Parish Pump – December 2020
Your Parish Council held the Annual Meeting called by the Chairman – with this also being their last meeting of the year – on Thursday 10th December 2020 at 8.00pm. Seven Parish Councillors were in attendance along with our Parish Clerk, our ECC Councillor Lesley Wagland and one Ward Councillor, Cliff Poppy.
Cllr. Wagland informed us that the ECC’s Pot Hole Initiative was now underway and that the village should expect to see it’s reported pot holes being filled in soon, with the ECC aiming to complete all works by March 2021. She also made us aware that the deadline for the Locality Fund is February 2021 but could possibly be extended to March 2021 under the current circumstances. Your Parish Council is awaiting the delivery of 6 new planters for the village and will then submit the claim for the Fund. Cllr. Wagland told us that progress on the petition for a pedestrian crossing on Ongar Road has been made since the last meeting, with it being passed on to the petition section of ECC and is expected to be dealt with by its senior councillors. A member of the public re-raised the issue of anti-social behaviour in Doddinghurst Common with Cllr. Wagland, to which she said that she is still waiting for answers from the ECC in regard to that.
There was not much change in BBC news this month, but Cllr. Poppy reported that the BBC’s community hub is proving successful amongst residents, such as the one organised by Revd. J Hardy in the village.
The Chairman then updated your Parish Council with the status on the auction and possible acquisition of Eagle Field (and Doddinghurst Common). He has written a full report to inform you all on the sequence of events which has been published in this issue of the Village News.
Due to the pandemic, this year the Seniors’ Christmas Meal unfortunately had to be cancelled so your Parish Council planned to send hampers to those who have attended in past years in the hope to raise a bit of Christmas cheer. Because of new GDPR laws, the Parish Council couldn’t share recipients’ addresses with the company supplying them. Instead, 60 odd hampers were delivered to the Chairman’s house so that Councillors could deliver them to villagers themselves, along with the Women’s Institute’s gifts of Christmas stockings.
The meeting ended with the Parish Council being thanked by the members of the public in attendance for its hard work with Eagle Field and Doddinghurst Common.
The next Parish Council meeting is scheduled to be on Thursday 14th January 2021 at 8.00pm. This will be another virtual one on Microsoft Teams.
Cllr. Georgia Saunders
Kelvedon Hatch Parish Council