Welcome to the Parishes of:

Michaelchurch Escley, Newton, St. Margaret’s, Turnastone & Vowchurch.

Our parishes lie in the Golden Valley and in the foothills of the Black Mountains in Herefordshire.  The Escley Brook and the River Dore run through our parishes to the west and east respectively.

The land to the west rises in a series of ridges and valleys towards the Black Mountains, whilst in the east the land is flatter before rising again on the east side of the Golden Valley. The whole is characterised by great natural beauty.

The population of the parishes is approximately 600 within an area that measures very roughly 5 miles east to west and 4 miles north to south.

The city of Hereford lies about 10 miles due east, whilst the Welsh border town of Hay-on-Wye lies a similar distance to the north-west.

Our parishes are served by the Vowchurch & District Group Parish Council.


News:

Vowchurch Parish Council is inviting applicants for a part time Lengthsman from 1st April 2024 until 31st March 2025. Expressions of interest should be submitted to the Parish Clerk via email clerk@vowchurchgroup-pc.gov.uk

Lengthsman Job Description

It is Vowchurch and District Group Parish Council’s objective to:

• Keep the Parish at a high standard
• Maintain accessibility on U & C roads
• Respond to the needs of Parishioners

The Lengthsman will be expected to work 1 day per calender month from April – September and 2 days per calender month from October to March plus any additional days as instructed by the Parish Council.

The main activities are:

WINTER MONTHS

Clear grids & clean out road gullys
Jet connecting pipes
Clear road culvert headwalls
Jet culverts clear
Check inspection pits
Clear headwalls
Clear grips & reform leads
Clear minor obstructions from roadside ditches & reform leads
Clean off road signs
Clear storm debris off the roads
Collect rubbish from areas worked
Note & report major defects to Parish Council for forwarding to Locality Steward
Refill salt bins

SUMMER MONTHS
AS ABOVE & TO INCLUDE
Strim round grit boxes & cut back overgrowth
Strim round road signs and cut back overgrowth
Strim verges and cut back hedgerows on bends & junctions

The Parish Council may request the Lengthsman carry out additional ‘nominated’ tasks. Each nominate task will be specified, and the price agreed in writing between the Parish Council and the Lengthsman before any work is carried out.

Highways covered will be all C and U roads within the Parish.
The Contractor will be wholly responsible for employed staff for the purpose of delivering the contract.
The Contractor shall comply with all relevant statutory requirements (including health and safety at work legislation) at all times in carrying out the highway maintenance.
The Contractor shall maintain an insurance policy with a reputable insurance company to a minimum level cover of £5,000,000.
The Contractor must supply their own vehicles and equipment.

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Vowchurch & District Group Parish Council – Newsletter

The Lengthsman contract is due for renewal on 1st April 2024. The Parish Council would like to invite any interested contractors to tender for the work. The job currently involves, but is not limited to, monthly visits to the parish to maintain the roadside grips, clear gullies, jet pipes and some strimming through the summer months along with nominated task when requested by the parish. Any applicants must hold relevant insurance and certificates to enable them to work on the public highway. If you would like further information, please contact the clerk.

SAVE THE DATE – The Annual Parish Meeting will take place on Thursday 25th April 2024 at Escleyside Hall, Michaelchurch Escley from 7pm. Tim Hoverd, Herefordshire Council’s Archaeological Project Manager will be talking about the excavations at Snodhill Castle. Please do come along to hear what Tim has to say and meet your local Parish Councillors. Light refreshments will be provided.

Have you ever considered becoming an on-call Firefighter? If so, the fire service would like to hear from you. Are you over 18 years of age and live or work within 5 minutes of a fire station, if so, you could help support the local fire service. If interested please contact Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Services for further information at https://www.hwfire.org.uk/join-us/retained-firefighter/

The Parish Council has a new email address, please contact Linda, the Clerk at clerk@vowchurchgroup-pc.gov.uk

Linda Cowles
Parish Clerk
Tel. 01544 321906
Email. clerk@vowchurchgroup-pc.gov.uk
Website. http://www.vowchurchgpc.org.uk/


B4348 Speed limit


B4348 speed limit – Please find below the latest information that the Parish Council has received regarding the speed review of the B4348. Whilst this is disappointing, the area being reviewed not includes further along the B4348 and includes the C1206 through the villages of Vowchurch and Turnastone.

Apologies for the delay in responding with the position of your scheme, but my team and I have been manipulating our TRO waiting list to input all new requests we’ve received since January 2020, which includes a meeting to ensure each scheme is scored on a fair and equitable basis by a team of three traffic engineers. The scoring for each scheme is in accordance with a well-established scoring matrix that has been agreed with Herefordshire for use to prioritise schemes such as Vowchurch Village 30mph Speed Limits.

Following each January update of the TRO waiting list we seek confirmation that the new draft TRO ranking list is approved and it is ok for us to release information to LMs and / or PCs in response to their enquiries as to how their requests have fared in the update. At present I am awaiting confirmation before I can send this list out to you for your viewing, which I am hoping will be okay within the next week or so.

In the Jan 2020 update this scheme was scored sat at number 26 out of 112 schemes waiting to be started.

Following the Jan 2021 update this scheme was rescored and now sits at number 32 out of 120 schemes waiting to be started.

Whilst its score has gone up due to the time it has sat on the waiting list a few new schemes have entered above it (due to its scoring against the agreed matrix) and pushed it down by six positions.

Understandably, an immediate reaction would be disappointment but the prioritisation list is designed to do what it says on the tin and, as speed limits are assessed by formula, this means there is no subjective assumptions made in the scoring.

Moving down six positions is unlikely to affect the delivery date. As you may know we take schemes in a tranche from the waiting list and give them to our consultant for commencement. It is likely that this scheme will still be picked up in the financial year commencing in April 2022, and this is very likely to have been the case whether the scheme sat at 26 or 32.

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