Grade I Listed St George’s Church has been rewired and re-roofed thanks to grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund

The Next Parish Council Meeting will held on Wednesday 6th November 2024 at 7.30pm in the Wrotham Pavilion

To report any of the following faults on roads or pavements type https://www.kent.gov.uk/roads-and-travel/report-a-problem into your browser.

Street light faults – with the exception of parish owned lights, these are numbered between 1 and 56 and need to be reported to the parish clerk

Potholes

Drainage

Traffic signal faults

Damage to bus stops (poles/timetables)

Overgrown vegetation (including hedges and grass)

CHILDREN’S PLAY AREA

The equipment within the playground is not meant to be used by adults!!

On Thursday 4th July at 4.04 pm, the gate to the Children’s Playground was vandalised by younger youths who live in the village. A police crime report has been filled out. The incident has been been captured on CCTV and the footage will be shared with the police.

A new gate will have to be purchased and installation undertaken by a specialist company. In the meantime the play area cannot be secured.

The parish council reserve the right to seek financial remuneration from any individual who causes damage to the equipment within the playground.

WINTER MAINTENANCE – CURRENT SITUATION

KCC Highways is the primary responder as they have depots filled with salt and fleets of vehicles at their disposal with employees on standby for cold weather. They get government funding to provide this service. They have set criteria in place for gritting operations covering

• all A and B class roads
• busy commuter routes
• other roads that can become hazardous in frosty or icy conditions.

Wrotham Parish Council does not get government funding and has a small gritter that needs to be towed by a robust 4-wheel drive vehicle that is suitably insured. Our previous contractor had such a vehicle, unfortunately he now has severe health issues and can no longer work for the Parish Council. Neither of the two part-time contractors that currently work for WPC have such a vehicle and we don’t have the financial resources to purchase, run and maintain a 4×4.

To overcome this problem WPC is looking at a more proactive approach to dealing with snow and icy conditions in the village and as an additional measure to the village gritter. We are currently evaluating the effectiveness of the Icemaster 50 Manual Gritter for use by volunteers.

Street Lighting

All the new LED lights and poles have been installed with only painting outstanding from our contractor. UK Power Networks has now completed the works to upgrade the non-compliant connections and transfer power to the new lanterns at these locations and the removal of the 3 redundant poles. L & K Ltd our contractor will remove the lamp post at the Lychgate, install the a new lantern in Kemsing Road and complete painting works.

At the start of this project UK Power Networks were looking to charge WPC £700 per non-compliant connection which for 26 units would have been an additional cost of £18,200. This money has been saved thanks to negotiations by our contractor Mike Mills.

Public Toilets

The toilets are now fully operational and are available for use by the public during the events that take place in the village and for sporting organisations.

Village Square

The square is owned by KCC, who repaved the centre square a few years ago. WPC want to make it more attractive, adding trees with ornamental iron tree guards and attractive seating with matching litter bins. Unfortunately, KCC turned down our suggestion of an actual bus shelter as it is not considered safe for buses to stop in the centre square, and following further discussion with the organisation the decision has been taken not to proceed with the seating shelter.

It is anticipated that these design improvements will create a more relaxed and pedestrianised ambiance to the southern half of the square while still facilitating access to Bishops Lodge and also providing wedding vehicles and hearses room to park next to St Georges Church. The new plans have been agreed with KCC. The management of the project will be undertaken by KCC and completed by KCC approved contractors. No timescale has been provided todate.

Climate Change

Last year we set up a new subcommittee to come up with ideas that WPC could implement that would help with combating climate change. One of the ideas was more trees to absorb CO2, which has started with a number of trees being planted around the village. The obvious ones are four multi stem silver birch on the Whitehill roundabout and two mallus fruit trees along Bull Lane. In addition, the bank near the pavilion has been planted with fifty cotoneaster shrubs that are bee friendly in the spring and provide plentiful red berries for wild birds in autumn. The hedgerow alongside the cricket field has been cleared of bramble and ivy and planted with seventy five native hedging plants. Watch the website for further updates.

WPC is currently looking at installing PV Panels on the Wrotham Pavilion and has made an application for a grant under the West Kent Rural Grant Scheme to facilitate this initiative.

Dog Walking Area

WPC has signed an agreement with St Clere for parishioners to use the Battlefield area for dog walking as a permissive path. We are getting signs made to show where the agreed areas are. We thank Eliza Ecclestone and the Trustees of the St Clere Estate for their work and support in creating the Permissive Path.

PLEASE USE THE DOG BINS LOCATED AT THE ENTRANCE OF PILGRIMS WAY MR226 & AT THE KEMSING ROAD END OF THE FIELD.

Speeding Cars

WPC is very aware of the problem of speeding throughout the village. KCC Highways set the speed limits across the County and have the ultimate say. In an effort to persuade them of the need to reduce speeds, we arranged for traffic monitoring on The Old London Road following complaints about speeding past the school and Children’s Play Area. WPC has now installed a speed monitoring device. The unit will also be programmed to provide statics to be used  as part of our attempt to get the road speed limit reduced to 20 mph. Our vision is to have a 20 mph speed limit throughout the village, but this ultimately remains in the hands of KCC Highways.

Nepicar Layby

The layby on the A20 has been the scene of anti-social behavior for many years culminating in a near death motorcycle accident between two speeding bikes doing wheelies, that resulted in the temporary closure of the layby with bollards. WPC has worked tirelessly to get the layby permanently removed and landscaped and went so far as to offer to purchase the layby in order to remove the hard standing and return it to soft landscape with a grass bund. However KCC decided not to sell the land but have found the funds to do the works themselves and you will see that the layby is in the process of becoming a green area with a grass bund and shrubbery planting. This combined with the development of the Oakdene Cafe has effectively replaced the areas where motorcycles congregated thereby preventing the motorbike stunt riding that was so dangerous previously.

Keep checking this website for further updates on our projects.