Kelvedon Hatch Parish Council

KELVEDON HATCH PARISH COUNCIL

Minutes of a meeting of the Environmental Committee held on Wednesday 4th May 2016 at 8.00pm.

1. PRESENT Cllr D Jobbins, Cllr D Stacey, Cllr J Woodhouse and Cllr R Williams. 2 members of the public were also present and D Munro, Parish Clerk.

2. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE Cllr M Allen and Cllr C James. (In the absence of the Chair, Cllr C James the Vice-Chair, Cllr D Jobbins chaired the meeting.)

3. DECLARATION OF INTEREST & AMENDMENTS TO THE REGISTER OF MEMBERS INTERESTS None.

4. MINUTES OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL COMMITTEE MEETING ON 3 rd MARCH 2016 The minutes of the meeting held on 3rd March 2016 were agreed and signed by the Chair.

5. MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC QUESTIONS The meeting was suspended at 8.05 pm to allow for questions from members of the public. Bryan Smith raised a question about the state of the Ash trees in the village. He asked if the PC was aware of any plan to deal with those trees that are going to die or to preserve those that were healthy specimens. Cllr D Jobbins advised that those trees on private land would be the responsibility of the landowner and those not on private land would be the responsibility of BBC or ECC. However, Cllr D Jobbins agreed to raise this issue with Alan Marsh the arboriculturist at BBC. Bryan Smith also commented upon the poor state of hedgerows. These were not being maintained properly by farmers and many small hedgerows have now become rows of trees. Bryan Smith also enquired whether it would be possible to ask ECC to provide a footpath / pathway between the village and the doctor’s surgery. He was advised that based on previous requests made to ECC to provide new footpaths the cost of such a project would be prohibitive. Bryan Smith also reported that he had recently challenged someone walking their dog without a lead on Poor’s Field. The response from the dog walker was abusive. The meeting resumed at 8.30pm.

6. MATTERS BROUGHT FORWARD a) Play Area. The clerk reported that the repainting of Play Equipment was on the agenda for the full PC meeting next week. Members agreed however that we should seek to press on with this to get the repainting completed before the school summer holidays, b) Swan Pond. - Maintenance and Information panel. Cllr M Allen had sourced an information panel /lectern for a very reasonable price. It was agreed that this should be recommended to the full PC. Cllr R Williams reported that there were footballs floating in the pond. It was suggested that these could be retrieved with an extending pole fishing / landing net. The clerk was asked to find out how much one of these would cost.

1 c) Planting of Wildflowers on verges. Cllr D Jobbins had searched the village for suitable sites for the sowing of wildflowers and had identified 2 possible sites. The first was the triangular piece of land along the side of Ongar Road between the Blackmore Road junction and the bus shelter opposite The Eagle PH. The second was also along the Ongar Road between Kames House and Hatch Farm. Cllr R Williams agreed to approach Writtle Agricultural College to see if anyone there would wish to take this on as a project for next year. d) Damage to the grass verge near Kames House / Hatch Farm, Ongar Road. Cllr D Jobbins reported that it had not been possible to arrange a site meeting to consider whether wooden posts could be installed to prevent vehicles driving across the verge. He reported that a further vehicle had driven across the verge in the past few weeks. It was agreed that available members should meet at the site on Saturday morning (7th May) at 9.30am. e) Fly Tipping There was nothing further to report on this but Cllr R Williams stated that he had read that some authorities were getting more aggressive about this and increasing their fines. f) Protection of The Coppice (SSSI) Following concerns that The Coppice could be at risk from off-road vehicles Cllr D Jobbins had contacted Natural England for advice. A response was still awaited. g) Native Hedgerows Cllr R Williams reported that he had been carrying out some research into the planting of native hedgerows. It had become clear that there were many schemes and funding available to support this. He will continue his research until he is able to report back with a plan or a proposal for consideration.

7. INSPECTION AREA UPDATES Cllr D Stacey advised that he was awaiting the outcome of the current resurfacing programme to find out how many potholes and other highways defects had been repaired in the process. Cllr D Jobbins advised that he had written to ECC Highways about the excessive amount of chippings used on the Church Road resurfacing. He had also complained about the amount of dust thrown up from these chippings by passing traffic.

8. INFORMATION ITEMS FROM MEMBERS Cllr R Williams suggested that the PC ought to consider a more proactive approach and we should sit down with residents of the village and work out a plan of things that can be done for the village. This item to be put on the next agenda for discussion. Cllr D Jobbins asked for Good Communications to be put on the next agenda to discuss ways of communicating better with residents of the village.

9. DATE OF NEXT MEETING The next Environmental Committee meeting will be held on Wednesday 6th July 2016 at 8.00pm in the Committee Room, Village Hall, School Road, Kelvedon Hatch.