No 187 Winter 2013 STOKENews POGES Carols on the Green Saturday 7 Dec 1 Index From the Editor 21 Years Ago 13 Duke of Edinburgh Award 14 Welcome to the winter edition of Stoke Poges News! You will read that the village has been busy Stoke Poges Players 16 as usual and there are lots of exciting events Hedgerley Historical Society 18 planned for the next few months, not least our Photographic Club 20 annual ‘Carols on the Green’ on Saturday 7 December, at the Village Centre from 3 pm. Friends of Stoke Common 22 Watch out for the Christmas tree going up Scrabble Club 25 outside the Village Centre any day now! Bridge Club 25 This magazine is published by Stoke Poges Parish Free Church 27 Council as a service to our parishioners. A key part Rainbow Pre-school 28 of that service is enabling local businesses to tell us about the products and services they offer by The Stoke Poges Society 29 paying to advertise on our pages. The advertising The Stoke Poges School 31 income is offset against the cost of producing the Sunshine Corner 32 magazine, which enables the Parish Council to do more with the funds it receives from its annual Bowls Club 33 precept. We are grateful to our regular advertisers Dates for your Diary 34 for supporting Stoke Poges News and making a Royal British Legion 36 financial contribution to the parish. If you are shopping for the products and services offered by Golf Pro Tips 37 our advertisers, please give them the opportunity Bell-ringers 39 to win your business. Bucks Fire and Rescue Service 40 I’d also like to thank all the contributors from our Vicar’s Letter 42 clubs and societies who send in their reports Good Neighbour Scheme 44 reliably for each edition. Their reports keep us up to date with what’s happening in our busy and Women’s Fellowship 44 diverse village. It’s a source of pride that the village Men’s Group 46 offers so many opportunities to socialise. Community Safety 46 Furthermore, we are very fortunate in having so many people living here who give their time Horticultural Society 48 generously to benefit our wider community. As Stoke Poges Singers 50 we enter the festive season, it’s appropriate to Women’s Institute 52 reflect on the generosity of spirit we enjoy in Stoke Poges and work together to keep our Stoke Green Rovers FC 54 village a great place to live in. Parish Council Chairman’s Letter 56 Tennis Club 59 Ralph Bagge Threeways Surgery 60 South Bucks Sports Development 62 Front cover: Recreation Report 64 Oil painting of children playing in the snow in front of St Giles’ Church by Revd Cyril Harris. 2 3 Energy Price Increases – How to Fight Back! Rising gas and electricity prices have been in keyholes and letterboxes. DIY stores sell draught switching them on when you need to use them. It’s quickly mount up. Even if you have an electric hob, the news this autumn with the ‘big six’ excluder strips but a cheap and effective alternative is the same for computers and printers too. It’s helpful it’s possible to boil only the water you need (as little increasing their tariffs by up to ten per cent. It’s to tear off and stuff a piece of cling film into to ask yourself the question, ‘what do I have to as one mug’s worth) in a traditional kettle – we hard to live without heat and lighting, so how draughty cracks and keyholes. leave plugged in overnight?’ and then unplug waste electricity overfilling kettles and heating water can we survive the price hikes as we enter the everything else. that isn’t needed. coldest 12 weeks of the year? The energy companies are required by law to provide help to people who may have difficulty affording to Every home has battery-powered devices with their It’s also worth using price comparison websites to We need to look at our energy consumption in two heat their home. A scheme called the Energy chargers. Did you know that a charger plugged into check you are on the tariff that’s best for you. The ways: heating and everything else. Company Obligation requires them to pay for energy a socket is using electricity even when the energy companies make life difficult for us with their efficiency improvements for homes where people phone/laptop/etc. isn’t connected? So unplug endless permutations of standing charges and Let’s think about heating first. Our homes leak heat – are receiving certain benefits. It’s worth checking chargers when they aren’t in use. different prices per unit. Entering accurate through the floor, the walls, the windows and the with your energy suppliers if you think you might information from your energy bills into a price roof. Insulation is your ally in the fight against rising be eligible. We have got the message about the energy-saving comparison website is the best way of checking. energy costs. It’s almost possible to build a house potential of low energy light bulbs over the past few that is so well insulated that it hardly needs any Single glazed windows leak lots of heat which can be years. However, there’s a big difference between the When gas and electricity prices are increased, there is additional heating beyond the body heat of its reduced by installing replacement double glazed power used by compact fluorescent bulbs and the a risk that your energy company could overcharge occupants. Unfortunately, most of us live in homes units. Alternatively, DIY stores sell secondary glazing newer (and slightly more expensive) light emitting you by estimating that you have consumed more at that were built many years ago, but it’s still possible kits which use a plastic film to create an insulating air diode (LED) bulbs. A compact fluorescent may be the increased rate. Therefore, it’s worth noting down to improve insulation. And because insulation is gap inside your windows. rated between 11 and 22 watts (which is good your meter readings each week so that you have relatively cheap, the energy savings pay back the compared to the 60W or 100W incandescent bulbs evidence in the event of a dispute. If you decide to investment relatively quickly. Room temperature control is important – reducing we used to use). However, the latest LED bulbs can change your energy supplier, bear in mind that if you the thermostat by one degree can save up to ten per give the same amount of light whilst drawing only pay by a monthly direct debit that they might owe Cavity wall and loft insulation are energy-saving cent of your heating bill. Our Prime Minister was 5W. So switching from compact fluorescent bulbs to you money. Be sure to check and get a refund when essentials. They aren’t very glamorous home criticised recently for suggesting we all put on a LED equivalents can dramatically cut the cost of you leave them. improvements and they don’t make your home look jumper, however, it has been documented in a home lighting. A further bonus is that LED lights are smarter, however, by stopping heat leaking through scientific trial that people wearing thermal forecast to last up to 30,000 hours, saving the cost your walls and roof you won’t have to use as much underwear beneath their normal clothes were and trouble of many replacement bulbs. It’s worth keeping a note of your meter energy to keep warm. For homes built before cavity comfortable with their heating set four degrees reading so that you track your energy usage walls construction, it is still possible to insulate the lower than their usual setting. Many people find and costs. walls – either internally (which makes the rooms thermostatic radiator valves useful so that you can LED GU10 down lighters deliver smaller) or externally (which may require planning set a lower temperature for rooms which aren’t big savings in electricity usage. permission in some circumstances – so check with occupied all the time the heating is on. the District Council first). Most of the parish has access to mains gas, but for It’s also important to pay attention to the small properties that don’t, it’s worth considering a details. Things like gaps around doors and windows, switch from oil or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) heating to biomass (wood pellets). Government incentives are available under the Renewable Heat Initiative which covers the cost of the new boiler over a seven-year term. Moving onto ‘everything else’: it’s worth investing in The most expensive lighting in home use is the an energy monitor to systematically track how your GU10/MR16 downlighter. Each tungsten bulb uses electricity bill mounts up. Which? magazine 50W, making them very expensive to run. LED warm recommended the Efergy Elite monitor, which costs white replacements are available at 2.8W (not quite around £30. as bright) and 5W (equivalent brightness), so it’s possible to cut the cost of running downlighters by With an energy monitor you may be surprised by 90 per cent, which means the cost of the LED Fill gaps how much electricity you are using with everything replacements is soon recouped. around switched off. That’s because some appliances use doors and significant amounts of electricity when they are on Using an energy monitor will quickly identify the windows to standby – for example, a TV and set top box can hungry appliances around the home.