FROM YOUR ON THE SPOT PARISH COUNCIL REPORTER
At the start of the parish council meeting a resident asked the council to consider erecting a street light on the village green directly opposite the exit from the village hall frontage. A sensible suggestion but it's not that simple – there are rules and regulations covering use of the village green.
This item will be on next month's agenda.
W&F Cllr Doug Rathbone had nothing to report from the higher echelons of government.
The parish Resilience Plan has been taken off the shelf and dusted down. Cllr Clark has identified a few things that need updating but he also suggested that to make it a useful exercise in identifying areas of potential risk and how the parish could or should react, further work is needed He will undertake this work, including liaising with Kendal Town council.
You will remember, of course, that the Community Governance Review for Westmorland and Furness is just 'are you happy with your parish boundaries'. Natland Parish council is to respond with 'we are completely happy with the current parish boundaries and Kendal can forget any idea of making a land grab for the northern end'. Only much more diplomatically put of course.
The clerk to the council has acquired 3 quotations to supply a new and compliant website and email system for parish council business. It was agreed to go ahead with the quotation from A2A. The company will install the new system, including historic data, but all future inputs will have to be done by the parish. The options are for a councillor or a private person to take it on. A councillor could not be paid but an honorarium could be offered to a private individual. I think this matter will be an agenda item for months to come; for one thing the cost of the new system was not mentioned at the council meeting.
Helping St Mark's school to buy new equipment for the playground seemed a nice easy thing to do and it was believed that, outside of school hours, other residents would have use of the playground. Never assume – Check. An eagled eyed resident has pointed out to the council that not only has the gate to the playground been locked outside school hours but the school uses the facility both outside school hours in term time and in some of the school holidays. Oh dear, what a mess; the council had thought to use CIL money for this, which can only be use if it is of wide benefit to the community. So back to a bit more work on this project.
Not for the first time, it has been suggested that the village notice boards are not well located. This topic did come before the council not too long ago and cllr Ibbs did a lot of work in pricing and sourcing options. But the problems have always been – location and should it be the repositioning of just the council notice board or what might be called the village notice board. There might also be a school of thought that thinks nobody ever reads the notice boards anyway, no matter where they are placed. Previously the area in front of the church where the bus shelter had been was suggested but another location came up this time. This option is being investigated – more next year.
Story Homes has put in a proposal to reroute the footpath alongside Natland Rd which will run through the new estate. Natland council's response is that they have no objection to this, but this in no way should detract from the requirement for an accessible and direct footpath and cycle path from the Beeches estate to Natland centre.
As well as the flooding outside the church, which has been and will be continually reported, two other topics came up at the end of the meeting. First notification via W&F council about the proposed improvement of the canal towpath, which apparently Natland council and the landowners objected to last time but Natland Council are now generally in favour of a better surfaced path and will respond accordingly. The Kendal 10k road race is planned for April 2026 and it passes through Natland both outbound and inbound. Concern was voiced that this may lead not only to inconvenience on Natland Rd but more importantly may be a safety issue. The council will raise this with the organisers.
The next meeting is on Monday 12th January 2026 at 7pm in the Village Hall.