Great Bardfield Parish Council  

'ESSEX VILLAGE OF THE YEAR 2009'

This year has brought about some changes in the way Braintree District Council conducts its business. The Cabinet has been restructured, and now has five Cabinet Members, each supported by a Deputy with a specialist area of activity.

The Area Committees have also changed, and are known as Local Committees, based around the three main towns, hence yours is the Braintree local committee. All planning functions have gone to a central planning committee, leaving other matters of interest to the local area with the Braintree Committee.

Simon Walsh is chairman of the local committee, and from the beginning, he has changed to style of meeting, to make it less formal and ‘café-table’ style of layout, where elected members and the public are mixed together at the tables. We have a general topic for debate, as well as other policy matters to discuss. Certain decisions are also considered, such as highway proposals, land disposals and footpath diversions.

In addition each committee is allocated a modest budget to distribute amongst the community. Bids are made either by a member or with a member acting as a sponsor for an application. Projects supported include providing radios for a pub watch scheme, Christmas lights, funding for a youth worker, spring bulb planting, signs for a neighbourhood watch, and more locally a grant to refurbish a children’s play area. More funding will be made available for this financial year, and we would encourage you and your Parish Council to consider new projects which may benefit support from your local committee.

In the District, over the past year, we have successfully transferred the housing stock to our own stand alone housing association, Greenfields. Work is progressing to develop the Community Gateway element, where tenants have a greater say in how housing and their environmental setting are managed. A new swimming pool has been opened at Freeport, Braintree, replacing the Riverside Pool. Witham has seen significant investment in sporting facilities there, with improvements to football and hockey facilities.

The District continues to lobby for improvements to the A120 east of Braintree, and remains resolutely opposed to the runway proposals at Stansted. The District has been proactive in engaging with the London Olympic Games of 2012, and has been able to help secure two training sites for visiting teams; the Unex Towerlands for equestrians, and Braintree Leisure centre for athletics.

John serves on the planning, licensing and standards committees, Simon as Vice-chairman on the Overview and Scrutiny Committee. We continue to be busy representing local issues, lobbying when necessary on your behalf.

Send mail to clerk@greatbardfield-pc.gov.uk questions or comments about this web site.
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Last modified: 10/28/09