West Bergholt Campaigning

West Bergholt Parish Council campaigns mostly through its committees, working parties and relationships with other authorities such as CCC.  Sometimes, though, that is insufficient and so we need to actually campaign publicly.  This page provides a window on current and, in due course, prior campaigns.

Current Campaigns

Safe Crossing for Colchester Road

Crossing this road is inherently dangerous due to the narrow pavements and fast speeds often seen on it.  This is particularly the case during school hours. The Parish Council has been trying to get traffic calming measures or a pedestrian crossing, but efforts have been rejected.  The council recently decided to launch a public petition and, as this campaign grows we will update you here.

• Sign the petition here.
• Read the Launch Announcement here.

Update

Having collected 856 signatures in only a few weeks, the Parish Council passed the petition to County Councillor Lewis Barber. Lewis duly handed this to the Council member with responsibility for Essex Highways during the County Council meeting on 15th October. The Parish Council will be seeking updates from Lewis at upcoming Parish Council meetings (starting 23rd October).

National Grid’s Pylons Project

West Bergholt Parish Council has opposed National Grid’s plans for a line of pylons marching across our countryside.

The earliest reference to this opposition was on 27th April 2022 – over 2 years ago. It is apparent, though, that residents are now also getting more engaged and so we have set up a dedicated page to share what we know and what we have done in one place. 

Climate Emergency

On Wednesday 26th January 2022 West Bergholt Parish Council agreed the following motion in declaring a Climate Emergency:

“That this Council believes that a Climate Emergency should be declared and that the Parish Council will take action either through its own work, or in conjunction with others in the Parish, to cut Carbon Emissions, mitigate the effects of Global Warming and improve Natural Environments all in the wider interests of future generations.”

This ‘campaign’ is built in to the structure of the way the Parish Council operates and is sufficiently large that it has its own dedicated section of this website.

Twenty’s Plenty

This is both an ongoing and an imperfectly, but adequately, completed campaign.  In 2013 the Parish Council agreed its New Church Road Traffic Safety Plan which called, among other calming measures, for 20mph speed limits.  Essex Highways policy, however, is & was to not support 20mph speed limits.  Many other aspects of this plan were, however, fulfilled.

Moving forward to 2017 the Parish Council were able to implement 20mph signage in the vicinity of the school with the proviso that the signs had to be erected on private land.

Moving forward again to 2023, West Bergholt Parish Council has joined forces with numerous other Parish & Town Councils to call on Essex County Council to implement 20mph limits more widely where communities feel they are needed.