We hope you have all had the chance to enjoy the warm summer weather over the last few weeks. We were so pleased to see the young people enjoying both the new play equipment and access to the fenced area during the summer holidays. Both the School Head and the cleaning company who came to clear up at the beginning of September were amazed how little litter and mess there was to clear up. I gather the worst thing was a dead pigeon! Huge thanks must go to Pete Berry and Jan Spackman who not only opened and closed the fence gates but also kept the field litter free throughout the holidays. Also thank you to Reverend Faith who helped with this and to all of you who used the area responsibly and kept to the rules we were given. We hope to build on this in the future to ensure that our young people continue to be able to use the whole field.
We also held an official opening of our replacement and new playground equipment – a kickwall and a basketball hoop – during the summer and were delighted to see so many villagers join us for that – but it may have been the free ice cream that was the draw!
We began our September meeting with a few moments of silence to remember Elsie, Alice and Bebe who were killed in Southport over the summer as well as Jillu and Louise form our village as it was the second anniversary of their tragic deaths.
We also wanted to recognise the wonderful community spirit shown in our village when a funeral was arranged for Rupert, a resident without relatives, funded purely by donations from our residents.
Change of Vice Chair
Sadly Pete Berry has had to step down as Vice Chair for personal reasons and we thank him for all his work in this role over the past few years. Gail Baxter has kindly agreed to take over as Vice Chair.
Speeding Traffic
It will not surprise you to know that yet again this month Great Waldingfield has topped the Suffolk list of highest number of speeding cars per number of cars. We are concerned that the village is becoming part of a rat run between the Acton bypass and the Colchester Road. It continues to be a real problem for us and we will be bringing these figures to the attention of both Highways and the Police to see if they can support us in our efforts to reduce speeding through the village.
Parking around the Shop
The planters have certainly worked and are preventing parking on the Green itself, but vehicles are still parking on the pavement. The cost of the double yellow lines along all four roads around the junction is around £10 000 so, before committing to spending this amount, we will be considering whether the results will justify this expense. The additional problem for us is that something like this should be paid for by Highways, but they do not have the money to do it.
Dropped Kerbs
We were very concerned to hear about a resident who was unable to access the school successfully in a wheelchair due to the lack of dropped kerbs. We have had a meeting with Highways who have come up with a suggestion, but we are now waiting for a precise cost for this.
Joint Local Plan Consultation
Considerable concern was expressed to us about a map of sites around the village that had been put forward as a result of a Call for sites from Babergh. We want to make clear that these are not sites which have been assessed as suitable for development; this is merely landowners putting forward anything that’s available. There are no plans to even assess these sites yet, as Babergh is currently consulting about the criteria that should be used to assess sites going forward. We will be looking at these.
Refurbishing the Bus Shelters on Ten Tree Road
We have been aware for some time that the bus shelters were in dire need of a makeover and we will be using some of our General Reserves to do this very soon.
AED Defibrillator
The village currently has defibrillators outside the Village Hall and the pub as well as inside the Bowls Club. We feel that it would be good to have an additional one more central to the village, around Overing Avenue. However as there is no access to electricity there, we will be looking at purchasing one that doesn’t need it, adding to money generously raised by Nikki at the pub.
Green Acre
Green Acre was left uncut last year and we know that many of you were unhappy with the look of it. Now that this belongs to us, we have decided to create a specific wildflower area in the corner opposite the shop as well as a wild area around the bee orchids which are a protected species. We intend putting a low trellis type fence around these to ensure they are not cut down unintentionally.
Playing Field and Pavilion
With the gates on the field being open over the Summer, we took the opportunity to visit the village pavilion and could see that it is a good solid building which has much potential. We are still in discussion with SCC regarding access, but once this has been established, we hope to look at options.
A couple of updates from last month:
Community Self-Help Scheme
We are still looking for people who like doing practical tasks and would be willing to help out with things such as weed clearance, sign cleaning, painting street furniture, grass cutting, hedge cutting, tree pruning/branch removal. Please email into Mark (below) or let one of the Councillors know if you’d like to be involved.
Monthly PC Drop-In
Do you prefer to come and chat to a Parish Councillor face to face rather than via email?
We will be starting our monthly surgeries on a trial basis this month. One to be held as part of the Wednesday coffee morning (Wed 9th October) 10.30 – 11.30 am and the second on a Friday evening (Friday 25th October) 6.30 – 7.30 pm
We can’t guarantee that we will have immediate answers for you, but if not, we will try and find out!
If you have anything you wish either to bring to the Council’s attention or for the Council to consider at the next meeting (Monday 14th October), please email Mark Freeman on parishclerk.gwpc@waldingfield.uk or phone on 07922 336386. Alternatively the Clerk is at the village hall every morning between 9-11.30 apart from Wednesday.
Many thanks, Clare Kiely, Chair of the Parish Council
