Chair’s Report 2024-2025

Garden of Remembrance and Allotment Project
The application has gone to planning and needed to be amended.

The tree and landscaping officer disagree with the trees that we need to remove and is not keen on the replanting we proposed. This need to be looked at.

The public protection officer states that the allotment land needs to have a soil sample taken to prove that future users of the allotments will be safe.

Highways officer requires parking for the allotments and garden of remembrance. We have an agreement that we can use the overflow car park.

Leisure agrees with the proposal, but the plans need to meet the quality criteria which may mean changing the size.

The biggest problem is the 10% biodiversity gain. If we remove plants, scrub, and trees this creates a biodiversity deficit. If we replant, this wipes out the deficit but does not secure a 10% net gain. We are too green already. In order to get 10% net gain, we will need to purchase a large track  of land and then either plant a tiny forest or a wildflower meadow. The purchasing of land is a significant cost, and the wildflower meadow will need constant maintenance and upkeep. If we cannot make the site meet the net gain, then we can use another bit of council land and increase the biodiversity on that. Unfortunately, the council does not own any more land that we can use for this. We are hoping that the ward councillors can help us apply for a dispensation to waive this.

Until we can sort out the issue with the 10% biodiversity gain, we cannot proceed with the project as the costing are unknown and likely to be very high added on to the projected spend of the project of £150,00-£200,000.

The Neighbourhood Plan
The Neighbourhood Plan is a formal document that needs to be submitted to outside auditors to be signed off. We have set up a Steering Group to rewrite our plan and we are looking for it to be submitted in 2026/2027. It is different from our previously Neighbourhood Plan or Parish Plan. We cannot say no to development in theory, but we can request that any future development be within our boundary.

There are certain themes that have to be included in our plan: community facilities, climate change,( flooding etc ) Green spaces and housing type. This is do we need bigger houses to be built as families grow or small houses as children leave home. We also need sections on the environment and a group of residents are helping to write the biodiversity plan. We also have to take into account the historical and landscape characters.

This is a very long process that needs have the input from the whole village, but we have made a start. Without it, developers can build what they want where they want so it is an essential piece of work.

Events
We had a very successful Apple Day although it was later in the year. We had a lot of vendors, stall and entertainment. We hosted a few familiar favourites including ferret racing, agility dogs and the band. Any money raised goes back to look after the orchards.

The Christmas tree was damaged in the storms of winter 2023. Therefore, it was decided not to put the top back as a named storm hit the weekend after the tree was put up. The poor tree got a bit of a battering last year with storms almost every week. The Christmas light switch on was moved indoors and the turn out to see the choir Father and Mrs Christmas and the Elves was fantastic.

Remembrance Sunday was also well attended and something for our village to be very proud of. We had residents from Fairfield Manor Care Home in attendance as well as our Scouts.

Events were organised by Councillor Jones and former Councillor Papakosta, and we thank them for their hard work. The majority of the issues come with setting up and breaking down on the day and we need volunteers for this year’s events if you can spare a few hours. VE Day is our first event of this year, and I hope to see everyone there.

Disaster Recovery Plan
We have a village wide disaster recovery plan. It covers fire, flood, storm damage etc. The place of safety is the community hall. Fairfield and our local villages all have individual CERTS, Community emergency response team. These are volunteers who are on a WhatsApp group run by central beds. We get updates on weather events etc and it means a co-ordinated response can be rolled out in the event of an emergency. If you would like to put your name forward let me know. Hopefully the most you will be called on will be to make tea and coffee in the summer for planned fire exercises. You will get lots of weather updates though.

As your council we have attended external meetings with stakeholders including the police and  your local MP. We have challenging policing in the village. We have also  helped with family members install memorials for two residents.

The Barrie Dack Award for Voluntary Services
The inaugural award was presented to Penny and Gavin Daffarn for their outstanding hard work and commitment to maintaining the Orchards of Fairfield. They were presented with a framed certificate and a £100 Marks and Spencer Voucher.

Councillor Tracey Riley
FPC Chair
26th March 2025