Michaelchurch Escley, Newton, St. Margaret’s, Turnastone & Vowchurch.
Our parishes lie in the Golden Valley and in the foothills of the Black Mountains in Herefordshire. The Escley Brook and the River Dore run through our parishes to the west and east respectively.
The land to the west rises in a series of ridges and valleys towards the Black Mountains, whilst in the east the land is flatter before rising again on the east side of the Golden Valley. The whole is characterised by great natural beauty.
The population of the parishes is approximately 600 within an area that measures very roughly 5 miles east to west and 4 miles north to south.
The city of Hereford lies about 10 miles due east, whilst the Welsh border town of Hay-on-Wye lies a similar distance to the north-west.
Our parishes are served by the Vowchurch & District Group Parish Council.
News:
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Vowchurch & District Group Parish Council – Newsletter
Vowchurch & District Group Parish Council
At the March meeting Councillors co-opted Mrs Anna Mason to join the Parish Council and represent Michaelchurch Escley. There is still a vacancy for a Councillor to represent St Margarets, if you are interested or would like further information, please contact the Clerk.
The Annual Parish Meeting will take place on Thursday 25th April 2024 at Escleyside Hall, Michaelchurch Escley from 7pm. Tim Hoverd, Herefordshire Council’s Archaeological Project Manager will be talking about the excavations at Snodhill Castle. Please do come along to hear what Tim has to say and meet your local Parish Councillors. Light refreshments will be provided and all are welcome.
Herefordshire Council will soon be contacting Parish Councils regarding verge cutting for the coming season. This will be discussed in more detail at the April Parish Council meeting. Please do come along if you have a verge near you that you would like to help to protect. It is hoped that the Parish Council can obtain some ‘Do not cut’ signage although you would need to be pro-active and take responsibility to maintain ‘your patch’. The April meeting will be on Thursday 18th April in Newton Church Room from 7.30pm.
The Parish Council has a new email address, please contact Linda, the Clerk at clerk@vowchurchgroup-pc.gov.uk
Linda Cowles
Parish Clerk
Tel. 01544 321906
Email. clerk@vowchurchgroup-pc.gov.uk
Website. http://www.vowchurchgpc.org.uk/
B4348 Speed limit
B4348 speed limit – Please find below the latest information that the Parish Council has received regarding the speed review of the B4348. Whilst this is disappointing, the area being reviewed not includes further along the B4348 and includes the C1206 through the villages of Vowchurch and Turnastone.
Apologies for the delay in responding with the position of your scheme, but my team and I have been manipulating our TRO waiting list to input all new requests we’ve received since January 2020, which includes a meeting to ensure each scheme is scored on a fair and equitable basis by a team of three traffic engineers. The scoring for each scheme is in accordance with a well-established scoring matrix that has been agreed with Herefordshire for use to prioritise schemes such as Vowchurch Village 30mph Speed Limits.
Following each January update of the TRO waiting list we seek confirmation that the new draft TRO ranking list is approved and it is ok for us to release information to LMs and / or PCs in response to their enquiries as to how their requests have fared in the update. At present I am awaiting confirmation before I can send this list out to you for your viewing, which I am hoping will be okay within the next week or so.
In the Jan 2020 update this scheme was scored sat at number 26 out of 112 schemes waiting to be started.
Following the Jan 2021 update this scheme was rescored and now sits at number 32 out of 120 schemes waiting to be started.
Whilst its score has gone up due to the time it has sat on the waiting list a few new schemes have entered above it (due to its scoring against the agreed matrix) and pushed it down by six positions.
Understandably, an immediate reaction would be disappointment but the prioritisation list is designed to do what it says on the tin and, as speed limits are assessed by formula, this means there is no subjective assumptions made in the scoring.
Moving down six positions is unlikely to affect the delivery date. As you may know we take schemes in a tranche from the waiting list and give them to our consultant for commencement. It is likely that this scheme will still be picked up in the financial year commencing in April 2022, and this is very likely to have been the case whether the scheme sat at 26 or 32.
