Expansion of Pig Farm – Ministry Reply to Sir Alec Shelbrooke’s letter.
The Ministry have replied to the letter written about the expansion by Sir Alec Shelbrooke MP. The reply is attached.
Correspondence from MP Sir Alec Shelbroke re pig farm expansion, Bickerton
Our MP, Sir Alec Shelbroke, has written to the relevant government agency regarding the pig farm expansion. His letter is attached .
Expansion of Pig Farm in Bickerton
Before the Parish Council meeting on May 19th, the council had an informal meeting with Neil and Jordan Newlove (pig farmers) and the residents of Southgate Lodge on Rudgate.
The Newloves are renting an area of the field alongside Rudgate directly opposite Southgate Lodge (see diagram). They are not renting the whole field and will not be operating alongside Turnpike Lane or Main street
The new area (1) will be used for individual shelters for a sow and her piglets bedded on straw, each sow and piglets have their own area. After two years the pigs will be moved to adjacent area (2) to allow the land to recover (see diagram). Then after another two years they move back to the original area and so on.
The Newloves confirmed that no additional traffic will pass through the village .
The farmers did not need to apply for planning permission for this work. However, an enforcement meeting has been arranged with the Planning Dept by County Councillor Andy Paraskos to ensure that all regulations are being followed.
It was suggested during the meeting that some screening might be appropriate and we are investigating the possibility.
UPDATE 22/05/25
Further to the Enforcement Notice issued by North Yorkshire County Council, they have now concluded their discussions and their reply is attached here.
Bickerton Speed Survey
The Parish Council are concerned about the speed of motorists travelling along the B1224 . A survey was agreed with NYC, which took place over 7 days. When this was received a copy was sent North Yorkshire Police for their comments, which are below :
Comment below from North Yorkshire Police regarding our survey:
“”Our road safety outcomes are determined in two main ways. Firstly, we collate the data involving killed and seriously injured collision statistics and use these to identify the main areas where we want to deploy our Safety Camera Vehicles. These “KSI” routes make up the majority of the main roads across North Yorkshire and we would look to deploy the most to the locations with the highest number of collisions and then vary this accordingly as we look at the statistics for the other roads across the county. Secondly, there are roads that are highlighted to us via our Speed Management Protocol process. This is a process whereby members of the public can submit a concern about roads in their area, speed data will be gathered and an appropriate response put in place. Roads with a relatively high speeding problem will be referred to the Safety Camera team for Enforcement or to the Highways Agency to recommend an engineering outcome. Roads with a relatively low / no speeding problem will be referred to the Community Speed Watch scheme. For all of the information collated as part of these two processes, we use both the mean speeds and 85th% speeds as you have gathered below. In order for us to implement an Enforcement outcome with the Safety Camera Vehicles, we would be looking at either the mean or the 85th% speeds (or both) to be breaching our enforcement threshold of 10% + 2mph across the relevant speed limit.
For Bickerton and the B1224, this was highlighted to us through collision statistics collation and as a result, we have a number of Safety Camera Vehicle locations along the entirety of the B1224 within North Yorkshire borders running approximately from the A1(M) to the A1237. Three of these Safety Camera locations are in and near to Bickerton itself and looking at the deployment history for these three locations throughout 2024, I can see the following data:
Site 1 – 17 visits, 31 offences, 23 of which were in Speed Awareness Course criteria
Site 2 – 16 visits, 14 offences, 11 of which were in Speed Awareness Course criteria
Site 3 – 14 visits, 1 offence in Speed Awareness Course criteria
You can monitor this yourself via our public facing data log available on the North Yorkshire Police website on the following link: Safety Camera Deployment | North Yorkshire Police
If you feel that there is a specific speeding problem at a particular time or day of the week that isn’t already being addressed through the presence of the Safety Camera vehicles, then please let me know and I can look to adapt our deployment strategy and incorporate alternative times.””
The Parish Council will be looking at any other options that might help slow down the traffic on B1224.
Map of Works in Bickerton 29th May 2024
A site meeting was held in Bickerton between Councillors and a representative of NYC at the end of May and this is a map of agreed work to be done by North Yorkshire Council .
Update on the community benches in Bickerton
Parish Councillors have had several enquiries about progress with the village seats so I thought it was time for an update. As you know the damage was very bad and one seat was so badly smashed that we needed professional help to restore it. We were not able to work inside so persistent rain followed by freezing temperatures did not help.
I’m pleased to say that the base will be repaired on 24thJanuary and the seats reinstalled on 29th January. Both dates are weather permitting.
I would love to think that the people responsible for these acts of wanton destruction have ‘got it out of their system’ or have come to appreciate that this is no way to behave towards the community of Bickerton. However, if the seats are damaged again, we will have to look at steel seats, which I am sure you agree are not in keeping with our village. Also, the ongoing costs of dealing with this persistent vandalism are having a serious impact on Parish Council finances.
I hope that covers outstanding questions, fingers crossed we don’t have to talk about this again.
Janet Hanson – Chair
Precept Increase
PRECEPT INCREASE 2024-25
As advised previously, the cost of replacing and repairing Parish Assets during 2023 has had an impact on the Parish precept request for the next financial year commencing on 1 April 2024.
All Council Tax Bills will increase now that Parish Councillors have confirmed the requested Parish Precept for 2024-25, from the County Council. The Parish Precept is one of five components of the overall Council Tax Bill.
To illustrate the effect that this increase will have, the table below shows the Parish Precept part of the overall Council Bill for this year and next, for properties in bands C to G.
Councillors were concerned to advise everyone how the recent vandalism is affecting household costs.
| BAND | 2023-24 (£/Year) | 2024-25 (£/Year) |
| C | 35.48 | 54.28 |
| D | 39.91 | 61.06 |
| E | 48.78 | 74.63 |
| F | 57.65 | 88.20 |
| G | 66.52 | 101.77 |
Polling District Review
From NYC –
“North Yorkshire Council are required to carry out a consultation with North Yorkshire residents and stakeholders about the council’s proposal for the polling districts and location of polling stations in every parliamentary constituency in North Yorkshire. There are 888 polling districts under review.
We want to seek the views of the public on the proposals and, in particular, engage with seldom heard groups who have specific needs and may find it difficult to travel to/ access their local polling station. We also want to hear the views of elected representatives – NYC members, MPs and parish councils.
We are asking residents to view our proposals and give their views on them via an online survey available at www.northyorks.gov.uk/PollingPlacesReview or by completing a paper copy (available on request). Responses will be shared with the council’s elected members in December before the register of polling places is republished in February 2024.
The consultation goes live on Monday 16 October and runs for four weeks until Monday 13 November. As well as working with you, our trusted partners, we will be issuing a press release and advertising the consultation through our social media channels, website and email newsletter.
There are several ways residents can take part in this consultation
Online
The online survey is hosted on the North Yorkshire Council website. The link to access it is www.northyorks.gov.uk/PollingPlacesReview
Paper Copy
A paper copy can be requested from the council’s elections team.
Residents and our partners can do so by emailing or calling the customer service centre on 0300 131 2131 and say Polling District Review when prompted.
Accessible formats of the survey are also available on request using the contact details above.”
Vandalism to Community Benches in Bickerton
Please find attached a statement regarding the vandalism to the community benches in Bickerton