A local needs affordable home (a 2 bedroom house) will soon
be available for re-letting by Saffron Housing Trust at Tenwinter
Pightle, Berghapton
The property will be advertised, by Saffron, on the South
Norfolk HomeOptions System from Thursday, 5 th
October until the following Wednesday, 11 th October.
This home has been built first and foremost for people who are
in need of affordable housing who have a local connection to
Bergh Apton. That ‘local connection’ includes currently living
in the village; and/or working there; and/or having previously
lived there and now wishing to return.
The property is then next prioritised for households from the
neighbouring parishes of Alpington, Yelverton, Brooke and
Thurton.
Anyone already on the South Norfolk Housing Register will
need to express their interest (‘bid’) through the South
Norfolk ‘HomeOptions’ website:
www.snhomeoptions.org.uk
Other interested residents who are not on the Housing
Register should contact the Housing Advice Service here at
South Norfolk Council to join the Housing Register
(‘HomeOptions’) immediately. They will need to provide proof
of their residency or working qualification criteria as well as
other verification details. During the week that the properties
are advertised on the HomeOptions system people will need to
actively apply ‘(bid’) for them, and the Council’s Housing
Officers will be able to provide details of how to do this. For
further information people should telephone for free on:
0808 168 2222.
Community Governance Review – Please fill in the survey – SNDC view
The background is this…
There are 119 parishes in South Norfolk. In 2015 only 19 held parish council elections, and many of those didn’t have elections in 2011, or 2007 either – Bergh Apton is one of those parishes.
It’s not good for local democracy if those that govern us are not subject to election. Not only are many of our smallest parishes not elected, the proportion of the tax they raise that they spend on their own administration has got out of control. In a small parish like Bergh Apton about 2/3 of the tax it raises is spent on the Clerk, Insurance – leaving just one third to be spent on the village. If it was a charity it would be closed down, and Bergh Apton is not alone.
Now is the time to consider whether Bergh Apton and villages like it would be better served by joining together their Parish Councils. There’s no question of removing the road signs and the village boundary would still exist. It’s just that several parishes would club together to have a single Parish Council serving all of them. Alpington and Yelverton have had a joint parish council for years. Perhaps it’s time that Bergh Apton joined-up with neighbours too…
Ideally to get to about 1000 people instead of 300. We need arrangements that are going to hold good for the NEXT 20 years that address the realisation that it’s difficult to get people to serve and to solve the problem of smaller parishes spending over half of their income on running costs.
South Norfolk is encouraging Parishes to think deeply about their future and want the initiative for any changed arrangement to come from them, a bottom up, not a top down process. Our consultation opens on 20 March and you can have your say by visiting
Due to the snap general election the consultation period has been extended for the South Norfolk Community Governance review. The deadline has now been moved back to July 12. The links to submit representations are below.
The first survey is for residents which will be put on our website
http://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/communitygovernancereview1/
If you have any queries please feel free to contact the team.
Kind regards,