Flitch Green News Spring 2018 Produced for the community by Flitch Green Parish Council Welcome! Residents of Flitch Green, welcome to the first edition of Flitch Green News. Some years ago, the Parish Council ended the production of a newsletter in favour of an online page. Whilst this has been successful, we recognise that not everyone uses Facebook. So we are going back to our roots, and funding "Flitch Green News". In addition to Parish Council infor- mation, you will find here pages from the Neighbourhood Watch, the Charitable Trust, the school PTA plus other useful local information. Of course, the Facebook page will continue to function. We aim to produce this magazine quarterly, and it will be partly funded by local advertising. But this magazine is for you, so if you have comments or entries for the next edition, please contact any Parish Councillor. For those new to Flitch Green, let me explain the role of the Parish Council. We are an elected body, not party affiliated, and the first level on the pyramid of democracy. Above us are the Dis- trict Council, the County Council, and Westminster. We have duties and powers, clearly set out by central Government, and these include owning and managing public land in and around the village, advising on planning, and setting byelaws. We use a small percentage of your Council Tax to fund all of our activities. The Parish of Flitch Green is bounded by Stebbing Brook on the South and West sides, the Flitch Way on the North side, and Station Road to the East. Our Neighbouring Parishes are Little Dun- mow and Felsted. We are all volunteers, and there are nine of us, plus an employed Clerk. This is our maximum number, and we are fortunate to be fully staffed. We meet in the Community Centre once a month, and everyone is welcome to attend our meetings. Agendas and minutes are posted on our web page and on the village notice boards. 2017 was a busy year for us. We have accepted several parcels of land from the developers and started a program to enhance them. Chief amongst these is the outdoor gym area, which we will continue to plant decoratively, along with several smaller areas. There will be more benches to encourage us all to meet and say hello. We are pressing the developers to complete their work without too much inconvenience to the rest of us, and pressing Essex CC to take over the roads so we can get them properly maintained. We have been working with BT to try and push forward the broadband service. We have handed the management and control of our sports facilities over to the charitable trust, and assisted with the startup and growth of the Neighbourhood Watch. Security has been a big and growing concern. We have established a sub-committee of the Parish Council to address this, and there are pages in this magazine explaining their progress. During 2018, we will carry on this work. There will be more land to take over, possibly including the pond. The NHW will continue to expand, and our community will reach its maximum size with the completion of the houses along Tanton Road. We plan to take legal steps to protect our open spaces in such a way that they can never be developed. 2 Of course, we cannot do this alone. There is a small but growing army of volunteers who assist with or run various youth activities, litter picking, planting, and caring for the people and facili- ties in our community. To all of them, my thanks. And to all of you, welcome to a New Year in Flitch Green. 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. John Doughty has enjoyed living in Flitch Green for over 11 years and joined the Parish Council in November last year. John is the chair of the new security sub-committee. Until recently, his work as a Director of a medium-sized IT business has taken him away from home a lot, which meant that he had not been able to fully appreciate how great this community is and how lovely the people are that live in it. Emma Nicholls has lived in Flitch Green for 12 years and has seen many change to our village. She has been proud to serve on the Parish Council for 9 years, 2 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 (12) and Siena (10) and a naughty Beagle called Bo. She also presents a weekly radio show called Family Matter on Switch Dunmow. 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 and crazy dog called Coco. 3 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. In his day job he is a senior academic with an interest in animal health and 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 for 1 year. 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 3 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 develop- ing 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 Holi- day Fund. Married to GBR Athlete, Claire, James has three children Olivia (16), Harry (13) & Natasha (11) and a Black Labrador called Bud- dy. In his spare time he likes to terrify our children at Halloween! 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 Novem- ber 2017. Please say hello if you see him out and about walking his dog! 4 5 Neighbourhood Watch Welcome to our page on Neighbourhood Watch. You may or may not know that a Neighbour- hood Watch Scheme operates in Flitch Green. We do not have enough volunteers at the moment and ideally we would like to see at least one representative in every road. If you are not sure what’s involved, here is a brief overview..... What is Neighbourhood Watch? Neighbourhood Watch rests on the concept of good neighbourliness. The basic idea is simple - neighbours join together to keep watch on each other’s homes and their immediate surroundings in a bid to make the neighbourhood a safe place to live, work and play. Neighbourhood Watch is not just about reducing crime – it is about building community spirit and good relations. It brings local people closer together with common goals: to deter those who are up to no good. Working together we can make life very difficult for burglars, doorstep con- men and vandals. There are also other benefits of setting up a Neighbourhood Watch. For exam- ple, you can learn more about crime prevention and home security which will help keep your home and belongings safe. You might also get a discount on your home insurance if you live in a NW area.. Members of Watch schemes are not vigilantes nor are Watch schemes Police-run. We can be the eyes and ears of the Police, providing early warning on problems. Patrolling the streets is a job for the Police; they will act upon the information supplied by residents. By letting the Police know of anything suspicious that you see or hear, you are helping to reduce the oppor- tunities for crime to occur. The more difficult it can be made for the criminal, the more likely it is that criminals can be deterred. Where can I find out more details of the Flitch Green Neighbourhood Watch Scheme and what it does? You can contact the leader of our NW Scheme on the Flitch Green Community Page.