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Kirkham Town Council - Update
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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.
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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Latest News & Information
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 SMART Lateral Flow Testing for COVID-19
Fylde Borough Council This information is provided as an overview of rapid coronavirus testing in your community setting in order to identify asymptomatic cases. Community testing is quick, safe and easy Up to a third of individuals who test positive for COVID-19 have no symptoms at all before they spread it unknowingly. That is why the testing of people without symptoms is vital. Identifying those individuals will save lives. This is what is known as ‘mass testing’. Quick Swabbing and processing of these tests will be conducted in the community setting with results available in around 30 minutes Safe These tests work. In validation studies conducted by Oxford University and Public Health England, they were shown to be as accurate in identifying a case as a PCR test (99.8% specificity). The tests have lower sensitivity, but they are better at picking up cases when a person has higher viral load, hence the need to test frequently and why in Lancashire we are encouraging repeat testing every week. When used in combination with other measures such as Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), washing hands regularly and social distancing, these tests further reduce the risk of transmission. We must not relax any of these measures – this testing programme is in addition to them. Easy Lateral flow devices do not require a laboratory to process the test. The devices are designed to be intuitive and require minimal training to operate. Who can get a lateral flow test? Lancashire's mass testing model is SMART - Sustained Meaningful Asymptomatic Repeat Targeted testing. Mass testing using Lateral Flow Tests will be conducted in a targeted manner to respond to high rates of incidence across Lancashire, to support essential services including community groups and volunteers, and vital infrastructure. The community SMART testing program is aimed at key workers and community groups. We would encourage the same people attend the testing stations on a weekly basis. Why are lateral flow tests being used? These tests can be used when people show no symptoms of COVID-19. By using these faster tests, people will find out more quickly if they have coronavirus or not, making it easier to control the spread of the virus. Obtaining consent/permission? Participation is voluntary for the programme. We are hoping that many people will recognise the benefits of getting involved in local testing efforts to reduce the spread of the virus in the workplaces and local communities. What to do if the test result is negative? A negative result means the test did not find coronavirus, so you were not infectious when the test was done. You should continue to follow the national guidelines to stop the spread of COVID-19: • Wash your hands regularly; use a face covering when shopping or using indoor services; stay at least 2 metres apart from others. What to do if the test result is positive? If you get a positive result: • You should return home and self-isolate immediately for ten days. • Make sure you travel straight home from having your test if you receive a positive result and do not visit any shops, services or other houses, as you could put others at risk • Inform everyone in your household or bubble that they must self-isolate for 10 days Where can I get my test? In Fylde, the following locations have been identified as central to the community we wish to test. No appointment is necessary, and the test is free of charge. It is advised that people attending for a test have not eaten or had a drink for 20 minutes prior to the test and are in possession of a SMART phone. Each of the locations will be open form 9:30 until 4:00. From Monday 8th February
Where can I get more information? Additional information can be found on the Fylde.gov website or via the council’s customer service team on 01253 658658 |
Roadmap out of lockdown
Click to Expand
𝗛𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗯𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗮𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆 𝗳𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝗙𝘆𝗹𝗱𝗲? 𝗪𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘆𝗼𝘂.
Councillors at Fylde have commenced a major review of flooding and surface water management to see if the existing arrangements are sufficient to deal with impacts now and in the future. If you have experienced flooding in Fylde, we encourage you to take part in the short survey https://crowd.in/5nw2dY 
SMART Testing
If you are a key worker and aren't showing any COVID-19 symptoms you are eligible for a FREE lateral flow test. Did you know there are now four testing hubs on the Fylde?
To see if you're eligible for SMART Testing and to find out more visit: https://crowd.in/ysck6t 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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Notices
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.
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
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.
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.
