Home

Upper and Lower Benefield is situated in East Northamptonshire, along the A427 in between Corby and Oundle.

Benefield Parish Council consists of 7 elected members who represent both Upper and Lower Benefield. The Parish Council Meetings are held approximately every 6 weeks in the Village Hall, Brigstock Road, Lower Benefield.

The Draft Minutes from the Parish Council Meeting held on Monday 22nd February 2021 are now available. The  date of the next Parish Council Meeting is due to be held on Monday 12th April, the agenda is now available

There is a growing Cricket Club, the Cricket Pavilion has been extended, which is situated in Upper Benefield.

The Village Church is in Lower Benefield, along the Brigstock Road, which holds regular services on Sunday’s along with an Annual Flower Festival and Garden Fete.

The Village Hall page has been updated with details of the Annual General Meeting.

Community Email

Benefield Parish Council would like to set up a community email; if you would like to receive an email communications from the Parish Council, please do send an email to benefieldparishcouncilclerk@gmail.com saying “I consent”.

By doing this you will be consenting to Benefield Parish Council holding your email address and using it to communicate with you. This will be done in accordance with the Councils data protection policy which can be found on the Council’s website. The policy summarises your rights, including your right to withdraw your consent at any time.

Please note that all emails to be circulated to the village by the Parish Council will be “closed emails. In other words, no recipient of an email will be able to see the name or email address of any other recipient of that email.

CHRISTIAN AID WEEK

Christian Aid Week this year is 10th – 16th May.  The focus of Christian Aid Week will be the devastating effects of climate change on rural communities in Kenya, and how Christian Aid is helping them adapt.  This year is particularly important for decisions about Climate Change, with the UK hosting the G7 summit meeting in June, and also the COP 26 Climate Summit in Glasgow in November.  Ch

‘Thank you for the Rain’ tells the story of Kisilu Musya, a smallholder farmer in Kenya who has used his camera to capture the life of his family, and the human costs of climate change.  The 90-minute film is a call to action to all who care about God’s creation and justice for all people.

If you would like the opportunity to watch this remarkable documentary at home during the next few weeks, please email Eleanor Rayden at eleanorrayden@hotmail.com for the link to the film.   There will be a Zoom discussion about it at 7.30 pm on Wednesday May 5th.    This will be an introduction to Christian Aid Week this year (10th – 16th May), which focuses on the climate crisis and our global neighbours in Kenya who continue to battle the effects of extreme weather.

In the past, we have managed to organise house-to-house collections in Oundle and in many of the local villages, including Benefield  and we have together raised thousands of pounds this way for Christian Aid.   This type of collection won’t be possible this year because of government Covid-19 restrictions.   In view of all this, Eleanor is planning to set up a JustGiving page again in May (last year this raised well over £4,000 in the Oundle area, with almost 100 donations, several of them very generous).  Details to follow.

Dog Fouling – Clean Up After your dog – It is the Law

There have been several reports of dog poop bags being thrown into the hedgerows along the permissive footpaths, please take it home and put it in your black bin.

The Law

Using powers in the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act (2005), East Northamptonshire Council has implemented four dog control orders including “Failing to remove dog faeces”. This applies to all land that is open to the air and the public are entitled or permitted to have access to with or without payment. Using these powers the council can issue a fixed penalty notice of £100 to any person that lets their dog foul and does not pick it up. Being unaware that your dog has fouled is not considered a reasonable excuse for leaving it.

If you are issued with a Fixed Penalty Notice and you don’t pay it you could be taken to court. The maximum penalty then rises to £1,000. Whenever you go out with your dog carry some bags with you, just in case. Having no bags with you isn’t a reasonable excuse for not clearing up and you could still be issued with a Fixed Penalty Notice.

Enforcement

East Northamptonshire Council’s Environmental Services Officers patrol areas where problems with dog fouling have been reported to try to catch the offender or act as a deterrent. If you would like to report a fouling problem it would be helpful if you could give them as much details such as approximate times when the fouling is happening and if possible descriptions of the dog and/or its owner. We may also be able to put up some signs warning owners not to let their dogs foul. Please see our dog fouling page for more information.

Please use the reporting dog fouling form to report an area to us where dog fouling needs to be cleaned up.

Church News Page has been updated on 17th December 2020

Village Hall Events page updated on 24th March 2020

Local Events page updated on 6th November 2019

Neighbourhood Plan Document has been added and Details of How the Council Tax is Calculated on Tuesday 3rd September 2019.  These Documents can be found under the heading of Parish Council.