The Warbler IMPROVE • PROMOTE • ATTRACT May 2019 WAT IF? New Taxibus Service
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WOOLFORDS AUCHENGRAY & TARBRAX IMPROVEMENT FOUNDATION The Warbler IMPROVE • PROMOTE • ATTRACT May 2019 WAT IF? www.watif.scot New Taxibus Service We are delighted to announce that we are extending the Taxi Service further into West Lothian, with WAT IF? residents being able to use a new service from Saturday 1st June to reach both West Calder and Livingston. Please note the change of service provider – full contact and booking details can be found on the This extension to the service is in response to extensive enclosed leaflet. consultation with the community and reflects the need for demand responsive transport in the area. The new We are also investigating a South Lanarkshire service, service will be run by Real Radio Cars, and will follow the however due to the small number of taxi companies in same timetable as before, running Monday to Saturday the local area able to take on a contract of this style, we between 7am and 9.30pm. The service must be pre- are struggling to get enough interest to run a full tender booked at least 1 hour before you want to travel, and can process. We will continue to investigate this service, and only be used by residents of the WAT IF? area, with fares if anyone has a suggestion of a company to contact, please set at £1 for concessions and £2 for adults (one way). get in touch. Customer: WATIF FCG Ref: 010488 Approved by: .......................................... Date: ...................... Important: Full Circle Graphics will not accept responsibility for any errors found after final Cyan Yellow Reference: Version: 3 Warbler May 2019 QC:............................ approval has been signed. Digital artwork will not be dispatched until final written approval is Substrate: 150 gsm silk Artist: AP returned. All colours are pantone matched. Magenta Black QC:............................ Client proofs and on screen display are representative only and not Date: 03.05.19 necessarily accurate to final printed colours. ©Full Circle Graphics The Alba Centre , Livingston , We st Lothian EH54 7EG T. 01506 420512 www .fullcirc legraphics.co.u k Approval and/or ordering is your agreement to our Terms & Conditions which are available on request. WAT IF? Annual General Meeting Update Thank you to everyone who attended the WAT IF? A Bigger Board Annual General Meeting at Tarbrax Village Hall on Tuesday 16th April. The meeting offered members, local Members also voted to increase the size of the WAT IF? Board residents and the general public an opportunity to find out from 9 to 11 Trustees. The increase in the size of the more about the work of WAT IF? over the last 12 months. board will support the continued growth and development It also dealt with the election of volunteer trustees to the of WAT IF? and its broad range of community projects. WAT IF? Board. If you would like to find out more about WAT IF’s Trustee Elections activities over the last 12 months, you can download a copy of the Chair’s Report and Signed Accounts WAT IF? members voted to appoint James Bryden (Dec 2017 - Nov 2018) at www.watif.scot/funding. (Auchengray), Patricia Tucker (Falla), Cate Wright (Auchengray Primary School), John Robertson (Cobbinshaw) and Andras Peters (Tarbrax) to the Board of Trustees. James Hewlett (Tarbrax resident and serving Treasurer) stood for re-election and was re-appointed to the board for a further 3 years. Trustee Amanda Neilands (Polkelly), resigned from the board and we thank her for her contribution over the last 12 months. Trustees: Pat Mavor (Chair, Cobbinshaw), Mandy Meikle (Secretary, Woolfords), Marnie Jones (Woolfords), G Hamilton (Crosswoodhill) and Myra Dick (Mosshat); will continue to serve on the WAT IF? board for the duration of their terms of office. WAT IF? is delighted to welcome our new and returning volunteer trustees and recognises the vital contribution you all make to our work. James Bryden Cate Wright Patricia Tucker John Robertson Andras Peters Easter Playscheme The Easter Holiday Playscheme was a great success with 79 children’s places filled over the 5 days of the scheme! Activities included a visit from Zoolab, Scavenger Hunts, Science Experiments, a Sports Day and trips out to Leaping Lemurs Soft Play and Vue Cinema to see Missing Link. We also got stuck into lots of other craft activities and have even made some dog poo bag dispensers to be placed around the village common! Thank you to everyone who attended and I hope to see you all again for our Summer Playscheme - keep an eye out for details! Vue cinema trip Visit from Zoolab Healthy Living Pupils at Auchengray Primary School have been learning all about the value of healthy eating and keeping active with Tanya from South Lanarkshire Leisure & Culture and Connor Jamieson, WAT IF? Sports Development Officer. The Healthy Families programme was delivered over a 6-week period and used fun and games to encourage the children to be active together whilst learning about healthy eating. The children covered topics such as: • Portion Sizes • Fizzy Juice • Eatwell Guide • Physical Activity A big thanks to Tanya for delivering the class and for The bouncy castle! bringing the Bouncy Castle. The kids loved it! Project Updates Both Projects funded by MUGA Floodlights We recently completed a partnership project with South minimise disruption to the school, and the final stage will Lanarkshire Council to install lighting at the MUGA be the fitting of the actual lights, which are currently on a (Multi Use Games Area) pitch at Auchengray Primary delayed delivery, but should take place by the end of May. School. The school was rebuilt in 2016 as part of the Schools Modernisation Programme, and a new sports Funding was secured for the MUGA Floodlight project from pitch was installed for both school and community use, two local funders; Levenseat Trust who funded 50% of the however its use was severely restricted in the winter capital works and the Renewable Energy Fund who provided due to dark nights. This was raised as a concern from an additional 37%. WAT IF? funds were used for the design local residents, school pupils and parents, and we started and professional fees and 13% of the capital works cost. discussions with SLC to see what could be done. It has taken many hours of hard work and we are delighted to see the project finally come to fruition. The floodlights will light the pitch to a consistent level to enable its use for a variety of sporting activities; the pitch is currently used by the school, local residents and after school clubs. The lights are low energy LEDs and will be installed on 8m posts at each corner of the pitch, with a lot of work undertaken to ensure no light spillage onto neighbouring properties. The lights will have inbuilt timers ensuring that they cannot be used after 9pm preventing night time light pollution and up until then the lights can be operated by a push button which will give 1 hour of light. This was a key in the design brief to allow anyone to use the pitch without having to pre-book or collect keys etc. The civil engineering works including the installation of the posts was completed during the Easter Holidays to Tarbrax Bowling Club WAT IF? are delighted to announce 2 funding awards towards a new howf for Tarbrax Bowling Club. We have been awarded £10,000 from South Lanarkshire Council’s Renewable Energy Fund and £10,400 from the Levenseat Trust. Work will start on site from late April (ground works, concrete pad and soak away) with the new howf building due to arrive in June. We hope to get the new facility up and running in time for the second half of the outdoor bowling season. Thanks to Tarbrax Community Council and Cllr. Catherine McClymont for providing letters of support for both funding applications. Site of the former howf (now demolished) Broadband Update The Broadband Working Group has been very busy over the last couple of months investigating solutions to improve broadband in the WAT IF? area. New Wireless Broadband Service Two Wireless Broadband Drop in Information Sessions were held at Woolfords Village Hall (Wednesday 3 April) and Auchengray Church Centre (Thursday 4 April). Thanks to those residents (and local Councillors) who dropped by to find out more about the proposed wireless broadband service. We were delighted by the positive response we received and are now in talks with Borders Online to develop a service for the local area which we hope to have up and running by late summer. The planned service will provide significantly improved broadband speeds for residents in Woolfords and our outlying areas. Thank you also, to all 63 of you who completed the Broadband Survey circulated with the March Warbler. The information provided will be of great help in planning for the new wireless service. Further information to follow in the July issue of the Warbler…. Update on Progress towards R100 On 25th March, the Broadband Working Group met with Duncan Nisbet, the R100 Stakeholder Director. He shared details about the planned roll out of superfast broadband in our area as part of the national R100 program (the Scottish Government’s commitment to deliver superfast broadband to 100% of premises in Scotland by 2021). Negotiations with the service providers are still at the procurement stage with information about which properties will be connected and when, expected to be available towards the end of 2019. Current An example of a wireless feedback is that the 2021 deadline is “challenging” so residents broadband relay may well be in for a longer wait for an improved service.