Village Green Consultation Update
Parish Clerk
Added at 12:15 on 15 November 2024
Kingston Soar Village Green Improvements
Summary of Consultation Feedback October 2024
During September 2024, Kingston on Soar Parish Council undertook a consultation to gather residents views on what improvements they wanted to see on the Village Green. The consultation paper presented lots of initial ideas to stimulate the discussion. Every household was sent a consultation document and questionnaire, which were either completed online through the parish website or in hard copy.
We were very pleased to have received a total of 43 responses, and thanks go to those who took the time to respond with constructive comments, and indeed offers of help. There were a wide range of comments received and it was no surprise that not everyone agreed.
The majority feedback was as follows:
An enhanced maintenance regime with regular grass cutting and removal of grass clippings
Some making good of the damaged grass areas through ground preparation and reseeding
Measures to prevent cars parking on the Green and damaging the grass
Replace the existing bench.
A new bench from the existing stump (if viable)
Replace the tree that died
There was some appetite for wild flower areas to improve biodiversity but this wasn’t the majority view. The consultation process has flagged up that the Church intends to create a wildflower area within their grounds, which will help to address this need.
Our next steps will be to apply for funding for the Pump House repairs and Green improvements, however, some of the funding sources we were aiming to apply for will no longer be eligible with the current more conservative proposals.
The consultation also highlighted a number of other comments and concerns from parishioners which are outside the scope of the Green project but are worth responding to here:
The Parish Council are not responsible for repairing private sector boundary walls and fencing. In the case of the damaged wall and fence by the bridge, these are in private ownership, and we have contacted the owners, but we have no powers of enforcement.
There were several complaints about hedges encroaching the footpath in the village. Some of these need to be cut back to the fence line to allow clear access rather than just trimming off new growth. We politely request that residents try to keep the footpath as clear as possible and do the cutting back over the winter before the bird nesting season starts again in February.
The car park is a village car park owned by the Parish Council and accessible to all residents and visitors and not just for users of the village hall.
The gravel access road to the houses through the Green is not in the ownership of the Parish Council and isn’t a part of the maintenance regime.