15 Jan 2025 – Parish Estates Committee Meeting (Minutes)

GREAT SANKEY PARISH COUNCIL
Parish Estates Committee

Wednesday 15th January 2025
Whittle Hall Community Centre

Chair: Cllr Williams
Present: Cllr Pennington
Cllr Simpson
Cllr Muqeem

In Attendance: K. Carter (Clerk)
A.Nugent (Head Gardener)

1. To receive apologies for unavoidable absence.
All present.

2. To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 27th November 2024.
Approved.

PEC/2025/1: To approve minutes of the Parish Estates Committee meeting held on
Wednesday 27th November 2024 as a true and accurate record.

3. Relocation of Estates Office
3.1 To consider site evaluation of Bewsey Barn and Childs Wood Field
Cllrs Williams, Pennington and Cameron along with the Head Gardener had
undertaken site visits to Bewsey Barn Community Centre and Childs Wood Field.
Both sites were scored on the same basis and comments on the pros and cons of
each noted.

Site Pros Cons
Childs Wood Large site. Access is from a busy road
Field
Space for Estates Office and No services currently on site
associated outside work
areas/vehicle bays No footpath along road

Scope to include community Significant shrub /tree
gardens and training facility for clearance required
residents

Bewsey Barn Services already on site. Smaller site.
Community
Centre Existing access Access awkward and may need
widening/extending, roads busy
during school opening/closing

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Chair’s signature:
No additional space for any
community involvement

May impact negatively on
community centre customers

In conclusion, the committee agreed that Childs Wood Field is the preferred
location, with Bewsey Barn Community Centre as a possible backup for the
Estates Office but with no community option or training capacity.

PEC/2025/2: To accept Childs Wood Field as the preferred option for the Estates
Office with the option for additional community space and facilities. Bewsey Barn
Community Centre is a possible backup, but without the additional space for
community use.

3.2 To discuss requirements for the Estates Office and initial outline drawing
A list of requirements had been drawn up and was discussed with the initial plan.
It was accepted that the list may not be exhaustive but was a good starting point
(Appendix 1).
3.3 To discuss next steps
The next steps were agreed as:
• to try and have an initial conversation with Warrington Borough Council to
discuss the feasibility of each site and obtain advice on the planning process.
• To encourage all councillors to see the sites to understand the project and
ideas, starting with the councillors for Sankey South.
• To produce a document with photos/diagrams to outline the project proposal.

4. To review site signage
It had previously been noted that the signage across the Parish Council’s sites is a
mixture of styles and sizes with some older signs having the previous council logo.
The review was undertaken to move towards standardising the signage and assess
the costs for doing so.

4.1 Community centres
These are mostly in a newer style which the committee agreed should be adopted
across all sites. There is currently no sign at Whittle Hall Community Centre and a
second is needed at Bewsey Barn Community Centre near the vehicle gates to
prevent people accidently assuming it is the access for the Maltings Pub.

4.2 Open spaces
The two signs at the Parish Playing Field are old with the previous council logo so it
was agreed to replace these along with one on Lingley Green which has a green
rather than white background.

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Chair’s signature:
4.3 Playgrounds
Warrington Borough Council had provided an example playground sign used on
their sites. The sign at Vicarage Community Park has similar wording and it was
agreed that this should be kept. The playground sign at Tim Parry Recreation
Ground is much older and it was agreed to provide one in the same style as that on
Vicarage Community Park.

4.4 Noticeboards
The Parish Council has noticeboards at several community centres which are no
longer used. They have been used in the past to post agendas for council meetings
and other relevant information prior to the council having a website and Facebook
page. The boards have mostly fallen into disrepair, and it was agreed to remove
these. The committee discussed whether to replace the noticeboards; at around
£4,000 each it was decided that this would be an unnecessary expense, and to
install one at Whittle Hall Community Centre only as this is the location of the
Parish Office. Further options and prices will be obtained for comparison.

4.5 Dog Fouling signs
Warrington Borough Council have recently designated the whole borough under a
Public Space Protection Order for Dog Control. As part of this, they are offering
signs and posters to Parish Council’s as part of the campaign to raise awareness
of the rules. They are two different styles, and the committee agreed to request a
total of 14 signs for the council’s various sites.

PEC/2025/3: To renew and replace GSPC site signage as follows:
1nr name sign at each of Whittle Hall and Bewsey Barn Community Centres,
2nr replacement sign for the Parish Playing Field,
1nr replacement sign for Lingley Green,
1nr replacement playground sign for Tim Parry Recreation Ground.
To request 14nr dog fouling signs from WBC,
To investigate options for a council noticeboard to be placed at Whittle Hall
Community Centre.

5. To receive annual report from Head Gardener and consider distribution.
The annual report was well-received and highlights the considerable work done
over the year by the grounds team. It was agreed that this should be included with
papers for the full Parish Council meeting and shared on the council’s website for
residents to view.

PEC/2025/4: To accept the Parks and Green Spaces Annual Report 2024/25. To
disseminate this to the full Council at the next meeting and share on the GSPC
website.

Turf management, Tim Parry Recreation Ground.
It had been agreed at the last meeting to go ahead with geo-injection to improve
the drainage on the field following a successful small trial. Estimated costs to
carry this out on the full field which would be needed to address the issues were
around £14,000 +VAT. The grounds team had also considered options to level the

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Chair’s signature:
field which is currently very uneven using topsoil and then reseeding. This can’t be
done in-house because of the size of the field and 3 quotes had been obtained for
the work. Quotes ranged from £5,488.82 to 6,800 +VAT. The lowest quote was
chosen.

PEC/2025/5: To accept the quote from Agrovista for top-dressing & reseeding Tim
Parry Recreation Ground, £5488.82 +VAT.

6. Date of next meeting
Wednesday 19th February, 7pm, Parish Office.

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Chair’s signature: