General
The past year has been the last in the life of the current Parish Council. Elections for a new four years term are due to take place on May I, if more than eight nominations are received. Whether an election will be necessary is not clear at the time of writing, but should be generally known by the time of the Annual Parish Meeting.
There have been no changes to the list of eight councillors serving the village over the year under review, but we did lose the service of one part-time employee. Michael Horne, who had been our Village Warden since the post’s inception, resigned in June. His place was taken by Arthur Hirst. who started in January. We have been pleased to have had the active support and advice of our local Borough Councillor. Richard Roberts and our County Councillor, Janet Anderson, both of whom have attended our meetings, when available.
Finance and General Purposes
2002 was of course the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Year and the Parish Council arranged for two lasting memorials of this special occasion. We followed tradition by planting a commemorative tree on the Common and then in June all the children going to school in the village were presented with a Golden Jubilee Mug. A third permanent reminder came in the form of a fine wooden seat presented by the Borough Council, which has been sited in St Paul’s Churchyard. In addition we made a grant to help a group of public minded ladies to organise a memorable Jubilee Celebration Tea Party for the older residents of the village.
Grants were also made during the year to the Cricket Club to help them improve the outfield on The Common, and to the Chipperfield Corinthians Football Club to enable them to publish a book to celebrate their Centenary.
After our success in 2001 in winning the Young People’s category of the County `Village of the Year’ competition, we entered again in 2002 and won another award, this time for the way in which the people of the village and its Businesses mutually support each other.
After consultation and the exchange of much correspondence with the Charity Commission, the process by which the old Village Chest has become the Chipperfield Community Fund, administered by the Dacorum Community Fund, was eventually completed. This Fund totalling just under £4,000 is now available to meet cases of need within the village.
Vandalism and vehicle crime has continued to be a problem. After extensive liaison with the Police, we are working to produce a Community Plan to channel ways in which local people can work with the Police to tackle the problem jointly. Looking ahead, our budget for expenditure for the village, raised from the Parish Council’s element of your Council Tax for the 2003-4 financial year is £22,420 or £26.41 per annum for a Band `D’ property. This represents a £4.12 increase over 2002-3, due to increases in insurance, lower interest rates on investment and additional pay for the Parish Clerk in recognition of his increased workload. In addition, we have sought a further £12,522 from Dacorum Borough Council funds to use on behalf of the village (our Concurrent Budget). Highways, Road Safety and Public Transport
This year our work has centred round the following tasks:
Chipperfield village linked footpaths scheme. From an original idea submitted by Mr Simon Wood to link the various footpaths that exist in Chipperfield to form a continuous walkway around the village, we have formulated proposals to allow the scheme to become a reality. When completed, walkers will be able to travel throughout the village in safety without the necessity to walk in the road. Long term parking outside the retail outlets in the village. We are looking at ways to reduce the current parking problems that exist outside the retail outlets along Chapel Croft. One possible solution may be a reduction in the permissive waiting time, to reduce the number of cars parked all day in this section of the village. If implemented it is hoped that this will alleviate the problems that currently exist and assist the shop holders in their pursuit of business.
Rural traffic and transport conference. We have been involved in the recent government proposal to link the various transport media timetables, these recommendations will assist the travelling public by linking timetables for bus, train and coach transport thereby ensuring efficient transfer between the various methods of public transport.
Road re-surfacing in Chipperfield. The resurfacing works that have been carried out along Langley Road have not been completed to a satisfactory standard. The committee has lobbied for these to be finished together with the reinstatement of the “cats eyes”. The road markings took an unacceptable time to complete despite numerous attempts to hasten completion of this work. Cllr John Carter
Planning
The past year has been another busy one for the Committee, with probably more planning applications than ever before on which to submit its views to the Borough. Most of these were for fairly routine extensions, but major ones included the proposed re-development of Didsbury Cottage and Croft View adjacent to the shops in Chapel Croft and the current application for the building of three large dwellings on the former commercial site at the Ackwell Simmonds site further down the road. The Parish Council were sympathetic to the former application, but Dacorum refused permission. We await the Borough’s decision on the latter, which already has outline permission, following an appeal. The Parish Council has recommended refusal, as it has a number of concerns on the design details. The Council was pleased to learn that, after vigorous protest, the County Council’s draft Minerals Plan proposal to include a large area around Bucks Hill as a potential site for gravel working was dropped.
A highlight of the year was the publication and distribution to all households in the village of the Chipper-field Village Design Statement. This has attracted a great deal of favourable comment, both within the village and outside, and is being used extensively to guide planning decisions. The Council has expressed its thanks to the team, who were responsible for its production. Cllr David Nobbs
Allotments
Of the 46 plots available, 14 were not let during 2002 and have remained uncultivated. The rampant weed growth on them has posed problems for tenants although the Village Warden did cut growth on them in July. I am attempting to find a contractor with a licence to use weed killer to enable un-let plots to be treated for 2003.
Grass on the main path was cut several times during the year to improve access and tenants have agreed that additional road stone should be laid along the path. The boundary hedges still require attention – cutting and additional planting. Heavy rains caused some flooding on plots during the autumn and winter.
Once again there were incidents of vandalism and theft from sheds during the year, despite police awareness of the problem and random visits by officers. Rents remain unchanged at £6 per plot for 2003 and will be collected at the Annual Meeting of tenants.
Open Spaces
War Memorial. Repairs to the damaged War Memorial were approved by the Parish Council in May and although the replacement cross has been carved, the mason has not yet been able to install it. Dog waste. A project to clean-up The Common and village footpaths was undertaken during the year in partnership with Dacorum Borough Council. One dog waste bin was moved to Kin-s Lane, an additional bin sited along Footpath 14 and two dog -love dispenser bins were installed~ on The Common. Additional notices have been displayed and leaflets have been distributed by the Common Ranger and others. There has been some improvement during the year, although
visitors remain the major culprits. Unfortunately the planned introduction of on-the-spot fines for persistent offenders could not be introduced, following legal advice. However, fines can be levied following due warning and notification of details t

o the Borough Council.
Jubilee benches. Two benches were donated to the village – one by members of the Evening W.I. sited on the east side of the Apostles Pond and one by Dacorum Borough Council which was installed to the left of the parish church door.
Car park safety. The Parish Council has registered our interest with Dacorum Borough Council for the installation of CCTV to monitor the car park adjacent to the parish church. To proceed, this will require some form of lighting in the area. Woodland management. Storm damage during the autumn brought down many mature trees and large branches, Oak tees suffered particularly. The delay in clearing fallen wood from the footpaths was due to the amount of other urgent work the tree surgeons had to undertake in the county. Bad weather delayed work removing dead trees and underbrush in Compartment 5 (fringing the cricket outfield) but this is now under way (March).
Parish Environmental Action Plan (PEAP) I have been unable to find sufficient numbers of interested people to make this a viable project at present.
Croft Meadow Woodland. At the end ort the financial year the Woodlands Officer had sufficient funds to undertake some work here including the removal of dead trees and cutting back dangerous branches. Road stone will be added to the “unofficial” access footpath worn by residents from Croft Meadow to Footpath 14 to make it safer and cleaner to use Footpaths
A grant from the Countryside Management Service (Parish Paths Partnership) enabled re-surfacing work of Footpath 14 (from Chipperfield Garage to Scatterdells Lane) to begin (2002) and further -rants will allow re-surfacin2 to he extended along the path this year (2003). A proposal to link footpaths through the village was received from Mr, Simon Wood and following a joint meeting, the Open Spaces/Footpaths Committee and Highways Committee have submitted proposals to the Parish Council on how this can be achieved.
Eight residents volunteered to ‘adopt a footpath’ in the autumn and their conscientious work clearing litter has made a great difference to the appearance of the village. Cllr Liz Holliday