February 2020 February 2020 Abtalk
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News from Abthorpe February 2020 February 2020 Abtalk PARISH COUN C IL To stand for election, you need Mike Greenhalgh to complete a nomination form which must be delivered by 4pm on It is Election Year Wednesday 8th April 2020. You can Northamptonshire County Council and obtain copies from the Clerk or go to South Northants Council are being www.electoralcommission.org.uk and replaced by a single Unitary Authority. search for Candidate Guide for Parish This means that all the local services Council elections. There is some useful will be provided by a single authority information in this guide as well as a dominated by the needs of the town link to the necessary form. of Northampton. As far as we know Bus Service it will not make any difference to the Parish Council. Elections for the new The loss of the community bus service Unitary authority take place in May a couple of years ago left our village in preparation for it to take over next without any public transport. The year. Parish Council is conscious that At the same time Parish Council as people get older, they may find elections will also be held. For many themselves unable to drive and years there has never been a contested therefore in need of public transport. election for the Parish, which is not Ability Community Transport is able really in the spirit of local democracy. to meet that need but will only do so In any case, there will be at least one if there are enough people to justify vacancy to be filled. a regular service. For instance, a Have you considered putting service from Whittlebury now runs on yourself up for election? As a councillor a regular schedule to Towcester. The representing your community you will Parish Council will have to assist with help keep Abthorpe a great place in setting up a service and will try to do which to live and work. You should so if there is a real need. Just let one have a positive outlook and a can-do of the Councillors know. attitude and be willing to work as part Village Tidiness of a team. If you are interested contact our Clerk, Tina Emerton by e-mail at The work done last year to tidy up [email protected]. the paths around the village green and church was much appreciated so Editorial Team: Alison Robbins [email protected]; 857795 Tricia Holmes [email protected]; 358491 Keith Fenwick [email protected]; 857083 2 Abtalk February 2020 this year it is intended to extend the and also to ask about anything that areas covered. The cost is funded by concerns you. Come along to the Old some of the money we receive from School at 7.45pm. the solar farm near Towcester. NEIGHBOURHOOD WAT C H Speeding in the Village Following a number of crimes This is a perennial problem but the use committed in Abthorpe in the last of the speed sign seems to help so a few months the Parish Council looked second sign has now been purchased into how the village communicates which means there will always be one information about crimes committed at each end of the village. or anything suspicious. There are currently three ways the village attempts this: using Neighbourhood Watch/Abthorpe Scheme (9 people registered), Abthorpe Alerts via the village website (36 registered) and lastly Facebook/Abthorpe Noticeboard (302 registered). The Neighbourhood Watch scheme in Abthorpe has been going for a number of years but only a few parishioners are signed up to it. Only these people get the Alerts sent out on a local basis from Northamptonshire Neighbourhood Watch, local Police and other trusted agencies. Neighbourhood Watch’s main aims are to prevent crime, reduce the fear of crime, improve safety, and encourage neighbourliness across our communities. We feel that getting a larger section of the village community signed up will benefit the inhabitants and keep us all safer. You Annual Parish Meeting will see a ‘flyer’ with this edition of The Annual Meeting for everyone in Abtalk, which explains how to sign Abthorpe takes place on Monday 4th up to the Abthorpe Neighbourhood May. This is your opportunity to find Watch scheme and gives a useful out what has been happening with crime prevention checklist. various organisations in the village 3 February 2020 Abtalk Joining Abthorpe Alerts is easy via Please get involved and sign up to one, the village website at www.abthorpe. two or even all of these schemes. net. Simply click on the Abthorpe Alerts email, sign up and then fill in your DOGGY BUSINESS details. Alerts are more focused on the More than one resident has suggested village than Neighbourhood Watch but that ‘doggy poo’ bins be provided in the take longer to be distributed. village. Following several discussions, The final way of communicating at Parish Council meetings the idea was is through Facebook by applying to rejected. The main argument against join the Abthorpe Noticeboard on it is that someone would have to Facebook, whereby you will get very empty and current information about suspicious m a i n t a i n goings on and any local crimes that t h e b i n s . have been reported. Facebook is also As dogs are used to inform people what is going wa l ke d i n on in Abthorpe and other neighbouring many areas, villages. A co-ordinator from Abthorpe several bins oversees the page. For those not on w o u l d b e Facebook we are aiming to get the n e e d e d . Facebook ‘crime alerts’ sent out on And it still needs dog owners to be the Abthorpe Alert platform. responsible for picking up the deposits The Parish Council will be organising in the first place. for some bright yellow Neighbourhood Watch posters to be displayed around FOOT P ATH NE W S the village, informing all that this is a David Robbins, Parish Footpath Warden Neighbourhood Watch village. There [email protected] are also some stickers available to Users of rights of way in Bucknell householders to place on a window Woods, of whom there are many in near the front door. Abthorpe, should be aware that the We aim to raise awareness of ways main byway (RA24) running from the of preventing crime while making sure chicken farm, directly west through that we, as well as our neighbours, the woods, has been closed by the remain safe. Everyone needs to be on Council for the next six months. the lookout for anything untoward that This has been made necessary, on could lead to a crime being committed, safety grounds, by the recent spell of and pass on the information or any very wet weather, and heavy usage suspicion, thereby helping to keep destroying the surface. Scrambling Abthorpe a lovely safe place to live. bikes are a particular problem, and it 4 Abtalk February 2020 is regrettable that this action has been will leave behind: children, obviously, found necessary. house, garden - in 50 years time new owners will have made their own mark PLANTING F OR POSTERITY - but trees are different! Did you know that the week of 23rd “In the last 50 or so years we have November to 1st December 2019 witnessed the impact of industrialised was National Tree Week? This, the farming with ancient hedgerows UK’s largest annual tree celebration, and trees pulled out; the spread of marked the start of the winter tree devastating diseases such as Dutch planting season. Elm disease and Ash Dieback; and the Sarah Lawson, who lives at Foscote, effects of climate change and global does not do things by halves. Why warming. We are lucky to have a lot of plant one tree when you can plant...... woodland around here and at Foscote several hundred! Here Sarah explains two lovely old strip fields with ancient how and why she got involved: hedges. But there is very little new “I don’t know if it’s a sign of age or planting to preserve and enhance our because I have been seriously ill, but beautiful countryside. I have started to think about what I “In 2018 I applied to the Woodland Sarah Lawson ‘planting for posterity’ helped by her labrador 5 February 2020 Abtalk Trust for a grant under their and David Robbins who donated his ‘MOREwoods’ scheme and 18 months own home-grown tree collection. A later a pallet load of trees, guards and very muddy week later, all the trees posts were delivered. The trees were were planted. It was an incredibly all whips, i.e. young saplings about satisfying and rewarding experience 18in tall. They comprised a selection - especially when viewed from the of oak, hornbeam, field maple, wild warmth of our house! Hopefully, the cherry, crab apple, birch, dogwood trees will start sprouting out of their and hazel - 700 in total. guards in the next 12 months and “The appallingly wet autumn continue to grow and mature over weather was actually brilliant for the next 100 years for generations tree planting, but it was a daunting to come.” undertaking. One of my sons, Ben, came back from Uni for a bit of real CHRISTMAS LIGHTS 2019 work and I had amazing help from It would seem that 1st December is several families, including, from now being recognised as the start of Abthorpe, Jill and Mike Greenhalgh, the Christmas season for no sooner Fi and Stephen Noble, Andrew Dancer, had the first windows of the advent North entrance to a brightly lit Church 6 Abtalk February 2020 Making Christingles in the Old School Clockwise from left: Helen Taylor with daughter Grace, Thomas Zachar, Barbara Malcomson, Darcy Collett and her friend, and Claire Zachar calendars been opened, than many the evening breeze (or occasionally village houses were arrayed with twirling vigorously in a stiff wind) swathes of twinkling lights.