NOTES from the Annual Parish Meeting of Wellington Heath Parish Council held on 14th April 2025 in the Memorial Hall commencing at 7pm
In attendance were all Councillors, 16/18 members of the public, and three Representatives from the local Police Force.
CHAIRMAN’S REPORT – The Chairman read through her Annual Report advising on the need for the increased Precept from Herefordshire Council, what activities the Parish Council had dealt with during the year, and also indicated what it was hoped to achieve during the year 2025/26. (Full report – see ‘Appendix A‘ below)
TALK and ADVICE from Police Constable John Meek from the Rural Crimes unit in attendance giving Report on what Investigations take place and by whom and how the public can safeguard their belongings by purchasing alarms which are accredited “secured by design”: this is an official police security initiative that provides a recognised standard for security products. A brief question/answer reply took place.
COMMUNITY SPEED WATCH – In attendance were both PC Stephen Bullock and PCSO David Alexander. They advised on the “Community Speed Watch” scheme in response to the Parish Council’s interest in this project as raised by the Parish Councils Road Safety meetings and survey.
PC Stephen Bullock advised as follows –
- The Scheme had been running by West Mercia Police for 10yrs. 57 schemes are in existence and sone 15 in formation although they may not all be approved.
- Scheme is run by West Mercia Police, who carry out an initial assessment of the sites proposed to ensure a speedwatch can be carried out safely and effectively.
- Schemes were only introduced where the speed limit was 30 or 40mph.
- West Mercia Police carry out initial training.
- A Speed Watch Co-ordinator is appointed by the Parish Council who looks after the kit which includes jackets and all equipment which is supplied and kept by the Parish Council totally free of charge.
- A minimum of 6 people are advisable to start up the Group, their experience is that smaller groups have struggled.
- The Police assess the sites for risk assessment for the Parish Council, and he confirmed it was better to vary the sites.
- Whilst there had been no reported accidents in Wellington Heath some had been reported in Staplow.
A question and answer session took place, and the Chairman declared the meeting closed at approximately 8pm.
………………………………………………………….. Dated…………………………..
CHAIR
Appendix A
Report by the Chair of the Parish Council to the Parish Meeting April 2025
Your parish council currently has 4 councillors, myself Heloise Tierney as chair, Jennifer Jones as vice chair and councillors Roy Barnes and Gordon Kirk. Councillor Stephen Loveridge stepped down during the year. We currently have two vacancies but are looking forward to welcoming a new member to the Parish Council at our May meeting, Steve Harries who lives in Staplow. We would welcome someone else to bring our numbers to a full complement. The Council is assisted by our parish clerk Mary Barnett, who works for us on a part time basis.
The parish council has a small budget (the “precept”) which was £11500 for 2024-25, the year covered by this report. After holding it at this level for two years, we are increasing it to £14,175 for 2025-26. The increase takes account of inflation over the last two years and allows us to build up reserves to enable road safety initiatives and work on The Plecks, which are Council-owned land in the village.
During the year we have carried out work as follows:
On roads and drainage. Herefordshire Council has primary responsibility but gives the parish council a grant to undertake some of this work. We employ a lengthsman, Dave Cooke, who has done excellent work during the year keeping ditches and gullies clear to keep water off the highways. He has also installed a new drain across the entrance to Pool Piece to stop water gathering there.
Some work on the roads must be undertaken by Herefordshire Council and the parish council works with Balfour Beatty to get this work done. First the defect needs to be reported the Herefordshire Council website – anyone can do this. Then, it often needs persistence on the part of your councillors to get action taken. This has resulted in getting the white lines and the SLOW markings around the Horse Road junction with Ledbury Road renewed; four new grit bins received; the “dip” by the pumping station on Beggar’s Ash filled in, resurfacing of the road down to Petty France and any number of potholes filled. We are continuing to press to get work done on a blocked drain on The Common; so far we have had a visit from a drainage engineer and investigations with a mini-digger but are still awaiting the results of investigations, and a solution.
A big ongoing project this year has been on road safety. I would like to thank Councillor Stephen Loveridge and a small committee of parishioners for their work on this. The August 2024 newsletter included a road safety survey. 75 households replied and these replies were analysed by the road safety committee which reported to the parish council in the autumn. Stephen stood down as a councillor in January due to work pressures and I am now leading on the road safety work, with very welcome help from other councillors and members of the committee. We should shortly have some additional “Unsuitable for HGV” signs for Floyd’s Lane and Horse Road. For Staplow, we are applying for a grant to install Speed Indicator devices and white gates. We are also meeting Ledbury Town Council to discuss measures to improve safety on Beggar’s Ash.
Footpaths are also the responsibility of Herefordshire Council, but again the parish council ensures they are maintained with the help of a volunteer footpath officer and our lengthsman. Many thanks to Jenny Hough for her work as footpath officer for many years. Jenny stepped down in August last year and we were pleased to welcome new footpath officers Judith Hammill and Diana Harrison and their team of volunteers. Our lengthsman has undertaken major work to reduce water run-off down the Ochre Hill footpath and he will start work on repairing the Ochre Hill steps shortly.
Pool Piece children’s play area is owned by the Parish Council and we arrange for an annual safety inspection, regular grass-cutting and external hedge trimming. Following reports of dog mess we have put up additional signage. Water ingress has led to damage to the entrance from the car park and our lengthsman will do work to reroute the water and replace the current entrance with steps which will be less vulnerable to subsidence. Thanks also go to the Pool Piece volunteer group which does a bi-annual tidy up, usually filling the skip which we provide for them.
We received notice of planning applications and put them on the Parish Council website and responded with any recommendations or objections.
Four newsletters were produced during the year to keep parishioners up-to-date with goings-on in the parish. Thanks to Keith Hough who has retired after editing the newsletter for five years, and welcome to Imogen Peck who has taken over. Thanks also to the team who deliver the newsletter and to our regular advertisers.
I have not covered everything that we have done in my report, but I hope that I have given you a feel for the main things that the parish council has done during the year, and the main things your precept is spent on. We are helped in the task by many volunteers, and I am very grateful both to those I have mentioned above and to many others who I have not been able to mention.