It’s almost one year since a vast majority of residents on Herdwick Gate and Herdwick Fold agreed we should form a Residents Association.  We are about to hold our first Annual General Meeting and we would like to invite you to join us.  We need a quorum for the AGM to go ahead so we would very much appreciate your attendance if at all possible.

It will be held on Thursday 18th September, starting at 6.30pm at The Hub, off Pittway Avenue.  It’s a short walk away or an even shorter car ride.  The bar will be open, serving refreshments!  

Please contact us in advance if you have mobility issues so that we can provide help accessing the first floor meeting room.

At the AGM your Committee will report on a busy year and will set out our thoughts for the year ahead.  Importantly we want to hear from you and understand what your priorities are.

Come and join us on the Committee

We will be electing Committee members for the coming year.  If you are community spirited and would like to put your name forward please drop us a line.  We are a friendly bunch and it doesn’t take too much time.  You can find details of Committee roles on our website.

If you are not already on our email list for news updates you can add your name via the website - click on the Contact Us button at the top of the page.

Help required please

Our Treasurer will be presenting the accounts for the year.  These need to be independently checked and so we are looking for someone with financial or accounting experience to do this.  You don’t necessarily need to have accountancy qualifications.  There are not many transactions so we reckon this will be a quick job.  Please contact us if you can assist.

An agenda for the meeting is available here: Click here for agenda.

I look forward to seeing you at the AGM.

Best wishes.

John Fedorowycz

Chairman

HGHF-RA Committee

P.S. A reminder about our End of Summer - End of Roadworks Picnic

For some time we have wanted to organise a community event but with ongoing roadworks we thought it best to wait.  As our first on-site event we wanted to go for something straightforward so we can gauge interest, so we are suggesting a picnic where residents bring their own food and drink.

CANCELLED DUE TO WEATHER

Date: Sunday 21st September 2025

Time: 12.00 to 16.00

Location: By the playground at the back of Herdwick Fold

Who’s invited: Residents of Herdwick Gate and Herdwick Fold plus, in the spirit of neighbourliness, residents of other nearby developments including Shepherd’s Gate, the Cala (Norgren) development and Shipston Gardens (Crest Nicholson).

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Here’s an update from your committee on what’s been happening and what’s coming up on our two developments.

General Meeting 7th July

We held a General Meeting last month which was attended by 27 residents and two guests, namely Jules Johnson from Shipston First Responders and Dave Passingham our local District Councillor.  You can read the minutes from that meeting here: Meeting Minutes

AGM 18th September

Our next meeting is our Annual General Meeting on Thursday 18th September, starting at 6.30pm at The Hub.  It’s an important one where a minimum number of residents are required in order for us to proceed, so please try to attend if you can.  We will be reviewing what we have achieved in our first year and looking ahead to what our priorities are for the coming year.

Our scheduled meeting dates right through to Autumn 2026 are shown on our website: Click here for details: Future Meetings

Defibrillators on-site

Attendees at the July meeting heard from Jules Johnson about the life-saving benefits of having a nearby defibrillator and we asked if they supported the idea.  They did, however when we asked all residents we found only limited interest in making a contribution to the cost.  For now we will park the idea, although we will explore possible funding options.

Campden Road Bus Stop

Following the July meeting we wrote to Councillor Jo Barker at Warwickshire County Council to ask on behalf of residents if the pull in bay near the traffic lights on Campden Road can be officially designated as a bus stop.  This was originally designated as a parking area for maintenance vehicles on the original plans, but is now regularly used by local buses.  We received an acknowledgement and await her further response.

Roadworks on Herdwick Fold

Work continues on Herdwick Fold roads and pavements.  We are fast approaching the final stage of the works, Stage 4, originally scheduled to start on 22nd August.  Having checked with the contractors we now understand that this final stage is planned to begin on 7th September.

Stage 4 will see Nason Way road and footpaths completed all the way to Campden Road, including the problematic junction with Hands Place.  After this it’s all about finishing off any outstanding jobs, such as the sub-soil drains close to the playground. 

Finally the storage compound at the back of the development will be removed and the area landscaped.  Hopefully by the end of the summer everything will be completed or very close to completion. 

If you see anything outstanding by the end of September please let us know.

Maintenance Charges

We will be writing a separate report on this subject.  No residents should be paying these charges now, or for at least seven years following our developments being signed off as completed.  We have concerns that residents on new developments in the Stratford District Council area, including ourselves may be forced to pay prematurely.  We are working on this and will provide an update to residents shortly.

Survey of Residents

In September 2024 we conducted a survey of residents to find out what your priorities were.  We plan to run a similar survey this year and we would encourage you to take part when you are contacted.  Individual responses are confidential with a summary of findings published on our website.

End of Summer - End of Roadworks Picnic

For some time we have wanted to organise a community event but with ongoing roadworks we thought it best to wait.  As our first on-site event we wanted to go for something straightforward so we can gauge interest, so we are suggesting a picnic where residents bring their own food and drink.

CANCELLED DUE TO WEATHER

Date: Sunday 21st September 2025

Time: 12.00 to 16.00

Location: By the playground at the back of Herdwick Fold

Who’s invited: Residents of Herdwick Gate and Herdwick Fold plus, in the spirit of neighbourliness, residents of other nearby developments including Shepherd’s Gate, the Cala (Norgren) development and Shipston Gardens (Crest Nicholson).

New Residents

If you’re aware of any new residents moving in please tell them about the Residents Association.  If they wish to receive email updates they can register their interest via our website.

If you are receiving emails from us but are no longer resident you can get in touch through the website to have your details removed from our mailing list.

If you have any comments or questions about anything in this report please feel free to  Contact Us

Enjoy the rest of the summer.

HGHF-RA Committee

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Defibrillators, or to give them their full name Automatic External Defibrillators (AEDs) can save lives.  When someone has a cardiac arrest, time is of the essence - a few minutes can make a critical difference to the outcome.

We spoke recently with Jules Johnson from Shipston First Responders who by his own admission is fanatical about these machines.  Over recent years Shipston has seen the number of local AEDs increase significantly, which is great news.  But there is still more that a can be done.

You can see from this map where our local AEDs are.  Defib Finder UK  The closest one to The Herdwicks is at The Enterprise Centre, aka The Hub off Pittway Avenue.  Whilst this may seem close, in an emergency situation when every second counts imagine how long it would take to get down there and bring the device back up to our development.

Wouldn’t it be much better if we had our own AED - or even better one on Herdwick Gate and another on Herdwick Fold?  Jules kindly attended a recent General Meeting of Residents and explained the benefits of having a local AED. 

The Cost

Shipston First Responders can supply and fit an AED for around £1,500.  Currently they undertake to check and maintain all local devices.  The devices are housed in a box that requires an electric supply and ongoing running costs equate to the cost of charging a mobile phone.  In other words it’s negligible.

Hosting an AED

These devices need to be fixed to the outside wall of a property.  Shipston First Responders would need to be happy with any proposed location and they would deal with the installation.  In the event that a property owner subsequently wants the device removed this can be done quickly and at no cost.

AED Training

Whilst the devices do talk to you once activated and give step by step instructions, Jules confirmed that free training could be provided to residents following an AED installation.  Numbers would be limited so it would be first come first served.

Guaging Support from Residents

Those residents who attended the General Meeting agreed it would be a good idea to have a local device.  So with that in mind we are asking residents two questions:

Q1. Funding: How much would you be prepared to contribute towards purchasing an AED for your development?  (We are not asking for money now, just an indication of intent).

Q2. Hosting the AED: Would you consider hosting an AED on your property?

Please respond by clicking on this link to send a message to the Residents Association Committee.

On Herdwick Gate and Herdwick Fold we have 238 homes, so if every home gave £6 we could afford to get one AED.  Ideally one on each development would be even better. 

There could be some residents who think this would be a particularly important community asset to have and may wish to donate a bigger amount.

It may also be possible for the committee to apply for grants to help with the cost, but we would initially like to understand the level of support from within our community.

This is an opportunity for us to potentially save the lives of friends and neighbours.  Please respond to the questions above and let us know what you think.  Contact Us

HGHF-RA Committee

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The Committee of the Residents Association would like to remind residents about our next General Meeting.

This will be held in the The Hub off Pittway Avenue.  The date is Thursday 3rd July starting at 18.30.  We expect the meeting to take around one hour.

The meeting is on the first floor which is normally accessed by stairs.  If you have mobility issues please let us know in advance so we can arrange alternative access.

This is an opportunity for you to find out what your Committee has been doing on your behalf over recent months and to ask any questions you may have.  

To see the proposed agenda visit this page: Meeting Minutes  

If there is something specific you wish to raise please contact us as soon as possible so that we can consider if it is already covered or whether we need to add it to the agenda.

We hope you will take the opportunity to be a part of The Herdwick community and come along to the meeting.  We do need a quorum for the meeting to take place.  We look forward to seeing you there.

Best wishes.

HGHF-RA Committee

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In this report we bring you news of our landscape planting audit and an update on road works.

Landscape Audit

In 2024 gaps were identified in the trees and shrubs planted on our two developments.  Taylor Wimpey arranged for contractors to carry out remedial planting to improve the situation. 

Last week some members of the Residents Association committee plus a few volunteers walked round Herdwick Gate and Herdwick Fold to check this work. 

It was evident that many of the trees identified as dead or missing from last year’s audit had been properly replaced. 

However there are still a number of areas that do not reflect the landscaping plans and we are writing to Taylor Wimpey to highlight where further action is required.

As we walked round we did a spot of litter picking.  By the end of the afternoon we had filled about four large bin bags of litter.  We also retrieved a traffic cone from one of the attenuation basins.  See image.

Road works on Herdwick Fold

Further to our article on 25th April informing residents of planned dates for road works on Herdwick Fold we are happy to report that Stage 1 road resurfacing has been completed on Barrett Place.  In other areas work is ongoing to raise iron-works ahead of scheduled resurfacing work.

Barrett Place - before.

Barrett Place - after.

Stage 2 work is due to commence on Bradley Drive and Nichols Court on 20th June.

General Meeting Thursday 3rd July

Finally a note for your diary.  We will be holding our next Residents Association General Meeting at The Hub on Thursday 3rd July, starting at 18.30. 

We will be discussing matters relevant to our two developments and it’s an opportunity for residents to put questions to the committee. 

This is your Residents Association so please come along and meet the committee and your fellow residents.  We hope to see you there.

If you have any comments on this article, or if you have any questions please drop us line.  You can contact us here.

HGHF-RA Committee

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One of the things we have been talking to Taylor Wimpey (TW) about is the landscaping of our Public Open Spaces (POS) on both Herdwick Gate and Herdwick Fold.

In the summer of 2024 we conducted a landscaping audit and found lots of missing or dead trees and plants.  We shared our audit with TW and over recent months they tell us that contractors have been on-site to carry out remedial planting. 

We have seen evidence of this taking place but we are convinced that more work is required.  In order to identify any remaining gaps we wish to conduct another planting audit on both developments.  We will send our findings to TW and ask them to take action. 

This audit is taking place on Wednesday 21st May 2025.  Timing to be decided - but it will be in the afternoon or early evening.

Would you like to join us as we walk round?  It will probably take a couple of hours.  We have a landscape plan so it’s simply a case of walking round and comparing reality to the plan, and noting any issues.

Whilst we are doing this we thought it would be an opportunity to do a litter pick and bag up any rubbish we find lying around.  Please contact us if you would like to help out.

If you have any comments on this article, or if you have any questions please drop us line.  You can contact us here.

HGHF-RA Committee

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