Welcome to the Cowfold Parish Council website
This provides information on the Council and links to related documents, as well as a summary of local facilities and village activities.
If you want to contact the Council, please call the Parish Clerk, Jan Wright, on 01403 864806 or send her an email at:
Our Next Meeting
The Parish Council Ordinary Meetings are currently held in the Allmond Centre at 7:30pm on the second Monday of every month and are followed at 9:00pm with the monthly Planning Meeting.
The next meeting will be held in the Allmond Centre on Monday 13th December 2021.
Community Speedwatch in Cowfold
You may have noticed the local Cowfold Speedwatch group of volunteers who have started monitoring the speeds of vehicles travelling through the Village.
They desperately need to recruit more members to continue this very important initiative!
You can apply on the Community Speedwatch website:
https://www.communityspeedwatch.co.uk
(Once on the home page, click on the “Register” tab on the top menu and then the “Join Existing” tab on the sidebar menu.)
Remembrance Day Service on 14 November 2021
The Remembrance Day Service, held in St Peter’s Churchyard on Sunday 14 November 2021, was well attended with an excellent turnout from the Scouts.
The photo includes (back views of) the colour party following the wreath laying: Jenny Langlands-Pearse (RBL Women’s Section), Donna Everest (Cowfold Parish Council) and Mike Gething (RBL).
Cowfold Village Improvements
Back in March we asked you to submit your ideas on how we can improve the Village. We had a great response and the ideas and comments can be grouped into five themes:
Take a look at some of the work going on locally which will help.
Greening Cowfold
Greening Cowfold is a new initiative brought to you by Cowfold Parish Council and Cowfold Horticultural Society.
We are set up to help Cowfold become a more sustainable, biodiverse and healthy place to live. We want to work with all the organisations and businesses in Cowfold. So if you, or anyone you know, would like to plant trees, help Cowfold homes become greener or get involved in any way – we’d love your help. Please get in touch by emailing us at greeningcowfold@gmail.com.
Here are links to our latest newsletters:
April
https://mailchi.mp/b7b91cf89910/april-newsletter
May
https://mailchi.mp/91c268ccb43f/greening-cowfold-may-2021
June
https://mailchi.mp/791dea60dd21/june-2021-newsletter
July
https://mailchi.mp/c795a3b8f234/butterflies-bugs-bbqs
August
https://mailchi.mp/d24524882d3f/august-2021-greening-cowfold-newsletter
September
https://mailchi.mp/6a4b45de6686/september-news
October
https://mailchi.mp/ff5ffd2e8d73/greening-cowfold-october-newsletter
Please take a look and do forward the links it to anyone else who might be interested – thank you!
In order to provide more details of our activities, we have established a separate web page which can be accessed here:
Wild Verges
As part of the Greening Cowfold initiative between the Parish Council and the Horticultural Society, it has been proposed that for the next several years the village collaborates with West Sussex County Council to introduce an annual ‘No Mow’ policy for designated verges between March and September. These areas (see maps) will be clearly marked, not obscure any lines of sight for motorists and allow habitat regeneration with the possibility of enhanced wildflower planting from 2022.
Please complete and submit the following online form if you wish to comment on the proposal. The original consultation period ended on Monday 5 July 2021.
The Greening Cowfold Group is currently preparing a submission to the WSCC Community Road Verge (CRV) Scheme and, as this plan moves forward, residents are asked to share any thoughts they have on the initiative.
Cowfold Neighbourhood Plan
The Submission version of the Cowfold Neighbourhood Development Plan, which can be viewed at CNP_Submission_Plan_Final_.pdf, has been submitted by Horsham District Council for independent Examination.
The Examiner’s report has now been published and can be viewed at:
HDC published the full Regulation 16 documentation including all feedback and the Clarification Note from the Public Examiner in early March 2021.
Our response to the Examiner’s Clarification Note was sent by HDC to the Examiner on Wednesday 17 March 2021. This can be reviewed here:
CNP-Response-to-Examiner-Clarification-Note.pdf
The full documentation can be examined here:
https://www.horsham.gov.uk/planning/neighbourhood-planning/cowfold
An overview of the overall planning process is provided in the Cowfold Neighbourhood Plan page.
Grants available to businesses to alleviate the financial impact of the COVID pandemic
HDC has received a number of sums of money from central Government for grants to businesses to alleviate in part the financial issues caused by various lockdowns and shutdown measures as a result of the pandemic.
The issue in our District is that, despite a number of businesses applying for grants, it is believed that there are others that are not availing themselves of the possible grants. Some businesses may think that this help does not apply to them but it may, in one way or another.
If you are a small business that has not applied for a grant, please check out what support is still available on the Council’s website at:
https://www.horsham.gov.uk/coronavirus/coronavirus-business-support-grants
Follow the Countryside Code!
Our local farmers and other rural businesses are pleased to see people out enjoying the countryside but have sometimes been negatively affected by irresponsible behaviour. Some of this is often due to a lack of awareness and the following poster is useful in explaining the basics.
West Sussex County Council’s Electric Vehicle Strategy 2019 to 2030
West Sussex County Council has published its electric vehicle strategy for the period from 2019 to 2030.
The vision for the County is that, when residents travel by car and small van, they choose ultra-low emission vehicles, and travel in a carbon neutral way.
To achieve this vision, WSCC has three highly ambitious aims:
- At least 70% of all new cars in the county to be electric by 2030.
- There is sufficient charging infrastructure in place to support the vehicles predicted to be reliant on public infrastructure to charge.
- Ensure that there is a renewable energy source for all charging points on County Council land or highway.
More details are given in the WSCC Electric Vehicle Strategy document or are available on the WSCC website.