Ready for Winter? Join Snow Patrol.

Members of West Bergholt Snow Patrol pictured in early 2012

Snow worries? For the past 2 years we have had a brave band of “Snow Patrol” volunteers who have worked to keep the pavements in key areas clear of ice and snow during bad weather.

With early indications suggesting a colder winter than average for the UK, we hope the current volunteers will again join the team this year. Any new volunteers would be very welcome to help as well. We aim to keep the pavements clear for access to essential community assets such as:

Shops,
Pharmacy,
Doctors Surgery,
Heathlands School,
Bus Stops,
Orpen Hall,
Places of Worship, etc…

Anyone who is willing to participate can phone Harry Stone on 241026 or email [email protected].

October 15, 2013September 10, 2016

SpeedWatch Report

Speedwatch Report

Many readers will know that West Bergholt have a SpeedWatch Group. This is a group of volunteers, trained by the police to use an approved radar speed device. Members are able to go, at a convenient time, to approved sites and monitor the speeds of the traffic. Any motorist exceeding a threshold speed has their vehicle details written down, with time and date, and this is passed to Essex Police. The keeper of the vehicle will then receive a letter from the Police asking them to obey the speed limits in future. The Police state:

“Persistent high violators will be targeted by Essex Police resulting in prosecution.”

Intimidating

Many people have been concerned about the speed of traffic along the B1508, Colchester Road, and Lexden Road in particular. Lorries and other large vehicles can be particularly intimidating where the footpaths are so narrow. Most of these vehicles are not exceeding the speed limit, but even then they create frightening turbulence.

The rail company paints yellow lines on the platform, to separate people from the trains. Most of our footpaths are not wide enough to allow such a gap. The B1508, Colchester-Bures Road in West Bergholt has similar issues. Many people also complain about the skip lorries. Again most of these are within the limit, but when we went at 6 am on September 30th, the first one we saw was doing 44 mph, in a 30 mph limit! Miraculously all the others were within the limit.

Town Event for SpeedWatch

A Town event was held in Colchester on 18th September 2013, which involved several speedwatch groups. I would like to share with you the final results for the day;

Road Safety staff gave advice and showed education videos to 51 offenders at enforcement sites, 300 people on community wheels outside the Town Hall with road safety staff and staff from the fire brigade giving advice, and 66 drivers were recorded traveling between 36 mph and 49 mph in Fingringhoe, Langenhoe, Peldon and West Bergholt by your local Community SpeedWatch Teams who conducted 5 sessions during the day.

One resident reported to me that their cat had been killed by a speeding and hit-and-run driver. It could easily be a child or an old person next time!

Nuisance to drivers?

If you are a motorist who regularly speeds and thinks we are a nuisance, I would just ask you to do a simple experiment. Try driving within the speed limit and see how much longer it takes. Inevitably we have to slow for junctions and traffic lights, so the actual maximum speed has a surprisingly small effect on total journey time.

If you would like to come and join us, please let me know, so that you can receive the police training. Once trained members can go when they are able to find another volunteer(s) to join them.

Anthony C Robin
Spring Lane,
01206 571910.
[antibot mailto=”[email protected]”]

August 9, 2013

Action for Children

The Methodist Church in West Bergholt are running their annual house to house collection to raise funds for “Action for Children” from 2nd to 14th September. They would be delighted to have some more helpers to do rounds, so they can cover as much of the village as possible. If you can help, even for only a small round, please contact Sylvia Wilks, 76, Mumford Road (01206 242511) as soon as possible.

Action for Children (formerly National Childrens Homes) is a national charity founded over 140 years ago. It is dedicated to supporting and speaking out for the UK’s most vulnerable and neglected children and young people, for as long as it takes to make a difference in their lives… In short they:

work directly with over 250,000 children, young people, parents and carers;
run more than 650 services across the UK; and
tackle issues such as child neglect and abuse.

Their vision is:

For a world where all children and young people have a sense of belonging and are loved and valued. A world where they can break through injustice, deprivation and inequality to fulfil their potential, shape their own destiny and experience the joy of life.

June 25, 2013September 10, 2016

Speedwatch Campaign

Are you concerned with Speeding traffic through the village?

Your Village needs YOU.

Many people in the village have complained about the speed of some motorists as they drive through the village. Speedwatch is a small group of volunteers who have been trained by the local Police, and who are able to check speeds of vehicles using an official radar speed gun. We are able to go, when we are able, to locations which have been assessed as safe, and to note the details of cars or other vehicles travelling above a speed threshold. These motorists will then receive letters from the Police.

The two villages of Eight Ash Green and West Bergholt work jointly on this and our locations include the A1124 (Halstead Rd), Spring Lane, B1508 (Colchester Rd), sharing people and equipment. Any session requires a minimum of two volunteers but extra people are helpful to collect details. If you could spend a hour or so, when convenient to you, and would be interested in joining us, then could you let me know as soon as possible. If we receive enough volunteers, then we can arrange another training session with the local police.

We are not anti-motorist, most of us are motorists ourselves. We aim to get all to obey the speed limits, for the safety of all road users. There are many places with restricted views in these villages, one motorist well in excess of the limit at one of these motivated me to get involved with this project.

If you are interested and would like to join us, please contact me as soon as possible by phone on (01206) 571910 or email [antibot mailto=”[email protected]”].

Anthony C Robin

May 14, 2013April 29, 2013

Update from Annual Parish Meeting

The Annual Parish Meeting was held on 24th April and it was most encouraging to have more than fifty village residents present. The focus this year was “Celebrating our Village Volunteers” as we all appreciate the village has much to be grateful for and to be proud of. The opportunity was also taken to make those present aware of the importance of the Neighbourhood Plan and the village survey which takes the form of a questionnaire which will be accompanying the next edition of the Village Bulletin. Your views are vitally important so please look out for this and spend a few minutes by responding.

The meeting was also an opportunity to mark the retirement of Bernard Colbron from the Parish Council after twelve years of dedicated and loyal service. Bernard has been Chair of the committee responsible for the Village Halls for most of his time as a Parish Councillor. We have only to reflect on the part played in our village life of these halls to appreciate the importance of Bernard’s contribution to the community. We are very grateful.

In a previous Bulletin, and on this website, the position of editor was advertised. Although not directly linked to the Parish Council, this is a role that Bernard has also filled for many years. It is good to know that Bernard is only semi-retiring from village life as having left the Parish Council he is prepared to continue as editor, at least for the time being. We look forward to many more informative publications.

April 20, 2013April 19, 2013

West Bergholt celebrates its volunteers

The Annual Parish Meeting takes place on 24th April starting at 7pm in the John Lampon Hall. As well as affording an opportunity for informal discussions with your local Parish & Borough Councillors this is an ideal opportunity to join them in celebrating our many local volunteers who help make West Bergholt as good a place to live as it is.

Other items for the event include:

a report on Neighbourhood Planning, and
light refreshments!

March 12, 2013

Do you want to influence the Neighbourhood Plan?

Logo of the West Bergholt Neighbourhood Plan project

Do you want to influence the future of West Bergholt?

Are you interested in shaping your local area, deciding where new homes, shops and other facilities will go and what they might look like? Then have your say and get involved with the Neighbourhood Plan Group.

So what’s happened so far?

At the end of November 50 people gathered at the John Lampon Hall to discuss village issues with the aim of starting the process of establishing a Neighbourhood Plan for our area. The workshop proved to be a great start. The meeting divided into small groups to outline specific likes and dislikes that they felt to be important to the village. These were analysed and grouped under the following headings:-

Social and Community	Environment	Amenities
Commerce	Housing and Planning	Community and Safety
Transport and Highways	Recreation and Sport	Communication

Following the workshop more than a dozen interested residents convened the Neighbourhood Planning Group to get the Neighbourhood Plan under way.

Now this is where you come in –

… any interested village residents who would like to contribute in some way or, perhaps, find out a bit more about the project can contact the following for more information:-

Chris Stevenson – email [antibot mailto=”[email protected]”] or tel. 241708
Murray Harlow – email [antibot mailto=”[email protected]”] or tel. 242007

January 29, 2013March 17, 2016

Snow Joke

… but every time we get heavy snowfall, whilst great fun for many, it still brings hazardous conditions underfoot. So we offer our congratulations and thanks to the group of 20 volunteers who worked hard to keep pavements in key areas of the village cleared during the snow and ice that came in January, helping to keep the areas safer for all of us.

We always welcome more volunteers to help keep our village safe if we have any further snowfall this winter.

If you want to help please contact – Harry Stone (Organiser ) Tel. 241026

November 1, 2012March 17, 2016

Allotment Updates

Since the article about vacant Allotment plots in the September Bulletin a number of people have shown an interest in obtaining a plot and in particular the smaller 5 rod plots. At the same time it has become apparent that some of those showing interest are younger residents of the village who have enthusiasm but limited experience of growing vegetables. The Allotment Committee is keen to support such new plot holders and is proposing to introduce a “buddy” scheme whereby those who feel they need advice and help can be paired up with an established and experienced plot holder. We already have one example of this arrangement working well. If interested you can contact Terry Claydon on 01206 242124 or Email [email protected].

Please also check our webpage for updates on November bonfire date and also availbilty of horse manure to allotment holders.

Harry Stone (Chairman of Allotment Committee)

This material has been developed for the West Bergholt Village Website at http://www.westbergholt.net

October 31, 2012March 17, 2016

Winter Draws On

Last year we may consider ourselves fortunate to have had only one bad spell of ice and snow. As a result of the efforts of a team of volunteers we were able to keep much of the village safely on the move by clearing pathways at an early stage.

The Environment Committee of the Parish Council is now making plans to repeat the operation should the same or worse happen again this winter. Naturally the more that volunteer the more we can do to help ourselves. If you are prepared to help in this initiative please contact Harry Stone on 241026 or Email [email protected]

This material has been developed for the West Bergholt Village Website at http://www.westbergholt.net