April 1997
As predicted, the application for planning permission for the Church extension was sent off to Dacorum Borough Council in March and by the time this edition of Chipperfield News comes out, notices may be appearing around the village. In addition, notices were placed in the local press drawing attention to the proposals and to the effects of any building on the graveyard to the South East of the Church. Copies of the plans and details of the graves affected are now displayed in the Church and can be viewed between 9.30am and 400pm daily, In addition three wooden pegs have been placed in the graveyard to give a rough indication of the corners of the proposed building. We would now like to ask anyone who has memorial plants or bushes in the two flowerbeds in the Garden of Rest nearest to the Church to make themselves known to the Vicar, as some of these may need to be protected or moved if the building goes ahead. We have taken the advice of an arboriculturalist and would like the opportunity to talk to donors about his suggestions before making any further plans.
Angela Butler
We are pleased to announce that Sian Hopkins will be taking over as Brown Owl in September. We are very lucky to have found a Guider who is keen and good fun. Sian has been working with us since January and will continue to do so until she has taken over completely.
We do need another full time adult who is willing to lend a couple of hours every Tuesday to support her, and without this help she will not be able to do it on her own. Gail Powell is leaving in July, as I am, but we don’t mind sharing one week a month if it helps. Please think carefully about this: we might still lose our Brownies if someone doesn’t come forward soon.
HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY
Our Spring Show is just days away, on Saturday 12th April in the Village Hall. Come along at 230pm to admire the exhibits, have a cup of tea, join in the auction and try your luck in the raffle. Even better, be an exhibitor and help us put on a great show. Full details are in the new schedule.
You should have your new membership car by now, which is needed for discounts - the old one will not do! If you have not renewed through your local collector, come along to the Shop on Saturday mornings, or let me or Rebecca Mitchell know.
As I write this, Rebecca is recovering from her unfortunate illness. She wishes to thank everyone for their concern and enquiries after her wellbeing. We all trust that she will soon be fully recovered and in fine fettle for the Spring Show.
The Garden Supplies Shop is open from 10 to 12 o’clock each Saturday morning. Come along for some good buys, a chat and chew over those gardening problems.
Look after your daffs etc., and watch out for those late snow and sleet flurries - yes, it did snow on 12th April last year!
CHILDREN’S VISIT TO OUR LADY MOTHER OF THE SAVIOUR CHURCH
What a wonderful opportunity I experienced on Monday February 10th, when I saw a crocodile line of some 40 children walking two and two in a long procession towards the Church, guarded by their teacher Mrs Wildman and many helpers. The children were from two classes of pupils attending St Paul’s School.
Father Desmond Cantwell had intended to entertain the children, but due to an unexpected urgent call, he invited me to undertake this pleasant duty.
Very many questions were asked, then answered by Mrs Wildman and by me. However all too soon we realised our allotted hour had expired and found we had no time left for our usual hymn and prayer. What a pity!
We all enjoyed ourselves and now I look forward to their next visit.
Wilfrid Wortham
MANY CONGRATULATIONS!
to George and Diane Mansfield, who are delighted to announce the arrival of Matthew Paul, born on February 17th at Hemel Hempstead Hospital.
YOUTH CLUB NEWS
We are pleased to report that the waiting list for the Juniors club has now been cleared. The club nights are well attended and continued help from parents has prevented any further cancelled evenings. The Juniors thoroughly enjoyed a very successful disco on Valentine’s Day. Soon afterwards the Inters club organised a disco for themselves which was well attended, although it seemed to me that it was the club leaders who did most of the dancing.
Club Finances
Our financial position has deteriorated recently due to almost £2,500 having to be spent on relining the drains at the club building. Although we are grateful to the County Council for a grant to assist with the cost, this still left the Club having to find about £1,700. In order to rebuild our financial resources we hope to be organising a number of fund raising events over the next year. We hope all residents of Chipperfield will continue their generous support of the Club, Our first event is a Bring and Buy coffee morning on April 12th (see front page for details). Bob Wiggins
SPECTACLES
Kate Farrow would like to inform all the kind people who have responded to her appeals for used spectacles that no more are needed for the time being.
The demand has dropped off and one hopes that the reason for this is that the people of the Eastern Cape Province (formerly Transkei) are now more affluent and like to buy new spectacles.
Those already collected went out to ‘Vision Care’ in Umtata with Jenny McConnachie on March 15th.
Spectacles can be taken to the optician’s department at Boots the Chemist who pass them on to ‘Sight Savers’, a charity which sends them to Third World Countries. Thank you for your wonderful response in the past.
MEETING PLACE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
Recently a small group of people from the village met to discuss issues relating to young people living in Chipperfield. As part of these discussions, ways in which additional facilities could be offered to these young people were explored. One idea was to create an informal evening meeting place for teenagers. It was
decided, with their help, to trial this idea, initially on the basis of one or two evenings a week. Therefore help is being sought in two areas. Firstly, interested persons will be required to run the project, including one or two co-ordinators (who will ensure that the meeting place is available, open and set up on the evening) as well as additional helpers, perhaps on a rota basis. Secondly, the views of the young people in the village are being sought. Is an informal meeting place of interest to young people, and what would they like to see provided (or not provided)?
It is possible that this initiative could make a real improvement for the residents of Chipperfield. If you are an adult, would you be interested in helping to co-ordinate this project, or help out with the rota? Interest would particularly (but by no means exclusively!) be welcome from adults in their 20s.
Equally important, if you are a teenager, do you have views regarding the format such a meeting place should take? Would you or your friends be interested in helping to get it off the ground?
In either case, please contact Bob Wiggins on 01923 244545.
LUPUS AWARENESS WEEK: 5TH to 12th APRIL
What is Lupus? An incurable illness of the immune system, a condition in which the body’s defence mechanism begins to attack itself through an excess of antibodies in the bloodstream causing inflammation and damage in the joints, muscles and other organs. The disease may be triggered by various means and can present in a bewildering number of ways, even to the extent of mimicking other diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis or multiple sclerosis.
The cause of lupus is not positively known, though research has provided evidence implicating heredity, hormones and infections including viruses. Some 40,000 are believed to have lupus in the UK and 90% of its sufferers are female between the ages of 15 and 55. With its many symptoms, lupus can often be overlooked by a GP or consultant which may long delay a final diagnosis and vital medication.
VISITORS FROM AFAR
Although we have seen little bands of siskins eating seeds in the tops of the silver birches, it was not until the beginning of February that the first one came to the peanuts. A lone female fed regularly for 10 days before three males arrived at the feeder. The males are showy little birds, about the size of blue tits and just as acrobatic, with bright yellow bars across their wings and a black cap and chin. The general colouring is very similar to a green finch with a yellow flash in the tail. Although they are resident in Britain, a great many come over from Scandinavia for the winter, and I imagine the flocks that we have seen are just visiting, as they like to nest in large conifer forests.
The dear little goldcrests seem to find our Christmas tree patch large enough for them, though, and I have had some lovely views of them lately. They seem to have no fear at all and continue their hunt for spiders and insects while I watch from just a few feet away. They, along with the firecrest, are the tiniest European birds and half the time I probably miss them, but sometimes their high pitched twitters give them away. It’s hard to imagine that these tiny birds can cross the North Sea, but a great many of these are just winter visitors. A lot of birds make incredible journeys but a lot more come from the East of Europe than I thought. The results of ringing have shown that blackbirds, chaffinches and starlings come from Russia, Germany and Poland. At Christmas time there were small flocks of skylarks in the fields beyond Scatterdells Woods, looking for seeds among the young rape plants, and these had fled the cold in North and Eastern Europe. Now that the cold winds have gone, they have disappeared, but our own larks have started singing as they hover high above the field. I always think of this as a summer sound, but we have watched them rise several hundred feet, singing their hearts out, for a couple of weeks now. It’s nice to know that there are still some about, and I hope they will manage to raise some chicks as the rape gets taller.
Our owl box is now up in the pine tree. All we want now is a mate for the tawny we hear hooting every evening!
Tony Rance
Chairman, Herts & Beds Group
PARISH COUNCIL AFFAIRS
An Invitation to the Annual Parish Meeting: Monday 14th April
The Annual Parish Meeting will be held at St Paul’s School on Monday 14th April at 8pm. We shall have two short introductory talks this year before the formal business meeting, both with an emphasis on the young people in the village. Bob Wiggins, Chairman of the Youth Club’s Management Committee will outline to us the concept of involving young people in village affairs through the possible formation of a Youth Parish Council. Then WPC Michelle Buttleman, responsible for our day to day community policing, will tell us about her job, with particular emphasis on her role of working with young people.
These two short presentations will be followed by the business meeting. The reporting part of this should be very brief, but there will be ample opportunity for questions, both on the Parish Council’s plans for the forthcoming year or on any other matters. After the business comes the chance to relax and to meet your councillors informally over wine and cheese. The Parish Council’s Annual Report
In recent years, the Parish Council’s Annual Report on its activities has been circulated at the meeting itself. This year, it was felt it would be helpful if the report could be circulated more widely in advance of the meeting. With the co-operation of Chipperfield News, to which the Parish Council is most grateful, this has proved to be possible. So below you will find summaries by the Chairs of the Council’s five committees of their main activities over the past year. If you have any questions about these reports or have any other issues you wish to raise, do come to the Annual Meeting. We shall be very pleased to see you.
Allotments
The Parish is fortunate in having the facility of an allotment field, which is divided into fifty plots for the use of the local population. Most tenants live in Chipperfield, but a number come from Bovingdon.
The allotments are overseen by a committee of the Parish Council, which consists of three councillors and three tenants, elected at the AGM of the allotment holders. The full committee meets when major decisions have to be made. For instance, when it was proposed that allotment land should be used for the construction of a tennis court, many meetings and much discussion took place before agreement was reached and the construction went ahead. Now the court is in use and has been accepted amicably by the tenants.
At present, planning permission is being sought for the construction of a driveway to link the road to the main allotment entrance. Over the years, more and more of the tenants come to the allotments by car, which has caused considerable damage to the common land, looks unsightly and has to be remedied. Hopefully, the new track will soon be in use.
On the whole, the allotments are well used, but there are still plots to let, which the Parish Council would like to see brought back to cultivation and new tenants would be most welcome. At present, the rent is but £6 a plot. For such little expenditure one can enjoy healthy exercise and produce good quality, organically grown vegetables and soft fruit. Why not come and join us? ClIr. Ian Murphy
Finance and General Purposes
This committee is responsible for proposing the Parish Council’s budget for the year, for ensuring that subsequent expenditure is properly controlled and for making
recommendations on policy and other issues that do not fall within the scope of the other committees.
Financial matters have been well to the fore this year as the Government’s new Accounting and Auditing regulations have made substantial changes to local government financial accounts. This has involved the Parish Clerk in much extra work.
The total Parish Council Tax (precept) for 1996-7 was set for just over £10,000 and although the financial year has still three weeks to run at the time of writing, the indications are that we shall end the year well within this budget. For 1997-8 a total precept expenditure of £10,511 was put forward to Dacorum Borough Council, representing an increase over that for last year of 4%. In addition, we have asked the borough for a further £8,013 (known as concurrent expenditure) from their fund for rural areas to spend on behalf of the village. Fuller details of the financial position will, of course, be available at the Annual Parish Meeting.
A number of projects for the village have been progressed during the year. Among them have been plans to appoint a village warden to tackle the litter problem, which the Village Appraisal identified as one which concerned many residents. It is hoped to make an appointment in the near future. The Affordable Housing Project has made good progress and we are now awaiting preliminary proposals for a specific scheme to share with the village. A preliminary work plan has been prepared for the production of a history of the village in living memory to be published as part of the millennium celebrations. The committee also registered official objections to the Hertfordshire County Council’s Waste Plan with a view to making it include prohibitions against heavy vehicles on their way to and from a proposed waste site at Bovingdon passing through our village.
The low police presence in Chipperfield has been a worrying feature of the year with the permanent loss of our village police constable and the temporary withdrawal of the mobile unit for Chipperfield, Bovingdon and King’s Langley. We have good relations with the Dacorum Division of the Hertfordshire Constabulary. However, protests from the village, some of which have gone right up the line, have not resulted in a change of policy. We shall continue to do our best to restore the village’s policing to a better level.
Finally, the committee put forward draft objections, approved by the Council, to the recent proposals by the Borough to recommend to the Local Government Commission that the electoral ward of Chipperfield be merged with that of Bovingdon and Flaunden. In our submission to both Dacorum Borough Council and to the Commission, we expressed our strong belief that we should retain the single member Chipperfield Ward with our own Borough Councillor.
Highways, Road Safety and Public Transport
The main activity of the committee has been to follow up the results of the public consultation on traffic calming measures for the village. Here, we have seen some progress, but also a number of frustrations.
On the plus side, we now have speed restrictions on all the main roads in the parish and the road from Bovingdon to the Two Brewers has been re-surfaced to a good standard. We now have a pavement in front of the Two Brewers, making the approach from this direction to the school safer, and another around the corner opposite Tower Hill Garage. New drainage and surfacing work has at long last been carried out between the ‘Windmill’ and Queen Street and at the soak- away near the Manor House. Safety at the Tower Hill crossroads has been enhanced by the erection of new high intensity signs - a chequerboard one in the hedge and new warnings on the approaches.
On the other hand, we have seen lengthy delays from the County Couhcil’s Transportation Department on providing plans for a possible mini-roundabout at the Royal Oak crossroads and on surfacing the permissive footpath at Whippendell Hill.
Parish Council Affairs
In the case of the footpath we had actually been assured by the County Council that the money for the work had been ‘ring-fenced’, but that did not prevent it from evaporating when the time came to do the work. We have also been told that there will be no money available for traffic calming measures at Tower Hill in the year ahead.Nevertheless, the committee has prepared priorities for road safety work when funds are available:
1. Footpath at Whippendell Hill.
2. Footpaths on bend in Dunny Lane.
3. Footpath from Tower Hill to Chipperfield Garden Centre.
In the area of public transport, the Parish Council circulated in September, with the help of Chipperfield News, a handy leaflet detailing the timetables for all three of our bus routes.
Again, there was frustration in having to use council funds to repair damage caused by vandalism to the two bus shelters owned by the Council. In one case, further damage was caused through paint daubing within two weeks of the shelter being refurbished.
The council also submitted its views on behalf of the village on the minimum level of service to be set for the franchises running North London Railways and the West Coast Main Line. ClIr Polly Garratt
Open Spaces and Footpaths
The committee is responsible for the open spaces and footpaths within the parish.
During the last year the Common has been the subject of both good and bad developments. On the good side Apostles Pond has been thoroughly cleaned up, something much requested by local residents. The pond was drained and many wildlife subjects removed for the duration of the works. As the pond supports many carp, goldfish, crested newts (which are an endangered species), frogs and toads, it was important to ensure that they were all safe. Once all the debris was removed, the pond was allowed to refill naturally, as no other water supply could be found. Lime and manure were added to provide the right nutrients for wildlife and the fish are to be returned to the pond in the spring.
On the down side there has been a lot of vandalism on the Common. The Heritage Trust notices have been vandalised on a number of occasions, and only recently, a young lime tree has been attacked with an axe. It is very sad to think that there are people in the locality with so little regard for the natural beauty we are so fortunate to have around us!
This year we have joined the Parish Paths Partnership. This is a scheme launched in 1992 by the Countryside Commission. It provides advice, grant aid and practical help to local Councils and voluntary groups to enable them to improve the condition of the Public Rights of Way network, and, once improved, to keep the paths open and in use. A survey was conducted of all our public footpaths to ascertain what needed to be done. Fortunately, all our 14 footpaths were in reasonable condition, with the odd exception, such as the one that runs along the back of Queen Street. It was decided that for the 1996-7 year we would apply for a grant of
£1,000 to enable us to replace all the worn out metal signposts and signs. This was approved and the work was due to start in March. Many of the signposts will be having their Public Footpath signs replaced with ones bearing their destination. This will hopefully be of use to locals and visitors alike. ClIr Kim Mitchell
Planning
The main activity of the committee has been as usual to consider all the planning applications affecting the village that have been submitted to Dacorum Borough Council. Over the past year there have been well over 40 such applications and for each of these committee members have visited the site and tried to picture the appropriateness of the design, the impact on neighbours and on the environment and whether the proposal is in conformity with the District Plan.
Probably, the most significant applications for development in the period were those affecting the transfer of the Post Office to Chapel Croft and for the further extension of Chipperfield Garage. In the case of the former, the committee played an important part in facilitating the Post Office’s move and doing all it could to ensure there was only a short time when we were without one. In the latter case the Borough Development Control Committee approved the plans, subject to detailed provision for working hours and sound levels, although the Parish Council had expressed their unhappiness with the new site layout.
The other main activities for the committee have centred on two Hertfordshire County Council Plans. The Minerals Plan covers policies for the extraction and processing of minerals, mainly gravel. Here the committee prepared an objection aimed at preventing the possibility of heavy gravel lorries going through Conservation Areas, such as the one covering the core of the village. The main concerns about the County’s Structure Plan relates to the provision of new homes over the next 15 years. The Parish Council accepted that the figure of 20 new dwellings in Chipperfield over this period was reasonable. Like many other local Parish and Town Councils we are very concerned however about the County’s view, supported by our own Borough Council, that the target number of dwellings they have been required to provide would necessitate building in the Green Belt. We therefore agreed to participate in an initiative of Potten End and Nettleden Parish Council to contribute to the cost of having a planning expert represent the rural parishes of Dacorum in countering this proposal at the Planning Inspector’s examination in public. This is currently taking place.
ClIr David Nobbs
EARLY RETIREMENT
Mrs Edna Hall left St Paul’s School at the end of term to enjoy retirement with her husband Trevor. They are moving close to the sea, to a village near Whitstable in Kent. Mrs Hall has been the school welfare helper for nineteen years. Her three sons attended the school, and Trevor Hall coached the school football team for many years. Both have contributed enormously to the life of the school and the village. Keen bowls players, Edna and Trevor plan to continue with their hobby by joining bowls clubs close to their new home.
Edna Hall’s post as welfare helper changed and grew over the years in line with the many changes in education. Her responsibilities included caring for children when they were sick, attending accidents and injuries, supporting children in their learning, reading with children, making books, organising the library, looking after resources and displays, and organising and making costumes for productions and much more. Mrs Hall has also been a good and loyal friend to all the staff. Undoubtedly her energy and commitment will be greatly missed by everyone at the school.
At a special assembly at the end of term, Mrs Hall was presented with gifts from staff, pupils and children. Governors made their presentation during a tea party in her honour.
Everyone wishes Mr and Mrs Hall a long and happy retirement.
DARE YOU COME AND LOOK AT THE EVIDENCE? DARE YOU COME AND ASK QUESTIONS?
The Alpha Course is designed for people who want to look again at the claims of Christianity without asking them to commit themselves. It runs over 10 weeks and looks at subjects like who was Jesus, Why did He die? How can I be sure of faith? Why and how to read the Bible. Why and how can we pray. The summer course will start in May, either on a weekday evening or sometime on a Sunday. If anyone is interested, do please give me a ring. There is likely to be an evening preview at the beginning of May for those who want to come and have a look.
Angela Butler