Please see attached letter about a road closure due to works on a bridge extension joint over the River Nene in Thrapston . There is also a map of the diversion route
Please see below information received from Northamptonshire Highways
Dear All
Since 23rd July 2018, services 8 (Kettering – Geddington – Lt Stanion – Corby) and 18 (Raunds – Thrapston – Brigstock – Lt Stanion – Corby) have been running under contract to Northamptonshire County Council using what remained the section 106 public transport funding from Little Stanion that was part-funding the previous service 8.
The present service 8/18 arrangement, in addition to Little Stanion, is partly funded by other section 106 funding in Thrapston and the inclusion of two entitled home-to-school transport services within the timetable. On bus takings and concessionary fares reimbursement cover about 55% of the net operating cost of the service.
At this rate, the funding will cease in September or October of this year and, given that the service does not cover costs, under these circumstances it is unlikely that any commercial operator would take over the service. However, there is scope within the timetable to make measured reductions in order to reduce costs and prolong the life of the service. These discussions have been on-going with Centrebus over the last month.
It is intended that a revised service comes into force from the end of May 2019, that achieves sufficient savings so that it is hoped that the service can continue until at least this time next year, or beyond if usage of the service continues to grow. The final detailed timetables are still being drawn up, and will be shared in due course, however the headline changes that you should be aware of are as follows:
· The service between Little Stanion and Corby will be reduced to approximately every 2 hours after 1000. It is currently every hour, but usage data clearly shows that the busiest journey is the 0750 arrival in Corby, with busy journeys immediately after 0930 but otherwise low usage spread across the remaining journeys. By removing the need for the bus to be in Little Stanion every hour, we can be more flexible with the way in which the buses are scheduled and we can incorporate drive rest breaks within the time. This reduces costs a great deal. There will also not be an opportunity to travel from Little Stanion to Kettering until a bus arriving at around 1300, outside of peak hours (see the next bullet point).
· It is proposed that there will be a new journey from Corby to Kettering, on schooldays, arriving between 0800 and 0830, with a matching return journey in the afternoon. The morning journey will not serve Wood Street, only the main road in Geddington in order to save time at busy peak hours. To accommodate this, the 0750 arrival in Corby from Thrapston will be advanced to arrive at 0740. This is subject to being able to accommodate the school bus from Gretton to Corby Business Academy elsewhere.
· The Saturday service will be reduced to be operated by one bus instead of two. As a consequence, rather than every 2 hours similar to weekdays, it will be much more based around a single journey from the villages to either Kettering or Corby, or between Raunds and Thrapston, outside of peak hours.
· Journeys on service 18 will be centred around morning journeys to Raunds/Thrapston and afternoon journeys to Corby, rather than every 2 hours throughout.
· Opportunities to access Corby from Geddington will be greatly reduced, and there is little evidence from the passenger loadings that there is demand for this.
· There will be a single workers journey home from Kettering and single workers journey home from Corby at 1745 each day.
· There will be no notable reductions to services between Brambleside and Kettering, given that this is generating a significant amount of the usage, thus income, on the service. Journeys between Geddington and Kettering will be retimed, with certain journeys stopping only on the main road in the village in the interest of making these journeys as quick as possible. Return journeys from Kettering will all serve Wood Street, as now, as will the first two buses towards Kettering after 0930.
Residents welcome to attend the Annual Meeting of the Parish of Islip- where various organisations will give a report on their activities during the year
It has come to the Parish Council attention, that there have been instances of dogs possibly consuming rat poison around the lake/nine arches bridges.
Owners/Dog walkers are urged to be extra vigilant when walking in this area, and suggest keeping dogs on the lead.
Islip Parish Council are to delighted to announce that the refurbished recreation ground will be officially re-opened on Saturday 6th April at 11am by the Chairman of East Northants District Council- Cllr Wendy Brackenbury.
Gigaclear, in conjunction with a County Council initiative will be installing fast broadband (up to 900 megabytes) to the North end of the village in the Summer. Currently there are no plans for the rest of the village, but if residents register their interest, and enough do so- it may be considered.
Go to their website https://www.gigaclear.com/postcode-checker and follow the instructions