Walk off the Christmas Corpulence
Have you enjoyed your Christmas food just a little more than you should have? One of the healthiest ways to undo some of the damage is with some fresh air and exercise. Even if you did not over-indulge, you can still enjoy these great country walks with us.
New Year’s Day: Starting from the Butter Cross at 10:00am on Monday 1st January, this 5-6 mile walk is being led by John Perkin. Bring a picnic lunch and start the New Year with some invigorating exercise, views and company.
Saturday 6th January: Also starting from the Butter Cross at 1000am, this walk of 6-7 miles led by Ron Sayers will take in Radmore Wood and Bagots Park. Bring a picnic lunch and make the most of this opportunity for a guided walk around local footpaths.
The Abbots Bromley Footpath Society have a programme of walks throughout the year which are open to all to come and enjoy.
Recycle Your Christmas Tree
If every household in East Staffordshire has areal Christmas tree this year, then approximately 46,000 will need to be disposed of!
They can be successfully recycled into wood chips and compost. You can help by taking your used tree to:
Strawberry Garden Centre
ramshall Road
Uttoxeter
or:
Byrkley Garden Centre
Brykley Drive
Burton upon Trent
between 2nd and 26th January.
Golfers Light up the Village
Although the Christmas tree on Abbots Bromley village green has been lit up in the past, this year sees a significant improvement following a grant from local golfers. The rather limited string of large bulbs used in recent years has been retired in favour of more contemporary strings of LEDs in different colours.
Abbots Bromley Parish Council were delighted to accept a kind offer from “Abbots Bromley Challenge” to help fund replacement lights. Abbots Bromley Challenge is a group of golfers from the village and surrounding area who organise a golf day each year to raise funds for local causes.
Parish Council Supports First Responders
Dear Mr Catling and Mr Marsh
Withdrawal of Drugs from Community First Responder Portfolio
Abbots Bromley Parish Council is greatly disturbed by the recent announcement of the withdrawal of a number of key drugs from the Community First Responder (CFR) portfolio. The Council seeks reassurance from you both, as the current and future controllers of policy and operations, that this dilution in the quality of service to our community will be swiftly overcome and the previous levels of capability will be re-instated and maintained.
Yours sincerely
Abbots Bromley is a rural parish that can be anything through 15mins up to half an hour between a ‘999’ call and the arrival of an ambulance. We were therefore immensely impressed by the CFR proposition. Supported by the Council, two of the Councillors worked with the community and the Staffordshire Ambulance Service (SAS), leading to the successful implementation of the Abbot Bromley CFR group in February 2005.
Since its inception the Abbots Bromley CFR group has provided 24/7 cover for virtually every day and has attended over 600 calls across a wide range of situations. It is now respected and implicitly relied on by our community.
The withdrawal of key drugs is self-evidently a major reduction in the quality of service and, we believe, an un-necessary one. In our understanding Responders are trained in drug administration to the same level as ambulance technicians by the same trainers. Therefore this cannot be an issue of training or competence.
We are deeply concerned by the apparent lack of swift, positive retrieval action to this issue. We understand that there seems to be more effort being spent in defending why the drugs were withdrawn than in developing solutions for their re-instatement. Given this situation we are most uneasy that this implies potential long term issues for the CFR group that supports our community.
Abbots Bromley Parish Council is therefore seeking re-assurance
1. from the current management (Staffordshire Ambulance Service) that the problem is being urgently and positively addressed
2. from the prospective management (West Midlands Ambulance Service) that the CFR support that is crucial to the response time and patient care in our rural community will be maintained at or above the original Staffordshire Ambulance Service levels and capabilities.
Yours sincerely
Keep Your Post Office
In a letter to Parish Councils, the Countryside Alliance urges local communities to recgnise the importance of the services that are provided by their Post Office. They write:
“As you will know, rural services are the lifeblood of rural communities, especially in the more remote areas of the country. This is borne out by research which has shown that 91% of people feel that Post Offices play an important role in their communities. Facts like this are particularly poignant when set against the bleak reality of our times: seven out of 10 villages in England no longer have a shop; rural Britain has lost over a quarter of bank branches since 1995 and 20 traditional pubs are closing every month across Britain.
So when the Government announced in February its decision not to renew the Post Office Card Account (POCA) beyond 2010 and failed to make a decision on the subsidy given to rural Post Offices, it became clear that these threats to the future of rural Post Offices have the potential to devastate the communities they serve.
The Government needs to understand that the real value of a Post Office cannot be measured simply by turnover, and it must recognise that the benefit to the community goes far beyond the ‘doorstep’ of the Post Office.
If you feel the same as we do about your local Post Office then please help us to help save them. We have been asking our members to write urgently to Jim Fitzpatrick MP, the minister responsible for Post Offices, to let him know what their local Post Offices mean to them and what the loss would mean to their communities. If Mr Fitzpatrick’s postbag tells him how communities feel he will hopefully recognise the importance of this issue, and if every community in the countryside is displaying cards saying ‘love the Post Office, love the countryside’, the message will be clearer still.”
Now you see them, now you don’t
Following cable damage reported in an earlier news item, normal operation of the street lights in the High Street has now been restored following work by Central Networks and ABB to install new timers.
Any further problems with the street lights can be reported using the normal route which is to ring Clarence on 0800 23 23 23 and give details of the light location and reference number.
Invitation to tender: Village grass cutting
Sealed tenders must reach the Council by 29 November 2006 and will be considered at the Council meeting that evening.
Anyone interested in tendering for this contract should contact the Parish Clerk to receive full details of the work to be carried out and the tender process.
Write to:
Abbots Bromley Parish Council
31 Goose Lane
Abbots Bromley
Staffordshire
WS15 3DE
Or email:
parish dot council at abbotsbromley.com
Street lights on in the daytime?
As a result of recent damage to cables during work in the main street, the timer control of the wall-mounted lights is no longer operating. Keeping the lights on continuously is the short term solution.
This type of control is now obsolete and instead of expensive repairs to an out-dated system, it is proposed to replace the damaged circuit with floor-mounted control units that can form the basis for the next generation of street lighting.
Adopting this approach will avoid an extensive loss of supply for the village while the old circuit was repaired and will help ensure that the money spent has long term benefits.
Work is in progress to specify and commission the work required but the lights will be on continuously until this is carried out.
Burglary Near You?
HOME SECURITY GUIDES
The ESBC Neighbourhood Wardens have home security guides available. These contain UV security markers for your possessions and leaflets giving advice on home security. Please ring 01283-508526 and leave your name and address to have a pack delivered to your home.
EAST STAFFS NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH
East Staffordshire Neighbourhood Watch could help you. There are over 1,000 co-ordinators in East Staffordshire – it is free to join and may even reduce your insurance premium. To find out more, contact Emma Newlove or Simon Bullen at the Neighbourhood Watch Office on 01785-253938.
Village Design Statement adopted
Following nearly a year of work by a small group of volunteers, the Abbots Bromley Village Design Statement was submitted to East Staffordshire Borough Council in March 2006.
The document (available elsewhere on this website) was created using a series of consultations and reviews that allowed any interested villager to have their say on matters relating to the future development.
Now that the Design Statement has been formally adopted, copies will be printed for use by all those proposing development in the village – whether new build or changes to existing property. The team also hope to be able to provide a copy for each household in the parish.
