One to one session can be arranged and held at the centre or in your own home.

Clicker training and other positive reinforcement methods. No aversive equipment or training methods used.

All trainers hold a degree in Canine Behaviour & Training and continue regularly with their learning development in the various disciplines.

Classes held at the Dogucation premises in Little Bentley, just off the A120.  This has both indoor and outdoor facilities and parking.

Phone Number: 01206 822395  Mobile: 07803 591658

Email: Guidingpawsdogs@gmail.com

Website: www.guidingpaws.co.uk

Fabrics, Soft Furnishings, Interiors and Curtains

Allens Farm, Tye Road, Elmstead,CO7 7BN

Phone Number: 07990 558686 or 01206 822464

Email: rosie@curtainhunters.co.uk

Website: www.curtainhunters.co.uk

We open from 10am until 4pm Wednesday to Sunday inclusive.

Come and see us for a warm welcome at

Grovensor House, 1 Station Road, Wivenhoe, CO7 9DH

Tel: 07840498137

Email: curiosityshop@btinternet.com

Purpose built salon with the latest equipment, such as the massaging Hydrobath.  Take a look at the website for more information.

Caring and professional service with up-front pricing.

All breeds groomed. Mixed and cross breeds most welcome.

Tel: 01206 822395  Mobile: 07803 591658

Email: pawmuckypups@aol.com

Web www.pawsmuckypups.co.uk

With over 25 years experience of the construction industry, in both private and public sectors, we can offer a full range of surveying and construction related services to suit most needs, such as:

~ Building Surveys

~ Home Buyers Reports

~ Mortgage Valuations

~ Project Management

~ Building Defect Analysis

~ Contract Supervision & Monitoring

~ Party Wall Surveying

~ Specification Writing

~ Schedules of Condition

~ Access Consultants

Please contact us, at no obligation, and we will be pleased to discuss your specific requirements.

Mob: 07525 637710

Email: alan@alnassociates.co.uk

79a Rectory Rd

Wivenhoe

CO7 9ES

Established 25years

Traditional and Modern Gents Haircuts

Tuesday, Wednsday and Friday 8.30 – 5.30 Late Night Thursday 8.30 -7.00 Saturday 8.30 – 4.00

No Appoinments Necessary

Children Welcome

Telephone : 01206 825995

Telephone 07908 645430

email: sarah@yourspace-online.co.uk

Web: www.yourspace-online.co.uk

The group meets regulary upstairs at the Wivenhoe, Town Council Office, High Street, Wivenhoe.

If you have any crime, disorders or safety issues within your area come along to the Neighbourhood Watch meeting on Thursday 30th September, 7.00pm

We aim to addres the concerns you may have.

Also why not visit us on the stand on Saturday 11th September at the Wivenhoe Society Fun Day

For further information please contact Linda Rutledge below

Thanks to everyone for showing such interest and concern about this important area of Open Space and as I said at the meeting ‘Let’s work together and fight this and save the Open Space at Bowes Road’.

Steve Ford.

Open public meeting Wednesday 16^th June 2010

Re: Green on the Dene Park Estate, Wivenhoe

Present:           Mrs Janet Meacock     –          Millfields Headteacher

Peter North                 -           Millfields Chair of Governors

Mayor Sinclair           -           Mayor of Wivenhoe

Cllr Steve Ford           -           Cllr for Colchester Borough Council

Anita Sparrow             -           Millfields School Business Manager

Plus approximately 150 members from the local community, local

Councillors, Millfields staff, parents past and present.

Peter North

Peter chaired the meeting, and expressed his thanks to the number of people who were in attendance to show their support regarding this issue. He explained that the meeting would hopefully clarify the position of Wivenhoe regarding the green, and enable us as a community to decide on the next steps to take.

Mayor Sinclair

The Mayor also expressed his thanks to everyone for showing their support. He explained that Wivenhoe Town Council is clear about the principle of keeping this piece of open space for the residents of Dene Park.

Mayor Sinclair informed us that Elmstead Parish Council had been invited to send a representative to the meeting but had declined. He then went on to give some background information, explaining that EPC approached WTC with a view to forming a partnership and sharing the proceeds from the sale of the land, which WTC obviously declined.

The Mayor also expressed his understanding of why EPC are taking this course of action. It is the right thing to do from their point of view and for their parish. However, the right thing for us to do is to continue to try and prevent the green from being developed into a residential area.

Cllr. Andrea Vaughan explained that there are two ways in which we can try to prevent building on the green. The first is to apply to ECC to have the land declared a village green – Cyril Liddy has already done this, but explained that the more people who do this the better our chance of it being granted. The second option is to apply for the green to become a Queen Elizabeth 2 field under the programme being spearheaded by Prince William, which Cllr. Andrea Vaughan is currently looking into.

Janet Meacock

Janet also expressed her thanks to all in attendance, and went on to discuss the negative impact any development would have on the school and its stakeholders.

Including the following points:

• Congestion – Bowes Road is already a busy road particularly at the beginning and end of the school day. With the suggested access to new buildings being on Bowes Road opposite the school, this will only increase congestion.
• Children’s safety – If this development goes ahead there will be more cars, which will increase the danger to our children and families. There is no pelican or zebra crossing to help. During any building work there will be lorries and contractors parking along Bowes Road.
• Noise disruption – the noise level would increase dramatically from the delivering of supplies, heavy plant working on the site and general building site noise, this would pose a significant problem to everyone in the locality. This will also increase the dust and dirt in the area.
• There is also the loss of habitat for birds and animals living on the green and in the surrounding hedges.
• Finally, the loss of open space which is and has been for many years used by local children and residents.

Janet went on to explain that the school is part of the community, and that a vast majority of our pupils live on the Dene Park Estate. In 1984, the piece of land was donated to EPC, as the council was then responsible for Dene Park, the covenant is as follows:

A transfer of the land in this title dated 14 February 1984 made between (1) Wimpey Homes Limited and (2) Elmstead Parish council contains the following covenants:-

“And the Council hereby covenants with the company that within six months of the date hereof it will landscape the said land and thereafter maintain the same as a public open space.

And the council hereby further covenants with the Company for the benefit of the remainder if the land comprised within title no. EX143492 that it will not use or permit to be used the said land for any other purpose other than as a public open space.”

In 1996 boundary changes bought Dene Park to Wivenhoe and Colchester Borough Council, but the land remained the property of EPC, who were to continue to maintain it under the covenant as open space for the residents of Dene Park. However, in the minutes of an EPC meeting in June 2009 Cllr. Gooch gave the following statement:

“It is important that we explore the possibility of selling the land for residential development otherwise we will not have performed out duties to the people of Elmstead who we represent.”

The minutes also highlighted that Wimpey will be paid a minimum of £80,000 if planning permission is obtained for 5/6 units. This fee to Wimpey is so that they will remove the covenant on the land.

Janet closed by reading an extract from one of the letters written by a year 5 pupil to EPC as it summed up how we all feel:

“Elmstead gets £500,000, Dene Park and Millfields get congestion, noise, dust and dirt, and we lose our green land. How fair is that?”

Cllr. Steve Ford

Cllr. Steve Ford made the following statement:

“Firstly, may I thank you all for turning up this evening. The sale of this land is something which obviously concerns us all. Open space, especially this open space which I have always associated with the school, is something we need to save. I am now a member of Colchester Borough Council Planning Committee and was Deputy Chairman of CBC Planning Committee for two years. This piece of land is for the good of the people of Dene Park Estate and the wider community. It is a part of our quality of life and we must do everything we can to retain it.

I would like to thank the school for bringing this matter to our attention and for helping to organise and focus attention on it, to the length that I switched on my television this morning to see Mrs Meacock voicing her disapproval of the planned development.

I have explored in some detail information about the green space opposite the school with two senior officers from CBC, Karen Syrett – senior spatial officer and Sue Jackson – Principal planning officer working for the environment and protective services. They provided me with the following information:

• The area opposite Millfields School is defined by CBC as land appropriate for residential build.
• However, within the residential build it is recognised by CBC that there is a need for open space. CBC considers that this land should be open space.
• CBC is finalising, with Government inspectors, a legally binding document called ‘The Site Allocations Document.’ The document is at a very advanced stage and is expected to be confirmed by the Government inspector in July. There has been a change in National Government and this may possibly delay the inspectors report. The document defines the land opposite Millfields School as open space. After the document has been presented to CBC it then goes before a Local Development Framework Committee in August who are expected to confirm it and then it goes before the next full Council meeting at Colchester, where hopefully it will be approved by Councillors and become policy.
• The land opposite the school has Coastal Protection status which gives extra weight against residential development.
• There is a restricted covenant on the land given by the original developer.
• The developers have been advised of our position and that we would not want to see the land developed.

I hope this helps clarify your understanding of the position held by CBC.

What is interesting is that CBC and the developer have been in communication. This is very helpful for us. Providing the Government Inspector agrees to the Site Allocation document which has been 6 years in the making, our case is strong.

If this green open space is built on it sets a precedent for green open space all over Wivenhoe to be possible sites to build on. Wivenhoe still has an identity as separate from Colchester, there is a green wedge between Colchester and Wivenhoe, and if we don’t fight for our open spaces then where will it end?

There is considerable evidence now being accumulated that green open space has a significant impact on a person’s health. Those who are ill are likely to recover quicker when living in an environment with plenty of green open space. I refer to work by Professor Julie Pretty at the University of Essex who specialises in this area.

I think as a community we need to be proactive rather than reactive and for that reason I think that we need to have an action plan for the future. The arguments for developing the open space are in my opinion, not strong, but let’s assume that the developer puts in an application to build, we need to be ready. The application will come before the planning committee at CBC and be determined. We should be in a position to marshal our arguments immediately and organise a meet to oppose the development. For that reason and with the Headteachers permission I would like everyone here to write down their contact details so that everyone involved can be contacted if the application comes in.’

Peter North

Peter then opened the meeting to questions/comments from the floor.

There was much discussion in the room, with many offers of support in many ways, below is a summary of the statements and agreements that were made:

• A document called S52 – Deed of variation cannot be located by either CBC or TDC. Alison Rowlands offered support by looking at archived items at CBC.
• It was agreed that the most important way in which everyone can help is to write letters to EPC, CBC Planning Department, Wimpey Homes, Bernard Jenkin and the local press. And for everyone to talk to others about this issue.
• Cllr. Cyril Liddy explained that he had applied to ECC to have the land declared a village green, and that any individual can do this by downloading the application form from the DEFRA website.
• It was agreed that any information would be available from Millfields website and WTC website; it will also be displayed on the parish notice board and via e-mail.
• Cllr. Liddy confirmed that the covenant is a private matter between two parties and should Wimpey decide to remove the covenant we cannot prevent this. Although we could write to the land registry to express our view.
• It was also suggested that if EPC are doing this for money is there an alternative source of funding they could tap into at the Borough or County Council.
• Someone suggested trying to locate the minutes from EPC meetings at the time the land was gifted to ascertain what was agreed.
• Other ideas included contacting the highways department, the solicitors working for EPC and the Wildlife trust.

Peter North summarised that this meeting has shown a unanimous rejection of the planned sale and subsequent development of the land, and that we must continue to move forward with this campaign.

Useful Contacts

Elmstead Parish Council

E-mail              -           elmsteadparish@btconnect.com

Address           -           Elmstead Community Centre, School Road, Elmstead, C07 7AY

Telephone       -           01206 827139

Bernard Jenkin MP

E-mail              -           perryc@parliament.uk

Address           -           House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA

Telephone        -           020 7219 4029

Wimpey Homes Limited – Managing Director East London Region – Simon Brown

E-mail              -           SalesTWEastLondon@taylorwimpey.com

Address           -           Kings House,101-135 Kings Road, Brentwood, Essex CM14 4DR

Telephone        -           01277 236800

Applications for the registration of land as Town or Village Green

Applications can be downloaded from www.defra.gov.uk

Completed applications should be sent to:

Essex County Council

Legal & Registration Services

New Bridge House

60-68 New London Road

Chelmsford

Essex

CM2 0PD

Link to Millfields School website

Terracotta & Stone Specialists

Widest Range of Machine & Hand-Made Terracotta from around the world Chinese, Mexican, Romanian & Spanish.

Large Choice of Natural Stone for Internal & External projects, Including:

Granite, Limestone, Marble, Sandstone, Slate & Travertine

Tel: 01206 827870

Email: info@BallastQuayTiles.co.uk

Web: www.BallastQuayTiles.co.uk

Brown Oaks Barns, Alresford Road, Wivenhoe, Essex. CO7 9JX