WHAT WE'RE DOING

These are some of the current and recent activities the Parish Council has been working on.

Hedge Planting At The Recreation Ground

On a sunny Saturday morning in February, a band of volunteers turned out to plant a total of 270 new hedging striplings around the north east part of the Queen Elizabeth II Field.

A mix of native species whips (Hawthorn, Hazel, Dogwood, Dog Rose, Wild Cherry, Rowan, Silver Birch and Elder) were donated by the Woodland Trust.

Our photo shows the new hedging being surrounded by bark chippings to suppress weed growth.

Griston Neighbourhood Plan

This has been been allocated its own page, as it is a significant piece of work in its own right. For progress, please go to that dedicated page.

A Neighbourhood Plan is a planning document which gives local people a much greater say in the future of their communities and if approved and adopted it will be a statutory document, meaning it has to be taken into account when planning applications are submitted either by individuals or developers.

A Neighbourhood Plan must reflect local needs and the final stage is a local referendum when local people who are entitled to vote get to say whether they agree with the Plan and want it to go ahead.

This is a large undertaking and we are looking to recruit a small team of interested volunteers to assist in what is likely to be a three year process. Please contact the Clerk if you want to take an active part in determining the village's future.

Reinstating The Mobile Library Service

After the pandemic, budget cuts meant that Norfolk County Council reduced their funding for the mobile library service.

Griston had seen a severe reduction in the number of users and was removed from the schedule when the service restarted.

Responding to a request from Thorp House, the Parish Council has negotiated with NCC to reinstate the service to the village, which should go live in the spring of 2024 on the revised Route CEN415.

The new library stop will be in the Thorp House car park, and will be available to everyone. As soon as the starting date is confirmed, it will be widely publicised.

Please use the mobile library when it visits, or we may lose it again!

Thompson Road Trod

We have had to abandon this ambitious scheme as the engineer's original design simply couldn't work without a huge increase in budget well beyond the means of the Parish Council.

This project was to provide a footpath for the 200m length of Thompson Road from the HMP Wayland entrance to the service road at the bus stop.

Currently pedestrians have to walk on the verge, which has been eroded by traffic. The only way this could work would be to relocate a power pole and install 200m of full height road kerb, which would have been prohibitively expensive. A trod is a much cheaper unbound (not concrete or asphalt) footpath that qualified for 50% funding by NCC's Parish Partnership fund. Our NCC Councillor also offered to assist with funding.

Due to the initial cost indications, we agreed to spread the installation and spend over two financial years, with construction starting in March and running into April.

The Parish Council still regard this as an important safety measure for the village that would have massively reduced the risk to pedestrians on a busy road with no street lighting, but even with 50% matched funding, it simply wasn't possible.

Street Sign Cleaning

In August 2023, Parish Councillors cleaned all the street and road signage in the village, removing dirt and algae to make them easily readable and improve road safety.

This also allowed us to identify those signs in need of replacement and make the appropriate requests to NCC Highways.

We will be asking for volunteers to assist with future work parties to maintain standards and keep Griston tidy.

Reintroducing The SAMS2 Speed Detector

After a period of non-use, the unit has been fitted with a new battery and reintroduced into regular use. The two existing locations - on Church Road heading north outside the Coughtrey Trading Estate and on Thompson Road heading west - have now been supplemented with a third site just before the HMP Wayland entrance on Thompson Road.

A new Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) between NCC and Griston Parish Council has been signed and grants us legal use of this device on the highway in all three locations.

Please observe the speed limits - it's for safety of everyone in the village.