SANDFORD Parish Council welcomed Dave Hope as a Parish Councillor at the council’s June meeting.

At the council’s September meeting three new councillors will join the Parish Council, Brian Fyfe, Dr Stephen Haley and Mike Snow.

Also at the June meeting, the chairman introduced Sandford’s new Mid Devon District Councillor, Cllr Elizabeth Wainwright.

In the Open Forum, Matt Theedom introduced himself as a Sandford School Governor.

ROAD SAFETY ISSUES

Whilst the traffic entering the Village, on the Kennerleigh road, still posed a problem, the main road safety issues were now around the School entrance on Fanny’s Lane.

There were currently 140 pupils spread over five classes (maximum capacity 180).

A total of 50 per cent of the pupils now lived outside the parish and this meant a high volume of traffic in Fanny’s Lane in the morning and at the end of the day.

Most parents used the car park facilities at the Parish Hall and this worked well using the new pavement opposite the Parish Hall against the allotments wall.

However, the school entrance at these times became very congested and the road safety markings were in need of replacement as they had warn away over the years.

The school was also considering a barrier to avoid children running out into the main road.

DCC Cllr M Squires agreed to arrange a Site Meeting with the Road Safety Officer to discuss these issues.

OUTDOOR CLASSROOM

Matt reported that the tendering/funding matters were currently being dealt with.

It was envisaged works would take place in the Autumn half-term.

It as understood that 99 per cent of the new building would be timber and it was not envisaged the delivery of the materials would cause much extra traffic on Fanny’s Lane.

Adam Voisey also introduced himself as the new Chairman of Sandford AFC and advised that he would also continue as secretary and be responsible for taking Pavilion bookings.

BT Outreach had been back working in the Square “to improve Sandford Internet quality for the next 30 years”.?During this time villagers had found their landlines were being interfered with and there had been numerous complaints.

When the work had been completed the BT engineers had left Sandford one Friday afternoon stating that all was well.?However as soon as they left the previous problems began to re-occur with landlines not working and numerous reports of “crossed lines”, where people were getting wrong telephone calls meant for other recipients.

The clerk had asked why a letter had not been circulated in the village warning of these potential problems only to be told the “works should have been seamless”.

At any one time there had been three vehicles parked in and around the Square some on yellow lines with their engines running.?As a result of the congestion and parking issues it was reported that this had been effecting trade at the Lamb Inn and the Post Office.

The clerk reported that an apology had been received from Adam Langford (CEO Complaints, Openreach), which stated: “I’m really sorry to hear about the issues residents have been experiencing with their service since the visit at the end of June.

"I’ve raised an executive case on C14128570 so we can look into these issues further.

"We’ll also look into the parking incident on June 21 to find out what work was being undertaken and make sure in future we park in a more suitable space to stop any inconvenience for the business.

"Would you mind providing me with your address details as this will give us a base to start our investigation?

"If residents are still experiencing issues with their service, I’d recommend them to raise this with their service provider so we can arrange for an engineer to attend the site. Service providers have direct routes into Openreach should they need our assistance”.

PLAY AREA UPDATE

The works to install two new pieces of Play Area equipment, and to refurbish the rest of the play area, had now been completed and refurbished in time for the school holidays and prior to the meeting councillors had inspected the works.

Everyone was very pleased with the result and above all how the finances had been used to complete the refurbishment.

This has been financed thanks to donations from Sandford Flower Show, Sandford Panto,  SACA, MDDC and also from Parish Council reserves.

The Parish Council has now gone into Summer recess and will next meet on September 5 at 7.30pm at Sandford Community Sports Pavilion.

MJV