SILVERDALE PARISH COUNCIL
MINUTES OF ANNUAL PARISH MEETING held on
Thursday 12th May 2022 held at Silverdale Library at 6.30pm
Present:
Chair – Mr H Adamczuk (HA)
Parish Cllrs Ms C Jarratt (CJ), Ms C Mrozowski (CM), Mr A Sutcliffe (AS), Mr L Leighton (LL) Clerk – Ms D Powell
The meeting was brought to order at 6.30pm
Present: Borough Councillor Ms J Brown (JB)
One member of the public was present
| 1 | Apologies – Apologies were received from Mr M Melvin | |
| 2 | To sign the Minutes of the Annual Parish meeting held 8th April 2021 – RESOLVED to approve and sign the minutes of the last Annual Parish meeting as a true and accurate record. | |
| 3 | Public Open Forum – One member of the public attended to observe the meeting. | |
| 4 | Annual report – Chair – HA provided the attached Chair’s report. Which was noted and agreed, and the Chair was thanked for his report. |
Silverdale Parish Council 12 May 2022
Chair’s Annual Report 2022
1 Changes in Membership
During the year Krishnadas Sukomaran, Chris Spence, Tina Spence, Jake Wu and Amelia Rout were unable to continue, and stepped down from the Parish Council all for personal reasons I should add. We would like to thank all those parish councillors for their hard work, dedication, and enthusiasm. We notice that the role can be tough reflecting the cumulative pressures of events and worsening of financial support to parishes and councils and successive Covid waves and national lockdowns have had a major impact on livelihoods.
Clare Withington, our parish clerk for over 7 years had announced previously that she would not continue due to family circumstances. We thank Clare for her wonderful support in relation to the many projects that she helped establish and continued to completion over those years.
We appointed a new parish clerk, Debra Powell who now provides the required financial and administrative support to carry on this momentum.
Lee Leighton joined us and has already made his mark with Christmas events in the village to encourage community spirit. We were unable to co-op more members because of the proximity of the May 2022 elections and one applicant was not qualified. Four new parish members are required urgently to push the parish council’s agenda particularly the forthcoming Neighbourhood Plan.
2 External Contacts
The 2 new Borough Councillors and the County Councillor for Keele, Silverdale and Knutton should be brought into our activity to progress several matters; Highways (traffic, potholes and flooding) at county level and Planning (Neighbourhood Plan and 2021 Local Plan) at district level. The new council has a majority and with a previous commitment to developing the Keele Golf course as the largest single scheme on council land in the 2021 Local Plan there will be an important role to oppose proposals that do not take account of the views of parishioners.
Save Our Green Spaces (SOGS) campaigns to stop development on green spaces. Since inception I have supported SOGS. As Chair I was nominated to the borough council’s Town Deal. Celia Jarrett and I represent residents of the Parish on the Locality Action Partnership, meeting with Aspire, Police, Streetscene and other council staff.
Celia and I are also nominees for Wallet’s Quarry Liaison Committee.
3 Silverdale Parish Council Budget
Silverdale has the lowest precept of all Parish & Town Councils in the district. During the covid pandemic at the start of 2021, Silverdale PC did not increase the precept. In April 2022 Silverdale increased the precept by 1.99 per cent. Our precept funding is comparatively low, so there is intense pressure to spend carefully.
We finished the year 2021/22 with the main stock of the HLF grant of £72,800 spent despite the uncertainty and many setbacks arising from the pandemic requiring a complete re-planning of the programme. The Parish Council’s contribution was £3,040 made available from reserves.
It is a considerable relief to know that our future funding is secure in view of the size of this large project in relation to our precept and reserves and provide a range of local services to our community.
4 Parish Council Community Grants
Details to follow
5 Large Projects
5.1 Miner’s Tribute Monument
The Monument that was deteriorating after 20 years has been restored and will be in better condition and regularly maintained with an interpretation board to help explain the history of the collieries and the connection between mining and Silverdale communities. With the restoration of lighting the project will encourage new people to visit our parish and disseminate the heritage we are so proud of.
The Silverdale Festival that we imagined in 2018 to bring music and drama to the village was in many ways exceeded despite the impact of the Covid 19 pandemic.
In December we learnt during our parish meeting that the prestigious MARSH Award had been won by the contractors. The Miners’ Tribute will continue to capture Silverdale’s spirit following completion of the Heritage Lottery funding restoration by Plowden’s under the conservators and we thank Sarah Bonham for her work in shaping and reshaping both the physical and the community engagement.
The independent evaluation report has been accepted by the Heritage Lottery Fund. The report lists the achievement of the project in detail so I can limit my comments here. The Parish Council is continuing to work with the Borough Council to complete the last items; the Management & Maintenance agreement and the Interpretation Board installation.
5.2 Silverdale Park Skate/Miniwheels
The mix of grants for this Locality Action Partnership project managed by Robin Wiles was completed complete with amazing urban graffiti highlighting Silverdale. This is a demonstration of partnership working, with everyone from residents and their children to Council officers working together to make it happen. We thank council colleagues including the Landscape Department for its creation.
6 Campaigns
6.1 2021 Local Plan and former Municipal Keele Golf Course Site
There was considerable criticism of the borough council’s original format for the consultation, which was accepted. An additional 6 weeks was provided for the consultation period. The parish council responded fully to the Issues and Strategic Options Consultation, ending on 24 January.
6.2 Walley’s Quarry
HIGH COURT CASE AND SILVERDALE’S OMBUDSMAN CASE AGAINST THE ENVIRONMENT AGENCY
We believed at a minimum, an investigation would result from the Ombudsmans case (via Aaron Bell MP) against the Environment Agency. It concerned their flawed consultation over the increase in waste which had delivered a major odour nuisance on Silverdale and Newcastle residents. A parish council were deemed not to be an appropriate ‘person’ to make a complaint. An individual could have taken the complaint forward, but the time frames are now past. The process of challenging a government agency is complex and other legal actions have eclipsed ours.
In particular the High Court action (under the Human Rights Act) was successful in galvanising support locally and nationally on the role of the Environment Agency and the health impacts of emissions on the scale of this landfill so close to residential areas.
Colleagues have taken part on the Stop the Stink protests and marches and this single campaign has been responsible for the step change in local pressure for a solution to the odour nuisance.
ABATEMENT NOTICE UPDATE
The Borough Council’s abatement notice served on 13 August 2021 the landfill operators Walleys Quarry Ltd to prevent foul odours beyond the boundaries of the site. “The pre-trial review will take place on 30 September 2022 with the final hearing currently scheduled for 24 October – this is expected to take up to four weeks. Martin Hamilton, the Council’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “…The legal process for securing an abatement notice was always anticipated to be lengthy and complex. For the Council, this means securing key information from Walleys Quarry Ltd. that will be critical in successfully defending the case. “It is important, also, to say that I am acutely aware that residents are still suffering from the foul odours on a daily basis, as evidenced by the number of complaints we continue to receive.”
The operator WQ Ltd engaged engineering consultants to prepare a document known as the Interim Report to argue that there has been contamination of the landfill by minewater and that this enables the operator to counter the claim made by the council. The Coal Authority, who are responsible for extensive minewater treatment plant close to Knutton Quarry has disputed the WQ Ltd consultants’ claims and the Coal Authority made these views known in questions at the Walley’s Quarry Liaison Committee.
ENVIRONMENT AGENCY MONITORING
In March last year 4 monitoring stations were set up to record a range of emissions at the landfill site. The EA reported in detail and that in the first six months there were considerable reduction in emissions from hydrogen sulphide and compared the analysis with WHO annoyance limits. The WHO air quality limits set back in 2000 and recently Aaron Bell amongst others has questioned whether they represent a modern
In addition, there were daily counts of complaints recorded so the comparison could be made between reports and chemical emissions.
Walley’s Quarry Liaison Committee has been an important source of updates over the year as EA Staffs Planning and Environmental Health are regular members. However, following an ultimatum from the last chair, councillors and most other staff from the borough council boycotted the meetings. Minutes are now published verbatim; 30 pages in not uncommon. WQ Ltd have chosen an industry technologist to chair on all but one occasion and made decisions to limit membership. It does not work in the way originally intended. Technical details and data sets can be both baffling to follow but Celia and I have attended to more get up to date information more accessible than the huge amount available via websites and social media.
Two programmes of drilling wells are practically complete and further coverage of part of the site is in progress with to limit emissions. Odour levels are fluctuating so the issue is persisting.
UK HEALTH SECURITY HEALTH IMPACTS
The health impacts over the whole year were separately analysed by UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and compared the results with WHO and US Environmental Protection Agency air quality
guidelines. [the four stations are MMF 1 is Silverdale Pumping Station. MMF 2 is Silverdale Cemetery MMF 6 is Newcastle Fire Station. MMF 9 is Garlingale View, Thistleberry.
‘’The monitoring results for particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide were below UK air quality objectives. Levels of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene were below health-based guidance values. Therefore, there would be minimal risks to health at these levels of exposure.
The results for hydrogen sulphide in March 2022 were above the WHO odour annoyance guideline value for a considerable percentage of the time at three of the monitoring sites and a significant percentage of the time at the fourth site (MMF9). This is likely to result in headache, nausea, dizziness, watery eyes, stuffy nose, irritated throat, cough or wheeze, sleep problems and stress.
The more time spent above the guideline, the greater the likelihood of symptoms being experienced and the impact as a result on people’s health and wellbeing. The hydrogen sulphide data up to the end of March 2022 shows continuing exposure to the population around the site. Three MMF sites show a monthly average concentration in March above the US EPA RfC long-term (lifetime) healthbased guidance value. The other site shows a monthly average concentration at the US EPA RfC. The cumulative average concentrations for MMF1 and MMF2 are below the US EPA RfC, and MMF6 is at the US EPA RfC.
At MMF9, the cumulative average concentration remains above the US EPA RfC. The risk to longterm (lifetime) health cannot be excluded especially where the cumulative average concentrations continue to be above the US EPA RfC.
Currently this risk is likely to be small, but the longer exposure is above the US EPA RfC, the greater the potential risk will become. People living around the site are likely to experience ongoing health effects such as irritation to the eyes, nose and throat, in addition to headache, nausea, dizziness, watery eyes, stuffy nose, irritated throat, cough or wheeze, sleep problems and stress described above. Individuals with pre-existing respiratory conditions may be more susceptible to these effects. With continuing exposure these effects may be prolonged but are not anticipated to continue longterm once exposure has decreased to acceptable levels. UKHSA continues to strongly recommend that all appropriate measures are taken as early as possible to reduce the off-site odours from the landfill site, to reduce the health impacts experienced in the local community; and reduce the concentrations in the local area to levels below the health-based guidance value used to assess longterm exposure.’’
6.3 Pepper Street Development in Keele Parish
Bordering Silverdale is the large area formerly industrial use but de-contaminated and made available for a housing development of c100 homes. Silverdale will work closely with the Council and Keele Parish to ensure there is no detrimental impact on residents of Pepper Street and Underwood Road where there is a problem of localised flooding.
6.4 S106 Funding from Developer of Silverdale Sidings (now Silverdale Gardens)
We have repeatedly requested that the council expedite substantial funding from S106 contribution from the developer in this project as the addition cost to support primary schools and local provision of public open space and transport and development facilities as set out below ay 2013 prices;
Primary School Contribution £55,155
Public Open Space Contribution £67,689
Transport and Development Strategy £26,224
It is of considerable concern to this parish and greatly regretted that there has not been any further release of these funds (which increase annually with interest payments). The financial impact is considerable on owners who wish to sell their houses having taken on the 106 liability.
7 Services
7.1 Acre and Park Road Allotments
One significant feature of Silverdale is how our allotment associations demonstrate continued excellence in horticulture. Acres won the Britain in Bloom award in 2021. Silverdale are working with the Borough Council to extend Acre Allotments from 1-45 by a further (notional) to plots 46-61 by way of a Tenancy at Will. The tenancy agreement paves the way for additional preparation by the Acre Allotment Association and an extension to the number of allotment plots.
Further the borough Council has accepted responsibility for removing dereliction and waste of the remainder of Acre Allotments 62-80, not cleared since 2015.
Park Road Allotments were specifically mentioned in the Council’s Issues and Strategic Options Consultation over the Land release for Keele University Growth Corridor. The willingness of the borough council to extend Acres may be part of a longer-term plan to re-locate Park Road Allotments. This has not been proposed, but the parish council should consider
7.2 Neighbourhood Area and Grants
The Parish Council set up a Neighbourhood Group of Councillors (Celia Chrissy Lee and Henryk) to begin monthly meetings for the Neighbourhood Plan. There were many early deliberations about what to include in the neighbourhood Area. Ultimately it was agreed to go ahead on the parish map as the appropriate area (as the parish and ward of Silverdale appeared to be the same).
In March a grant of £1,313 was received from Locality under the scheme to support planning at the level of Neighbourhoods. The grant rules were stringent; funding only covered expenditure before 31 March without any carry over. It came at a time when many other demands were thrust on the parish it was agreed to return that amount. Silverdale subsequently applied for another grant for May 22- March 23.
In addition, a provision would be made in the budget to enable spending on the Neighbourhood Plan and to be flexible given the nature of Locality grant conditions. A further application for grant was made and at the time of writing a letter requesting a neighbourhood area designation is being sent to the borough council.
References
Newcastle Borough Council 2022 Website Update on Abatement Notice
UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) 2022 Health Risk Assessment Air Quality Monitoring Report monitoring results from March 2021 to March 2022: Walley’s Quarry Landfill Site, Silverdale Newcastle-under-Lyme
https://consult.environment-agency.gov.uk/west-midlands/walleys-quarry-landfill-sliverdale/supporting_documents/UKHSA%20Health%20Risk%20Assessment%20Air%20Quality%20 Monitoring%20Report%20%20March%202022.pdf
Henryk Adamczuk 25 05 2022