“More Tea Vicar?”
This is the third year that the Ampney
Crucis Village Hall Committee have been able to take advantage of Air in G –
Arts in Rural Gloucestershire, which supports live events in Village Halls.
This year we are hosting “More Tea, Vicar?” on Friday 27 February at 7:30pm in Ampney Crucis Village Hall.
Previous events have been of a very high standard and well worth attending, so
do join us.
“More Tea Vicar?” is a frolic through Betjeman’s England with the songs and satire of Noël Coward, Joyce Grenfell, Ivor Novello and other great English songwriters. With Susan Flannery and Michael Lunts. Tickets are only £5 and available from Anne Bridges ( 652471.
Leaflets about other Air in G events are available at the Hall.
April Fool?
The ever popular Ampney Crucis Village Quiz will be on Thursday 1st April in the village hall commencing at 7:30pm. Round up your teams of four and pass your team names to Anne Bridges ( 652471. She will also be happy to answer any enquiries about the night – except the answers! Entry fee £4 per team. Refreshments available.
Village Hall
Bookings for the Village Hall, for clubs or private events can be made from Paddy or Peggy Thompson ( 851619
Village Fete
The new committee is already working hard on this event. Please put the new date in your diaries now – Saturday 26 June at the Ampney Crucis Cricket Field. There will be new sideshows as well as some of the old favourites and hopefully other activities over the weekend. Look out for more details in the next edition. Peter Cottingham ( 851223 and John Ducker ( 851524 will both be happy to hear from anyone with suggestions, offers and enquiries.
Wine tasting Evening
To our delight, all the tickets were sold for this Village Hall Christmas event. The tone of the evening was set when we were given two blind tastings and asked to decide which was champagne and which a sparkling white wine. The answers delighted some and astounded others. As the wine flowed, opinions became more voluble and suddenly everyone was an expert!!
Refreshments and a raffle encouraged people to linger and even buy extra wine to continue the jollities. Special thanks to Roger from Oddbins for being such a convivial Master of Ceremonies.
Village Hall AGM.
Monday 5 April, 7:30pm. Nominations for the three elected positions on the Committee to Anne Bridges ( 652471
Broadband Campaign
Following the item in the last edition of The Ampney Times, an article on the possible extension of Broadband access to the Ampneys is included on page 2. The article has been prepared by Paul Pestille of Cotswold Community Networks, who has generously sponsored this edition of the newsletter.
Also, since the last edition, BT has now set the trigger level for Poulton exchange at 250 in line with all rural communities. The number of households registered is now 132, just over half the required number. If you want to register go to www.bt.com/broadband and sign up via one of the ISPs.
Quilts, Coffee and Cakes Charity Day
A
display of quilts and textile art is being held at St Peter’s RC Church Hall,
St Peter’s Road, Cirencester. Saturday 21 February , 10-30am – 4.30pm. All proceeds will be donated to
the Cobalt Cancer screening unit. Admission £1 children under 16 free.
Refreshments available. Nearest parking is Brewery car park (town Tesco).
Contact Annie Kelly (
850348 for further information
Broadband – Paul Pestille - Cotswold Community Networks
High speed Internet access is fast
becoming an essential communications tool, in demand for researching homework
assignments, emailing friends & relations, tele-working from home or even
supporting business applications.
However, in our (relatively) rural area, BT do not consider upgrading our telephone exchange economically viable, and thus we are unable to benefit from always-on high speed internet access enjoyed by many people in more populated parts of the country.
For example, the Poulton exchange (which covers 850 and 851 numbers) has a trigger level set of 250 subscribers. This means that nearly 50% of all houses in the entire exchange area have to register with BT’s broadband service for BT to consider upgrading the exchange.
Despite much publicity from the Government relating to broadband internet access for all, many communities will not be broadband enabled in the near future – and in some cases never, based on existing technologies.
Responding to demands from Poulton villagers, an alternative approach using well established, low power (and harmless) radio transmissions has been setup to distribute high speed internet access to anyone within reach of a transmitter. The transmitters themselves are small, stick-like aerials normally mounted on an existing TV pole and do not require planning permission. They are able to broadcast their signal up to 10km in a direct line, although they do not penetrate large trees or other solid objects in their path. Normally only two or three are required to cover a large area (see if you can spot the two that cover Poulton and part of Meysey Hampton next time you are passing through!).
The service is radiated out from Poulton, picked up by other aerials and repeated onwards, thereby extending the range. Currently this is how coverage is planned for Meysey Hampton, Down Ampney and Driffield.
An alternative approach for the Ampneys is to provide a dedicated phone line through the Poulton exchange that is permanently connected to the internet at one end, and attached to an aerial located at an appropriate high point in Ampney Crucis village. This aerial would then re-broadcast the signals for villagers to access. Unlike other systems whereby large numbers of subscribers and upfront deposits are required, this approach can be put in place within 30 days and only requires six people to make it financially viable.
Volunteers are required to host the main aerial in return for free broadband access as well as playing a valuable part in bringing high speed internet access to the community.
For more information, please contact Paul Pestille ( 851976 or email info@cotswoldcommunitynetworks.co.uk
If you have internet access, an interesting document has been created by the Countryside Agency entitled “Broadband in rural areas”, which covers this type of broadband approach.
School News – Headmaster Andy Simpson
The new year has got off to a busy
start at the school with a new member of staff joining our team. Mr Gavin Pugh
has taken on responsibility for our year 2/3 class. Our computer network is
also finally being established at the end of this month. This will give all
classes much improved access to educational resources and
allow computers to support the children’s learning. We are planning
our India day for later this half
term, thank you for the ideas and contributions we have received. A science day
is planned for March, again any resources or local expertise will be gratefully
received.
Cinderella of Village Groups?
The Mothers’ Union is a world-wide organisation of over 1 million members. Our aim is to promote marriage and family life in every way. In Gloucestershire we run a money advice service for those in financial difficulties, we help in the play area at Leyhill Prison, the Contact Centre in Cheltenham and the Mother and Baby unit at Eastwood Park Prison from the end of January. We meet monthly in this benefice – see Social section for details Rosemary Franklin
Recycling Christmas
What produces one billion cards, 83 sq km of wrapping paper, 750 million bottles, 4,200 tonnes of foil, 125,000 tonnes of plastic, 500 million cans and six million dead trees? Answer – Christmas.
Now that it is all over for another year - did you know that both WH Smith and Tesco will take your old Christmas cards and recycle them (and raise money for charity at the same time)? Natural Christmas trees can be taken to the recycling centre at Fosse Cross for composting.
As always, the fortnightly collections can be used for newspapers and magazines, catalogues, ‘junk’ mail, bottles, cans, and empty aerosol cans, Additional black boxes can be obtained from CDC (623613.
Ampney Crucis Parish Council
Planning matters
The Parish Council reviews every planning application relating to the parish. The majority are quite routine and there is no objection.
Occasionally, there are concerns and, after reviewing the application against the Local Plan, the Council may decide to make a formal objection. In all such cases, a copy of the letter of objection is posted on the notice boards.
The Council will always listen to the views of local residents. If you have an objection to a planning application in the parish and wish the Council to consider your views, contact the Parish Clerk, Helen Tonks (640718
Precept for 2004/5
The precept for the coming financial year has been set at £5,500 as against £5,300 for the current financial year. The small increase is to cover increases in such things as insurance premiums, subscriptions and the recommended increase in the salary scales for Clerks.
It was earlier announced that £1,500 would be raised to cover the Council’s commitments to the children’s playground. This is progressing fairly slowly and no expenditure is anticipated in the coming year. If any expenditure is incurred, it will be taken out of the reserves in the interim.
It is also proposed to create 23 more grave spaces in the Burial Ground by clearing some of the banking. The costs will be met from reserves so there will be no impact on the precept.
Drains
Users of Riding Lane between Dudley Corner and the A417 will know that it floods at times of heavy rain. Recently, the water froze and was the cause of a near accident. The Highways authority were quickly in action and new drainage has been installed. There is still work to be done on cleaning out the ditches and it is hoped to get this done in the spring.
A417
In an earlier edition, mention was made of a petition to get the A417 downgraded to a ‘B’ classification in order to remove it from the European lorry route system. Progress is being made and petition forms will shortly be ready for distribution to all parishes between Cirencester and Lechlade
Volunteers are needed; one to act as the main distributor and others to act as signature gatherers. Please contact David Vessey (851438 uk if you are able to help.
The petition is only the start and a quick result is unlikely (the successful introduction of double white lines took nearly three years to achieve). Other initiatives in the general area of traffic calming along the A417 are being planned.
Playground
A meeting was held at the school to discuss the reservations of the school, the police, the playground committee and local residents about the siting of the proposed play area in the football field in Allotment Lane. In the end, an acceptable result was achieved and, as previously reported, the playground will be sited at the end furthest away from the Village Street. Visibility concerns will be allayed by trimming the bushes and shrubs along the wire fence so that the site can easily be seen by people walking or driving along Allotment Lane. The police are believed to be satisfied with this and, once formal acceptance has been received, work on raising the funds can proceed.
Ampney St. Peter News - Sue Tufnell
The Moor
Most of us must have noticed the outstanding work that has been done by Don Underwood and his dog Sally in laying the hedgerow on the west of the Moor. Don was assisted by Terry and our grateful thanks are owed to all of them.
Max Thomas is providing a digger and dumper for the preparatory work on the drainage ditch and Don is organising the re-digging along its length. It will be followed by infill planting of the hedgerow and later reseeding of the much enlarged area.
The A417
Our Ward Counsellor is recommending that the Capital Highway Programme should allow for the use of mobile speed warning equipment in this area - these indicate the required speed limit and flash a warning and that the traffic management programme, like Poulton, should be supported and the reclassification of the A417 should be pursued.
Footpaths
We are grateful that Max Thomas, with the approval of the Footpath Officer, has installed swing gates instead of the original stile at Can Court, which will benefit those that are less mobile. The state of some of the footpath signs is under review.
Neighbourhood Watch
The local monthly crime statistics are posted on the Village Notice Board. Also warnings issued through Neighbourhood Watch are put on the board