ROAD safety continues to be a major concern of the Burton-in-Lonsdale Parish Council, as highlighted in its July report.

The Craven District Council Area Forum Meeting of September 12 provided an opportunity for local residents to air their opinions on the effectiveness or otherwise of the traffic calming measures in the village.

Representatives of North Yorkshire Police stated the scheme should be self enforcing' and North Yorkshire Highways stated there was no further money available for improvements. North Yorkshire Highways agreed to re-visit costings for additional road markings.

At the parish council meeting, attended by representatives of North Yorkshire's Police and Fire and Rescue Services, but not North Yorkshire Highways, the lack of success of the April 2006 traffic calming measures were discussed at length.

The authority's pledged to give their full support to the parish council's efforts to improve the scheme's effectiveness. The first action will be to deploy over a defined period a mobile speed matrix sign calibrated to register 20mph and 30mph, depending on where it is placed in the village, to collect traffic speed and numbers data. The results will be recorded and analysed by North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service and handed to the parish council.

Councillors heard the parish is over 25 miles from Skipton, from where the equipment is usually operated; providing personnel on a daily basis from the Skipton area would prove problematical and costly; therefore the battery operated sign will be positioned and recharged each day by a team of trained local residents. A date for the speed matrix sign operation has not yet been set, pending assembling and training the team.

It was noted that on Saturday (October 27) a 4x4 vehicle, towing a trailer, over-turned on a bend just outside the 20mph zone on the A687 Ingleton Road, partly demolishing a resident's boundary wall.

Planning application number 15/2007/7505, for the erection of four holiday chalets on land to the rear of Greta House Cottages has been refused, following strong local objections.

A casual vacancy for one parish council seat has been advertised, the closing date for which is 5pm Wednesday 21st November.

The next Parish Council meeting will be on Thursday November 22 at 7.30pm, in the Village Hall, Burton in Lonsdale. The important 2008-2009 budget discussions will be an agenda item. The outcome will dictate how much precept the Parish Council will request from the District Council.