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
The great compost giveaway
If you want to give your garden a head start this summer, why not visit the ‘Compost Giveaway’ in Great Dunmow where you can fill your boot with ready-to-take-away compost.
The event has been organised by Essex County Council, in partnership with Uttlesford District Council and Great Dunmow Town Council.
The compost will be available at Braintree Road car park on Thursday, 30 June on a first come, first served basis to local residents from 11am to 4pm, or until supplies run out.
Just remember to bring your own bags or containers, gloves and shovels as you will be able to help yourself to a car boot load (based on a medium-sized car boot).
Please be advised you should arrive early to avoid disappointment as the compost has been in very high demand at similar events in previous years.
The free, nutrient-rich compost is created from garden waste collected at the kerbside and at recycling centres across Essex.
There are many benefits to using this, or homemade compost, as a soil improver:
- It is a brilliant alternative to peat which is, controversially, harvested to produce shop-bought compost
- It’s great for your garden as it improves soil structure, drainage and nutrient content
- It can be used as a lawn dressing, mulch and potting mix
For more information about the benefits of composting, visit www.recycleforessex.com, or to find out how to get a reduced-priced compost bin, visit www.getcomposting.com
Flight Noise From Stansted Over Felsted Parish
The last Parish Council meeting discussed the recent vast increase in aeroplane noise over the Parish from Stansted departures.
This is due to the change in flight path usage, introduced in February. Stansted moved flights, which previously took off to the west and south of the Parish, directly over Felsted. This has already more than doubled the planes passing directly over us.
The above diagram is from NATS. As can be seen, before February 2016, the flights spread over a wide area (marked by dotted lines), were moved onto 2 narrow corridors over our Parish (the red blob). As flights have to take off into the wind (before turning to head onto the air traffic control route to Clacton), different areas of the Parish are affected differentially, according to the wind direction at any time.
Cllr Andy Bennett led the Council’s strong objection to this plan, and some residents also contributed individually to the 2014 NATS consultation. Information about this is here and here.
When Stansted’s summer timetables start in the next few weeks, there will be even more planes overhead. The airport is expanding fast, and is only running at approximately 50% of current capacity. In addition, more runways at Stansted are again being promoted (4 RUNWAY HUB).
There could soon be many times the current number of planes flying directly over us. This will be near-constant loud aircraft noise over our quiet rural area.
The Council continues to make strong representation to Stansted airport and via other official channels. Cllr Andy Bennett and Cllr Richard Freeman met with senior management from Stansted, and their owners the Manchester Airport Group, in April about the unacceptable new situation.
But, there is no substitute for individuals making their own voices heard.
It needs a spread of individuals complaining NOW to stand the best chance of alterations being made to this new operation. Individuals’ complaints at flightpath changes around other airports (especially Gatwick) have led to official re-thinking to mitigate noise nuisances being concentrated into single areas.
The process of complaining to Stansted 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.
Using the form via the Stop Stansted Expansion group’s website, here, allows your complaint to be noted, then passed to the Stansted Airport noise complaint team.
You can also complain directly to the airport here.
For more information, please contact Cllr Andy Bennett.
Nationwide Tree Care: cold calling in the Parish
The Parish Council has been made aware of a male caller from ‘Nationwide Tree Care’, based in Boreham/Chelmsford, cold calling in Felsted.
He is giving out leaflets, 
and reportedly pressure selling, for work on trees and large garden shrubs. He is driving a white panel van (we understand it has no company branding) with ladders on the roof.
The leaflet claims that the company is a member of the ‘Rated People’ organisation. Whilst, under the auspices of ‘Data Protection’, the ‘Rated People’ customer support team will not advise whether or not this is true, there is every suggestion that they are not members. A simple Google search on the company and address given on the leaflet also does not validate the company and the 0800 number quoted is unobtainable.
The leaflet also includes the government ‘Environment Agency’ logo as a suggestion of endorsement. We are again trying to validate this, but believe it unlikely that this would be authorised, as the logo is specifically restricted from use under their terms and conditions.
We have passed on details of this matter to the local police, and, on their advice and with their support, are making this news announcement.
We would advise caution before engaging anyone for tree or garden work (or in fact any service) without careful checking of their credentials.
We would of course welcome contact from the company if this understanding is incorrect. Noting that there are companies with the same name in other parts of the country with no suggested association.