26/04/2025
Chipperfield Parish Council Annual Update 2024-2025
Chairman’s Report
This year the Annual Parish Meeting of Chipperfield Parish Council (CPC) will be held on 6th May 2025 at 7 pm in St Paul’s Church Hall and Chipperfield residents are invited to attend. At the APM it is your opportunity to ask questions regarding the village and of the activities of your Parish Council.
On behalf of CPC and the Village, CPC would like to thank our Parish Clerk, Usha Kilich, for her continued excellent support, including maintaining the legal and financial aspects of CPC. We also thank Vas (Vassos Panayi) as our Parish Warden as he tirelessly attends to maintenance issues and rubbish management in and around the Village. We express our thanks to both for their contribution and diligent actions in maintaining our village fabric.
I thank the rest of CPC for their ongoing help and support in running CPC and its activities. Eamonn Flynn (Deputy Chair), Geoff Bryant (Chair Planning), Luke Hinton (Planning and Social Media) Wendy Bathurst (Outdoor Spaces and (Chipperfield Common Working Group (CCWG), Carly-Anne Heaphy (School, and Allotments), Paul Foxall (Planning), Malcolm Paton (Planning and CCWG).
CPC has enjoyed the support and advice we have had from our Borough and County Councillors who take time to attend our CPC meetings whenever possible. Full CPC and planning meetings are open to the public and dates and venues are published on our website.
We would like to thank all the villagers who attend and comment at these meetings and those who so selflessly give up their time to support others within the village whether it is sport, education, general volunteering, or social care.
Financial Position
CPC has operated to a budget for the year to 31 March 25. The full accounts will be published on the Parish website once audited. We are currently preparing the accounts for the internal audit (April 2025) and then the external audit in the summer in compliance with our legal requirements.
Due to rising costs and wages, it has been necessary to raise the precept this year to ensure we have sufficient funds to function for the year April 2025 –March 2026. The main anticipated extra cost this year will be the reduction in support grants from DBC.
Open Spaces Report
Friends of Chipperfield Common have again had a busy year cutting back laurel and holly, but this year we have also done a few sessions in the main glade, cutting back invasive silver birch trees to keep the area open and maintain a different type of habitat to increase biodiversity. We have also done some work on the burial mounds to remove some of the brambles. Steven Werrell, the DBC SANG officer is now leading the group, but we could still do with more volunteers. We are a friendly, jolly group, why not come and join us? Details of our meeting are in Chipperfield News or contact the Clerk.
Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspace (SANG) and Common Maintenance
DBC have now appointed a SANG officer and he is working with the village through a recently established Chipperfield Common Working Group (CCWG). As previously reported in Chip News the pond has received some attention, but this is a work in progress. Already we have seen clearing of the logs and detritus from the Apostles Pond, the removal of the Parrot W**d (although this has not been eradicated) and the reduction in mass of the reed/iris bed.
It was decided at the most recent CCWG meeting the next activity was to improve or replace the signage around the common pathways to mark out the various routes around the Common with way markers. The project would also include new benches and picnic tables as well as re-creating the old “Heritage trail” which winds its way around the Common passing a number of points of interest, such as the burial mounds, the pond and the Spanish Chestnut. We are also interested in revitalising the old leaflets, which describe the common and the pathways. In this update it would be nice to have
some updated art illustrating various scenes. If there is a local artist who would be willing to create such illustrations for the updated walks please contact the village clerk with your details.
We are pleased activity has commenced but look forward to the next stage in the pond revitalization, the works on the green spaces and hopefully more enthusiasts to join our volunteer crew. We will keep you updated via the CPC web site and our ChipNews articles.
Planning Report
The number of planning applications in Chipperfield has been at lower level than average. We endeavour to keep residents aware of incoming applications and the subsequent decisions through our regular report in Chipperfield News.
There may be ‘clouds on the horizon’ in respect of forthcoming Government changes - firstly to the Planning system (e.g. removing/limiting the right for communities to raise objections to schemes) and secondly to the structure of local government whereby district councils will cease to exist (in our case Dacorum to be possibly replaced by a larger authority, possibly West-Herts). We are fortunate in having a current system which generally seems to work well and is also fairly accessible. We have seen a poor outcome for planning in particular when Bucks County went unitary (unitary = one Council for whole of the county).
We actively encourage residents/applicants to engage early with CPC’s planning committee, ideally prior to an application, which often helps achieve good outcomes for all parties.
Crime Figures
Chipperfield continues to be deemed a low-crime village by the police. We now have 3 police representatives covering Kings Langley and the villages.
· Police Sergeant PS 2717 Akhtar
· Police Constable PC1245 Robinson
· PCSO 6067 Humphreys
All are keen to hear from local residents on local issues. Residents can use Herts Connected on the internet to raise comments and issues. Our PCSO is keen to interact more with village and he is trying to make regular visits to meet the people to discuss issues and has offered to run regular ‘clinics’ at The Blackwells.
The new neighbourhood sergeant responsible for Hemel Hempstead south and Kings Langley is also keen to address any issues you may have. There is a survey on your police service and your views, and this can be found on the Herts connected web site.
Highways Report
Over the past few years, there has been a programme of resurfacing throughout the parish. There have been some significant improvements to road surfaces at the crossroads adjacent to Osteria and recent resurfacing of Kings Lane.
However, the surfaces continue to show signs of wear and lack of longevity in the repairs.
It is important to report any potholes to Herts Highways Fault reporting on their website, as soon as seen, and taking photos on your phone and accurate positioning helps expedite some form of repair. Sufficient and multiple reporting will raise the issue up the priority list which will we hope ensure they are dealt with as soon as possible.
The village has experienced parking on the pavements and verges, which is dangerous for pedestrians and buggy users and destroys the grass in wet weather. This is particularly prevalent on The Street and Langley Rd. We continue to monitor the situation and plan to place letters on the offending cars. This reduces the problem for periods. But inevitably, the problem returns. We are installing more posts on the verges to reduce this nuisance of parking.
With a thought for the infirm and pushchair owners we urge residents to keep the footpaths to the frontage of their homes clear of overgrowth and obstructions to help maintain a working width of 1.5 meters wherever possible.
Allotments
Pleased to report that the allotments are all allocated bar one which is probably too shaded to be a viable plot, and currently we have no waiting list. Hopefully, there is some brighter weather on the way, as the allotments are always more enjoyable in the sunshine! So, everyone can get back to growing their produce, and maybe even another BBQ for the allotment group to enjoy in the summer!
Vas our Parish Warden is now performing the majority of the general maintenance tasks in the common areas and whilst we contract out the larger scale work. We continue to attempt to run the allotments on a cost-neutral basis. Any issues should be reported directly to the Parish Clerk or the Parish Warden. There is an active allotment WhatsApp group to aid good communication.
Youth & Education
The St Pauls School Headteacher, now in his second year, Mr Luke Varney has had a positive impact on all school related activities and with a view to promoting books and reading has taken on the task of turning our disused phone box on the common into a library for children’s books which should be opening soon.
We are grateful to the Friends of St Pauls who have continued to support the school with great fund-raising events.
We would just like to take this opportunity to say thank you for all the hard work of the staff at the school.
Chipperfield Pre School - continues to do a fabulous job, we are so lucky to have wrap-around care for our children, with such strong links to the school.
Social Media
Social media has become an important tool for Chipperfield Parish Council to connect with residents, share information, and promote community engagement. The Council is committed to using social media effectively and responsibly to enhance its communication with the community. The use of Facebook as a platform adds to our ability to share information quickly whilst maintaining the “old school” noticeboards. If you’ve not already, please give the page (www.facebook.com/ChipperfieldParishCouncil) a follow.
The Parish Council Web site (https://www.chipperfieldparishcouncil.gov.uk) also continues to share news of forthcoming Parish Council Meeting, meeting agendas and minutes and other essential CPC news.
Welcome to the Chipperfield Parish Council page which has the overall objective of operatin
