In partnership with
Good Morning {{first_name | Reader}},
It’s getting chillier, and plenty of us are still holding out before switching the heating on. The sunshine has been glorious though, and the gardens wouldn’t say no to a little rain.
This is Baby Loss Awareness Week, running until Thursday 15 October, and Broxbourne Council lit up its offices in support of everyone affected by pregnancy and baby loss. Our thoughts are with every family carrying that loss. The James Foundation, a baby loss charity, is one place to turn for support.
Christmas is closer than it feels. The council is looking for local businesses to sponsor this year’s Christmas lights across Broxbourne, with a festive window sling and promotion on the council’s social channels and newsletter included. Email [email protected] to find out more.
If you haven’t read the Editorial about Google in Waltham Cross and what it is doing to small businesses, start now.
And we’re expecting you at the Broxtown Supper Club on Monday 19 October. Pull up a chair, meet your neighbours and talk about what matters in Broxbourne. Book your seat →
If you value this kind of local reporting and want to help keep it going, you can support the newsletter by buying me a coffee using the link below. This token support helps pay for the tools I work with. Thanks in advance 😊
💌 Love this newsletter? Share it with a friend! 💌
🍽️ Come to dinner: Broxtown Supperclub, Monday 19 October
I'm hosting a supperclub in Cheshunt on Monday 19 October, and I'd love you at the table. It's a chance to meet people from around Broxbourne and share a good meal, nothing formal, just neighbours and conversation.
Places are limited, so I'm running a waitlist. Register your interest and I'll send the details privately.
If enough of you fancy it, we'll make it a monthly thing and take turns at restaurants in and around Broxbourne Borough.
👉 Reply to this email or tap here to join the waitlist. I want to see you on the 19th.
🏛️ HERTFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL
Fifty free and cheap ways to fill October half term
Hertfordshire County Council has refreshed its Fifty Thrifty list, with 50 no-cost and low-cost things for families to do across the county this October half term. It covers autumn walks, cycling and scooting, pumpkin carving and Halloween costume ideas, library activities for rainy days and crafts using leaves, cones and conkers, and the council’s Reuse Shops sell second-hand bikes for adults and children. Download the list before the break starts, and if money is tight this autumn, the council’s cost of living page sets out the support available.
Tackle your credit card debt by paying 0% interest until nearly 2028
If you have outstanding credit card debt, getting a new 0% intro APR credit card could help ease the pressure while you pay down your balances. Our credit card experts identified top credit cards that are perfect for anyone looking to pay down debt and not add to it! Click through to see what all the hype is about.
COMMUNITY UPDATES
From 31 October, councillors can no longer decide on your neighbour’s extension
New national rules take effect on 31 October, and Broxbourne’s Cabinet backed a new planning rulebook on 22 September to comply with them. Householder extensions, minor housing schemes and minor commercial applications must be decided by planning officers and can no longer go to the Planning and Regulatory Committee, while bigger schemes only reach councillors if the committee chairman and the planning director agree they raise issues of real local significance. The upside is quicker decisions on everyday applications. For you, the point is that your written comment during the consultation period now carries the weight, because the rules ban anyone from lobbying the chairman or officers to send an application to committee.
Your bin crews are staying, with a new contract to 2033
Cabinet backed a new seven-year contract with BEST, the council-owned company that collects Broxbourne’s bins, cleans its streets and maintains its parks, running to 30 April 2033 with an option of eight more years. BEST makes over 4.7 million collections a year and missed 0.1% of them last year, and formal complaints fell from 64 in its first year to 13 in 2025/26. The new contract will be updated to cover the estates and roads built since 2019, so newer streets should be properly written into the service.
Turnford school changing rooms to open up to the community
Cabinet backed £120,797 of developer money towards new changing rooms at Haileybury Turnford School, on condition the school signs a formal agreement to let the public use the facilities. The school’s current changing rooms are so limited that only half a year group can do PE at once, and the extra rooms form part of a wider rebuild with new sports facilities due by 2029. Once open, local clubs and nearby primary schools will have more pitch-side space to book in an area short of it.
£120,000 skills fund set to reopen for local projects
Cabinet backed £120,624 to refill the Broxbourne Strategic Partnership for Skills fund, which gives grants of £500 to £10,000 to projects that create jobs, raise skills or fill local skills gaps. The money, paid by the developers of High Leigh Garden Village and a Grangebrook scheme, will fund at least nine projects over two years, and last year’s round helped 81 people gain construction qualifications. If you run a training, employment or community project, get ready, because the application round opens now the money is in place.
The New River Path at Wormley is getting wider and smoother
Cabinet backed £84,000 to upgrade the eastern stretch of the New River Path north of Church Lane, Wormley, which does not currently meet the national standard for a shared walking and cycling route. The path will be widened to 3m and resurfaced from crushed concrete to a harder-wearing gravel, and there may be enough left to add solar lighting like that on other parts of the path. It is one of the busiest stretches, so walkers, buggies and cyclists will have room to pass each other safely.
Proper toilets coming to Hammondstreet Road changing rooms
Cabinet backed £104,380 to upgrade the changing rooms at Hammondstreet Road playing fields, with inclusive toilets as the priority, similar to the recent pavilion work at Waltham Cross Playing Fields. The money comes from the nearby Limes Nursery development and also covers known drainage problems, and the work is estimated at £80,000. Teams and families using the pitches will get facilities that match the improved football pitches next door.
Derelict Barrow Lane glasshouses to be cleared
Cabinet backed £210,931 to demolish and clear the derelict glasshouses at Hope Nursery on Barrow Lane, Cheshunt, a council-owned site that has suffered repeated vandalism. Tenders for the work are already in, and any money left over will go on CCTV cameras for the site. Neighbours get rid of an eyesore and a magnet for trouble, and the land is prepared for possible future self-build homes.
A new levy on new homes will help fix unsafe buildings
A new national Building Safety Levy on new residential buildings started on 1 October, and Broxbourne’s Cabinet backed handing its collection to Hertfordshire Building Control, along with up to £111,800 of government money to set it up. The levy is collected through building control applications and passed to the government to pay for fixing defects in existing buildings, the problems exposed by the Grenfell fire. Homeowners making ordinary changes are not the target, because the charge falls on developers of new residential buildings.
Coming up at the council
Planning and Regulatory Committee, Tuesday 13 October, 7pm, Bishops’ College, Cheshunt.
Full Council, Tuesday 27 October, 7pm, votes on the new planning rules four days before they take effect.
📅 UPCOMING EVENTS
🏡 Local & In-Person
Ed Patrick: Numb and Number
📍 Beam Hertford
🗓️ Wed 14 Oct
⏰ Check booking page
🎟️ Check booking page
👉 Details & tickets
HD&OS presents We Will Rock You
📍 Beam Hertford
🗓️ Wed 14 – Sat 17 Oct
⏰ Check booking page
🎟️ Check booking page
👉 Details & tickets
Sugar Pie Honey Bunch 2026
📍 The Spotlight, Hoddesdon
🗓️ Thu 15 Oct
⏰ Check booking page
🎟️ Check booking page
👉 Details & tickets
Building a Strong Volunteer Ecosystem
📍 Nigel Copping Community Building
🗓️ Thu 15 Oct
⏰ 2pm
🎟️ Free
👉 Details & booking
Tits Up: Comedy Play with a Serious Message
📍 Beam Hertford
🗓️ Fri 16 Oct
⏰ Check booking page
🎟️ Check booking page
👉 Details & tickets
Tease
📍 The Spotlight, Hoddesdon
🗓️ Fri 16 Oct
⏰ Check booking page
🎟️ Check booking page
👉 Details & tickets
Hidden Jazz Club
📍 Beam Hertford
🗓️ Sat 17 Oct – Fri 6 Nov
⏰ Check booking page
🎟️ Check booking page
👉 Details & tickets
Swing into Town
📍 The Spotlight, Hoddesdon
🗓️ Sun 18 Oct
⏰ Check booking page
🎟️ Check booking page
👉 Details & tickets
A Pint of History: A Guided Walk with Les Middlewood
📍 Hertford Museum, 18 Bull Plain, Hertford
🗓️ Sun 18 Oct
⏰ 11am
🎟️ Check booking page
👉 Details & booking
💼 Business & Enterprise
Online Small Business Meet-up: Wales
📍 Online
🗓️ Tue 13 Oct
⏰ 11am
🎟️ Free
👉 Register
Introduction to Microsoft Word
📍 Online, live-streamed
🗓️ Wed 14 Oct
⏰ 9:30am
🎟️ From £15
👉 Register
Self Assessment and Tax Return: Skills Webinar
📍 Online
🗓️ Wed 14 Oct
⏰ 10am
🎟️ Free
👉 Register
A Beginner's Guide to AI Search Results for Your Website
📍 Online
🗓️ Wed 14 Oct
⏰ 10am
🎟️ From £25
👉 Register
AI Coffee & Conversation: October
📍 Theobalds Enterprise Centre
🗓️ Fri 16 Oct
⏰ 10am
🎟️ Free
👉 Register
Online Small Business Meet-up: Surrey, Hampshire & Berkshire
📍 Online
🗓️ Mon 19 Oct
⏰ 12pm
🎟️ Free
👉 Register
The Burnout Shield
📍 Online, live-streamed
🗓️ Mon 19 Oct
⏰ 1pm
🎟️ From £95
👉 Register
Virtual Networking Event with Business Support Q&A
📍 Online
🗓️ Mon 19 Oct
⏰ 2pm
🎟️ Free
👉 Register
Want video that actually sells your business?
Your business needs good content. You don't need the hassle of producing it.
We've partnered with an experienced content creator to shoot professional video for your social media, website and marketing.
No big production budget. No complicated shoots. Just video that gets your business noticed.
HEALTH & WELLBEING TIPS
COVID this Autumn
Know the signs. Cough, fever, sore throat, tiredness or a blocked nose. It can feel like a cold or flu.
Rest if unwell. Got a high temperature or feel too ill for normal activities? Stay home and rest.
Protect others. If you test positive, stay home for 5 days (3 for under-18s). Avoid vulnerable people for 10 days.
Get help. Call 111 if you are worried. Call 999 for chest pain, severe breathlessness or collapse.Sponsored by Our Resident Doctor.
🎨 TUESDAY MOTIVATION
Sleep is the golden chain that ties health and our bodies together.
— Thomas Dekker
Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.
— Rumi
Weather ☀ Tuesday - Sunday
Tuesday 13 October 21°C 🌡️ 14°C | 🌦️ Light drizzle, cloudy | ☀️ Sunrise 07:20 | Sunset 18:11
Wednesday 14 October 19°C 🌡️ 10°C | ⛅ Sunny spells | ☀️ Sunrise 07:22 | Sunset 18:08
Thursday 15 October 18°C 🌡️ 16°C | 🌦️ Light drizzle, cloudy | ☀️ Sunrise 07:24 | Sunset 18:06
Friday 16 October 16°C 🌡️ 8°C | 🌦️ Light drizzle, cloudy | ☀️ Sunrise 07:26 | Sunset 18:04
Saturday 17 October 15°C 🌡️ 6°C | ⛅ Sunny spells | ☀️ Sunrise 07:27 | Sunset 18:02
Sunday 18 October 19°C 🌡️ 12°C | 🌦️ Light drizzle, cloudy | ☀️ Sunrise 07:29 | Sunset 18:00
What did you think of today’s edition?
Thanks for Reading!
Have a question, a story tip, an event to submit, or an advertising or sponsorship enquiry?
👉 Get in touch using the link below.
If this newsletter was forwarded to you, share it with friends and family so they stay in the loop too.
Wishing you a fantastic rest of your day!
Cheers,
Editor-in-chief | Emeka Ogbonnaya
P.S. Want to sponsor our newsletter? Email us at [email protected]