The state of the estate - update

Hello everyone,

I wanted to give you an update on my last blog post - the state of our estate and tell you about a couple of things that have happened since I last posted. Thanks once again to Kath Almond for her assistance over the last week or so especially with finding the name of someone at Miller Homes who can make a decision.

First of all, thanks for all of your comments to my post. Time is stopping me from responding to the points tonight but I will try to in a future update.  If you're reading this and haven't yet taken the opportunity to comment I'd encourage you to do so. The more support as a community we have for this the easier I hope it will be to get some change.

Since I last posted I've been able to speak with Dave McDonald who is the Commercial Director for Miller Homes. Dave confirmed that Miller Homes still own and maintain the estate although the process of adoption by Chorley Council is underway. I went through the main points of the last post relating to the work that needs dealing with and he explained that Simon Forster, the Parks and Open Spaces Officer for Chorley Council, had listed 6 items that Miller Homes need to attend to before adoption can complete. Dave sent me a copy of an email he received from Simon dated 3rd July listing these points. I've dropped them into this post exactly as they are in the email so you can read for yourself what was said -

1. Grass cutting – grass and meadow area is getting on to a foot in height and needs urgent attention.
2. Street Furniture – there is damage to the litter bin and some rust damage to the steel benches.  Both need repair / remedial treatment or replacement.
3. Fencing – Gap in fence to railway lines needs urgent repair
4. Play surfacing – new areas of wetpour safety surface in play area has not bonded well to the older wet pour material. Needs repairing or replacing.
5. Entrance planting bed to estate – extensive weeds and lack of overall maintenance. There are sections of retaining wall along this planting bed which are damaged and need attention.
6. Another item I forgot to mention relates to the management plan for the wetland area – I understand Miller Homes are required to provide this prior to adoption.

Items 1, 3 and 5 are on the list in my last post but it seems that the Council have issues with other areas. I will get in touch with Simon Forster and ask him to look at adding to his list the pillar caps and railings so that they can be dealt with by Miller Homes before the adoption completes.

I think we now have an opportunity to present any reasonable demands to Miller Homes for anything that's not listed. So, if you have spotted something, or if you live near the pond and want to comment about how Miller have managed this area please get in touch by commenting on the blog. 

When I spoke to Dave McDonald he committed to prioritising the grass cutting adjacent to the railway and around the play area. If it's not been done by the middle of next week I will contact him again. 

I also contacted Network Rail after I wrote my last post and they have replaced the missing fence board near to the playground and the gap has now gone. 

That's about all I have as an update on this tonight. As always, if you have any comments, whether good or bad I'd really like to hear them.

Mike