The new parking restrictions for Clements Green Lane and Hither Blakers have now been officially made and sealed and will come into force on Monday 27th February 2023. From that date drivers of vehicles who park on the road or pavement close to Warwick Parade may be liable to a fine.

No doubt drivers will still park up thinking they have some right not enjoyed by the rest of us. Your SWFCTA councillors will continue to press for enforcement where vehicles are parked inappropriately and/or dangerously, restricting the flow of traffic and obstructing the highway for other users.

The website

The Party website has now a new look home page with 2 columns. One contains Party information, news and comment, the other relates to Chelmsford City Council meeting information and reports from our CCC councillors. The links to Voter Registration, Proxy and Postal Voting have been refreshed so the relevant part of the Electoral Commission site is accessed.

Publicity

Once Christmas is over we will be increasing our use of local media to communicate our position and vision for the town and its residents ahead of the May 2023 City Council elections. In preparation for this members are drafting documents which cover the relevant services delivered by CCC, starting with the highest priority issues. There is a need for our future candidates to start working on their CVs and these should also include a good selection of images.

Election Planning

Given the success of our previous campaigns, we will be taking a similar approach next year, with a few new ideas thrown in to engage and inform our residents. Changes in the law relating to Local Authority elections (not the Town Council) are now in place. This will mean voters will now need to provide photographic proof of identity at Polling Stations. There are also changes in how the funding of campaigns is done, but these should have a minimal effect on us.

Membership Rules

We agreed a slightly modified set of membership rules which can be viewed now on our website. The main change is to widen our conditions of membership to include people who are employed in the town.

One of the most important events in the town centre each year is the annual Remembrance Service which, because of the numbers of attendees, takes place in Trinity Square. This year’s event took place on 13th November and there was a tremendous turn out to remember all those who gave their lives for our country.

Our uniformed youth groups put on a great show to make us proud of the young people of the town. But what let the town down? The litter in Trinity Square and the rest of the town centre. I believe that the contractor working for the City Council is supposed to clear the litter from the Trinity Square end of the town first thing in the morning seven days a week. Well not that Sunday! The service started at 10.45 so there was plenty of time for the work to be done, so what happened?

Our City Councillor, Ian Roberts, has taken this matter up with council officers to make sure that the clearing of litter is vastly improved. We will keep you informed on this issue.

On a more positive note congratulations to the local branch of The Royal British Legion for once again arranging a really impressive event, well done.

The developer, Countryside has now submitted a revised Transport plan to Chelmsford City Council (CCC) Planning department and this is now available to all residents and interested parties for consultation before the application is determined. Originally a three-week consultation period was proposed by CCC, this has now been extended thanks to our City Councillor Ian Roberts who requested an extension to the end of November. The extension has been agreed and will now run until 10th December.

The applicant will need to demonstrate to the satisfaction of both CCC and ECC, the Highway Authority, that the impact of their proposed development can be appropriately mitigated. Revisions and solutions will need to be provided for individual junctions that might otherwise become overcapacity with the additional development traffic.

Your Local Councillors will be looking at the revisions over the coming weeks and making appropriate comments to CCC. However, residents are urged to take some time and make their own comments to CCC to make sure all aspects are covered.

Residents may like to look at the non-technical summary of the Transport Assessment for this planning application. Go to: CCC Planning and enter the ref: 21/01961/OUT in the search box. Choose the Plans & Documents tab and then 'click to view...' If you filter the files using 'transport' you will find it more easily as there are lots of documents.

RESIDENTS MAY BE INTERESTED TO HEAR THAT the new parking restrictions which the Town Council applied for some time ago for Clements Green Lane and Hither Blakers have been approved at the most recent South Essex Parking Partnership meeting on November 1st. This will mean that drivers of vehicles who park on the road or pavement close to Warwick Parade could now be liable to a fine.

This is a public hearing and residents are able to attend but not speak at it, unless called as witnesses by either of the two councillors involved. This hearing will not be broadcast.

This meeting is being broadcast and is open to the public. There will be an opportunity for residents to ask questions on the hybrid application. Each resident has a 2 minute allocation for this but must have submitted their question(s) in advance (see agenda for details).

This meeting was recorded and if residents want to see and hear what transpired they should go to Recording.

The only item of note on the agenda was the Great Leighs Masterplan. There was a live broadcast of this meeting. The minutes can be found at: Minutes 12th January.