Horsted Keynes Parish Council

This section includes the “Notes from the Parish Council” that appear in the P&P. We also hope to add relevant new information during the month as it comes into the Parish Office.

Latest News – May 2012

The Neighbourhood Plan was officially launched at the Annual Parish Meeting held on 10^th April in the Village Hall and the presentation given by Cllr. Mark Syrett is available on the Parish Council’s website – follow the link from our Index page to the Neighbourhood Plan page) Approximately 50 people attended this meeting and I hope that everyone found it interesting and informative.

The aim of the Neighbourhood Plan is to ensure we have the right infrastructure for local business to flourish and to reduce the risk of the school, shops and youth and/or elderly key provisions being adversely affected as the demographics of the Parish become more unbalanced - particularly as house prices rise and rural support functions are cut back.

This is your chance to ensure we have the right services and housing stock of the right size for your impending needs. Sleepwalking into becoming a dormitory village with no services and little next generation is a real possibility unless we map and identify what is actually required by residents and businesses for the future.

This is a massive project for the Parish and your involvement will be essential. The Council is currently looking for volunteers to manage the survey process within each geographic area of the Parish. This will involve distributing and collecting paper surveys from those not able to complete them electronically and volunteers are needed for all areas of the Parish except Lucas/Leighton/Church Roads. Reg Stewart has also kindly offered to co-ordinate responses from the Youth Club.

The 1^st survey to be issued will be based on what business activity and infrastructure is required to support the existing structures (Inc those working from home?) It will be ready by early June and information on how to access it will be made available in the P&P. The results of this survey will be published in the following P&P and will set the agenda for the second survey in August.

By November we will have collated all the information from the surveys to allow the Plan to be developed and then it will be communicated to the Village for consultation and feed back. Eventually (probably May 2013) the finalised Neighbourhood Plan will be put to a vote - to adopt it or not.

This is our chance to design what the Parish requires - not having a plan based on evidence of our requirements or not utilising accurate foresight could be a significant problem for the Parish and one we wish to avoid at all costs.

If you feel able to give some of your time and wish to volunteer to manage the survey process in your area, please e-mail me at horstedkeynespc@tiscali.co.uk.

Bonfires

I have already started receiving complaints about bonfires being lit during the day. Unlike urban areas we do not have bye-laws specifically prohibiting bonfires before dusk – but please consider your neighbours. On a sunny day we all tend to have our windows open and our washing out and nobody needs bonfire smoke in their house or all over their clean clothes.

Better still – don’t light a bonfire at all. You could take your garden waste to the Rubbish Freighters which will be in the MSDC car park beside Horsted Club on Sunday 20^th May between 10.00 a.m. and 12.00 noon.

Parish Office

The Office is open to the public on Wednesday morning between 10.00 a.m. and 12.00 noon.
Tel: 791919 or email horstedkeynespc@tiscali.co.uk - please also feel free to drop into the office on a Wednesday morning - we are at the rear of the Village Hall.