03 August 2011

What’s wrong with the telly?                                                               

If you switch on your television today and cannot see BBC1 and BBC 2 then either you have an analogue television or a digital one that needs re-tuning.  Today is the first day of the process of closing down analogue TV in our area and most of us need to re-tune our sets.  It’s very simple – usually just press “menu” on our remote control and go to set up (has an icon like a box of tools) and then re-tune.  Although this is very easy for most of us you may have a friend or neighbour who isn’t quite so “switched on”, and if that’s the case why not check to see how they are managing?    For more info go to digital switchover .

Talented and outstanding people

How lucky we are in Scothern to have people who not only have something special about them, but also use their skills to benefit the village.  One person who has done more than most to benefit our community, particularly our young people, is Colin Holman.   For the past ten years or so Colin has been quietly cutting the grass, rolling the pitch, marking the creases and the boundary and generally improving the quality of the cricket ground on the village playing field.  Most of us probably hardly notice him doing it.  But even more importantly he has been honing his skills as a cricket coach and passing on those skills to other coaches and to the children of the village.

Last month Colin was selected as one of the top eight people in the country to be awarded the Sky Sports Coach Awards 2011 for his outstanding contribution and services to cricket coaching.  The citation reported that Scothern Cricket Club now has one of the best junior sections in the country.  He was one of the first coaches to introduce 4 – 5 year olds to the sport, and membership of the junior section has risen from the 10 – 12 when he started to the present number of 135.   Is it any surprise that our cricket club recently won the best village trophy, the first team is undefeated at the top of division one and our junior teams are doing equally well.

Thank you Colin for all that you do for the village – if only you had worn sunglasses for that picture you could have looked as cool as Botham! 

Parish Council Meeting 6^th July

We had another very good attendance from members of the public at this meeting – ten residents were present as was our new additional police support officer, Ross Payne, and District Councillor Stuart Curtis. The public session was lively, with reports of several matters which needed attention by the highways department.

You can find the full minutes of the meeting on the village website

New councillor and new treasurer

The council also found it necessary to have an extraordinary meeting to address a couple of issues.  Melanie Tointon of Northing Lane was appointed a councillor, filling the vacancy left by Judith Flatley’s departure and Neil Roberts was appointed Responsible Finance Officer (or Treasurer) because of Councillor Jenny Walkley’s impending departure.  Jenny is soon to move to the university city of Padua in Italy (onetime home of Galileo, Dante, Giotto and Donatello) and so is having to relinquish her position.  

The post of responsible finance officer is very important for the council and we are fortunate that Neil Roberts has agreed to take up this position.   Neil is a chartered accountant and has been a partner at Wright Vigar accountants since 2000.  He has lived here in Church Street, Scothern, with his wife and three children (a girl and twin boys) since 2006, and much of his free time is garden related, including high speed lawn mower racing!    Welcome to the team Neil – we are sure those lawn mower skills will come in handy.    

Any pregnant Clarion readers?

Did you read in the national press about the young girl called Alice Pyne who is dying of cancer and who wrote a “bucket list” of things she would like to do before she died and put it on her blog on the internet?  The story touched people when they read it and it became an internet sensation – even the Prime Minister agreed to support her campaign regarding bone marrow donors.

There is an even simpler process of helping people like Alice – stem cells taken from the umbilical chord and placenta following the birth of a baby.  It was this process that only a few weeks ago helped the grand-daughter of local residents Julie and Alfie Cook.  So if you happen to be pregnant, or know anyone who is, can you promote this as a wonderful thing to do to celebrate the birth of the child?

Improving the look of the village

The county council highways department have finally managed to replace the white boarding next to the beck at the Bottle and Glass.  Unfortunately they failed to do the job at Elmdene and the parish council is on the case chasing them up about this and other issues raised at the last parish council meeting. Some volunteer painting has already taken place – the planters at the village entrances have gone green and several of the white railings have been painted. If you would like to help please ring Nigel Freestone on 861074 or email Councillor Richard Noon on richardgnoon@hotmail.co.uk

Improving Broadband Speeds

At the next Parish Council meeting in September the council will be considering options for improving broadband speeds.  At the present time it appears that it will be several years before we can hope for an improvement from the main providers – although we are still trying to work with them on this.  There is, however, a possibility that we could join Ashby de la Launde as having the very fastest speeds in the country – and be future proofed for many years – if we as a village are prepared to put in some forward thinking and effort.   If you are at all interested in the benefits of very fast broadband and how we might go about changing things please have a look at this short BBC video on the subject.

The Clarion by its nature is informal, raw and unapproved.  It is supported by Scothern Parish Council but does not represent “official” council views or opinions, nor are its reports of council meetings part of the formal minutes of the council