St Mary’s Church update for 20th June provides listings of services, bible readings and other events and news such as Senior Citizen’s lunch, Contemporary Worship & IGNITE! service.
Don’t forget, the church is now open on weekdays if you would like a quiet space to reflect or say a prayer for someone.
Contemporary Worship
You can Google this and find many meanings, so why not pop along to the Methodist Church in West Bergholt on 25th June at 6:30pm and find out what the Colchester Methodist Circuit Continue reading “St Mary’s Update – 20th June 2017”
On Sunday 16th July the Tom Bowdidge Foundation & Heathlands PTA are organising a Boot Sale with a difference. If you are a residents of West Bergholt why not join in and sell your clutter outside your own home. No need to get up early, either, Continue reading “Boot Sale at home, how does that work?”
New Church Road L-R Rachel Hopkins (teacher – Heathlands), Jeremy Hallam (headteacher – Heathlands), Aaron Monks (winner – age 9), Cllr Anne Brown (Essex County Councillor), John Gili-Ross (Parish Council – Chair of Environment), Mrs Monks (Aaron’s Mum), Murray Harlow (Parish Council – Communications), Harry Stone (Parish Council – Vice Chair & Transport Rep), Chris Stevenson (Chairman Parish Council)At School Lane
20’s Plenty Near Heathlands
Improving traffic safety in our villages and schools can take some time but West Bergholt Parish Council has shown it is worth the effort. Over a three-year period the village produced and introduced a Traffic Safety Plan. It did this working in partnership with Essex County Council, Heathlands primary school and village residents.
You have until 31st January to share your views online about proposals to create 1,085 new primary school places across five existing Colchester schools from September 2018. All five projects would involve new teaching blocks, enhanced external areas for outdoor PE and play spaces, and increased car parking.
Responding to concerns about traffic related safety issues in the village, the Parish Council has helped to form a group whose brief is to explore ways of addressing these concerns. This group consists of Parish Councillors, Borough Councillors and residents who want to help bring about improvements; since September it has met three times.
As a starting point, the Village Safety Plan of 2012, which led to changes in New Church Road, has been revisited. As then, no single measure will solve all our problems, and so an approach, which is termed the 5 Es, is being followed.
Engage the community
Encourage good driving and parking
Educate all sections of the community
Enforce the regulations
Engineer revised road layouts
All need careful thought and cooperation to achieve, with 4E and 5E being most difficult and needing most time; however we have made a start.
On 25th February in the Orpen Hall a safety promotional event is being planned and will be advertised fully in the New Year, so please look out for details and make every effort to attend.
Reporting bad & illegal practices on Trygve
Trygve
Following increased activity on Facebook about 30 residents have already downloaded an App called Trygve. This gives you the chance to report incidents, with photographs if appropriate, and will:
give the authorities the means to identify persistent safety abusers, and
enable the group to collect evidence to support action at the most dangerous hotspots.
That being so, if you feel able, please sign up to join those already giving their support using this link.
Communications
The team are also establishing good communications with the School, hence parents, and there are plans to engage other key players such as the Coop.
If you have ideas to help, or would like more information, please contact the group through the Parish Clerk, Laura Walkinshaw, on 240772 or [email protected].
The band have already been very busy around the village this autumn, holding an open rehearsal at Heathlands in September and a primary school workshop (again at Heathlands) in October. Coming up as well we have a concert in the Church of St Mary in November, and of course we’ll be playing for the village Remembrance Service.
Workshop
Surprisingly the workshop was the first one we’ve held at Heathlands, as historically the school musicians were encouraged to join the band by its founder Sid Cooper who taught music there. These days our approach to maintaining a wide range of ages in the band is to hold regular primary school workshops, which have proven to be an incredibly popular and fun way for us to encourage tomorrow’s musicians. We were delighted to see so many players from Heathlands join us for the workshop and perform a wonderful “mini concert” at the end of it, and to see such enthusiasm for music at the school. The final word goes to somebody at the workshop…
The band made everyone feel very welcome indeed – what a fun afternoon!
Concerts & Charities
At the time of writing this, we’re looking forward to performing our “1966 And All That” concert in the village. This will be our first concert on home turf for a couple of years. This time we’ll be raising money for Children In Need to add to the £35,000 that we’ve raised for local & national charities since we started recording the amounts a dozen years ago. That amount includes:
almost £10,000 for St Helena Hospice, not including the amounts we raised for them before our records began,
£4000 we’ve raised over the years for the village Church and its charities, including at 2004’s impromptu “Last Night Of The Proms In A Barn” when the heavens opened unexpectedly.
Christmas
As always we’ll end the year with a concert featuring the wonderful music of Christmas. This year we are at the beautiful St Peter ad Vincula Church in Coggeshall again on Saturday 10th December at 7:30pm. The concert will include music from Vaughan-Williams, Irving Berlin, Leroy Anderson (Sleigh Ride), The Beach Boys (Little Saint Nick) and many others. We’ll also be performing a selection of carols, some to sing to, and some beautiful arrangements that are perfect for listening to. We hope you’ll join us for a lovely evening of festive music in a lovely setting.
As always, details on all of our events are available on the band website www.wbcb.org. New players of any age are always welcome to come along on Friday evenings at Heathlands School, or our next Open Rehearsal on 20th January. We look forward to seeing you at our Christmas Concert, and we wish you a Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year.
West Bergholt Concert Band are offering a FREE Fun Music Day for developing Brass & Woodwind players. Taking place at Heathlands School on Saturday 8th October there are two sessions: Continue reading “Free Fun Music Day with Concert Band”
Taking place on Saturday 5th November, The 24th Heathlands Fireworks display will definitely go with a bang. With the gate opening at 5pm, tickets on the night (if left) will cost £7.50 for adults and £5 for children. Advance purchase is posisble from Monday 17th October until 2pm on the day at discounted prices of Continue reading “24th Heathlands Fireworks”
As a result of concerns about the safety of traffic in the village expressed at a recent Parish Council meeting a group consisting of Parish Councillors, Borough Councillors and village residents has been formed and met to consider what actions we can take to improve safety on our roads in the village. The aim is to produce a plan with a strategy for actions that will be adopted by the Parish Council and lead to residents feeling more safe as they move around the village.
The Parish Council approved a Traffic Safety Plan in September 2012 with the objective of dealing with such issues mainly in the area of the school. After reviewing progress on this plan the new group hopes to have revised proposals to put to the village for consultation.
You can read the 2012 plan here but in brief the vision was:
The Parish Council has a vision for the future travel environment in the village where walking and cycling become the preferred modes of travel, that traffic levels and parking do not dominate our village and that the safety of adult and child pedestrians remains paramount.
The strategy for achieving the Aims and Objectives of this plan included:
Restricting parking.
Providing alternatives for parents.
Slowing traffic.
Improving facilities for pedestrians and cyclists.
Reinforcing the school travel plan.
Update on Measures Proposed
Measure
Progress
1.
A “Build Out” in New Church Road from the footpath to Mumford Close.
Not achieved due to objections from local residents but timed yellow line restriction from pathway instead.
2.
“Built up Tables” at each end of New Church Road and School Lane.
Not achieved due to objections but red patches painted in road.
3.
Yellow zig-zag lines outside school to be extended as far as bend.
Timed yellow line restriction added instead.
4.
Improved signage on approaches to school.
Achieved.
5.
New footpath along the edge of Poors Land.
Achieved.
6.
Car Parks at Orpen Hall, Treble Tile and Church to be made more available for use by parents.
Orpen Hall park improved and journey to school made safer at crossing with New Church Road. Use of Treble Tile agreed and operated for a time but then withdrawn due to misuse by parents.
7.
20 MPH limit in New Church Road.
Achieved with enhanced signage to follow.
8.
Designated space for disabled parking on Lexden Road.
Not achieved.
9.
A “Park and Walk” scheme organised by parents.
No known progress.
10.
Parents who drive to school to be encouraged to operate a voluntary one way system in School Lane.
No known progress.
11.
The school to review its Travel Plan.
Discussions between the school and Parish Council are ongoing.
Contemporary Worship
