Community, Parish Council & Village
The Agenda for the next Parish Council meeting has just been published, will they be discussing anything of importance to you? Don’t forget members of the public are welcome to attend and, if registered electors, are able to make use of the first 15 minutes which is allotted for questions to be raised with the council.
The meeting starts at 7:30pm on Wednesday 27th February in the John Lampon Hall.
Essex County Council has agreed to a range of traffic calming measures in the vicinity of Heathlands School. The suggestions were previously referenced in a local news update just 2 weeks ago and it is great news that ECC have agreed to the following:
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Flat Top table at each end, including lighting; Build out at Mumford Close including footpath link, lighting and signing; Parking restrictions at junctions New Church Road/lexden Road/school lane and chapel road; school keep clear markings, school warning sign and SLOW marking | |
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Flat Top Table from junction with Colchester Road; Parking restrictions at junction school Lane and Colchester Road; school warning signs and SLOW markings on carriageway. | |
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School warning signs and Slow Markings | |
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School warning signs and Slow Markings |
The Council has noted that there may be some concerns about these schemes and have said:
Lighting may be an issue with Local Residents as New Church Road is currently unlit. Power supply required – overhead supply required. Noise/vibration from vehicles travelling over humps may concern residents. School should consult with local residents before works begin.
Borough Councillors, Marcus Harrington & Dennis Willetts yesterday sent the following to residents of Valley Crescent:
The potholes at the junction of Valley Crescent and Chapel Lane have been a cause of anger and frustration for many months. Many of you have reported them through the proper on-line method on the Essex County Council website. Many of you have also reported them to us and we have both been in constant communication with ECC’ s Highways Department about them.
We agree the situation is unacceptable. Potholes of this dimension cannot be left for such a long time without repair. We have made our feelings abundantly clear.
As Colchester Borough Councillors we cannot do more than apply pressure. The responsibility for pothole repair does not lie with our Council. We have, however, also offered to repair the potholes ourselves but that offer fell on deaf ears.
Finally some hope is on the horizon and this is the reason for writing. We have been faithfully informed by Essex County Council’s Highways Department that repair of these potholes will be part of a wider programme of road surface repair in West Bergholt which should be completed by the end of March 2013. We want to let you know of this commitment arid hope you share some hope with us, even though it would take a brave man to put his mortgage on it!
With best wishes,
Cllr Marcus Harrington
Cllr Dennis Willetts
If you are plagued by potholes (or any of a wide range of Highways problems – see picture above) then don’t forget you can report them directly to Essex County Council’s Highway’s Department using their website.
Last summer the Parish Council adopted a Traffic Safety Plan which has its origins in the Parish Plan and has as its aim an enhancement of levels of safety in the village. This plan has been developed by the Environment and Highways Committee of the Parish Council as a result of the ongoing and increasing concerns of village residents.
A principal objective of the traffic plan is to improve all aspects of safety in the region of Heathlands School and the surrounding feeder roads. To achieve this measures are needed that will help to slow traffic, restrict parking that is irresponsible in dangerous areas and at the same time provide alternative parking for parents that find it necessary to use a car to transport their children to school.
The plan contains a number of proposals for relatively minor structural work in New Church Road and School Lane. These include parking restrictions at the junctions at each end of New Church Road, better signage to improve awareness of the school and a build out from the footpath from Mumford Close. These plans have now been considered for implementation by the Local Highways Panel and it is good to report that all have been approved. It is pleasing to know that if ideas that come forward from the village are put into a plan and discussed with the authorities concerned they can be developed into realistic projects. As yet there is no news of when the work will take place but the village will be kept informed.
For its part the Parish Council has considered ways of providing alternative parking. The Orpen Hall car park will be resurfaced and facilities improved. The works mentioned above will enhance safety for the walk from the car park to school. The Treble Tile has agreed that, subject to certain conditions, its car park can be used at school drop off and pick up times. To make safe the walk from here to school a new footpath parallel to School Lane is being installed along the edge of Poors Land.
Throughout this process the Parish Council is in dialogue with the school to ensure that as these modifications are put into place maximum advantage for all concerned is achieved by them. A full copy of The Safety Plan can be obtained by E-mail from The Parish Clerk or Harry Stone at [email protected] or alternatively it can be viewed on this website.
The Parish Council has recently announced the impact of the Borough Council’s decision to reduce its grant funding to West Bergholt by £3.640. Read the Parish Council’s announcement here.
The Parish Council publishes a range of ‘public documents’ on this website including committee minutes and agendas each month. If you want to keep in the loop then check them out.
1st Class Broadband!Thanks to the Parish Council and the Parish Plan group working together to achieve a common objective, West Bergholt now has access to high speed broadband services through its community broadband partner County Broadband Ltd.
In 2010 the village chose County Broadband to supply broadband services into the village totally independently of the BT services taking the speeds from an average of 500kbps to up to 8Mbps as required by the user. The charges for village residents and businesses are comparable to those charged by other broadband suppliers. By not being dependent on BT for the link between the broadband exchange and the home or business, the speeds provided are much faster and in line with modern user demand.
Speeds in excess of 20Mbs are now available to those needing higher performance and these will climb still further to meet the demands of our village in the years ahead.
If you require more information on broadband or would like to take advantage of the community provided service then contact County Broadband directly on either 0845 686 5000 or through their website at http://www.countybroadband.co.uk/
Remember that as this is a community broadband service that the village receives a small return on the original investment for every village user connected to the service. The money can then be used by the Parish Council to improve other needed services in the village.
The following article has been extracted from the Village Bulletin, edition 115, issued September 2008.
West Bergholt can be truly proud of achieving this award from the Rural Community Council of Essex (RCCE) for villages with a population between 2500 and 5000. In 2007 we received a commendation with Theydon Bois winning the class and Coggeshall taking second place. Clearly in a year our village has moved forward as this time we beat Theydon Bois into second place. The judges recognised this, as in announcing the award, they cited our work on The Parish Plan, the efforts being made to engage with young people and the caring nature of the village. This being exemplified by the First Responder Group, the Care Network and the importance placed on looking after our environment.
Winning this award means we will have a sign to erect beside our own village sign. After some considerable effort the new sign was dug up by two members of The Parish Council and removed from Theydon Bois village green.
Also by winning this award it meant that we were automatically entered into the National Village of the Year competition. Here we were third with Langham being chosen to represent Essex in further competitions.. The criteria for this competition was slightly different and resulted in a group of residents representing the village being interviewed by a panel of judges. I am grateful to those who gave their time to this but in particular Amber Harlow whose efforts on behalf of the young people may well have won us the award.
Now the challenge is to win this competition next year and hopefully the ideas in The Parish Plan will help to achieve this.
Harry Stone
The Agenda for the next Parish Council meeting on 27th June has now been published online here.