The plan has gone out for public consultation and includes the council’s economic, environmental, efficiency and tourism goals, as well as how the council plans to achieve its goals.

The Corporate Plan includes the development of master plans for Fylde’s town centres and transport infrastructure improvements.

It also sets out the council’s plastics and carbon reduction policy, a parks and open spaces plan, flooding protection measures, a programme of tourism events, parking provision and arts policies.

The Corporate Plan also includes details of how Fylde will improve its efficiency and ensure all residents can access its services.

The consultation period seeks the views of everyone who has an interest in Fylde, and the council wants to gather views on its proposed vision and mission which will be in place for the next four years.

Councillor Sue Fazackerley, Leader of Fylde Council said: “A lot of time and effort by elected members and officers has already gone into the drawing up of our next Corporate Plan which we hope will provide a blueprint for our Borough for the next four years to help us go from strength to strength as a Borough whose achievements, in every area of Council activity, are ones of which we can be justly proud.”

Councillor Karen Buckley, Deputy Leader for Fylde Council and Chair of the Finance and Democracy Committee added: “Our plan for the next 4 years includes manifesto commitments and priorities raised on the doorstep during the local election campaign last year. We want to deliver the very best for our council taxpayers and will work across all tiers of government to do just that.

The information received will help to test the draft plan and will also help us to further refine the objectives before the plan is approved Full Council in April 2020.

The consultation will be live until 31st January 2020, and can be accessed on our website: https://new.fylde.gov.uk/council/consultation/

You can also access our services 24/7 at www.fylde.mycouncilservices.com where you can make payments, report any issues such as missed bins or fly tipping and much more.

In an emergency the council can be contacted on 01772 436756. If you have a housing emergency you can contact Progress Housing Group on 03333 204555 and for social care emergencies contact Lancashire County Council on 0300 123 6720.

Payments of Housing Benefit will be paid out a little earlier to take account of the Christmas post and the Council office closure.

If your normal payment is due on Friday 20th December payments will be released as follows:

• Cheques – Posted out Wednesday 18th December 2019
• Bacs Payments – Released Wednesday 18th December 2019

If your normal payment is due on Friday 27th December payments will be released as follows:

• Cheques – Posted out Friday 20th December 2019
• Bacs Payments – Released Friday 20th December 2019

Please allow a minimum of 2 working days for Bacs payments to reach your account.

May we take this opportunity to wish everyone a very merry Christmas and a happy new year!

The first free day will be Saturday 7th December to support Small Business Saturday, a campaign to encourage more people to shop local and support small businesses in the community.

For the following 3 weekends (7th and 8th, 14th and 15th and 21st and 22nd), all Council owned Pay and Display car parks will be free to use all day.

Fylde Council are also helping to tackle drink driving this festive season by reminding residents that parking tickets run over to the next day. Therefore, if you purchase a pay and display ticket in the evening, this will run through for the amount of time paid to the following morning.

This helps avoid drink driving by giving people time to sober up in the morning before collecting their cars, and for anyone staying over in one of the hotels, it gives them a lie in and enough time for the alcohol to leave their system.

For more information on how to avoid drink driving, please visit www.drinkaware.co.uk

Ends

The site also known locally as the Les Dawson Garden, is home to the bronze memorial statue of the much loved entertainer and is situated near to St. Annes Pier.

The garden is hugely popular with visitors to the Fylde area and enjoys a constant flow of people eager to see and be photographed with the statue. It is looked after by the Parks & Coastal Services team as well as valued volunteers from St. Annes in Bloom.

Due to its proximity to the beach, the site suffers sand and wind exposure. To bring the site back to its former glory, the Council have removed the former collapsing, sand-ladened lawns and replaced with fresh new ones. The flower beds are also being renovated, with coastal tolerant plants being introduced to add further colour and interest.

The site lighting has also being refurbished, involving the laying of new cabling for the beach walkway lampposts, improved pavilion shelter lighting and the renovation of the spot lighting around the Les Dawson Memorial Statue.

A team effort has meant the project has been a huge success, with Fylde Council’s parks and technical teams both working together throughout. The site had to be temporarily closed whilst the work was taking place, including the use of machines to remove the old lawns and replace with new.

Councillor Cheryl Little, Chair of the Tourism and Leisure Committee said: “We are lucky to have an abundance of community spaces in Fylde and this is just one in a prominent position and to where hundreds of day trippers, visitors and tourists come to enjoy their surroundings and have selfies … so these improvements will not only be seen nationally but globally too.”

Self Care Week which runs from 18-24 November is a national campaign that brings together local councils, health services and a range of voluntary and community groups across the Fylde Coast.

Dr Adam Janjua, Acting Chair of Fylde and Wyre Clinical Commissioning Group said: “Last year many of the groups that promote themselves on the FYi directory website offered taster sessions for people. This year we want to involve even more groups.

“There are over 3,000 clubs, societies and groups on the directory offering all kinds of services from football to knitting groups. There is something for everyone and by joining any of them people will see the benefits in their health and well-being. It doesn’t have to be physical, though it can be, but something as simple as joining a reading club at the local library is enough to get people out and about, meeting new people, making new friends and improving their mood.”

Self-care is about taking time to do things that keep you well. This might be having a well-stocked medicine cabinet, improving your diet, taking more exercise or joining a group.

Self-care week gives local groups across the Fylde Coast a chance to promote themselves and encourage new members.

Dr Janjua added: “This year we are building on what we did last year which saw over 70 events taking place over the week and hundreds of people taking part. Groups reported that they had new members who were all giving it a go which is a fantastic result. It means that people were embracing self-care and were all making a big step to improving their health and wellbeing. This year, amongst other plans, we want to double that impact.”

If you run a club or group, charity or service that helps people and would like to take part in self care week 2019 all you have to do is think of what your offer will be and let us know by emailing comms.fyldecoast@nhs.net or calling 01253 951349.

Councillor Ben Aitken, Chairman of the Environment, Health and Housing Committee at Fylde Council said: ‘We are delighted that Fylde Council has the opportunity to work alongside our colleagues in health and other partner organisations once again, building on the successes of last year, in support of this fantastic initiative to promote self care to all generations and influence the health outcomes of our local population’

Notes to editors:

This press release is issued jointly by NHS Blackpool Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), NHS Fylde and Wyre CCG and Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Fylde Borough Council, Wyre Borough Council and Blackpool Council.

For more information on self care week visit: www.selfcareforum.org/

The FYi directory is an online resource (supported by a Freephone telephone number) listing over 3,000 clubs, groups and services across the Fylde Coast in a user-friendly, easy to search directory. Visit www.fyidirectory.co.uk

For further information about this press release please call the communications team on 01253 951349

During this time the gardens will be closed to the public for approximately 4 weeks.

The garden is the proud home to the Les Dawson statue, which is surrounded by picturesque lawns and floral displays. These are maintained by dedicated Council parks staff and volunteers from St Anne’s in Bloom.

Autumn is the best time to lay new lawns and the Council wanted to minimise disturbance to visitors by doing the works out of the height of the season.

Works taking place will involve the excavation and removal of the tired, collapsing lawns which have suffered thatch build up due to wind-blown beach sand. Fresh new soil and grass will brought in and staff will lay new lawns in their place.

We apologise for any disruption caused and will reopen the site as soon as possible.

In addition to the plastic bottles for liquids which are already collected, from October 1st 2019 residents will be able to put clean plastic pots, tubs and trays in either their blue recycling bin or green box.

These include yoghurt pots, margarine tubs, and meat, fruit and vegetable trays of any shape or colour, along with their lids.

People are being urged to rinse items to increase the likelihood that they will be recycled. If the plastic still has food waste on it, or is covered in plastic film, it can cause a problem as it goes through the recycling system. This can also make it unsuitable for reprocessing, and means that it won’t be recycled.

Anything with a number 1, 2 or 5 within the recycling triangle that will be stamped on to the plastic items should go into your blue recycling bin/ green box.

County Councillor Albert Atkinson, Lancashire County Council cabinet member for waste management, said: “Recycling these extra plastics is very simple – the colour and shape of the container doesn’t matter – the main thing is to check that that it can be recycled, and give it a rinse. This helps to make sure things aren’t rejected when they go through our system. Food left on the container can also make it unsuitable for re-processing, resulting in the plastic not getting recycled.”

Around 90% of the plastic from recycling collected in Lancashire is processed within the UK. Recycled plastic can be made into new products such as fleeces, pillows or new plastic bottles.

What we currently collect:

• Glass bottles
• Glass jars
• Food tins
• Drink cans
• Clean foil
• Clean foil trays
• Empty aerosol cans
• Metal biscuit and sweet tins
• Metal bottle caps and lids
• Plastic bottles, including, for example cosmetic and detergent bottles
• Plastic lids (either on or off the bottles)

From 1^st October we will also be able to collect the following items:

• Plastic pots (e.g. yoghurt, soup, etc.)
• Plastic tubs (e.g. margarine, ice cream, etc.)
• Plastic trays / punnets (e.g. raw meat or ham trays; take-away trays; fruit /veg trays)
• Remove any film lids and absorbent pads found in the bottom of meat/fruit/veg trays, and put these in your grey bin or sack
• Chocolate and biscuit tubs and trays
• Other clear plastic packaging marked with a 1, 2 or 5 within the recycling triangle
• Plant pots (plant and soil removed)

Please put plastic wrappers, plastic film and plastic bags in your grey bin or sack, as these items cannot be recycled in the blue bin or green box.

For more information on what can be recycled in Fylde please visit our website www.fylde.gov.uk

Lytham Recycling Centre located on Saltcotes Road continues to remain open 7 days a week which includes weekends and bank holidays. However it will still be closed on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years Day.

Currently there are extended opening hours during the summer from 8am to 7pm, and the centre opens 8am to 5pm during the winter months.

Recent surveys have shown that visitor numbers are relatively low at the beginning and end of the day, meaning the tip opening times will be changing to 9am – 5pm all year round.

A report taken to the Lancashire County Council Cabinet meeting outlined the results of public consultation to the change in opening hours. The response was an overall equal outcome for and against, however recommendations were made to ensure that the site remains open on Bank Holidays.

Concerns were raised that reduced opening hours could lead to an increase in fly tipping. This was addressed in the report which found that most fly tipping is carried out by unscrupulous businesses who do not want to pay for their waste to be disposed of properly. There has been no evidence of fly tipping having increased when Lancashire recycling centres had been closed in the past.

Councillor Ben Aitken, Chairman of the Environment Health and Housing Committee for Fylde Council add that “it is important that all residents check that the company they are planning to use to remove their household waste, holds an official waste carriers licence with the Environment Agency. As the householder can be held responsible for any waste that is fly tipped and is traced back to them which can result in a fine being issued.”

The new tip opening times are due to be implemented from 1 November 2019, and if you would like to know more about what you can recycle please visit our website https://new.fylde.gov.uk/recyclingcentre/

A grant of £2,000 was awarded to The Friends of Lytham Hall charity in March 2019 to introduce a pedestrian walk way running parallel with the main driveway.

Prior to the construction the narrow driveway was shared between pedestrians and vehicles visiting the site. This caused difficulties for people with young children or those with disabilities, as when a vehicle was driving passed pedestrians had to walk along the muddy grass verge.

With construction of the new walk way costing over double the amount of funding availed, the Friends of Lytham Hall sourced over 60 hours of skilled volunteer labourers to construct the path, along with an additional £2,226 match funding.

Mayor of Fylde Councillor Angela Jacques was invited to officially open the new pathway and said: “I am delighted the Community Projects Fund helped towards the completion of the pathway. I would like to say a huge thank you to all of the volunteers who made the pathway possible by offering their time and skill for the thousands of people’s benefit who visit here every year. Well done to everyone involved.”

Lytham Hall is host to a number of events and is a much loved asset of the local community. With the completion of the new walk way being greatly received by the public and creating high levels of enthusiasm amongst volunteers to extend the path way by a further 100 meters to reach the main gates. The Friends of Lytham Hall have kindly donated an additional £1,056 to see these works go ahead.

Cllr Cheryl Little, Chair of the Tourism and Leisure Committee, said “Well what a jam packed weekend for the town with four fantastic FREE events taking place in and around Lytham, Fairhaven and St Annes.

Friday evening is the opening event of the Kite Festival, with a firework display around the pier. During the weekend, the skies above St Anne’s seafront will be awash with colour as fabulous display kites take to the air on the beach adjacent to the pier on Saturday and Sunday. And don’t forget to bring your teddy bear or cuddly toy to take part in the teddy parachute drop. Each brave teddy will receive a very special certificate of achievement. There is also family entertainment and stall holders.

Also on Saturday, we have the British Land Sailing mini yacht fun day – adjacent to North Beach car park

Move on to Sunday, September 8^th, when we have a classic car rally on Lytham Green.

Also on Sunday we’re going to be making a splash at Fairhaven Lake bringing back the much loved regattas! There will be a full day of water sport demonstrations, races and lots of activities to take part.”