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Welcome to the section of this site where you can find out
all about the function and activities of your Parish
Council. Use the links above to find the information you
are looking for.
Parish Council Meetings
The Parish Council currently meets on the fourth Wednesday
of alternate months in the Reading Room. We have our Annual
Parish Council Meeting in May of each year and an additional
Parish Meeting in April. An Open Forum, where members of
the Parish are invited to attend and put forward items for
discussion or debate, is usually placed on the agenda of
each Parish Council meeting. This is a commitment that the
Parish Council is under no obligation to provide but which
it does in order to make the Parish Council more open, responsive
and receptive to parishioners' views. We would hope that
any parishioner would feel welcome at a Parish Council meeting
but would respect that the Council does have business to
deal with during which time public debates are not permitted.
All Parish Council meetings are open to members of the public
and press.
All the Parish Councillors have signed up to the new Standards
Board for England Model Code of Conduct, which covers most
aspects of interests and responsibilities. For any questions
relating to the Model Code of Conduct please contact the
Parish Clerk and/or The Standards
Board for England, PO Box 36656, London, SE1 OWN. Telephone:
(0845) 788181 or E-mail: enquiries@standardsboard.co.uk.
Planning Committee
The Planning Committee meets only when there is an application
to be considered. It also meets in the Reading Room and
the agendas are displayed beforehand. The Planning Committee
does not have any powers to decide on a planning application,
they merely present a view point of local opinions to the
relevant planning authority who make the decisions. The
Parish Council, while being available to listen to residents
concerns for or against an application, would urge all parishioners
to make their view known directly to the Planning Department
of South Northants District Council at Towcester.
Parish Council Notices
Any items of interest to parishioners, along with agendas
and other documents for public display are displayed on
a special area reserved on the notice boards of the village
for parish council matters. Any other item should be positioned
on the remaining part of the notice board.
There are currently three notice boards, one fixed to the
wall of the Reading Room in Church Street, another in Wappenham
Road at the junction with Field Way (The Square) and the
third one beside the telephone kiosk on The Green.
Items are usually displayed on each of the boards but where
something has to legally be displayed and only one copy
is available the notice board that would be used is the
larger one of the three, the one on the Green.
Organisations wishing to have notices displayed are asked
to keep the size of them to a minimum to allow room for
all the notices - they should try to keep them to A5 size.
Notices should be given to the Parish Clerk for display
on the noticeboards on The Green and the Square.
The Talkabout Newsletter
The Parish Council supports the village newsletter "Talkabout"
which is published twice a year. The Editor is John Thorne
and items for inclusion can be sent to John at Lilac Barn, Wappenham Road, Helmdon, Northants NN113 5QA; telephone (01295) 760565; or e-mailed to: talkabout@helmdon.com.
For publicity contact Paul Stothard at 55 Wappenham Road, Helmdon, Northants, NN13 5QA telephone (01295) 760518 or e-mail
him on publisher@helmdon.com.
Reporting defects in the highway
to the County Council
A new system replacing CLARENCE has been introduced. It
is called …
The Street Doctor
Telephone 0800 232323 or 0845 601 1113
Use this new service to report your Highway faults like
broken streetlights, hazardous pavements, potholes and flooded
gullies. (If a streetlight is not working properly, it should
be reported in the first instance to the Parish
Clerk.)
You can also report Highway problems online at www.northamptonshire.gov.uk
If the problem you want to report is either an emergency
or requires urgent attention DO NOT use the online service.
Please telephone 0800 232323 or 0845 601 1113.
On-line reporting allows you to tell the County Council
about a Highway problem directly and to see what they are
doing about it. Please note this service requires pop-ups
and scripting enabled in your web browser.
• You can tell them where the problem is, either by
describing its location, or by using a map that covers almost
every street in Northamptonshire.
• Many different type of Highway problem can be reported
on-line - e.g. potholes and faulty street lights.
• Every report that they receive is allocated a unique
reference number.
• The action that they decide to take will be recorded
against your problem's unique reference number, so that
you can check how thing are going, day or night, to suit
you.
They aim to have a first response available for you, to
check back on to see what is happening, within 5 working
days.
To report anything to Helmdon Parish Council please contact
the Parish Clerk.
Allotments
Rent for a Council allotment is currently £5 a year with
the first year free. If you are interested please contact
the Parish Clerk. All
applications are treated on a first come, first served basis.
Grass Cutting
We receive many comments about grass cutting in the village.
The Parish Council is not responsible for all the open areas
of the village. Roadside verges are cut by a contractor
employed by the County Council. It is usual for verges to
be cut four or five times a year. While we appreciate that
this can sometimes make visibility difficult at times, particularly
during a wet summer, there is nothing we can do about the
timing of these cuts. South Northants District Council cuts
the areas of grass belonging to them, at Station Road and
in front of the Green, these areas are usually well cut
back during the summer months. The Parish Council awards
a contract for cutting the areas of the school field used
as the play area and also the area known locally as Jenners
Piece. For the current year we have budgeted for four cuts
being undertaken in these areas. Also maintained by the
Parish Council is the War Memorial and the area in front
of the Reading Room. The War Memorial itself has recently
been refurbished. If anybody is interested in helping to
maintain these areas, perhaps by dead heading the roses
or weeding around the flowers it would always be appreciated,
please contact the clerk beforehand.
The school field and bank around the school is cut by another
contractor employed by the County Council.
Parish Paths Warden
One of the oldest offices held by the parish council, the
parish paths warden is responsible for liaising between
the path network users and County Council who are responsible
for the upkeep of the paths. Helmdon's parish paths warden
is Roger Miles. If you have any questions, comments or concerns
please get in
touch with him.
Comments & Suggestions
If any Helmdon resident has a contribution to make towards
the running of the village, comments and suggestions are
always welcomed by the Parish
Clerk or the elected Councillors.
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