Flitch Green News Winter 2018 Edition

Flitch Green News Winter 2018 edition

Produced for the community of Flitch Green by Flitch Green Parish Council

In this issue

Introduction from the Chairman of Flitch Green Parish Council 3

Your Parish Councillors 4

Flitch Green communications update 6

Little Flitchers 10

Helping to keep Flitch Green clean and tidy 11

FGPC Community award scheme 12

Community meet up 14

Community Security update 16

Parking issues in Flitch Green 18

Friends of Flitch Green Academy—meet the new Chair 19

Byelaws 21

Flitch Green Trust update 23

Gladman Land development proposal 24

Welcome to the Winter 2018 Christmas issue of Flitch Green News. I hope you enjoy the updates from our Parish Councillors, the Community Trust, and other contributing authors. Hopefully, together with some useful community information, and advertising by a selection of our local businesses, this issue will provide you with some interesting reading.

We missed our target of producing a quarterly offering, but your Parish Councillors have not been taking it easy during the last six months. A review of the minutes on our web page shows our continuing efforts to make our village a safer, cleaner and just plain nice place to live and bring up our children.

The final steps have been made towards handing over management of the leisure facilities to the Community Trust, who will manage the sports hall, the community centre and the sports field on behalf of the Parish Council

There has been considerable effort towards adopting the remaining open spaces in the village, and opening them up for use by all of our residents. Additional benches have been located at many locations, along with extra litter and dog litter bins. Hopefully, this will allow people to meet and enjoy the flower tubs. These general areas will remain under the management of the Parish Council. Work is continuing on the adoption of the remaining open spaces, such as the lake.

As you will read inside this magazine, we have already started our implementation of a CCTV system and it already enables us to record antisocial and criminal behaviour in key areas of the village. Our contracted security patrols provide additional vigilance at random times and locations. We are working closely with the Uttlesford Community Policing Team and sharing information in order to rid our village of the increasing evils of soft drugs and antisocial behaviour.

There have been some failures. Notably, our Youth Club has closed, due to a lack of appropriate volunteers. Those who have volunteered worked with great effort and diligence, providing a great resource for our youngsters, but nobody can volunteer for ever. The Parish Council are working on a number of initiatives, including linking up with other villages, but as always, volunteers are essential. So if you have the time and would like to play a part, please let us know.

Speeding in the village is a perennial, and perhaps increasing problem. But it is not as easy a problem to solve as it may initially seem. In order to apply legal pressure, it needs to be against the law, and that means our roads need to be adopted by the Highways Agency, otherwise they are legally still under control of the landowner. We are working to get all of our roads adopted, and that will allow us to apply for suitable speed limits. But the enormous amount of money Councils raise in speeding fines indicate that the real solution is education. And we are working on that with a new initiative, including traffic cameras on Station Road, and a leafletting campaign inside the village.

On the plus side, new initiatives from some of our more public-spirited residents have appeared, and we are blessed with litter-picking days, children's activity days, and fetes and fairs. Added to the regular program of activities at the Community Centre, these show that we are becoming a much more integrated and complete community.

And on that positive note, I shall sign off, taking the opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and a prosperous and happy 2019.

Terry Jack Chairman, Flitch Green Parish Council

Your Parish Councillors

Terry Jack is the Chairman of Flitch Green Parish Council. Terry was one of the very first residents to move to Flitch Green and has been involved with the Parish Council for over five years. Like many of the Councillors he has been actively involved in planning matters and was part of the team that oversaw the planning appeal which led to the community facilities finally being completed.

Helen Mason has been the Clerk to Flitch Green Parish Council since 2010. She is married with three children aged between seven and 16 and has lived in Flitch Green for the last sixteen years. In her role as the Clerk, She organises the council's regular monthly and extraordinary meetings, takes the minutes, manages the council's finances as its Responsible Finance Officer and deals with all day-to-day inquiries regarding the parish. If you have an issue that you would like to raise with the parish council, Helen can be contacted by email at [email protected], via the Flitch Green Parish Council Facebook page or by telephone on 01371 823172.

John Doughty joined the parish council in 2017 and heads up our community security sub-committee. He has also been focusing on a comprehensive review of our community communications, which has included the design and development of our new website. John moved to Flitch Green from Hertfordshire in 2006, with his wife Naomi and cockapoo Bolli. He is a Director of an IT Management Consultancy company and also runs a small business consultancy based here in Flitch Green .

Emma Nicholls has lived in Flitch Green for 12 years and has seen many changes to our village. She has been proud to serve on the Parish Council for 10 years, two as Chair. During this time, she represented the village during the Planning Hearing where the PC succeeded in ensuring completion of Flitch Green facilities. She now also serves as the Trust Secretary on the Community Trust. Emma lives in Flitch Green with her husband Omar and their 2 children, Harry (13) and Siena (10) and a naughty Beagle called Bo.

Stephanie Harris has lived in Flitch Green for 12 years and is our longest serving Parish Councillor with 10 years’ service this year. She is also our local District Councillor. Stephanie has also served two years as Chairman of the Parish Council and joins John as Parish Council representative on the new security committee. Stephanie owns a business is town locally with her father and lives in Flitch Green with her husband Colin .

Your Parish Councillors (continued)

Nieky van Veggel moved from Great Dunmow to Flitch Green in June 2017 with his wife Hannah and son Eric. He has always been engaged with his local community through various volunteering activities, so when he heard there were vacancies for parish councillors he applied. Nieky chairs the Byelaw Working Party which is developing the first set of byelaws for Flitch Green. In his day job he is a senior academic working on animal health and higher education policy. He looks forward to helping making Flitch Green a great place to live and grow up.

Gerald Mawbey has lived in Flitch Green since 2014 and has been a Parish Councillor since 2017. Gerald is now retired but spent his entire working life as a body design engineer automotive in Europe and the USA. In his spare time Gerald paints watercolours.

Steve Crawford has been a member of the Council for three years, is Vice Chairman and also a member of the Charitable Trust. Steve and his family moved onto Flitch Green 12 years ago. His wife Sue was a Co-Founder of the Flitch Green Youth Club. He spent his career developing IT solutions and was the co-founder of an eBook business which was sold in 2014. He is now retired.

James Hall has been a resident of Flitch Green since 2006. Running a European Fintech business, James is a frequent visitor to Stockholm, Oslo & Riga but also finds time to be a Parish Councillor, Youth Rugby Coach and Trustee of the Children’s Charity, The Cystic Fibrosis Holiday Fund. Married to GBR Athlete, Claire, James has three children Olivia (16), Harry (13) & Natasha (11) and a Black Labrador called Buddy.

Tom Loveday originally lived on Flitch Green back when it was called Oakwood Park, then moved to Dunmow for a few years. He moved back to Flitch Green in March 2017 and became a Councillor in November 2017. Please say hello if you see him out and about walking his dog!

Flitch Green Communications

As residents, we all want to keep up-to-date with important community issues and events, including community security developments and things like planning applications.

Given that the demographic of Flitch Green is largely families, most people will be digitally connected in some way but there are a small minority who are not. Facebook is still a great channel for our communications, but it has recently decided to be “unkind” to community pages, by making some radical changes to its newsfeed algorithm. These changes mean that some people won’t see any of our posts – this is because, by default, Facebook doesn’t think you want to see them! Several residents have mentioned that they have missed posts from various groups in the village, some of which were important community updates.

There are some very simple changes you can make in your Facebook settings to overcome this and these are described later on in this article – please take the time to implement these so that you don’t miss anything.

Also described later, we have just launched our new website which displays a copy of our Facebook news feed on its home page – this means that all the important updates we post on Facebook are immediately available to those that don’t use Facebook (or don’t want to use Facebook).

How to get in touch with FGPC

Via our new website: www.flitchgreenpc.org.uk/contact all messages go to our Clerk.

Via email to our Parish Council Clerk on [email protected]

By phone to our Parish Council Clerk on 01371 823172

Use the direct message (messenger) facility on our Facebook page. These messages tend to be read by a wider group of Councillors, who will best determine how to respond.

Want to chat in person with one of our Councillors? Contact us using any of the above methods and we will organise it for you.

Your personal data

In accordance with our Data Protection and Privacy policy, we only use personal information provided as part of enquiry, for the purpose of that enquiry only. FGPC will not disclose any personal information recorded to any third party without your explicit consent. FGPC does not currently operate any kind of mailing list, so data is not retained for that purpose. Full details can be found in our policy document, which is available on our (new) website.

How to keep up-to-date with important community announcements

Our Facebook page is by far the best way to keep up-to-date. You don’t need to join the page but following it will ensure that you don’t miss anything (see instructions

below). You also don’t need to be a member of the Flitch Green Community Page / Group to see updates from our page.

https://www.facebook.com/parishcouncilflitchgreen/

Take a look at our new website, which is easy to read on all devices including smart phones. Our main Facebook feed (where we make all public announcements) is replicated on the home page of our website, so you can still read all the announcements even if you are not a Facebook user. www.flitchgreenpc.org.uk

There are quite a few noticeboards around the village which are great for advertising events etc. The Parish Council uses these noticeboards to publish meeting agendas and minutes, prior to each FGPC meeting.

Change your Facebook settings to make sure you don’t miss our updates

Changing these settings will significantly decrease the likelihood of you missing important posts and it’s really simple to do:

1. Navigate to our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/parishcouncilflitchgreen/

2. Click on Follow

3. Click on Following and change the setting to See First

Communications—Our community newsletter

This is the second edition of our newsletter and the previous edition can be found on the resources page of our new website. It is hand delivered to the 987 properties on Flitch Green, as well as being made available electronically (on our website and facebook pages). Additional copies are usually made available in the Community Centre and in the Co-op.

Our original thinking was to try and publish a newsletter every 3 months, but we have since taken the decision to commit to publication every 6 months or more frequently if circumstances dictate. We are all volunteers with busy lives and putting together a publication of this nature takes a lot of effort from all of us, particularly as we also have a number of statutory initiatives to take care of..

We are planning to publish the next edition of the newsletter towards the end of the Spring 2019. If you have any suggestions for articles or would like to write an article please get in touch using the contact methods outlined earlier.

The newsletter is also a good vehicle for small businesses wishing to promote themselves in Flitch Green. In this edition, we offered special rates to businesses that are both owned and run in Flitch Green, alongside free advertising for anyone promoting an event in aid of the Flitch Green Trust.

Parish Council Meetings

FGPC typically meets on the third Monday of every month, at 7:15pm in the Community Hall. Dates (and any variations) are published on our website and Facebook pages. Residents are most welcome to attend these meetings and there is a 15 minute slot (towards the beginning of the agenda) for members of the public to raise issues.

Other Facebook groups and pages

There are a number of other great Facebook groups and pages that operate in Flitch Green, some of which also have websites. In the majority of cases these are run independently by residents.

Flitch Green Trust The Flitch Green trust has responsibility for many of the great facilities here in Flitch Green (including the Community Hall), so their FB pages/groups and websites are well worth looking at for forthcoming community events.

www.flitchgreentrust.com www.facebook.com/flitchgreencommunityhall

Flitch Green Community The Flitch Green Community Page is a private Facebook group for all resi- Page dents and those that have a specific connection with the community. It is ad- ministered independently by a group of residents (quite a difficult job to do!) and has good controls on content and business advertising.

Flitch Green Community This relatively new group was established earlier this year (see separate arti- Meet Up cle) and provides a great way for the community to get together to make things like events happen. The Facebook group is open and is well worth following:

www.facebook.com/flitchgreencommunitymeetup 9

Little Flitchers When the stay and play closed earlier this year, frustrated by the lack of things to do locally with our babies and toddlers, a group of local mums put our heads together and created Little Flitchers Playgroup.

Little Flitchers offers children from newborn to school age a chance for free play with other children of similar age, with a variety of toys and activities including a baby area, a book area, messy play, arts & crafts, and lots of other equipment from a slide through to ride-ons and push- alongs. We have also just been awarded some funding by the Stansted Airport Community Trust to buy lots of new toys!

We meet each Monday during term time from 10:30 to 12:00 in the Flitch Green Community Centre and each session is structured roughly as follows: 10:30 Free play plus an art activity 11:15 Snack time 11:40 Tidy-up time 11:45 Song time 12:00 Finish We always provide a healthy snack option as well as juice, biscuits, and even the odd homemade cake or two! Tea and coffee are available for the parents or carers who can sit back, relax and watch their children play happily. The sessions finish with singing or story reading and are just £2.50 per family.

We run a 'buddy system', where we will introduce any new or shy parents and carers to others in the group so please don’t sit on your own if you don’t want to!

We might be run by volunteers Jess, Victoria, Kelly and Ildi but we could never have started the playgroup without the generous toy donations from the community and we must take this opportunity to say another huge thank you to everyone who donated!

Little Flitchers always needs more volunteers and we are currently looking for someone who is able to help with serving tea and coffee. If you have any spare time and would like to help set up, tidy up or if you want to be more involved please speak to one of our volunteers. If you’d like to know more about the group, please follow our Facebook and Instagram pages Facebook.com/littleflitchers and Instagram.com/littleflitchers, or email us at [email protected].

Helping To Keep Flitch Green Clean

Residents may have spotted new litter bins that have been installed at various locations within the village in recent weeks.

Four new bins have been sited at the outdoor gym, the lake, the sports field and close to the children's play area near the community hall. Another smaller bin that was under used has also been re-located to a new position at the rear of Tyler Avenue.

Flitch Green Parish Council hopes these new larger bins will discourage littering and will be well used by our community and its visitors.

Community litter picks have been organised in recent months by the Flitch Green Communi- ty Meet Up group and supported with equipment provided by the parish council. These have been well attended by enthusiastic residents and the parish council is very grateful for all your hard work! These litter picks have helped boost the regular weekly pick which is funded by the parish council.

FGPC Community Award Scheme

FGPC has continually led and supported local initiatives to build and encourage Flitch Green community spirit. In recognition of the relentless (and often unseen) projects, work and clubs that many residents of Flitch Green have committed to deliver to benefit the greater community, FGPC has decided to run a Community Award Scheme.

The Community Award will be granted twice a year (April and September) and will consist of a Certificate presented to the winner from FGPC, with a voucher of up to £100 to be used in a local pub/restaurant.

For the inaugural Community Award, FGPC has nominated and voted for individuals of merit, however all future Awards will be nominated and voted for by the residents of Flitch Green.

In future, to nominate an individual, please email: [email protected] with the name of your nominee and a brief summary of why you believe they should receive the award. Nominations will be short-listed by FGPC to a maximum number of five and a community poll facilitated on the FGPC Facebook page will decide the winner. Nominees must be residents of Flitch Green and in the unlikely event of a draw, the Chairman of FGPC will have the casting vote.

Nominations for our first Community Award

Hannah Van Veggel Hannah has been working hard to unite residents with a view to

arranging working groups to tackle projects that benefit the whole community. Hannah has hosted several meetings, organised a community litter pick, organised a Ladies Night and has also been instrumental in the creation of the new FG Netball Team and resurrection of Little Flitchers (formally Stay and Play). Ildi Sumeg Ildi has championed many ambitious community spirited events including the Easter Egg Hunts and more recently Fun Fishing for Children at the FG lake. Ildi was also instrumental in the resurrection of Little Flitchers and is currently organising a Christmas Fair at the Community Centre in December.

Steve Crawford Steve has given a huge amount of his time and experience to benefit this community. As Vice Chair of the Parish Council and Trustee of FG Trust, Steve has worked tirelessly negotiating with developers and lawyers to adopt various parcels of land across FG, ensuring each comes with significant financial recompense. Steve is also a leading figure in planning/facilitating our new community CCTV systems and ensuring our facilities are well maintained and sustainable. Mick Bott Mick has dedicated a huge amount of his time and effort to chairing the FG Trust. The Trust run the Community Centre, maintain the sports facilities and host community events, such as the Open-Air Cinema Night.

FGPC Community Award Winner - September 2018 Congratulations to ILDI SUMEG

Thank you to Ildi, Hannah, Steve, Mick and all others that make such a huge effort for the benefit of our community!

Community Meet Up

I started the Community Meet-up because I kept finding myself moaning about things I was or wasn’t seeing in our village and thinking of things I would like to see happen. I was reading and listening to people grumble about things in the community that weren’t life changing problems, just annoyances that could quite easily be fixed and one day it hit me: Why didn’t I start the change I wanted to see?

There was no point moaning if I wasn’t willing to do anything about it, everything must start from something and on June 16th I posted this on Facebook and now we are in November and so much has happened.

My biggest personal pet hate is rubbish in our beautiful countryside. So on August 5th we started the first community litter pick. This is something that never goes away but the first Sunday of every month at 10am we meet at the Community Centre to help tidy our community. The Co-Op is very accommodating donating water and bags and with litter pickers provided by the Parish Council in tow we are helping keep our village tidier one litter pick at a time. Hopefully this is encouraging all of you to pick up rubbish as and when you see it and to use the bins provided by the Parish Council. After four litter picks I have to say that compared to the first one we are picking up less each time

Little Flitchers play group has also been started thanks to our Community Meet-up after some of the mums mentioned that the Stay and Play was missed in the community. From this we put out the feelers to see who would be interested in working together to make this happen. On September 10th with an amazing group of enthusiastic mums volunteering their time and energy and the community coming together, donating so many toys that the cupboards are literally overflowing, Little Flitchers is a huge success and up and running every Monday, 10:30am at the Community Centre.

A few of you had also mentioned that a gate was needed for the baby park in front of the Community Centre. The Trust has listened to everyone, weighed up pro’s and cons and decided to go ahead with installing this as soon as possible.

With such an amazing sports hall and Multi Use Games Area a lot of us didn’t know why these are not being used more. We put some questions out there, did lots research and on October 2nd we had our first Back2Netball session for over 18’s. This is now running every Tuesday, 7:30pm at the Community Centre. If anyone is interested in starting basketball, tennis or any other sports, please do let us know and between the Community Meet-up and the Flitch Green Trust we will do our best to make this happen.

We have all chipped in and put our organising hats on and there are quite a few events to look forward to at the Community Centre. On November 9th @ 7pm we had our Ladies Night offering pampering services for all the ladies out there along with a few speakers. On December 2nd, 4- 8pm there is a “Sip and Shop” Christmas Event where you can try wines and ciders from local vineyards, enjoy yummy foods and shop getting ready for Christmas. Then we have Den & Dave on December 15th @ 7:30pm offering some rock music as well as 60’s and 70’s classics. Tickets for Den & Dave can be purchased at www.FlitchGreenTrust.com.

14 7

We have lots of things we are looking to organise in the New Year and hope all of you in Flitch Green are enjoying the little things we do.

Please join us the first Thursday of every month, 7:30 @ the Community Centre if you have any ideas you would like to see take place in Flitch Green. It all starts with one little idea. Be the change you want to see.

Keep updated with what we are doing and planning by liking us on Facebook.

If we all work together, anything is possible!

Hannah van Veggel

Community Security Update

We are fortunate that Flitch Green still continues to enjoy low crime rates in comparison to other areas of Uttlesford and surrounding districts.

It is now over 12 months since we implemented regular security patrols in Flitch Green and the first phase of our community CCTV system has now been live for 6 months. We believe that both these measures have contributed to lower rates of anti-social behaviour, particularly over the summer period.

In addition, there are some great success stories from both these initiatives, relating to perpetrator identification, which have resulted in police action and prosecution.

CCTV

As well as helping with the prevention and detection of crime, the first phase implementation of our CCTV system has enabled us to thoroughly test our information retrieval and data protection processes. One incident involving a motor vehicle and the fencing in the Community Hall car park highlighted the need for additional camera coverage in that area – these will be implemented alongside phase 2 of our CCTV deployment.

Work to implement phase 2 is underway and is expected to be live early on in the new year. Phase 2 will cover the sports field car park and surrounding areas (including the outdoor gym).

Once this work is complete we will start the planning for phase 3, which will provide CCTV coverage for the Baynard Avenue play area.

New signs (pictured right) will be deployed throughout the village and our data protection policy will be updated accordingly.

DEW Security

Darren and his team continue to patrol our streets regularly and randomly, in both marked and unmarked patrol cars. During the summer school holiday period, we increased our engagement with DEW to include random daytime patrols of Flitch Green – we have agreed to continue this practice for all school holidays, include half-terms.

DEW also offers a range of private services, should any resident want security cover for their property whilst on holiday etc. Please contact DEW directly for further details and pricing.

Make sure your home is secure over the Christmas period

Sadly, Christmas is a popular time for criminals to strike, so here’s a few tips to keep your home safe over Christmas:  Ensure the exterior of your home is well-lit. There are lots of security lights available now that do not need hard wiring in order to work  Implement lights on timers within your property  Make sure all your windows and doors are secured  If possible install an alarm, CCTV or TV simulator  If you are going away, don’t post any details on social media until you get back  Properly dispose of any packaging for new items, so as not to advertise them  Don’t leave valuables or presents in view of the windows  Make sure that you have locks fitted to all gates and outbuildings

Importance of reporting crime and any suspicious behaviour

Given the general lack of Police presence across Essex (caused by front line officer cutbacks over the past 8 years or so) it’s not surprising that many of us have a general apathy towards contacting the Police—”what’s the point, as they never do anything”.

During recent discussions with the local Community Policing team, the Police strongly advised that residents should report any crime or suspicious behaviour, no matter how small. This includes anti-social behaviour in the public spaces around our village.

The Police service relies heavily on the statistics it collects from crime reporting and this has a direct bearing on the level of attention that we are likely to receive as a result.

The best and quickest way to make a report, is to use Essex Police’s online service www.essex.police.uk/do-it-online—this is much quicker than calling 101. If you know who the alleged perpetrators are but wish to remain anonymous, you can use the CrimeStoppers service.

Of course, if it’s an emergency then you should dial 999.

Parking Issues in Flitch Green

Parking is an extremely emotive subject and parking issues are commonplace in new-build developments like Flitch Green. It was inevitable that we would face parking difficulties on some of our roads given their narrowness and the fact that we have a high family demographic, with teenagers naturally becoming car owners and drivers. Solutions such as the implementation of yellow lines or resident parking permits might seem straightforward, but both of them will have consequences that are likely to make the problem worse rather than better. The North Essex parking partnership is run by Essex County Council on behalf of Uttlesford District Council. At present they are only able to enforce illegal parking on dropped curbs, but from next year they will be able to enforce parking on pavements. We may need to seek some exemption from that for some of our narrower roads where parking on the pavement is unavoidable (providing the pavement is not totally blocked). No parking enforcement can be carried out on roads that have not been adopted by the County Council. FGPC is also in the process of developing and implementing byelaws which will help to restrict parking on and around the parcels of land that it owns, but these are subject to a lengthy process and will take some time to come into force. To consider all the above, FGPC has agreed that it will start a resident engagement process in the new year, to make sure that all these options are fully explored. In the meantime, there are some things that we can all do to ensure we are parking considerately and safely:  At all times please park considerately, ensuring that very large vehicles such as emergency vehicles and dust carts can get through easily. Your parking could mean that your neighbours’ dustbins are not emptied, or worse, you could be endangering someone’s life!  If you have a driveway or allocated parking spaces, please use them instead of parking on the road. It’s often easier to park on the road outside your house but please consider whether it is fair to those that can only park on the road.  If you need to park on the curb because you live on a narrow road then please consider the safety of pedestrians and make sure that there is enough room for them to walk along the path comfortably.  Do not park on the raised block paving areas on corners or near roundabouts – the paving is raised for a reason!  Do not obstruct driveways and other entrances, or park opposite entrances on narrow roads  Please make sure you leave ample room between the car in front of you and the car behind.  Please do not invite your friends to park on our roads while they go on holiday – this is very unfair, particularly if their car is parked badly. Flitch Green is not an extension of Stansted Airport’s parking facilities.  If you suspect a car has been dumped or is illegal, you can easily look up (online) whether the car is taxed, MOT’d and insured – if it isn’t then please report it to the authorities.  Please do not park in the disabled spaces (such as outside the Co-op) unless you are registered as disabled.

 If you have a car that you do not use or is inoperable for whatever reason, please do not leave it on the road – it’s unfair to occupy a parking space for a vehicle that never moves.  Please do not park on any open spaces or grass verges in the village (including the grass verges by the lake) – these cost public money to maintain and vehicles can cause untold damage to them  Please also make sure that your visitors park considerately and adhere to the above.

Did you know that Fire Engines are 2.6m wide and 8m long?

The Essex Fire service has recently launched a campaign following a claim that inconsiderate parking is preventing firefighters from reaching emergencies or vital water supplies. Obstructing a fire hydrant carries a £500 fine. Fire hydrants are identified by a square yellow plastic indicator sign with a black "H" symbol or a yellow concrete marker post, so they are easily visible to fire crews.

Stansted Airport “Fly Parking”

On the subject of Stansted airport parking, some residents have suspected that there may be parking companies operating in Flitch Green. This kind of parking is enforceable, and operators face heavy fines if they are caught. Stansted Airport operates a freephone number for reporting suspected on-street airport related car parking. The freephone number is 0800 7312385 and can be used to report individuals that you suspect are “flyparking”.

******************** Friends of Flitch Green Academy—Meet the new Chair

Hello, my name is Nikki Brazier and I am the new chair of the FFG (PTA for the Flitch Green Academy).

We are a lovely group of parents trying to raise as much money as we can for our school.

Our next fundraiser is the bag2school on the 30th of November 2018. This is where every parent at school receives a bag to fill with clothes that are no longer needed. You can use bin liners too!!

I will be at the Sip and Shop event (which is in aid of the Flitch Green Trust) on the 2nd of December between 4pm and 8pm, promoting our school. Please come and say hi!

Exciting party plans for Xmas or New Year? Thinking about a new look for 2019? Simply looking to treat yourself? Hair by Hannah V. is happy to help. With 15 years of industry experience in the UK and USA, Master Craftsman Hairdresser Hannah van Veggel SRH is the right stylist to discuss your ideas with or to ask for advice. Hannah is a qualified and experienced hairdressing tutor and regularly organises styling workshops for Flitch Green residents. If you are interested in learning new hair styling skills, please do get in touch to find out more.

Please feel free to get touch via hairbyhannahv.co.uk, or by phone on 077105 655 69. Please mention this advert when booking your next hair appointment to receive a 10% discount. This offer expires on 1 February 2019 and can only be used once.

Byelaws

We are looking for your opinion and help! Flitch Green Parish Council has started work on developing byelaws to help manage and protect the open spaces and facilities within our village, including:

 Baynard Avenue Children's’ Play Area  Community Hall Play Areas  Flitch Green Sports and Recreation Fields  Multi-use Games Area  Outdoor Gym and Social Area

Byelaws are local laws which will regulate for example motorised vehicle access to these facilities, anti-social behaviour or opening times, as well as provide a mechanism to implement permit systems for food and drink vendors using our public spaces. The parish council has established a byelaw working group chaired by councillor Nieky van Veggel which will be responsible for the development of these byelaws. We are interested in hearing your thoughts on the matter and in addition are looking for a small number of volunteers from our community who would like to actively contribute as members of the byelaw working group.

All Flitch Green residents are invited to share their feedback, comments and concerns regarding our byelaw plans. For more information, or to tell us what you think or to volunteer as a member of the Byelaw Working Party, please contact us on [email protected].

Cllr Nieky van Veggel Chair - Byelaws Working Party

********************

Remembrance Day Tribute

On behalf of the Village of Flitch Green we would like to thank Cllr. James Hall and local carpenter Emlyn Crockford for their spontaneous efforts in creating the remembrance day tributes at the two entrances to the Village.

In addition to the tributes, residents shared some great stories on social media of relatives who had served in the Great War, and a number of residents attended (and in some cases, participated in) the local memorial services in Great Dunmow and Felsted.

Flitch Green Trust

The Flitch Green Trust has now entered its third year of operating and we are going from strength to strength!

We are a group of 11 volunteers, headed up by Mick Bott that work hard to manage the fantastic facilities in our community, including the hall, MUGA, play area, pavilion and fields. We meet once a month (normally the second Wednesday of the month) at the Community Hall

In September, we hosted our second annual Outdoor Cinema night attended by over 600 people and raised enough money to purchase 15 new tables and 84 chairs for the hall.

We now have a new Bookings Secretary, Victoria Milne who is helping out to answer emails, send out invoices, do show rounds and oversee all our bookings – please email [email protected] if you would like to make a booking at the hall.

We are delighted that Dunmow Rhodes Football Club are continuing to train and play matches on our pitches and the Michael Richardson Football Academy run sessions each week inside and out.

The Community Hall continues to play host to many classes from baby Sensory to Bounce fitness classes and Netball – please see our website for more details – www.flitchgreentrust.com

Help needed – the Flitch Green Trust are once again are the nominated charity this year at our local Co-op, but we need all residents to visit the website to select our charity – EVEN IF YOU DID THIS LAST YEAR, IT NEEDS TO BE DONE AGAIN! Please visit membership.coop.co.uk to select the Trust as your charity so every penny you spend there, a percentage goes back to us.

We are trying to raise funds to get our long awaited floodlighting for our outdoor areas so they can be enjoyed all year round! Please support us!

If you require any further information or wish to speak to one of the trustees, please message us on Facebook or contact us at the website or email addresses above.

Gladman Land Proposal to build up to 260 homes off Station Road

At the end of October, an organisation called Gladman Land posted a canvassing leaflet through most of our doors in Flitch Green, proposing the development of up to 260 properties on the Priory Wood site, which is directly North of us on Station Road.

Although the proposal outlines that new homes will be in Flitch Green, the land concerned actually falls under the Little Dunmow parish and would pretty much double their population if it went ahead.

This is part of a “stakeholder pre-engagement” exercise on their part to raise awareness of their plans and to try and get us all on-board to support them, before embarking on a formal planning process with Uttlesford District Council.

As a government body, FGPC will be consulted as part of this process and is obliged to ensure that it reflects the views of the majority of the community.

Gladman has indicated that it intends to start the formal process with UDC in December and in the meantime, we are organising a public meeting that we will hold as soon as the application is submitted so that you can share your views with us. Details about this meeting will be advertised nearer the time.

In the meantime, we are continuing to conduct further enquiries, taking advice and, importantly, discussing the matter with our neighbouring parishes, both of whom will be impacted by this development.

Although not necessarily popular, UDC’s local plan proposes the development of extensive garden communities with proper infrastructure to support them. This is in favour of development proposals like this one, which would constitute infilling in towns across the district, where any improvement in existing infrastructure is unlikely to be delivered (i.e. stretches what we already have rather than increasing capability).

The local plan is in its final stages and may not be in place before a planning application is lodged by Gladman. If it was, then UDC could almost certainly use it to reject this particular proposal. It is possible that Gladman is aware of the local plan status and hence is trying to push this through quickly.

When making your initial response, these are some of the factors that you might wish to consider:  The proposed development is for up to 260 homes, but there are adjacent parcels of land currently for sale. Given our experiences here in Flitch Green, which was also developed outside of a local plan, what is the risk of this development turning into (say) 500 properties or more?

 Station Road is already too busy for a road of its grade and type. This development presents scope for an additional 500+ cars travelling along it every day, causing more congestion in the local village of Felsted and further impacts on the old A120 and its junctions. There are already major concerns over the safety of Station Road, particularly on the approach to Felsted where the road narrows.

Gladman Land development—continued

 The primary schools in both Flitch Green and Felsted are both full, with little scope to extend their capacity. These new homes will probably have a similar family demographic to Flitch Green – where are their children and our future children going to go? There is an even bigger concern over secondary education provision locally.

 Not a nice thing to think about, but an important one – this development will add a further 500+ toilets into our water and sewerage treatment system. In response to another planning application in Felsted, Anglian Water is already indicating that the facility in Felsted is already full to capacity.

 Most of us have to travel to the Doctors’ surgeries in Dunmow and having to wait two weeks for an appointment is not unheard of. This proposal is only practical if a larger medical centre is developed nearby, as there is no current capacity in either Dunmow or Felsted surgeries to cope with the increased population (which could be 650 people including children).

 Telecommunications and broadband provision in particular are seldom thought through in the rural areas of Essex. We battled for 4 years to get a reasonable fibre broadband provision here in Flitch Green and we need to make sure this is preserved (or better, further enhanced) by any such proposal. The reality is that more homes may actually have a negative impact on broadband performance here, particularly for those of us that have fibre -to-the-cabinet connections.

If the planning application is submitted and the consensus of Flitch Green residents is that we oppose it, then FGPC is willing and ready to engage with the community and fight the battles as required – we have done this before and have succeeded.