In the severe weather of 2010/11 Holme on Spalding Moor Parish Council led the way in clearing snow and ice from the village footpaths and minor roads. Like a number of Howdenshire villages and using a grant through the East Riding of Yorkshire Council it hired machinery and bought salt and a band of volunteers worked for days to make the village facilities accessible to residents. This was a superb volunteer effort and I blogged about this at the time.
This is another great example of what the ‘Big Society’ and localism can achieve - volunteer efforts like this are not a one-off and HOSM Parish Council has been looking at ways of doing more for the community, including recently employing their own handyman.
This week the Parish Council took delivery of a tractor that can be fitted with a snow-blade and salt spreader after taking advantage of a further grant of £3000 from the East Riding of Yorkshire Council. A low interest loan has also been obtained and coupled with good financial management has meant the purchase of the tractor has been achieved without raising the council tax.
The tractor is now ready for future bad weather and will allow footpaths to be cleared using the snow blade and salt to be spread at the same time. The tractor also has a grass cutting facility plus a trailer, this will make the tractor multi-functional and the village handyman can now cut grass and collect litter etc
At a recent ceremony the tractor was received and seen admiring it are ERYC Councillor Peter Turner (seated on the tractor) portfolio holder for Localism, Parish Council Chairman Chris Worrall (right), Parish Council Vice-Chairman Peter Hastings (centre).
Peter Turner was very impressed with the tractor and was excited at the partnership between the ERYC and Parish Council enabling the Parish Council to help keep the parish ‘open to business’ in the event of further severe weather
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