Author: Nick Chapman

‘ALLENSMORE HISTORY MATTERS’ – NEXT SESSION

27th SEPT. 2019, 7.00-9.00 p.m., IN PATESHALL HALL

‘Allensmore History Matters’: Following the very successful get-together in July to talk about Allensmore Village School, we will be having a follow-up session on Friday 27th September 2019, from 7.00 – 9.00 p.m. in Pateshall Hall (on the A465). There will be an entrance charge of £3 to cover room hire, refreshments and any other expenses.

This meeting will be a talk about ‘Education in Allensmore 1824-1957’ and will include newly found material on:-

  • 19th century schooling in the village
  • Documents from the National Archives in Kew – kept under wraps for 50 years – until being opened for research purposes
  • What happened when the school closed in 1957 up to it becoming the village hall in 1960

We look forward to welcoming you on 27th September, to find out about the story of education in Allensmore. As before, we would be particularly delighted to see any past pupils of the village school. If you have any old photographs of the school or of Allensmore generally, please bring them along or give Yvonne Chapman a ring on 01432 806 414

Allensmore NDP Steering Group meeting 19th August 2019

Following our recent NDP “Regulation 14” consultation (see results on the Parish Council website www.allensmore.org.uk), the Steering Group will be having a meeting next Monday, 19th August. The main agenda item is to sign off the final version of the NDP for the Parish Council to approve at their meeting in September after which we will make the final submission to Herefordshire Council. This will lead to the final stage; a referendum to ask residents if they accept the plan so it is legally binding when planning decisions are made.

Full agenda of the Steering Group meeting is below.

Allensmore Parish Council

Neighbourhood Development Plan (NDP) Steering Group

Meeting 25: Monday 19th August 2019 at 8pm

ALLENSMORE VILLAGE HALL

AGENDA

1.0     Apologies

2.0     Declaration of Interest

3.0     Open Session: 15 minutes for residents to raise queries regarding the NDP.  Please note: we may not be able to give complete answers on the night.

4.0     Approval of Minutes: Meeting 23, Monday 13th May 2019

5.0     Finance

6.0     Approval of Regulation 16 submission documents

7.0     Correspondence/Communications

8.0     ‘Allensmore Matters’ community engagement

– For information, brief update on non-planning items arising from NDP consultations

9.0     Items for Next Agenda

10.0   Next scheduled meeting: Monday 16th September 2019

Allensmore News

A sneak preview of what’s going in Tracking the News next month, including details of the next walk and cider apple picking…

September

7th. Ramble & Barbecue at Lower Mawfield Courtyard, HR2 9BQ

26th. Allensmore Harvest Festival

October

1st. St Andrew’s P.C.C. Meeting

12th. Cider Apple Picking at Inkerman, Allensmore

December

8th. Allensmore Christmas Lunch at Pateshall Hall

Ramble & Barbecue

The August event took place from Home Farm, by kind invitation of the Lawrence family. 17 walkers checked out more of the history of Allensmore Court before crossing the railway line safely and looking back over Allensmore. More history was discussed as we passed the old cottage at Coedmore and returned for a 5.00pm barbecue. The rain threatened and tried to spoil the party, but nobody was disturbed by a damp dessert. As the sun returned and the children entertained visitors, more of the local juice was consumed. Many thanks to everyone for their help and support – £259 was raised towards the upkeep of St Andrew’s Church.

The September Ramble & Barbecue starts at Lower Mawfield Courtyard, HR2 9BQ on Saturday 7th September at 3.00pm. Please join us for the walk and/or the refreshments at 5.00pm.

Quarter Peal

A quarter peal was rung on the bells at St Andrew’s Church during “Quarter Peal” fortnight. The quarter peal was successfully completed on Wednesday 31st July and was dedicated to the memory of Val Price.

  • Treble: Sue Townsend (1st quarter)
  • 2nd: Carol Williams
  • 3rd: Lesley Meredith
  • 4th: Stephen Williams
  • 5th: Nick Cooper-Tomkins (Conductor)
  • Tenor: Nick Chapman

Allensmore Calendar

Photographs of Allensmore have been trickling in for the 2020 calendar. Please can we have all photographs with Carol Williams of Inkerman, Allensmore (churchangel@icloud.com) by Sunday 15th September.

Harvest Festival

The annual celebration of the harvest will take place at St Andrew’s Church on Thursday 26th September at 7.30pm. The service will be followed by light refreshments.

Cider Apple Picking

The picking of the cider apples will take place on Saturday 12th October  at Inkerman, starting at 2.00pm. The juice from these apples will then be used for next year’s liquid refreshment at village events.

Kind Regards Carol

Allensmore Matters

Allensmore Matters -an update for residents August 13th  2019

Road Safety and Footpath/Cycleway team

This small team led by Wade Bostock have had several meetings and have also had productive discussions with representatives of Balfour Beatty to look at the specific problem of safety on the A465, particularly in the vicinity of the village hall. The meetings with BB have led to us reducing somewhat the expectations of what is practical; for instance, though the idea of localised 20 mph limits in the centre of the three settlements may be an option to explore in the future, a blanket 30 mph across the whole parish and “village gates” on the A465 are unlikely to be effective.

Preliminary suggestions were put to the Parish Council on the 25th of July.  The council have endorsed the work of the group so far and the following specific actions will be pursued by the council with Balfour Beatty:

  • Provide signage at the village hall junction where none exists at the moment.
  • Replace the Parking ½ mile sign just before the Village Hall turn with a new Parking ¼ mile sign between the village hall and the Saxon House junction. This should avoid the turn at the village hall being mistaken for the layby.

Another possibility being pursued is to provide signs on the A465 directing large delivery vehicles towards Allensmore Village to use only the northern lane at Webtree.

Reduced speed limit on the A465, in whole or in part, and localised double white lines and other signage on the roadway in the vicinity of the village hall are still being investigated.

Ward Councillor, Christy Bolderson and the police are aware of the progress made and meetings with Christy and Ian Connolly, the police Traffic Management Adviser, are being arranged.

The question of a footpath/cycleway along the A465 is still on our agenda for the future but road safety on the A465 needs to be priority for the moment.

Residents’ security etc is still to be explored. (A shed break in was reported in Cobhall Common just recently!). Our Police support officer (PCSO) has agreed to meet with residents in the Autumn.

Environmental group.  Residents interested in improving our environment held a litter pick on Saturday 6th April, organised by Brigitte Ratcliffe and her small team.  They plan to repeat the exercise next year. A possible spin off from that might well be a team looking at environmental issues more generally in the parish.

Improving facilities at St Andrews.

The Parochial Church Council met on 9th July and agreed to investigate the options for toilet facilities and a small kitchen at the church.  Both of these could be combined in a project centred on the restoration of the Church Porch.  There should be more to say on this at the Coffee Morning to be held in the Church this coming Saturday, 17th August 10 -12 noon.

Local History Group

This group has had two highly successful events in the village hall and is clearly now well established.  (see latest update from Yvonne Chapman)

Tim Hancox (13/08/2019)

Coffee Morning

Coffee Morning in St Andrews Church

10am to 12noon This Saturday August 17th

Proceeds in aid of St Andrews Church

Please come and enjoy good company with coffee or tea and delicious cakes.

And find out about the ideas we have for renovating the Church Porch and improving facilities in the church.

Allensmore Neighbourhood Development Plan Regulation 14 consultation update

NDP Regulation 14 Consultation

Following the Allensmore Parish Council’s approval of the draft Neighbourhood Development Plan at their meeting on 23rd May 2019, it was submitted to Herefordshire Council and other “statutory consultees” for formal public consultation under Regulation 14 of the Town and Country Planning, England, Neighbourhood Planning (General) Regulations 2012. The consultation period was from Monday 27th May 2019 to Friday 12th July 2019 – the period being 6 weeks and 5 days.

We had a total of 23 responses, 7 from the statutory consultees and 16 from the public. Here are some key points from the responses:

  • Herefordshire Council commented: “overall the plan is well written and well researched … it is clear that the plan takes a positive approach towards identifying settlement boundaries and allocation of housing in line with the Core Strategy”. All our draft policies are deemed to be in conformity with the Core Strategy.
  • There were further positive comments from Welsh Water, Historic England and Kilpeck Parish Council.
  • The Environment Agency commented on the surface water flooding risk.
  • Responses from Natural England and the Coal Authority made no specific comments.

The majority of public responses were extremely supportive which is very pleasing to report.

Several responses commented on the draft settlement boundaries, suggesting three amendments to extend the boundaries to include land owned by the respondents.

All the responses were discussed at length by the NDP Steering Group at their meeting on July 15th 2019. A couple of minor changes to the NDP were agreed at this meeting:

  • In response to comments from Herefordshire Council and the Environment Agency, flood risk maps have now been included in the NDP.
  • We agreed with the Herefordshire Council advice to add the following statement to policies A4 (Criteria for development) and A6 (conversion of former agricultural buildings): “Consideration should be given to the possibility of encountering contamination on sites as a result of former uses and specialist advice be sought should any be encountered”.

The Steering Group made a unanimous decision not to enlarge any of the settlement boundaries. There are several reasons for this decision:

  • The draft settlement boundaries were originally drawn up in discussions with Kirkwells and Herefordshire Council consultants and are endorsed by Herefordshire Council in their Regulation 14 consultation response.
  • We wish to retain the character of the settlements and reject any “double depth” development – policies that are supported by a significant majority of respondents in previous consultations.
  • One of the sites that was suggested for inclusion came forward during the call for sites process and was deemed to be unsuitable by the independent assessors AECOM, whose report was formally and unanimously accepted by the Steering Group.
  • None of the other suggested areas came forward during the call for sites process.
  • The draft NDP preferred sites already deliver the minimum growth target with additional contingency.
  • The draft settlement boundaries were overwhelmingly supported by local residents in previous consultations.
  • There are considerable drainage challenges in some of the areas where respondents have suggested changes.

A full report of all the responses together with the Steering Group’s considerations is published on the Allensmore Parish Council website www.allensmore.org.uk.

Next Actions

The next stage is to prepare the final version of the NDP and supporting documents for approval by Allensmore Parish Council at their next meeting. It will then be submitted to Herefordshire Council for them to carry out the Regulation 16 Consultation and organise the referendum for local residents.

Recent Planning Applications

Although the draft NDP has now completed the Regulation 14 stage and therefore carries some increased importance in planning decisions, it can still be overridden by the Planning Committee.

We are very disappointed that this happened during a recent planning application when a site, deemed unsuitable in the draft NDP (as recommended by our independent assessors AECOM), was given outline planning approval. This was also despite the strong representations of our Parish Council at the decision-making meeting.

This underlines the importance of completing the NDP as soon as the necessary lengthy processes permit and bringing it before residents to ratify in a referendum. Until this happens, the NDP will not have full legal authority when any future planning decisions are made.

Nick Chapman, Allensmore NDP Steering Group – July 2019

ALLENSMORE HISTORY MATTERS

We were delighted that almost fifty people attended the get together last Friday with the main topic of conversation being’ Allensmore Village School’. It was a particular pleasure to welcome thirteen past pupils who shared memories of their school-days in the time before the school closed in April 1957. We traced the journey of education in the village before the ‘Board School’ was built on the site of what is now the village hall; we looked at a copy of the 1870 plans for the current building and thought about how it had changed over the intervening years; finally, we heard what the inspectors had to say about the school in their last report from 1956 (the lack of running water and electricity were noted!) The display of information about the school generated a lot of interest ….. but we are still exploring, so if anyone has any further information or photographs please contact Yvonne Chapman on 01432 806 414. Similarly, if you want to find out about a particular topic of local history, do let us know.

All that talking and listening proved once again to be thirsty work, so we are grateful to the ‘behind the scenes’ crew who materialised with the tea trolley (take a bow – Pam Edwards, Bridgette Ratcliffe, June and Steve Jonigk) and also washed up all that crockery. Thanks also go to Tony Edwards and others too numerous to mention, who helped put the furniture away. Finally, Nick Chapman has been indispensable on the IT and admin front – laminating, scanning and generally doing all the 101 things needed to help make the evening a success. Thank you all!

August Ramble and BBQ

The weather seems set fair (at the moment!) for August’s Village Walk and BBQ, being held by kind invitation of the Lawrence family  this Saturday, 1st August at 3pm at Home Farm, when the walking starts. The eating starts at 5pm so if you can’t make the walk, that’s the time to turn up with some cash in your pockets to make a donation in return for local produce and the usual liquid refreshment. Proceeds in aid of St Andrew’s.