Chairman’s Report for the Annual Parish Meeting
27th April 2021
Your Parish Council. What we do and who we are
Can you help us change our community for the better?
We still have one vacancy for a Parish Councillor for the Breachwood Green ward. Please talk to us if you are interested. You will find all our contact details on the website, www.kwpc.org.uk
What we do:
We make decisions on behalf of the people who live in the parish. We are responsible for managing and spending the money the Parish Council receives, the bulk of which comes out of the Council Tax you pay to North Herts District Council. In the last financial year, our income from this precept was £27,975, which works out at about £70 per year per Band D house. The money is largely spent on maintaining community facilities such as the recreation grounds and play areas in Ley Green and Breachwood Green, the Youth Club in Breachwood Green, benches and bus stops. We also give grants to community groups. The Parish Council’s powers are limited. However, we can influence and negotiate with organisations who do make decisions, such as the District and County Councils and the airport (discussions with the airport resulted in them reducing light pollution). Parish Council Meetings usually take place on the third Tuesday of the month, at 7.30pm. We used to meet in Breachwood Green Village Hall, but have been holding meetings via Zoom since June last year. There are no meetings in August or December. These meetings are held in public so please do feel free to come along.
Your Parish Council, who we are:
We are sad to lose two of our team this year:
Thank you: We would like to say a huge ‘thank you’ to two of our team who have resigned this year, Councillor Liz Thurlby and our Clerk, Tom Brindley.
Liz served the Council for nearly seven years, taking a special interest in airport matters and footpaths. She developed relationships with airport officials and was in contact dialogue with them about the effects of noise, air and light pollution on Breachwood residents, demanding they take note and do something about it. She also made it her business to walk the many paths in the parish to make sure they were well marked and clear, alerting the Rights of Way department at County Hall to any breaches.
Tom has served as Parish Clerk since November 2013 and has done a brilliant job as the ‘engine’ of the Council, with his excellent administration, guidance, advice and knowledge, making sure the Council and its finances was run efficiently, professionally and legally.
The Council is delighted to welcome three new members to our team:
Cllr Martin Mulgrew is a barrister who moved to Breachwood Green in September 2020. He was co-opted to the Council in February.
Lisa Lathane was appointed as Clerk to the Council in March, working alongside Tom until the end of April when Tom leaves. Lisa lives in King’s Walden and is also Clerk to Preston Parish Council.
Cllr Brenda James also joined us in March. She has worked as an accountant in the area for five years and has recently moved to Breachwood Green.
The rest of the council comprises: Amanda King (Chairman) has two children at Breachwood Green School and works part-time managing the counselling service at Watford Women’s Centre. Jon Chamberlin has a child at Breachwood Green School and runs a family agricultural business. David Bennett is a retired accountant. Joe Graziano works as a senior manager, full-time, in retail. Paul Harman is a full-time policeman.
LUTON AIRPORT
Airport Working Party: We have set up an airport working party to maximise the Parish Council’s resources, increase knowledge and ensure a cohesive and streamlined response to airport issues. This consists of Cllrs Joe Graziano, the Parish Clerk, and Andrew Mills-Baker, a Breachwood Green resident.
London Luton Airport Consultative Committee (LLACC): The Parish Council is now a full member with voting rights.
Noise and Air Pollution Monitoring by the Airport: The airport installed a temporary noise monitor in Breachwood Green from 31st October to 19th December 2019. The average departure noise monitored was 78.8dB, based on a sample size of 2,475; the average arrival noise was 73.5dB, based on a sample size of 5,438. These average levels are below the 80dB maximum for departures and 79dB for arrivals. However, these are the averages for all flights during the period and vary by aircraft type. The noisiest aircraft breached the maximums: 298 B738 departures averaged 83.3dB, 458 A321 CEO departures averaged 80.9dB 58 A306 departures averaged 80.8dB. The airport reported that the NOX levels recorded in Breachwood Green during the final quarter of 2019 were low.
Independent noise monitoring equipment: The Parish Council had decided to purchase independent noise monitoring equipment and has received £500 from Cllr David Barnard’s county locality budget and a grant of £1,500 from NHDC for to support this purchase. However, having listened to various viewpoints and because flights have significantly reduced due to Covid travel restrictions, it was decided to defer any procurement decision to February 2022. Funders will be contacted to ask if grants can be held until this date or returned.
Noise contour consultation: Joe Graziano and Liz Thurlby attended a meeting with airport officials Alice Green (Community Noise Executive) and Nicole Morris (Community Noise Officer). Ms Green and Ms Morris were invited to attend the Annual Parish Meeting but unfortunately have another engagement.
Airspace modernisation consultation, Future Airspace Strategy Implementation - South (FASI-S) the Parish Council prepared a response that would decrease Breachwood Green’s exposure to aircraft noise on take-off.
Airport Expansion proposal from 18m to 19m and to drop noise limits: The Parish Council objected.
HIGHWAYS
Speeding: We are part of the Police Commissioner’s Community DriveSafe scheme. This means that registered volunteers can use speed guns to monitor the speed of passing cars. The information is passed on to the police and speeding drivers could receive a warning letter. If you’d like to be part of this, please contact Joe Graziano or the Clerk. We have sites registered in Ley Green and Kings Walden as well as in Breachwood Green, but as yet, no volunteers from these areas.
Road Safety: We continue to follow-up on measures to improve local road safety. Joe Graziano has asked the Police Commissioner to deploy their new speed vans to Breachwood Green, the request has been received. Speed Watch will also restart when it is safe to do so.
Bus shelter in Oxford Road
The old roof shingles have recently been replaced.
Youth Club, Youth Hut, Breachwood Green
Volunteers spent a day giving the Youth Hut a much needed clear out and clean prior to the planned Spring 2020 opening, which did not happen due to the pandemic. The Parish Council has also replaced all the windows, installed broadband and had the doors rehung so that they do not clash with the play area entrance when they are open. We are hoping to be able to reopen when government restrictions allow, possibly in June this year.
The Youth Club runs on Tuesdays 6-8pm for children aged 7 plus (younger children can also attend if accompanied by a parent.) Entry costs £2. The children have an opportunity to meet up with their friends, play games, and to buy tuck. If you have some free time on Tuesdays, please think about volunteering to help the Youth Leader, Andrew Spyrou.
CCTV
A new CCTV system has been installed with increased camera coverage over the MUGA, recreation ground and village hall car park. This new system allows the Parish Clerk and councillors to have live coverage of these areas on their phones.
Play Areas and Recreation Grounds
New railings have been installed around the Breachwood Green play area during the summer of 2019. The messy bark pit under the junior swings has been replaced with much neater reinforced grass. In Ley Green, we are seeking quotes to reconfigure the kissing gate into the adjacent field to allow access to pushchairs/wheel chairs. Money has been set aside in the Parish council budget for community enhancements to the Ley Green recreation ground. These have yet to be decided.
Sommeries Youth have been granted a licence to mark out three junior football pitches on the Breachwood Green recreation ground.
Parish Council Container
The Council has removed the old dilapidated container and will replace it.
The Breachwood Owl
The Parish Council commissioned local wood carver, Dave Flemmons, to carve the Breachwood Owl last summer.
Tree Survey
All the trees on Parish Council land have been surveyed and remedial work carried out.
Grants
The council has a grants budget which is available for community groups for future projects and events. The forms are on the website (www.kwpc.org.uk). The process is not difficult, and we can help you with the forms if needed. We also encourage applicants to come along to a Parish Council meeting to tell us about their project. We do want to help and we are quite friendly. A grant of £380 has been awarded to Breachwood Green School to enable them to purchase new books for the school library.
We’ve also awarded the following grants:
£200 to the Ley Green Society for litter picking
£400 to the Breachwood Green Society for litter picking
£385 to Breachwood Green JMI School towards their annual summer fair.
£500 to Breachfest towards the hire of toilets for the event
£350 to Breachwood Green Pre-School for a shade awning
Notice Boards
The delapidated notice board on The Heath was refurbished and re-sited in the bus shelter. Please feel free to use the right had side of this notice board, and the one opposite the Red Lion to publicise community events and information. Please don’t forget to post community events on the notice board in Ley Green, opposite the shop, as well as on the two boards in Breachwood Green.
Defibrillators
We funded the installation of a defibrillator situated at Kings Walden Stores at the end of 2019
We also funded the VAT element of the defibrillator that was purchased by the Village Hall also in 2019
Gateway Features
We are continuing to work with Highways on this.
Parish Council Website, www.kwpc.org.uk
Please check out our new website and if you’d like to list your business or event, please contact the clerk. If you have an interest in the history of the parish, please have a look at the history pages; we’d be interested in your comments, additions or photos.
In the meantime, if you have any questions, concerns or suggestions for the Parish Council, please contact the Clerk, Lisa Lathane, email: clerk@kwpc.org.uk, mobile: 07887 875442; or the Chairman, Amanda King, mobile: 07989 382321.
| 
