Walkern Parish Council Report – October 2025
The Parish Council Meeting was held on Thursday 2nd October 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 are available on the Parish Council website and on the Parish Council Notice Board outside Budgens shop.
The Hertfordshire Local Nature Recovery Strategy
As reported last month several Councillors have been making themselves aware of the aims and hoped-for outcomes of this strategy. A decision was made at the last Council meeting that we would draft a Walkern Nature Recovery Strategy to restore and enhance biodiversity across the Parish through community-led action. We felt that we needed specific targets where the residents could take action and see progress being made ,for example, no-mow zones, bat and swift boxes and hedgehog highways.
The Council is anxious that this should be a project for the community so that, as well as helping native species and habitats, it will bring residents together in an enjoyable and worthwhile experience.
Meeting of Hertfordshire Parish, Town and Community Councils and Hertfordshire County Council
In late 2024 the Government set out plans to change how local councils operate. This means that areas like Hertfordshire that operate a system with a County Council, District and Borough Councils etc are being asked to reorganise. The meeting that several of us attended in September was to hear and comment on these suggested changes, The Plan for reorganisation will be sent to the Government in November 2025.
Key provisions include:
- Creation of new Strategic Authorities
- Greater Local control over major areas including transport, housing and environment
- Reorganisation of local government
At the time of the meeting no decision had been made as to the number of Unitary Authorities that should cover the County; 2, 3 and 4 were being considered.
The government has said that they want to promote Neighbourhood Area Committees to provide a simplified and standardised system of local governance These could include existing parish and town councillors on their board as well as representatives from other community organisations.
Some of the questions parish councillors were asked to consider included:
- How will we represent the views of our community to the Unitary Authority?
- How might we work with other town and parish councils?
- What is our approach to asset transfers? What would we want/not want to manage?
A Government decision on the proposed plan is expected in Spring 2026.
Planning Applications
The Council receives notice of the various planning applications made within the Parish. However, residents can also view, comment and object to applications on the East Herts Planning Portal by either searching Walkern or a specific road within the village.
For searches online use https://publicaccess.eastherts.gov.uk
The next Parish Council meeting will be held on Thursday 6th November 2025 at the Walkern Sports and Community Centre commencing at 7.00 pm.
Christine Nudds, Parish Councillor