ur Parish Cou m yo ncillo ISSUE 12 LG Fro rs Side 1 PCNewsletter PARISH COUNCIL AUGUST 2015 VILLAGE BUS SERVICE Excellent news. Back in the spring in the middle of the day, which will transport planners, district and raise issues for some, we were im- county councillors came to hear vil- pressed that planners listened to the lagers’ anxieties about the proposed requests for a service to get users to cuts to the village bus services, par- for 1030 am instead of the message from the authorities is ticularly the loss of a service to the old arrival time of 1105am. clear. and Little Gaddesden Berkhamsted. To their credit they lis- Thanks to the 45 villagers who turned bus services to and tened and despite £1.5m of cuts to up to the meeting and the 230 who Berkhamsted and intervening villages services across our con- signed our petition. lose a lot of money. It is important tracted Berkhamsted bus service, run The bus service is an important ele- now for the community to demon- by Red Eagle for the County Council, ment in the rural community. Not strate their real commitment to the is to be retained, albeit reduced in everyone has a car and as age and service. To this end Councillor Louise scope. From 1 September there are health issues develop an independent Archer and other Councillors made a three return journeys per day every mode of transport is still vital for special bus journey at the end of July week day, but no Saturday service at some people in getting to the shops, to set the tone for the rest of the vil- all. The timetable is printed else- doctor and dentist. A return taxi jour- lage. A battle has been won but the where in the Diary. Although the loss ney is over £24 and whilst our hospi- war for our services will rumble on of the Saturday service is a blow and tal visiting service and neighbourly against the background of public sec- the service to Hemel Hempstead is to attitudes are wonderful assets, public tor expenditure reductions. Use the be reduced to just two return journeys transport remains essential. However, bus or lose it!

will be used to fordshire specific old variety damson GREEN GROWTH form the mowing trees between existing ash & cherry programme for varieties avoiding soured As trailed in our last the village green and increase the ground closer to Telecom Drive. Newsletter, one of the duties of showing next year. Raking off the long These will be of a modest size eventu- the Parish Council is the grass cuttings will stop the extra nu- ally and require less maintenance maintenance and development of the trients feeding the grass to the detri- long term. They will support wildlife tree stock on the village green and on ment of wild flowers. The broad mown well going forward. other publicly-owned spaces as well as margins are working well in main- Like a number of older residents the nurturing of the wild flower taining sight lines for motorists but around the village, the three old limes regime on the green. A wildlife survey the 16 feet border is probably exces- at the bottom of Red House Drive of the four conservation areas along sive and may be reduced giving the need care and observation to nurse the village green has harvested inter- benefit of a better view of the wild them through their old age, but we esting results about plant life. It has flowers from the pavement along the are pleased with their vigour and gen- become apparent that the north end green. eral look! The new lime trees are all of the green near John O’Gaddesden As regards tree life, the Council has suffering from bark disease from House is essentially a spring flower earmarked an annual budget for tree which there is no recovery and we will area with strong showings of lades works of £2,500. In June a tree survey consider their gradual removal and smock, white violets and others early was undertaken by Lyn Hyde and Rod replacement. Oak trees are now prone in the year whilst the southern end Wilson. Lime trees between 49 The to ‘oak die back’ and ash are also near the Manor House has much to Green and Red House Drive are all under threat. We will continue to ob- offer as a summer meadow with a pro- looking well and their leaves are large serve these varieties. The very large fusion of cranesbill, ladies bedstraw, and prolific. The young cherries are oak in the centre of the Green re- birdsfoot trefoil and many other vari- looking well and some of the older quires a trim of its long and heavy lat- eties. All provide a haven for insect ones have had their best year recently. erals which is a major job. life. The information from the survey We are looking at planting three Hert- [continued overleaf] ur Parish Cou m yo ncillo ISSUE 12 LG Fro rs Side 2 PCNewsletter LITTLE GADDESDEN PARISH COUNCIL AUGUST 2015

[Green Growth continued] The SUPERFAST BROADBAND Northern Red Oak nearby is dying Coming to Little Gaddesden… at the to day life is being internetised (apolo- so ‘remove & stump grind’ is the speed of light. gies, new word, I just made it up…) order of the day. Between Red I am of course referring to data, trav- and the range of uses is growing all House Drive and Manor House elling into Little Gaddesden homes the time. For example TV, gaming, te- Drive the mature oak close to the along brand new fibre-optic net- lephony (often with live video), cloud Adelaide Cross is the victim of a works….otherwise simply known as storage of photos, these are all big possible attack by Agrylis beetle or Superfast Broadband. Yes, great news users of bandwidth and are often Oak Die Back. We will continue to everyone, high speed internet con- crushingly slow on the current sys- monitor. nectivity is now coming to the whole tem. Plus, much of the new software On the Playing Field trees were sur- of Little Gaddesden! coming out of Microsoft is intended to veyed adjacent to the Sports Pavil- But what is it? be used from the cloud rather than ion and John O’Gaddesden House. The Government defines “Superfast” from your PC. Things are changing The beech is a poor specimen and as download speeds in excess of 24 out there, and our future ability to use will be monitored. The lime is look- Mbps. In reality the fibre-optic infra- the available technology products will ing well. structure to be installed can carry be predicated on having decent con- Between the tennis courts and the huge quantities of data at very high nectivity. So as a village it’ll be great playground there are three young speeds, with performances much that we have this. Maybe it’s not for oak trees along the fence which greater than the Government defini- everyone today, but its broader rele- would benefit from clearance of tion. For example users in Berkham- vance will come more quickly than poor specimens around them and a sted are already experiencing 60 Mbps you might imagine. general tidy giving our better spec- download and 25 Mbps upload speeds, Are we obliged to have it? imens space and light to mature. versus a typical LG home getting 3 to5 No, not at all. As soon as the connec- Mbps down and 0.5 Mbps up. tion to your nearest cabinet goes live, And when will this become available? And why is all this speed and band- you’ll no doubt receive all sorts of of- There are nine exchange cabinets in width important? fers of connectivity or packaged prod- LG, dotted all over the village, all con- Simply put, more and more of our day ucts. You aren’t obliged to take any of nected back to the central LG ex- these. It is merely an infrastructure change in a sort of hub and spoke TRAFFIC: HEDGING facility that is being made available for system. Cabinet 2 () and Cab- services that anyone who wishes to inet 5 (Hudnall) should be live by the OPPOSITE THE subscribe for can. There is no obliga- time you read this, work having VILLAGE SHOP tion whatsoever. started in July on Cabinet 5. The tar- The Parish Clerk is in discussions get date for the other seven cabinets Calling Borough Council? is the end of next year, 2016. So there with various parties locally and at Dial 01442 228000. Say the name of the county council level about cutting person you want, e.g. Housing John Smith will be a wait for many, but it is now back the line of hedge which is signif- and you will automatically be put through! definitely coming! icantly encroaching onto the main How do I know which cabinet I’m on? road between the Bridgewater Arms VALLEY VIEW You can check which cabinet your and Gatesdene Close. There have been There has still been no final decision phone line is wired into by going on complaints from the bus company over the planning application for in- to the following link: https://www.bt- and others. Lurking in the hedge is a creased accommodation at Valley wholesale.com/includes/adsl/main.html bus stop sign which is an indication of View. However, the Secretary of State And finally.... how much encroachment has oc- has asked interested parties for fur- If you have any questions, please curred. ther comments and the Parish Coun- feel free to email Omer at: cil has responded. [email protected] COUNCILLORS’ CONTACTS Louise Archer – Chair 842397 [email protected] Omer Kutluoglu 843243 [email protected] Rob Irving – Vice Chair 843779 [email protected] Lyn Hyde 842267 [email protected] Rachel Heaphy 843283 [email protected] Alistair Greene 842795 [email protected] Paul Kelly 07879 443333 [email protected] Jim Townsend 842421 [email protected]