WELCOME TO FELSTED
Located in north-west Essex and with a population of around 3,000, the Parish of Felsted has at its heart the historic village of Felsted, surrounded by Greens and Hamlets, in a beautiful rural setting.
Felsted retains the underlying charm and attraction of a rural parish, with the community and village at its heart. This is what attracts people to the area and what we as the Parish Council see as our historic duty to protect. Preservation of our heritage is balanced with a duty to ensure that the Parish thrives and meets the future needs of our community.
Winner of RCCE Village of the Year 2015
“One of the best places to live in the East of England” – The Sunday Times (2013)
LATEST NEWS
Uttlesford and Braintree Local Plans: update 14/7/16
Update: 14th July, public meeting for SERCLE
A public meeting has been arranged for SERCLE supporters next Thursday 21st July between 7-9pm at Stebbing Friends Meeting Hall, Stebbing High Street. This is to give everyone the opportunity to find out more about the current campaign strategy.
Sercle has also produced a flier, which can be downloaded here.
Original news item:
Your Parish Council continues to maintain awareness of, and involvement in, the Local Plan processes in Uttlesford, Chelmsford and Braintree.
Whilst the Uttlesford Plan remains our prime focus, there are issues and developments with neighbouring plans which impact the Parish of Felsted.
The Braintree Plan has entered its ‘Preferred Options’ phase, some weeks ahead of Uttlesford.
This includes a proposal for a New Town (referred to as a ‘Garden Community’) just to the north of Felsted. The potential size of this is indicated in the plan: starting at 2,500 houses, and ultimately up to 13,000 houses. Whilst the main area is within Braintree District, it also includes a significant development area within Uttlesford. Included in the ‘Area of Search’ for the New Town location is Gransmore Green, Felsted.
The potential impact on the Parish of Felsted from such a development would be massive. Alongside the impact from the physical presence of a New Town, dwarfing Felsted in size, there is the impact on roads, utilities, and services, to consider. Whilst there are plans to deliver these needs within the New Town development, the harsh reality of past developments is that facilities have followed long after the houses; in the interim local communities feel the impact. It is also likely that the village of Felsted would become a ‘rat run’ to Chelmsford for the development.
The Braintree Local Plan website is here . There are a number of public meetings to explain their plan. The feedback page for the current consultation is here. This process closes on 19th August.
A residents group, centred around Stebbing, has been set up. Whilst Felsted Parish Council has no official relationship with this group, we are pleased to share their details with Felsted residents, who may like to get in direct contact with the group:
SERCLE (Stop the Erosion of Rural Communities in Local Essex) is a resident-driven campaign whose aims are to:
- Make residents aware of the development
- Garner support for the campaign and give residents a voice
- Identify relevant (legal/compliance based) arguments opposing the development
- Make our voice heard as BDC and UDC perceive there may be no objection
The campaign has:
- A Facebook page – www.facebook.com/sercle.org and a web page (under construction)
- Petition – https://www.gopetition.com/petitions/stop-west-of-braintree-new-settlement-development.html
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Increased noise disturbance from Stansted airport flights
Your Parish Council has continued to receive complaints about noise and disturbance from increased flights out of Stansted.
This is due to the change in flight path usage, introduced in February 2016. Stansted moved flights, which previously took off to the west and south of the Parish, to directly over the Parish of Felsted. This has already more than doubled the planes passing directly over us.
You can read the original news item here.
We have now also written to the CAA here, and their response can be read here. Following on from this we have now written to the Secretary of State for Transport here, with a covering letter to our MP, Sir Alan Haselhurst asking him to take up the objection for us, here.
We are also lobbying the District Council and Stansted Airport Consultative Committee (STACC). We are also working with Stop Stansted Expansion group and other affected Parish Councils in the area, who are taking similar action.
Our goal is to have the change reversed at, or before, the official change review.
As proved vital in the successful defeat of the Catesby planning application, we need continued involvement from the community. Every single complaint counts and helps our cause.
As a result of Stansted airport switching off its freephone complaints line, it is now an online process to complain, but it is simple.
It takes just a couple of minutes to complete the form. This can be used to complain about specific noisy planes (where you need to give the date and time of the disturbance), or about the broader noise problem. Please do both.
Using the form via the Stop Stansted Expansion group’s website allows your complaint to be noted and used in their arguments, whilst also being forwarded to the Stansted Airport noise complaint team.
For more information, please contact Cllr Andy Bennett.
Felsted News needs a new editor: could it be you?
The ‘Felsted News’ newsletter has been important to the Parish Council, enabling us to reach everyone in the parish with news and information, especially those who are not online.
Produced 3 times a year, and delivered free to every household, ‘Felsted News’ is an A4 size, 4 page magazine style newsletter.
With the current editor, Alan Thawley, having moved away from the Parish after many dedicated years service as a councillor, we are now looking at options for the future, including working with Interface, the village church magazine.
Would you like to take on the role of ‘Felsted News’ editor?
Do you have some ideas about how we could produce Felsted News in the future?
Perhaps you have some ideas about how we can keep those not online up to date with what is happening in the Parish?
If you would like to have a chat about your ideas, or would like to find out more about this important role, please contact Diane Smith the Parish clerk or speak to one of your councillors.