Draft Extraordinary Meeting minutes held 26th August, 2024.

August 30th, 2024

Please note these minutes are published in draft formation and will not be approved by Council until the next meeting, scheduled 19th September, 2024.

Minutes of Extraordinary Parish Council Meeting held on: Monday 26^th August, 2024 at YIPs Centre, Inskip

Present:

Cllr Carol Berry (CB) Chair

Cllr Samantha Readyhough (SR) Vice Chair

Cllr Nick Danby (ND)

Cllr Dean Faria (DF)

Cllr Phil James (PJ)

Cllr Geoff Carter (GC)

Clerk: Susan Gilbert (SG)

Apologies: 0

Meeting opened: 19:00

Meeting closed: 20.30

Agenda

Meeting called to discuss Wyre New Local Plan

Next meeting Scheduled for: Thursday 19^th September, 2024.

Status: DRAFT

Chair: Cllr Carol Berry

Date:

Following residents comments made in the Open Forum at the last meeting (15^th August, 2024) this meeting was called to give councillors the opportunity to discuss Wyre New Local Plan, as all councillors could not be present at the aforesaid meeting.
Council agreed to send the attached statement to Wyre Council.

Statement of Objection to Wyre New Local Plan

As agreed at Parish Council meeting held 26^th August, 2024.

Inskip with Sowerby Parish Council respond to Wyre Council’s New Local Plan – Planning for Wyre’s Future to 2040 – and wish it to be put on record their objection to future development in the village of Inskip, including Crossmoor and Sowerby.

Council feel strongly that a more suitable location than Inskip should be utilized to provide housing to Wyre residents and would suggest the Fylde Coast Peninsular be considered for the following reasons:

Council feel strongly that a more suitable location than Inskip should be utilized to provide housing to Wyre residents and would suggest the Fylde Coast Peninsular be considered for the following reasons:

Inskip with Sowerby:

Inskip is a farming village, with working farms rearing sheep, cattle, fowl and growing good quality food for stock.

Transport
The transport infrastructure in the village is poor.
The bus service is classed as an unimportant route by the LCC with services once per hour to Preston and Fleetwood (via Great Eccleston). There is no service to the nearest shopping area, Kirkham. Bus shelters are not provided. There is no taxi service or rail facility. The roads in the village are largely country lanes with poor visibility and risk of meeting large heavy farm vehicles for approximately 4-5 miles before joining a main carriageway and link roads.
Consideration must be given to the ever increasing travel costs facing residents in rural communities such as ours. There are few footpaths forcing pedestrians to walk in the road.

Health
The local GP surgery is Great Eccleston Health Surgery, a relatively small practice which serves a large community with appointments up to 4 weeks waiting. Existing planning permission for more homes in Great Eccleston will undoubtedly worsen the current situation. Dental practices are closed to new patients. Emergency services response times are restricted due to location and transport challenges. Distance of travel to hospitals is 8-10 miles with no direct bus service available.

Education
There is a local primary school in the village which does not currently operate a “wrap-around care system” for children and is therefore not used by most working families, who need to go outside of the village for their children’s education. Inspite of this, the maximum intake for 2025 is limited to 10 pupils per academic year. Clearly more residents in the village would require there to be a bigger school. There is no senior school in the village, with options being Broughton (which is currently oversubscribed) or Garstang. There is a free bus service to Broughton but not to Garstang (cost of which is approx. £750 per year). Carr Hill, Kirkham can serve the village but has no bus service. Further education does not provide a free bus service from Inskip and routes are impractical.

Low Cost Housing
Local demand for low cost housing does not exist.
The “take up” of low cost housing in those developments completed in the past five years has been very slow with little if no interest from villagers, ultimately being occupied/tenanted by others from outside the area perhaps even outside of Wyre Borough.
The location of low cost housing is not attractive to first time buyers, low income families etc because of the challenges of living in a rural area with no amenities. Similarly, retirement type homes are not attractive to older retired persons as the risk of not being able to drive in future years is a concern.

Shopping, Recreation, Sport, Culture
There is no shop in Inskip. Space has been left aside for the creation of a shop but has had no interest/uptake. The public house closed in 2020 and has not re-opened. There is no recreation, hospitality, sport facilities in the village aside from a bowling green. Residents must travel to Preston or Blackpool for the above.

Fylde Coast Peninsular:

This area has much grey and brown field land.

Transport
The transport routes in this area are already in place and provide options of bus, tram, rail (Poulton le Fylde to Blackpool and Preston) and various taxi operators. The new Singleton Bypass improves access to M55.

Health
Doctors, dentists already in place. Hospitals more accessible.

Education
The infrastructure for education is already in place.

Low Cost Housing
The demand for low cost housing would be high.

Shopping, Recreation, Sport, Culture
Many facilities already in place.

The land put forward for possible development to the north and west of the village is green field top quality agricultural land and, in the interest of sustaining farming and local food supply, is unsuitable for more housing in the village. However, parish council suggest that if housing in Inskip has to go ahead a more suitable location would be to the south east of the village on the parcel of land opposite the Derby Arms. This would balance the village layout and provision could be made for rejuvenating that part of the village, possibly providing a case for the pub to re-open, making a village green. Residents’ vehicular movements tend to be towards Preston and by siting properties here they would not be travelling through the village “core” with its bad bend at the junction of Mill Lane/School Lane, therefore not adding to the pressure at this already dangerous part of the main road.

Signed by:
Susan Gilbert,
Clerk
On behalf of Inskip with Sowerby Parish Council Dated: 30th August, 2024.