Warcop Parish Hall Website

ITV Border News were invited to film and interview a few local residents to hear their concerns about Highways England’s proposed route for the A66. In the light of the 94% in favour of an alternative northern route, the reporter was keen to find out what the main concerns are and the impact of the new road which would come closer to the villages of Warcop, Sandford, Langrigg and Flitholme, thereby increasing noise, air and visual pollution.

Watch the programme on ITV on Wednesday 2nd December at 6pm

There will be a Zoom meeting of Warcop Parish Council on Tuesday 1st December at 7:30 pm. If you have any issues please speak to a member of the Council or contact the Clerk, Heidi Strong.

The Agenda and minutes of the last meeting are available via the links below:

Warcop Parish Council recently produced a survey sheet which went to every resident in Warcop Parish. It was a simple request to see if there was sufficient support for an alternative to the route between Appleby and Brough published by Highways England. The Parish Council believes that the proposed route will be too close to Warcop village and other residential and business premises along the 5-mile route.

Musgrave Parish Council also used the sheet to ask the residents of its parish and the results are included with Warcop’s. Some 300 sheets were distributed and almost 200 returned.

The forms were counted by the Reverend Clive Hicks.

94% of forms returned were in favour of the alternative route, with 6% supporting the original route offered by Highways England.

Such overwhelming support for the alternative route means that both Parish Councils will pass on this outcome to our MP, Dr Neil Hudson, and to Highways England. We believe that Highways England should now draw up a detailed scheme for the northern route. We will keep you informed of the responses we receive. We also hope to have this survey result in The Herald.

Warcop and Musgrave Parish Councils would like to thank everyone who took part in the survey which shows a very high level of community engagement.

Here is a copy of the results table:

HIGHWAYS ENGLAND UPDATES

Meanwhile, Highways England has published updates on progress on the whole project. Here are two links which might help you find out more. One is to a virtual consultation where you can click on the relevant section to see a video. The other is to the complete update booklet.

https://a66ntp.virtual-engage.com/

https://assets.highwaysengland.co.uk/roads/road-projects/A66+Northern+Trans-Pennine/A66_Junction_Brochure_WEB.PDF

A group of Parish Councillors and and local residents recently met with a team from Highways England to propose an alternative route to their published “preferred route.” As our community was only offered one option which many might not fully appreciate the implications of, we wanted to suggest a completely northern route behind the MOD buildings, through a valley and eventually returning to the straight part of the old road beyond Sandford road end.

We think their proposal would increase noise, air and visual pollution, reduce property prices and take away the army/community playing field and create huge bridges which would be higher than the railway line embankment.

Warcop Parish Council intends to send out a questionnaire to all residents soon n which we will ask people to consider whether they prefer the Highways England option I or our northern option I (north).

Warcop Parish Council is embarking on an imaginative plan to completely upgrade the existing play area on the village green as we feel the current equipment is old and unexciting. It is checked regularly by Eden District Council to ensure it is safe.

This project is being led by Councillor Katie Hauser and a small working group. So far a number of companies have drawn up plans and quotations for a variety of schemes. In order to raise the considerable funds required, there will be several fund-raising events in the coming months as well as applications to a range of funders.

Katie has sent out a questionnaire to seek people’s views and we will inform you of the results and which scheme the Parish Council has chosen.

Initial fund-raising has been successful and the Parish Council will also contribute to this project. The next stage is to apply for a series of grants to cover the cost of clearing the site and installing the new equipment. We might also look at drainage and safety fencing around the play area.

The two most favoured designs can be found here but there may be other companies who will quote and come up with alternatives (as with Streetscape):

One of these designs uses recycled plastic; the other uses wood.

In the short term, the Parish Council has asked EDC if it can at least re-paint the existing swings and slide to brighten them up until we have all the funds we need to create a completely new and exciting adventure play area.

The next meeting of Warcop Parish Council will be via Zoom on Tuesday 8th September at 7:30 pm. An agenda will be published on noticeboards and here on the website when available.

If any member of the community wishes to join in the Zoom meeting, please contact our Clerk, Heidi Strong, by email heidi.strong45@gmail.com.

Here are the minutes of our last meeting: