Lancing Parish Council : News & Events

This pages includes details of news and events in and around Lancing Parish. Events are split into three categories :

For further information please contact Lancing Parish Council on
(01903) 753355 or e-mail : admin@lancingparishcouncil.gov.uk

Information is current as of October 2007 but will be updated regularly during the course of the year.

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Pending major works being carried out next year on Lancing Beach Green to remedy the impact of the anti-tank obstacles laid in the ground at Beach Green after World War 2, some remedial works will be carried out on part of the area from week beginning 5^th November 2007, in line with the recommendations made by the Health & Safety Officer.

The work will be to bring consistent levels across the area of land between the slip road leading to the old Mermaid Café site and the footpath that runs from the rear of the car park to the coastal cycle/footpath. The work will involve infilling the sunken voids/undulations across the area with good quality certified top soil, to compact and level this to match the surrounding grass levels and then grass seed with a “quick growing” amenity grass mix.

To enable the grass to develop and grow the area will be fenced off to the public until it’s well established in the new year.

OWNERSHIP OF LANCING BEACH GREEN

Residents of Lancing will have received a newsletter from the Beach Green Action Group (BGAG), unsigned and with no names attached, through their door recently. This accuses the Parish Council amongst other things of registering the land known as Lancing Beach Green with the Land Registry in order to remove restrictions on its use, and making the completely erroneous assumption that the Council could now sell it off as building land, and that they have the evidence to support this.

The Parish Council wishes to advise residents that they have, not for the first time, been misinformed and misled by this group in what is a concerted and continuing campaign to discredit the Council in the eyes of the community, without any foundation whatsoever.

The Parish Council wishes to make it clear and absolute that the land known as Lancing Beach Green has been in the past assigned to Lancing Parish Council either by bequest or conveyance through a series of title deeds covering the different areas of the Green. Along with the bequests and conveyances there is a Schedule of Restrictive Covenants which clearly state “that the Council and its successors will at all times keep and preserve the said lands and hereditaments and premises for the purpose of an open space and as and for a public recreation ground or as pleasure grounds ……. and will not permit any erection or building whatever other than bathing tents, seats, shelter or a band stand.”

The Parish Council can therefore confirm that it never has had any intention and never would allow or permit the development of the land for building or housing purposes.

The land was formally registered in October 2006 with the Land Registry for two very good reasons.

(i) firstly by registering the land voluntarily the Council were able to obtain a 25% discount on registration; and

(ii) more importantly registering the land with the Land Registry guarantees the Council’s land ownership and provides legal protection from any claims that may be made to any part of the land in the future. In this respect the Council has acted in the best interests of itself as landowner and the residents of Lancing in ensuring that the land will always be available for the residents of Lancing for recreational use.

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After World War 2 concrete anti-tank obstacles were laid in the ground in the area now known as Beach Green. Through erosion and usage of the area over the years these blocks are now at, or close to the surface of the Green. There is also general undulation right across the Green making the whole area uneven. An in depth geophysical survey was carried out by the nationally recognized company Stratascan to identify exactly what the nature and extent of the problem at Lancing Beach Green was. Further to their final report the Parish Council advertised for statements of interest from companies to provide options for solutions to remedy the impact of the blocks. Parish Councillors having now had the opportunity to meet with the companies who have provided options, and the following are the three proposed solutions as presented by those companies:

Option 1: to trim and cover the three identified exposed areas of blocks only (approximately 6,500 square metres) with topsoil to a maximum depth of 200 millimetres and a minimum of 150 millimetres. The soil would be spread level on the site and then compacted and re-seeded. The tender quote does not include any other areas of the Green being covered or treated (total area of Lancing Beach Green is 51,708 square metres). Cost: £ 54,650.00 + VAT

Option 2:
(a) excavate to a maximum depth of 1.5 metres as an exploratory examination of the area.
(b) relocate all recyclable concrete obstructions and recoverable metal items.
(c) replace all unprocessable materials back into excavation areas.
(d) compact all infill materials by way of heavy weight, towed roller.
(e) process all concrete materials into a usable commodity (by crushing) and remove from the site.
(f) import suitable clean, inert materials to reinstate ground level to previous existing level – ensuring all previous undulations are removed, by way of laser level equipment.
(g) relocate top soil onto work area, ensuring equal distribution throughout.
(h) re-seed entire work area with standard mix, playing field grass seed.
Cost: £ 15,000.00 +VAT (as there would be a value attached to the resale of the crushed concrete)

Option 3:
The same as Option 2 other than (e) which would be replaced with:
- reduce all processible materials to manageable sizes and removed
from site (i.e. the crushing process being carried out elsewhere and
therefore the value of the crushed concrete not being realised by the
works contractor ).
Cost: £ 35,000.00 + VAT

Options 2 & 3 cover the area of Beach Green that runs from the slip road behind the Sussex Trade Car Centre to Marlin Court (approximately 37,000 square metres). Total area of Lancing Beach Green is 51,708 square metres.

THE COST OF ANY OF THE 3 OPTIONS WOULD BE BORNE BY THE LANCING COUNCIL TAX PAYER

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SOLUTION FOR BEACH GREEN ?

Subsequent to the in depth geophysical survey carried out by Stratascan to identify exactly what the nature and extent of the problem at Lancing Beach Green was, the Parish Council advertised for statements of interest from companies to provide solutions to remedy the impact of the war time anti-tank obstacles that had been placed in the ground after World War 2. Four companies expressed an interest and were sent the relevant documentation. They were invited to provide the Council with up to four proposed solutions to the problem, with costings, based on their own research and the information contained within the Stratascan report.

Three companies responded by the deadline date, and the Council discussed their submissions at its Full Council meeting on 5^th December 2006.

On legal advice, the submission of one of the companies was declared null and void as it did not fulfil the requirements of the specification as requested, and therefore could not be considered.

From the remainder there are three proposed solutions, two which are partially to remove the blocks and reinstate the land to an equal level across the whole area and the other is to partially cover the problem areas with topsoil and reinstate with grass.

As part of the next stage of the process each of the two companies will be invited to give a presentation on its proposals to the Council. This will be during January 2007 after which the three options, with costs, will be placed in the public domain.

It is currently anticipated that any works will commence during the Autumn and Winter months of next year

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To avoid any further confusion the Council wishes to make it quite clear that there are currently no tenderers for work on Beach Green.

All that the Council has received to date are Statements of Interest. Those who have stated an interest will be sent tender documentation for an Options Study to remedy the impact of the concrete blocks at Beach Green. It will be entirely at their discretion whether or not they wish to submit a tender in due course.

Until the closure of this particular tender period, the Council itself will have not be aware of those who may tender and those that may not.

It should also be stressed that any successful tenderer(s) will only be providing an options study and not carrying out any construction works at this stage.

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The Council has now formally adopted the Final Report on the geophysical survey carried out on Lancing Beach Green by Stratascan. This is available for inspection and/or viewing at the Parish Council Offices, by appointment. (Office hours are Mondays to Fridays – 9 a.m. to 4.30 p.m.).

The Council have also received responses from several companies to the advert that had been placed in newspapers for Statements/Expressions of Interest in identifying solutions to the issue of the buried World War 2 concrete block defences.

The next stage of the process will be to produce a Tender Document for the interested companies to work to, along with the Stratascan document, in submitting options to remedy the impact of the blocks. This course of action confirms the Council’s continued commitment to identify/re-visit all the options available to it and in order to determine an eventual option that is the most appropriate and cost effective to the ratepayers of Lancing, whatever that option may be.

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At the Council Meeting held on Tuesday 30^th May 2006, the Draft Stratascan Report was discussed. It was resolved that the report still needed some “fine tuning” and that some points of clarification were still necessary – primarily a clearly defined explanation and itemization of the contaminants referred to in the report.

The Council is now waiting on the Draft Report coming back to the Council for its consideration. Once the report has been agreed and adopted by the Council the document will be in the public domain and open to scrutiny, viewing etc.

The Council will now be advertising for Statements of Interest, in the first instance, with the report then being the basis on which tenders to determine the options/solution available to the Council, along with the cost of each of the options presented, assisting in the determination of a final decision on the solution to the problems at Lancing Beach Green. In this respect an advert has already been placed in the Herald Group of Newspapers and the Evening Argus to receive Statements of Interest.

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The Council have now received the report from the recent excavation works carried out on Lancing Beach Green along with the results of the analysis of the soil samples taken during the works. The soil sample results show that the land is not contaminated, and this has been confirmed by the Environmental Health Officer, after looking at the data.

Both of these reports have now been sent to Stratascan to enable the information to be included in their own final report on the land survey they carried out. From this report, and as previously stated, there will follow a tendering process to identify companies who with the use of the information provided by Stratscan will determine and provide solutions to the problem at Beach Green and the costs attached to each of their suggested options. In this respect the Council once again confirms that contrary to the current information being distributed by the Beach Green Action Group that no decision on Beach Green has been made and therefore the Council continues to maintain an open mind on the final solution for the area, as it has done for nearly a year now since April 1^st 2005. It was on this date that an agreement was reached with the Beach Green Action Group through Tim Loughton MP for any decision to be deferred pending further land survey works. This agreement the Council have adhered to throughout and it is unfortunate therefore that the Beach Green Action Group, who by their own admission, have not done the same by persistently adhering to one option only without being prepared to keep an open mind, or await further information on other solutions, whatever these may be.

On the subject of the literature currently being distributed by the Beach Green Action Group, the Council would wish to make the following comments:

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The investigative work to determine the composition of the war time anti-tank blocks, to take soil samples at one metre depths (down to 4 metres) and to determine water in the ground was carried out on the 21^st February.

An area of concrete blocks were exposed and found to be within one inch of the ground surface. One block was crushed to determine its composition which was that of pure concrete and not reinforced.

The opportunity was also taken to remove one of these blocks intact and place it on display. This has been sited adjacent to the rear entrance of the car park.

No traces of water, water courses or seepage of water, was found during excavations.

The soil samples taken will be sent away for analysis to determine any anomalies or contamination within the ground (previous samples taken last April showed that there was no contamination).

Once the results of the soil samples have been received these will be sent, with the information on the composition of the blocks, to Stratascan, so that they can produce their final ground survey report.

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LANCING BEACH GREEN UPDATE added 8th February 2006

The geophysical survey undertaken over the whole area of Lancing Beach Green by STRATASCAN was very comprehensive and employed several complimentary techniques. Their preliminary report was sketchy and intended merely to identify key issues. The first draft of the final report was very comprehensive, steeped in jargon and almost incomprehensible. Accordingly, the Parish Council invited Stratascan to give them a tutorial on what had been done and how to interpret the results. The Council also asked them to explain how they had met the specific requirements that had been laid on them as a basis of the contractual agreement made.

This exercise was exceptionally valuable. During the presentation, Stratascan made a number of recommendations as to how the Council should proceed to enable them to complete their final report. The Council have now investigated how to implement these recommendations and a plan has now emerged. It is evident now how the blocks are distributed over the site, but more information about how they are constructed and, more importantly, what is the nature of the infill between the blocks needs to be determined. To that end, it is planned to expose completely two blocks in specified locations chosen to represent particular characteristics which Stratascan had identified. They will be broken up in the ground and analysed. It is also planned to take samples of the infill in a number of places to determine whether the subsoil is contaminated.

The work will also include taking the opportunity of lifting one block intact and setting it up on display so as to show the public what has been talked about for the last 18 months. The whole of this work should be done within two days and is planned to start on 20th February. The Environment Agency and the Health and Safety Officer of Adur District Council have been apprised of this plan.

When the results of this activity have been collated with Stratascan’s data, the final report will be issued and released from contractual restrictions. It will then be in the public domain.

Information Held By Lancing Parish Council from Stratascan.

To avoid any confusion over information held by the Parish Council relating to Stratascan and what parts of their information is in the public domain, the following applies:

The information currently available is correspondence between the Council, directly or on behalf of, and Stratascan (and vice-versa) from 27th July 2005 up to their preliminary findings (crude initial interpretation of data) of 2nd December 2005. The public need to be aware that this information has been superseded by a Draft report which will in time be superseded by the Final Report. Therefore the information currently available is in no way or manner definitive, substantiated or verified and should not be used, interpreted or deemed as accurate data or information on Beach Green.

The Council have a contractual arrangement/agreement with Stratascan to produce a concluding report on the final analysis of data with definitive and accurate findings based on the survey work that they have carried out, along with suggestions as to how the site may be further investigated. Until the final report has been produced and agreed by Stratascan and the Parish Council, any information since the 2nd December 2005 (including maps) are confidential and in confidence under the contractual agreement entered into between the two parties. In this respect any information post-2nd December 2005 is exempt from public scrutiny under Part II (Section 41(1)) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. This is to protect the rights of confidentiality of both parties, until such time as a final report has been received and mutually agreed. It also prevents the misinterpretation of any draft and unconfirmed data prior to the final analysis, verification and confirmation of that data, and thus protecting the integrity of the Council and Stratascan.

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FACTS ON ISSUES RELATING TO BEACH GREEN AND THE ANTI-TANK OBSTACLES

• the Council has been discussing this problem extensively at its meetings since June 2004, and these have all been minuted and available for public scrutiny and inspection.
• the Council originally made a decision, which was a preferred option of four discussed, to remove the blocks form the area by crushing these in situ and removing them from the site, infilling with sub (inert)soil, covering with top soil and grass seeding over.
• It was anticipated that this would be phased over three years and to avoid disruption would be worked on small areas in each year. This would have enabled, as a minimum, 78% of Beach Green still to be able to be used by the public and other users and event organizers. The work itself would have lasted a minimum of 6 weeks and a maximum of 14 weeks in any one year.
• Because of the commercial value of crushed concrete these works were able to be done at no cost to the Council or residents.
• The Environment Agency had no objection to the Council’s solution.
• the Beach Green Action Group (BGAG) proposed an alternative solution which was to cover the worst affected areas with soil and grass seed over the top. The quote they received for this was supposedly at no charge, but this had been given in writing after a telephone conversation with a contractor who did not visit the site to identify the problem or assess what was necessary to be done. The cost for doing this remedial work over the whole site has now been agreed, by all parties, as being over £100,000.00. This option would have to be paid by the ratepayers of Lancing and would equate to a 50% increase in the Lancing Parish element of the Council Tax bill.
• The Council distributed just over 2,500 letters to all residents below the railway line in December 2004, advising them of the Council’s preferred option.
• It also placed an article in the Adur Outlook newspaper (which is delivered to every household in Lancing – 6,900 dwellings) in February of 2005.
• There are currently just over 18,100 residents in Lancing
• The Beach Green Action Group have suggested, on many occasions, that they represent the views of 98% of Lancing residents (this equates to some 17,600 persons).
• In light of the above figures the Council can confirm that the Adur Outlook article only generated 5 responses – 4 against the Council’s proposal – 1 for.
• Only 3 persons since June of 2004 have visited the Council offices to look at the information and details on Lancing Beach Green held by the Council. (There are three folders of information on this issue ranging from correspondence received and sent to technical professional information and from risk assessments to environmental impact).
• Since January of this year the Council has received 191 pieces of correspondence (letters & e-mails) relating to this issue. Of these 149 have been received from one block of flats, and 75 of those from one individual.
• The Council throughout, have sought the expert advice of the County Council, the Environment Agency, the Health & Safety officer at Adur District Council and Environmental Health, amongst others. All the information received from these has been disregarded, for whatever reason, by the Action Group.
• The Action Group have made numerous and consistent arguments against any Council proposal with allegations of what will happen if “the Council have their way”. To date they have not presented any information, substantive data or research information to substantiate any claims. The Parish Council has written to the action group asking questions as to the source of their assertions and requesting a response in writing. This request has been refused.

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Events at the Parish Hall in 2008/2009 - Regular Monthly Activities :

Events at the Parish Hall in 2008/2009 - Periodic Activities :

Tuesday 1st July Blood Doning session 2 - 4.30 and 5.30 - 8.00 contact 0845 7711711

Thursday 10^th - Saturday 12^th July Lancing Repertory Players 'The Day After the Fair' for tickets contact 01903 820119

Rowland Singers Concert Jubilee Hall 22^nd July contact www.rowlandsingers.co.uk

Friday 4^th and Friday the 18^th July - The Pension Service 9 - 11 contact 01903 286072

Lancing Parish Council Website News & Events

Events at the Parish Hall in 2008/2009 - Regular Monthly Activities :

Events at the Parish Hall in 2008/2009 - Periodic Activities :

Lancing Parish Council Website
News & Events