Author: Sylvia East

Road Repairs 2017

The parish council have accepted a quotation to proceed with :

A) Repairs to any outstanding potholes (the parish council chairman has in fact already filled in several but there remains a few edges and new holes that need to be seen to.)

B) Resurfacing to phase i mark lane – this will be from the top end of mark lane which is the road running down from the Suffolk County Council road and passing the village hall then straight down to the t junction, curving then to the left

All residents effected by this matter will be informed before work commences, but weather permitting it is anticipated that the general road repair ie potholes etc and road sweeping, will take place on the 24th july with the resurfacing work to take place on the 25th july.

This work will cost £8,435.00 plus vat (the latter of which is reclaimable.

It should be noted that we did ask for a full quotation for upper green, lower green, hall lane and all of mark lane and it would cost somewhere in the region of £25,000 (at today’s costing) which is naturally a cost far too high for this parish council to be in any position to consider.  Therefore, we have phased the roads and the situation will be looked at annually to see what we are in a position to undertake.  In the meantime, we do try to fill in potholes ourselves as and when these are noticed.

Adopted Telephone Box and the Defibrillator Project

Santon Downham parish council are absolutely delighted to advise its residents that the Brandon And District Rotary Club’s fun golfing day on Sunday, 28th June 2017 was a wonderful success.   The weather could not have been better and the day itself was great fun.

Before the day began, £450 had already been raised by the Rotary Club from, i believe local businesses.  This was an amazing start.   There were several village residents that turned up to participate in the golf itself and great support from the Rotary Club and others.  With the addition of a very successful raffle and  donations by village residents unable to participate in the golf, somewhere in the region of £1,600 was raised.  The Brandon And District Rotary Club decided not only to donate the whole of the day’s funds raised, but to add on to this and bring the total upto £1,800 which is approximately what the full defibrillator package will cost.  The Parish Council has been given a cheque and the defibrillator project has now been given the go ahead through community heartbeat who will fully oversee the project.

Some villagers have expressed concerns about how this will all work, and need not worry.  In the community heartbeat package is included a full training session that will be open to each and every village resident and this will be arranged and will take place in the village hall at a date that will be advised.   The issue of the locked cabinet and how this will work will be thoroughly explained.

With regard to the proposed little library, we have collected quite a few books already and have had many offers of books from villagers.  Once we have some idea as to when the defibrillator can be fitted the shelving will be sorted out and we hope to have a proper “opening” of same.

If anyone has any questions, please do ask one of your councillors or you can ring our chairman, Michael Mackender on 811681, or our parish clerk, Sylvia East on 815213

Warning to be wary of thieves

It has come to the Parish Council’s notice of late that there has been at least one theft from a parishioners garden that we are aware of.  Several other village residents have also spoken of the fear that their gardens have been entered and that attempts may have been made to enter their vehicles.  We have no real proof but with the theft of a dog kennel that we are aware of, and the reports of  White Transit Van trawling the village, we ask our residents to be extra vigilant.  When in the garden, do lock your doors (yes we know we are all at fault of this because in the past there has never been a need for such caution – but along with so many  other things that have changed and are constantly changing, thefts are no longer something we can dismiss)  SO, if you are busy in your garden, do take care.  Lock your garage and your sheds and be vigilant.

Our Neighbourhood Watch has reported these issues to the Police.

Telephone Box

You may have noticed that the telephone box has been de-commissioned.

Our plans are to renovate and then to make use of the space as a community book exchange.   We are also exploring with Rotary and Community Heartbeat Trust the possibility of a defibrillator being installed for emergency use.  More details will follow in due course.