NEWS

Following on from our earlier news item about the Uttlesford Local Plan, and the possibility of 10,000 houses being build on agricultural land adjoining the Parish, we have been asked to provide some additional guidance to help people respond to the consultation.

Documents:

The web page with all information can be found here.

The detailed consultation document is here.

The word document to insert your responses can be downloaded here.

How will Felsted Parish Council respond?

We are finalising our detailed response to the consultation. This will be finalised for approval at the full council meeting on 2nd December. Key to our response will be the following points:

In response to question 10, we believe that the principle of Uttlesford building one or more new settlements of up to 10,000 houses in providing for the future development needs of the District is wrong.

Following on from this, and in response to question 16, we shall be objecting to the single new settlement, as outlined in ‘Scenario A’, and supporting ‘Scenario D’, where smaller developments are sited around the District to support local housing needs.

Central to our submission is our response to Q11, detailing why we believe that building a garden village in Area 9, adjoining Felsted Parish to the north, would be wrong.

We will highlight that  Area 9:

• Potentially joins on to a site identified as a part of the Braintree Local Plan ‘call for sites’. If both are adopted then Felsted would be in the shadow of a major development and joined to Rayne by a new Garden Village.
• Will irreparably damage the cultural and unique heritage of Felsted, destroying what makes it an attractive place to live
• Will result in increased traffic and congestion in Felsted Parish and village
• Has poor access to rail networks via Braintree and Chelmsford
• Has limited access to the A120 due to a restricted access junction
• Has grade 2 agricultural land that should be protected
• Will require more infrastructure, specifically GPs, of whom there is both a national and local shortage
• Will not deliver the necessary employment opportunities. Despite statements that employment will result, it is likely that most residents would commute to existing centres of employment. This could result in Felsted centre being used as a commuter route into Chelmsford.

What can you do?

Your Parish Council has a voice in the consultation, and so do you.  It is vital that we all add our individual responses to make sure we are heard. If we, as residents, don’t spend 30 minutes to add our personal responses, then we cannot guarantee that we will be heard.

If you agree with the Parish Council, please do not simply copy the above points, as multiple ‘copy and paste’ responses risk being viewed as a single submission.

Remember, whilst the word document asks many questions about different aspects of the Local Planning process, you do not need to answer every question. If you have a single point to make on a single question then you can submit just that point, simply leave the other boxes empty.

Please download the word document above, add your comments and send to this email address: ku.vog.drofselttuobfsctd-fd717@ycilopgninnalp.

It is your Parish, have your say.

We have recently seen an increase in the amount of dog poo on pavements around the parish and left on the allotments. As is usually the case, this is caused by a minority of owners, not the responsible majority.

This is a health hazard, both to pedestrians and to those doing their best to grow their own vegetables on the allotments.

Please do keep your dogs on a lead whilst on the allotments and make use of the 12 dog bins around the village when walking your dog. Please use them for your dog’s poo, encourage others to do similar, and help keep our Parish healthy and clean.

On a similar litter subject. Your Parish council has arranged a number of ‘litter picks’ to help clear up the litter discarded in our Parish, usually by lazy drivers preferring to litter our lanes rather than take their rubbish home. If everyone walking their dog, or just enjoying the fresh air on a stroll around our Parish, picked up one piece of litter, then we would have a cleaner tidier Parish.

We can all do our bit to help preserve the beauty of Felsted.

Essex Police issues a ‘Partnership Document’ detailing crimes in the county.  These are routinely copied to the Parish Council, whether or not there are any reported incidents in the parish.

We have been asked to copy these reports to the website and will be adding them to this page in future, so that residents are both aware of reported crimes and alert to ways in which they can make property secure.

It should be noted that Uttlesford is a safe place to live. It has the 4th lowest crime rate in Essex at 3.4 offences per 1,000 population (Home Office, 2013/14). The rate of recorded offences has been steadily falling since 2003-04. Across the whole district rates are extremely low with vast majority of crimes relating to criminal damage, non-dwelling burglaries, and thefts from motor vehicles.

You can also sign up for Essex Community Messaging to receive alerts regarding policing and community safety issues which affect you.

This Saturday, 10th October, the Parish Council is arranging another litter pick. If you are able to help please meet at the playing field car park at 10am.   Just come along (all equipment will be provided) or contact the Parish Clerk for more details.

We have also purchased more daffodil bulbs. Those we planted this time last year made the Parish look lovely through Spring. If you can help by taking a few bulbs to plant in your area of the Parish then please contact Cllr Freeman.

These activities help make Felsted a great place to live. If you are able to spare some of your time to help your community then please do.

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The Essex Rural Partnership Rural Strategy Questionnaire is now live.

The team are aiming to get as many responses as possible to ensure that the new strategy is well-informed of people’s needs and views.  The questionnaire can be completed on line and should take approximately 10 minutes.

The questionnaire can be accessed here.

The questionnaire will be live for 10 weeks, closing on 4th December.  The questionnaire is open to be completed by anyone – as an individual, on behalf of a business, or on behalf of an organisation (a Council, a club, an association, etc).

This update is part of the process to keep everyone informed regarding actions from The Felsted Parish Plan.

One of the important areas of focus in the plan concerns roads in the Parish, with the aim of reducing congestion and improving parking. The following outlines just some of the actions underway:

3 proposals have been made to the Uttlesford Local Highways Panel under their ‘project scheme’, including speed limit reductions and additional speed activated (VAS) control signs.

Training is underway for volunteers for a Community Speedwatch scheme. If you are interested in joining please contact the Parish Clerk.

We also continue to work with the schools and businesses in the Parish to manage congestion.

Applications have also been submitted to North Essex Parking Partnership (NEPP) for double yellow lines in Stebbing Road, zig zag lines in front of the Prep School and ‘Keep Clear’ markings on the Braintree/Stebbing Road junction. An application has also been made to mark out the bus stop outside the Primary School to improve traffic flow.

One of the identified aims in the ‘Roads’ section is to ‘Promote safe and courteous behaviour’ by ‘Identifying and warning frequent offenders’. As a part of  the process to achieve this, the Parish Council has engaged the services of a  Parking Enforcement Officer. Whilst 17 tickets were issued between 1st June and 1st September, the objective of the process is for the officer to find no infringements and issue zero tickets.

As a point of courtesy we would also ask drivers not to park on pavements, where they may impede pedestrians, especially those with children, wheelchairs and push chairs.

We, your Parish Council, would like to hear from you. What do you think we should do to improve the Parish for us all?   Come to our monthly meeting and have your voice heard.