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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!

As already notified ...

.... we won the Best Kept Village competition again in 2019. We also won the best village in its class in the district so will again be the recipients of the 'totem pole' (large commemorative sign). This will be erected by the Jubilee bench at the junction of Crawley and the A515. The ceremony will take place at that location on Friday 20th September at 7pm - all welcome to attend. This will be followed by refreshments at the village hall.

Village news from Helen Price - 22nd August 2019

As sent to The Mercury

Kings Bromley Wednesday Club

Our speakers in August were Lin and Pat from the RSPCA’s Burton upon Trent and District Branch Animal Home. Lin began by giving us a brief outline of the foundation of the Society in a London coffee shop in 1824, one of the founders being William Wilberforce. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals – SPCA - as it was then known was granted royal patronage in1837. The RSPCA’s initial focus was on working animals e.g. horses and also cattle. During WW1 and WW2, the RSPCA worked to help the millions of animals enlisted to serve alongside British, Commonwealth and Allied forces.
The Burton and District Branch - as with all branches - is autonomous and responsible for its own fundraising. The Animal Home consists of kennels licenced to accommodate 33 dogs, a cattery for 36 cats and a small animal unit for rabbits, hamsters, rats, mice and guinea pigs. There is also a pond and aviary, a grooming room and an exercise area. It costs £5,000 per week to run the Home and this is raised within the local area from fundraising events, its 2 charity shops and sponsors. The RSPCA receives no government or lottery funding.
The Burton and District Branch has one local inspector responsible for investigating complaints of animal cruelty, abuse and neglect across a wide area which includes Ashby, Netherseal, Packington, Melbourne, Winshill, Uttoxeter, Tamworth, Lichfield, Rugeley and all the villages in between. The local RSPCA Animal Home takes in, cares for and where appropriate rehomes or fosters identified unwanted, neglected and ill-treated animals. There is a waiting list of animals whose owners no longer wish or are unable to keep them with priority being given to those animals in most desperate need.
One of the local Animal Home’s permanent residents is the much-celebrated Boris the pot-bellied pig. He was dumped as a baby and found wandering along a main road. Now suffering from arthritis Boris has been a much-loved guest at the Home for the last 16 years.

Date of Next Meeting: September 4th 2.30pm in the Village Hall when a representative from the Air Ambulance will talk about their work. (This replaces the planned trip to the Anderton Boat Lift which unfortunately has had to be cancelled due to insufficient numbers.)

Village Bake Off

The Women’s Institute this month held an Afternoon Tea with a difference on Saturday 10th August. Villagers were given the opportunity to bake a cake for Kings Bromley’s first Bake Off. The idea was to bake a cake of your choice and allow the village to judge your talents and taste the delights. It was with great surprise that there was so many beautiful cakes to be judged, all very different and all looking amazing too. The hall was packed and everyone enjoyed a delightful afternoon. It was lovely that so many new faces young and old wanted to be part of the event and we are hoping this will become an annual event.

The 3rd place cake was a beautiful Apricot and Almond tart made by Sally Ravencroft a new member to the WI, 2nd place was Millie Wagstaff with her delightful Chocolate and Strawberry surprise cake and 1st place was Teresa Dacosta with her Strawberry Baileys cake. All top 3 cakes won a cash prize and cookery book with 1st place being awarded a silver bowl trophy. The WI would like to thank all who entered; it was fabulous to see everyone taking the time to support the afternoon.
There is no formal meeting for members in August but we will meet again on 5th September to discuss the successes of the Village Show and Bake Off. Our talk will be about Training Your Dog from a police dog handler.

Village news from Helen Price - 15th August 2019

As sent to The Mercury

Kings Bromley Nursing Home, Saturday 17th August

Please come along and enjoy our Summer Fete at Kings Bromley Nursing Home at 3.00 pm on Saturday 17th August. Your support will be very welcome as all proceeds go to this worthwhile cause.

Gardening Guild, Monday 19th August.

Our next meeting will be on Monday 19th August at 7.45 pm. in the Village Hall when Brian Storer will be talking about “Growing for Showing Flowers”. All are welcome.

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

Suspicious activity and drug use in the village

Reports have been received from the police.

At the last parish council meeting PSCO Tracy Horton reported that there have been instances of youths gathering at some locations and possible taking drugs. Resident are asked to report any suspicious activity directly to the police by calling 101.