6th November 2011

Important Public Meeting                                                                 

The Clarion really does hope it has not escaped your attention that there is a big public meeting in Scothern this Wednesday evening.    The object of the meeting is to see if there is anything we can do to prevent Scothern falling behind Sudbrooke, Nettleham and Langworth in the provision of what is now called Next Generation Access – fast broadband to you and me.

It is true that a lot of people will not appreciate the need for action now in order to prepare for the future explosion of broadband provision.  However, we are lucky to have an informed and intelligent community and we know that when the spirit moves us we can work together to improve our village when necessary – many older residents will remember the efforts that had to be made to ensure we did not lose our school to Sudbrooke.

If we can achieve fast broadband for Scothern everyone will benefit – the school, local businesses, families, the elderly, professionals, students.  Even if your only interest in technology is a bit of telly you will soon be disappointed if we get left behind.

The meeting is 7.00 p.m. for 7.30 p.m. on Wednesday, 9^th November, in the main hall of Ellison Boulters School.   There will be a cup of tea or coffee on arrival if you want one and there should be representatives of the County Council and West Lindsey District Council in attendance.  There will be a forty minute presentation by the Community Interest Company, NextGenus, who will explain how we could leapfrog to the front of the broadband queue if we are up for it. There will also be a Q & A session. 

At the very least it will be interesting to see who turns out – and who doesn’t!

You do not have to be a geek to attend, you just need to have an interest in the future of Scothern and its families.  Please come if you can – this is a one off event which won’t be happening again.

Christmas Tree

Not only are Scothern residents a highly intelligent lot (see below), they are also very generous and community spirited.  As you know there has been a lot of support for the idea of a Scothern Christmas Tree and now it looks like becoming a reality.  Mark Harris of Mark Harris Commercials is donating the tree, farmers David and Andrew Straw are even now preparing the substantial base required for fixing it and have agreed to erect it, and Tim Cieslik of Spot On Electrical, The Green, Scothern, has agreed to do the electrical installation.   This all represents a contribution to the community of over £2,000 in value and makes the project possible.  Hopefully the tree will be up and lit by the beginning of December and with a bit of luck we should be able to organise a celebration of the success of this community initiative with Christmas Tree music and jollity.  What do you think – it is short notice but could the chorale or the school choir (or both) get involved? It is your Christmas tree and any  offers of jollifications will be welcomed.

New residents                                   

It will not have escaped the attention of eagle eyed Clarion readers that we seem to be getting a preponderance of doctors in Scothern. In the last two editions our new residents section included three doctors and a computer engineer, so it will come as no surprise that our latest new residents are Doctor Ian Robinson and his engineer wife, Helen, who have recently moved in to number 24 Main Street, along with their border collie, Blue.

Helen is not only an engineer but also has a degree in hospitality management, opening her first hotel in Blackpool at the age of twentyone. She is currently changing careers and is training in various alternative health therapies including Kore Therapy and reflexology ready to start her own alternative health practice.

Ian is not a medical doctor (phew), his doctorate is in astrophysics (or as the Clarion prefers to think – rocket science).  Until recently both he and Helen worked in traffic light software technology at the nationally renowned Nettleham company founded by Helen’s father, the late Brian Simmonite, who was himself a Scothern resident.

Welcome to the village, Ian and Helen.  And Ian, if we come across a problem that actually IS rocket science then we know where to come!

Scothern Vicar arrested

If you wrote a book but didn’t want anyone at all to read it you would probably give it a title with a word like premonstratensian in it.  By doing this you would ensure that almost no-one would know what the book was about, hence defeating the object of a title.  You might also make the title extremely long, so that people would be bored before getting to the book itself. 

By this token almost no-one will be interested in the book launch of  “Custodians of Continuity?  The premonstratensian Abbey at Barlings and the Landscape of Ritual” which takes place at Scothern Church, 3.30 p.m. on Saturday 26^th November.  

However, the Clarion urges you to ignore the pretentious title and go along for the atmospheric music (Lincoln Society of Recorder Players), the tea and cakes and to catch a glimpse of some local history in the shape of an historic Scothern manuscript circa 1350 along with some ancient bits of stone column from underneath our church.   You might also get to hear the story of how that Scothern vicar got to be arrested and other tales of how the abbot was hanged, drawn and quartered and the like.  Definitely worth a look.   Tickets (free) from Sue Leadbetter on 862333.

Pensioner to leap from plane

On Saturday 26^th November local resident Alfie Cook plans to throw himself from a plane in his first ever sky dive shortly after celebrating his 65^th birthday.  The jump is in aid of  Sheffield Children’s Hospital where Alfie’s grand-daughter, Annabel, has had such great care in her fight against leukaemia.  If you would like to support Alfie and Annabel please go to http://www.justgiving.com/alfiecook.   What an excellent grand-father, eh?

30 October 2011

Oh What a Night                                                                             

What a memorable night we had in Scothern when the great Graham Gooch came to talk to us.  The huge marquee at the back of the village hall was packed and all the guests (mostly fit looking men according to a survey the Clarion conducted amongst the few ladies present) really enjoyed the occasion.  Goochy was on sparkling form and gave us amazing insights into Botham’s captaincy (involved women), how the wait before getting up to speak can seem a very long time indeed (you had to be there)  and was very accessible for the Q & A session.

Well done to the Cricket Club for a great night out, and we look forward to another event next year.

(Memo to chef – when you know there is going to be a roomful of fit, strong, hungry men don’t let them help themselves, otherwise there will be a disaaaaaaster!)

Oh What Another Night

The Cricket Club Masked Ball was not quite so well attended (one hundred and thirty) but was a very glamorous event indeed with everyone masked and costumed.  Prizes for best pumpkin were given (don’t think this is code for anything – there really were pumpkins) and there was live music in an exotic, Halloween themed marquee.   It was ambitious of the Cricket Club to put on two major events on one weekend, and the Clarion congratulates them on pulling it off.

New residents

In our last edition we introduced a section on new residents which was very well received.  It seems we enjoy knowing how our community is growing and developing.

This week’s new residents are a young family of four who have moved into the Alders.  Dr Manish Kakkar works as  a consultant anaesthetist at Lincoln County Hospital and his wife is a paediatrician working in the same hospital .  Their son goes to Queen Elizabeth Grammar School and their daughter is at Ellison Boulters.

The Clarion sends a warm welcome to the Kakkar family.  Thank you for getting in touch and for your offer of help in village activities.

Christmas Tree

It is going to be very tight timing if we are to achieve a Scothern Christmas Tree this year.   Getting the electrics installed is the main problem, so if we have any friendly local electricians out there please get in touch.

The good news is that not only do we have an offer of the tree (Mark Harris) but local farmer David Straw and his son Andrew have offered themselves and their forklift for the installation.  This could make all the difference between getting the tree and not –thank you so much chaps.

Letters to the Clarion

In the last Clarion we published a letter which said there was no such thing as dangerous parking (only dangerous driving) and that all retrospective planning applications should be refused on principle.  As it was the first try out we published it anonymously.  On reflection this was probably a bad idea – not least  because  at least one correspondent thought the editor of the Clarion had written it himself  to stir up controversy!  Another correspondent made the very good point that people like the Clarion because it has a positive approach to village issues and if we get too edgy we might promote discord – the last thing we would want to do.

So in future we will only publish letters without the name of the sender in exceptional circumstances and we will try and publish letters which have a positive contribution to village life.

And for the record the Clarion does think there is such a thing as dangerous parking, it does think that retrospective planning applications need a fair hearing and the editor did not write that first letter!   

Dear John

I would like to disagree with the statement that there is 'No such thing as dangerous parking'.  I live at number

9 Craypool Lane

Scothern and often find it difficult to access my drive due to cars being parked on the bend. 

I am not in the habit of complaining but I do think drivers should give due consideration to the safety of others.  If I am unable to get into my drive with ease, how would the emergency services get around that corner if they needed to attend to a neighbour needing urgent attention?  Also, the school children walk to school on this footpath and are often having to walk on the road to avoid cars parked over the pavement.

For the safety of others I think double yellow lines should be placed on the left hand side of

Craypool Lane

.

For my purpose, I am happy to go and politely ask the offending car owners to move should the access to our property be compromised but I do hope that we do not have any serious accidents before proper consideration of the parking problem is addressed.

Parked cars may slow down the traffic but in this case you do not see the parked car until you have taken the bend!

Yours sincerely

Lesley Smith

Many thanks for this Lesley.  The problems of Craypool Lane Parking were raised with the Council only last week – apparently the dustbin lorries could not get down there and left dustbins un-emptied - and the Clarion has passed your letter to the Council for inclusion in their survey of traffic issues in the village

15 October 2011

Bin collection changes                                                                

Did you know there is a Prosperous Communities Committee at West Lindsey District Council?  No, neither did the Clarion, but we do now because they have decided to save us £150,000.    The way they are doing this is by suspending the green bin collections during December, January and February - so our last green bin collection in Scothern will be on Friday 28^th October, re-starting in March.  It’s never good to lose a service you have got used to, but apparently there is a dramatic reduction in the use of green bins in the winter and the saving here prevents cuts elsewhere.  You could try one of their subsidised composters at www.lincscc.getcomposting.com if you feel the need.

Feedback from Clarion readers

We love feedback and we got quite a lot from the last issue - most of it saying how you would love a Christmas tree in the village.  Also included in the feedback was the s uggestion that there should be provision for readers’ letters – especially opinionated ones.  We will try this under the heading “Dear John” – what do you think of that?

More feedback - a challenging suggestion from another of our readers was that we should use the Clarion to introduce new village residents.   The idea stems from the feeling that Scothern is still a real community and that if we are prepared to share information with each other the community will be stronger.  The Clarion expects that some readers will be thinking “No new residents will share information about themselves in this way” - the Clarion thought this at first, but we are delighted to admit we were wrong, and the new section starts today.

New residents

Haradikar Varadaraj – short name Raj - is a consultant urologist at Lincoln & Louth County Hospital and his wife, Suman, is a computer engineer who does volunteer work in the library at Ellison Boulters School. Raj and Suman have a son Rohan who is studying at the Queen Elizabeth Grammar School and a daughter, Mallika, who is at Ellison Boulters.  They live at *** Scothern.  Raj says he is looking forward to the Graham Gooch evening at the Village Hall – we too.

We extend a warm welcome to the whole family, Raj.  You have already performed us a service by being our first “new resident”.  We hope other will join in with the spirit of this.

Parish Council Meeting of 5^th October

Public session - There were eight members of the public present at the latest meeting of the parish council, and during the public session they expressed concerns about the lack of police response to their complaints, absence of the police from parish council meetings and the condition of the parish cemetery. The need for the provision allotments was questioned.

Councillor co-option - At the meeting itself Mr Neil Roberts (the council’s treasurer) was co-opted as councillor to fill the vacancy left by the departure of Jenny Walkley.

Next generation access - The Community Interest Company, NextGenus, has been invited to make a presentation to the village on the provision of fast broadband on the evening of Wednesday 9^th November.   A flyer  is being prepared for delivery to every household in the village inviting them to attend the meeting at Ellison Boulters School.   Representatives of the County Council and the District Council will be present at the meeting, and the response of residents to this call will undoubtedly have an influence on them so a good turnout is absolutely essential if we are to catch their eye.

Christmas Tree - Following the overwhelmingly positive response to the suggestion of a Christmas tree councillors agreed to try to provide one this year.   A site outside the school gates was provisionally selected and a maximum one off setting up budget of £1,000 was agreed (to put this in perspective just supplying an electricity supply for the Sudbrooke Tree cost £1,600).  Local businessman Mark Harris offered to supply a tree and his offer was accepted with thanks.  Now the race is on to see if we can get it organised in time for Christmas. At the moment the council has no idea how to fix the tree in the ground or who will help erect it.  Any volunteers?  Any local builders or handymen who can help?

Footpaths - Councillor Dave Black reported that the County Council had not managed to properly maintain the grassy footpaths within the built up part of the village.  It was agreed that he and Councillor Nicoll would review this and make recommendations on what needs doing.

Village maintenance - Councillor Nicoll presented quotes on grass cutting and planters.  Only one quote for grass cutting was received. No quote was received from the present contractor although at the meeting it was confirmed that he was willing to continue at last year’s price.   A decision will be made at the next meeting.

Scothern Players are trying to arrange a complete set of curtains (stage and hall) for the village hall.  The total cost will be in the region of £2,500 and the council agreed to set aside £500 to contribute to this project if it became viable in the next eighteen months.

Allotments - Councillor Melanie Tointon reported on progress on finding land for allotments - so far the only possibility is using a small section of Grange Park.  She is still actively seeking alternative sites - any offers from local people/landowners would be really welcome.

 Dear John

Two things in the last issue of the Clarion which have tweaked me:

1) There is no such thing as dangerous parking (unless you leave the brakes off)  only bad driving. Cars don’t do any harm when stopped. I have engaged in this debate at length when we had building work done and vans parked outside our house on a slightly blind kink in the road by our drive.  Far from increasing accidents, they slowed the traffic like those chicane arrangements and in my view made the road safer.

2). All retrospective planning permission should be refused on principle.

Yours etc – Your first letter writer

NB The author didn’t ask to be anonymous – we are just trying it like this until we get used to it.  Don’t want to start any wars!   And of course, it wasn’t actually the first letter.  Who could forget John Gibbon’s contribution about the fencing outside the Bottle and Glass.

3 October 2011

Next parish council meeting                                                                    

The next parish council is on Wednesday evening (5th October) at 7.30 p.m. at Ellison Boulters School.  The council is moving towards a decision on allotments, so they are on the agenda as is the important question of the Christmas Tree.   The Clarion received a record number of emails on the tree question – every one in favour, so if there is still time there is a possibility that we could get one this year.    If we can afford it.  And if councillors can agree where to put it.   And if Elf and Safety regulations can be met.  

Planning

Only one application registered last month – it is for an extension to the rear of  Mark Harris Comercials and is a retrospective application for work already completed.  You can see the application details by clicking here

Electoral forms                                                                                 

Do you remember filling and sending off  those electoral forms a couple of months ago – the ones which give you the vote?  You do?  Well you don’t need to read any more then because you’ve done your bit.    However, of our some 350 households in Scothern fifty – yes FIFTY – haven’t returned them  

It’s amazing;  it is less than a hundred years since Emily Davison died after throwing herself in front of the King’s horse at the Grand National and women were chaining themselves to railings just to get the chance of voting, and now it really is too much trouble to fill in a form and post it.

Never mind, someone will come round soon and knock on your doors to remind you and so it will be OK, you haven’t lost the suffrage yet.   Can you imagine what this costs to do this all over the country?  No wonder the national debt is around a trillion pounds.

Of course, if any of you have got the forms on the sideboard ready to send out you could save a few of those pounds by posting your form and saving the visit.  And it must be better way of getting the vote than throwing yourself under a horse!  

Police Alert

We have several police officers living in the village, and one of them has written to the Clarion telling us about the Lincolnshire Police Community Messaging System.   You can find more about it by clicking on https://www.lincolnshirealert.co.uk/  It’s a sort of electronic neighbourhood watch.   If any of you do join the system please let the Clarion know how good it is.  Maybe you could use it to tell them about the dangerous parking on

Main Street

, the chaos on

Subrooke Road

at school arrival and leaving times and the illegal right turns from

Church Street

into

Sudbrooke Road

that they seem unable to respond to.    They do say they need your input and want to listen to your issues!

Congratulations Scothern Cricket Club                                                 18 September 2011

After playing undefeated for most of the season Scothern Cricket Club has finally made it into the premier division.    This is a wonderful achievement for the club and the village and at the latest meeting of the parish council a special tribute was paid to all involved.  Well done SCC!

The cricket club not only brings credit to the village because of its sporting achievements but also lays great emphasis on its programme for our children and the young people of the village.  If you want to support the club and its work then why not do it by having a good time at one of its two major autumn events. 

Cricket legend Graham Gooch is coming to the village on the evening of Friday, 28^th October.   Between 1973 and 2000 he became the most prolific run scorer of all time with 67,057 runs.   He has captained England and is currently batting coach for the side which has beaten the whole world – and he is coming to Scothern!   How can you miss seeing him?   Ring up Steve Bett straight away (07904 573102 or email scothernccevents@gmail.com) and book your tickets for an evening with Graham in a luxury marquee at the rear of the village hall – you will have a great night and you won’t even have to get the car out.

And you could follow that by going to the Halloween Masked Ball at the same venue on the following night – ticket details here

Other stuff at the parish council meeting on 7^th September

Christmas Tree

Do you think it’s time we had a Christmas tree in Scothern.  Chairman Ian Reid thinks so and is trying to get support for this as part of the council’s plan to bring the village together by increasing the number of traditional village activities.   What do you think?   If you email the Clarion and say you would (or wouldn’t) like some of your council money spending on this then you can be sure it WILL be passed on to councillors and have an influence. 

Allotments

Councillor Melanie Tointon said that the council still has not identified any land which can be used for allotments apart from (possibly) a small corner of Grange Park.  The council now has a legal duty to provide some allotments so they will soon have to either buy/lease some land or use that corner of Grange Park.   The council has received an objection from one resident to the use of any part of Grange Park for this purpose.   If you agree with this objection and would prefer the council to raise the money to buy/lease some land rather than use this corner of Grange Park then now would be a good time to let the council know as they will very soon be setting next year’s budget and they may need to set the precept to reflect this.

According to the Best Kept Village Competition Judges (we didn’t win) quite a few people in the village don’t know where Grange Park is, so below is a Google Earth picture – you will see Cade Close to the left, the Alders below and Vicarage Close to the right. The area being considered for allotments is the little strip (approx 10 metres in depth) just above the red line.

            

         

Parking

Several members of the public complained about parking on

Sudbrooke Road

near to the junction with

Main Street

(i.e. next to the Bottle and Glass) and the council has been asked to refer this to the Road Safety Partnership.   What do you think?  Do you agree that there is a real problem, or is a bit of congestion near the junction perfectly acceptable?  

LIVES First Responders

It is some months since the Clarion announced the presence in the village of LIVES first responders.   You might recall that we now have a volunteer team available to Scothern, Sudbrooke and Langworth which comes out in emergencies to give immediate response to life threatening collapses.   The volunteers have since attended a number of calls in Langworth – fortunately none in Scothern up to press.  The three councils agreed to a donation of £925 towards this valuable service – Scothern’s contribution is £250.

Fast broadband –David Mason updated the council on his research into fast broadband and it was agreed to hold a public meeting at Ellison Boulters School on the evening of Wednesday 9^th November.  A programme of briefing local residents on the thinking behind this is under way. Outside of the meeting questions are beginning to filter through about YouView TV. If you want to get a flavour of what the BBC et al plan for 2012 then CLICK HERE.  If it doesn’t make sense you should either turn your sound on or get faster broadband!

The Clarion and God

The Clarion doesn’t really do God, but it does support all activities by local people and groups so it is pleased to publicise “Back to Church Day” on Sunday 25^th September.   “Back to Church Day” is an initiative started in 2004 when one day each year is designated for encouraging past church attenders to go back and take a look at what is happening in their churches.  This year Scothern Methodist Church is taking part and is inviting people to call in at 10.30 a.m. next Sunday - there is no preacher and they say that it will be different from what you may have experienced before.   If you would like to go you would be made very welcome – there is coffee, tea and biscuits AND orange squash.

4 September 2011

KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid)                                                               

From the deafening silence  on last issue’s piece about “unknown unknowns” etc it seems that the Clarion’s sub editors were right when they said no-one would read it. We did get one response, suggesting that a discussion of Socrates’ triple filter would have been more readable (you’ll have to look it up - the Clarion is having a moratorium on complicated).  So simply -

• Scothern might become a broadband backwater for several years unless we do something about it.

• This matters not because of what we cannot do now, but because of what we and our children may not be able to do in the near future.

• There are things we can do if we act as a community rather than a collection of individuals.

• The availability of fast broadband could potentially benefit everyone in the village, even those who don’t use it.

• The council hopes to organise a big village meeting in October so we can see for ourselves what the possibilities are.

Off the Wall Art

Seems you did like the idea of “Off the Wall Art” for next year’s Scothern Festival.  The Clarion received several encouraging offers of support, including one to “come round and see my etchings!”  This sort of offer is highly unusual as far as the Clarion is concerned and it bodes well for the fun we might have with this part of the Scothern Festival.   More anon.

The Next Parish Council Meeting

The next council meeting is on Wednesday 7th September at 7.30 p.m. at Ellison Boulters School. You can see the full agenda by clicking here.  It might be worth coming as there are several interesting things up for discussion e.g. :

    A presentation from Community Lincs on how to prepare a village plan

    A report from Melanie Tointon on the provision of allotments

    A report from David Mason on fast broadband

    A debate on whether or not Scothern should have a Christmas tree – controversial, eh?

Best Kept Garden Competition

Did you go to the village produce show yesterday?   If you did you will have seen the presentation of hundreds of pounds worth of prizes for the best kept Scothern gardens.

Place	Winner	Sponsor
	Small Garden
1st	Mr and Mrs Freestone of The Hollies, Chapel Walk	Scothern Nurseries
2nd	Mr and Mrs Bristow of 2 Heathlea	Mark Harris Commercials
3rd	Mrs Gibson  of 19 Main Street	Steven Bullivant, Auto-Electrician
4th	Mr and Mrs Foreman of 5 Juniper Drive	Graham Hill, Painter and Decorator
	Medium Garden
1st	Mr and Mrs Bell of 2 Back Lane	St Luke’s Nursing Home and D Lusby, Builders
2nd	Mr and Mrs Gibbon of 23 Main Street	Scothern Kennels and Cattery
3rd	Mr and Mrs Flatley of Beck House, Nettleham Road	Stuart Worsnop, Building Surveyor
4th	Mr and Mrs Smith of 6 Main Street	Wright Vigar Chartered Accountants
	Large Garden
1st	Mr and Mrs Clawson of Avalon, Langworth Road	Wilkinson Plant Hire
2nd	Mr and Mrs Durance of 16 Main Street	Bottle & Glass Sunday Raffle
3rd	Mrs Cairney of Millennium House, Craypool Lane	Scothern Kennels & Cattery
4th	Mr and Mrs Fotheringham of Ashwell House, Nettleham Road	Therapeutic Touch, Massage & Beauty

The judges’ special prize was this year awarded for best “cottage style garden”, was sponsored by Heath Farm Day Nursery and was won by Mr and Mrs Walker of 16 Elmdene.  The Shield for best overall garden went to Mr and Mrs Bell of

2 Back Lane

.  You can see photographs of the gardens on the village website, or why not take a stroll and have a peek at them?

Many thanks to our sponsors and to Councillor Catherine Roberts for organising a great competition.

And finally

Did you read the email from John Gibbon about the council workmen putting up the fencing near the Bottle and Glass and wondering how much it all cost?  Well the Clarion has been in touch with Lincolnshire County Council Highways Dept to find out exactly how much it did cost.  And the truth is they have no idea – apparently the way they allocate this kind of work to contractors does not allow them to cost up these jobs.   Does anyone out there have a view on this?

15 August 2011

Known knowns, known unknowns and unknown unknowns             

Donald Rumsfeld, former United States Secretary of State for Defence,  was perhaps not best known for his mastery of English syntax, nor was he universally loved for his policies on war in Iraq and Afghanistan, but he did perhaps provide a glimpse of genius in his description of the difficulties of dealing with complex issues.   He said, if you remember –

“There are known knowns;  these are things we know we know.

There are also known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know.

But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know we don't know.”

These words somehow floated into the Clarion’s consciousness when grappling with the issue of whether trying to achieve fast broadband for Scothern is worth the effort.

 

Known knowns:  We know that our broadband is slow when downloading large files, or even when using BBC iPlayer and the like.  Uploading data (e.g. saving photographs to “The Cloud” or putting something onto Youtube) sometimes means leaving it running all night if we want it to work.  Sending or receiving a big file via email can be a bit dodgy, whilst downloading a film can take several hours on a bad night.  However, the Clarion is not convinced that these issues are enough of a problem for most people to make it worth the effort involved in going for fast broadband.

Known unknowns: We know that there are new services coming online which might not work well for us here in Scothern until we get fast broadband.   There are several such services, one of them being “YouView”, a known unknown. 

What’s that you say, YouView is an unknown unknown to you?  Well it won’t be this time next year.  The BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Chanel 5 are all ganging together to provide a new form of television access and it is on target to be available early next year.  It’s still in the technical phase and  much of the proposed output is speculative, but it certainly involves a combination of Freeview and broadband which will enable your on-screen programme guide to go backwards in time as well as forwards – that is you will be able to watch past programmes as if they were being transmitted right now. We know this is scheduled to happen early next year, and we are pretty sure there will be a huge take-up of the service, but we don’t know exactly what it will entail, nor what the effect will be on the internet.  For sure it won’t make it go any faster!   Will Scothern residents want it?  Well that’s another unknown, but the Clarion thinks we will.  

And we know it will be more than just TV as we now experience it – all sorts of people are being invited to join in with these giants of broadcasting to provide a massive range of services through the TV set.   We know they are going to provide stuff but we don’t yet know exactly what it is. However if you imagine your TV as a huge iPhone (there will definitely be apps) you might not be far wrong.   And you can bet it will work a lot better with fast broadband.

The Clarion thinks residents will be very pleased that we are a fast broadband village if we manage to achieve it by the time this sort of service is commonplace – i.e this time next year.

Unknown unknowns: Er………

Disappointingly Scothern Parish Council has no idea what the unknown unknowns are, but they think they might know a man who could perhaps prepare us for them.   The Council hopes to organise a big village meeting one evening in October when we will have a presentation from a company called NextGenus on how we might take the next step into the future.   NextGenus is a Community Interest Company that could work with us to provide broadband to the village which would be as fast as anywhere in the country, and would also be future-proofed in an effort to deal with the unknown unknowns.    This is very tentative at the moment, but as soon as we hear more The Clarion will let you know what is happening.   

Temporary road closure:  Scothern/Langworth

Please note that the Highways Authority says it will be necessary to impose a temporary restriction to all vehicular traffic on the road(s) detailed below..

REASON FOR CLOSURE:  Carriageway widening

LOCATION: 

Langworth Road/Scothern Lane

(Works in vicinity of Level Crossing)

PERIOD OF CLOSURE:  Monday 12/9/2011 to Friday 16/9/2011

ALTERNATIVE ROUTE: 

Main Street

&

Sudbrooke Road

(Scothern),

Scothern Lane

(Sudbrooke), A158 (Sudbrooke/Langworth) & Vice Versa

If you have any queries please contact the Highways Division on 01522 782070.

Off the Wall Art

We are still in the process of shaping a possible festival coinciding with the Queens Jubilee in early June next year.   One idea is a showing of “Off the Wall Art”;  not quite as whacky as it sounds, it would involve an art exhibition comprised solely of pictures which Scothern residents have hanging on their walls.    We would have to sort out questions of security and insurance, but an exhibition like this could give a fascinating and unique insight into an unseen world of art.   Without any commitment at all – are there any Clarion readers who would be prepared to  let us take a peak at their art?  Doesn’t have to be priceless – much more interesting if it has a little story attached to it.  A visit to a special place, a memory of something or someone, a local scene – you get the picture.  If no-one offers then of course we cannot do the show – please email the Clarion if you might be up for this.