Broad Town News–May 2015

May 2015 BROAD TOWN NEWS Published by Christ Church

Sponsors this month are the Big Gig

Day/ Date	Time	Church	Service	Readers	Sidesman	Chalice	Cleaner	Flowers
Sunday May 3	9.15am	Tockenham	Family Communion*
Easter 5	11am	Broad Town	Family Communion*	C Green/M Green		J Wallis	C Green	M Manley	F Holness
	6pm	Clyffe Pypard	Evensong
Wednesday May 6	2pm	Hilmarton	Holy Communion
Sunday May 10	9.15am	Hilmarton	Sung Communion
Rogation	11am	Clyffe Pypard	Holy Communion
	6pm	Tockenham	Evensong
Thursday May 14	7.30am	Hilmarton	Benefice Communion for Ascension Day
Ascension Day			followed by Breakfast
Sunday May 17	9.15am	Broad Town	Sung Communion	C Marshall/C Crocker		D Marshall	J Drury	R McLaren	M Manley
Easter 7	11am	Tockenham	Morning Prayer
	6pm	Hilmarton	Evensong
Sunday May 24	9.15am	Clyffe Pypard	Holy Communion
Pentecost	11am	Hilmarton	Family Service + Baptism*
	6pm	Broad Town	Evensong	R Holness/M Manley	R Manley		R McLaren	J Jordan
Sunday May 31	10.30am	Clyffe Pypard	Benefice Communion
Trinity Sunday

* Denotes a service that is particularly suitable for all ages.

EXPECTATIONS

On April 20^th Christ Church, Broad Town moved into another era of it’s life. What are the expectations of this village and the congregation?

Dealing with expectations is a tricky issue. If we have excessive expectations without a proper foundation, then that usually leads to problems. On the other hand, without expectation and hope, without aspiration, there can be no progress. Some hope is essential. So finding the proper balance is not easy. One needs to judge each situation on its own merit.

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

4^th May Bushton Plant Fair/Open Garden 1^st June Back to School

8^th May Big Gig Committee Meeting 11^th July Gentlemen’s Breakfast Club

9^th May Coffee Morning with Plant Sale 5^th Sept Big Gig

11^th May CLPG Meeting 12^th Sept Coffee Morning with Book Sale

16^th May Hilmarton Moviola 3^rd Oct Harvest Supper

20^th May WI 5^th Dec Christmas Bazaar with Raffle

22^nd May End of School Term 23^rd April 2016 Big Band Concert

26^th May Hilmarton Gardening Club

FAREWELL

This month we say a fond farewell to Bryan Rawlins. He was born in Avebury and moved to Broad Town about 50yrs ago. Bryan had various jobs during his working life and he was good at constructing tree houses. He is succeeded by his wife, Joyce, and three sons.

The village was also sorry to hear of the passing of Ken Neale and Edna Hives from Redhills and Essex Coney from “The Pinnocks”. Mr Coney reached his 100^th birthday last August.

BROAD TOWN BIG GIG

The Big Gig Committee continues with its planning to present a fabulous event on 5 September to match, if not exceed, the best of what’s gone before. A very important aspect of the event is to raise money for good causes and it might be of interest to note that last year the event gave £1510 to charity, bringing the total money donated to just under £15000 since the event was inaugurated. This year the chosen charity is the Wiltshire Air Ambulance which is a registered charity that does not receive any government funding and relies entirely on donations from the public. In addition money will be given to Goldenhar UK which helps families and children who have been affected by Goldenhar Syndrome, a congenital birth defect involving deformities of the face. Lastly, money will be donated to local Broad Town organisations.

There will be a number of sponsorship opportunities available and any individual or business which wishes to associate itself with the Big Gig is invited to contact one of the Big Gig Committee. Further information can be obtained from the Secretary, Andrew Law on 731472 or secretary@broadtownshow.co.uk.

The next Big Gig Committee Meeting will take place at 8.30pm on Friday 8^th May in the Broad Town Village Hall. All are welcome to attend.

COFFEE MORNING

Once again the doors of the café will be opened at 10am till noon. The date is the 9^th May.

We will be selling plants as well as the usual refreshments. We look forward to seeing you all for a nice cup of tea/coffee and a chat.

BROAD TOWN COMMUNITY LED PLANNING (CLP) GROUP

Wow ! What a fantastic turn-out at our last meeting! Thank you so much to all of you who came along. We are grateful for your patience while we did our best to explain progress on the draft Neighbourhood Plan for Broad Town and the other villages in our area. At the time of writing the CLPG is awaiting a response from the Parish Council to understand why our draft Broad Town Plan - based on the Wiltshire Core Strategy for Small Villages - that was submitted in December last year was not fully accepted. We hope to have the response in time for our next meeting together with those for other unanswered queries.

We attended the recent Area Steering Group meeting which is looking at how the complete draft Neighbourhood Plan, that will include all seven villages, should be distributed and consulted upon when all the separate village Plans are brought together in one document. This is a slow process but progress is gradually being made.

The CLPG has the opportunity to put forward Broad Town views to Carolyn Gibson, the Wiltshire Council Planning Manager who is guiding these meetings. If you would like your opinion to be put forward – or would just like to hear other people’s opinions - why not come along to our next meeting to be held at 8 p.m. to 9.30 p.m. at the Village Hall on Monday 11^th May? We are open to all points of view discussed in a friendly atmosphere with refreshments provided.

Please contact us if you would like to go on to our mailing list on lorraine@mrsbillis.co.uk. More information is on our Community Forum on www.broad-town.co.uk

BROAD TOWN DOG OWNERS

If you would like to join a friendly group of dog walkers for a walk in the local area, we meet each month on a Sunday around the middle of the month at around 11.00am. The date /walk / meeting place are agreed each month by the walkers and we try to include a watering hole at the end of the walk. If you are interested please call/e-mail Annette on 07974763645 / annette.moore@live.co.uk for more information. We are happy to e-mail you each month with dates and places so you can choose to walk or not.
All dogs and walkers are very welcome, we also welcome walkers without dogs to join us (please be prepared for friendly doggy greetings!)

BROAD TOWN WI

Our April meeting was a follow on from last February's meeting where Dr Simon Manchip talked to us about Dementia. This year Alison Bucknell a 'Dementia Champion' came to talk to us about how to be a 'Dementia Friend'. The idea behind this scheme is that by learning and understanding some of the issues facing dementia patients we can help and support them as they go about their daily lives - thus enabling them to continue to live in the wider community safely for longer. Patients benefit from having positive experiences in their lives for as long as possible. Dementia Friends hit their target of recruiting 1 million friends by March 2015 and have set a new target of 4 million by 2020. Several members joined up to be Dementia Friends following Alison's talk. 1 in 14 people now have dementia so this is becoming an increasingly important issue for all communities.

Next month our meeting will be on 'Staying Safe on the Internet'. Ged Fitzgerald will explain how to keep the fraudsters at bay! This meeting will be held at Broad Town Village Hall at 7.30pm on the 20th May.

We are a friendly group and welcome new members. Our meetings are generally held on the third Wednesday of the month in the Village Hall. If you are interested in visiting us please contact Kate on 01793 731536 or look at our information on the Broad Town website.

PARISH CLERKS CLIPPINGS

1. It has been suggested that the Clerk maintains a list of the email addresses of residents so that any short notice emergency information can be quickly passed on.I can only hold this information with the permission of the person concerned, and used with their consent. If you wish your name to be on the list please email me at the address below. This information will only be used for the stated purpose, and will not be passed on to any third party.

2. There is still a vacancy for a Councillor.

3.  Vacancy. Having served as a Councillor, and then the Clerk to the Parish Council and Responsible Financial Officer for over 15 years, I would like to retire before I take my last flight. I am getting older by the day. There are some people with a greater knowledge of rules and procedures than I, so maybe my dream will be realised.

4. The road safety measures for the road through the Village have been approved, but no date set for commencement. 

And, as a great man once said "I do not resent criticism, only negativity"

THE FOUR WAYS COMMUNITY PUB at Broad Town Village Hall

FRIDAY NIGHTS Everyone welcome from 8 p.m. till late, children from 12 yrs must be accompanied, younger children by arrangement. Social Club prices in the fully Licensed Bar.

Tea, coffee (+ decaf) and chocolate beverages, snacks and soft drinks available.

SUNDAY BINGO Fun for all ages…. Doors open 7.15 eyes down 8 p.m. Books and Stakes from £1.25 Plus Big Bonus Card game. All monies taken are paid out in prizes. Become a member and go for the Snowball. The more people that join us the bigger the prizes.

The FOUR WAYS community pub and Sunday Bingo are run by The Broad Town Social Club

Volunteers. Any questions or want to get involved? Contact Trevor on 01793731699

E-mail fourwaysbroadtown@gmail.com * facebook.com/FourWaysBroadTown

HATHA YOGA

Weekly Hatha Yoga at Broad Town Village Hall. For more details please contact Polly Fouracres by email - polly@4fouracres.com.

FAREWELL GREEN FIELDS?

Broad Views, is a group of Broad Town residents, who wish to protect the green open spaces of Broad Town from inappropriate or excessive development.

Last month in this newsletter, we sought to inform you about recent developments in our village, which put our green open spaces in danger from a potential housing estate, and we urged you to come along to the CLPG group to make your voices heard. We were greatly heartened by the fantastic response and we believe your efforts will ensure that our Parish Council and the developers will have to take notice of the views of the majority of Broad Town residents.

So what has happened since?

At the last meeting of the Parish Council, there was deemed to be insufficient time for any public questions, despite the weighty issues at hand. So, we have written to the PC posing a series of questions; We have asked that they minute both the Q&A for the benefit of the wider community? A summary of questions raised, are set out below:

Q: We understand that an alternative Neighbourhood Plan has been submitted to Wiltshire Council, offering a policy of supporting development if it enables acceptable benefits to community facilities; We believe the proposals it suggests are not based on any real consultation with the wider community, and in fact represent the views of only the 1 person who wrote it. The PC has stated previously that the CLPG Neighbourhood Plan could not survive an inspection of the plan's evidence base, so how is it that an alternative draft plan, has been submitted, and by the admission of the author there is NO evidence to support it?

Our group have requested that Hannick Homes publish a correction to their article in our Newsletter, as this was misleading, factually incorrect. and represented less than 10% of the total village residents;

Q: What evidence do the Parish Council have that the proposed benefits offered by the Hannick Homes proposal will be honoured? - One does not have to look very far to see evidence of developers not honouring commitments made prior to planning approval, such as at Wichelstowe and the St.Ivel site in Royal Wootton Bassett.

We believe it is up to the residents of Broad Town to decide whether they want development in our village and, in the numerous surveys & questionnaires carried out over the past few years you have overwhelmingly said that we do not, so why then is our Parish Council intent on submitting an option for development?

Even in today’ s climate of too few houses for too many people, we are still not legally obliged to accept large scale development; Broad Town is designated a small village and as such a policy of small infill development is all we are required to accept. “In Wiltshire the term infill is defined as the filling of small gaps within a village that is only large enough for a few dwellings, generally not more than one. This is the scale of development currently considered appropriate in Broad Town in strategic policies” Carolyn Gibson (Spatial Planning Manager – Wilts Council)

If you support us in not wanting a large housing estate in the middle of our village please continue to come to future CLPG & PC meetings and make your Voice heard!

PROSPECT COLLECTION BOXES

I have been pleased to be a collector of box donations for PROSPECT HOSPICE in recent times in the Broad Town area but as I have now left Broad Town I feel unable to continue this little task. It is only twice a year and covers about 30 properties so it is not too onerous and I wonder if there is a volunteer in the village who would take on this relatively simple but rewarding task for such a worthy charitable cause?

Your services would be much appreciated so please call either Gifty Tawiah (Community Fundraiser for Prospect) on 01793/815142 or me Janice Griffin on 01793/813734 so that we can tell you all about it. I will do the April collection so the next one would be in September.

Thank you

Janice Griffin

BROAD TOWN PLAYPARK

There is a small budget available to refurbish and equip the playpark in Redhills, Broad Town. We are asking local families for feedback on what improvements they would like to see to encourage their children / grandchildren /friends to use the park. If you would like to pass on your views please complete the form at the end of the newsletter and return it to the Village Hall before the middle of May. If easier, please e-mail your answers and any questions to broadtownplaypark@hotmail.com

BUSHTON PLANT FAIR & OPEN GARDEN

On Bank Holiday Monday 4^th May Open Garden and Plant Fair at Bushton Manor SN4 7PX from 11am to 4pm in aid of St Peter’s Church, Clyffe Pypard. Specialist and home grown plants, local food suppliers, crafts, cakes, BBQ, bric-a-brac, teas and games for children. Car Parking free. Entrance £2. Further information contact Barbara Davis 01793 739017.

The sun is shining, the birds are singing and there isn’t a cloud in the sky……. ….or is there?

As I write this I am sitting in a shaft of sunlight thinking positive thoughts of the summer and feeling pretty good. However, the question is, what is over the horizon? We never know what the future brings, good or bad. If there are clouds on your horizon, or if its pretty stormy right now, can I help? If nothing else, I can listen whilst you talk about your problems and I may be able to put a new slant on the issues which may help you to solve or relieve them? I can give information on a range of things, both practical (money worries, mobility aids etc) or emotional such as social activities or support groups in your area. I don’t bite and no matter how trivial it may seem, give me a call on 07557 110414 for an informal chat. Ellen Blacker.

HILMARTON MOVIOLA

The Theory of Everything

HILMARTON GARDENING CLUB

This will be in Hilmarton Church hall on Tues 26^th May and the time is 7.00pm for 7.30pm.

It will be a good evening for tips for the green fingered.

DISCLAIMER

Broad Town Newsletter (BTN) takes all reasonable care to ensure that pages published are accurate. Articles and letters submitted may be the personal opinion of the author and, as such, are not endorsed by BTN. BTN takes no responsibility for the consequences of error or for any loss or damage suffered by users of any of the information published on any of these pages, and such information does not form any basis of a contract with readers or users of it.

JUNE 2015 EDITION

Will organisations or anyone wishing to have news, etc. included in the June edition please note that items must be submitted to

Margaret Green, 5 Eastwood Avenue, Royal Wootton Bassett, Wilts. SN4 8BX. cliveggreen@waitrose.com

BY 6pm FRIDAY MAY 23^rd IT IS REGRETTED THAT SUBMISSIONS AFTER THAT TIME WILL NOT BE INCLUDED

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BROAD TOWN PLAYPARK Questionnaire

If you would like to pass on your views please complete the form below and return it to the Village Hall before the middle of May. If easier, please e-mail your answers and any questions to broadtownplaypark@hotmail.com

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1) How many children do you have in each age group? 0-3……….3-9………..10-14…………  

2) What equipment would you like to see provided? (Please indicate your top 3):-

Slide, swings, roundabout, climbing/rope equipment, rockers, play house/fort, balancing equipment, imaginative play, traditional games, adventure trail, seating, tables or………………………………………………………………..

3) What improvements to the site would encourage you to use it more? …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

4) What, if anything, stops you using the park at the moment? ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Thank you