Village News

henson lane speed limits review
update june 2025

Many village residents have raised concerns about the speed limits on Henson Lane wishing to make it safer for pedestrians, cyclists and other road users, especially on the narrow section coming out of the village which has no central road markings or footpath and the road is crumbling into the grass verges.

In September 2021 a village based Parish Councillor submitted a request to Nottinghamshire County Council (NCC) for the speed limits to be reviewed and changed, specifically extend the 30mph along the narrow section to the crossroad junction with the farm buildings, and, reduce the 60mph to 50mph for the wider section down to the old A46 Fosse Way. The initial response from a County Councillor representing our village was that our request had been submitted to the relevant NCC department and we would be kept informed of progress but other areas were a higher priority. 

In March this year, our local MP was asked by village residents for help finding out progress of the review. The reply received from NCC was that investigations had been undertaken in 2022 concluding that they had "not found evidence to support a scheme to restrict this road or extend the 30mph zone".  This is disappointing news and has been raised with one of our County Councillors asking how the community can challenge this decision.

You can read the full text of NCC's reply in this document.

Road Closure for Resurfacing - Monday 23rd to Friday 27th October 2023

Great news!

DWH contractors will be resurfacing the back road leading to the village hall and bowling club. To keep everyone safe whilst the work is underway, there won’t be any access for vehicles and ideally pedestrians should avoid walking across the road too. This means access to the village hall, tennis courts, play park, woodland walk, orchard and bowling club will be limited.

Apologies for the inconvenience but hopefully you’ll agree the resurfacing will make the road safer for everyone to use once it’s completed.

Refurbishing the pagodas on the open parkland - August 2023

Great news! David Wilson Homes/Barratt Homes (DWH) have updated the Upper Saxondale Parish Council (USPC) on their plans to carry out maintenance to the pagodas on the parkland now that the tunnels works have been successfully completed. Work will start on Monday 21st August.

DWH have said “The next phase of works to be undertaken will be maintenance to the pagodas, and similar to the tunnels works, there will be plant and operatives working around each pagoda at various times.

Whilst we will be taking the utmost care to protect the wildlife and trees during these necessary works, we will require the residents cooperation in order for works to be carried out in a timely and safe manner.  Therefore, we would be grateful if these areas could be avoided and that children and pets are supervised, with dogs kept on leads. 

We anticipate these works to commence on 21 August and last for a duration of approximately 8 weeks.

The works will take place during normal working hours and we will make every endeavour to keep noise and disruption to a minimum, where possible.”

Regards
Ian Storey
Chair, USRA and USPC

Bingham Scout Group Proposal for Village Church Building - August 2023

USRA has been contacted by the Bingham Scout Group regarding the Scout Group's proposal to acquire (for a nominal amount) the church building at Upper Saxondale from the Rock Church, who acquired it when the original owners, the Catalyst Church, merged with the Rock Church a few years ago. The Scout Group intend to use the building as their permanent base, with scout meetings on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings. More information is given in their proposal document.

We believe that David Wilson Homes (DWH) have a right of pre-emption over the building for £1, but it seems that they will consent to the transfer to the Scout Group. There is also a covenant that the building should only be used for religious purposes, however the Scout Group tell us that the beneficiary of the covenant (which we assume is also DWH) is prepared to amend the covenant to allow use by the Scout Group.

The Scout Group will need to apply to Rushcliffe BC for planning consent for the change of use. The Upper Saxondale Parish Council will be asked by Rushcliffe for its views, and the application will therefore be discussed at a future Parish Council meeting. Residents will be invited to the meeting as observers in the normal way, and will also have the opportunity to express their views at the meeting. So far as we are aware no planning application has yet been submitted, and when submitted it could of course differ in some respects from their proposal document.

Regards
Ian Storey
Chair, USRA

Gas Pipe Repairs on Henson Lane August 2022

A bit of an update on the gas leak on the corner of Henson Lane / Saxondale Drive.

The crumbling iron gas pipe has been patched so many times that it now needs a different approach to fix the problem. So, Cadent has instructed their specialist contractors to encase the section of leaky pipe, running across Henson Lane, in a silicone box to prevent further leaks. However, longer term the entire legacy iron gas pipes may need replacing. This is a much bigger and costlier project which will involve more digging up of the road and pavements, and potentially some of our gardens too where the pipes run across then, eek!

The encasing work will take place next week with the road reopening soon afterwards. We’ll update you again when we have more news to share.