Take a closer look at some of the news stories from the Parish Council this February
To contact the Parish Council please email clerk@headcornpc.org.uk
Parish Council News
Meet Headcorn's New PCs!
We are pleased to report that Headcorn now has it’s own two PCs (albeit we share their time with other local communities) who regularly patrol the village. They are PC Charlotte Bingham and PC Charlie (Chad) Mascal. They will visit at unannounced times.
They will strive to be ‘intelligence led’ meaning any known issues that are fed through to them will be used to inform their patrols. Thus, in addition to the usual methods of crime reporting, if there is a matter you would like to draw to their attention then the best was is via the Community Voice platform. This is a messaging system that is designed for alerting teams to non urgent matters, such as anti-social behaviour. If you see Charlotte and Chad in the village do say hello!
Hoggs Bridge Green
Work continues by the Community Payback team on the clearance of the far section of open space at Hoggs Bridge Green. As reported in the October newsletter Sally Musker is managing a project to better use the space with planting of native trees and fruit trees for the benefit of both the community and the wildlife. Planting will start in the Spring. The next step is to fully clear the stumps and shoots to prevent regrowth, which will involve covering the area with discarded carpet.
Once done, planting will be able to start in the Spring.
Community Help from DofE
HPC received an offer to support the community with litter clearing by a Duke of Edinburgh Award participant - Olivia Selby. Olivia has been regularly clearing known litter spots around the village and her help will continue for some months.
If you know someone undertaking a Duke of Edinburgh Award who needs to find any sort of community work then please do get in touch, we are always grateful for offers of help.
Parsonage Meadow Improvements
HPC’s hardworking lengthsmen have just completed the renewal of the fencing around Parsonage Meadow which will provide a safer area for exercising dogs. The current three bar fence was nearing the end of its life and it also required additional wire fencing to ensure that small to medium sized dogs are less able to run into the road.
Expanding the HPC Team
As many of you will know, Kent’s much valued Community Wardens have been the focus of a good deal of attention at KCC over recent years - from a cost-cutting perspective. There have been staffing reductions and expanded responsibilities and now there is likely to be a significant further cut to resources. HPC is always looking for ways to ensure our community has the resources we need and the prospect of diluting the Community Warden presence even further is not something we want. Therefore we have devised a strategy whereby we recruit our very own community warden. We have crunched the numbers and found a way to make it work.
The bad news is, it will add to our Precept and each household will need to pay 74p extra per month towards the cost. The good news is Stuart Ellesmere is the man for the job! The even better news is that it will mean we have our own full time warden who does not need to share their time with any other local communities. This is now in the pipeline and we hope to announce the commencement of this role in coming weeks.
New Playground Equipment
Back in December the Parish Council organised for new equipment to be installed in the playground at Days Green. This includes four new swings and a carousel. The swings include a parent and baby swing and one for disabled children. The latter has areas specifically designed to attach your own harness should you need to. The carousel is also wheelchair friendly.
We also took the opportunity to repair the platform at the top of the slide.
Parking in Church Lane
The parking spaces along Church Lane are to be enhanced into marked bays, which will include disabled bays. There will be no overall change to the number of parking places.
The Traders car park (beyond the Sainsburys’ car park will be trialling ANPR cameras in the coming months. If they prove effective then HPC may consider installing ANPR elsewhere in the village to help with the creep of antisocial and commuter parking.
Community & Police Meeting
We have arranged a police meeting with the public for the 12th February in the Green Room at the Village Hall. This will include Police, Community Protection and Community Warden so if anyone has any questions or problems that is the time to bring it to them. It is also a chance to raise any housing association problems as the Community Protection team and Warden might be able to help - and it should also encourage the housing associations to be present next time.
They will be there from 1pm to around 2.30 depending on how busy they are. If you feel that this is a valuable and useful opportunity then please do attend as this may then become a regular event.
