Annual report of the Wellington Heath Parish Council for the year to 31 March 2026.
Good evening and thank you for coming out on this lovely evening.
The first item on the agenda is the Annual report of the parish council for the year ended 31 March 2026. It is given by myself, Heloise Tierney as chair of the council. Here tonight we also have councillor Jennifer Jones who is vice chair and councillor Roy Barnes. Unable to attend are Cllr Gordon Kirk who is unwell and Cllr Steve Harries who has childcare responsibilities tonight. The Council is assisted by our parish clerk Mary Barnett, who works for us on a part time basis.
For most of the year we had a full complement of six councillors. However Cllr Tim Lott stepped down from the parish council at the end of March, leaving five. And over the next few weeks both myself and Roy are stepping down as parish councillors, after five and a half years. This will leave three spaces on the council. We have a candidate to fill one of these, but there will still be two vacancies going forward.
Road Safety
The last two Annual Parish Meetings have focussed on Road Safety, and we have made good progress on this during the year.
Firstly, my thanks to Gordon Kirk for organising “Unsuitable for HGV” signs which are now in place at the top of the Common, and at the entrance to Horse Road
Further work on road safety was done by Tim Lott who joined the parish council in July 2025 specifically to move forward the road safety agenda. He always knew he would have to step down in early 2026 due to other commitments and so he quickly set about undertaking a very thorough review of the Road safety work. He had meetings with residents, Ledbury Town Council, Herefordshire Council, Balfour Beatty and Malvern Hills among others.
Tim has been responsible for a range of improvements including seasonal safety campaigns in the newsletter, ‘20 is plenty’ signage for Horse Road, liaison with police on a possible speed watch, near miss reporting set up through the Wellington Heath website, and obtaining funding for road safety measures in Staplow. His full report is on the Parish Council Website – please take a look at it (it is under “Road Safety”). Tim has now stepped down from the parish council: I would like to thank Tim for the huge amount of work which he has undertaken on road safety and the significant progress he has made.
Cllr Steve Harries has been working with Tim on road safety measures in Staplow where Steve lives. We hope soon to have secured funding to install village gates and two speed indicator devices there. Thanks to Steve for taking this work forward.
For the moment Steve is also going to take responsibility for all of the road safety work, but ideally we would like a volunteer to join the council to take forward Tim’s work in Wellington Heath village.
Infrastructure
Turning now to infrastructure, some Major works have been carried out during the year.
At Pool Piece, there was extensive damage to the bridge caused by water running down the slope from the car park entrance to the Piece. Our lengthsman has undertaken work first to ensure drainage from the car park is improved so that water flows into the brook and culvert and not into Pool Piece. He then undertook repairs to the bridge to make it safe, and finally he replaced the slope with steps which are stronger and better positioned to avoid water damage.
On Ochre Hill, work is ongoing to improve drainage and to repair the damaged steps. Firstly, in summer, 2025 work was undertaken to divert rainwater to a soakaway which greatly reduces flow down the steps. Now, major repair of the steps and improvements to make them more durable is underway. Most of this work has been undertaken by our lengthsman but as the steps are a PROW we are able to reclaim most of the cost via grants from Herefordshire Council.
I’d like to thank our excellent lengthsman Dave Cook for undertaking this and other work around the village and Cllr Roy Barnes for commissioning and overseeing the work and processing the grant applications.
We have now made significant progress on major repairs around the village. We are not expecting to undertake any new major works in 2026-27.
Planning
A number of building works have been going on around the village this year. Planning applications are sent by Herefordshire Council to the parish council for comment. Cllr Gordon Kirk reviews these and coordinates our response and he follows up problems if they occur once planning has been granted.
The Becks Orchard site has presented many issues during the year, including with drainage and parking. I would like to thank Gordon for all the work he has done to bring problems on this and other sites to the attention of Herefordshire Council and seek a resolution where possible.
The Becks Orchard planning included steps linking The Common with Ledbury Road. The Parish Council has decided that the quality of the completed steps as specified in the planning is not robust enough for the conditions of the site and that future maintenance would be a heavy ongoing liability. We have therefore decided not to accept them from the developer; we are consulting with Herefordshire Council as to whether they would accept the steps as a PROW which would include taking over responsibility for ongoing maintenance. We have yet to hear back.
Other
In other work, we are seeking to register the land belonging to the Memorial Hall with The Land Registry. When the land was purchased in the 1920’s, registration was not an issue but we think it would be prudent to have it registered now. Gordon Kirk has been taking this work forward and it is due to complete in October 2026.
Gordon also dealt with re-registering the Farmers Arms as an Asset of Community Value last year. The pub is currently for sale. We have not been advised of any interest in putting together a bid by the community to purchase the pub, so we have decided not to exercise our right to a six month moratorium on the sale.
The defibrillator has proved its worth during the year. It has been used, and used twice during the year. Thanks to David Williams for overseeing the defibrillator including organising the necessary replacement of parts after it has been used.
And thanks, as ever, to all of the people in the village who volunteer their time to. In particular I’d like to thank Ros Adams for her eight year stint of emptying the dog poo bins. And thanks also to the team of volunteers who are now replacing her.
The notice boards are looking much better cared for since we established a group of volunteers who ensure they are kept clean, tidy and repaired. My thanks to them.
I am also grateful to Carolyn Ainsworth for taking over as newsletter editor, to the Hall Committee for organising the Newcomer’s event among many other exciting events in the year, to Hamish and the Pool Piece volunteers, to Judith and Diana and the footpath volunteers and also to those who maintain websites, litter-pick, or otherwise contribute to making the village such a good place to live in.
I am about to finish my five and a half year stint as parish councillor and three year stint as chair. It has been an interesting and rewarding time, and a great way to find out more about how the village works; I have been very happy to make a contribution to the friendly and welcoming community that is Wellington Heath Parish. I’d like to say many thanks to my fellow councillors and to Mary our clerk for their support and for all those around the village who have helped me in so many ways.
Thank you all
Heloise Tierney
Chair, Wellington Heath Parish Council