What is Orleton Parish Council up to?
Public Rights of Way and road signs
As ever, Martin Bradford has been remarkably busy with his volunteers in maintaining waymarkers, inspecting rights of way and improving access to the countryside by upgrading some of the old stiles. Our thanks to Tony Davies, Mike Tipping, Paul Stringer, Barbara Gittings and Alex Green for their work on the 2nd February, installing new stiles from Tunnel Lane to the Manor lake. Martin also worked with Dave Robbins re-installing the newly renovated Millbrook Way signs and putting in place new King’s Road signs – brilliant work.
Accident at the Ashley Moor junction
On the 31 January, on a clear day, a further accident resulting in injury occurred at the Ashley Moor junction. And yet, on 25 October 2024, the Coroner of Herefordshire wrote to Herefordshire Council making clear that he believed measures should be taken to reduce the risk of future deaths by improving the safety of this junction. This followed a fatal accident in 2022. Although measures have since been taken, with the generous assistance of Mr Harris who has removed hedging to improve the line of sight on the Ashley Moor side of the junction, this latest accident demonstrates that traffic emerging from Copper Corner on to the B4361 still has poor visibility due to the steep banks and bend in the road. We await news of what further steps can be taken by the Highway Authority to ensure the safety of local residents.
Mortimer Drive signs
Following complaints about the lack of adequate road signs to denote the point at which Millbrook Close becomes Mortimer Drive, we are investigating the possibility of casting some additional road signs from the original alloy nameplates. Given the increase in home-deliveries this may avoid some confusion on the part of courier drivers…and even local residents!
VE Day celebrations and a public flagpole for Orleton
One oddity about Oleton is that we have quite a few flagpoles, but none are public flagpoles. So, thank you to the Village Hall Committee and Chair Barry Gandy for providing the location, and to Cllr Gittings, Barabara Gittings and Martin Bradford for putting this in place at the village hall – ahead of the 80th anniversary of VE day on the 8th May. This has been funded by the parish council and will remain in situ for all public occasions and will be furnished with appropriate flags. At the same time the Village Hall hope to improve the front aspect of the village hall and we will do all we can to support them in this task.
The precept
The precept is the money that is paid via your Council Tax bill for the services provided by the parish council: this includes the Clerk’s salary, the emptying of dog bins, the work of the Lengthsman to maintain the village and grant funding to local good causes. The parish council also manages, insures and supports the parish Footpaths Officer and his volunteers and Land Drainage Volunteers. This year the precept for Orleton has been agreed at £37,565, which is an increase from £35,950 in 2024-5. This means that an average Band D household in the Parish will pay an annual figure of £96.21, or £1.85 a week. This is a decrease of £1.57 per annum for the average Band D household. This slight fall is because of additional properties which have now been added to the roll at Captain’s Meadow, thus reducing the overall tax burden.
Grants and Donations
A grant of £500.00 has been awarded to St Georges Church PCC for the purchase of a new sound system to be used during services and public events. These have been marred in recent years by quite serious ‘white noise’ from the existing system which has made some of the proceedings inaudible for those at the back of the church.
A £500 grant has also been awarded to Orleton Pre-school for high-vis and play equipment to improve the facilities available to the children.
Severn Trent
A meeting has now been arranged for the 12 March, to discuss the sewer flooding problems in the village. This will include members of the parish council, planning officers, the EA and county councillors at the offices of Herefordshire Council. Representatives from various departments within Severn Trent will attend to discuss technical issues, capacity, investment, and future development.
Meeting with Brimfield and Little Hereford Parish Council
We were invited to attend a meeting of the parish council on the 19th February, to update them on the progress of the Natural Flood Management project and the Highway Flood Alleviation Scheme. Ward Cllr Dan Hurcomb was able to report progress on the NFM scheme, which is focussed on reducing the rate at which floodwater enters Brimfield Brook. We also discussed how we can improve flood resilience in Brimfield and Little Hereford by increasing their access to some of the systems now in place in Orleton to warn of flooding, and in particular the information available on the Orleton Flood Management Facebook page, which has been created and is managed by Julia Leech.
Grapevine AGM
We attended the AGM to express our appreciation for the work of all the editors and volunteers who keep this publication going, but in particular to Dorothy Platford, Sarah Caldicott and Tony Hobbis, all of whom play a vital role in managing this publication and also to Jeff Lewin, who audits the accounts annually. We are pleased to see that advertising revenues are up, as is the annual circulation, to nearly 2,000 copies. The importance of this publication cannot be overstated, bringing information about the activities in Little Hereford, Brimfield and Orleton together under one well-presented and easy to access title.
Highway Drainage Scheme
The process of bringing forward a scheme to relieve highway flooding at the Maidenhead junction continues with a necessary exercise in cost benefit analysis. Once this has been completed, we shall know whether the Highway Authority intends to proceed with this particular scheme, or whether they will need to explore other options. In any event and as a matter of law, they will remain obliged to resolve the current flooding from the B4361 – regardless of any other considerations.
David Lane – Chairman Orleton Parish Council
20 February 2025