White Colne

Parish Council

White Colne

Chairman’s Report to the Annual Electors’ Meeting 21st April 2008

2007/08 was another active year in the White Colne calendar with a lot of village events being held and matters being dealt with.

These included a number of family fun days on the meadows including such events as Easter Egg hunts, kite flying and conker competitions.  The meadows were also busy with volunteer days for hedge repairs and pond clearing.  I would like to thank all those who have worked so hard to make the meadows a resource White Colne can be proud of.

This year has also seen  the History group very active culminating recently with a very interesting and successful talk.  The formation of a small boules group which we hope will develop this summer.   I would suggest you visit the new White Colne website, www.whitecolne.com regularly to keep up with what is happening in our village.

Behind the scenes the parish council have been dealing with local issues such as planning  parking, speeding and conservation of our local environment. With regard to planning I want to let you know that the original plan to demolish 41 Colchester Road and build 5 detached houses on the plot was objected to by this Parish Council and rejected by the District Council. We have just learned that a new application again for demolition and building of 5 houses has been submitted by the developer. Please let your feelings about this be known to one of the Parish Councillors.

The ownership of the Village Hall has continued to be an ongoing issue and at one point recently it looked like we had made significant headway on completing a deal with Essex County Council to have the freehold of the Village Hall and the land we currently occupy turned over to the people of White Colne. This was on the agreement that 5 houses could be built on the development land beyond football pitch. Unfortunately at the meeting planned to sign contracts Essex County Council announced that they had changed the plan, without informing us and now wanted to build over the football pitch and parking area beside it as well. We are not prepared to lose our play area and one of the few and much in demand parking areas in the village to the developers. I will keep you informed of future progress.

In the past 2 years the Parish Council took the tough decision to raise the precept so we could bring the budget to a level that met our modern day commitments such as the part time salary for the Parish Clerk which had fallen woefully behind the current rate. This year we were delighted to announce that we would not be increasing our budget. Unfortunately we found out Braintree District Council had revised  the figures on which they base the precept after the council tax was set. This means in there are now less Band D properties in White Colne and although the White Colne share of the precept has remained the same there has been an increase of 1.3% added to council taxes.

On a lighter note regarding the Hall its self again chiefly due to the efforts of a small but dedicated band of volunteers who have worked hard to get windows and doors replaced along with the fantastic new kitchen that has been installed we now have a village hall to be proud of. I would like to thank everybody who has been involved this year from raising the funds via grants and income from lettings to doing the physical work, getting the hall in the shape you see today.

All that remains is for me to formally thank my fellow Parish Councillors for all their hard work on behalf of the village this year. Hard work that is completely voluntary and in many cases goes unnoticed but has a real impact on the quality of life we all enjoy in White Colne.

Kevin Nolan