Photos from Cllr Darren Byford & Cllr Deb Nicholls - Horbury & South Ossett's post

[Ossett News]

🛎 🛎 Saturday 5th November 2022🛎🛎

Autumn is well and truly upon us. With Hallowe’en and all the pumpkin carving and we have just had bonfire night. We both enjoyed a great evening at Slazenger’s Sports Ground and Horbury Juniors’ annual fireworks display. The entire event was well organised and a great spectacular, successful evening.

Whilst mentioning football, Horbury Town FC played a match at home against Staveley Miners Welfare. It was looking good for Horbury until the very last few seconds when they conceded the match, and the final score was 2 – 3. The match was watched at home by a crowd of around 150 and it was a great privilege for Darren and Deb to be the match sponsors. This latest score means that our local team are second in the league - Up the ‘Orbury!

Following on from residents’ comments at recent Police and Community Together (PACT) meetings, West Yorkshire Police carried out speed tests on Quarry Hill. Drivers are soon made aware of these sessions as locations are quickly share via social media and by the flashing of headlights to oncoming drivers. However, they do act as a deterrent and we will continue to make requests to the Police for more of these sessions, especially on Teall Street and Queens Drive in South Ossett.

Whilst on the subject of Queens Drive, one of the big issues on this road is the volume of traffic wishing to turn right onto Towngate heading into Ossett. This junction is not in our Ward. However, due to the number of comments we have received about this junction we have requested that Wakefield Highways carryout a survey to determine if the traffic lights could be improved. We will keep you updated when we find out more information.

Much of the land and infrastructure in and around Horbury & South Ossett is not owned or operated by Wakefield Council.

Examples of this are the river and canal – that’s the Rivers and Canal Trust – www.canalrivertrust.org.uk or the Environment Agency - www.gov.uk/government/organisations/environment-agency.

Another example of this are railway bridges, generally speaking they belong to Network Rail - www.networkrail.co.uk

Their website says “We own, repair and develop the railway infrastructure in England, Scotland and Wales. That’s 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations.”

Have you seen the picture of the state of the stone bridge at Dudfleet? Well, many walkers have, and some have even reported it directly to Network Rail. We too have reported it to Network Rail, both by email and via their 24-hour reporting system. We will update via our Facebook page when we have further information.

Wednesday morning gives us a great opportunity to meet residents and this week there were two coffee mornings. We do not need an excuse for a cuppa, cake and a chat! At the Methodist Church we were warmly greeted and had the opportunity to listen to residents, who always give us valuable information about Horbury town centre.

The Senior Citizens’ Support Group held their twice monthly coffee morning and of course we were there. Around 150 plus were in attendance from Horbury, Ossett and Wakefield. This is a great place for people to meet and meet people from all walks of life, to share their experiences and you never know, have new ones!

As we are both Trustees of this amazing organisation, we attended the Trustee’s meeting. Planning is well underway for Christmas and for next year. We are already talking about what we will be doing in spring 2023 and beyond.

Earlier on Wednesday morning we met with officers from the Council’s parks team in Carr Lodge Park. We wanted to discuss a couple of ideas, working together with the Friends of Horbury’s Parks (FoHP) and the Council.

As you know we have secured funding to create a Community Orchard, which will be located on the grassed area, to the left of the Sunroyd Hill entrance. This will be planted over the next month or so as we are in tree planting season. We have asked that consideration be given to the cutting back or removal of some self-seeded bushes and trees that are encroaching on to the neighbouring bungalows and tennis courts.

We also arranged to have 300+ daffodil bulbs planted on the grassed section in front of the tennis courts, and this was completed later in the week. Other ideas include the creation of a meadow area in the upper area of the park and on the section known locally as the ‘Shoulder’ – the section that runs parallel to New Road and Sunroyd.

With our help, FoHP have managed to obtain a couple of picnic benches with fixed seating. These will be located on the field in the lower part of the park, in time for spring 2023. There are similar ones installed in Illingworth Park, in South Ossett. These were placed there many years ago and are a great asset to this park and the Friends of Illingworth Park group.

The annual Poppy Appeal is in full swing with volunteers selling poppies in many places across the whole district. Deb and Darren have been helping at the Horbury Co-op. Poppies will be on sale until Remembrance Sunday, that’s next Sunday the 13th of November. Full details of our local services will be on our Facebook page later this week. A massive thank you to our local Royal British Legion, they are an amazing group of people.

You may have noticed that Horbury’s ‘Big Poppy’ has grown overnight, and new knitted poppies have been placed on the entrance to the Memorial Park. A new feature will be appearing in the park early next week, watch out for more information.

Have you seen the amazing Phone Box poppy display at Horbury Bridge? If not pop down, it is well worth a visit.

A couple of weeks ago, Darren was approached by residents to ask if we could resume grass cutting on an area on Southfield Lane, close to the junction of Daw Lane. Cutting had stopped here as part of the naturalisation and creation of roadside meadows. We understand that residents will be consulted by the Council over the next few weeks, to ask if they would like the cutting to resume or continue with the naturalisation, of this one specific place.

Yorkshire Water have been continuing their investigation works in the Horbury Bridge area of the Ward. On Friday they were working on the A642, by the Commercial Park area. Throughout all the heavy rain over recent weeks, their systems seem to be coping.

Darren visited residents on Reid Park Avenue on Friday and took the opportunity to look at the steam that runs between them and the Parklands estate. The water levels were very low, surprisingly clear and the stream was flowing. The Environment Agency operates a website which shows the local river level. The information is updated every few hours and is well worth a visit - https://check-for-flooding.service.gov.uk/station/8100

On Friday morning we called in to see the hard-working team at our local Food Bank at Christ Church in South Ossett. We arrived at a very busy time as the team were supporting an increasing number of families and single people who really need help. The purpose of our visit was to present them with a donation from our trade union – Unite the Union.

The donation of £250 was warmly received and will go some way to support their work in the run up to Christmas. You can support our Food Bank via donations of tinned goods at the local collection points or by a donation. Please let us know if you would like more details.

Saturday morning started with our monthly advice session at the Baptist Church in South Ossett. This gives our residents the opportunity to pose questions and ask for our help and advice. This is something that Darren has done since he was first elected in 2016. Deb has continued these sessions, meaning that we are the only elected members in the area that give residents opportunity to meet with local Councillors. Our next session will be on Saturday 19th November at Horbury Library.

Moving on we then visited the Methodist Church for another coffee and then went to St John’s Church in Horbury Bridge and visited their Autumn Fair. It was a very busy event and a prelude to the fact that Christmas is just around the corner. Next week on Saturday 12th November is St Mary’s at Horbury Junction, Christmas Craft Fair. Supporting these wonderful local events is part of our role, which we thoroughly enjoy!

Please keep safe and take care.
Darren & Deb
Working for our Communities, throughout the whole year!

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