News from Easton on the Hill Parish Council

Mobile phone survey

The Labour MP, Lee Barron, is campaigning for a better mobile phone signal and has asked residents to help by completing the East Northants Mobile Signal Survey.
This survey can be found here and is live until the 30th April 2026:
https://survey.labour.org.uk/leebarronmpmobilesignalsurvey
If you have any questions, you can email Isaac.Biddle@parliament.uk

New Maintenance Contractor 
The Parish Council is pleased to report it has accepted a tender from a contractor who bid for the Grounds Maintenance Contract.  Some may already know Terry Cowling, as he worked for CIPS for many years involved in maintenance and health and safety work there. Terry will be doing the safety checks of play equipment and the pavilion and minor maintenance repairs etc. (The grass/grounds cutting contract is a separate contract so no change there.)

Resident survey
Thank you to all the 137 residents who filled out the recent survey on the Parish Council service and priorities. The results of the resident survey are now summarised and published. You can see the full summary on the website News - Easton on the Hill Parish Council. The headlines are here:
This report presents a comparative analysis of the 2015 Village Survey (213 responses, 43% of households) and the 2026 Village Survey (137 responses). It is intended to provide the Parish Council with a clear evidence base from which to set priorities for the period 2026–2029.
Key Headlines Overall satisfaction remains very high.  
Traffic and speed remain the number one concern. 31% named traffic/speed/parking as the worst aspect (vs 34.5% in 2015), and traffic calming on the A43 was ranked as the top priority with 43% placing it first. 76% support reducing the A43 limit from 40mph to 30mph. Public transport has risen sharply as a concern.
27% now cite poor public transport as the worst aspect — up from 13% in 2015. With 78% of respondents never using Call Connect, this is a growing issue particularly for older and non-driving residents.
The Birch Tree Café has been transformative. 97% of those who responded rated it as having the most positive impact of any improvement. It has become the village’s third most-used facility after the shop and pub.
Playing field use by external teams is contentious. Whilst overall results showed that the majority of respondents do not use the playing fields for football or cricket; >85%, there were a few open responses reveal strong feeling about outside football clubs dominating the playing field, damaging the access track, and limiting residents’ use at weekends.
An ageing population profile persists. 47% of households include someone aged 66–75+, and the 56–65 bracket remains the single largest group (39%).
The village continues to skew older than the national average.
(Potholes were understandably also mentioned a lot! (please keep reporting these to North Northants Council, who will grade them and send updates on the action taken www.fixmystreet.com)

First Aid essentials and defibrillator refresher training session held
The recent training event delivered by St John's Ambulance was well received.  A note of thanks has been received and the Parish Council donated £50 to the organisation.

New residents
There is a welcome letter available for all new residents.  It contains useful information on the village services and beyond.  It can be obtained from the Village Shop or from the council website news page www.eastononthehill-pc.gov.uk

The next meeting is the Annual Meeting of the Parish Council on Monday 11/5/26 at 7pm.  This is when the Chairman and Vice Chairman are re-elected and committees, working groups and policies reviewed, as well as normal business.  All welcome.

Mrs Jenny Rice
Clerk and Responsible Financial Officer
tel 07889669550 clerk@eastononthehill-pc.gov.uk