The date for this year’s Planning in Practice has been confirmed!

The annual session will take place on Monday, 10 February 2020 at 5.45pm until approx. 7.45pm in The Lancastrian, Chorley Town Hall.

Hot food will be served from 5.30pm (please could any dietary requirements be specified in advance). The topic for this session will be confirmed in due course.

All borough councillors and two representatives from each parish/town council are invited to attend. If you are a parish/town councillor and would like to attend, your parish/town clerk will be co-ordinating attendance on behalf of your council.

Please could attendance be confirmed to Nina Neisser in Democratic Services by emailing nina.neisser@chorley.gov.uk

A reminder to Parish Councils that the next set of Neighbourhood Area Meetings are as follows:

Southern Parishes - 22 Jan 2020 6.30pm
Chorley Town West - 27 Jan 2020 5.00pm
Western Parishes - 29 Jan 2020 5.00pm
Clayton and Whittle - 5 Feb 2020 6.00pm
Chorley Town East - 6 Feb 2020 6.00pm
Eastern Parishes - 11 Feb 2020 5.00pm
Euxton, Astley and Buckshaw - 18 Feb 2020 6.00pm
Southeast Parishes - 20 Feb 2020 5.00pm

Please make sure you've confirmed your reps and sent us their contact details.

Please contact Philippa Braithwaite on philippa.braithwaite@chorley.gov.uk if you have any questions.

Following on from the last neighbourhood area meeting, please find below links to updates on the current status and progress of each Neighbourhood priority project in each area.

It has been announced that a parliamentary election will held on Thursday, 12 December 2019.

Key dates (*approximate dates which are subject to change)
• 11 November – Royal Mail will start to deliver poll cards.
• 26 November – last date to register to vote in the general election.
• 26 November (5pm) – last date to apply for a postal vote / postal proxy or make amendments to an existing proxy for the general election.
• *27 November – postal votes will start to be delivered by Royal Mail for existing postal voters and those applying before 5 November.
• 4 December (5pm) – last date to apply for a proxy vote (if the elector already has a postal vote and wishes to change to a proxy the last date for this is 26 November at 5pm).
• *5 December – postal votes for those voters who apply for a postal vote 5 November to 26 November.
• 12 December – polling day (polling stations will be open from 7am until 10pm.

For those people who have not yet registered the quickest and easiest way to register is online.

Chorley Council have commissioned Inspire Youth Zone to undertake an outreach project over the next 12 months with two main aims
1. to consult with young people and partners in identified areas
2. deliver detached youth work and engagement activities in identified areas

For one night only on Saturday, 23 November, Astley Hall will come alive with light, music and mystery as the jewel in Chorley’s crown is transformed. This amazing free event has to be seen as the historic Astley Hall is beautifully lit with magnificent light displays and candles.

Come along and see 400 years of history in a different light. From the Tudors to the Stuarts; the Victorians to Edwardians meet characters from the past as we illuminate Astley Hall and the Walled Garden for this special annual event.

The night begins at 5pm and Café Ambio will be open serving delicious food and drink.

Members of the public are encouraged to park in the town centre and use the free park and ride service that will be running from Union Street (outside Booths) to Hallgate from 4.30pm-10.30pm every 10 minutes.

As part of this years Eastern Parishes Neighbourhood Priorities a new Public Access Defibrillator has been installed at Withnell Pharmacy on Bury Lane.

The Pharmacy have welcomed the installation and will be covering electricity costs along with staff carrying out the required weekly checks on the unit. Withnell Parish Council have committed to the ongoing maintenance of replacement equipment when necessary. A date will be set in the near future to run a Community Awareness session to give residents the confidence in using this lifesaving provision.

Over the last 6 months we have been progressing the neighbourhood priority to develop community led activity in Clayton Brook. To give you a snap shot of what has been happening as part of the project and other developments within the area over this period please see the attached update.

The priority has been a fantastic success in brining the community together and helping provide activities that benefit residents. With the Residents group now established ongoing developments will continue to take place and provide more opportunities in the future.

The Peoples Health Trust – Active Communities Funding Programme is due to open in October with Chorley being one of the targeted areas.

They are looking to fund Local groups and organisations with great ideas to make their communities even better places to live. The funding is for community groups and not-for-profit organisations seeking investment of between £5,000 and £50,000 for projects lasting up to two years.

They are looking for small and local projects, genuinely designed and run by local people. By small, this could mean just a small group of people on an estate, in a few streets or villages.

Chorley East Community Action Group (CECAG) ran a cosy family craft and games session followed by litter-picking the area. Three volunteers from the group facilitated the activities where parents attended to take part with their children.

The CECAG had identified a need for low cost family activities in their area. The aim was to get families out of the house, away from their screens and interacting with each other during the school holidays; whilst reducing the financial barrier to activities faced by so many.

Compared to previous events where residents have been less involved in the delivery of their own activities, the council’s role was minor. The council supported the group to plan and deliver this activity focusing on a ‘doing with’ approach, which required minimal resource and funds; a more efficient and sustainable option to the previous service led, resource heavy approach of ‘doing for people’. Many of the residents that attended commented about how they were shocked to have only heard about the activity through word of mouth. Local communication and advertising is something that most community groups and events find difficult. Those new residents that attended were keen to help promote future events planned by CECAG through their own local contacts.

The session took place at Tatton Community Centre, so the group planned to tidy up the park. They found there was no litter to be seen on there so the families litter-picked along Crosse Hall Lane, a quieter side street.

All the residents enjoyed being involved in improving their local area and were happy to receive Time Credits for volunteering their time. One resident who brought her granddaughter said “it’s been great to get her out of the house with other children. She loves anything outdoors”.

If you know of a resident or group who want to do something to improve their area, let us know at communities@chorley.gov.uk

On Saturday, 26 October, over 30 people braved the flooding conditions to attend the Mawdesley Health Event at Mawdesley Village Hall.

Community Engagement Officer John Hill organised this event as a result of some recent research that he carried out over the last few months in rural areas and found that some health issues were more prevalent in rural areas than in urban areas. The event was aimed to raise awareness around these particular issues and it was hoped to help rural communities to improve their quality of life and health and well-being.

It proved to be a successful event and in attendance were various health professionals, Chorley Council’s Home Improvement Agency Team and Communities Team, some local community groups, as well as some other third sector support organisations. The event raised awareness about each of the organisations / groups present and it proved to be a good opportunity to network and forge new working relationships. This should bode well for the organisations / groups and Chorley residents in the future.

Furthermore, several residents who don’t normally visit the GP Surgery attended the event and had their blood pressure checked in a more informal setting. It was found that some residents had hypertension and as a result of this event and these informal checks they are having follow up examinations with their GP. Without this event, the outcome for these individuals could have been very different.

Feedback was very positive and as a result, Croston Village Surgery along with the Croston Together group would like us to help them plan a similar event in Croston in the new year. We hope to deliver similar events in other rural areas of Chorley in the future months, hopefully working in partnership with rural GP Surgeries, Parish Council’s and local community groups.

The MHCLG are inviting applications from community-led organisations working in partnership with local authorities and other local partners to apply for grants, from a £1.35 million fund, to establish new pocket parks creating safe and usable green spaces and for helping to restore and renovate existing parks which have fallen into disrepair, bringing them back into public use.

Sport England have recently released the latest Active Lives Survey results for May 18-19.

The Active Lives Adult Survey is how adult sport and activity participation levels across England are measured
Activity is counted in moderate intensity equivalent minutes whereby each ‘moderate’ minute counts as one minute and each 'vigorous' minute counts as two moderate minutes. Moderate activity is defined as activity where you raise your breathing rate. Vigorous activity is where you’re out of breath or are sweating

Depending on the number of minutes of physical activity, people are described as being:
• Inactive – Doing less than 30 minutes a week
• Fairly Active - Doing 30-149 minutes a week
• Active – Doing at least 150 minutes a week

Key findings for Chorley:
• Inactive: 21.3% (decrease by 2.2%)
• Fairly Active: 10.6% (decreased by 3.9%)
• Active: 68.1% (increased by 6.1%)

Headline findings show that Chorley has the most physically Active adults across all Lancashire

Lancashire Constabulary are looking for panel members to be broadly representative of the diverse communities that they serve in terms of disability, gender identity, race, religion or belief and sexual orientation. Members must be able to demonstrate strong links, and effective engagement, with one or more of the defined diverse communities.

They are looking for volunteers from across the county, however you will be required to attend quarterly meetings which are held at Lancashire Constabulary Headquarters at Hutton near Preston. (Meetings will be early weekday evenings, depending on the requirements of the panel), travel costs can be claimed.

All Councillors and Parish councils will have recently been sent an email about to the proposal by British Telecom (BT) to remove eight public call boxes in the borough.

These are located at:
Opposite the Police Station on Blackburn Road Wheelton
Junction of Derby Road and Railway Road Brinscall
Opposite 184 Rawlinson Lane Heath Charnock
Junction of Eaves Lane and Harpers Lane Chorley
Junction of Commercial Road and Parker Street Chorley
Opposite South Road Spendmore Road Coppull
Outside of 528 Preston Road Clayton-le-Woods
On Meadow Lane Bamber Bridge

When BT announces plans to remove a phone box the council, as the local planning authority, is consulted and must decide whether to use its local veto to object. To do this the council needs to consider the views of the local community, announce its initial decision and ask for opinions on it before arriving at its final decision a month later.

The council can agree or object to the removal and local communities are also being given the option to adopt a traditional red heritage phone box which may be put to an alternative use.

The initial consultation period will end on 10 November 2019 and if you have any observations please send them to dcon@chorley.gov.uk