Village Voice by Rosie Warrillow, 20th May

Some good news this week! Our Neighbourhood Plan has been accepted by 80% of those who voted during the election evening held on May 6^th. The plan was developed and guided by the answers received during two consultation  periods of the local population. In the plan there will be room for development to take place including, it is hoped in the future, a new larger car park. The plan allows for changes in the village boundaries and it will help protect the open spaces within the parish and the ANOB which half the village is situated in. The full plan is available to view on the village website. Our plan has taken a few years to develop, and suffered many delays on the way, including the impact that covid had on all meetings and consultations. A vote of thanks must be said to the steering group of the parish council, who worked very hard over the entire period to secure our plan.                                                                  

Oh dear, here we go again!! It’s boat nicking time again! Apparently an attempt was made to steal several boats on the river last Thursday. Extra vigilence it seems will be required during the summertime in particular, so please make sure all boats are secured as well as you can possibly can, chains not ropes may be an idea, or perhaps remove smaller craft to a place of safety, eg at home or in a garage. We always get a spate of boat thefts on the river, an easy target perhaps? It’s down to boat owners to make taking craft as difficult as possible. An old Parcel Force van has been spotted in the vicinity, if you see it, please get a reg number and report it to the police.                                                                   

Missed bin collections are in the news again, our district councillor Kate was recently on the local news highlighting the problems of rolling out the new system with the new boxes, and the fact that the new lorries are just too big for some of our smaller villages, and they can’t reach certain places. If you have had a collection missed or even in some cases, several collections missed, please contact SHDC to tell them about it. This can be done over the phone or online, the day after the missed collection.              

Our community pool is still hoping to open in early June and the resuscitation courses are filling up fast, an essential if you wish to use our pool. You can register online on the village website page for the courses. The courses are held on Saturdays from 9am starting on May 22nd and 29th, then courses recommence on Saturday June 26^th at 9am.                                                                                                                

St Andrews will have a Sunday worship service starting at the usual time of 11am, all are welcome to attend, socially distanced of course.