Kings Bromley village news

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HS2 in Staffordshire

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.

Open Gardens and Opening of the Renovated Village Hall

This weekend!

The Open Gardens and re-opening of the Village Hall will now be a combined event. The Gardens will be open from 12am to 5pm Sat and Sun 15th and 16th June. The re-opening of the Village Hall will start with the Kings Bromley Harmony Choir performing at 11am on the Saturday.
We now have nine gardens. Proceeds from the event will be split between the Church Restoration Fund and the Village Hall. Watch out for the WI Yarn bombing, the Ryknild Rabble Morris dancers and the jazz band in Jonathan Nason's garden. The Church will be open for a more calm experience.

Allan Howard

Village news from Helen Price - 13th June 2019

As sent to The Mercury

Kings Bromley Open Gardens and Opening of Renovated Village Hall

The Open Gardens and re-opening of the Village Hall will now be a combined event. The Gardens will be open from 12 am to 5 pm Saturday 15th and Sunday 16th June. The re-opening of the Village Hall will start with the Kings Bromley Harmony Choir performing at 11 am on the Saturday.

We now have nine gardens. Proceeds from the event will be split between the Church Restoration Fund and the Village Hall. Watch out for the WI yarn bombing, the Ryknild Rabble Morris dancers and the jazz band in Jonathan Nason’s garden. The church will be open for a more calm experience, decorated with flowers to celebrate the weekend.

Gardening Guild

For the May meeting, Gardening Guild members and friends enjoyed the evening in the garden of two of the members, Janet Stubbings and Paul Woolley. There was a lot to see in the garden, with a large greenhouse, vegetable garden and flower borders; everyone had a good time chatting together over glasses of wine, cheese and biscuits.
The next meeting will be on Monday 17 June, when Kevin Reynolds will come to talk on "One for Sorrow, One for Joy - Folklore of Gardens".

Village news from Helen Price - 30th May 2019

As sent to The Mercury

Kings Bromley Open Gardens and Opening of Renovated Village Hall

The Open Gardens and re-opening of the Village Hall will now be a combined event. The Gardens will be open from 12 am to 5 pm Saturday 15th and Sunday 16th June. The re-opening of the Village Hall will start with the Kings Bromley Harmony Choir performing at 11 am on the Saturday.

We now have nine gardens. Proceeds from the event will be split between the Church Restoration Fund and the Village Hall. Watch out for the WI yarn bombing, the Ryknild Rabble Morris dancers and the jazz band in Jonathan Nason’s garden. The church will be open for a more calm experience, decorated with flowers to celebrate the weekend.

Iron Man event, Sunday 9th June

The Iron Man event will again pass through Kings Bromley resulting in road closures and restricted access between 7.00 and 11.00 on the morning of 9th June.

Staffordshire Community Speed Watch

There are now 69 active Speedwatch teams in Staffordshire, comprising 327 volunteers. The aim is to stop speeding rather than catch offenders and the very sight of hi-vis jacketed volunteers does make motorists more aware of their speed through built up areas.

The Kings Bromley group is also sending photos of HGVs violating the weight restricted turns on the A515 to the police through CSW. If you catch any offenders on your phone cameras please send the photos to Allan Howard at alan.how8@btinternet.com.

Village news from Helen Price - 23rd May 2019

As sent to The Mercury

KINGS BROMLEY WI MEETING

Well what a difference, we were at the Cricket Club for our May meeting, as our dear village hall is undergoing a long awaited radical change. We are hoping it will be finished for the Open Gardens in June.

Our anthem, Jerusalem, was sung as normal, with the young men playing cricket outside wondering what was going on!! It was a ’Resolutions’ evening. WI members vote on the two shortlisted resolutions for this year – ‘Don’t fear the smear’ and ‘A call against the decline in local bus services’. The WI nationwide will back the one that achieves the most votes. The WI has over 210,000 members so we definitely make a difference when lobbying government, councils and industry to behave more responsibly. As individuals we can all make a difference whether aiming to save water, stopping the use of plastic bottles and recycling everything we possibly can.

Our speaker was Cat Stuart, who gave us a ‘Move it or lose it’ talk followed by 30 minutes or so of practical exercises. It was good fun as well as useful and all thirty one members present enjoyed themselves. We are really pleased that we now have 51 members, which is great news. There is always a warm welcome for any lady who enjoys a night out, socialising with tea, coffee and biscuits enjoying varied speakers – we are a very friendly bunch and we don’t bite!

For June we will be celebrating our WI’s 90th birthday at Mabel’s, Curborough, but back in the village hall for our 4th July meeting. This will be a ‘Swishing’ evening. Each person attending should bring 3 items of clothing, clean and tidy of course as it is not a jumble sale. Items will be sold for £2 each. It should be great fun.

Join us, you will be very welcome.

House of Commons Select Committee

Kings Bromley Parish Council appear before the House of Commons Select Committee to keep Common Lane Open during HS2 Construction Phase

For some time, Kings Bromley Parish Council has been pressing to keep Common Lane open during the Construction Phase of HS2. Although HS2 had agreed to provide a link road when construction was completed, their plan was to close Common Lane for up to 5 years whilst construction was under way. Everybody agreed that this would cause massive difficulties, especially since all traffic from surrounding farms and business units would be forced to pass the Richard Crosse Primary School to turn onto the A515 at its junction with Crawley Lane. Staffordshire County Council and Lichfield District Council were all in support of the line the Parish Council was taking.

The House of Commons Select Committee were in no doubt about the strength of feeling on this matter by the number of Petitions they received. Because of this, The Chairman - James Duddridge MP and one of its members made an unannounced visit to the area to review the situation at first hand. The visit confirmed their opinion that there was no way additional traffic should be forced to come past the School to reach the Crawley Lane/A515 junction, especially since it is also adjacent to the Co-op and Royal Oak car park.

At the Select Committee Meeting at the House of Commons held on 29th April, HS2 outlined their new proposal (Option 7) to construct a link road from the proposed new roundabout at the junction of the A513/515 Rugeley Road to the left-hand bend on Crawley Lane as it approaches Common Lane near Thimble Hall.

Although good progress has been made, the plans must be developed further and full agreement must be reached between all affected parties - HS2, Staffordshire County Council, and the affected landowners. The Select Committee were very clear that Option 7 was their preferred way - in fact the only viable way - forward, and that the road should be built before HS2 Construction commences in the area.

The Parish Council welcome the requirement to get all sides to agree since this does appear to be the only option that achieves the objective of keeping Common Lane open.

We will keep you informed of any further developments on this significant issue for all concerned.

Charles Cole

Kings Bromley Book Club

The old BT red Phone Box

The Village Phone Box which was bought from BT by the Parish Council has been converted into a small Book Exchange by the Kings Bromley Book Club and is now open. This has helped us to keep the iconic box in the village when so many are being either destroyed or sold for profit. The idea is to take a book and if you wish replace it with a book that you have enjoyed. The Exchange contains books for all ages and is totally free. The Book Club would like to thank Jack Amberton, Rob Braycotton and Phil Brown for their generous help in converting the box to its new use.

Responsible Dog Ownership

The vast majority of dog owners keep their dogs well supervised,

The vast majority of dog owners keep their dogs well supervised, however, at the Parish Council meeting on 10th April, we were made aware of a number of worrying incidents. Firstly, a farmer who farms adjacent to the Trent and Mersey Canal between Handsacre and the canal bridge on Shaw Lane reported that on the 8th April ‘a dog got in with our ewes and lambs and mauled one of our prize ewes to death leaving her lambs now orphan.’ Secondly, on a pavement in Kings Bromley, a dog on a lead was attacked by two unleashed dogs causing the dog and its owner considerable distress. Thirdly, there have been six incidents of customers having been bitten by dogs in the Royal Oak in the last two years causing the owners to ban dogs from certain areas. We would urge all dog owners to make sure that such incidents do not re-occur. On the positive side, we note that there have recently been very few occurrences of dog fouling on our streets.
Kings Bromley Parish Council

Weight Restricted Turns on A515

Since the introduction of the 7.5 tonne weight restricted turns

... on the A515 at Yoxall, Kings Bromley and Woodend Lane there has been a significant reduction of HGV traffic on the A515 and A513. The police have taken seriously the monitoring of the junctions but have to rely heavily on the local communities for information. The local Speedwatch team has been out at the A513 and Woodend Lane junctions and sends photographs of offending vehicles to the police through the Speedwatch coordinator. If you could help by taking photos yourself please forward them to Allan Howard on alan.how8@btinternet.com and I will pass them on to the police. An online camera will soon be installed on the Royal Oak which will catch all offenders.

It has been noticed that in order to circumvent the TROs some lorries have been using the A515, A51, Eastern Avenue route to travel between the A50 and A38. At meetings on 5th April with Lomas Distribution and Tarmac, representatives of YTAG (Yoxall Traffic Action Group) and Kings Bromley Parish Council received assurances that their liveried HGVs would be instructed not to use this route which they accept as both unsafe and uneconomic. These companies are then added to a growing list including Wincanton, Shell, Tesco and JCB who have already made this commitment.

Kings Bromley Parish Council

Dates when Mobile Library will visit

See document

Mobile Library info - Marc 19 (17.9 Kb)

Forthcoming elections

A reminder

If you haven’t already registered to vote at your current address in the past, you will need to do so by 12th April if you want to vote in the parish and district elections that are taking place on 2nd May.

Open Parish Meeting

You are invited

.. to this years open parish meeting on Thursday 11th April at 8pm at the Village Hall. All welcome

Village news from Helen Price - 4th April 2019

As sent to The Mercury

Jumble Sale, Saturday 6th April

The jumble sale will be held at the Village Hall at 2.00 p.m. on Saturday 6th April. Any clothes, small bric-a-brac and books in good condition would be very welcome. Please bring offerings to the hall on the Saturday morning between 10.00 and 11.30 am or ring Peter Gee on 472157 to arrange transport. Offers to help sort and sell the goods would be most welcome; again, please contact Peter Gee.

Spring Fete, Saturday 13th April 2019

Kings Bromley Care Home hold their Spring Fete on Saturday 13th April from 3.00 – 5.00 pm. Amongst the attractions will be a tombola, craft stalls, raffle and BBQ. Sounds Familiar provide entertainment.

Entrance is free: do come along and support this local event to raise much-needed funds for activities within our local nursing home. Anybody wishing to volunteer their time and help at the Home, e.g. with activities such as knitting etc. or our garden project, would be warmly welcomed. Please ring Emma on 01283 576145 for further information.

Mobile Library

With effect from April the Mobile Library service is changing its dates and times in Kings Bromley. Starting from Friday 12th April the library van will be calling fortnightly on a Friday from 10.00 am until 11.00 am. It will still be sited in Lanes Close opposite the Richard Crosse School.

HS2 update

In February, HS2 issued what are known as ‘Additional Provisions’

In February, HS2 issued what are known as ‘Additional Provisions’. These are changes to the Bill that was published last year which either take into account objections that were raised by individuals, councils, public bodies etc or the need for HS2 to take additional land for construction purposes in addition to that outlined in the original Bill

The major changes outlined in the Additional provisions affecting Kings Bromley include changes to the Railway Junction at Handsacre where the new High-Speed line links into the existing West Coast main-line, straightening and widening Woodend Lane where it joins the A515 and measures to assist drainage from the proposed Borrow Pits into existing water-courses.

However, the major issue for the Parish concerns Common Lane which originally HS2 wanted to close where it crosses the new railway track. Last year, the Parish Council argued strongly that this road should remain open. Although HS2 agreed that a new link road should be built between Common Lane and the A515, we found out when we presented our Petition to the House of Commons Select Committee that this road would not be open until after the construction phase, which could take up to 5 years.There is nothing in the recently published Additional Provisions that helps this situation.

Therefore, the Parish Council have objected strongly to this and submitted a further
Petition to the House of Commons Select Committee requesting that HS2 proposes a suitable alternative that ensures Common Lane remains open. If this does not happen, ALL Common Lane traffic will be forced to use Crawley Lane past Richard Crosse Primary School - a situation that is totally unacceptable for all concerned. The stand the Parish Council has taken is supported by Staffordshire County Council, Lichfield District Council, Richard Crosse School, NFU, and landowners and businesses affected by this decision.

A copy of the Petition has been posted on the Kings Bromley Parish Council web site so it can be accessed from there. However, please contact me If you have any issues or concerns on this by e-mailing me on charleswcole13@aol.com or phone me on 01543 472423.

As always, we will keep you up-to-date with any developments on the Parish Council web-site or in the Parish magazine.

Cllr. Charles Cole
Copy of petition is here HS2 Hybrid Bill - Copy of petition March 2019 (61.2 Kb)

Village news from Helen Price - 21st March 2019

As sent to The Mercury

Spring Fete, Saturday 13th April 2019

Kings Bromley Nursing Home hold their Spring Fete on Saturday 13th April from 3.00 – 5.00 pm. Amongst the attractions will be a tombola, craft stalls, raffle and BBQ. There’s entertainment in the form of Sounds Familiar.

Entrance is free: do come along and support this local event to raise much-needed funds for activities within our local nursing home. Anybody wishing to volunteer their time and help at the Home, e.g. with activities such as knitting etc. or our garden project, would be warmly welcomed. Please ring Emma on 01283 576145 for further information.

Kings Bromley WI

The Women's Institute celebrated their AGM on 7th March with a fabulous cheese and wine buffet.

Sue Penfold was voted in for her 4th year as our president and we gained a new committee member in Sarah. Ladies enjoyed the buffet and wine celebration whilst taking part in a Fair Trade Quiz hosted by Teresa from the Co-op. The Co-op donated some Fair Trade wine for the raffle and displayed a stall with home made Fair Trade banana bread and coffee cakes for members to enjoy. The three winning teams all had Fair Trade chocolate as a prize. The members learnt a lot about the Fair Trade movement which incidentally was a cause originally supported by the WI in 1992, and continues to be a focus of their work.

We have grown in numbers this year and had several new members join us for our AGM. We shall meet again in April when we will hear from the Blood Delivery services, who will be our Charity for 2019.

Wednesday Club

Our March meeting saw us “Behind Bars” with Steve Geale. Steve an IT and Advanced Maths teacher had spent a total of 11 years “inside” - teaching first at HMP Stafford from 2002 – 2006 and then at HMP Featherstone from 2007 - 2014.
Steve began by explaining the different prison categories and the purpose behind custodial sentencing. He then outlined the many underlying reasons why people find themselves in prison including mental health issues, drink, drugs, greed and accident. The latter often related to Health and Safety regulations. He also outlined the high rates of re-offending with some 84% of prisoners re-offending within 4 years of leaving prison.
Steve went on to describe prisons as small towns with each cell being a residence. These “towns” have healthcare facilities, a shop, library, gym, workshops and an education centre providing inmates with opportunities for work, recreation and education.
Steve concluded by telling us of some of the people he had met during his career. Among others was the Oldbury forger who at his most prolific was producing £110,000 worth of counterfeit £20.00 notes per day. After serving a 7-year sentence he was employed by De La Rue makers of our paper money. The 26 -year old convicted for the production and supply of drugs. On his release he obtained a gardening job at a National Trust property where he cultivated the perfect conditions for growing cannabis! The prisoner convicted of GBH who used his 6-year sentence to gain a First-Class Honours degree in Maths and now works as a statistician. Finally, the prisoner who following his escape in December 2004 sent the prison governor a Christmas card! A tradition he continued until his recapture in 2008!
Next Meeting: Our next meeting will be on Wednesday April 3rd at 2.30pm at The Royal Oak when Kevin Reynolds will talk about Dragonflies.