Ironville & Codnor Park Newsletter Local news, events, articles and more. October 2018 Welcome to Issue Number Nine We hope that you continue to find our village newsletter of interest and enjoy its articles and other contents. If you would like to get in touch please write to the editor - Andy ([email protected]) or text Tracey (07555584913) This Newsletter comes to you via “Unicorns,” a local voluntary group celebrating and promoting the rich heritage and culture of our village through social events and effective communication. For further information why not visit our web site: http://unicorns.comli.com/Index.htm News From Ironville and Stop Press - Breaking News Codnor Park Primary School Carriage Youth Club Could Close 01773 602936 As always we had a busy time at the Our local youth club end of the summer term and we man- has been told by DCC aged to pack a lot in. that they will vacate We held a Royal tea 8th party to celebrate the the premises by wedding of Prince October. This is an absolutely devas- Harry and Meghan tating decision for our community Markle on the school and tantamount to abandonment of a playground, which vital facility for the young people in parents/carers attended. The school our village. It is hoped that the local received a thank you card from the community can help to reverse this royal couple! We worked closely with members of decision. (N.B. Correct at the time of going to print - 8th Sept) the community during the ‘Butterfly Please go to page 28 to find out more. Project’ with Pete Clark (see page 24) and “The Radish Trial “ with Andy For Codnor Castle Events go to page 16 Cadman (see page 20 & 21). The children thoroughly enjoyed both projects and getting out into the local © Sharon Dale community. We were lucky enough to have the RSPB come in and work with each class on different projects using the school grounds. At the end of the term KS2 children held a production of ‘Dare to Dream BIG’ in the Church Hall, which was a huge success. (See page 25). Thank you again to everyone who helped This summer we have had some very special visitors to the Forge. with the event not only the staff in Clouded Yellow butterflies are an extremely rare sight in Derbyshire. school but to all of the members of Common in France and Spain, perhaps on the UK south coast, however, the local community. We couldn’t further north and it gets too far for their migration. To have so many on have done it without you. Thank you. our local Forge Nature Reserve is indeed a real privilege. (More inside). Parish Council Report by Kath Gruber, Parish Clerk Since the last newsletter there have been 3 Parish Council meetings and the Annual General meeting, all of which were well attended by residents who continue to highlight issues to improve the village. Lots has been happening: Your Parish Council now has a website where you can find details of meetings, policies and initiatives. The website can be found here - www.ironvilleparishcouncil.co.uk Improvements to Ironville and Codnor Park The Council’s Smarten our Village initiative has seen many improvements such as graffiti removal, cleaning of dirty signs, fixing of broken fences and bus stop. The Council continues to monitor eyesores that let the village down to ensure they are given time and persistence to get them sorted. If residents notice any issues let your local councillors know. Parkside Drive, March 2018 The Council funded a small project to brighten the village by planting daffodil bulbs. Actions to ease the flooding along Coach Road have been taken. Despite best efforts there continues to be noise nuisance, litter and anti-social behaviour in certain locations of the village and the Council is working with the Police, Housing and Borough Council to address these. Defibrillator The Council has put in a grant application to fund a defibrillator and has sought views from residents on where this should be located if the application is successful. Popular locations are the Post Office or the Community Centre. If you have an opinion on where a defibrillator should be located, please let your local Councillors know. Grant Donation The Parish Council awarded a grant of £250 to enable the school to put on a production of Joseph in July. Improvements along the Canal The canal towpath continues to be very well used and Cromford Canal and Codnor Park Res Volunteers continue to work hard in making it safe, clean and attractive. Council Policies At the Annual General meeting in May the Council reviewed its policies and procedures, and these can be found on the Councils new website – www.ironvilleparishcouncil.co.uk New security and privacy procedures were approved by the Council in July to comply with the Government Data Protection Regulations that came into force in May. These can be found on the Council’s website www.ironvilleparishcouncil.co.uk Commemoration of WW1 The Parish Council has bought lamp post poppies to install in November to commemorate 100 years since the ending of WW1 Christmas Lights The Parish Council is looking at options and costs to make the village more festive. And finally, are you interested in keeping fit whilst helping the Council ensure the village footpaths are safe and accessible? The Council is looking for people interested in walking the village footpaths and reporting issues such as obstructions, broken fences, overgrown vegetation. If you are interested please contact the Parish Clerk, Kath Gruber, on [email protected] or 07595515154 Safer Neighbourhood News Welcome to the latest update from your local Safer Neighbourhood policing team who cover the Ironville and Codnor Park area. PCSO Meikel Miller *, who many of you may know or will have seen updates from her from the previous editions, is currently on a secondment to the youth engagement team for Amber Valley. She leaves the area in the capa- ble hands of her colleagues, PC Andy Swift and PCSOs Chris Bannister and Matt Thompson who will be a point of contact for local residents and hope to see you out and about. Early in August the Somercotes and Riddings Safer Neighbourhood Policing Team worked alongside the DVLA on an operation to target untaxed vehicles in the Ironville area following information from the local community. A number of vehicles were seized as a result. While the vast majority of people will pay for tax, insurance and MOTs, it's only fair that action is taken against those who do not. Please take the time to ensure * your car is roadworthy, safe and also legal. In Codnor Park, there was also a recent incident where a number of cows had escaped from a field in Langley Mill and caused quite a bit of disruption in the area. So it seems timely to offer a bit of a reminder about walking in the countryside and around livestock- here are some do’s and don’ts which we would encourage people to follow when enjoying our lovely rural and open spaces: Do Stop, look and listen on entering a field. Look out for any animals and watch how they are behaving, particularly bulls or cows with calves. Try to avoid getting between cows and their calves. Be prepared for cattle to react to your presence, especially if you have a dog with you. Move quickly and quietly, and if possible walk around the herd. Keep your dog close, on a short lead, and under effective control. Remember to close gates behind you when walking through fields con- taining livestock. Don’t give cattle or other livestock an opportunity to escape. Don’t Don’t hang onto your dog if you are threatened by cattle - let it go as the cattle will chase the dog and not you. Don’t put yourself at risk by walking close to cattle. Don’t panic or run – most cattle will stop before they reach you; if they follow just walk on quietly. That’s all for the latest edition. If you would like to get in touch there are a number of ways you can contact us: Facebook – send us a private message to /DerbyshireConstabulary Twitter – direct message our contact centre on @DerPolContact Website – complete the online contact form: www.derbyshire.police.uk/Contact-Us. Phone – call us on 101. Cosmic Codnor Park . or Infinity over Ironville by Chris Hook Longer dark nights are finally approaching and a few people have asked me ‘what’s the best sort of telescope to buy’? The answer is often a little disappointing. Telescopes are expensive and unless you know what you want and more importantly how to set them up and operate them properly, the brand new shiny scope will probably not make it out of the box more than once. Before rushing out to buy your scope I would suggest the best way to look at the night sky is by using your own eyes; get to know where the constellations are. As you learn use these constellations to ‘point’ towards other interesting bright objects or Planets. To give yourself the best chance of seeing in the dark it is a good idea to allow your eyes to become ‘dark adapted’. To do this, simply sit in a dark room with no artificial lighting for at least twenty five minutes. During this time your pupil will dilate – letting in as many photons of light as possible. When you look at the night sky these photons of light will have been travelling millions, if not billions of light years, so the bigger your pupil, the more chance of catching a few.