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The Newsletter for Clungunford Volume 22 • Issue 1 THE GUNNAS GAZETTE September 2018 Keep up to date with local news and events….visit www.clungunford.com Flicks in the Sticks at Clungunford it needs from the Herefordshire, South Shropshire and Powys District. Whether or not there is a firm Parish Hall arrangement in place to take poultry from any new plant Friday 14 September 2018 at 8pm at Hopton Heath, which may be doubted for a number Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (cert 15) of reasons, is really irrelevant, for the plain fact is that Mildred Hayes, a hard-nosed mother, is seeking justice for the announcement is an admission that there is no her murdered daughter. With no arrests after seven future sustainability, and it torpedoes the evidence that months, Mildred puts up three roadside signs to goad the has been put forward for more than four years now, Ebbing police chief into action. But the law - and claiming there is a shortage of poultry meat. Nationally, especially Sam Rockwell's hot-headed deputy - don't take there may be, but locally the Councils of Hereford, kindly to the provocation. And the townsfolk are on their Shropshire and Powys have ensured that our side. But Mildred doesn't care about ruffling a few feathers. countryside is littered with these far from invisible In fact, she's happy to pluck the whole bird. industrial developments to feed the Hereford plant. Starring: Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Indeed it now appears that they have, through total lack Sam Rockwell of collaboration between each other, overdone it. Director: Martin McDonagh Crime/Drama Some of the evidence put forward by your Parish Council years ago predicted that this is what would Friday 12 October 2018 at 8pm happen – and it has. Poultry farmers must now be Edie (cert 12A) wondering what comes next, as companies generally do 83 year old Edie believes that it is never too late – packing not pursue a policy of overstocking as a business model. an old camping bag, leaving her life behind and embarking Setting aside the generalities of poultry faming locally, on an adventure she never got to have – climbing the the battle is not yet won, let alone the war, but this latest imposing Mount Suilven in Scotland. development is a decisive step in the right direction. Starring: Sheila Hancock, Kevin Guthrie, Paul This is fundamental to the whole application. I am Brannigan hopeful, therefore, that the officers of Shropshire Director: Simon Hunter Drama Council will now have the courage to recommend Entrance £4.00 Adults £2.00 Children refusal. The Councillors on the Committee will, I am Licensed Bar, Ice creams, raffle (Donations welcomed), sure, take note. good car parking At the time of writing we still do not know when the Tel: 01588 660159 (Keith) or 01588 660781 (Maureen) Committee meeting will be. As soon as we know, we ([email protected]) for enquiries and will inform the circulation list and publish details on the reservations village website. We now show all our films with subtitles At our last meeting we were served with notice of We are in the process of compiling an email list for resignation from our long serving clerk, Brian Taylor. anyone who would like to receive an email reminder Brian is still in post till October. each month of information on our forthcoming films I have no doubt that Brian’s well-earned retirement will including links to trailers and reviews. be marked more formally by the community later, but it If you would like to go on the list, please email: must be recorded that he has served us faithfully over [email protected] with your the years and done his level best to keep us in order as a details. council. It goes without saying that he has succeeded in his efforts through some challenging times – he has The Parish Council helped in fighting off poultry units (so far, so good The saga of the proposed poultry units at Hopton anyway!) and pop festivals (remember The Squeezy Heath continues to rumble on, and the significant news Lemon???), matters well beyond what is normally now is that the poultry processing plant in Hereford, expected of a parish clerk. He has probably made more run by the new Cargill/Faccenda partnership called representations to Highways about potholes than most Avara, has announced that it now has more poultry than of us have had hot dinners. Thank you, Brian, from us 1 all. I have no doubt your successor will be able to call the garden where the lawn was bent grass alone, appears upon you for any advice as necessary. to be dead. Hard act though he is to follow, discussions have been It probably isn’t. I was an up and coming parks had about a new clerk, and it is expected that an department officer in 1976, the year of the great announcement will be made soon. Brian will have to drought, responsible for a number of sports and teach the new incumbent how to portray our village ornamental grass areas which we weren’t allowed to potholes in the worst light and as the most worthy of water because of the drought. urgent attention of all in Shropshire. The sports pitches in particular were a mixture of The next Parish Council meeting will take place in the fescues and bents chosen for their ability to withstand Parish Hall on Wednesday 12 September at 8pm. All are hard wear when cut very short, and because each welcome to attend. favoured soil conditions the other didn’t, so the mixture Parish matters before (or after) the meeting may be would survive better under stress. They all seemed dead raised either with me or with our clerk, Brian Taylor when the drought finally broke, but all eventually (01588 660653: [email protected]). Jonathan Roberts, recovered, though the bents took a lot longer than the Chairman (01588 660673: fescues. [email protected]) In the garden look out for the drought resistant Gleditsia triacanthos ‘Honey Locust’ with its attractive The 100 Club bright green feathery foliage, which turns clear yellow in Winners for July: autumn. Brian Taylor Special prize (£100): Linda Allsop 1. (£60) Sally Price 2. (£30) Bill Arkinstall Postcard from Africa 3. (£15) Caro Skyrme There have been two noteworthy events in Africa that Winners for August: have caught my attention in the past couple of months. 1. (£60) David Roberts One was the long-awaited elections in Zimbabwe to 2. (£30) Rob Rees choose a successor to Robert Mugabe who had been 3. (£15) Susanna Rocke removed from power by the Zimbabwe military last year. Prior to this had been a much more significant If you would like to join (£5 per month by cheque event in terms of peace and stability in the continent: (minimum 6 months) or even better by standing order), the rapprochement between the leaders of neighbouring phone Maureen Rooney (01588 660781) or Mike Jones countries Eritrea and Ethiopia which ended more than (01588 661145) or Jim Bason (01547 540782). 20 years of hostility between the two nations. The principal contenders in the Zimbabwe elections The Slow Ladies were Ellison Mnangagwa who had been Mugabe’s September: There will be no walk deputy and taken over the presidency after Mugabe’s Friday 26 October: The Lawley, about 5 miles. Meet demise and Nelson Chamisa, the leader of the principal in the car park at 9.30 am with picnic. opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). There was real optimism, both inside Please let me know if you wish to join us. We are always and outside the country, that this time round there pleased to welcome new faces and feet to our walking would be real change and the old political elite would be group. Pauline Mattison 01588 660596 removed. However, it seems that by fair means or foul, the dominant ZANU-PF party gained the most votes In The Garden and Mr Mnangagwa will serve at least one full term as A cloudy day in Clungunford, and I’ve been cutting President. The MDC has launched an appeal claiming down the grass I allow to grow tall in summer around that there had been election fraud, though the the fruit trees in my garden. international observers have said that apart from some The rest of the grass in my garden, that which I keep relatively minor irregularities, the poll was reasonably relatively short, seems to have got over the period in the free and fair. Mnangagwa doesn’t have the same degree summer when we had high temperatures and almost no of popular respect or support that Mugabe did and until rain at all, followed by lower temperatures and sporadic we see if he is genuinely prepared to reform a corrupt rainfall. and bloated government bureaucracy, we will have to The reason most of the grass in the garden has put Zimbabwe’s bright new dawn on hold. recovered from the drought is because most of it is one The huge improvement in relations between Ethiopia sort or another of fescue, Festuca rubra subsp. rubra and Eritrea came completely out of the blue and can which have rolled leaves and are more drought resistant only be called a positive and long-overdue development. than most. Eritrea had been an Italian colony since the 19th The parts of my garden where bent grasses (Agrostis century and after the end of WWII, under a UN tenuis) predominate, have more dead patches still than mandate, was ceded to Ethiopia.