MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF BILLINGTON AND LANGHO PARISH COUNCIL HELD ON
Monday, NOVEMBER 24th 2025 at 7.15pm
AT THE COMMUNITY HALL
PRESENT
Parish Councillors. Brian Haworth, Martin Hincks, Eva McPrice, Katie Swingewood, Michael Collins, Cllr Tony Austin. Cllr Steve Farmer,
In attendance –3 members of the public and R Greenwood clerk
ITEM 1 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
There were apologies for absence from Dennis Johnson and John Aspden
ITEM 2 DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
- Register of Interests – Councillors were reminded of the need to update their register of interests.
- One member disclosed a personal interest in any matter to be discussed at the meeting. Martin Hincks declared an interest in the quote from Ribble Valley Restorers and refrained from voting.
ITEM 3 ACCEPTANCE OF THE MINUTES OF THE MEETING
3.1 Minutes of the meeting held 27th October 2025 were accepted and signed as a true record.
ITEM 4 PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
4.1 Two members of the Remembrance Parade Committee attended the meeting to request funding for the 2026 Remembrance Parade. There was discussion regarding bank accounts and the costs involved in the hosting Parade.
4.2 A resident has contacted the Parish Council with serious concerns regarding the amount of dog mess on pavements and elsewhere. This was circulated to members prior to the meeting and contact was made with the RVBC. Cllr K Swingewood has done some work round this and will be campaigning for more awareness. Cllr S Farmer has been requesting new bins for 18 months.
ITEM 5 PLAYGROUNDS
5.1 No report was received from the Lengthsman.
5.2 Repair works have been undertaken on the boundary fence at Billington Playground.
5.3 Bollards – the replacement bollard installation at the entrance to Langho Playground has been completed. This work was undertaken by RVBC and will prevent unauthorised vehicle access.
5.4 The Commercial Design and Partnerships Manager from ESP attended the meeting with prices and brochures for equipment at the playgrounds. A quote for Rospa works was given. Billington Playgrounds has accepted 106 money this will be approx. £19,000 that is to be used on new equipment for Billington Playground only. Two other firms were contacted.
5.5 Quotes were compared for jet washing of the playgrounds, the quote from Ribble Valley Restorers was accepted and work will commence on the cleaning of the equipment as per the RoSPA guidance.
5.6 The equipment in both playgrounds is looking tired and it was proposed that a five year rolling plan for play equipment was implemented. Proposed MC Seconded BH, All in favour. It was resolved to undertake a five year rolling programme across both playgrounds.
ITEM 6 ACCOUNTS
6.1 The following cheques were presented for payment.
| Cheque 202689 | C Walton lengthsman | £276.92 |
| Cheque 202690 | Post Office | £20.85 |
| Cheque 202691 | Travel | £25.46 |
| Cheque 202692 | Ribble Valley Restorers for Billington Playground repairs | £275.00 |
| Cheque 202693 | HMRC Paye Clerk | £10.70 |
| Cheque 202694 | Clerk salary | £546.43 |
| Cheque 202695 | HMRC employers liability | £20.97 |
| Cheque 202696 | ||
| Cheque 202697 | ||
| Cheque 202698 | Little Green Bus | £100.00 |
6.2 The bank reconciliation, bank statement and cash flow were presented.
6.3 The budgets for the Precept were presented and considered. The paperwork was signed for RVBC.
6.4 A grant request was received from Little Green Bus, it was resolved to make a grant of £100.
6.5 A grant request was received from Billington Community Centre for Christmas Lights. This was refused as only a limited number of people would see the lights.
6.6 It was resolved to give a grant to the Remembrance Parade Committee once they have established their bank account.
ITEM 7 PLANNING
7.1 The following applications were received and considered.
3/2025/0845 The Village Hall, Franklin Hill, no objections were submitted.
3/2025/0854 Monts Brow, no objections were submitted.
3/2025/0781 Thornlee, Whalley Road, no objections were submitted.
3/2025/0880 26 Whalley Road, objections were submitted to RVBC planning.
3/2025/ 0859 Whalley Old Road, no objections were submitted.
3/2025/0891 Rogersfield, no objections were submitted.
ITEM 8 HIGHWAY
8.1 There has been no response regarding the wagon reported at that last meeting. The clerk to continue trying to contact the firm responsible.
8.2 There has been no response from the Black Bull Public House in regards to the damaged verges at Old Langho, the clerk to continue to chase.
8.3 Northcote Road is icing over due to the weather and the drains. There were accidents this week here and on Whitehalgh Lane. The Clerk to email LCC Highways regarding drains and gritting.
8.4 The clerk to write to RVBC regarding the verges at Old Langho.
ITEM 9 PETRE ARMS
9.1 An application to RVBC for The Petre Arms, has been submitted, this is a request for the Petre Arms to be registered as an Asset of Community Value. If this is successful then we would be discussing with the council to move to issuing a Compulsory Purchase Order under Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (for regeneration) or Local Government Act 1972 s.226 (for social or economic well-being). It was resolved to support the first stage of this application.
ITEM 10 OFFICERS REPORT
10.1 A volunteer is to start work on digitising old parish council records and maps. At this stage these will be stored on a hard drive but in the future consideration will be given of how to make these records publicly available. Proposed BH Seconded KS All in favour It was resolved to purchase a hard drive for record storage.
ITEM 11 FLOOD CONCERNS AND UPDATE
11.1 Despite recent heavy rains there was no report of flooding.
ITEM 12 DEVOLUTION
The Government will decide at the end of November the preferred option for Lancashire. With the roll out starting in April 2028.
.ITEM 13 DATES OF NEXT MEETING. All at 7.15pm.
| 26th January 2026 | 29th June 2026 |
| 23rd February 2026 | 27th July 2026 |
| 30th March 2026 | 28th September 2026 |
| 27th April 2026 | 26th October 2026 |
| AGM 25th May 2026 | 30th November 2026 |
The meeting closed at 21.16hrs
