Parish Council
White Colne
Parish Council
White Colne
Parish Council
White Colne
Parish Council
Pancake Race and Swap it 21st February
Thirty people and half a dozen dogs turned out on a glorious sunny Saturday afternoon to support White Colne's very own pancake race.Up on the Meadows we had races for ladies, gents, girls and boys as well as a family relay and the ever popular finale of the dog race. Back in the hall a trusty team of volunteers cooked up some delicious edible pancakes which were all washed down with a welcome cuppa.
The afternoon was finished off with a lively Swap It session with many good items of clothing, books and CDs being carried off free of charge. The residue of swap items has been donated to charity shops.
Sarah and Jane would like to thank the volunteers for all their hard work and everyone who came along, took part and supported.
Click here to view photographs
Air Ambulance to be stationed at Earls Colne?
Report of attendance at Earls Colne Airfield Meeting
on 19 February 2009 from Kevin Nolan, Chairman lof the Parish Council
I attended a meeting to hear about the proposals of the move of the Essex Air Ambulance Service to Earls Colne Airfield and in particular the issues of use, noise and movements.
Essex Air Ambulance advised that they must relocate from its’ current base at Boreham and has carried out an Options Appraisal of all viable airfields throughout Essex (total of 11 were appraised) with Earls Colne standing “head and shoulders” above all the other airfields assessed and it is therefore intended to make a planning application, coupled with a Section 106 Agreement, to seek permission for the relocation of the Essex Ambulance to Earls Colne coupled with the use of the two existing hangars, one of which will be converted to office use for the administration of the charitable Trust. The ambulance has been operating for some 10 years, only operates during daylight hours and only responds to deal with emergencies of a life threatening nature when directed by Essex Ambulance Service. In 2008 the air ambulance responded to a little over 750 such incidents but on occasions the air ambulance was already away from its operating base and therefore did not involve a departure and return to base for every incident, although rare some days the helicopter may not be deployed at all. Noise is likely to be minimal given that the helicopter reaches its operational height (1000 – 1500 feet) with 2 minutes and has a speed of 120mph thus is away from the base within a short space of time.
Whilst the helicopter is only deployed in daylight areas occasionally there would be a scenario that having been deployed to an incident the return to base may then occur in darkness hours, this was however the exception and not the rule.
Pilots will be “resident” at the base and will follow all instructions given by the Airfield Control Tower and abide by all local “no fly” areas. No maintenance will be carried out at the airfield, save “simple” remedial repairs to keep the helicopter airworthy, servicing and repairs will be carried out elsewhere. When the helicopter is to be serviced a replacement helicopter will be brought to the airfield to enable the existing helicopter to be taken, thus resulting in two helicopters being briefly at the base but would not both be operational.
Fund raising events would occasionally be held at the Airfield and there will also be visits by schools, etc., to the Airfield to raise awareness of the Air Ambulance.
Any Section 106 Agreement would be a stand-
They advised that two planning applications would be made, one for use of the airfield by the air ambulance coupled with use/conversion of existing hangars with associated additional parking, and a second application for the provision of two further hangars. Whilst the conversion of the existing hangar for office use would initially be for the Air Ambulance Trust it is intended that in the event of it no longer being required for the air ambulance the use would remain for any secondary occupier to ensure viability.
News -
The Parish Council meeting of 13th February had been called primarily to discuss a planning application which proposes to change the use of the AGA shop into a 40 seater restaurant with takeaway service/ shop. The 4 Councillors were joined by 2 members of the public.
One of the members of the public was particularly concerned about the highways implications of the application and the other the additional rubbish which was likely to be generated by the change of use and the increase in the numbers of people and vehicles in the vicinity of the Fox and Pheasant Centre.
The members of the Council considered the letters of support from the applicant and some residents of Wakes Colne/ Chappel. There were also a number of communications from White Colne residents that had been received.
The councillors agreed unanimously to object to the application on the grounds of Highways issues and increased traffic, noise and pollution as well as its proximity to two homes. The parking provision seemed not to have been thought through sufficiently.
It was also noted that the environmental report seemed not to have considered the existing sewage disposal system and possible effects on local watercourses. Also the Historic Buildings report which found no grounds to objection had not been aware of the environmental report which required a duct with a termination a meter above the ridge line of the building.
The application can be viewed on www.braintree.gov.uk
application no 09/00063/FUL
Our ref: ES/RT/SC/Option 4 Ask for: Recycling Team Direct
Dial: 01376 332374 E-
Date: 18 February 2009
All Parish and Town Councils
Dear Sir/Madam
Changes to the Refuse and Recycling Collection Service
The Council has recently approved a number of changes to the refuse and recycling
collection service, designed to deliver improvements as well as achieve significant
efficiencies. The changes will affect all residents in the District and include:-
· Extension of the wheeled bin scheme to additional properties
The wheeled bin scheme will be rolled out to a further 5,450 properties in October 2009 (see Table 1), completing the phased introduction of wheeled bins throughout the District. This will achieve equity of service for the vast majority of residents and a significant boost in recycling performance and reduction in waste to landfill. In addition, we have refined our criteria for assessing suitability for wheeled bins since introducing the scheme and some properties in wheeled bin areas that have remained on black sack collections will be reassessed in line with the new criteria. These areas are shown in Table 2. This will ensure that all suitable properties are allocated wheeled bins, reducing dependency on separate vehicles to collect sacks.
Our staff will liaise with parish councils in the new wheeled bin areas so that publicity can be tailored to suit individual parishes and they will be happy to run roadshows and/or attend public meetings/events where required.
· Black sack collections
Those properties deemed unsuited for bins (e.g. restricted access/no storage space)
will remain on black sack collections and these will be collected fortnightly as
part of the re-
· Re-
A major re-
will commence on 1st October 2009 to coincide with the wheeled bin roll-
have a change in their collection day and we will be publicising the changes heavily to ensure a smooth transition to
the new arrangements.
· “No Side Waste” Policy
We will be carrying out an education and publicity campaign over the coming months to discourage residents from producing side waste. Residents who have bin capacity problems will be encouraged to contact us for advice and larger bins will be provided where a need is justified. Our continuing priority is to reduce waste to landfill and so the emphasis will be on recycling and eliminating side waste.
· Suspension of Garden Waste collections
From 1 December through to the end of February, the Council collects only 1/10th
of the garden waste collected during the year, yet the same resources are utilised.
This is not an efficient use of resources and a decision has therefore been taken
to suspend green waste collections over this period commencing this year. There
will be an advertising campaign leading up to the suspension and another in February
2010 to re-
The Recycling Team will be manning an information stand at the Parish Council Special Event to be held at Causeway House on 19th March 2009 and will be on hand to answer questions about the above changes. They will also be giving presentations to the Parish Cluster Meetings in March, April and May.
In the meantime, if you would like to discuss the options for a local parish briefing session or event please do not hesitate to contact a member of the Recycling Team on 01376 332373 or 332374.
Yours faithfully,
Luke Henry
Waste & Street Scene Policy Manager
Table 1 – Wheeled Bin Roll-
Parish No. of properties
Alphamstone 89
Ashen 140
Belchamp Otten 75
Belchamp St Paul 154
Belchamp Walter 89
Birdbrook 154
Borley 51
Bulmer 266
Bures Hamlet 358
Finchingfield (north) 248
Foxearth 131
Gestingthrope 220
Great Maplestead 154
Helions Bumpstead 179
The Hennys 97
Lamarsh 85
Liston 23
Little Maplestead 116
Little Yeldham 133
Middleton 57
Ovington 32
Pebmarsh 217
Pentlow 93
Ridgewell 226
Stambourne 174
Steeple Bumpstead 655
Sturmer 193
Tilbury Juxta Clare 62
Toppesfield 209
Twinstead 71
Wethersfield 563
Wickham St Paul 135
Table 2 – Sack properties to be re-
Black Notley 53
Bradwell 18
Braintree 1957
Castle Hedingham 188
Coggeshall 512
Colne Engaine 110
Cressing 84
Earls Colne 208
Faulkbourne 4
Feering 82
Gosfield 107
Great Bardfield 47
Great Notley 15
Great Saling 9
Great Yeldham 136
Greenstead Green 8
Halstead 831
Hatfield Peverel 115
Kelvedon 252
Rayne 87
Rivenhall 36
Shalford 37
Sible Hedingham 215
Silver End 44
Stisted 16
White Colne 57
White Notley 13
Witham 339
GRITTING ROADS
February 6th 2009.
Essex County Council Responds to National Shortage of Gritting Salt
All ‘A’ roads, some ‘B’ roads and other additional roads serving larger towns and villages will be treated as well as access roads to major hospitals, fire and ambulance stations. At the present time the county has sufficient supplies of salt to ensure that all major routes remain sufficiently gritted for at least the next seven days and Essex County Council and its contractors continue to monitor the situation closely.
Several centimetres of snow is predicted to fall over the next 24 hours in parts of Essex with below freezing night time temperatures continuing for the foreseeable future putting continued pressure on the council’s winter gritting service.
Essex County Council has approximately 2000 tonnes of rock and white salt in stock
at the current time and continues to receive limited deliveries of both. Each gritting
round uses approximately 150 tonnes of salt, depending on the severity of the conditions
and 1-
Secondary routes including pavements and minor roads will not be automatically treated, as has sometimes been the case during lighter spells of wintry weather, but will be treated as soon as the supplies of winter gritting salt are sufficient.
Drivers are being urged to drive with extreme caution in the continuing icy conditions and to make provisions in case of a delay. Pedestrians are advised to take extreme care as pavements and footpaths will not be treated although they will be treated as soon as possible.
Essex County Council’s website will continue to display up to date information on the situation at www.essex.gov.uk and members of the public who require emergency assistance are advised to call Contact Essex on 0845 603 7631.
Councillor Norman Hume, Cabinet Member for Highways and Transportation and Chairman of the Essex Casualty Reduction Board, said: “The prolonged weather situation facing our county combined with a national shortage of gritting salt means that we need to focus our attention on keeping as many of our residents moving as possible.
“I appreciate there will be concerns that a number of routes in Essex will not be winter treated until the situation improves but in common with much of the UK we need to prioritise our service.
“I would like to ask the public to take especial care on untreated roads as we continue to do our utmost to keep Essex moving to the best of our ability”.
New planning application received
The Parish Council has been asked to comment on application 09/00177/FUL
(33 Colchester Road) for the erection of a first floor rear extension.
To view the application visit www.braintree.gov.uk and follow the links to online planning applications.
February 2009
White Colne
ARCHIVE
