Chairman's Report
Carterton Master Plan or Carterton disaster Plan, whichever
it is Carterton are at the Crossroads. A town centre that is in
need of modernisation and development and most importantly
investment. The suggested solution of development funded by
house building has clearly not worked. History also shows that
building (‘plonking’, dictionary of Cameron) large housing
estates in open countryside, Shilton Park circa 1700 houses,
does not bring employment opportunities. BNAG (Brize Norton
Action Group) are active once again after a very short respite
from fighting against the 700 houses being built between the
Carterton road and Burford road. A report from BNAG is contained
in this bulletin.
Also in the pipe line for June is the submission by West
Oxfordshire District Council (WODC) on their plans and vision
for the future for West Oxfordshire. This plan will be submitted
for examination by a government inspector. The plan may be
approved by the inspector or, worst case scenario, rejected as
insufficient houses are planned to be built. This could result
in even more houses being built in West Oxfordshire.
Following the elections there has been little change in the
make-up of WODC so we can expect more of the same locally.
Oxfordshire County Council (OCC) remains underfunded and as ever
short of cash. So more cutbacks for this year. An example being
the cutting of grass from roadside verges, reduced from five
cuts per year to two. However, money was still found to award
County Councillors a 19% increase in their allowance.
Both WODC and OCC claim they are making huge savings while
protecting front line services, a most notable achievement. One
wonders why they needed to spend so much money previously.
It is not all gloom and doom at Brize Norton as evidenced by the
amazing array of forthcoming activities in articles submitted
for inclusion in this edition of the newsletter.
Something for everyone from pre-school age to over sixties. I
hope you will enjoy a summer full of local ventures, please come
along and support the events that so many volunteers work so
hard in bringing to fruition.
Keith
| Once again, Brize Norton
Primary School has been very busy since the last village
newsletter. With the coming of spring, we are able to
make much more use of our outdoor areas. Every class is
now growing things in our garden, and the children took
home their first produce this week. To link with this,
our youngest children hosted ten eggs in an incubator.
It was great fun to watch them hatch and begin to grow;
some will now stay in the village with one of the
families while others have gone to a free-range farm. |
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Just before Easter, we had a whole-school Art week. Children
worked together with others from different classes on all sorts
of different art, including redecorating our hall with the help
of a professional artist. We have even created models of the
planets to scale out of papier-mâché to hang from the ceiling:
although the smallest are tiny, Jupiter is as tall as some of
the teachers! It was great during that week to have the help of
three young people from Burford School on work experience, two
of whom are ex-students. Linked in with the art focus, all the
children visited the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and took part in
a global dance workshop with a visiting dance teacher.
There have been several other trips and exciting events. The
infants visited Sutton Courtenay, and Class 3 (our Year 3 and 4
children) have just, at time of writing, come back from their
one-night residential trip, tired but having had a wonderful
time. The older children will be going on a one-week outdoor
adventure trip to Shropshire at the beginning of June. We have
also taken part in several sporting events, most significantly
the county finals for under 9 girls’ cross-country – an
impressive achievement for such a small school.
We said a sad goodbye to Mrs Rosie Drake, the school secretary
for 23 years. We welcomed back Mrs Moss and Mr Smith, ex-head
teachers, and we even had a video message from the last head
teacher, Miss Grant, from New Zealand. Although Rosie will be
missed, we are pleased to have welcomed Mrs Lee-Ann Keeble to
the team as our new Office Manager, as well as a new teaching
assistant, Mr Ugochukwu Anagor.
As summer approaches, we are planning and looking forward to
exciting events: sports day, summer concerts and, of course, the
summer fete. The fete this year has a medieval theme, to
celebrate the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta and the 600th
anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt. There will be a castle
(bouncy, of course), jousting, archery and much more, in the
school grounds and on the rec between 1pm and 4pm on Sunday 28th
June. It would be great to see as many of the local community
there as possible: it will be great fun and raise valuable funds
for the school. Wonder how your fundraised money is spent? This
term alone the School Association have paid for new books,
playground equipment and fifteen African djembe drums: we are
very fortunate to have such a generous community.
Hopefully see you at the fete! In the meantime, you can keep
informed of what is happening at the school through our school
website (www.bnschool.org.uk) or Twitter (@brizeprimary).
Anna Fairhurst (Head teacher)
BRIZE NORTON NATIONAL GARDEN SCHEME OPEN DAY
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This year we have six Gardens registered with the
National Garden Scheme (NGS) to open along with the St
Britius Church Flower Festival.
The NGS Charity provides support for the Macmillan
Nurses, Parkinson UK, Marie Curie Cancer Care, Help the
Hospices, to name but a few. Also, an allocated
proportion of the funds that we collected in 2014 were
also shared between the Village Church, Brownies, Over
60’s and the Horticultural Club.
The Open Day this year will be on Sunday, 14th June
2015. The Gardens will be open from 2 pm until 6 pm.
Refreshments will be provided by the WI in the Elderbank
Hall.
The cost for entry to all six gardens and the church
flower festival will be just £4 per adult. |
So please do come along, it will be a very pleasant way of
spending a nice Sunday afternoon, with family and friends,
strolling through the lovely village gardens in the warm summer
sunshine whilst knowing that you will be supporting the NGS
Cancer Charities and at the same time providing some well needed
funds for the Village voluntary groups.
Jean Butcher
BRIZE NORTON PRIMARY SCHOOL SUMMER FETE
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On Sunday, 28th June 2015 the primary
school is welcoming all things medieval to our village
recreation ground! Come one, come all and try your hand
at archery, ‘Aunt Sally’ and ye olde penny rolling,
amongst a plethora of fun and games. Be careful not to
anger the elders though or you may end up in the stocks!
Revels begin at 1pm with lunch served from the open
fires (BBQ) and continue until 4pm when the champions of
the grand raffle will be named to the masses.
Just a reminder, another way to support the school is by
signing up to Easyfundraising.org.uk Shop at over 2,000
well known retailers and earn a donation for the school
at no additional cost to you. To register, search for
our school after visiting
www.easyfundraising.org.uk/pta.
Registration is quick, simple and free. |
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BRIZE NORTON WOMEN’S INSTITUTE
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We continue to enjoy our monthly meetings and in
April we were inspired to get our paints out by Brian
Marshall with a very good water colour demonstration.
In May we had a lovely evening listening to the Launton
Hand Bell Ringers who played well known tunes as well as
some of their own compositions. Some of our members
held a Table Top sale in Ducklington raising a
well-earned £120.
Looking ahead, our next meeting on June 9th is called
"What's in a Name" a talk about the origins and
interesting facts about bird names. On July 14th John
Moss will give a talk on “Adventures in Antarctica”.
We will again be providing the teas for the Garden's
Open day on Sunday 14th June and on 4th July we will be
holding a sale at the Tolsey in Burford.
Please join us at the Elderbank Hall, the second Tuesday
each month at 7.30pm.
Sue Calcutt |
BRIZE NORTON ACTION GROUP
BNAG are taking an interest in the Carterton Master Plan and
its possible implications for all of us in Brize Norton. The
plan was first presented at the Carterton Town Council meeting
on 13 May. Following the presentation no questions were allowed
much to the frustration and annoyance of many of those present.
Similarly the illustrations in the brochure handed out were much
too small to be fully understood.
Hopefully many of you will have attended presentations made on
21st May at Carterton Community Centre and on 27th May at
Carterton Town Hall and made your feelings known. We trust
opinions of Brize Norton residents will be properly taken into
account.
Our concerns are that these proposals are a further incursion
into our parish boundaries without proper consultation. For
example, a large strategic employment zone is proposed north of
Monahan Way adjacent to the proposed re-location of the sports
facilities and pavilion. The existing pavilion and sports
ground, recently built at a high cost, will become another
employment zone bordering the 700 new houses and extending down
Carterton Road. We wonder how Bloor Homes feel about this apart
from its impact upon Repatriation ceremonies. A new
'neighbourhood village' north of Carterton is also proposed.
We should make it clear that the new proposals contained in the
Carterton Master Plan, (which cover a period up to 2031 and
beyond) are not included in the WODC Local Plan about to be
submitted for Government approval and are simply 'aspirational'
at this stage. Nevertheless, it is important that we are all
aware of what is being proposed and we recommend you visit the
relevant websites for detailed information.
BNAG will continue to work alongside the Parish Council in the
best interests of our village and we welcome new members who are
concerned by any of the above.
From Keith Beckingham on behalf of Brize Norton Action Group (BNAG)
BRIZE NORTON SPORTS AND SOCIAL CLUB
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You know summer has arrived when
cricket is being played again. The first match on the
Rec resulted in a win for Minster Lovell 3rds over
Ducklington, a close game with 13 runs to get and one
wicket remaining. Four boundaries soon had the home side
smiling.
With summer now upon us the next big event in the
calendar is the Village Day. Ideas and plans are
underway. We hope it will be bigger and better than last
year and with your help it well could be! |
VILLAGE DAY this year will be on Sunday 30th
August - the Sunday of the last summer bank holiday.
There will the usual cricket event, the horticultural
and craft show, plenty of stalls and bouncy castle, the
bar, hotdogs and beef burgers and so on. We are also
looking into having local TV and radio to report on the
event.
We are also hoping to have a ‘smash the plate’ stall and
a show of vintage transport. This is where we need your
help. Have you any old plates, saucers, cups you could
donate to the cause? Please do rummage through the old
boxes and see what you can find - you could have a
smashing time!! The crockery can be dropped off at AK
Timms or collected if easier – contact me. |
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Do you have any old bikes, prams, cars, motorbikes etc - or old
models of things we used to transport ourselves in and be
willing to bring them along to the Village Day display? If yes
to either can you please get in contact - detail below.
The day was a great success last year and it was wonderful to
see so many villagers joining in with the event. If anyone has
contacts or ideas to help improve the day even more, please
again do get in contact. You are also welcome to run a stall for
your own organisation or charity. There is no pitch fee and you
keep all your profits. However please do let us know if you wish
to do this and what type of fund raising event you wish to do -
just in case we end up with 20 tombolas!!!!
Commercial stalls are welcome but the committee would ask for a
pitch fee of £10.
We are working to get sponsored publicity out into the local
area giving more details of the village day during the summer,
so look out for that. Looking forward to hearing from you.
Tim Gush 01993 846446 - 07715 013863
Painswick House, Carterton Road. BN
Get involved with the Village Day by entering the
Horticultural Show
| This year the theme of the Brize Norton
Horticultural Show on Sunday 30th August is going
to be themed on one of our loved events, Afternoon Tea,
and in particular AFTERNOON TEA AT THE RITZ – read on
for the classes to enter.
This year the main Home craft cake entry is for a
Victoria Sponge, I know we have done this before but it
is a cake that we hope lots of people will have a go at
and won’t be daunted by, so hopefully we will have lots
entered. Other entries are macaroons, a millefeuille,
tea for two, a jar of sweet jelly, lemon, orange or lime
curd and a jar of jam.
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| In the Flower Arranging and Handicrafts we have also
followed the same theme, with an arrangement for the
centre of the table, an arrangement in a tea cup and
saucer, to make a tea cosy, either knitted, crocheted or
sewn, a set of two hand crafted table napkins, a
painting or drawing with the theme of ‘Afternoon Tea’,
and a photography exhibit of ‘Tea in the Garden’. The
basketwork and carpentry section is on tableware and the
home made toy is a rag doll. |
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The children's section is split this year into two age groups;
under 8, and 9 and over. The first class is a teapot to be
decorated however the child would like (using paints, fabrics,
paper, pasta, whatever takes their fancy. The second class is a
plate of five different vegetables. If your child is a budding
gardener then these can be real vegetables but, if they prefer
to make models out of plasticine, paper or anything else that
would be OK as well. Depending on the number of entries on the
day we may split the class into two sections to accommodate
this.
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And then we come to the hotly contended vegetable
and flower classes. The classes this year will be the
same as last year and we hope the weather is kind this
year and we see some lovely examples from your gardens
and allotments. We look forward to seeing all your
vegetables and beautiful flowers on the day. The
Horticultural Show is not aimed at the professional
gardener so don’t think your vegetables or flowers won’t
be good enough. It is just an amateur show for fun and
we would love to see more people than ever ‘just have a
go’. It doesn’t matter if your onions aren’t as big as
your neighbours, or your carrots aren’t quite straight,
just enter, boost the numbers and then come and see what
the judges make of it all. It is actually a lot of fun
with a little bit of friendly rivalry between
neighbours. |
So if you need an entry form please call either Judy Gush on
846730 or Bev Tyrell on 843450 and we will let you have a copy.
Forms are also available in the Pavilion, at
A K Timms’s or in The Chequers. We hope we can make this year
another bumper show.
Judy Gush and Bev Tyrell
BRIZE NORTON DANCE CLUB
| We meet in the Elderbank Hall every
Thursday evening from 7.30pm to 9.30pm. We dance
ballroom, Latin American and sequence dances to CD’s. We
have tea and biscuits in the interval - only £2 per
person.
Everyone is welcome to join us. For more information
contact Joy on 01993 842373
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ST BRITIUS CHURCH
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In recent months we have been pleased
to be able to host special services to celebrate the
laying up of the Union Flag from the Oxfordshire
Memorial Garden and the standard of the disbanded 216
Squadron RAF. The Union flag and standard will be hung
in the North Aisle next to the 99 Squadron standard.
In April we completed the installation of the bells’
chiming mechanism. We hope you are enjoying hearing the
bells calling you to church, chiming the hour, and used
at other occasions including May 9th to celebrate the
anniversary of VE Day.
At our recent Annual Parish Church Meeting we re-elected
Dr Phil Holmes as churchwarden and said thank you to
Jacquie Griffin for all the work she has done in the
seven year term that she has served as churchwarden.
Thank you if you made a donation towards the Wateraid
‘Jars of Change’ Lent Appeal. We have been pleased to
send a donation in excess of £271 (including gift aid)
to the appeal, enough to purchase a rope and bucket
water pump mechanism for a well. |
| The Church will be host to a flower festival on
Sunday 14 June from 2pm to 6pm. You are invited to come
and visit to view the lovely arrangements as you wander
around the village gardens open that day.
Please also support the Brize Norton Village Day on
Sunday 30 August when we will be providing teas,
refreshments and a bottle tombola to raise money for
general funds.
If you would like to help with fundraising for the
Church you may want to start getting ‘into shape’ for
the Oxfordshire Historic Churches Trust ‘Ride and
Stride’ sponsored walk or ride to be held on Saturday 12
September. For further information on this please
contact Jacquie Griffin (841616).
|
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The weekly ‘Pilgrim Lunch’ group at 12.30pm to 1.30pm on Mondays
continues. Come and enjoy some hot soup and rolls and join in
the discussion guided by the Christianity Explored Course. All
are welcome.
The next Forest Church is to be held on Sunday 28 June at the
Kilkenny Country Park; meet at the iron horses at 2.30pm – come
suitably dressed in the event of bad weather. The theme is
‘Let’s walk’ and is a great opportunity to reconnect with God’s
creation for all the family.
On Tuesday mornings during term time we continue to run a buggy
club/coffee morning time from 9.30am to 11am. There is a range
of toys and activities to keep pre-schoolers busy and
refreshments are provided.
In addition to the 9.15am Holy Communion services each Sunday,
on the 1st and 3rd Sundays there is a Light Zone service – an
informal worship with activities arranged for the children
attending and songs, prayers and refreshments. For further
details of the church services refer to the notices on the
church door or log onto the website -
www.bncommunity.org
BRIZE NORTON OVER 60’s CLUB
We are a village group who meet twice a month on the 1st and
3rd Tuesdays. We have 27 members. Meetings take place at Joy’s,
4 Squires Close. We enjoy either a talk or demonstration after
which we enjoy a chat over homemade cakes, sandwiches and tea.
Thanks to June, Connie and Benita. We have an outing each month.
Over the last couple of months we have enjoyed a meal at
Wychwood Golf Club, a talk by
Tom Smith, some seated exercises, a sing-a-long and a trip to
Leamington.
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Our future programme is as follows:
June 2nd Visit to the canal at Thrupp
June 23rd Coffee Morning 10.30am at Joy’s
July 7th Tea at Horace’s (Mount Skippett)
July 21st Cream tea at Joy’s
August 4th tba
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Our committee will arrange our future programme but a trip to
Moreton Market is on the cards. The programme is posted on the
village noticeboard.
For further information please contact Joy on 01993 842373
BRIZE NORTON VILLAGE PRESCHOOL
Our Easter Fayre and stall at the Carterton May Day Fair
raised £446 towards new resources for the children. Thank you to
everyone who donated prizes, helped on the days and sold/bought
raffle tickets.
Due to a recent grant we have been able to purchase an iPad
for the pre-school. This will be used as a fun and interactive
learning tool by staff one-to-one with the children.
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With the arrival of spring the children have been
getting out onto the allotment. So far they have planted
potatoes, broad beans, courgettes, sunflowers, carrots
and peas. The May Day Fair Scarecrow will also find a
home there!
The pre-school is a charity so relies on the generosity
of parents/families, committee members, villagers and
the local community. Without such support Brize Norton
would not have a pre-school. Thank you to everyone who
contributes, it is very much appreciated.
Our next fundraising event will be a stall at Witney
Carnival on Saturday 11 July, we hope you will be able
to visit our stand.
Keeley Lally
On behalf of the Pre-school Committee
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BROWNIES AND RAINBOWS
| This year the Rainbows (girls from age 5 to 7) have
been having lots of fun working towards their ‘Seasons’
badge. We have played lots of games and completed
activities exploring the changing seasons. |
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The Brownies (girls from age 7 to 10) have now
received their new adventure books purchased with the
proceeds of our fund raising open evening. A big thank
you to all who supported it and I hope you enjoyed
yourselves; the girls certainly did. They are now all
working hard to gain their ‘Adventure’ badges.
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AN IMPORTANT APPEAL
Due to family commitments I am looking to scale down my time
with Guiding over the next year. If Brownies and Rainbows are to
continue to run in the village help is needed. Please come along
and see if it’s something you would enjoy either by running
activities, helping with the paperwork, organising activities,
helping with the accounts – every week or a once a month
commitment. All necessary training will be given. If help is not
forthcoming then the units will close sometime next year. If you
think you may be able to offer any help please contact me 01993
842013 or 07504 446253 (text).
Thank you
Barbie Thorne
A LIFE OF GRIME – VIEWS FROM A BINMAN
It’s my turn again to talk about rubbish and recycling and
this time I thought I would cover a few issues that affect many
residents of the village. I’ll cover a few statements and
possible solutions, so here goes - remember I’m a bin man.
WHY WAS MY BIN NOT EMPTIED?
Well there can be a number of reasons why your bin wasn’t
emptied, and here are a few reasons and possible factors to
remedy this -
WAS IT PRESENTED ON THE RIGHT DAY?
Remember, collections are a day later after a bank holiday
and possibly 2 days later after Christmas. Even bin men get the
bank holiday off.
DID YOU PRESENT THE CORRECT BIN?
This means did you put the right bin out; this can still
cause a problem for a few residents so the council can offer you
an email reminder, you can “browse” the West Oxfordshire
District Council web page and search for your collection day and
type; You can download a waste calendar, or the best, easiest
and cheapest that I find, is to look out you front window and
see what everybody else in your street has “put out”, either 30+
people have the wrong bin out, and you’re right. Or 30+ people
have the right bin and you’re wrong - in my experience majority
rules.
COULD THE DUSTCART GET DOWN YOUR STREET?
Now this is my favourite. The dustcart that collects refuse and
garden waste, is 2.5 meters or, if you prefer, just over 8
½ feet wide, and about 5 meters or 16 feet long. The front
wheels are behind the driver, not in front of him like a car or
van, that means when reversing down roads like Daubigny Mead,
Chichester Place and Chestnut Close, it becomes rather difficult
and tight, and is made more difficult and tighter when residents
choose to park their cars on the road and sometimes park across
from another car - why spend money on a garage or driveway then
park on the road, it beats me!
If a fire engine or ambulance was trying to get down your street
to save somebody they might just persuade your car out of the
way, or maybe just leave their vehicle at the point of the
obstruction and carry all their equipment down the road, this
costs time and maybe lives, the dustcart might be able to come
back later, the fire engine won’t (just a thought). In some
districts the council has made the residents carry their bins to
the end of the road to be emptied, due to selfish people parking
inconsiderately, I don’t want that to happen in Brize. The
dustcarts come at the same time more or less every week, so I am
asking residents to consider where and when they park and think
could a fire engine get through this gap. If not pull forward a
little bit. I know sometimes this can be difficult if people
have visitors but if we all work together and consider others we
can all live in harmony.
THEY EMPTIED MY BOXES BUT NOT MY FOOD CADDY (or vice versa)
If you consider that the same vehicle collects both waste
streams it is very unlikely that they forgot about your food
caddy, but it does happen and it happens like this; it might
have been a different vehicle and they cannot collect the food
caddy, or as I have found in 90% of cases the food caddy was put
out after the boxes had been emptied, or the boxes were put out
later, i.e. you forgot it was bin day. Technology is getting
better and better all the time and brand new dustcarts now come
fitted with CCTV cameras on the front, both wing mirrors and
rear, with real time images and sound - this has not happened
in WODC yet but watch this space. What I’m trying to say is, it
can be rather embarrassing when you phone up to complain about a
missed collection and the council review the camera footage and
find that you haven’t presented your bins (just another
thought).
That’s me for now - just remember Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and
don’t let Brize go to waste.
Stuart Guest
DOG FOULING
| There have been further incidents reported of dog
fouling on the pavements and verges of the village that
is not only unsightly and unpleasant but can
occasionally lead to serious illness in humans. We would
like to remind all dog owners, or the person in charge
of the dog, that it is their responsibility to clear up
any dog foul left by the dog. Reports of incidents of
fouling witnessed can either be made directly to the
District Council either by phone on 01993 861000 or via
the website
http://www.westoxon.gov.uk/environment/Streetcleansing.cfm |
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POT HOLE COMPLAINT
If you identify a pot hole please report it to
Oxfordshire County Council Highways either online at
Oxfordshire.gov.uk or phone 0845 3101111 or write to Highway
Enquiries Team, Oxfordshire County Council, PO Box 842, OXFORD
OX1 9LL
CARTERTON NEIGHBOURHOOD POLICING TEAM
REPATRIATIONS
Details of repatriations are usually received on
a Monday. Notices will be displayed on the village notice boards
at the earliest opportunity. Further details may be found on the
Oxfordshire County Council web site. Please note timings are
always subject to change.
SITUATIONS VACANT
Brize Norton Parish Council are looking to
recruit a village handyman. The role is to keep the village in a
clean and tidy condition and maintain or repair village
property. Cleaning examples include removal of weeds from
footpath and carpark, keeping bus shelters clean and litter
free, remove dog fouling from footpaths. The person selected
will be self-motivated, reliable and able to work unsupervised.
The post is an employed position paid at an hourly rate
(currently £8.49 per hour).
A normal working week is 8 hours per week but additional hours
may be offered on an as required basis as directed by the Parish
Council.
For more information please contact the clerk by 22 June – 01993
844102 or
clerk@brizenortonparishcouncil.co.uk
CALENDAR OF EVENTS – please refer to newsletter for further
information`
1 June Parish Council meeting,
7.30pm Sports Pavilion
14 June
NGS Open Gardens/Church Flower Festival 2pm
to 6pm
23 June Over 60’s coffee morning. 4 Squires Close
10.30am
28 June School summer fete 1pm to 4pm
6 July Parish Council meeting, 7.30pm Sports
Pavilion
3 August Parish Council meeting, 7.30pm Sports
Pavilion
30 August Village Day, Cricket Festival and
Horticultural show
7 September Parish Council meeting, 7.30pm Sports
Pavilion
All entries for inclusion in the September
2015 issue should be received by the clerk by
15 August 2015.
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