Welcome to Kessingland

Welcome to the Kessingland Parish Council Website

 

Help for Households - Kessingland

The parish council will be working with community groups in Kessingland (KSSC, Kessingland Benefice, Kessingland Methodist Church, Kessingland Primary School, Kessingland Friendship Club, Kessingland Help in Need, Mates on Mondays and otheres) along with East Suffolk Council and Suffolk Council  and external organisations such the CAB, Disibility Advice North East Suffolk (DANES), Access Community Trust, Connected Commuities and Lowestoft Food Network amongst others to help support our community over the coming months.  We will be getting information out to you about what support is available but also how you might be able to be involved with helping others.  Not all this help will be in place straight way but it is being organised as quickly as possible.

There will be a team outside the Co-op in Kessingland on Tuesday 4th October involving Connected Communities and East Suffolk Financial Inclusion Team who will be able to provide basic advice and signposting.  This should then be followed by drop in events where you will be able to seek help and advice or volunteer.  The first will be on the 10th October between 9.00am to noon and the second will be on the 24th October between 1-4pm.  It is planned that at the second session there will be childrens entertainment to allow parents to talk to the different groups involved.  More information will be provided about these dates when we have them.

There will be a wide range of initiatives coming up but we could also do with your help as well.  It is planned that there will be warm spaces in the village where people can spend part of the day so they can save on heating bills and also just get out of the house.  We hope to supply refreshments at these warm sessions and therefore will need volunteers who can help run sessions.  If mmight be that you have a very interesting hobby, skill or job, that you could provide a talk about or provide a display of.  Let's face it, it always nicer to have something interesting to go out for rather than just going soewhere warm and read or play on a smart phone.  It might be that you arrange to meet friends at a warm space, or that, if you are a close group, then you each take it in turn to have friends around.  Unfortunately none of these are beneficial unless they provide an opportunity to have heating off, a good idea if possible would be 6hrs or more as this can make quite a saving on energy bills.  Warm Spaces will be a key part of trying to make hoe energy bills more affordable but there are a lot of ideas which will be coming out and we will put front and centre o ur website.

One thing that we can offer now, and hope that we will be able to keep providing help with is support for family cats and dogs.  To most of us our pets are important parts of our families and if you live alone then they are also one of the most important.  The council contacted difference animal organisation and the RSPCA have come through trumps.   We have a supply of pet food to help people who are struggling with the current financial crisis.  You can come and see our staff in the office or email admin@kessinglandparishcouncil.org.uk.  If you are housebound then email or call us on 01502 744367 and we will try to find away to support you.  We will need to know how many animals you have an what breed or size so we can organise some food to keep you going.  The only thing we will ask is that you bring a carrier bag in with you to put food in.. As long as we have access to the food we will keep providing it.

We will be trying to build up a list of volunteers to help support activities in different ways.  If you already run an activity, is the venue available for you to make a session longer (ideally 6hrs or more).  If it would need additional help to enable that then we would like to know in case there is support that we can find.

We will have a section on the website in the Community area where we will aim to put any information which we think may help people in the parish so please do check it out.  We will aim to have weekly updates as well as highlighting anything new.

Unfortunately local businesses cannot always match the prices charged by larger companies and all of us will be watching pennies but where possible supporting our local businesses is very important.  During the lockdown many of them stepped up to help out the community and probably will during this crisis.  We don't want to be coming out of the other side of this to find that local businesses have suffered and only national chains are available.  

 

 

 

Grants awarded to community projects to introduce more people to nature

More than £2,000 of funding has been awarded to four projects across Suffolk that will help people in the area discover nature on their doorstep and understand why the landscape is so special.

The Coast & Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) Community & Conservation Fund supports projects that cover heritage, media, conservation, learning, health, accessibility, and diversity through an annual small grants programme.

Successful applicants typically receive grants ranging from £500-700 and this year four fantastic projects have been funded that will introduce more people to nature and allow them to engage with the landscape in new ways.

Hollesley School were awarded £700 to create a new wildlife area for children in the school. The funds will be used to create a forest school area within the school grounds, whilst also developing the existing wildlife area.  

The East Anglian Sailing Trust received £650 for Discovering the River Orwell trips, sailing adventures on The River Orwell that will give disadvantaged younger children the opportunity to appreciate, discover and learn about all aspects of the river.

Visitors to Shotley will be able to learn more about the diverse range of wildlife that frequents the River Stour thanks to a new birdwatching noticeboard. The Shotley Heritage Charitable Community Benefit Society were awarded £700 to install the noticeboard at Shotley Pier, which will showcase images of birdlife, so people can learn what kind of birds they are seeing, along with a chalkboard to record daily sightings. 

Finally, Transition Woodbridge received £216 to create 5-minute Litter Pick Stations which can be used by anyone who would like to pick up litter in the Woodbridge and Melton area. The litter picking equipment can be used by anyone passing by and will help engage with residents and visitors alike and raise awareness of the importance of keeping our rivers and landscapes litter-free to help nature and wildlife.

You can find out more about the Community & Conservation Fund and all the AONB’s grants programmes by visiting www.suffolkcoastandheaths.org/managing.

Sizewell C 

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has announced that Sizewell C has, after months of careful scrutiny of its planning application, been granted a Development Consent Order to build and operate the power station. To read more click here:  Sizewell C

The Reclaim

This coming November, both Lowestoft Town Council and Kessingland Parish Counci plan to unveil plaques to the loss ot the Reclaim and its crew in what was one of the largest peacetime losses of life in the local fishing industry.  The Reclaim was just a few miles off of Lowestoft Harbour when she was struck by a much larger vessel and sank almost immediately with 9 or the ten crew lost.  Six of the crew were from Kessingland so if there are any relatives of the crew then both councils would be pleased to have them involved with the remembrance of the loss.

 

Notice of Period for the Exercise of Public Rights

Every year councils are required by law to have a period of thirty working days for the electorate of the parish to view the parish accounts.  The parish council publishes the majority of its accounts online in order to be transparent but you can come into the office to view paper copies.  The dates for this year are the 29th June to the 29th July 2022.  The office is normally open Monday - Thursday but should anyone be unable to come in during those days, you contact the council either on admin@kessinglandparishcouncil.org.uk or calling 744367 then we can arrange an appointment on a Friday.  The notice is on the website in the Council Financial Information section along with current financial information and information for 2020-21 for comparison. Please click on the following link to access this page - Council Financial Information

 

Planned Badger Builder's housing development at Lauren Farm, Kessingland

Badger Builder's are planning on building a new development on Laurel Farm in Kessingland.  This development will face onto London Road between the old Ashley Nurseries site and the first terrace on the east of London Rd, without including the Ashley's site.  They have distributed leaflets to the village and are having an public consultation between 1pm & 8pm on Tuesday 12th July at Marram Green.  They would like residents to visit the consultation so that they can discuss the development and hear your views before they move forward to final designs and submitting the planning application.  If you are interested in knowing more about the development please click on the link below or visit the consultation.

Badger Builder's Proposals, Designs and planning information

 

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 Committee Clerk at admin@kessinglandparishcouncil.org.uk