Boxley Parish Mail


CHAIRMAN: Ivor Davies CLERK: Pauline Bowdery ASST CLERK: Melanie Fooks Parish Office, Beechen Hall,Wildfell Close,Walderslade, ME5 9RU


Tel: 01634 861237 email: clerk@boxleyparishcouncil.org.uk Website: www.boxleyparishcouncil.org.uk Contact details for parish councillors can be obtained from the parish office, the Useful Contact Details leaflet or the website Cut services or raise the precept?


AT the time of going to press, Boxley Parish Council was in the process of agreeing its budget and precept for the 2013/2014 financial year. As most residents will be aware, each property in the parish contributes to the bud- geted expenditure through the precept.


Although Maidstone Borough Council collects the precept with the council tax, the parish council sets it. The parish council was find-


ing setting the precept particu- larly difficult because of the abolition of concurrent func-


Orchard plans BOXLEY Parish Council and Maidstone Council have signed a 125-year lease for Weavering Diamond Jubilee orchard, which includes an annual pep- percorn rent. The parish council planted


46 trees and improved the play area to mark the jubilee. Parish councillors and office staff at- tended a training day and have now taken over safety checks for the play equipment etc. The parish council has employed a local person to undertake regu- lar litter picks and will soon arrange for some work on the boundary hedge and trees. Residents are reminded that


there is information about the orchard on the parish council’s website. The top area is already reverting to a diverse wildlife area with an increasing number and variety of flowers.


Church change BOXLEY Parish Council has approached Maidstone Bor- ough Council with a view to transferring maintenance re- sponsibility for the closed churchyard to them. The church passed this re- sponsibility to the parish coun- cil when this area of the graveyard was closed to burials many years ago. The parish council has since paid for its upkeep. Cllr Vic Davies, chairman of


the estates committee said: “Our experience of dealing with the grounds maintenance team at Maidstone has been good and so it is hoped that there will be little to see in the way of change in the mainte- nance standard.”


32 East


tions grants by the borough council. This £33,000 “hole” in the parish’s income, in addition to the £15,000 cut experienced in 2011/12, was expected to be only very marginally alleviated by the replacement parish serv- ices scheme, final details of which, even at the late stage of mid-January,were still awaited. Along with all Maidstone parishes, Boxley Parish Council fought the cuts, as it felt that the concurrent functions grant dealt with the double-taxation issue faced by rural parishes in pro- viding services locally that were


funded from council tax in the non-parished areas. In the absence of this grant, parish councils must now meet this expenditure from the pre- cept paid by residents or reduce the level of service. This choice has been debated


at length by the parish council. A number of cuts in expendi- ture have been put forward to reduce the impact of this loss of funding, which will also be made up by drawing on re- serves. To meet Maidstone Council’s


end of January deadline, the precept was being decided at a


Grit bins only for use on roads PARISH councillors were pleased to note that their request to have the grit bins labelled “For public highway use only”had been taken up by Kent County Council, but someresidentswere ignoring this. In some areas, while no grit had


been placed on the road, private drives appeared well gritted. The parish council was considering a letter drop in areas where resi- dents complained that the grit bins had been emptied by other residents for their private use.


Talk on water meter installation THE parish council is to receive a presentation about the planned introduction of water meters in the south of the parish at its March meeting. South EastWater is installing these meters at all its customers’ homes and the rollout of this work reaches the Grove Green and Boxley areas in mid 2013. A representative of the company will be at the March 4 meeting atWeavering Village Hall and all res- idents are invited to attend.


parish council meeting as Downs Mail went to press. Boxley Parish Council chair-


man Ivor Davies said: “Mem- bers are keenly aware of the current financial climate and striking the right balance is going to be the most difficult de- cision we have made for a long time. “We have looked to trim our budget and use some of our re- serves, but it appears thatMaid- stone is happy to make these cuts in the hope, or even expec- tation, that parish councils and their residents will step in and take up the financial burden.”


Traffic calming


on busy road WORK is taking place on the busy A2045 Walderslade Woods Road to stop the over- taking that has been a safety issue at its many junctions. Local residents, backed by Boxley Parish Council, put a pe- tition to KCC, but no funding for the work was forthcoming. The parish council then ap- proached KCC Cllr Paul Carter, who agreed to use hismember’s highway fund for the scheme. Traffic islands are being in- stalled at every intersection and their effect will be monitored. The parish council hopes that this will eventually be followed by a reduction in the speed limit along the length of the road, which it requested some time ago. The parish council has thanked Cllr Carter for his intervention, which enabled the work to be done.


Concerns over development rights


THE December meeting of the parish council’s environment committee agreed its response to the government consultation on extending permitted devel- opment rights for homeowners and businesses. Concern was expressed over a number of the proposals, one of which would allow single storey rear extensions to be built out to 8m (26 ft), which is double the current permitted right. Cllr Ivor Davies pointed out


that this equated to half ormore of the length of many gardens. Anxiety was also expressed over the fact that there would be


no control on the siting of win- dows in such structures, which could cause loss of privacy to neighbours. The proposal to allow busi- nesses to expand, potentially by 50%, was also a major cause of concern as this could encroach on existing landscaping and car parking provisions, resulting in an unacceptable impact on the community. CllrWendy Hinder, chairman


of the environment committee, said: “The proposals would ba- sically hand a builder’s charter to anyone without any safe- guards for neighbours or com- munities. As there is also no


clear system to make sure that work is completed within the allowed three-year period, it could potentially be abused, with the onus on the local parish council to prove to the local planning authority that enforcement should be under- taken.” Cllr Hinder added: “This has


been an extremely busy year for important consultations, as we have also responded to sug- gested changes on the Depart- ment For Transport speed limit guidance, HGV speeds on local roads and changes to business rates, the Core Strategy and council tax reforms.”


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