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Contact Details
Clerk: Mrs Elizabeth-Anne Broad
JP, LLB (Hons), MA, CiLCA
1 Pinewood, Skelmersdale, Lancashire, WN8 6UZ
Telephone: 01695 557678
Mobile: 07973340254
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.lathomsouthpc.co.uk
Your Parish Councillors are:
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Alison Whitehead (Chairman)
Diane Ingrey (Vice Chairman)
Carol Blackledge
Roger Clayton
Andrew Beeston
All contact via the Clerk
A schedule of meetings for 2015/16
will be displayed on the website after the
Annual General Meeting
Newsletter
No. 17
May 2015
Residents are cordially
invited to attend the
Annual Parish Meeting of
Lathom South Parish on
Thursday 21st May 2015
7.30 pm
in the newly constructed
Plantation Restaurant at
Warbreck Garden Centre,
Lyelake Lane, Lathom.
Meetings usually start at 7:30 pm.
The agenda is posted on the Parish Council notice
boards prior to the meeting.
21st May 2015
AGM at 6.30pm
Annual Parish Meeting 7.30 pm
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Meeting Venues
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Parish Council meetings are all held in public and
residents are encouraged to attend when they can. In
order that everyone can have access to the venue, the
Parish Council has decided to move the venue to
different sections of the parish.
The Parish Council is delighted to announce that the
Annual Parish Meeting will be held in Warbreck Garden
Centre in the newly built Plantation Restaurant.
Considerable investment has been made to the garden
centre so please come along and see what a beautiful
transformation this development is.
Supporting 18-24 year olds who are not in
education, employment or training
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Providing high quality work training
opportunities, including vocational training,
mentoring and on-the-job experience
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Linking placements, where possible, to jobs or
apprenticeships
DHL believes that apprenticeships should play a key role
in helping to tackle unemployment among the under25s. Across the UK workforce, DHL supports more than
250 apprenticeships and plans to increase this number
in the years ahead. DHL delivers a national road safety
programme called Trucks and Child Safety (TACS), which
aims to keep children safe around larger vehicles.
Delivered by DHL employees, they offer free road safety
and vehicle awareness training to primary school
children. By taking an articulated lorry into schools, DHL
employees can explain how to keep safe around larger
vehicles.
Transform It! grants from £5,000 to £10,000 are
available for DHL employees to initiate and develop
projects to make improvements to local community
facilities such as scout halls, children’s play areas and
school gardens.
Recently, meetings have been held in Asda Warehouse
Community Rooms, Statham Road, Lathom.
If you have any problems getting to a Parish Council
meeting please contact the Clerk (details on the back
page). Please use the mobile number if you need to
contact us on the evening of a meeting.
If you’d like more information on any of these
programmes, the management team will be attending
the monthly parish council meetings periodically and are
happy to answer any of your questions. In the
meantime, you can also contact Catherine Gow [email protected].
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The Lathom South tree trail will, it is hoped, be
published shortly, with the tree labels, and a date set
for the inaugural tree walk (with, it is also hoped, home
-made cake..) As to extra planting, we have some
limes and beeches available and, if anyone has
suggestions as to locations, please contact Andrew
Beeston, our Tree Warden, telephone 01695 574928 or
via email at [email protected]
DHL in the Community
In September last year, DHL opened up a new site on
Statham Road in Lathom in the former Comet site. As
a leading, global organisation, DHL has a responsibility
to both its employees and to the communities in which
it operates. Here are just a few of the ways in which
DHL works with the local community.
At DHL there is a new customer contract coming onsite which will involve taking on additional staff. In
order to fill these vacancies, DHL has actively recruited
from the local area to ensure Skelmersdale and Lathom
residents who are qualified for the jobs have been
given the opportunity to apply. The site’s management
team will continue to engage with residents as further
positions become available. DHL has a number of wellestablished, long-running partnerships with schools
and colleges and many employees mentor students, as
well as organise visits to DHL sites, internships, work
placements and ‘business talks’ on relevant subjects.
Movement to Work is a collaboration between UK
employers to tackle youth unemployment:
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Daffodils
Last autumn, we continued our long programme of
planting daffodils in areas which are visible from the
roadside, in order to brighten the area's appearance
after the long winter months. Several residents were
good enough to plant the bulbs we provided on their
own land, others gave us permission to plant bulbs on
their land and some helped us to plant them. Many
thanks go to all concerned. We hope you enjoyed the
extended shows along Plough Lane, Dicks Lane, Spa
Lane, Firswood Road and Blaguegate Lane . All roads in
our area have now had some bulbs planted but there
are areas, such as Lyelake Lane, where the planting is
fairly sparse. As Parish Councillors, we do our best but
we are not able to plant more than a few short lengths
every year (we have also reinstated some lengths of
hedging on Whiteleys Lane, Plough Lane and Hall Lane,
using plants provided by the Woodland Trust). For
several years we have offered free bulbs to anyone
who wants to plant an area outside their own property
and we have asked for volunteers to join with us in
planting other areas.
We are still offering free bulbs to householders to plant
bulbs in areas that are visible from the roadside and we
are still looking for volunteers to help with more
planting in areas that need reinforcement or
completely new planting. Anyone who is not physically
able to do any planting but wants some bulbs planted
may also apply. Just contact the Parish Clerk with your
proposal before August begins.
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Update on Whitemoss Hazardous Waste site,
the ongoing saga.
This issue started with a proposal to massively extend
Whitemoss Hazardous Waste site by submitting more
land for development to the Minerals & Waste
Development Framework Plan. We objected to that
development on the grounds of need, health risks and
the social and economic effect on our neighbours in
Skelmersdale. We attended the subsequent
examination along with the action group ARROW and
Lancashire County Council subsequently withdrew the
site from the plan. Whitemoss Ltd then applied to get
the site extension approved as a nationally significant
infrastructure project. So, having proved there is no
local or regional need, we need to defend against a
national need. The application was subject to another
public examination which commenced on 21 May
2014. The Parish Council attended the public inquiry
and put forward our objections. The current situation
officially is that the Examining Inspectors’ report and
recommendation was submitted to the Secretary of
State (Eric Pickles) on the 21 February and that he will
make a decision on or before 21st May 2015. The
report will be published after the decision has been
made. Because of the election it is very unclear if
decisions will be announced or made on time. If Eric
Pickles does not get re-elected, there will be a new
Secretary of State who will look at the report and make
a decision. He/she may not have any experience
generally and will almost certainly have no background
on the amount of opposition to the site.
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In view of this, opposition groups have decided to
lobby the Secretary of State and have this lobbying on
record for whoever is in office after the 7th May
Parliamentary Election. Advice has been given from
experienced campaigners that this is very important.
Your Parish Council is therefore asking you to write an
email or a letter to the Secretary of State. Numbers of
opposition letters/emails is very important so
encourage the whole family to oppose this
development. So, please, voice your opinion for the
decision-maker and send an email or letter to:
[email protected]
Subject: Whitemoss hazardous waste site ref
WS010003
Tree Warden Update
Since the last newsletter, we've had the loss of two big
trees, both blown over by high winds, an oak in Lyelake
Lane (which very nearly hit a passing lorry) and the
other a beech in Dicks Lane. Looking to the future, for
every one gone we should plant three new ones so that
future generations can enjoy their benefit!
February also saw the death of Oliver Rackham,
arguably the leading historian and ecologist of British
woodlands and author of many books such as The
History of the Countryside (1986) and Woodlands
(2006). In his area, and further afield, he reputedly
knew every tree and hedge (good man!) and, if you
don't know his writings, Google them and enjoy. Our
hedge plantings seem mostly to have taken, and we
have offers of more plants in autumn: if you want any
(anywhere), please let us know!
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