We’re delighted to announce that the new playground is open for business! There will be a formal opening at 12pm on Saturday, 9th April but the fences are down and it’s all ready to be used. Once again a huge THANK YOU to everyone who donated to make the project possible – there’s a long list of donors here along with others who gave cash but didn’t want to be named, but it all counts. We’ll be marking those who gave £500 or more with a plaque shortly. Special mention must be made of Councillors Erica Spanswick, Hilary Smith and Roger Wright who have spent many long hours looking at options, planning the new layout, raising grant funding and managing the installation. The construction has left a few areas of bare ground which we’ll tackle after the holidays, and please keep children away from the remaining builders equipment and storage which will be removed later this week. Otherwise – ENJOY!

The Parish Council meets on Thursday, 21 March at 7.30pm in the Church Rooms at Potten End. The agenda for the meeting can be downloaded from the Council’s website. If you’d like to get more information about items on the agenda it includes links to supporting documents, and if that doesn’t satisfy you, please come to the meeting and ask questions or contact me! Berkhamsted Golf Club The meeting will start with a presentation by Mr Howard Craft, Club Manager, Berkhamsted Golf Club who will be talking about conservation grazing on Berkhamsted Common.  National Trust At the February Council meeting Paul Miller from the National Trust gave a presentation on the significant challenges facing the NT from increased footfall at the Ashridge Estate including eight different and often overlapping types of designations and heritage listings such as AONB, SSSI, historic park, ancient woodland and common land. If you want more information on the Trust’s plans for the Estate include restrictions on parking in Monument Drive and more visitor centres to move visitors away from the Monument go to the National Trust website. On a related note there are two sessions on Wednesday 27thMarch from 5.30pm – 6.30pm, repeated at 7pm – 8pm, at the Ashridge Visitor Centre about proposed changes to horse riding on the Estate. It’s free but you need to book. There has been comment about the state of the footpath from Frithsden Copse to Frithsden after a new fence was erected. The fence is to allow cattle to graze the woodland and field as part of a NT restoration project to improve the diversity of the habitat. Unfortunately that doesn’t help the condition of the footpath. And finally our current representative on the NT Estates Committee, Geoff Brown, no longer feels able to continue in the role. Our thanks to Geoff for his time and to Chris Grimsdale for picking up the reigns. Highways Here’s a summary of what the Council will be discussing, together with updates on outstanding items where appropriate. The flooding along Hempstead Lane has been resolved in the short-term by installing a pump to take the water from the road to the fields behind the houses. Work will start on a permanent solution on 2nd April which will require the road to be shut for four weeks. The solution is only possible because of the flexibility and support of local residents. In addition to Hempstead Lane, Potten End Hill is scheduled to be closed from 8 – 10 May and 10 June; see one.network for details. It has been suggested that the speed limit in the parish outside those areas where there is a set limit should be reduced from the default National Speed Limit of 60mph to 40mph. This would only be considered by Herts Highways if there was a significant percentage of the community supporting it, it would require a lot of effort to get that support, and it is unlikely even then that it would achieve anything other than make a clear statement of the community’s concerns. The Council could support such an initiative but doesn’t have the bandwidth to undertake the legwork necessary to get that level of support and so unless there are people willing to pick this up it will not be pursued. In the meantime and after many years of effort we are expecting work to start on reducing the speed limit along The Common from 50mph to 40mph in the next few months. The current design includes a small chicane at the entrance to the Village and the Council will debate whether or not to pay for the installation of a gateway to emphasise the change in speed limit which will be from 40mph to 30mph. Concern has been expressed at the state of the path from Common Gardens to Vicarage Rd running behind Cedar. The Council is most grateful to Cllr Douris who has agreed to have the path repaired in 2024/25. Finally HertsLynx are offering a “children travel free” deal over Easter. Open spaces The Council will be considering a proposal to install a wildlife information board next to the pond, and is very grateful to Alan and Joyce Osborn who have agreed to fund it. We have agreed that Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh may use The Pond as part of a study assessing the health of the common frog across the UK. Planning At the last meeting the council objected to an application at Mollcroft, Hempstead Lane (24/00157/FUL) for a change of use for an existing detached residential annex building to a separate dwellinghouse. It has supported an application for the reinstatement of a gated access to Spring Lodge, Hollybush Close (24/00368/FHA) and will be considering an application for a new pitched roof over a garage and various other works at 18 Hempstead Lane (24/00459/FHA). The council has received notification of an appeal against the decision by Dacorum to refuse permission for works to trees at Browns Spring Wood (23/00314/TPO). The Parish Council objected to the original application. Email address changes Please note that with immediate effect all the Parish Council email addresses have changed. I can now be contacted at clerk@nettledenpottenend-pc.gov.uk whilst all councillors can be contacted at firstname.secondname@nettledenpottenend-pc.gov.uk (e.g. daniel.burfot@nettledenpottenend-pc.gov.uk). The old email addresses will work for a little while but will eventually be shut down. Dates for your diaries Mr David Evans, Managing Director, Ashridge House will attend the council meeting on 18th April to update us on their plans for events at Ashridge (deferred from January). The May Council meeting will take place on 16th May.

HertsLynx

For those unable to attend the March Council meeting here’s a brief summary of the HertsLynx presentation. There are currently three operational buses with one in reserve handling approximately 100 trips per day. Over the next few months this will increase to five buses (still with one in reserve). HertsLynx have identified that they have overestimated journey times and believe that this is the main cause of customers being told that buses are not available, when they are, and of buses operating at low capacity. They are working on a software upgrade to increase the efficiency of the booking system. They are looking at extending the limited fixed time service currently operating between Castle Village and Berkhamsted to include Potten End. There was a change of policy after the service was launched and pets are now allowed on the buses at the discretion of the driver – that’s a standard caveat for public transport and HertsLynx aren’t aware of it being applied. A good session with HertsLynx clearly open to feedback.

Local Government re-organisation

The Council will be considering a response to Dacorum BC about Local Government re-organisation along the following lines 

• There is insufficient information to form a view about the five options they’ve sent to government, although the single unitary model which would see Herts County Council staying and all the borough and district council’s being abolished seems the least attractive
• (Existing) Parish and Town Councils should be used to balance the increased ratio of residents to Unitary councillors rather then creating (new) local administration areas run by unelected officials
• Need to keep a distinct voice for rural areas
• Need clear and timely communication and involvement

Highways

There continue to be a plethora of road closures in and around the parish over the next three months for a variety of reasons, in particular along Hempstead Lane and Water End Rd. Rather than list them here you can see them summarised at https://drive.google.com/file/… or for more up to date information on roadworks please refer to Causeway one network.

Planning

The Council will consider the following applications at its meeting (reference numbers relate to the Dacorum Planning Portal)

• The Barn, Little Heath Lane – change of use and alteration of existing barn to a residential dwelling (25/00719/FUL) – although technically this property falls just outside the parish.
• Orchard Cottage, Frithsden Lane – re-model the rear elevation, rooflights and addition of a sun room to the rear of the property (25/00816/FHA)

The Dacorum Local Planhas been submitted to the government for the next round of evaluation. Over 1,600 comments were received from the public which is considered high, the majority relating to the proposed expansion of Tring. In the absence of an agreed plan there is an increase in speculative development proposals. In an interesting insight into government thinking, a development being considered to the west of Leighton Buzzard Road and north of Galley Hill is likely to be classified as ‘grey’ rather than ‘green’ belt

Infrastructure investment in our Parish: Have your say!

This has been the subject of a separate email but just to remind you that the Parish Council will be considering investing in one or more of seven infrastructure projects around the village and would very much like your views on which you consider most important. You can express your vies usuing the online survey at https://docs.google.com/forms/…

VE Day – 8 May

The Parish will be celebrating VE Day on Thursday 8 May by raising a flag at the church at 9am, ringing the bells at 6.30pm, and lighting a beacon on The Green at 9.30 followed by a short service.

Hertfordshire County Council have announced that part of The Common (marked in red on the map) will be closed on 11 July for tree felling, along with a 520 metre section of the Nettleden Road north west of the village (not shown on this map).
If you have any queries about these works or the temporary road closures, please contact Colin Cromar tel.01379 676 462 at TMO Highways or Joanne Robinson tel.0300 123 4047 at Hertfordshire County Council

The sign that was blown down some weeks ago has today been replaced by Kevin Furness, our parish warden.  The parish council thanks Peter Humphreys for repainting it.  Following his wish not to be recompensed for his efforts, the council has made a £50 donation to his chosen charity – The Hospice of St Francis.