STOKE UPON TERN NEWSLETTER Issue: 17 IN THIS ISSUE Parish Council Updates, Local Business Advertisements, Community News, Updates from the Parish, Stories from our community, Featured recipe, and much more..... Keeping in touch with communities within the local parish. December 2017 1 Welcome to this winter edition of our parish magazine. As a reminder the parish covers five rural villages, Stoke upon Tern, Stoke Heath, Wistanswick, Eaton-upon-Tern and Ollerton. Please feel free to send us any news or articles from around the parish. To contact us: email: [email protected] or call Sue: 01630 638 348 COUNCIL MEMBERS - The next parish meetings will take place at the Parish Hall on the Cllr Pete Waters (Chairman) - 01630 638911 th, th th Dec 13 Jan 24 & March 14 Cllr Richard Wright – 01630 638520 @7.30pm Cllr Phil Butters – 07976 295299 These meetings are open Cllr David Moore – 01630 685226 There are still x2 to everyone – Cllr Keith Newby – 01952 541601 vacancies on the come along and Cllr Sue Bartram – 01630 638348 Parish Council – have your say... Cllr Sarah Planton – 01630 638494 anyone interested Agendas are Cllr Percy Farmer - 01952 541252 please contact the posted on the clerk notice –boards The Clerk Mr Graham Bould may be contacted in local bus at: [email protected], or: parish website: shelters. www.stokeuponternparish.org.uk The Tractor Club Meets on the first Tuesday of every month at 7.30pm at the Parish Hall 2 Community Champions – what’s that all about then? The Parish Council started some conversations with a number of groups and individuals back in the summer of 2016 to explore several ideas to improve the environment and neighbourliness around Parishioners homes. This conversation was backed up with about four and half thousand pounds of external grants which the Parish Council had secured from a variety of funders to improve local roads and build community capacity within local settlements. So, the idea of having local people acting as ‘Champions’ started to grow. The story so far then. A draft pilot agreement between groups and the Parish Council has been developed under three broad headings: • Things to do four times a year – like litter picking, cleaning road signs, mowing/strimming verges, pulling and disposing of ragwort and keeping the tops of gullies clear of debris for example. • Things to do twice a year – keep phone boxes and bus shelters clean and tidy for example. • Added value during the year – a community project with trainees from the RAF, undertake a ‘good neighbours’ project, keep notice boards up to date, plant up gateways and verges with bulbs and wild flower seeds, help deliver the Parish Newsletter and help with consultation on the Neighbourhood Plan for example. The Parish Council has again for the second year running secured external grants to continue the pilot scheme and to develop a fourth group, Community Champion groups already exist at Dutton Close, Eaton upon Tern and Wistanswick and their programme has been extended. If you and your neighbours would like to look at developing a group, or your organisation is looking for a community challenge please contact the Clerk (details below) for more details and to receive information on the amount of funding that is available to help develop the idea. The Parish Council is particularly interested in hearing from Parishioners and groups covering and living in the settlements of Tern Hill, Stoke Heath, Stoke on Tern and Ollerton. The idea has Parish Council support to develop a Lottery Programme to follow on from the pilot programmes that will also look to link with the Market Drayton group of the Wildlife Trust to develop more environmental volunteering across the Parish as a whole; so existing Champions will be undertaking some survey activity within their localities to seek more ideas for that lottery programme which could be in the region of ten thousand pounds to spend on developing activity if the application is successful. Graham Bould Clerk to Stoke upon Tern Parish Council Contact details are by email at [email protected], phone/text 07792300702 or landline 01952-594758 3 Wistanswick Update Wistanswick Champs Is a group of people who are funded by the Parish Council to try to make Wistanswick a pleasanter place to live. For example you may soon see two flower boxes, one at each end of the village to be planted up and maintained by local residents. The litter picking team are regularly keeping their "patch" clear of litter. Would you help by taking a picker and hoop and caring for your nearby patch? The defibrillator is getting nearer, prices are being investigated. It is proposed to site it at the Institute. Thank you for all those people who helped in any way. Any ideas for improvements to our village? Please contact Helen Carr or Richard Wright. SAVE THE DATE Children’s Christmas party on December 15th. At the Institute. Wistanswick bonfire was a great success. The fireworks were spectacular, thanks Simon. The food was plentiful and well over 200 people, especially children enjoyed themselves on the Institute field. Wistanswick Broadband Update – Richard Wright On Friday November the 10th there was a meeting to discuss the lack of progress in upgrading the broadband service in Wistanswick. At the meeting we had Owen Paterson MP and Clive Selley, the Chief Exec of Openreach, plus 2 others from the commissioning side of Openreach. From the community there were 6 representatives of local businesses, all of whom have significant issues that directly impact their business operations; also in attendance were 2 representatives from Shropshire Council, and me. The outcome was mixed; we were assured that 90 premises would get an enhanced service of more than 24 mbps, a further 20 between 15 & 24 mbps, and for the rest, typically the TF9 2BB postcode, the service delivery was uncertain, they “would come back to me”. It was agreed that the exercise would be expedited by Openreach, their problem in commissioning the cabinet on the A41 being power delivery from Western Power, currently projected not to start until mid-December, they were sent away to bring this forward. So, in summary, the outcome was generally positive with some caveats; the next actions to review the implementation in January, bring any issues to Owen Pat erson’s attention. Many thanks to those who attended, those who gave me case studies and all those who wanted to get involved. 4 YOUR PARISH NEEDS YOU – STOKE UPON TERN HAS TWO VACANCIES. What does a Parish Councillor do? Councillors represent the electors in their Parish. They are accessible to residents to listen to their concerns and to deal with them or to pass them for action to the appropriate authorities directly or via the Parish Clerk. Councillors may represent the Council on local bodies and in meetings with other authorities. They help formulate responses to county or national consultations when relevant local issues are involved such as keeping the local phone box for example. Councillors can provide leadership on local initiatives. In Stoke upon Tern Parish Council there is a group who organise and edit the local newsletter, are developing the areas Neighbourhood Plan, look at planning applications from Shropshire, look at value for money and audit matters and are developing an extension to the cemetery. The championing of local projects and providing leadership over local issues is an important, and rewarding, aspect of a councillor’s role. Persistence in dealing with the authorities and utilities is an essential virtue. In everything they do, councillors need to bring integrity and common sense to their approach and look for viable, pragmatic outcomes that can be achieved. All this work involves time, of course. Meetings have to be attended. Planning applications and other documents have to be reviewed. The work load varies, but an average weekly estimate of 3–5 hours would be reasonable. In return is the immense satisfaction of putting something back into the community. Councillors have substantial support in performing their duties. First of all there is the Parish Clerk. This is a paid position, and provides an experienced person to look after the administration of the council as well as to be on hand to offer advice and guidance to the councillors. Training is available to the new councillor which is of high quality and covers all aspects of the role. The Council acts very much as a team and fellow councillors are always there to support each other. INTERESTED? WANT MORE INFORMATION BEFORE COMMITTING? THEN VISIT http://www.nalc.gov.uk/library/publications/801-good- councillors-guide/file, 5 THE ROLE OF GALLANTRY HILL, STOKE HEATH IN WORLD WAR TWO The altitude of Gallantry Hill is 83 metres (273 ft) compared to Chapel Lane at 74 metres resulting in it being a useful local vantage point. A ring of four anti-aircraft (AA) guns were set up to protect Tern Hill airfield after its major reconstruction in 1938/39 and the subsequent outbreak of World War Two (WW2). One of the four AA Guns was situated on Gallantry Hill and manned by a Royal Artillery gun crew billeted in the barrack behind the hill. The remains of the toilet block were demolished in 1991 and the barrack in Poor House Lane became a farm building some time ago. An ext ensive barbed wire system was installed around the hill as a barrier to attack by infantry. The Bofors gun was set into the level summit of the hill on timber supports next to the sandbagged dugout. The late Jim Ward related that the gun arrived late one Saturday night and was dragged across the field from the direction of Chapel House by tracked tractor and up the more sloping side of the hill in Hill House Farm field and then through the fence at the side of the hill.