Welcome to Kessingland

Welcome to the Kessingland Parish Council Website

Please note that the Annual Meeting of the Parish will take place on Thursday 31st March 2022 at 7.00pm at the Kessingland Sport& Social Centre at Francis Road, Kessingland, NR33 7PU.

For more information click hear to see a copy of the agenda.

Are you a young person looking for an apprenticeship and the chance to earn whilst studying or do you know of a young person who is looking for this sort of opportunity?   Are you an experienced youth worker and are interested in a new challenge?  Then please click here to find out more about these vacancies.

Francis Road Play Area - Warning

The Francis Road Play Area is closed from today until early to the middle of March.  This is because the majority of the play area is being replaced with new play equipment.  The play area has been fenced off and we would request that, for your own safety,that you do not try to access the space.  There is also likely to be some heavy machinery at work on site so please do be aware and take care at Francis Road for the next couple of weeks or so.

To see the plan for the play area please click here.  For an aerial view click here.

The new play area will have more activities for a wider age range of children with a roundabout, different types of swings, a new climbing frame with a slide, a see-saw and multi-sided climbing structure as well as some balancing cups, musical instruments and rainwater play.  It is planned that the iconic spider frame will be repaired and re-furbished and that some picnic benches will be sited by the play area for parents and families to enjoy the new space.

Kessingland and Benacre Flood Management Project

The Project Board is pleased to be able to announce that, thanks to the Water Management Alliance (WMA) and various partner members on the board, the project has been successful in obtaining the £28 million required for the delivery of new flood defences.  These defences are needed to replace the existing Benacre sluice, which is threatened by coastal erosion in the near future.  Two new bunds and pumping stations will be built, one protecting Kessingland at the southern end of the village and a larger one cutting across the valley which will also become part of the coastal path. A full report can be found on the Benacre & Kessingland Flood Management page which contains the history of the project along with the current plans.  

 

New Website Pages

There are two new pages on the website which we hope that you will find interesting and useful.  There are both under the Community section of the website.  The first section concerns transport and provides information about transport links and changes to transport.  It also has a link to the county council travel pages to provide access to the most up to date pubic transport news.  It also has a link to the county council's HIghways Portal where you can see planned road works and also report any highways issues such as potholes, flooding/surface water, overhanging hedging etc.  The parish council can and do report issues that are reported to us but you can report them yourself.  If the same issues is reported by a lot of people then it shows that it is affecting a lot of people and this can help prioritise repairs etc.  We hope to build this page so that it can become a one stop shop fpr transport news.

The second page is for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations.  This is where you will find information about what is planned for the jubilee.  Most of the events will take place over the bank holiday but there will be things happening in the lead up to the main celebration and in the months leading to the end of the year.  If you are planning anything either by yourself or as part of a group we would like to hear from you and try to promote it around the village if you like.  It may be that other people might be interested in becoming involved and helping you with your project or event.

Speeding in Kessingland

Many of you may have seen an article in the Journal over Christmas.  The parish council would like to clarify some details.  The scheme referred to in the article was drawn up by Suffolk County Council's Highways Department in conjunction with the parish council and Cllr Michael Ladd in 2019.  Cllr Ladd organised the funding for the scheme to be developed.  It was due to go out to public consultation when lockdown happened last year.  The council supported the first three elements of the scheme but wanted community input.  Specifically, the council wanted London Road residents view on the speed cushions (phase 4) as they can create a noise nuisance.  As we will be nearly two years on by the time we can go to public consultation the elements are now being re-costed rather than place incorrect information before Kessingland residents and businesses. 

In the Spring of 2021 the parish council invested in a new Speed Indication Device (SID) which as well as displaying drivers speed, records the information.  This gives us a good indication of whether there is a lot of speeding in any specific location but more importantly if there are any common trends in the speeding.  The council is proposing to purchase a second SID in 2022.

The information from the SIDs will be used by the new Speedwatch group which the council has been working with Suffolk Police to set up since June.  We have recently had enough volunteers come forward for the group to be formally recognised and for training to be organised.  Again Cllr Ladd has been fully supportive of this project and we would welcome any members of RANS who would like to be involved.

At present the vast majority of the village has a maximum 30mph speed limit, although some areas do have 20mph zones.  However despite the quotes in your article there are no plans for the whole village to be 30mph.  There is a section of 40mph at the northern end of London Road as well as the by-pass and there are no plans to reduce either of those to 30mph at this time.

None of this deters from the fact that speeding, particularly on the section of the A12 which goes through Pakefield, Gisleham and Kessingland is a key concern.  The parish council has offered suggestions and put forward the by-pass as a prime location for Suffolk Police to trial their new speed cameras.  The issue was raised with our MP Peter Aldous at a public meeting of the parish this autumn, he advised that there are discussions taking place between himself, Suffolk Police and the various tiers of local government however it is unlikely that there would be any cheap or easy solutions.  It is however an issue for which a solution is needed.

Kessingland Parish Council does welcome the attention that RANS are bringing to the issue of speeding but most of the work outlined in the article was carried out prior to their formation and does not affect speeding on the Kessingland by-pass.  The parish council would happily work with any group which wants to improve life for the parish and we have been contacted by another group, Kessingland Residents, who would like to be involved with the council.  The parish council is made up of Kessingland residents who work for the good of the parish and appreciate involvement and feedback from the Kessingland community.

 

Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB)

At the moment the CAB will not be holding face-to-face advice sessions in Kessingland although it is hoped that this may be available again in the future.  In the meantime if anyone needs to contact the CAB for advise or support they can be contacted using the following methods:

Telephone:   01502 518510 or 0800 068 3131,

Email:           bureau@nescab.cabinet.org.uk

Website:       www.nesuffolkcab.org.uk 

 

Annual Meeting of the Parish

An Extraordinary Annual Meeting of the Parish took place at the St Edmunds Church Centre, 83 Church Rd, Kessingland at 7pm on the 6th October 2021.  We would like to thank all the speakers for giving an update on their work during the last two years and their plans moving forward.  The forty to fifty members of the public who attended heard from the following:

• Peter Aldous about the multi million pound investments going into Lowestoft
• Benacre & Kessingland Flood Management Scheme provided an overview of the project and an update on how the project is developing
• Cllr Michael Ladd provided an update on his work on behalf of Kessingland at County Council and of the major work going on to convert the county's road lights to LED
• Cllr Letitia Smith asked what the district council could do for the parish and explained about some of the funding available along with Granpads and slipper socks
• Cllr Sid James provided an overview of the last two years on behalf of the Parish Council assisted by Cllr Boyle on emergency work during COVID-19, Cllr Auger-Forbes on Events and the KEG, Cllr Nicholls on Allotments and Kessingland Remembers and Cllr Graham on the new children's play areas which will be installed at Francis Road
• Jo McCullum talked about the work being done between the parish council and East Suffolk Council regarding Hidden Needs in the village and drawing in support county wide to support local groups.
• The Reverend Mandy Bishop spoke about the work that PPC had done during the pandemic supporting the isolated and vulnerable, the food bank and joint work with the parish council
• Dan Bagshaw, the new Head at Pakefield High School spoke about the improvements which he wants to achieve and the benefits for children in the village who attend the school.
• The Men's Shed, WI and KSSC talked about their activities during the pandemic and how they are recovering and moving forward.

We would like to extend our thanks to all those who did attend the meeting and raised some interesting points as well as asking questions.

The next regular Annual Meeting of the Parish will take place on the 31st March 2022 at Marram Green.

 

Council Vacancy

The council vacancy has been filled with the co-option of Cllr David Wright.  David has lived in the village for several years and we are sure that he will be a beneficial addition to the council.

 

Council Office Information

The council offices are open between 10am and 4pm Monday to Thursday.  If there is a meeting in process then there will be a sign on the door and you will be able to see the meeting through the glass panel in the door.  Unless you wish to attend the meeting, we would ask that you wait until the meeting finishes.  If the door is closed but there is no sign then please feel free to come in.

 

Council Website

We are currently working on a makeover of the parish website in order to try to provide a one stop location for information on the village.  So far we have been updating the council information which we have a legal obligation to provide to you and which the website is a primary focus for accessing. 

We want to move on to providing two other key areas a 'Community' section and 'Our Village' section which will be aimed at different audiences. 

We hope that the Community section will be for the use of the residents and organisations in the village to promote what is happening or available in the village or nearby such as contact details for groups who come together for a particular hobby or interest, village events or things which affect the village. 

The Our Village section will be mainly aimed at highlighting the village itself, its history, its facilities and activites and nearby attractions in order to promote the village to visitors or bring local activities to attention of residents. 

We will also try to keep an updated news section and a Useful Information section. 

All of this takes time and we have a very small team who can deliver these aims so please bear with us.  If there is anyone who would be interested in being involved then we would love to hear from you, please contact the office on 01502 744367 or email clerk@kessinglandparishcouncil.org.uk.  If you do run a organisation or society in the village and would like its details listed on the website then please get in touch.

 

Compass Suite and Spinnaker Room

The Compass Suite including the Spinnaker Room are available for hire.  Priority was being given to groups which were hiring room prior to the pandemic but new groups are welcome to contact us and will be considered according to availability.

 

Francis Road Playing Field

Francis Rd Playing Field is now open on its winter schedule.  Unfortunately, the toilets are having to be shut at 2.30pm during the week and are shut during school holidays at the moment because a small group of teenagers had been carrying out acts of vandalism.  This included blocking up the hand basins and jamming the taps on in order to flood the toilets as well as setting fire to paper towels both in the toilets and in areas around the field.  We are looking at options which will enable to toilets to be open at the same time as the playing field and hope to have things back to normal as soon as possible. Vandalism was also attempted with some pieces of equipment at Francis Rd but the new bench and bin have been securely concreted into place.

 The council had a site meeting with Kompan's Playground Installation Manager recently and the new play equipment should start being installed in late February.  This will be one of the first of its kind in the country as some of the items are made from recycled marine plastics, in particular old fishing nets.

We would still suggest that you take sanitising wipes to use prior to using equipment to ensure your own safety and please dispose of the wipes in the bins provided. 

Francis Road will be open on its winter opening schedule, which is 8am to Dusk, until the May bank holiday when it will move to a 9pm closure. (Covid permitting)

 

Are you a carer for an older or disabled person who is clinically vulnerable to COVID-19?

If so, you may be eligible for a COVID-19 vacination.  For more information please click here.

 

Parish Council Meetings

Following the governments decision to not extend the ability for councils to meet remotely, council meetings reverted to in person meetings as of the 17th May 2021.  We would ask residents to work with us on this as there will be limited public access to these meetings due to the ongoing need to maintain social distancing and the size of the venues available.  We will be working to ensure that the council premises are as covid safe as possible.

 

Do you need help at the moment?  These organisations are out there! 

 

During this difficult time, OneLife Suffolk are here to support you by offering FREE services in the safety of your own home. Dedicated teams can help you stop smoking, offer advice and support with managing your weight along with how to get active safely during this time. The Children’s team are also running a fun, informative programme for all children in Suffolk to participate in, which includes free webinars accessible from the website.  Please see the website, www.onelifesuffolk.co.uk for more information about how OneLife Suffolk can support you and your family, alternatively speak to a member of the Client Services Team on 01473 718193.

DANES 

Disability Advice North East Suffolk ( aka DIAL Lowestoft & Waveney) is still working hard to support people with disabilities, long term ill health and their carers, throughout these difficult times.  They are a local charity (CIO 1180096) which has been supporting the people of Waveney since 1986.

At the moment, with many of their usual venues closed, you can still access their free, impartial service.  You can find out more at

Their website (currently still under the name of DIAL) is www.lowestoftdial.co.uk 

or their Facebook page  https://www.facebook.com/disabilityadvice/

.If you are wondering how many people in your area have made use of our free services, in the 12 months to April 2020 they supported 1500 clients, managed 4500 enquiries and helped to bring £1.5million to the local economy through our support of people making or challenging welfare benefit claims and they  do much more besides.

Any queries can be directed to the Parish Clerk by email to clerk@kessinglandparishcouncil.org.uk