Walsham le Willows

EXPLANATION!

There are instances within these draft reports of the Parish Council meetings where references are made under the PLANNING APPLICATION heading to HB8, PPG15 etc.. These refer to the very extensive planning document issued by MSDC to all Parish Councils whereby various aspects of the planning applicaions have to be judged/considered, and it would be virtually impossible for the full details to be given in this report. However, if anyone is interested in discovering more about these details they are welcome to attend the Parish Council meetings or they could even log on to the MSDC website!

The Parish Council draft Minutes of the monthly meeting.

These are the draft minutes of the meeting held on Monday November 9th 2009.

Public Open Forum

Ian Campbell spoke to give an update on the progress the Sports Club are making with their new sports facility. Richard Belson raised two issues concerning the report which goes into the Observer.

MATTERS ARISING

Traffic Management Within the Village

A letter from Suffolk County Council was read confirming that parking restrictions outside the Primary School has been listed on the Quality of Life programme. As yet this scheme has not received funding so will remain on the list. The draft drawing showing what lorry directional signs and advisory signs they intend to install at the Six Bells crossroads was discussed. Councillors were in agreement with this but the Clerk was instructed to write to the occupiers of Willow House informing them that two signs are to be erected by their front hedge.

Community SPEED WATCH Scheme

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This was discussed at length with divided opinions. The aim of the initiative is to address the problem of speeding within the village and the Clerk was instructed to find out if the operating guidelines can be printed in the Observer and if so to ask for public opinion on this, Dr. Russell agreed to invite Mr. John Rapley to the February meeting. Mr. Rapley is from Beyton who are currently running this scheme.

Signs on footpaths – NO HORSES.

Nick Mecrow was no further forward with obtaining these signs from Suffolk County Council. It was decided that the Clerk should order 4 signs from Whitehouse Enterprises and the Parish Council will pay.

Fence at Play Area

No further progress.

Footway outside Elmside

Following a further letter to Hopkins Homes concerning this they have replied that there was a delay over a decision on the possible retention of the existing lighting column to the west of their site entrance, but this has now been superseded by the new street light nearby. Also a new street light will be installed to the East of the entrance when the works behind are fundamentally complete. As soon as Edf Energy complete the requested electrical connection, they will surface the path immediately afterwards.

Stream clearance

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David Goodwin has now cleared the stream.

Trees in Churchyard

David Brown has offered to do the work required in the New Year at a price of £200. It was proposed by John Stebbing and seconded by Dr. Russell. This was carried with 4 in favour and 2 abstentions.

County Mulch

Nick Mecrow reported that Liaison Meetings have now ceased due to impending legal actions by multiple complainants. County Mulch have been advised by their Lawyer not to talk about issues at the site that might be the subject of litigation,. The Clerk was instructed to write to the Environmental Agency and members of the liaison committee for a report on the continuation of the progress being made on the site concerning odour and flies. County Mulch have applied for a variation in the Environmental Agency permit. The Parish Council have not been formally advised of this and the Clerk was instructed to seek immediate advice.

Community Resiliance Group meeting

John Stebbing reported that he had attended an initial meeting at Great Barton Village Hall on the 1st December, 2009. This was mainly to formulate ideas and the next meeting is to be held on the 16th December. Mr. Stebbing has agreed to attend.

CORRESPONDENCE

Stream clearance

A letter was read from David Daniels thanking the Parish Council for arranging the clearing of the stream.

Local flooding survey

Dr. Russell agreed to complete this and bring to the next meeting.

REPORTS.

Cllr. Derek Osborne

Cllr. Osborne reported that there will be more section 106 Developer Contributions which will support Community Projects when the development for 21 more houses at Elmside is agreed. He also informed the Parish Council that he sits on 9 Panels at MSDC. He has agreed to e-mail a list to everyone (Councillors!) for their information,

Tree Warden

Not in attendance.

Play Council

Nick Mecrow had nothing to report.

Clerks Financial Report and Request for Payments

. The precept request form for the sum of £16,000 was duly signed. The Clerk reported that her printer was beyond repair. It was proposed by Nick Mecrow, seconded by Ian Bartholomew and carried unanimously that a new one be purchased to the sum of up to £150.

Neighbourhood Watch

. Ken Stockton reported that there had been 2 crimes within the village. 1 Criminal damage and the other drink driving.

P.3.

Nick Mecrow had nothing to report.

106 Agreements

As reported by Cllr. Osborne there will be more section 106 Developer Contributions when the next phase at Elmside is complete. Applications from Community Projects will have to be made to MSDC and not the Parish Council as before.

A1088.

Nick Mecrow felt that a letter should be sent to Guy McGregor informing him of the many HGV’s that use the road through Elmswell, Badwell Ash & Walsham le Willows as a rat run now that the A.1088 is closed to HGV's and ask him to look into the possibility of opening up this road.

Liaison bteween nearby Parish Councils

Deferred until the February meeting.

VAT Return for Memorial Hall

Following the Parish Council’s enquiry as to whether or not they can claim VAT on behalf of the Memorial Hall a reply has been received from the Written Enquiries Team but it is still not clear if VAT can be reclaimed. Ian Bartholomew agreed to make further enquiries.

Speaker system - Priory Room

To be discussed at the next meeting.

PLANNING APPLICATIONS

Planning application No. 3514/09

Use part of existing construction engineers depot site for waste recycling comprising importation, crushing, screening and storage of inert waste and soils and ancillary operations, hardstanding areas and associated access. R & D Construction Depot., Summer Road. In principal the Parish Council are supportive of this application, however, they make the following observations.

Hours of opening/operation point 21 page 11 are stated as being 0700-1900 Mon to Fri, Sat. These hours are too long and we believe should be restricted to 0900-1600 Mon to Fri. only.

The application should be a named consent to R & D Construction only.

The arisings stated in 2.2 & 4.2 are noted as only coming from R & D Construction.

In 4.7 waste will be brought onto the site in existing HGV's that are based at the site.

All the above should be conditions of the consent.

Planning Application No.3513/90

14 Lime trees - to prune back epicormic growth to trunk to a height of 4 metres. This operation to be repeated every three, two or other years as required. St. Mary's Church, The Causeway. The Parish Council have been informed that if by the 30.12.09 they have not received notification that the Council objects to the works proposed and the trees have not been included in a Tree Preservation Order then they are free to carry out the proposed works.

PLANNING OUTCOMES

Planning Application No. 3138/09

Erection of two storey extension to side elevation, 4, Palmer Street. Planning permission has been granted by Mid Suffolk District Council.

Planning Application No. 2176/09 & 2386/09

The Elms, Badwell Road. Both of these applications have been withdrawn.

Planning Application No. 3391/09

Removal of Silver Birch Tree. Box Tree House, The Causeway, MSDC does not wish to object.

Planning Application No. 3050/09

Remove 1 no Eucalyptus. The Priory, The Causeway, MSDC does not wish to object.

Planning Application No. 3839/0 Appeal Ref. APP/W3520/A/09/2103564

Erection of a 3 bedroom detached house and off-road parking. Mill Close. The appeal has been dismissed.

The next meeting will be held on Monday 11th January, 2010 in the Priory Room commencing at 7.00pm:.

October 10th 2009

Response from the Parish Council re: WASTE CORE STRATEGY ISSUES

This matter appears to have been settled with the possible proposed site at Shepherds Grove having been removed from the equation, however, the following will remain on this website for a few more months in case anyone should want to refer to the response from the Parish Council

The Parish Council forwarded a copy of the following Strategy Document to Suffolk County Council and to all other relevant parties. These were despatched w/e October 9th 2009.

This document was the Parish Councils considered response resulting from the various meetings and discussions that had taken place over the last few months regarding the Waste Core Strategy Issues and Options (Part 2) - Strategic Sites.

The Parish Council draft Minutes of the Extraordinary meeting.

These are the draft minutes of the Extraordinary meeting held on Wednesday September 2nd 2009.

Present were Mrs. Blackburn, Mrs. Barber, Mrs. Soanes, Messrs. Bartholomew, Mecrow, Stebbing and 9 members of the public.

Planning Matters

Planning Application No. 1826/09 Erection and operation of two REpower 3.XM wind turbine generators, (78m to hub & 130m to tip). Construction of associated hard standings, access tracks and substation compound. Temporary construction access tracks and construction lay down area. Land at Potash Farm, Potash Lane, Wyverstone.

The meeting was opened for the Parish Council to hear the views of the general public. A presentation was given by a member of the campaign group Stop Wyverstone Wind Farm Action Group (SWWAG). Two other members of the public spoke against this application and two members of the public spoke in favour.

In their reply the Parish Council wished to point out that it was found that one of the plans was inaccuraste in as much that houses were omitted and therefore did not show a true picture of proximity.

The Parish Council supported this application. The voting was 2 in favour and 2 against. The Chairman used her casting vote in support. Mrs. Barber had declared a non-prejudicial interest and therefore took no part in the discussions.

Planning Application No.2365/09 Erection of single storey rear extension. The Old Drapers, The Street. The Parish Council unanimously supported this application.

Parish Council "Activities".

All Parish Councils have certain mandatory responsibilities such as setting the Parish Precept, taking responsibility for maintaining the street lighting, advising on Planning Applications etc.. In addition to these actions our Parish Council has also organised an "Annual Litter Pick" and as a "One -Off" project the last couple of years has seen Walsham le Willows taking part in a County-wide "Hedge Survey". This survey, although it was originally partly a Parish Councils project has been organised and carried out by various volunteers from our local residents, headed up by Mrs Maureen Turner.

The Annual Litter Pick takes place every February and consists of the village being split into over one dozen areas which are then cleared by teams of volunteers, with the resulting bags of rubbish being collected from the Memorial Hall car park by Mid Suffolk District Council. February is chosen as being the most suitable time for this annual event as the "litter" is still exposed prior to the spring and summer growth. This also avoids any litter being chopped into smaller pieces once any trimming takes place. By the look of the pile of black plastic bags the village must now be very clean and tidy!

It must be noted that in Mid-August 2008 there was an additional Litter Pick with the intention of tidying up the village prior to the Open Gardens Weekend and, although this did not generate quite as much litter as the usual February one it certainly proved to be worthwhile and it has now become another annual event.

The Hedge Survey was completed in 2008. In this instance the survey has been carried out by just three teams, each consisting of two volunteers and in contrast to the timing for the Litter Pick this is only practical between the spring/summer period when the leaves allow for easier identification of the various plants. As mentioned above, this survey is being undertaken by most, but not all of the parishes within Suffolk County and although there are already several where their survey is now complete there are many more who are well behind the completion target.

These are two more of the projects that come under the aegis of our Parish Council along with their involvement with our footpaths, and also at the present time with the very costly maintenance of the Parish Church wall. Another current involvement concerns the 106 agreement related to the next Hopkins Homes development in Finningham road. In addition to this rather broad summary of their work, our councillors are now much more involved in a mass of rules and regulations which has therefore made their work very time consuming - rather like the Police are now experiencing !

The photographs and description shown above are of the Parish Council that replaced the one shown below!

This hopefully gives just a taste of the involvement of our Parish Councillors, who of course are also all volunteers!

Parish Council of the Year Award

The Walsham le Willows Parish Council was awarded "The Parish Council of the Year 2006" for it's overall performance over that year. The Chairman at that time, David Rolfe, accepted this award on behalf of the rest of the council members.

The Village Design Statement January 2007

Introduction

In 2002, a wide ranging Village Appraisal of all aspects of community life in Walsham le Willows, was conducted with the support of the Countryside Agency and Mid Suffolk District Council. Over 90% of households replied and the analysis of this very strong response in an Appraisal Report led to public discussions as to how the village should respond to the findings.

A number of issues were identified and an Action Plan was drawn up at a well-attended public meeting in November 2002. This Action Plan was subsequently adopted, with key organisations taking responsibility for particular issues. In 2003, a further, simpler survey sought to collect more anecdotal views on "What do you like about the Village?" and "What does Walsham need to make it a better place?". There was broad agreement about what residents value in our community and it is their wish that the findings of these surveys and discussions are presented, formally, in a document for reference and information.

The Parish Council prepared an initial draft document and had the benefit of feedback from the whole community via the "Walsham Observer", our monthly magazine which as you will see within the various references on this website that it is delivered to 493 households. A second revised draft document was circulated to all village groups, organisations and businesses for further contributions and comments.

A sub-committee of the Parish Council prepared further revisions to this second draft document, which were considered by the full Council and they were finally adopted at its January meeting in 2007. This document, in its finished format was then delivered to those 493 households and it will be a reference point against which villagers and village organisations can assess progress on issuies identified in the Action Plan and consider the impact of future situations. The document will contribute evidence of local character to the countywide landscape character assessment that will underpin design guidance in the Mid Suffolk Local Development Framework. It may also form a basis for the parishes comments on the appropriateness of future development proposals.

You will already have seen elsewhere on this site the locationb of this village so this will not be repeated here, it is sufficient to say that in the past it was a largely self-sufficient community with a range of provision shops, skilled craftsmen and workshops, and a thriving social life based around religious groups, a Temperance Band, a Reading Room, sporting events, shows and gymkhanas, public houses, and a calendar of regular meetins and events. Some of this social infrastructure has been lost as the development of mass media and an externally orientated economy has taken over. Yet a strong sense of community still obtains and small developments of new housing, together with the intermittent flow of new residents, have been assimilated relatively easily.

• However it is essential that the progress of the Action Plan is monitored every three years.
• It is also essential that dialogue between community members, village groups and organisations on the future of the village is maintained.

The Landscape and Environment

Unless approaching from the SouthEast, along the Westhorpe Road, you come across the village suddenly. The broad valley, with its stream meandering at 40 to 48 metres above sea level, is well wooded and the approach roads from Hepworth, Ixworth, Finningham and Badwell Ash are lined with good hedges and belts of mature trees which are an especially valued feature, hiding the presence of the village until the last minute of approach. The arable uplands at around 60 to 65 metres above sea level, are more open and extensive with large fields and consequently fewer hedges and trees, although small copses mark the location of ponds once so vital when cattle grazing was so important in a mixed farming economy.

Close to the village, fields are smaller, hedges common and of great variety and antiquity, as a survey of 1989 demonstrated. Apart from the tree lined approach roads there are many mature trees in hedgerows, surrounding the churchyard, leading from The Street along The Avenue towards The Grove, and within the grounds of private properties such as The Beeches, The Rookery, Hall Green, The Park, The Elms, The Lawn, and Sunnyside House.

Away from the central core of buildings in The Street, an uncrowded openness characterises the general village layout along some eight roads. There are significant gaps between properties giving pleasant views out of the village along Palmer Street, The Causeway, Wattisfield Road, and Finningham Road. Elsewhere, housing looks out over areas of mown grass, as in Staple Close, Grove Park and Townhouse Road. The loosely structured hamlets of West Street, Cranmer Green, Four Ashes and Crownland, situated well away from the central core, reinforce the feeling of spaciousness and of winding roads linking one area with another.

• New development that poses a significant threat to any of the landscape and environment should NOT be permitted.
• We must Protect the visual importance of the tree-lined stream and approach roads.
• We should continue to work with the Suffolk Hedgerow Survey to monitor our hedgerows.
• Where the existing environment is of an open, spacious nature, this should be respected in any future housing proposals.
• We should identify and protect visually important green areas.
• We must value the views into, out of, and through, the built up areas.

The Character

The 15th century church of St Mary is the dominant feature of the village - a large airy building of knapped flint. The early Victorian Maltings, in Wattisfield road, converted into nine dwellings in 1979, is also of flint. There are other buildings with individual flint walls, and numerous boundary walls are built of flint nodules with brick capping.

The over-all picture is of mostly unpretentious cottage style properties, many of them colour washed to hide a brick, or more often, a plastered exterior. Often the plaster covers a timber frame. Architectural Historian, Leigh Alston, has identified sixty-two pre 1700 timber framed houses. Most of these are modest in size; some thatched, often with first floor dormer windows. There are a few weather boarded properties including, situated opposite the Church, the former Guildhall, now converted into three dwellings.

Mock Jacobean estate houses, built in Summer Road and The Causeway at the turn of the 19th/20th century by John Martieau are very striking. There are tall hexagonal chimneys, some herringbone brickwork, and exterior heavy timbers carrying carved texts.

There are several substantial houses scattered throughout the village, timber framed with colour washed plaster and with impressive, and often very ornate, chimney stacks, as at Crownland Hall, Green Farmhouse, The Rookery and The Priory. Buildings in the main street mostly abut the roadside pavement, yet their front facing or gable facing positions, their brick, plaster and weather boarded exteriors, roofs of slate, tile and thatch, combine with such a variety of size and style to create an intensely varied and exciting streetscape enhanced by occasional views into the distance glimpsed between properties. The village welcomes plans to underground electricity and telephone cables in The Street. The removal of the current invasive clutter will enhance the intrinsic character of the village.

Wattisfield Road, Grove Road, Palmer Street and Townhouse Road are predominately an uncrowded mixture of houses and bungalows built in groups of ten to twenty in different styles, and at different times, over the past eighty or so years.

• We should use existing vernacular buildings as an inspiration for new buildings.
• We should encourage new building which is sympathetic to the character of its surroundings.

Facilities and Infrastructure

Farming is no longer a labour intensive activity and only small numbers earn a direct living from the land. By contrast, Clarkes of Walsham, employ about 98 people at their builders merchant business. Drivers, vehicle mechanics, metal fabricators, carpenters, store men, sales personnel, accountants, secretaries and management live locally. Some work opportunities also exist on the Shepherds Grove Industrial Estate at Stanton.

There are a number of small businesses run by self-employed skilled artisans. To builders, plumbers, carpenters, heating engineers and gardeners can be added art and craft specialists, tele-cottage workers, and specialist retail traders. An increasing number of professionals live here: doctors, nurses, architect, solicitor, educationalists, photographer, and journalist. For many people their workplace is not in Walsham and commuter traffic is now common, particularly towards Bury St Edmunds. The census of 2001 recorded over 80% of employed people travelling to work by private vehicle and an average journey of 20.41 km.

To this growth of individual car movements along winding roads with soft verges and sagging edges is added increased commercial traffic. Some of this serves Clarkes of Walsham but, worryingly, heavy 12 wheeler lorries now make short cuts between the A14 and A143, and the A1088 and A140, along these unsuitable country roads. In 2002 they were the impetus for a traffic survey conducted by the Parish Council with the assistance of Suffolk County Council.

Public transport to Bury St Edmunds is poor, with nothing after 18.30. Services to Diss, Thetford and Stowmarket, are intermittent or nonexistent. Service 306 was a joint venture between the Countryside Agency and Walsham, Rickinghall and Botesdale parish councils to provide a weekend evening service to Bury St Edmunds and it went some way to satisfying demands for improved public transport, until its withdrawal.

Doctors surgeries are between four and eight miles distant, but a system of voluntary drivers collect repeat prescriptions for those with travel problems. The closure of the Post Office Stores in 2003 created similar problems for those 10% of those households without access to a car and a further 41% of households where the one vehicle is needed for the journey to work. The situation is only partially mitigated by a Community Council initiative to set up a Satellite Post Office facility for two mornings each week in the Village Hall alongside a Coffee Shop.

There are two public houses, a hairdresser, a specialist niche retailer in wine and a cheese delicatessen and butcher's shop. A strong sense of community and self-help underpins village life. This has already been responsible for the purpose built pre-school facility opened in 1997, allotments and a skate park. There are now plans to extend the current provision of football, cricket, snooker, table tennis and darts at the Sports Club and to improve facilities at the Memorial Village Hall. These proposals are in line with equal opportunity objectives and the 2002 Action Plan, which highlighted the need to improve facilities for young people. Both these projects will require considerable outside funding.

The village of Walsham le Willows, as we see it today, has evolved over a long period of time. The speed of change and the pressures for development will necessitate a regular review of the data and surveys which have informed this visual design statement.