Home Farm

Resident reports: 0815hrs Fuel Tanker stoped to fill up digers on blind bend Lodge Rd. Traffic could not pass

Home Farm

Work is taking place on the home farm site. It was a bit sooner than we were expecting and no one told us. It was reported (ta to Cranfield's most senior white van man) that low loaders turned up in Court Road just as the school rush was getting under way. Lots of concerns therefore.

I contacted Persimmon and received this very prompt reply:

The works that have started are part of the archaeological investigation and I must admit I was not aware they were due to start today. I have liaised with my colleagues as to what the programme and intentions are at it seems the works will be initially concentrating on AAS1 shown on the attached plan that will take approximately 10 weeks. This is not a start on site but merely something we have to do to satisfy the planning permission. It is no different to us carrying out a ground investigation report.

We do not own the charity site yet so can’t use this entrance at the moment, although as I promised and put into the Code of Construction this will be our preferred option at the start of the main construction works on the site.

I understand that the low loader Is to deliver the necessary equipment and once delivered will be contained within the site area with little need for any other deliveries of large equipment until the works are complete, at which point they will be removed from site using the same methods. The machines will only be working briefly to remove the initial topsoil, after which the investigation works will be hand dug to ensure any potential remains are not disturbed.

I would hope that people will not view this negatively, as the works for the archaeological investigation will be confined to the site and will not impact the local people to any degree. The plan attached illustrates the area that they will be working in and the access arrangements. It is no different than if a farmer was using the land and had delivered a large piece of machinery to the site? I am sure the contractors that delivered the equipment used a duty of care to do this safely and with as much disruption as possible? It is unfortunate that this fell on school times, however I’m sure it was not intentional and had a minimal impact on the school users.

I stress again this is not Persimmon starting the site works on any level that will impact on Cranfield and that any negative public reaction will be vastly over exaggerated and would rather concern and disappoint me. As always though if there are any problems or concerns then please contact me to discuss.

I will ensure going forward that any works that are due to be commenced are notified to the Parish before they commence so that we can discuss before hand. If you need to contact the Project Manager who is looking after these works for more information, their details are as follows:

Duncan Hawkins

Director

Direct Dial: 020 7832 1481

Email Address: duncan.hawkins@cgms.co.uk

Mobile: 07740 171834

I hope this alleviates your concerns.

Kind regards

Martin Wright

Moles in the cemetery

There are moles in the cemetery. These characters have form and have been around before but not in my time or in the clerk's as far as she can recall. Its gassing or tapping we are informed. But what happens after trapping? There are no maps for mole culling. Suggestions always welcome.

Cemetery extension tree planting

This is a rough indication of proposed specimen tree planting in the cemetery. The main issue is whether roots of the central trees will adversely affect any grave plots. Currently getting some advice on this. For those not familiar with the cemetery, the extension is the area on the right bounded by the hammerhead, the road and the turning circle.

Home Farm stakeholder meeting 28.1.10

My report from the Home Farm stakeholder meeting

28 January 2010

Present: Anne Samme (development manager), Ken Matthews and Alan Bastable (CBC councillors), Lionel Cooper (Colts), Marjorie Cotton (Village hall Committee), Sheila Howe (Acorn), Janet Orchart (WI), Laurence Pollock (Cranfield Parish Council) and local residents, representatives of Persimmon and their architects, Woods Hardwick.

The initial meeting of this group took place at CBC offices at Chicksands, presided over by Anne Samme. She proposed and it was agreed that the meeting would be:

• Bi-monthly

• Held in Cranfield subject to facilities being available (Persimmon will consider helping with the cost)

• Minuted, with minutes publicly available

• Not open to the public due to capacity issues.

The Stakeholder Group will exist up to two years after the development is completed. It exists to consider the views of residents while the development is underway. Anne suggested that following partial construction, the group would seek membership from some of the new houses.

Gary Surkett of Woods Hardwick explained the eight ‘character areas’, which will make up the site. They vary in type and size of dwelling and the theme or focus (‘barn’, ‘courtyard’ etc).

Questions and discussions included the following topics:

• Need to agree spec and management arrangements for multi-use public building (hall, play group and library).

• Persimmon will provide rough estimates of how quickly they think development phases will roll out and Anne Samme will check triggers for Section 106 money/facilities.

• Martin Wright of Persimmon confirmed the pledge to use the charity land for construction of the main spine road and acknowledged the issue of discouraging a left turn out of the site into Lodge Road.

• Persimmon also stated that there would be safe public access to the site in the event of residents/local reps needing to raise issues about the construction processes.

Subject to ‘reserved matters’ applications clearing final hurdles Persimmon thought construction would begin later this year or early 2011.

Next meeting 18 March. Location TBC.

Laurence Pollock

(Please note that formal minutes will be prepared by Anne Samme)

31 January 2010

Committees 3 Feb 2010

Meeting concluded on time last night. Good work by the chair and the chair of The Mad Hatters' Tea Party (General Purposes). Plenty of discussion in planning about proposed huge extensions to two houses but we resolved not oppose either. Thinking is also developing about establishing salt/grit bins at various locations in the village in the light of recent climate change, semi-Siberian conditions and councils' only being permitted to salt A and B roads. I have been particularly worried about Court Road where there is a real scrum of cars, parents, children and a school bus at 8.45 am every day. The search for a second bottle bank site goes on.

Home farm section 106

Extremely useful visit from Anne Samme, senior planner at Central Beds last night. A key question is what happens to the section 106 agreement in Home Farm if Persimmon sell on parcels of the ground to other developers. They should all pick up, pro rata, a share of any provision in kind and any cash contribution. But there are so many loopholes that it would be good to feel that 106 enforcement officers are keeping a close eye on this.

The first stakeholder meeting will be next Thursday at Chicksands. It's being held there because the Councul does not have a budget to hire a room in Cranfield. It would seem reasonable for Persimmon to contribute to that.

Cemetery extension

Starting to make some progress on the cemetery extension. VC Pete and I have been planning some additional planting to soften the edges of the new area of cultivation. Apart from that Frosts are clear to proceed in the near future 'when the ground is clear of frost'. That might be a while!

Travellers

I suppose this is how its supposed to be, but sometimes there is just too much going on to find time to blog. The hot issues has obviously been the proposed travellers' sites at Millennium Park and Mousloe Road. First Mill Park and then Moulsoe Road appeared to come off the list but the latter was still there in the Times and Citizen report on Thursday. It's been a job finding anything on the Central Beds Web site about the process and being sparse on info doesn't help anyone.

Just looking at the Home Farm Development brief (approved October 2005). It says very clearly that the remainder of Lodge Road (beyond access to home Farm) will be retained in its current form with all traffic movements being discouraged.

"There will be no direct access from the development onto Court Road other than for emergency vehicles - private cars will be prohibited from using that route, reinforced by physical constraints."

That seems very straightforward so hopefully if they do get their access down Lodge Road they might remember this paragraph (5.6.9).

My thanks to 'The Lodger' for pointing this one out.

Incinerators

There's no doubt that they are about as popular as a croc in the leisure pool but then landfill was no picnic either. So there have been some hard choices for the PC about campaigning on waste disposal.

There are two current waste schemes - the smaller, Bedfordshire BEAR project (currently 'technology neutral') and the Covanta proposal for a gigatrash processor which in a neighbourly sort of way will burn all Buckinghamshire's waste for it. The PC after a vote has decided to support in principle Our Marston Vale, the group set up to fight both these proposals. But it will not affiliate to OMV because a small local incinerator designed entirely to dispose purely of Beds waste might be the best of several bad jobs. We have reserved the right to decided on its merits. Its was a tough one and I respect those who voted for affiliation but personally I don't think its the way forward.

Persimmon slam the door

It is Persimmon's intention to deliver the access as approved because anything else will derail the programme."

This was Persimmon Homes’s response to continued Parish Council and public pressure for access to the Home Farm development to be rerouted through the Goodman charity land off the High Street, not via Lodge Road. Representatives of the company attended a Parish Council meeting last month.

The company argues that if they go for a new access the planning application to agree it will not allow them time to complete their building programme.

It was a crushing blow after Persimmon’s representative, Clive Drinkwater, two years ago, was highly positive about the possibility of rerouting. Since then Mr Drinkwater has left Persimmon and current management say circumstances have changed and they want to press ahead with the Lodge Road access.

The company plans to create a small "bespoke" development under its high value Charles Church brand on the charity land, with its own entrance off the High Street.

Chair of the Parish Council Mrs Delise Ball said: "The high value development on the High Street will be a showcase front door while the bulk of Home Farm residents will use the Lodge Road tradesman's entrance.

“There is no doubt that Persimmon can go down Lodge Road if they want to. But the Parish Council believes that their worries about timing could be overcome if they were willing. Their lack of cooperation is hugely disappointing.”

The meeting was originally called because Persimmon wants the Parish Council to adopt open space and play areas on Home Farm. No action was taken on this. At present Persimmon do not even own all the land but they say they have triggered the purchase of the charity land.

Persimmon were pressed to explore with Central Beds planners whether a new application, varying the entrance, could be fast tracked but they insisted that there was no point. They also claimed that they could not go through the ancient hedgerow between the charity land and the rest of Home Farm – an assertion that was vigorously challenged.

They have previously argued that they could not reroute the access because they did not own the charity land.

Persimmon said they would look at linking up the Goodman and Lodge Road accesses (creating two accesses), rerouting the construction traffic and reconsider the left turn into Lodge Road, but they made no firm commitments.

Home Farm

Letter from Persimmon declining to attend meeting on October 21st:

By Email & Post: cranfieldpc@btconnect.com

JAL/KE/DC/15854/B1

19 October 2009

Ms Rosie Davey-Hunt

Clerk of the Cranfield Parish Council

Marshmill

Marshbrook

Church Stretton

SY6 6RQ

Dear Rosie

RE: HOME FARM, CRANFIELD

PARISH COMMITTEE MEETING – 21^ST OCTOBER

I have been instructed by our Client, Persimmon Homes (Midlands) Ltd, to write to you regarding the forthcoming Parish Committee Meeting scheduled for the 21^st October 2009, which we had previously arranged to attend to discuss the potential adoption of Open Space and Community Facilities.

It now seems this matter needs to be considered in the context of other issues and in such respects I understand that Persimmon have recently confirmed in writing to the Parish Council that the primary access serving the proposed site has to remain as approved, i.e. off Lodge Road. Following Persimmon’s letter, we became aware of an article published in the Beds on Sunday, 18^th October 2009 edition and anticipate the aforementioned meeting will be used as an opportunity for members of the public to reiterate their objection to the approved access strategy. As a result and due to the meeting being open to general attendance, our Client feels that the meeting may not productively facilitate the topic of discussion hoped for in relation to the subject of Open Space and Community Facility adoption.

Therefore, with regret, Persimmon Homes (Midlands) Ltd and Woods Hardwick Ltd hereby withdraw from the above meeting. Instead, we would like to invite the members to a private meeting at a mutually acceptable location to discuss the Parish’s conclusions on the adoption of Open Space and Community Facilities, as initially discussed on the 4^th August 2009 and to further clarify the access strategy if desired.

We would therefore be grateful for any suggested meeting dates in order to move matters forward and would be happy to address any queries the Parish may have regarding the Open Space and Community Facilities in advance of agreeing a new meeting date.

Yours sincerely

WOODS HARDWICK LTD

New health centre

Latest feedback from Bedfordshire NHS on their health centre 'consultation'. They are still talking about implementing the parish plan to justify libraries and cafes in the health centre. They also cite the majorities in favour of these extraneous features without acknowledging that they didn't ask - would you prefer a library or more health facilities? Report from the last board meeting suggested that one official said the business plan had to 'stack up' - are there economic criteria which the Beds NHS are not acknowledging?

BEAR and Covanta

Bedford's out of the BEAR incinerator project so where does that leave the economics for Central Beds and Luton? Are they going to say it would be more cost effective to go in with Covanta?

War Memorial

New promises from QSS about the lettering on the war memorial and fresh explanations why the last promise wasn't kept. By October committees they'll either have done it or we will be seeking compensation for the poor work last year and appointing someone else to do it on an emergency basis.

They won't be told

The grey revolution spilt onto the public highway on Friday when Lodge Road, Villa Park and other residents made their voices heard. Cranfield's shock troops symbolically blocked the road for five minutes to send a message to housing giant Persimmon that Lodge Road is NO THROUGH ROAD for either construction traffic or hundreds of daily car movements. They are also writing to top Persimmon Executive Andrew Hammond asking why the company said two years ago that the access could be changed but has now gone very quiet. These people clearly do not plan to be quiet themselves. Lodge Road residents want as many Cranfield people as possible to write to Persimmon raising their concerns about access and the impact on Lodge road – regardless of whether they live near it or not. You should write to: Andrew Hammond, Managing Director, Persimmon Homes Midlands, 3 Waterside Way, Bedford Road, Northampton NN4 7XD. If you are on email could you send a copy of your letter to royphillips1@mypostoffice.co.uk

Home Farm

Persimmon visiting on Wednesday October 21st. Lodge Road and Villa Park residents are currently running a writing campaign to Persimmon reminding the company of its negotiations two years to change the access. I think their message is 'We haven't gone away!'

War Memorial?

Any word from QSS re re-lettering? I don't think so. Getting a little bit fed up.

Building your community

There many factors that affect our quality of life – health facilities, schools, roads, policing and housing developments to name a few.

The Parish Council is usually the first port of call when developers, planners and service providers are making decisions that impact on the village. Its planning committee, for instance, is always busy assessing proposed developments, large or small and forwarding views of villagers to Central Beds Council.

The Parish Council is made up of ordinary people who are prepared to give up a couple of evenings month to get involved in influencing these sort of proposals. They also help run our own ‘frontline services’ such as children’s play equipment, open spaces and the cemetery. They are currently working closely with the Highways Agency Amey to develop proposals for traffic calming in Cranfield.

New faces are always important to ensure that there is fresh thinking. The Parish Council would like to invite individuals to consider seeking co-option to the council and to play a part in making Cranfield a stronger, more attractive community.

The ‘person spec’, to use modern jargon, is as follows:

• Attendance: regular, conscientious

• Interests: community spirited, enthusiastic about local quality of life.

• Patience: Lots of it! Ability to accept decisions you disagree with and understand that decision making and implementation can be a slow process. Committees can be a bit cumbersome but they ensure that all voices are heard.

• Knowledge: Nothing specialist required. Prepared to learn on the job. But curiousity helps.

The current council finishes in April 2011 so those who do join it now are only committing for 18 months. But there is no need to take a decision immediately. You can seek co-option by emailing the clerk on cranfieldpc@btconnect.com or tel 05601 534542. For an informal chat about how the parish council works and the co-option process, ring Laurence Pollock on 01234 757689

Waste disposal

BEAR project people came to see us on Wednesday evening. Our preferred options are:

No incinerators

One incinerator run by Bedfordshire (BEAR)

On incinerator run by Covanta processing waste on behalf of people in Slough.

But we might end up with two incinerators

Traffic calming

Bedfordshire Highways, working with Central Bedfordshire Council and Cranfield Parish Council will be holding an exhibition of proposals designed to look at traffic calming measures and improvements along the High Street, Mill Road and Broad Green in Cranfield.

The exhibition will take place at the Methodist Church, High Street, Cranfield on 10 October between 10am and 4pm where plans will be on display, together with questionnaire/comment forms and staff will be on hand to answer any questions that you may have.

Please take this opportunity to come along and see for yourself, and have your say on the future of Cranfield.

Big Big Thankyou

Phil Bates, former chairman has resigned from the parish council. The Blog speaks for everyone in saying a big big thank you for all your hard work and how. 11 years as chair and 14 on the council was quite a stretch (and no parole for good behaviour either) while holding down a tough day job and doing all that good family stuff. Snot surprising, really, that you needed to get half way up a mountain to get your head cleared.

Phil has been made an honorary life member of the Parish Council refreshment sub-committee which meets as often as it can at a variety of venues after normal business has been concluded. We hope to see him whenever he is able to join us.

Persimmon

Persimmon have written to us accepting our invitation to visit. We are currently dusting the best china and checking who is making the cucumber sandwiches, angel cakes etc. They are going to be visiting us a lot in the next few years so it makes sense to say hello in advance.

War Memorial

It's a job getting the right ink for your memorial! The clerk has launched increased pester power (we are up to P3 with a max of P5) regarding the relettering of the war memorial. The latest response from the lettermen states:

The latest on the special ink is that it should arrive this week, but unfortunately our resident "artist" is away on vacation till the 14th Sept, but given we have the ink by then, I promise it will the first job upon returning, it will only take a couple of days to complete. I'm sorry this is dragging on a bit but we must be sure we have the correct ink - this time!

So the parishmatters blog will come back to this on the week beginning 21 September

War memorial

Need to check on the war memorial lettering. And yes it is 1914-1919 as the war only officially ended with the Versailles treaty in 1919. The German fleet in Scapa Floe scuttled itself because it thought hostilities were about to be resumed if the treaty was not agreed and it did want the ships used against Germany.

Response from war memorial letterists

Dear Rosie,

Weather permitting we will complete it next week for you, enabling you to relax.

Will confirm

Best regards

Chris

Meetings next month

2 September and 16 September. Both in Baptist Church. Officially 8 pm but with safety committee on 2 September and likely speakers on both nights more like 7 pm. Watch the blog for details.

The 'cruise' at the uni was reportedly noisy on Sunday night and it felt like a large part of it convoyed through Broad Green. The peelers have been told and we might get some feedback at the Safety Committee next month. Now that there are double yellow lines at the uni, it is supposed to be easier to see the joyless riders off the site.

Street Light

Hey - the streetlight in Broad Green that has been burning non-stop for six months has actually been taken away. Power to the People.