Welcome to Kirkham Town Council
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Kirkham Town Council - Update
We are soon to set up a new website, we hope that you will find it usable, useful and informative and will use it regularly to update you with Council news and we hope that you will enjoy using it. If you want to access any information do please message us and we will do our best to get back to you.
As we are aware that a lot of misinformation is circulating on Facebook about a number of issues in the town we are taking this opportunity to post up-to-date information in the hope that everyone is well informed and in possession of the facts.
MYTHS, LEGENDS AND FACTS
Future High Street Fund
The Council received some very good news over the Christmas period; Kirkham has been successful in our bid to the Future High Street Fund, we have been awarded £6,290,831. This is our second successful bid as in September we were also advised that £3,800,000 would be coming to the town in the form of the Heritage Action Zone grant funding, so there will be approximately £10,000,000 available to us to improve our town centre. This funding is only available to Kirkham and is for improvements to the town centre, we cannot use it for any other purpose, the hard work will now have to start to get everything in place to ensure that the Government do not take the funding back because of inaction.
The funding opportunities were first identified by one of our long serving councillors; who brought it to the attention of Fylde’s Chief Executive and asked that it be pursued by Fylde’s officers for Kirkham. She then brought it to the Town Council, the Business Group, local businesses and Fylde Officers, who all worked together to create a bid, which enabled the town to be in pole position, despite competition from St Annes. The bid was considered by the Government and felt to be innovative and workable and we are delighted that we have had this success.
We would ask you all to look at https://www.kirkhamfutures.org where you can see the suggested projects and recommendations, none of these are written in stone so you still have an opportunity to feed into them, we welcome your comments as it’s important that whatever is done will be used by our residents. One of the things the Council would like to see is for a Bank/Banks to return to the town and this is something we hope we may be able to accomplish; we fought to stop all the banks shutting but unfortunately this decision was made by all the big banks, who appear to put profits before customers.
The Council is unable to stop certain businesses from opening in the town, as long as they fulfil Government legislation and planning policy they are entitled to come into our town centre, Charity Shops, Betting Shops and Fast Food Takeways are examples of the businesses we receive complaints about. We are upbeat that, as a result of the future funding, we are able to attract innovative independents into the town.
Groups will be set up in the New Year to move forward with this project; if you feel that you would like to be involved please do contact us and we will send you all the information you will need to be part of this exciting venture.
TOWN COUNCIL
The Town Council changes every four years at election time when the residents of the town get an opportunity to choose who to vote for from those people who put themselves forward and any resident of the town, 18 years of age and over, can put themselves forward to be elected. The next election will take place in May, 2023, if anyone is interested in standing at the election please do contact us and we will provide you with information needed.
Town and Parish councillors are not paid, they do not receive allowances, expenses or brown envelopes, the post is entirely voluntary but it is very rewarding, enjoyable and interesting.
Approximately 7-8 years ago the Town Council took back all its parks and gardens from Fylde Borough Council and also its car parks, we have been carrying out a rolling refurbishment of the parks and gardens to bring them back up to a good standard and this will continue. We have also upgraded Remembrance Way, carrying
out wild flower planting, laying a path, providing a Dog Agility area and planting a community orchard.
We have also, in conjunction with Kirkham in Bloom, upgraded the old Maryfields site and the area around the War Memorial. In the future we hope to create a new park in the south of Kirkham as there is nothing at all on that side of Kirkham for children’s play.
Our car parks are free of charge, this is something that we feel is important to our town centre and local businesses, Fylde Borough Council planned to impose charging on the car parks several years ago, Kirkham’s representatives at Fylde successfully fought this and, to ensure that the car parks remained free of charge, argued for them to come back into Town Council ownership and we are pleased that this was agreed.
The Town Council is not responsible for which shops decide to come into the town, businesses which shut down or the decline in the shopping offer. We have, in conjunction with the Borough Council, done all we can to attract new businesses into town and we have been able to scrap business rates for small businesses to cut down their overheads, unfortunately we cannot do anything to stop landlords increasing rents.
Town Centres everywhere have seen businesses shut down, they evolve to meet customer need and demand and Kirkham has evolved many times in its long and proud history. In recent times Kirkham has been impacted by out of town shopping centres because residents can, and do, travel out of town to do their shopping in one place. Several years ago the Town and Borough Council agreed to a supermarket coming into the town centre as we believed that this would help the other town centre shops, car parks were also provided, in the hope that people would support local shops. On-line shopping has also impacted on our town centre businesses with residents finding it easier than going out to the shops. Residents need to use local shops if they want to keep them, we urge you to do so because if you don’t they will close down, the recent COVID shut downs has shown us all how important our local shops are to us.
The Town Council is consulted on all planning applications for the town, we have been unjustly criticised for a number of things which were nothing to do with us. The George Public House was a beautiful, iconic building, which the Town Council did all they could to save. Unfortunately it shut down because people stopped using it, the Brewery then let the building fall into rack and ruin, despite our attempts to stop this, so that it couldn’t be saved.
Costa Coffee put an application into the Council to come into the town, both the Town and Borough Councils approved the application but Costa decided not to come, they decided not to open here, it was not the fault of the Council.
We are now hopeful that we can see our listed buildings saved with the help of the Historic England grant, we will do all we can to make sure that the buildings are brought back to their former glory, as befits Kirkham’s history.
We hope that you will find the above information helpful, please do contact us if we can provide any other information which you would like to have and we will do our best to help. We hope that you can see from the above that far from running down the town we have done all in our power to revive it; with your help we will accomplish this.
As we are aware that a lot of misinformation is circulating on Facebook about a number of issues in the town we are taking this opportunity to post up-to-date information in the hope that everyone is well informed and in possession of the facts.
MYTHS, LEGENDS AND FACTS
Future High Street Fund
The Council received some very good news over the Christmas period; Kirkham has been successful in our bid to the Future High Street Fund, we have been awarded £6,290,831. This is our second successful bid as in September we were also advised that £3,800,000 would be coming to the town in the form of the Heritage Action Zone grant funding, so there will be approximately £10,000,000 available to us to improve our town centre. This funding is only available to Kirkham and is for improvements to the town centre, we cannot use it for any other purpose, the hard work will now have to start to get everything in place to ensure that the Government do not take the funding back because of inaction.
The funding opportunities were first identified by one of our long serving councillors; who brought it to the attention of Fylde’s Chief Executive and asked that it be pursued by Fylde’s officers for Kirkham. She then brought it to the Town Council, the Business Group, local businesses and Fylde Officers, who all worked together to create a bid, which enabled the town to be in pole position, despite competition from St Annes. The bid was considered by the Government and felt to be innovative and workable and we are delighted that we have had this success.
We would ask you all to look at https://www.kirkhamfutures.org where you can see the suggested projects and recommendations, none of these are written in stone so you still have an opportunity to feed into them, we welcome your comments as it’s important that whatever is done will be used by our residents. One of the things the Council would like to see is for a Bank/Banks to return to the town and this is something we hope we may be able to accomplish; we fought to stop all the banks shutting but unfortunately this decision was made by all the big banks, who appear to put profits before customers.
The Council is unable to stop certain businesses from opening in the town, as long as they fulfil Government legislation and planning policy they are entitled to come into our town centre, Charity Shops, Betting Shops and Fast Food Takeways are examples of the businesses we receive complaints about. We are upbeat that, as a result of the future funding, we are able to attract innovative independents into the town.
Groups will be set up in the New Year to move forward with this project; if you feel that you would like to be involved please do contact us and we will send you all the information you will need to be part of this exciting venture.
TOWN COUNCIL
The Town Council changes every four years at election time when the residents of the town get an opportunity to choose who to vote for from those people who put themselves forward and any resident of the town, 18 years of age and over, can put themselves forward to be elected. The next election will take place in May, 2023, if anyone is interested in standing at the election please do contact us and we will provide you with information needed.
Town and Parish councillors are not paid, they do not receive allowances, expenses or brown envelopes, the post is entirely voluntary but it is very rewarding, enjoyable and interesting.
Approximately 7-8 years ago the Town Council took back all its parks and gardens from Fylde Borough Council and also its car parks, we have been carrying out a rolling refurbishment of the parks and gardens to bring them back up to a good standard and this will continue. We have also upgraded Remembrance Way, carrying
out wild flower planting, laying a path, providing a Dog Agility area and planting a community orchard.
We have also, in conjunction with Kirkham in Bloom, upgraded the old Maryfields site and the area around the War Memorial. In the future we hope to create a new park in the south of Kirkham as there is nothing at all on that side of Kirkham for children’s play.
Our car parks are free of charge, this is something that we feel is important to our town centre and local businesses, Fylde Borough Council planned to impose charging on the car parks several years ago, Kirkham’s representatives at Fylde successfully fought this and, to ensure that the car parks remained free of charge, argued for them to come back into Town Council ownership and we are pleased that this was agreed.
The Town Council is not responsible for which shops decide to come into the town, businesses which shut down or the decline in the shopping offer. We have, in conjunction with the Borough Council, done all we can to attract new businesses into town and we have been able to scrap business rates for small businesses to cut down their overheads, unfortunately we cannot do anything to stop landlords increasing rents.
Town Centres everywhere have seen businesses shut down, they evolve to meet customer need and demand and Kirkham has evolved many times in its long and proud history. In recent times Kirkham has been impacted by out of town shopping centres because residents can, and do, travel out of town to do their shopping in one place. Several years ago the Town and Borough Council agreed to a supermarket coming into the town centre as we believed that this would help the other town centre shops, car parks were also provided, in the hope that people would support local shops. On-line shopping has also impacted on our town centre businesses with residents finding it easier than going out to the shops. Residents need to use local shops if they want to keep them, we urge you to do so because if you don’t they will close down, the recent COVID shut downs has shown us all how important our local shops are to us.
The Town Council is consulted on all planning applications for the town, we have been unjustly criticised for a number of things which were nothing to do with us. The George Public House was a beautiful, iconic building, which the Town Council did all they could to save. Unfortunately it shut down because people stopped using it, the Brewery then let the building fall into rack and ruin, despite our attempts to stop this, so that it couldn’t be saved.
Costa Coffee put an application into the Council to come into the town, both the Town and Borough Councils approved the application but Costa decided not to come, they decided not to open here, it was not the fault of the Council.
We are now hopeful that we can see our listed buildings saved with the help of the Historic England grant, we will do all we can to make sure that the buildings are brought back to their former glory, as befits Kirkham’s history.
We hope that you will find the above information helpful, please do contact us if we can provide any other information which you would like to have and we will do our best to help. We hope that you can see from the above that far from running down the town we have done all in our power to revive it; with your help we will accomplish this.
Latest COVID-19 Test SitesFairhaven Rd Car Park, St Annes
This morning is a clinical clean down prior to opening and the centre should become operational this afternoon for 6 months operating 7 days per week, 12 hours per day, with two separate shift teams running the facility. This is a walk in facility. All of the above are only available via a pre-arranged appointment via the NHS app / website or dialling 119 NEW BUSINESS DIRECTORY WEBSITE LAUNCHEDKirkham Town Council has created a new business directory to help and assist anybody who is self-isolating, vulnerable and being advised to stay at home. The directory allows businesses within a 6 mile radius to submit their business details, along with delivery information, services offered, payment methods and contact information. The site is now live and can be accessed via this button:
Businesses can start submitting their information to the directory straight away. As more and more businesses register for the service, the directory will grow and become a valuable resource for people who are unable to get to the shops. We’re very happy to have the support of Kirkham Business Group to help spread the word.
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From Midnight tonight, Lancashire will go into Tier 4 – Stay at Home. This is the highest tier of restrictions and means:
This comes into effect at midnight tonight (30/12/2020). You can read more about Tier 4 on the gov.uk website: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/tier-4-stay-at-home Green Bin / Tree CollectionsThere will be no green bin collections between Saturday 19 December 2020 and Saturday 2 January 2021. Collections will return to normal on Monday 4 January.
We are also making arrangements to set up the usual temporary Christmas Tree collection sites and the dates for this year will be from Monday 4 January to Thursday 14 January 2021. Below is a list of Christmas Tree collection sites:
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WelcomeKirkham Town Council is a body of locally elected representatives who look after the best interests of Kirkham Town, its residents, leisure facilities, parks and open spaces.
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NoticesLancashire Libraries - libraries re-opening
We are pleased to announce that 12 libraries are reopening on Monday 27 July with reduced hours and pre-booked appointments. You will find full information at: https://www.lancashire.gov.uk/coronavirus-updates/libraries/ The Harris library has re-opened and you can find more details on the Harris library website: https://www.theharris.org.uk/press-news/reopening/ All other libraries remain closed until further notice and you will not be charged for the late return of any items during the period that libraries are closed. If you are unable to get to one of the 13 libraries which is open, please hold on to any items you currently have on loan. You can help us by renewing online or using the automated phone line 0300 123 6704. If you had reserved items waiting before we closed, we will do our best to make these available for your collection after reopening. We will deal with other reservations as soon as we can after we reopen. Online services Remember you can still download about 8,000 eBooks and 5,000 audiobooks using BorrowBox, which is available at any time. https://fe.bolindadigital.com/wldcs_bol_fo/b2i/mainPage.html?b2bSite=5070 Download national, regional and world newspapers, magazines and comics from our RBdigital library https://lancashire.rbdigitalglobal.com/ You can also use our online reference resources including information, facts and figures, family and local history, newspapers old and new, school homework and study, music and literature. https://www.lancashire.gov.uk/libraries-and-archives/libraries/digital-library/ Find out what's available for you and your family at home from our libraries. There's something for everyone. https://www.lancashire.gov.uk/libraries-and-archives/libraries/your-library-at-home/ https://www.lancashire.gov.uk/libraries-and-archives/libraries/ 
Audit 2018-19To view the Internal audit report, External auditor's report, Governance and Accounting Statements please click here
Alderman Keith Beckett ISO
It is with great sadness we pass on the news of the passing of Alderman Keith Beckett ISO.
Keith was a long serving Councillor on Kirkham Town Council and three time Mayor. He will be sorely missed. His funeral will take place on Friday 24th May at St. Michael's at 2.30pm. Family flowers only (donations to Trinity or Air Ambulance). A book of Remembrance has been opened in the lobby of the Community Centre on Mill Street. Kirkham Town Council commemorates WW1 Centenary
Kirkham Town Draft Enhancement Plan is here for your input
Notice
If you have recently moved into a new built house in Kirkham and have received a demand for money in respect of mineral rights please follow the advice published here Kirkham Town Council Consultation
This consultation is intended to gather the views of Kirkham residents which will give Kirkham Town Council a clear plan for the development of the Town’s Parks, Open Spaces, Sports Facilities and community buildings over the coming years. Any ideas for future development are very welcome. Please click here to save the questionnaire to your computer. Completed forms can then be emailed to kirkhamcouncil@btconnect.com or printed and posted to the Community Centre. Hard copies are available from the Clerk's Office. Thank you for taking the time to complete the questionnaire. |
News on FacebookFind us at Kirkham Town Council
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