Annual Parish Meeting THIRTY residents and seven councillors attended the annual parish meeting on Thursday, April 19 which was held in the new Victory Hall in Villa Road.

The chairman, Cllr Ray Cheverton also welcomed Inspector Glenn Mayes from Essex Police who later addressed the meeting on the duties of the new joint funded PCSO and the representative from the architects of the Lakelands development who presented outline ideas for the next phase of the project.

In reviewing the last 12 months, the chairman made reference to the successful social functions including the opening of the new facilities at the village community centre. The new meeting rooms are equipped with hearing loop systems and the sports facilities have changing rooms and showers.

It is expected that the memorial scroll will be installed in the Victory Hall in the near future and residents are asked to come forward with the names of any servicemen who lived in the village and served in the armed forces during the wars.

The whole of the site is now monitored by CCTV cameras and it is hoped that they will help to cut down on some of the vandalism currently being experienced in the village. As many residents already know the children's play areas are a constant target for vandals and valuable council taxpayers money is being spent on repeated repairs.

Linked with vandalism is the spate of attempted burglaries and break-ins which has reached an unacceptable level and residents are asked to keep a lookout for anything suspicious and report it to the police.

It was felt that Stanway has become a dirty and untidy place to live in and residents are being asked to help do something about it.

On Saturday, June 2 we are asking everyone to do a bit of litter picking throughout the village. Shops, take-away fast food stores, businesses and schools will be asked to participate and every resident will be asked to clean up their frontage and even help their neighbour if they are unable to do so.

Cllr S Beresky reviewed the planning applications for the last 12 months and highlighted the fact that Stanway had attracted the second highest number of applications in the county. The 106 agreements on the Western relief road had now been completed which should help improve traffic flow and release further land for development. Major applications are Phase 2 of Lakelands Development, Stane Park, relocation of Sainsbury's, Waste Treatment Plant and the Eight Ash Green park and ride scheme. Stanway are not against development provided it is sensibly planned, infrastructure is in place and it will make sure its views are heard at borough and county levels particularly over traffic congestion.

Chairman of the village hall management committee, Cllr Sheila Baines reported that the committee were pleased to take on the running of the new community facilities and a number of classes are already making use of them. Unfortunately profits for all three halls were down over the last year and they were doing everything possible to promote what they have to offer.

The village hall will have a new kitchen later in the year provided grant funding is available and the caretakers were praised for the invaluable work they do in keeping all three halls in tip top condition.

More committee members are urgently needed and anyone with a couple of hours to spare five or six times a year would be most welcome to join.

Residents raised various problems including the litter from the McDonalds take-away which seems to be distributed throughout the village, groups of youths riding around on bicycles after dark without any lights and riding on the pavements.

Inspector Glenn Mayes' presentation on the PCSO was enthusiastically received and residents were advised that Leah King has already entered her four weeks training at headquarters and should appear on the streets with her tutor PCSO Louise Wallace during the first week of May.

The parish are committed to a three-year agreement with the police on a match-funding basis which can be terminated by either side on four months written notice.

Residents from the Lakelands site turned up in force to review the new proposals for the next phase and were critical of some of the things on the first phase. By far the strongest objection was to the proposed major road bridge, which would have to be built over the new relief road just to take emergency vehicles, this was being insisted upon by county highways department as they wish to keep Church Lane open and not close it as originally agreed.