The clock has been silent for many decades but has now been restored by the PCC (the church council) with new electronically controlled works and the striking mechanism is restored.  It strikes on the hour starting each day at 7 am  and finishing at 11 pm.  The PCC have received enthusiastic comments – it’s a quintessentially English countryside sound and our church clock has a particularly nice sound.

 

40% of green energy already comes from wind and this will be increased when two huge windfarms Norfolk Boreas and Norfolk Vanguard have been built out to see from Bacton, though gas and nuclear generation would still be required for when there was insufficient wind..

These windfarms  were going to be built by the Swedish company Vattenfall but they withdrew from the project.    However, the German energy giant company  RWE have bought from Vattenfall the rights to develop the two wind farms from which Vattenfall had withdrawn and the  the development was now to go ahead, which will include the cables the routes of which are already planned and will be laid in 89 metre wide trenches.  One route is to come ashore at Happisburgh and will go through Walcott, Ridlington, Edingthorpe and Paston parishes on its way to near Swaffham.

Another route coming ashore at Weybourne is already under construction.

We have met with our MP Duncan Baker who came to the last Parish Council meeting.   He has clearly made it his business to acquaint himself with the cable engineering issues.  He described some environmental, ecological and landscape disasters with the Weybourne cable particularly passing through the Glaven valley, many of which he considers could have been mitigated.

To avoid hopefully the same mistakes being made and minimise damage in Paston we and neighbouring councils would need to engage with RWE to discuss their plans, which Duncan Baker has offered to help arrange  meetings and dialogue..

This was a track that led from Mundesley Road beside the old forge into the fields of which historically there were about 40 though some have gone into the sea.   When in the early 1960’s the hedges were grubbed up and the area turned into one big field Hemp Lane was ploughed up.

A few years ago the local representative of the Open Spaces Society applied to the County Council to put it on the County Council definitive map of footpaths and tracks.  If that happened  the track would need to be reinstated.  Quite obviously that would interfere with cultivation of the field but with no compensating benefit as there is no reason why anyone should ever wish to use the track.

The County Council refused the application, mainly on the ground that the track only accessed the fields and did not lead anywhere, in particular it didn’t lead to the cliff top. But on appeal by the Open Spaces Society  to the Planning Inspectorate the County Council were ordered to register the track on the definitive map.

The evidence that led to the appeal being allowed appears to be invalid, arising from confusion as to which track Paston residents used to access the beach 50 years ago before the gas terminal came. Accordingly the Parish Council have lodged an objection, and so have two Paston residents.  In due course the Planning Inspectorate will review the case.

Siimilar problems have shown up in other Parishes in North Norfolk which have given rise to discussions with our county councillor Ed Maxfield and our MP Duncan Baker.  The problem is that in the initial application the County Council is obliged to register a right of way if, broadly speaking, there is any evidence at all, however weak it might be a right of way.   Also there is a tsunami of applications at the moment because there is a cut off date 2031 most  public rights of way not registered by then cease to be.  Duncan Baker is taking this up and is proposing to ask a question in Pariliament

poll notice for 04 04 23

Bacton Ward candidates 2023 (1)