In her last report of 2024, Council Chair Maureen Caton welcomes a new members to the Full Council and offers an update on City and County’s controversial plans for new homes near Stansted…
Firstly – welcome to Councillor James Hardy – our newly co-opted member. James will be a member of the F&GP committee.
We have recently had our six -weekly meeting with the District and County Councillors – outcomes from the meeting were:
- Cllr Gooding has confirmed he has officially applied for the traffic calming measures on Church Road to be removed – however ECC has invoked a flood alleviation study requirement to take place early in the New Year before they will agree to proceed with this.
- Cllr Gooding has agreed to contact the Local Flood Officer to supply a contact for the maintenance team at the Environment agency.
- No longer term solution is yet confirmed for the Manor Road flats, whilst work is ongoing to replace the roofs and balconies. However, unfortunately the Parish Council has not been notified and has been unable to obtain any update on the Spencer Close survey outcome – this will continue to be chased.
- It was concerning that the District Councillors were unaware of the Car Parking and Fly Parking Review being undertaken by UDC.
- Following the Full Council Meeting attended by Cllr Cunningham we have had the following feedback – nothing – despite being chased
The Clerk and Cllr Jones are progressing the Neighbourhood Development Plan and it’s hoped to hold the Reg 14 consultation in the first part of 2025.
The Clerk was invited to attend an External Corporate Peer Review session at Uttlesford which was focussing on Rural communities. Her feedback was that the discussion focussed on the ability to contact officers and communication in general; the turnover of staff; depreciating funding and the impact on town and parish councils to meet need. Also, comment was forthcoming on the lack of across the board thinking and the impact of decision-making; as well as the lack of due consideration for strategic statistical evidence relating to communities.
The Chair of the economic Development Working Group was also invited to attend a similar session on “ Growth and Sustainability”. The feedback was that partners saw a need for a step change in the council’s attitude to engagement on a wider regional level and for it to have a much stronger and more strategic focus on economic development.
A meeting was held last Friday to discuss City and Country’s proposals to develop Green Belt land – the majority of the land being in Birchanger, with a small section in Stansted near to the M11 Business Park. The developer appeared to be saying that following feedback they are considering a smaller development and are looking at issues within any future proposal – such as transport/ the state of roads and the impact of traffic/ the strain on the GP surgery and schools/ the environment and ecology/ flooding.
Concerns were raised re the use of scare tactics by City and Country initially stating such a large build proposal (1,050) and now proposing a reduction in numbers; and the lack of acknowledgement of the existence of green belt – stating the area was grey belt land of low quality – and avoiding the issue that their proposal has been rejected for inclusion in the Local Plan by UDC. They would like us to draw up a shopping list of what we want if the proposal was ever agreed – and although there really is no firm current proposal. To this end the Chair of Birchanger Parish Council and I have agreed to set up a joint meeting in the New Year to discuss the way forward for the 2 Parishes in more detail.
I was concerned to read in the latest PCSO report to see the extent of his activities elsewhere in the district. We fund 25% of his time and Henham 12.5% but it would appear that we are losing more time to other duties being assigned to him by senior officers. I have requested that our Clerk set up a meeting with the Community Policing Sargent for us to address and rebalance this issue.
Stansted Youth 2000 have closed their bank account and paid £2,696 into the Parish account system for the sole use of the Youth Club. We and the Youth Club thank them for this and their support of our Parish Council youth service provision.
Also separate from the UDC grant for a number of pieces of equipment that the provider is currently bidding for with UDC – we have been alerted that we jointly need to bid by December 20th this year for funds to be available in March 2025, this would be to to support community and voluntary organisations to increase the participation of young people through a diverse offering of services. We need to do this in partnership with our provider at very short notice – whilst at the same time seeking clarification on whether funding will be for 1 or 3 years. We are currently seeking an extension to the deadline.
Finally, Uttlesford Community Travel have written to thank us for our grant of £1,000 and the provision of a life-line to our community.