Nettleden with Potten End Parish Council
The Duke of Edinburgh
Nettleden with Potten End Parish Council and the residents of the parish would like to extend their condolences to Her Majesty The Queen and members of the Royal Family on the death of His Royal Highness, The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
A Book of Condolence is available at Holy Trinity, Potten End for those who wish to sign it; the church will remain open until 8pm each day until the funeral and will instigate suitable COVID protection measures. If you’re concerned about maintaining social distance and still wish to show your respects there are online books of remembrance on the Buckingham Palace website and the website of the Lord Lieutenant of Hertfordshire.
Notice of Public Rights and Publication of Unaudited Annual Governance & Accountability Return
Each year the Parish Council’s Annual Governance and Accountability Return (AGAR) needs to be reviewed by an external auditor appointed by Smaller Authorities’ Audit Appointments Ltd. The unaudited AGAR has been published with this notice. As it has yet to be reviewed by the appointed auditor, it is subject to change as a result of that review.
Any person interested has the right to inspect and make copies of the accounting records for the financial year to which the audit relates and all books, contracts, bills, vouchers, receipts and other documents relating to those records must be available for public inspection by any person interested. Details of how to make such a request are available to download from this website.
Parish Council News – August 2024
| Centenary Edition Who’d have thought when we first started sending these emails in March 2021 that they’d still be going strong 3 years and 100 editions later? The number of people on the distribution list has grown from 135 to over 560, most people seem to open them, a reasonable number use the links to get additional information, and every month some people come to the council meeting or write to express their opinion on topics in the newsletter which then inform Council decisions – so thank you! If there are ways in which the next hundred newsletters can be improved then please let me know. At the end of this newsletter you’ll find a new section about social care which I hope will be worthwhile. A circulation list of 560 is still a long way short of everyone in the Parish, so if you find the newsletter helpful and have neighbourhood chat groups please encourage people to sign up via the council website. The Parish Council doesn’t meet in August – the next meetings are on 19 September and 17 October. Open Spaces At its July meeting the Council decided not to install more picnic benches on the Spencer Holland recreation ground but to remove the two log benches near the play equipment which have become increasingly unusable and to replace them with re-cycled plastic benches. The Council also agreed to extend the fence on Spencer Holland along Plough Lane to reduce the risk of children running into the road between parked cars. A wildlife information board has been installed on The Green next to the pond thanks to a generous donation from Berkhamsted-residents Alan and Joyce Osborn. With the agreement of his family, the Council has agreed that a plaque should be installed in the burial ground to commemorate Luke Haines, who died so tragically whilst working to improve the drainage on Hempstead Lane. Planning The Council objected to proposals to change the status of the land between Nettleden Rd and Potten End Hill and from the edge of Potten End to the Gade from agricultural to Suitable Accessible Natural Green Space (SANG) (24/01239/MFA) – effectively publicly accessible parkland and including a fifty-space car park – largely because of concern about the impact on the ecology of the Gade and wildlife on the site. The proposed demolition of frontage buildings and redevelopment of site for 7 dwelling houses behind 23 Water End Rd (23/01211/FUL) will be discussed by Dacorum’s Development Management Committee on 5 September. The Parish Council objected to the proposal. In the absence of a Council Meeting in August, the Planning Working Party will be considering the following planning applications. Technically the Council delegates the power to make a decision to me under the guidance of the Working Party so long as the application is not considered controversial – so if you want to express any concerns they need to be sent by email to me please in the next two weeks. 24/01742/ROC – 26 Hempstead Lane – variations to planning permission 24/01771/ROC – Gutteridge Farm House – variations to planning permission 24/01295/DRC – 7 Olivers Close – details as required by planning permission 24/01807/FHA – 74 Hempstead Lane – extension and modernisation of residential dwelling 24/01806/FHA – 28 Hempstead Lane – single storey rear extension, new front porch canopy and attached double garage You should be aware of developments on three large housing proposals that are outside the parish but close enough to potentially have an impact on traffic and are worth keeping an eye on: I reported last month that building will start on the 1,100 house development known as LA3 at the bottom of Pouchen End Lane later this year (4/03266/18/MFA); you may find the website of the consultancy leading the project more accessible if you’d like to learn more about what’s being built. An appeal has been lodged against Dacorum’s decision to refuse permission for the development of 390 houses off Leighton Buzzard Rd opposite Piccott’s End (21/04508/MOA) Taylor Wimpey are consulting on an 850 house development in South Berkhamsted off Chesham Rd (the road that leads to Ashlyns). No formal planning application has been submitted yet. Highways Congratulations to Alison MacDougall who has invented a new game of spot the unregistered drains, finding no fewer than eleven drains along Nettleden Rd of which Highways were previously unaware – which might explain why they haven’t been cleared recently! There is a serious side to this story (not that finding eleven unregistered drains isn’t serious!) – which is the excellent “report it” page on the Dacorum website. If you want to report anti-social behaviour, dead animals, any issues to do with highways, pavements, trees and many other matters then this is the starting point. And if you’re really interested in your local drains, when they were last emptied and when they’re scheduled to be emptied again, go to flooding and drainage – report a fault! The following roadworks are scheduled over the next 3 months: Until the end of November – traffic light control outside 76 and 78 Hempstead Lane 19 – 20 August – restrictions on The Front 28 – 30 August – Bullbeggars Lane closed 30 Sept – 2 Oct – Nettleden Rd closed east of junction with Vicarage Rd closed. For more up to date information please refer to Causeway one network. Social Care and other issues This is a new section which I hope will be useful. HertsHelp Hertfordshire County Council run a service called HertsHelp which can be contacted either by email at info@hertshelp.net or by phone on 0300 123 4044. It provides access to a wide range of services grouped as follows: struggling to cope care and carers living healthier transport, bus passes and blue badge home services and equipment cost of living If you know anyone who might benefit from any of these services, please encourage them to get in touch. Healthwatch Hertfordshire I’ve been contacted by Healthwatch Hertfordshire which is “Hertfordshire’s statutory and independent health and social care champion. We hold health and social care providers to account, and amplify the voice of patients and residents, including those who are seldom heard or feel ignored”. If this is something in which you have an interest then you can sign up for a newsletter. Healthwatch are working with Marie Curie and the NHS to address issues in End of Life Care. If this is of interest you can complete a survey and/or participate in online focus groups. A survey on GP services is to follow. Grants to fund home energy and clean heating If your household has a combined annual income of less than £36,000 (including benefits) or you live in a specific postcode area, isn’t heated through mains gas, and is considered a hard-to-heat home you may be eligible for grants to fund home energy and clean heating upgrades. There’s more information here, but applications need to be made by the end of September. |
Parish Council News – September 2025
| The Parish Council meets for the first time after its summer break at 7.30pm on Thursday, 11 September in the school at Potten End – that’s a week earlier than originally scheduled and in the school and not the Church Room. The agenda can be downloaded and contains links to all the supporting papers, some of which are replicated below. Highways The Highways Working Party and DriveSafe team have a meeting with Jonathan Ash-Edwards, the Hertfordshire Police and Crimes Commissioner, on 2 October to discuss policing issues in the parish. We seem to be in for a spate of gas main replacement road works in October in various locations around the parish which are summarised here or for more up to date information please refer to Causeway one network. Confirmation has been received from Herts Highways that The Common can be closed for the annual Remembrance Service on 9 November, Planning There were a number of planning applications over the summer, details of which can be found here. The most significant was the proposal to build 750 houses at Polehanger Lane. The developer managed to completely ignore the presence of Potten End despite it being just 800m from the edge of the new development, apparently assuming that any new residents would only ever travel toward Hemel. The Parish Council submitted a detailed objection. The Parish Council also objected to the way that the Polehanger Lane development had been slipped in to the Dacorum Local Plan in the last iteration. The Examination of the Local Plan by the Planning Inspectorate starts on 16 September; more details can be found here. At its meeting on Thursday the Council will consider the following application: – Frithsden Vineyard, variation of plans (25/01407/ROC) – 15 The Back, fell tree (25/02159/TCA) – Land in the Nettleden/Frithsden Area, cancellation of Article 4 Direction (25/02057/ART) Open Spaces The Council will be considering three possible suppliers for a new Village Sign. Work should be starting shortly on replacing the stop netting behind the goal on Spencer Holland and cutting back the hedge which is pushing against it. The Council will be appointing contractors to undertake work around The Green which will include the repair and replacement where necessary of the sleepers along The Green, the installation of a ramp to the bus stop, and the reinstatement of the pudding stones at the junction of The Common with Hempstead Lane. The contract will also be awarded for improvements to the entrance to the sports field. Removing some of the water lily rhizomes from the pond has been delayed slightly but should be undertaken in the next few weeks. As a reminder this will involve the use of a mechanical digger because it’s no longer possible to undertake the work by hand – it may look a little brutal, but don’t panic! Like many people we were frustrated at having to remove the swings on the recreation ground over the summer after a survey identified possible issues with the cross beams. We’ve eventually managed to get agreement for the beams to be replaced under the warranty and hope that this will be sorted very soon. The Council will be considering a proposal to replace the safety surface under the swings where we managed to negotiate a good deal because of the problems with the beams – so there’s sometimes a silver lining. Dacorum Grants At the moment c. 29% of the Parish Council’s income comes from grants provided by Dacorum. Dacorum say that this is very generous of them and because of pressure on their costs they need to phase them out over the next three years. The Parish Council says that residents in the parishes and towns around Dacorum contribute toward the costs of Hemel (which doesn’t have a town council like say Berkhamsted or Tring) in their council tax and that the grants are actually a repayment of that excess council tax to avoid what is called ‘double taxation’. Dacorum is proposing to replace the grants with a grounds maintenance contract operating at about 50% of the level currently provided by the Parish Council (i.e. the grass will be left to grow). No evidence has been provided that this represents better value for money than our current arrangements, and there are key areas missing from the proposal such as who will be responsible for the safety of trees and play equipment. The Councill will be considering its response to the proposal. Local Government Re-organisation I wrote last month about the Government’s plans for a re-organisation of Local Government. The Government wants county and borough/district authorities replaced by what are called Unitary Authorities and has asked for proposals by the end of November 2025 with a view to new Unitary Authorities being in place by April 2028. Hertfordshire CC has now launched a website with more details about what is proposed and is consulting on what the public think about the options for Unitary Authorities. As I said previously, it sounds a little academic, but it will become very real when we’re talking about rubbish collection, planning applications and highways so it’s worth making your views known. |
Proposed ban on HGVs through Water End
There are plans to ban HGVs going through Water End on the A4146, and to re-classify the road as a B road. The intention is for all HGVs to use the new A5/M1 link, when it opens. The parish council, however, has major concerns about the potential for HGVs to use Little Gaddesden and Nettleden as an alternative route.
Hertfordshire County Council is running a consultation between now and 2nd October and it is vital to have as many voices as possible warning of dramatic problems unless it also bans HGVs through Little Gaddesden and Nettleden.
You can help by responding to the consultation process and/or by participating in a before and after traffic survey on 26th and 29th September.