Bench Under the Beech Tree

WNC New Local Plan – update & East Farndon Parish Council response

As part of the West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) development of a new local plan, in June 2024, East Farndon Parish Council (EFPC) responded to submit our drawn Village Confines, 4 nominations for Local Green Spaces and a request to extend the WNC Special Landscape Area within which East Farndon is located. These requests will remain in a pending status until the new WNC local plan is formally accepted and published in 2025. The EFPC submissions can be viewed in map form by clicking the links below.

Village Confines Map

Local Green Space Nominations Map

Special Landscape Area Map

Also, most people will know that East Farndon has medieval settlement remains in the village and this is a Historic England Scheduled Monument. This can be viewed in map form by clicking the link below.

Medieval Settlement Remains & Scheduled Monument Map

The parcels of land in the WNC spatial options strategy and call for sites documents, identified for potential major housing developments between East Farndon and Market Harborough, remain in the latest / new WNC local plan. The good news is that all of these areas have been marked as not suitable and thefore will not be going ahead into the new housing areas to be developed for this plan. It remains the case that Harborough District Council (HDC) could request these development areas from WNC to include in the new HDC local plan. This is unlikely, but EFPC will continue to monitor closely the development of both the WNC and HDC new local plans.

Please click this link to read more about this on our page dedicated to Planning & Major Housing Development.

If you have any questions, please use this link to email our Parish Clerk, Caroline Burton.

Bees’ Needs Week

Last week was Bees’ Needs Week, but you can still get involved. Our bees call on everyone to take five simple actions to help pollinators. To sustain bee populations, people can:

  1. Grow more flowers, shrubs, and trees 
  2. Let patches of garden and land grow wild 
  3. Cut grass less often 
  4. Don’t disturb insect nest and hibernation spots 
  5. Think carefully about whether to use pesticides

For more details and information, please see https://defraenvironment.blog.gov.uk/2024/07/08/5-simple-actions-to-help-pollinators-this-bees-needs-week/.

WNC News – Service for Wasp problems & June newsletter

On this page you can view the latest news from West Northamptonshire Council. Visit their website at: https://www.westnorthants.gov.uk/


WNC Town & Parish Briefing – Monthly Comprehensive Newsletter

June 2024 edition of the Town & Parish Briefing


WNC News Releases – highlighted by East Farndon Parish Council

July 20th 2024 – WNC service to deal with Wasp problems

Mar 18th 2024 – Subscriptions now open for West Northants garden waste service

Mar 13th 2024 – Eligible households urged to access funding to save money to heat their homes

East Farndon Fete – many thanks for supporting us & see photos

Many thanks to everyone who purchased raffle tickets and those who braved the variable weather to attend our East Farndon Village Fete on Saturday 15th June 2024. Also thanks to the Fete Committee for organising such a great event and special thanks to Nigel for the use of Haynes Field. Cick this link to see some photos from the event. The raffle raised £950 for the church and the other activities raised £1,300 to support local charities and village initiatives.

D-Day – a special history article to commemorate the 80th anniversary

Judy Hodgetts has created a special history article to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day which took place on Thursday 6th June 2024. The article, together with some WW2 artefacts, were displayed at our East Farndon D-Day 80 commemoration event. Judy’s very interesting article is a must read and it includes reflections from a number of East Farndon residents. The first page is repeated below, please click this link to read the full article.

The D-Day Landings by Judy Hodgetts

In June 1944, five years after the start of World War II, France was under German occupation. On 6th June that year over 150,000 allied troops landed on 5 beaches across Normandy, northern France in what was known as the D-Day landings. The aim of this mission was to drain German resources and to block access to key military sites. Securing a bridgehead in Normandy would allow the Allies to establish a viable presence in northern Europe.

A combined naval, air and land assault, it remains the largest seaborne invasion in history. It was known as Operation Overlord, codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as the D-Day landings. The landings marked the start of a long and costly campaign in north-west Europe, which lasted until 30th August 1944. It ultimately convinced the German high command that defeat was inevitable.

Early on 6th June, Allied airborne forces parachuted into drop zones across northern France. Ground troops then landed across five assault beaches – Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword. By the end of the day, the Allies had established a foothold along the coast and could begin their advance into France.

A total of 4,414 Allied troops were killed on D-Day itself, with more than 5,000 wounded. In the ensuing Battle of Normandy (the entire campaign), 73,000 Allied forces were killed and 153,000 wounded. The battle – and especially Allied bombings of French villages and cities – killed around 20,000 French civilians.

Many men and women from East Farndon served in World War II, and although we know where some men were stationed, it is unclear how many landed in Normandy on 6th June 1944. Upon their return home after the war, many men were unable to talk about the trauma they had been through.

Sadly, two men from the village (Sidney Chapman and Brigadier Denis Sanders) were killed in action during the campaign and four other men (Frederick Stanley Allen, Mick Belton, Ernie Piggin and Brigadier Sir Alex Stanier) took part in the landings and survived……….please click this link to read the full article.

East Farndon D-Day 80 Event – many thanks for attending & see photos

Huge thanks for joining us at East Farndon Village Hall on Thursday 6th June 2024 for our special event to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day. We had a full house and everyone enjoyed a fish & chip supper, followed by a quiz, a game of heads & tails, and our tribute, which included the lighting of the candle of peace at 9.15pm. Please click this link to see some photos from this event.

The event raised a fantastic total of £365 that we have donated to the Royal British Legion. Thank you everyone for being so generous.

Judy Hodgetts created a very special history article to support our event and this was displayed on the night, together with a number of WW2 artefacts and some very clever knitted (by Judy) characters! Please click this link to find out more and read this special article.