at the January full council meeting to comply with Bradford Council’s precept deadline. 

Preparedness for Brexit

 At its August meeting, the Council noted the government’s latest advice on Brexit and agreed to write to the Brexit lead at Bradford Council, Kersten England, to Tom Riordan, Chief Executive of Leeds City Council, and the lead at the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, to ask for information about any specific action Bingley Town Council can or should take to assist local authority preparedness for exiting the EU, and to mitigate the negative impacts of Brexit on Bingley parish, particularly in a ‘no-deal’ situation.

 Bingley Monthly Market

The markets, with their range of fresh food and crafts stalls continue on the first Saturday in the month, with the next dates now 5 October, 2 November and 7 December. The market is open from 9 am to 1 pm and always features live entertainment! We look forward to seeing you there!

Chapel Lane pedestrian crossing

The Council has been advised that the contract for the work of installing a Puffin Crossing at Chapel Lane (between the 5-Rise Shopping Centre and the car-park) is currently out to tender.

Street furniture painting

The council resolved at its August meeting to write to the Chair of the Shipley Area Committee to request that permission to paint street furniture in central Bingley black be added to the agenda of the next Shipley Area Committee meeting.

 Grants to Community Groups

A reminder that the next deadlines for applications to the Town Council’s grants scheme for community groups are 15 September 2019 and 15 January 2020.

See the full criteria and application documentation in the Documents section of our website here or email enquiries@bingleytowncouncil.gov.uk.

 

 

Dates for your diary

Until 25 September – Community consultations – see above

Saturday 28 September Green and Clean Forum, 10 am to 12 pm, Cardigan House, Ferncliffe Road, Bingley BD16 2TA

Saturday 12 October – Community Litter Pick, 10 am to 12 pm, Cottingley – meet at noticeboard on The Parade

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The next ordinary meeting of the Town Council is at 6.30pm on:

Tuesday 24 September 2019, St Wilfrid’s Hall, Gilstead Lane, Gilstead, BD16 3NP

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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.

Finally….if you’ve made it this far, please do share this newsletter with friends and family and encourage them to subscribe too.

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