News

By now most of you will have had a visit from one of us Councillors or Village Hall Re-Build Team about your views on the Village Hall, if you haven’t then you will be receiving a visit soon. When we have finished we can analyse the information that we receive to decide what the majority of Villagers want. It will be an interesting process and I am looking forward to seeing the results. We are pleased to welcome our new Youth Representatives who now attend Council meetings to put forward views of the youth on various issues to Parish Council members. I am hoping that this will encourage the younger members of our community to speak up about things that may enhance village life for them. We all know full well that not being able to drive does place extreme limitations on the social life of a certain age group and especially in a village like this with limited public transport this can be a problem.

Some of the issues that the Youth Representatives have highlighted are as follows: 

1) They would like a shelter in the park so they have somewhere to go instead of having to walk the streets. This would not come out of our Council Tax – a grant is available. Many local parishes are installing these shelters which are subject to a “contract” with the local youths that if we have several problems reported caused by the users then it will be removed.

2) They are looking into the possibility of getting discounts from mini-cab firms to ferry youngsters from Canewdon to Rochford in the evenings. Details to be announced as soon as more information is received.

3) They would like lights in the park so that they can utilise the skate park for longer times (but this would need to be subject to time restrictions). 

If any of you have any views on these issues please contact me in writing either by e-mail canewdonparishcouncil@hotmail.co.uk or by post at 8 Ducketts Mead, Canewdon, SS4 3QS. Please include your name and address so that I can reply to you. If there are any objections please try and be constructive we would really like to encourage youths to be responsible and take an active part in the village.  

Canewdon Parish Council Website.  For those of you who do not already know Canewdon Village now has its own website www.essexinfo.net/canewdon-parish-council. Take a look when you get a chance and if you have any events or clubs that you would like to go on there please let me know. 

Warning to all residents – please lock your cars, garages & sheds as there have been a number of reports where these have been broken into recently. 

Can I just say well done to the Creeksea Ferry Inn – what a brilliant idea to have pancakes on pancake day!!!! I only wish that I’d been home on time to have come along and enjoyed it!!!

And for all you romantics out there have you seen the special that the Anchor is doing for Valentines day? Believe me it’s worth a look!!

CITIZEN OF THE YEAR AWARD

The Citizen of the Year Awards are made to recognise and acknowledge individuals of the District for their valuable hard work and outstanding achievements. You are invited to nominate someone (who lives in Rochford District) whose achievements you feel should be recognised. The winners will be VIP guests at the Council’s Civic Dinner in March, where the Chairman of the Council will present them with their award. There will also be an awards ceremony for everyone nominated. Nominations can be made until 15 February.

If you would like a nomination pack please contact Julia Mitchell on 01702 318144.

Well, let’s see what has been going on….firstly I am so pleased to see that the new footpath leading up to the Village Hall has finally been completed – we originally requested this back in the year 2000!!!!...You see, it may have taken 7 years but if we nag hard enough and long enough eventually things get done!!!

You may have noticed the Police speed sensors in the village last week, this is because we have had a number of complaints about people speeding in these areas oblivious to the safety of pedestrians and children. If the results show that this is indeed a problem then we may be eligible for traffic calming improvements especially around the school area. In my opinion any measures that make our village a safer place especially for the children have got to be a good thing.

On a very positive note I would like to welcome our two new Parish Councillors onboard. We were pleased to co-opt David Hughes and Richard Kirton at the last meeting. We are particularly pleased to have someone now from Wallasea Island which is within our Parish. We still have one more vacancy for a Councillor, so if you are over the age of 21 and enthusiastic to be involved in making the Parish even better, we would be pleased to hear from you. The role however is unpaid so you would have to be prepared to give up your time freely and voluntarily, attend monthly meetings and sift through correspondence and general paperwork. If you are interested please come along to one of our meetings held the first Wednesday of each month (except August) in the Village Hall at 7.40pm. 

It has been great to hear from some of you with your views and ideas for the Parish. Obviously these things take time and we have to take all opinions into account before we can act. What some people see as an improvement others could see as a backwards step. However there are Government funds waiting to be claimed for Community initiative projects and it would be nice to see some of those funds coming our way. So please keep on writing to me or e-mailing me with your ideas about absolutely anything – after all so few people bother to let me know what they want the few that do contact me could be the ones to get everything they ask for!!!!