Todwick Parish Council

Our next meeting is to be held on Tuesday 26th May. The agenda is available below

Background

Todwick Parish Council has, for many years, supported the installation of seasonal hanging baskets and floral displays on street lighting columns within the village. These displays are funded by the parish precept and form part of the Council’s longstanding commitment to maintaining the appearance and amenity of Todwick for the benefit of residents and visitors.

Street lighting columns in Todwick are owned and maintained by Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council (RMBC), which has confirmed that it is responsible for the design, installation and maintenance of all street lights, lighting columns and lampposts within the Rotherham borough.

The Issue

RMBC has indicated that the attachment of items to its lighting columns – including hanging baskets – is subject to a structural assessment, with associated costs to be borne by the Parish Council.

The Parish Council has reviewed the information published by RMBC on this matter and wishes to make residents aware of the following:

• RMBC’s public-facing street lighting pages on rotherham.gov.uk cover only fault reporting, requests to resite lights, and street works permits.
• There is no published policy, code of practice, guidance document, licence application process, or any public-facing information on the RMBC website concerning third-party attachments to lighting columns or the assessments said to be required.
• No published schedule of fees or transparent cost structure for such assessments has been identified.
• By contrast, a number of other highway authorities – including Lancashire County Council, Surrey County Council, Hampshire County Council, Leicestershire County Council, and West Northamptonshire Council – operate equivalent requirements supported by dedicated web pages, published codes of practice, and online application forms which are openly accessible to parish councils, community groups and businesses

The Parish Council’s Position

The Parish Council recognises that lighting columns are engineered structures and that any attachment must be safe and appropriate. We do not dispute the principle that structural suitability matters.

However, the Parish Council considers it reasonable to expect that, where an authority intends to impose assessment requirements and associated costs upon a parish council funded by local residents, those requirements should be supported by:

1. A published policy or code of practice setting out the assessment standard to be applied;
2. A transparent and published schedule of costs;
3. A clear application process accessible to parish councils and other community bodies;
4. Evidence that the policy has been adopted by the relevant authority.

These are the basic standards observed by neighbouring and comparable highway authorities. The Parish Council does not consider it unreasonable to ask the same of RMBC.

Action Being Taken

The Parish Council has formally written to RMBC requesting:

• Confirmation of the published policy under which the assessment requirement is being applied;
• Details of the assessment methodology and the qualifications of those carrying it out;
• A full and transparent breakdown of any costs to be charged to the Parish Council;
• Where no published policy exists, one should be produced and consulted upon before any charges are levied.

The Parish Council will continue to press for clarity on this matter and will provide a further update once a substantive response has been received from RMBC.

What This Means for Todwick’s Floral Displays

The Parish Council remains committed to maintaining floral displays in the village. We are exploring all available options to ensure that displays continue, including alternative mounting arrangements where appropriate. Residents will be kept informed of progress.

Contact

Residents who wish to raise any matter relating to this statement are welcome to contact the Parish Clerk via the details on the Contact page of this website.

This statement reflects the position of Todwick Parish Council as at the date of publication and is based on information published on rotherham.gov.uk and on correspondence with RMBC at that time. It will be updated as further information becomes available.