In Today’s Notices:
- Subscriptions for The Gaddesden Diary
- CHURCH ROAD – URGENT: Fund Raising Request to Little Gaddesden Village
- Tuesday 2 (TODAY!) and Thursday 4 January 2024 – Parish Council Meetings relating to the Land at Church Road
- Saturday 20 January 2024 – RNLI “Sample Our Soup”, Village Hall
- Little Gaddesden Charities Fund
- Happy New Year!
- Got Something to be Included in Village Notices?
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Subscriptions for The Gaddesden Diary
Subscriptions for The Gaddesden Diary: only £5.00: due in September, please pay now if you haven’t already done so. Click here for details of how to pay.
CHURCH ROAD – URGENT:
Fund Raising Request to Little Gaddesden Village
Little Gaddesden Parish Council has been asked by residents to review a surprise decision made by Dacorum Borough Council regarding Church Road. LGPC has taken and funded out of its funds initial formal legal advice, which concludes that if judicially reviewed there is a reasonable argument that the decision by Dacorum be held irrational by the courts and the settlement agreement reached between Dacorum and the occupants of the land be annulled. LGPC are in detailed discussions with Dacorum to try and reach some type of alternative settlement to avoid a legal challenge. The costs of such legal challenge would be up to £15k for the initial stage to obtain permission to make the challenge and then perhaps the same again for the second stage when the matter is actually decided. If the challenge was lost LGPC would be responsible for an element of the other sides costs. There is a deadline of the 8th January to start legal proceedings. If the case is to be pursued funds will need to be raised from residents and a number of residents have actively approached us with commitments.
Accordingly, residents are being asked now for written non-binding commitments towards funding this action if it is decided it should be pursued. Given this timing LGPC pledged monies would need to be paid at the latest by January the 7th following the meetings mentioned below. Without sufficient funds the challenge would most likely not go ahead. Although non-binding, decisions will be made on the back of the commitments so should not be given without a firm intention to follow through.
The Decision and Impact
Dacorum Borough Council have signed an agreement with the land owners/occupants of Church Road, which is summarised as follows:.
- Occupants: To withdraw the appeal against the S215 notice (untidy land notice)
- Occupants: To remove the DAF truck and caravan before 5th March.
- Occupants: Are allowed to return caravan for seasonal agricultural use.
- Dacorum: To allow the extended shed to remain, irrespective of planning Inspectors appeal decision, which is still outstanding.
- Dacorum: To stop the S215 action.
Unfortunately, neither the Parish Council nor the local Dacorum Borough Councillor, who has worked with the Parish Council throughout, were made aware of this agreement before it was signed.
Residents and LGPC are troubled by many aspects of the agreement, particularly item 4 where the normal planning process has been bypassed. In addition to the planning impact, we are concerned there will be a continuation of the serious harassment that residents have experienced over the last three years.
Raising Money and Pledges
Any amount of money is welcome. The money to be raised will be held in a separate LGPC bank account. The money will be used exclusively for any legal work concerning Church Road. When/if an agreed position is reached with Dacorum, or a decision is taken not to pursue legal action, any unspent money would be returned either in whole or on a pro-rata basis. Residents should be aware that any legal action is inherently risky and expensive and for example if the legal case was lost there would be a strong possibility no monies would be returned and the current agreement would remain in force.
Monies will not be returnable in any other case i.e. you cannot just ask for your money back once paid.
Pledges at this stage should be made by way of email sent to the clerk@littlegaddesdenpc.org.uk stating Church Road Pledge in the subject line. Emails should be received by the 3rd January 2024 so we have an idea of what will be possible. The details for the actual payment in January are as below.
LGPC Bank Account Details are as Follows:
Sort Code: 60-02-21, Account Number: 54-22-10-64, Bank: NATWEST Account Name: PARISH CNCL LITTLE GADDESDEN, Reference: Your Surname
To keep our logistics simple, could you also send the Clerk a note confirming your name, amount, date of transfer, phone number, email and bank details (for returns)…(clerk@littlegaddesdenpc.org.uk)
The Way Forward
LGPC are meeting with Dacorum on Thursday 4th January at 12pm.
Formally, LGPC have called two extraordinary meetings of the Council. The first, today, Tuesday 2nd January at 7:30pm in the Village Hall, to update everyone on activities and the approach we are taking on your behalf. The second, on Thursday 4th January at 7:30pm in the Village Hall is to agree the way forward. Please come if you can.
Paul Kelly
Chair on behalf of Little Gaddesden Parish Council
Tuesday 2 (TODAY!) and Thursday 4 January 2024 – Parish Council Meetings, 7.30pm,Village Hall
THE PARISH COUNCILLORS ARE SUMMONED TO
TWO EXTRAORDINARY MEETINGS OF THE COUNCIL
OF LITTLE GADDESDEN PARISH COUNCIL WHICH WILL TAKE PLACE AT THE VILLAGE HALL on
Tuesday 2nd January 2024 at 7.30pm and
Thursday 4th January 2024 at 7:30pm
ALL MEMBERS OF THE PARISH AND PRESS ARE INVITED TO ATTEND
Agenda for Both
1. FORMALITIES
(i) Welcome from the Chairman…
(ii) To receive and accept apologies for absence.
(iii) Declarations of interest and dispensations.
1) To receive declarations of interest from Councillors on items on the agenda
2) To receive written requests for dispensations for declarable interests
3) To grant any requests for dispensations as appropriate
2. OPEN SESSION FOR MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC.
The Parish Council welcomes attendance of the public. Anyone who wishes to speak will be invited to do so by the Chairman. If possible, please give advance notice of your question to the Clerk by email to clerk@littlegaddesdenpc.org.uk, so that the Clerk can circulate to the Councillors ahead of the meeting.
3. REPORTS and MATTERS ARISING
a) To report on the issues and actions arising from the legal agreement Dacorum Borough Council entered into with people associated with the Land at Church Road.
b) To agree the way forward including any potential legal and financial matters.
4. DATE OF NEXT ORDINARY MEETING OF THE PARISH COUNCIL 15th January 2024
Paul Kelly
Chair
Saturday 20 January – RNLI “Sample Our Soup”, 12 noon – 2pm, Village Hall
Soup and crumble
Little Gaddesden Village Hall
Donations of £5.00 minimum
Little Gaddesden Charities Fund
Established in 1997 (as a combination of a number of established local charities), the Little Gaddesden charities has supported individuals and families in Little Gaddesden Parish for 25 years.
The charities’ sole purpose is to help individuals or families resident in the parish with small one-off requests for financial support.
The committee are aware that local parishioners may or may not be aware of the charities and wish to promote the purpose to all residents.
Requests for support are made by either contacting The Revd John Russell on 01442 214898 or by emailing vicar@littlegaddesdenchurch.org.uk. John chairs the charities’ small committee of trustees based on his role within the Parish; alternatively Pat Catchpole (01442 842544) as secretariat.
In such a period of financial uncertainty and with the cost of living crisis it is even more important to ensure that members of the Parish are aware of the support availability, and we would welcome being able to provide more support from funds available.
All requests are treated with the utmost confidence and no personal information is shared.
We would also welcome any local organisations providing information of how to access the charity in any wider communications they may undertake.
Happy New Year from GadSoc!
The committee of The Gaddesden Society would like to wish everyone a very Happy New Year.
Phil Heaphy (President), Mandy Haynes (Secretary), Andrew Sheard (Treasurer), Trevor Fernandes, David Seymour, Josie Jeffrey, Vicki Fruish
Got Something to be Included in Village Notices?
To request that something gets included in the Village Notices, please email Mandy Haynes at village.notices@littlegaddesden.org.uk.