Neighbourhood watch
The basic aims of Neighbourhood Watch are to reduce opportunities for crime by deterring would-be thieves and vandals; to inform the police or the liaison person of any suspicious activity; to make everyone more aware of local crime problems and to be more security conscious about their own homes.
Neighbourhood Watch thus needs to be a two-way process – we pass information to the police or local co-ordinator, and they pass information back to us. The quickest and most effective way of doing this is using email. Send us your email address using the Contact Us link, and your name will be added to the circulation list. Your address will not be accessible to any third party.
Helions Bumpstead does not currently have a Neighbourhood Watch Co-ordinator. If this is a role that you feel you might be able to fill, please contact the Parish Clerk at helionsb.pc@gmail.com.
The area co-ordinator for Braintree district is Clive Stewart.
Further details can be obtained from www.neighbourhoodwatch.net
The new Police website, which provides information about crime and policing in our local area, can be found at www.police.uk/
Village Archives
New Edition of Village Book
Helions Bumpstead is not just a collection of interesting buildings. Those buildings, often much altered over the years, are echoes of a long and rich local history.
Would you like to know more about our village? A new edition of Roy Brazier’s book, Portrait of Helions Bumpstead, has just been published. It’s a very readable story of Helions, its history and its people, over hundreds of years. Roy was born and bred in Helions, and lived here for many years until he moved over the border to Haverhill.
Copies are available from Lower House, by the crossroads, (730 323), priced at £6. Proceeds go to church funds.
Transport links
Bus Timetables
Information on local timetables and fares is available from Essex County Council website.
The nearest bus station is in Haverhill, with connections to Cambridge, Bury St Edmunds, Halstead, Sudbury.
Travel concessions If you are 60 years of age or over, then you are entitled to free travel on public transport. Details from Braintree District Council website.
Railways
The nearest rail station is Audley End, just west of Saffron Walden, with trains south to London Liverpool Street and Stansted Airport, and north to Cambridge, Peterborough, Birmingham and Liverpool.
Trains from Cambridge also go to London Kings Cross, and to Ely, Kings Lynn and Norwich.
Details available from National Rail Enquiries.
Braintree Community Transport
For more information on the following schemes please ring BDC on 01376 327357 or contact Braintree District Council
Social Car Scheme and Dial-a-Ride Scheme for people who are unable to access conventional public transport, due to disabilities, mobility restrictions or isolation (registration fee)
Minibus Hire Scheme to assist voluntary groups (hire fee)
Recycling & refuse collections
Our refuse collection arrangements have recently been changed.
Normal recycling and green bin collection day is Monday, fortnightly.
Normal black bin collection day is now also Monday, fortnightly, on alternate weeks.
Food waste bins are emptied every week.
Clear sacks for recycling are for newspapers, paper, cardboard, plastic bottles and packaging, tin cans and aerosols, and aluminium foil.
Green wheeled bins for composting are for the collection of grass cuttings, shrub and hedge prunings, leaves and weeds, but not for any food waste.
Your food waste bin should be used for any fruit and vegetable peelings, cooked and uncooked food, meat and fish bones, eggshells, and food stained paper such as pizza boxes. Please wrap food waste in newspaper or compostable caddy liners.
Remember that composting your own garden waste at home takes very little space and will provide you with useful compost to put back onto your garden.
Black wheeled bins for landfill for anything that cannot be recycled or composted, such as disposable nappies, pet waste, polystyrene and other non-recyclable plastics. All waste must be contained within your wheelied bin, and the lid shut.
Please put bags out by 8 o’clock on the morning of collection days, but do not put rubbish out more than 24hours in advance.
You should have been issued with a timetable of collection dates. If you have mislaid it, contact Braintree Customer Services on 01376 552525 for another copy. If you need any extra bags, please contact the Parish Clerk at helionsb.pc@gmail.com or BDC Customer Services.
Special arrangements are made for Christmas & New Year, and details will be published on the BDC website. Collections will be one day later following a Bank Holiday.
Glass recycling bins are available behind the Village Hall. Please use the correct coloured bin, and recycle bottles and jars only – not drinking glasses.
Clothes and shoes recycling bin is also available at the Village Hall.