Walkern Parish Council Report – June 2025

The Parish Council Meeting was held on Thursday 5th June 2025 at Walkern Sports and Community Centre. This report covers some of the issues we have been dealing with over the last few months. The full minutes of the meeting will be available on the Parish Council website and on the Parish Council Notice Board outside Budgens shop.

Grants to Village Organisations

The Council receive requests from various local organisations with information on how the grant will be used. We were pleased to agree to the following:

Elderberries: £300

Walkern Journal: £300

Walkern History Society: £300

St Mary’s Church: £750

The United Reformed Church: £600

Playground Update

We are pleased with the positive response received from many residents about the new design for the playground. Those of you who have followed these reports in the Journal and on our website will know that the Council have spent many months planning the project and informing residents of its progress. We wanted to ensure that the S106 money set aside by the Inspector for the Wallace Green Way development should not be given back to the builders and we were also aware that much of the old equipment would not meet with current safety standards. We approached three playground companies for advice and emphasised the need for the new playground to be suitable for all children whatever their physical abilities. The design from HAGS met with all our approval and was subsequently endorsed by East Herts District Council who released the funds. Work began on June 16th and is progressing well, helped by the good weather.
We do hope that the new playground will be open for use by the time schools break up for the summer holidays. Meanwhile we want to remind residents that the play area at the Walkern
Sports Community Centre is there for families to enjoy. It is now completely enclosed with picnic tables inside the fenced area. The Fitness Trail is also available for older children aged 14 upwards, and adults.

Lanvallay Visitors

Several Councillors were pleased to attend the coffee morning on Saturday June 7th held at Walkern Hall to welcome the French visitors. Many of them had visited Walkern before and were staying with families in the village. It was good to chat in informal surroundings to Sophie Troubadours and Thierry Nicolas who are adjoints (deputies) to Bruno, the mayor of Lanvallay and were his representatives. Patrick Ramousse, the Chair of the Friends of Walkern described Lanvallay as a much larger area than our village but it was interesting to hear that they face similar problems, especially in encouraging people to get involved in running local societies and in local politics. Many are too busy with work and family life to commit to anything else. However, we agreed that it is at a local level that the needs of the community are really considered.

The planning and Infrastructure Bill

The Council have received information about the Planning and Infrastructure Bill that is currently being proposed in Westminster from Chris Hinchcliffe, our local Member of Parliament. He has written to all town and parish councils in his constituency setting out the amendments he has proposed to the bill. First, he hopes to improve the planning system so that it will “define and deliver affordable homes and empower local authorities in the planning process” Secondly, he proposes to “reframe the planning system to better deliver sustainable development, encourage spatial development and protect our chalk streams.” The third series of amendments aim to put communities at the heart of planning. These amendments have been supported by several organisations including CPRE, the countryside charity, the Town and Country Planning Association, Shelter and the Wildlife trusts. In his letter to the Parish Council he offered to visit Walkern to discuss these amendments with us and a date has been set for September. The online petition on Planning Reform, which some of you may have signed, was presented to Parliament by Chris Hinchcliffe on June 5th 2025.

The next Parish Council meeting will be held on Thursday 3rd July 2025 at the Walkern Sports and Community Centre commencing at 7.00 pm.

Christine Nudds, Parish Councillor