The Grapevine SEAMER & TAME BRIDGE MAGAZINE No. 138. April 2016 - May 2016 1 EDITOR’S NOTES Yes its time for another Grapevine! Thanks to the Parish Council Community Fund (“Windfarm money”), who have given it a grant of £200 to cover printing costs, it will have sufficient funds to continue for the foreseeable future. Thanks also, again, to those who collate and distribute copies without whose time and effort the Grapevine could not continue. Read on, as it’s a busy magazine this edition with lots of useful information and events, including Seamer Produce Show Info, which is removable for safe keeping. Dave Campy ST. MARTIN’S CHURCH Services at St Martin's in April and May fall on days that are different to the normal pattern. There will be Eucharists on the following days : Sunday April 10th at 11.15am Sunday April 24th at 11.15am Thursday May 5th (Ascension Day) at 7.30pm Sunday May 15th (Pentecost) at 11.15am Sunday May 29th at 11.15am There are also some services at Stokesley Parish Church in this period which may be of interest: Sunday April 10th at 6pm: Farewell service for Revd Sarah Strand** Sunday April 17th at 9.30am: Short Morning Prayer & Annual Church Meeting Sunday May 1st (Tour de Yorkshire Day): Eucharists only at 8am and 6pm - no services between those times. Sunday May 15th at 4pm: A service for the beginning of Christian Aid Week with Annual Meeting of Stokesley Churches Together. **We say farewell to Sarah Strand on 10th April, after nearly two years with us: her husband Matt has been appointed as Vicar of Kirkleatham (St Cuthbert's and St Hilda's), and they are expecting their first child in July. Matt's first service in his new parish will be at St Hilda's on the corner of Roseberry Road and Mersey Road in Redcar, on Friday 22nd April. Please see advert for Coffee Morning and note that Jean Webster is a new contact instead of Gwen Aston as she is unwell. [Editor: Gwen used to distribute Grapevine so we wish her a speedy recovery.] 2 We hope you will Come and join us at St Martin’s Church Coffee Morning With Cake stall and Tombola Stokesley Town Hall Friday 29th April 9.30—11.45 Offers of help/contributions, please contact: Jean Webster 710088 Ann Startin 710162 St Peter & St Paul.s Church is holding a Quiz Night on 23rd April in Stokesley Town Hall at 7.00 pm. Tickets £5.00. Please contact Marie Groom on 01642 712138 for further details. Revd Paul Hutchinson PARISH COUNCIL NEWS FLY TIPPING This has become a problem in recent times around the village and along the adjacent lanes and roads. It is the responsibility of Hambleton District Council to remove any larger amounts of rubbish dumped at the roadside. They can be contacted on 01609 779977 or online at hambleton.gov.uk Should you see any dumping taking place, please do not put yourself at risk. Take the registration and make of the vehicle involved and report it to the police and Hambleton District Council as soon as possible. CONDITION OF ROADS AROUND SEAMER The maintenance and upkeep of the roads in our area is the responsibility of North Yorkshire County Council. Of concern, is the increase in the number of potholes that are occurring in the area. These should be reported to the County Council on 08458 727374 or online at northyorks.gov.uk 3 SEAMER QUIZ TEAM TRIUMPH! An invitation was issued in January via the Village Hall Committee for the village to send a representative team to participate in the Tees Valley Village Halls Network quiz tournament - an annual competition. As previous winners of our own village quiz, we accepted the invitation, assembled a team of five and made our way to Middleton-St-George Community Hall in mid-March. It was an excellent quiz, with something for everybody and with interesting twists to several rounds, where answers linked to each other and common threads had to be spotted. The final round was a true ‘decider’ round. Several teams, including ourselves, were neck and neck, but this round, based on scoring points for correct answers - but losing all points if an answer was wrong - was a true gamble. Fortunately our gambles paid off and no-one was more surprised than us when we were announced as the winners and were invited up to receive the Tees Valley Shield! Well done to the Seamer team who were comprised of 3 members of the Taylor family and 2 of the Murphy family. A real team effort! As victors, we will be hosting the Tees Valley Network quiz next March. G Taylor PARISH COUNCIL MEETINGS It has been noted that over the past couple of years there has been a decline in the amount of business coming before parish council meetings. This, despite the claim made by various Governments to disseminate powers from central control to the various tiers of local government. It is clear that the powers given to parish councils involve time, effort, expertise and expense that cannot possibly be achieved by residents performing the role on a part time basis. The irony is that the workload on councillors and the parish clerk remains the same. However, most information, consultation documents and necessary paperwork now comes via email, is forwarded when relevant to councillors for a comment or a decision. What we have also found, is when a decision or response is necessary, the deadline has passed before it can be brought before the scheduled meeting. Therefore it has been agreed by the parish councillors to hold meetings every two months (instead of monthly) as an experiment for 2016/17. The meetings will take place in May, July, September, November, January and March. They will be held as usual on the third Tuesday in the month and commence at 7pm. 4 The councillors have agreed that should an issue come before the parish council that is urgent or requires a meeting of residents an extra meeting will be called outside of the dates listed above. COMMUNITY FUND UPDATE Grants made from the fund so far; £11,000 to the village hall - refurbishment in the main hall and supper room and also tarmacing the parking area outside the hall. £2,000 to repair the pavement near School Cottages and the road surface on Bank Top. The renewal of the railings besides the footpath at Bank Top. The upgrading of three sign gardens and replacement of several life expired flower barrels to brick structures. Some smaller grants have been made to help enhance the look of the village. Residents are reminded that although the Parish Council administers the fund, ideas and suggestions from villagers are always encouraged. There is an experienced, independent chairman who oversees any requests put forward, but in the first instance, please contact the parish clerk with your ideas for use of the fund. HIGHWAY MATTERS On behalf of the parish council, the chairman met with a senior highways engineer from NYCC to discuss various issues, particularly the residents’ perceptions of speeding through the village. Disappointingly, due to a lack of funding the only way any money might be found for traffic calming would be if Seamer was a proven accident black spot, which fortunately it is not. It was made clear that the parish council might support any NYCC project to calm traffic using money from the community fund such as humps, village gateway, (like those in Hilton and Maltby), rumble strips or road narrowing at strategic places on Hilton Road or Stokesley Road. All these were rejected for various reasons, the main one being the possibility that in the future the whole cost of maintenance, upgrading or removal might fall on NYCC and for which there would unlikely be any authorisation. It was pointed out that with the housing developments taking place in 5 surrounding areas that the problem will only get worse in the future. The engineer suggested that we could install the kind of flashing speed warnings similar to those in Hilton and Maltby and to contact the local road safety partnership in order to try and increase the number of police speed checks in the village. This issue is not closed and the parish council will continue to look for solutions to make the village a safe place to live. FLOWER TUBS - ANY VOLUNTEERS? The flower tubs are an important asset in making the village attractive and residents’ help in maintaining them would be most appreciated. Please email the Parish Clerk ([email protected]) if you can help look after any near you. We are aware of several residents who already maintain either tubs or the village sign gardens and we would be grateful if you could also contact the clerk, to confirm which you look after and whether you will continue to do so. Many Thanks. RURAL WATCH Stokesley Police are still looking for more volunteers to join their Rural Watch patrols. The patrols take place two/ three times a month involving volunteers from the local farming and rural community. These can be run locally or as part of a cross border operation with other police forces. Each volunteer is double crewed in one of their personal vehicles and they have a police radio which gives them direct instant contact with dedicated police officers who are also conducting rural patrols. Anything suspicious is reported straight to the dedicated officers who can then attend the area and carry out any enquiries or enforcement that may be appropriate.