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Category: Churches

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St Mary’s Update – 1st October 2018

St Mary’s Update – 1st October 2018

St Mary’s Church update for 1st October provides listings of services and other events and news.  This update includes IGNITE! Youth Service, changes to the Good News Magazine, Christmas Shoe Box Appeal & more.

Ignite imageIGNITE! Youth Service

St Mary’s youth group, Wired, together with young people from the Langham and Boxted churches, will be leading a celebration of lively and informal worship and interactive activities Continue reading “St Mary’s Update – 1st October 2018”

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After 139 Years

Methodist Memories FlyerAfter 139 Years

After 139 years of Methodist Ministry in our Chapel in West Bergholt, and after much prayer and discussion among our members, a decision was made to cease Sunday worship at the end of August. With an ageing congregation and numbers falling we have sadly decided that it is no longer reasonable to continue regular Sunday morning services. The Colchester Circuit will be marketing the site for sale from September. We will continue our activities in the hall, as part of our outreach in the village, for as long as we are able.

Methodist Memories

We could not let this important decision go by without a special event.  To mark this we are holding a special weekend of “Methodist Memories” at the end of September, September 29/30. This will be a Continue reading “After 139 Years”

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St Mary’s Update – 5th September 2018

Harvest Festival

St Mary’s Update – 5th September 2018

St Mary’s Church update for 5th September provides listings of services and other events and news.  This update includes Colchester Chamber Choir performing at St Peter’s, Boxted, Messy Church, Harvest Festival, Home Groups and more.

Music at St Peter’s

This Saturday, 8th September, at 6:30 pm the Colchester Chamber Choir will be at St Peter’s, Boxted, in aid of the tower repair fund.  They will perform inspirational Continue reading “St Mary’s Update – 5th September 2018”

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St Mary’s Update – 18th June 2018

St Mary’s Update – 18th June 2018

St Mary’s Church update for 18th June provides listings of services and other events and news.  This update includes Praise on 4 Café, results of Christian Aid collection, calls for help and a course in Christian Studies.

Praise on 4 Café  Church

Join us for coffee & croissants, music, informal worship and discussion on 24th June at 9:30 am. This month’s theme is ’Good News?’

Everyone Welcome! Continue reading “St Mary’s Update – 18th June 2018”

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St Mary’s Update – 5th June 2018

St Mary’s Update – 5th June 2018

St Mary’s Church update for 5th June provides listings of services and other events and news.  This update includes Messy Church, FIFA World Cup-themed this month, great fundraising results of the Garden Party and Children’s’ Society box appeal.

Messy ChurchMessy Church

The next Messy Church is Sunday 10th June at 9:30 am; the theme will be the Football World Cup!  Join us for a family-friendly, informal Continue reading “St Mary’s Update – 5th June 2018”

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Neighbourhood Plan reaches the final stretch

Neighbourhood Plan reaches the final stretch – make sure your views are heard

We are reaching the final stretch and the Neighbourhood Plan is almost finalised.   We are now holding a final community consultation in order to comply with planning legislation.  This is termed the Regulation 14 consultation and it starts today for seven weeks. After considering responses the plan will be sent to Colchester Borough Council which will begin the statutory processes for the plan’s formal adoption as planning policy.

The consultation will take the form of:

  • The release of the Regulation 14 Neighbourhood Plan document.
  • A Feedback form
  • An exhibition

To find out more and to view the consultation material listed above please visit our Neighbourhood Plan pages.  We encourage everybody in the village to visit the main web-pages listed below; this will help to get you started:

Exhibition

We urge Residents and Businesses to read the NP documentation and then visit the exhibition in order to further understand the proposals for:

  • Locations for new housing and other community facilities.
  • Policies covering future planning applications.
  • The areas in our parish that we aim to protect.
  • A range of community initiatives and aspirations.

Take time to read the full Reg 14 documentation, visit the exhibition and give us your feedback. This is the last of the community consultations which will take place. After this, our plan has to take its chances in the rarefied atmosphere of a statutory planning examination.  We will then call a referendum; after this, the plan can be declared a “statutory” plan.

Pivotal Point in the village’s history

As Chris Stevenson, Chairman of the Steering Group says:

The West Bergholt Neighbourhood Plan has taken several years to produce and I and my Steering group members have been delighted with the support received from the community to date. It has been my pleasure to lead a group of extremely motivated people, whose concerted effort has been to bring us to this point in the process. In this, the almost final version, we have taken on board many of the suggestions and comments received from previous consultations. What we need to do now is just check the final wording of the document and proposals contained. Please take the time to consider the plan and let us have your comments, not on the generality but on specific wording in the plan!

This is a pivotal point in our history. Never before has national and local government actually asked us to prepare our own plan to cover the next 15 years; make the most of this opportunity!

Chris Stevenson
Chairman West Bergholt Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group
Chairman West Bergholt Parish Council