NEWS

PCSO Natalie Smith will be hosting a beat surgery at The Wood Cottage Tearoom on

Thursday 6th  February  2025   11:00 am – midday

This drop in session is an opportunity for residents to:

• speak with the local community policing team about any concerns that they may have;
• obtain crime prevention advice;
• stop by for a chat.

Please feel free to stop by, everyone is welcome, no appointment is necessary.

Please note that there are some important changes to the bin collection schedules in Uttlesford over the Christmas period.

• There will be no collections on Christmas Day, Boxing Day or New Years’ Day.
• Your normal bin collection dates will be different during Christmas week (w/c 23 December) and New Years’ week (w/c 30 December)
• Normal collection services will resume from 7 January.

Please find more information about waste and recycling in the following links:

• When to put your bins out over Christmas and the New Year 
• 2025 waste and recycling calendar
• A guide to what can be recycled
• When your local recycling centre is open over the Christmas period

Felsted Parish Council (FPC) is looking for a suitably qualified and experienced contractor to provide complete grounds maintenance for village areas, commencing on 1st March 2025.

Please email moc.liamgobfsctd@cpdetslef.2hg

Due to Met Office severe weather warnings of strong winds and heavy rain, Felsted Parish Council has made the difficult decision to postpone the Christmas Tree Lights Switch On Event scheduled for this Saturday 7th December.

It will now take place on Tuesday 10th December at 6.30pm.

Hertfordshire and West Essex NHS Integrated Care Board would like to hear from anyone aged 65 and over, regarding the care and treatment they have received from the NHS over the last 12 months.  The short survey closes on the 5th December (tomorrow) and it is available here.

Construction on the new £1.6m health centre development in Station Road is scheduled to start in the new year.  The building will be owned by the Felsted Community as it was donated as part of the original planning agreement. With seven consulting rooms and parking for more than 30 cars, it will be a modern community facility delivered by our Neighbourhood Plan.

From the outset the intention has been to offer a generously discounted lease of the new premises to the NHS and use the income to maintain the premises and to provide other much needed services to our parishioners. We have worked with the developer, Uttlesford District Council, the West Essex Clinical Commissioning Group (WECCG) and the John Tasker House Partnership (JTH) to make sure that the building meets the highest clinical standards.  The parish has incurred considerable professional fees in the process.

The WECCG was dissolved in 2023, it was replaced by the Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care Board (ICB) since which time it has been a different story!

The ICB said they are only prepared to consider supporting our doctors’ tenancy of the building if we offer it to them as a ‘gift’ or accept a 90% rent abatement which will not cover the on-costs incurred by the Council

We have told the ICB and the JTH practice that though we remain keen to see the NHS use our new facility, we can’t agree to a rent that financially impacts our community.   Unfortunately, the ICB didn’t seem interested and has continued to demand an unaffordable reduction.

Our intention was that the NHS gets the opportunity to use an accessible purpose built facility, constructed to current NHS standards at no capital costs. This facility would offer disabled access, easy parking and would help ease congestion in the village centre.

Sadly, we’ve been informed that apparently the Doctors now seem to have changed their mind and, however affordable we make the rent, it doesn’t think that the GP’s practice can work with a Felsted community landlord.  Therefore, the ICB is now apparently considering ‘investing in improvements’ to the existing Felsted surgery premises owned by the JTH practice.

Whatever the ICB now plans, there still won’t be any parking!

With the full support of UDC, the Council and the Trustees will continue to try to talk with the ICB to find a solution.  But the facility will be built and owned by the Felsted Community Trust: whether the NHS wants to occupy it or not!

Following the public meeting last year Affinity Water will be providing at update at the next Parish Council meeting which is to be held on Wednesday 6th November 24 in the URC Hall, Stebbing Road commencing at 6.30pm. Members of the public are welcome to attend.

Respecting our Heritage, Defining our Future (2025-2041)

This first bulletin is a summary of the progress in the development of the Felsted Neighbourhood Plan which was originally made in 2020 and is now being reassessed by the Felsted Neighbourhood Plan Review group.

Read the bulletin here.

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