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Village news from Helen Price - 19th Sept 2019 - Part 1

As sent to The Mercury

Gardening Guild

The Chairman congratulated everyone on Kings Bromley winning the Best Kept Village competition.
After a very enjoyable visit to Paul Shum's garden in Yoxall in July, when members were amazed by the variety and quality of his plants on display, the meeting in August welcomed Brian Storer who came to talk about 'Growing for Showing - Flowers'.
Although Brian grows more vegetables than flowers, he does enjoy growing flowers, especially fuchsias, begonias, dahlias and begonias. He gave a lot of information on taking cuttings, different varieties of flowers and how to display them at Shows.
Members enjoyed a visit on a sunny day to Shugborough in September with Dianne Barre acting as guide to the walled garden, formal gardens and buildings, giving a lot of interesting information on the history of the hall and surroundings.
The next meeting will take place on 21st October, when there will be a talk by Jeff Bates on 'The Winter Garden'.

Wednesday Club

This is the motto of the Midland Air Ambulance Charity (MAAC) and our speaker in September was MAAC volunteer Sally McMahon.
The Midlands Air Ambulance Charity currently operates and funds 3 air ambulances covering 6 Midlands counties - Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Worcestershire and the West Midlands. It is one of the busiest air ambulance services operating in the UK and has responded to over 52,000 missions since its formation on May 1st 1991. It has 3 regional airbases at RAF Cosford in Shropshire, Strensham in Worcestershire and Tatenhill in Staffordshire. Between them the 3 air ambulances cover around 5,500 square miles and 6 million people and can reach 90% of the region within 8 minutes.
Sally described each air ambulance as a “mini hospital” or a “mobile A&E”. Each aircraft has a crew of 3 – a pilot and 2 critical care paramedics – or – a pilot, 1 critical care paramedic and a doctor and carries full life support medical equipment.
In addition to the 3 air ambulances MAAC operates 3 rapid response vehicles - deployed when the helicopters are unable to fly - and a critical care car based in Birmingham and the Black Country.
Staffordshire has a call out rate of 24% - second only to the West Midlands with a call out rate of 26%. Current data shows that road traffic accidents account for 40% of all missions; cardiac arrests 24%, falls 17%, sports injuries 8%, hospital transfers 6% and stabbings 5%.
Air ambulance pilots will land on places as diverse as farmland, village greens, main roads and bowling greens. Hazards to landing include wires, hedgerows, properties and people filming the arrival of the air ambulance. Crews work in close cooperation with the other emergency services to achieve the best possible outcome for patients.
It costs £9 million to fund 2,000 missions per year. MAAC receives no Government or National Lottery funding relying on donations from businesses and individuals, its charity shops, open days and the MAAC lottery.
Sally concluded her talk with a short video clip of a young mother from Sutton Coldfield who at 37 weeks pregnant was stabbed multiple times. Miraculously thanks to the crew of the air ambulance and other emergency services both mother and baby survived.

Date of Next Meeting: Wednesday October 2nd at 2.30pm in the Village Hall when our speaker will be from Cats Protection.
Now see part 2 of the report

Village news from Helen Price - 19th Sept 2019 - part 2

Part 2

Kings Bromley WI September meeting

Well, what an amazing evening. Our guest speaker was WPC Kim Coates, of Staffordshire Police Service. Kim transferred from normal police duties to be a dog handler some five years ago. As Kim was on duty, we switched the order for the evening just in case she was called, to give her the opportunity to explain her responsibilities in some detail and to demonstrate just how clever her canine charges are: they did not disappoint.

Kim had driven an hour to be with us, along with Finn, her ‘crocker’ spaniel and her very handsome German shepherd. Kim began by explaining the sort of work a dog handler within the Staffordshire police gets involved in, day and night. She and her dogs are involved in seeking out drugs of various kinds in all sorts of circumstances as well as giving chase to criminals. Kim’s input was fascinating and members were keen to ask all sorts of questions associated with her work which she answered with the benefit of her experience and with good humour.

It wasn’t just theory though: Kim had some cotton wool type material in a small container, which carried the smell of drugs that had been impounded at some point. She did warn members that Finn, her young crocker, was enthusiastic and a bundle of energy. It was not an understatement. Kim brought him into the hall and from the word go Finn never stood still once. Finn obviously loves his work and very quickly found the container that Kim had hidden. His joy was boundless as he was rewarded with his favourite ball. His second opportunity was equally successful. What a dog! All the time he was in the hall, he was running here there and everywhere, just in case there was anything else hidden. Kim’s commands though quickly brought him to her side. Later Finn was returned to the police car and Kim’s German shepherd was brought into the hall. A very different type of dog, and one that Kim kept on the leash for obvious reasons. Although only young he is intelligent and capable, supporting Kim in her non-drug related duties, such as giving chase to criminals on the run in Staffordshire.

So all in all, a fascinating insight into what Kim’s working life involves and how dog handlers support other areas within the police service. We were all truly impressed by the work the dogs undertake, their behaviour and Kim’s dedication to the job she does. It was an excellent hour or so, which we all enjoyed.

There followed the usual formal business for the evening, which concluded with refreshments and the raffle.

Our speaker next month, 3rd October, will be Ian Rogerson. Ian’s talk is entitled ‘Smile Please and Say Cheese’, and will include cheese sampling.

Help in enforcing the weight restriction

The Parish Council is seeking your help

The Parish Council is seeking your help to 'police' the turn restriction in the village. We are asking parishioners, if they witness vehicles breaking the restriction, to note the company name on the vehicle (not the number plate) and to inform the parish chairman. The intention is that the council will contact the firm concerned to inform them that one of their drivers is breaking the law. Please ring Cllr. Allan Howard on 01543 472720 or 07792 623967.

LCD urges - Waste Less Plastic

A message from Lichfield Council

https://www.lichfielddc.gov.uk/news

Village news from Helen Price - 5th Sept 2019

As sent to The Mercury

Card Sale

Our next Card Sale will be held at the Village Hall on Saturday morning, 7th September from 10.30a.m. until 12.00 noon.
The usual range of items will be available: Birthday cards, cards for many other occasions, wrapping paper, gifts, serviettes, postcards, bottle bags, notelets, hand-crafted cards, and much more, all at bargain prices! A variety of Christmas cards will also be available. (There will only be 108 shopping days to Christmas!)
Entry is FREE. Everyone is very welcome. Do come along and have a free cup of coffee and biscuits and a chat with friends after you browse.
A selection of Gill’s cakes will also be available to purchase.

Quiz and Grand Draw, Saturday 9th November 2019

Thank you to everyone who has so generously donated a prize towards this year’s Grand Draw. We have already been promised a first prize of £100 cash, a Mystery Hamper, a £30 voucher from the Royal Oak, an MOT up to £45 donated by the Roundabouts Garage, a Morrisons £20 voucher, Champagne, Whisky, Brandy, Sherry, wine and several other prizes.
If anyone else is willing to donate a prize for this year’s draw, we would be very grateful if you would let us know please. Gill and Glen Wright, tel. 472622.

Harvest Lunch

This year’s Harvest Lunch will commence at 1.00p.m. on Saturday 5th October in the Village Hall. The meal will be similar to that of previous years and tickets will soon be available for this event, cost £8 or £4 for under 13s.
Numbers are limited so, if you don’t want to miss it, please contact Gill or Glen on 472622 to reserve your seat.
A short performance by the Kings Bromley Harmony choir will round off the afternoon.

Harmony Choir Concert in Church

On Saturday, 21st September the Harmony Choir will be giving a concert in church starting at 3.00p.m. As on previous occasions there will not be an entry charge but a retiring collection will be taken.
Everyone is very welcome so come along and support your local choir and church.
Light refreshments will be available.

Village news from Helen Price - 29th August 2019

As sent to The Mercury

Kings Bromley Wins Best Kept Village Again

Kings Bromley has won the best kept large village, and best kept overall village, in the Cannock & Lichfield District of Staffordshire organised by the Staffordshire Community Foundation: beating 13 other villages. This means we have won seven times in the last eight years and the BKV totem pole will soon be re-erected on the jubilee seat area.
The Parish Council, which organises the effort, would like to thank all villagers who pick up litter and dog mess and put up the BKV posters in their windows. With very few exceptions front gardens and frontages adjoining pavements have been very well maintained, and in some cases, spectacularly well planted with hanging baskets, pots and planters. We would also like to thank those village organisations who maintain particular areas, in no particular order they are: the Show Committee for the Show Field, the Gardening Guild for the Village Hall frontage, the War Memorial and the Jubilee seat area, the Co-op, the Royal Oak for its new garden and its hanging baskets, the Churchyard Team, Kings Bromley United Charity for the upkeep of the almshouses gardens, the Book Group for the phone box and the Richard Crosse School who also provide the posters which are displayed in the Village Hall. The Parish Council itself maintains the Village Hall play area, the Lanes Close wildlife area, the Leofric Close play area and the two notice boards. There are also several individuals who put in a great deal of their own time on maintaining the various public areas.
Two of the children’s posters were entered into the Countywide competition. Lottie W was awarded Highly Commended in the 5-7 age group and Isabella Highly Commended in the 8-11 age group. Well done to them.
The BKV competition is judged during May, June and July. We believe, however, that the efforts made to ensure that the village is one that we can be proud of extend throughout the year.

Card Sale

Our next Card Sale will be held at the Village Hall on Saturday morning, 7th September from 10.30a.m. until 12.00 noon.
The usual range of items will be available: Birthday cards, cards for many other occasions, wrapping paper, gifts, serviettes, postcards, bottle bags, notelets, hand-crafted cards, and much more, all at bargain prices! A variety of Christmas cards will also be available. (There will only be 108 shopping days to Christmas!)
Entry is FREE. Everyone is very welcome. Do come along and have a free cup of coffee and biscuits and a chat with friends after you browse.
A selection of Gill’s cakes will also be available to purchase.

Gardening Guild Outing, Saturday September 14th

The Gardening Guild will be meeting for their outing at Shugborough Hall at 11.00 am in the car park. Dianne Barre has kindly agreed to give us a guided tour as she has extensive knowledge of Staffordshire gardens, having written much on the subject. All are welcome.

Kings Bromley Bowls Club Whist Drive
The Tuesday Whist drives start again at the Village Hall on Tuesday 1st October, 1.30 for a prompt start at 2.00 pm. These will take place weekly until 17th December, then 7th January – 24th March 2020. All are welcome, £2 includes light refreshments.

HS2 Up-date

HS2 - Review to examine costs and benefits of Rail Project

The Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, has announced this morning (21st August
2019) that the Government is launching a review of HS2 with a ‘go’ or ‘no go’
decision by the end of the year.

It will consider whether and how the project to link London, the Midlands and
Northern England should proceed.

Although billions of Pounds have already been spent, including some in the Kings Bromley area, Mr Shapps has refused to rule out scrapping the project entirely. He said that it was ‘responsible’ to see whether the benefits really ‘stack up’.

The review will be chaired by Douglas Oakervee - a civil engineer and former chair of
HS2 LTD.

WATCH THIS SPACE


I will keep you up to date with any developments.

Charles Cole

Best Kept Village win!

Kings Bromley Wins Best Kept Village Again

Lichfield District of Staffordshire organised by the Staffordshire Community Foundation: beating 13 other villages. This means we have won seven times in the last eight years and the BKV totem pole will soon be re-erected on the jubilee seat area.
The Parish Council, which organises the effort, would like to thank all villagers who pick up litter and dog mess and put up the BKV posters in their windows. With very few exceptions front gardens and frontages adjoining pavements have been very well maintained, and in some cases, spectacularly well planted with hanging baskets, pots and planters. We would also like to thank those village organisations who maintain particular areas, in no particular order they are: the Show Committee for the Show Field, the Gardening Guild for the Village Hall frontage, the War Memorial and the Jubilee seat area, the Co-op, the Royal Oak for its new garden and its hanging baskets, the Churchyard Team, Kings Bromley United Charity for the upkeep of the almshouses gardens, the Book Group for the phone box and the Richard Crosse School who also provide the posters which are displayed in the Village Hall. The Parish Council itself maintains the Village Hall play area, the Lanes Close wildlife area, the Leofric Close play area and the two notice boards. There are also several individuals who put in a great deal of their own time on maintaining the various public areas.
Two of the children’s posters were entered into the County wide competition. Lottie W was awarded Highly Commended in the 5-7 age group and Isabella Highly Commended in the 8-11 age group. Well done to them.
The BKV competition is judged during May, June and July. We believe, however, that the efforts made to ensure that the village is one that we can be proud of extend throughout the year.

Allan Howard, Chairman, Kings Bromley Parish Council.

Policing of Weight Restricted Turns on A515

At a meeting of Kings Bromley Parish Council

Letter sent to Sgt. Kevin Royce of Lichfield Police: At a meeting of Kings Bromley Parish Council on Wednesday 10th July there was an agenda item on this issue. We regret that you could not attend but were glad that your representatives PC Amy Sketchley and PCSO Adam McAree could. At that meeting there were representatives of Draycott in the Clay Parish Council, Yoxall Parish Council and YTAG, the Yoxall Traffic Action Group.

The Police representatives reported that they had attended the A515/A513 junction several times and tickets and convictions had been made. When they had attended, the number of HGVs flouting the ban had been quite small. They had also visited companies that they believed were constant offenders. They stated that the photos of offending vehicles sent to them by us and others could not be used to prosecute offenders, which was contrary to what we previously understood. It was made clear that, given pressure on police resources, the junction could only be occasionally manned, and that any help we could provide as to when a police presence would be most effective would be welcomed. We will provide this information by analysing the stream from the webcam sited at the junction.

While we understood that specific instances could not be named, we asked the PC and PCSO to provide us with summary information on the number of times the junction had been policed, the number of tickets issued/convictions made, and the number of haulage companies visited. It was made clear than this was important in order to reassure our parishioners, who see offenders ignoring the turning ban every day, that police action was being taken. We await this information.

In a general open discussion it was made quite clear to the officers that there was a strong feeling amongst parishioners that the turning ban was being flouted regularly and that an increased and better targeted police presence would help. District Councillor Nick Binney, himself an ex-Police Inspector, made the point that the most effective way of treating this problem was by approaching haulage companies directly. This confirms our belief. We have had a very positive reaction from several companies, who have not only committed to instructing their drivers not to flout the turning bans, but in many instances - Wincanton, Shell, Lomas Distribution, Tarmac and Tesco being examples - to avoid using the A515 at all, as they recognise it, especially through Yoxall, to be dangerous to the local inhabitants and environmentally damaging along its whole length. We believe that HGVs from the Fradley Industrial estate now use the A38 route almost exclusively.

We will now stop sending you photos of offending vehicles, but we will collate the information we have to let you know when offending is most prevalent and which companies are involved. We appreciate your cooperation and add, on a positive note, that the HGV traffic on the A515 and A513 has reduced dramatically since the TROs were implemented without, as far as we can tell, any detrimental effect on other routes in the County. This confirms our belief that a total HGV ban on the A515 between Woodend Lane and Stubby Lane is the logical next step. A solution which, I am sure that you would agree, would also be much easier to police.

Allan Howard, Chairman, Kings Bromley Parish Council.

Village Hall Refurbishment

Below find cost of the refurbishment work undertaken

To date the cost of the work undertaken to refurbish the village hall is £67,823.00p excluding vat which can be reclaimed. This figure covers the cost of the new kitchen, toilets, including providing a disabled facility, lobby area and storage. Further work on the main hall, including double rear doors to the garden and decorating will cost a further £8,955.42p. The Village Hall Committee will fund work to the main hall floor, decorating to the stairs and new doors to the upper rooms. Any questions on the funding provided should be directed to the Parish Clerk in the first instance.

HS2 Bill - Parliamentary Progress

High Speed Rail (West Midlands - Crewe) Bill - Up-date

Just to keep you all up-to-date, the HS2 Bill cleared all its stages in the House of Commons on 15th July with a substantial majority. It passed its First Reading in the House of Lords on 16th July.

If anybody wishes to Petition against aspects of this Bill to the House of Lords, the Petitioning Period is from 17th July
to 18th August.

Although we have received proposals from HS2 regarding finding an alternative to Common Lane traffic being forced to go past
Richard Crosse School following our Appeal to the House of Commons Select Committee, the issue has still not been satisfactorily resolved. Therefore, the Parish Council is in constant contact with Staffordshire County Council, HS2 and the landowners directly affected to monitor what is happening.

The Parish Council HS2 Sub-Group will be considering these developments and will communicate any further actions.
If any Kings Bromley resident wishes to discuss any issues relating to this, please let me know by e-mailing me on charleswcole13@aol.com.

Charles Cole