Because there is a limit to the number of news items that can be headlined on the front page, this page has been set aside for other news stuff concerning the village.
There is now also a Recipe Page - we hope to build this up but need contributions from people in the parish. Come on all you great cooks, let's have your mouth-watering recipes for others to enjoy!
On this page so far:
Congratulations to the Bennetts at 1 Webbers Way for winning this year's competition with a really stunning display.
John and Brenda are pictured below being presented with their shield by Parish Council Chairman Mark Healy at the Parish Council meeting on 11 January.
Congratulations also to the Taylors at 3 Elm Lea Close who came second and to the Gamblins at 26 Puriton Park who were third.
The standard was very high but it was disappointing that there were not so many entries this year, despite many excellent displays all round the parish.
Thank you to all who took part.
The scores are shown below and photos of the winning entries are now available in the picture gallery.
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1 Webbers Way
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Judge 1
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Judge 2
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Judge 3
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Total
|
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Visual Impact (WOW) Factor (Marks out of 20)
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19
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17
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19
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55
|
|
Use of Colour (Marks out of 5)
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4
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3
|
4
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11
|
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Use of Property Shape (Marks out of 5)
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3
|
4
|
3
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10
|
|
Grand Total
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76
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3 Elm Lea Close
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Judge 1
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Judge 2
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Judge 3
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Total
|
|
Visual Impact (WOW) Factor (Marks out of 20)
|
18
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15
|
18
|
51
|
|
Use of Colour (Marks out of 5)
|
4
|
3
|
4
|
11
|
|
Use of Property Shape (Marks out of 5)
|
4
|
3
|
4
|
11
|
|
Grand Total
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73
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26 Puriton Park
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Judge 1
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Judge 2
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Judge 3
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Total
|
|
Visual Impact (WOW) Factor (Marks out of 20)
|
18
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15
|
18
|
51
|
|
Use of Colour (Marks out of 5)
|
4
|
4
|
3
|
11
|
|
Use of Property Shape (Marks out of 5)
|
3
|
3
|
4
|
10
|
|
Grand Total
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72
|
WINNER 2010 1 WEBBERS WAY
Puriton Open Garden for Charity
On July 18th of this year I held an 'Open Garden and Coffee Morning' at 27 Hillside, Puriton in aid of local charities. The event was very well attended and thankfully the weather was kind to us, enabling visitors to have a good look around the garden. Seating and refreshments were available for families to relax and chat while the Bring and Buy and Plant stalls provided an extra interest. The aroma of the BBQ serving hot dogs for those feeling particularly hungry temporarily interrupted the scent of the flowers and brought a queue of eager customers.
The day raised a total of £350 of which £150 was donated to The Breast Cancer Ward at Musgrove Park Hospital, £100 to Elmwood School for children with learning difficulties and £100 to Secret World animal rescue centre.
I plan to repeat the event on July 16th 2011 from 10:30am to 13:00pm (weather permitting) everyone is welcome to come and enjoy a happy and relaxed couple of hours. The Charities we hope to support on this occasion will be the Eye Hospital in Bristol that do great work in researching and treating eye disorders and The Breast Cancer Ward at Musgrove Park Hospital.
Thank you
In appreciation of all those who supported this event.
Margaret Brown
Why should you do a Parish Plan?
A Parish Plan is an effective way of giving your community a local voice and help influence local government agendas. The Rural White Paper of November 2000 stated "Rural communities should play a much bigger part in running their own affairs, influencing and shaping their future development ....." As a result, Government fully supports the parish plan process.
What is a Parish Plan?
A Parish Plan is a community consultation opportunity. It gives everyone a chance to say what they think about the social, economic and environmental issues affecting their community. It gives them a chance to say how they'd like to see things improved in the future and a chance to actually do something about it.
What can a Parish Plan achieve?
A Parish Plan could help you to:
A Parish Plan can build confidence and skills within your community and can also develop community spirit.
To sum up - a Parish Plan can:
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through a highly participative approach, empower local people to become and remain active in the Community.
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through an Action Plan, provide a well-defined strategy for the future.
- through a Results Report, provide clear, quantitative data - speaking the same language as the funding and statutory bodies.
So, What Next?
We now need you, the members of the community, to do something. If you would like to get involved in constituting a Parish Plan, them please get in touch with us.
If you are interested please contact the parish council in the usual way, either by email to by writing to the clerk at the address shown in the Your Parish Council page on this website or by contacting any parish councillor.
We should all be proud of our parish and its surroundings and help do our bit to keep it looking good.
The Parish Council has recently appointed a Village Ranger whose job it is to do just that. He is responsible for maintaining council assets, litter picking, grass cutting and generally maintaining the appearance of our surroundings. However it is also the responsibility of all of us who live in the parish to contribute by, for example, not depositing litter, cleaning up after our dogs, reporting damage to fences, overgrown verges, broken street signs, out of order street lights, fly posting and fly tipping. All of these can be reported through the parish council website at www.puritonparishcouncil.gov.uk, by emailing parish clerk or by contacting any parish councillor.
Fly Tipping
There has recently been fly tipping in Batch Road. This has now been cleared and details of the culprits have been passed to the police.
Fly tipping is a criminal offence carrying severe penalties, including fines of up to £50,000 in a Magistrates Court or unlimited fines and imprisonment for up to 5 years if prosecuted in a Crown Court.
If you discover fly tipped waste after the tippers have left, please follow these simple steps, and contact Sedgemoor District Council:
- Do not touch the waste: fly tipped waste can be dangerous, it can contain syringes, broken glass, asbestos, toxic chemicals or other hazardous substances
- Visually inspect the waste: try to determine what the waste consists of and how much there is
- Take a note of its exact location and also whether it is in or near water
- Do not disturb the site there may be evidence that could help identify the culprits and lead to a prosecution
- Note how many people were involved, and the day, date and time it occurred
- Please also make a note of any vehicles involved - including the make, colour and registration.
Fly Posting
Many well-intentioned organisations advertise their fund raising events with posters stuck on lamp posts, fences etc., without realising that very often they are breaking the law.
Sedgemoor District Council is taking a very tough stance on this in an attempt to stamp out the unsightliness of these posters and have an enforcement officer investigating instances of contravention of the regulations.
Their advice is a follows:
“Fly posting is displaying any advertising material on buildings and street furniture without the consent of the owner. It includes any size of material from small stickers to large posters. These posters are unsightly, anti-social and illegal, creating a negative impression of the area.
Fly posting is a criminal offence under the Town and Country Planning (Control of Advertisements) Regulations 1992. The current maximum fine upon prosecution is £2,500 with each poster being treated as an individual offence.
There are many ways on which events can be legitimately advertised without spoiling the local environment e.g. advertising in newspapers and on local radio.”
If you want to advertise an event in this parish, why don’t you make use of the website and/or the newsletter. If you are a charity or a non-profit organisation we can advertise your event free of charge.
You can of course place advertising material on people’s property if you have their permission and provided that the posters or signs do not exceed the permitted size.
First of all, an apology. Due to a variety of circumstances last year's winner's trophy was not presented until very recently - our apologies to the Griffin family of Puriton Park whose entry (pictured below) was the worthy winner last year.
This year we will be better organised and we hope that even more of you will participate.
The closing date for entries this year is Saturday 18th December. To enter you need to send details of your name, address, contact telephone number and (if you have one) your email address to Pete Burke at 1 Puriton Hill or email info@puritonparishcouncil.gov.uk.
Judging will take place during the week commencing Monday 20th December and we will notify all entrants by telephone (which is why we need a contact number) when the judging is to take place.
To make things a bit easier this year we will tell you what the judging criteria are. We will be looking for:
- Initial visual impact (the WOW factor)
- Clever and appropriate use of colour - remember that lots of colour can win if used judiciously but so can the use of a single colour - it all depends on what is appropriate to your display
- Incorporation of the shape of your property (including gardens where appropriate) within your display. For example you might highlight the overall shape of your house or a part of it (such as windows) or you might highlight the shape of trees or shrubs in your garden. These are examples only.
And, finally, if you are the winner, then what? Well, this time the winner's trophy will be presented at the January Parish Council meeting which will be on Tuesday 11th January at 7.45pm in the village hall.
We will also take photographs of all the entries and publish them, together with details of who won, on the parish council website and in the Spring edition of the Puriton Newsletter.
So come on and enter into the spirit of it. We know from previous years that there are many great lighting displays in the parish but only a few have been entered in the competition. We'd especially like to see entries from Downend and Dunball this year.
Let's have a record number of entries this year.
As you will already be aware from our previous correspondence, we have been asked by Sedgemoor District Council and West Somerset District Council and in conjunction with ARUP and Hannah Reynolds Associates consultants to undertake a community engagement programme regarding EDF’s Offsite Development Proposals for the proposed Hinkley Point ‘C’ Power Station.
As part of this process we carried out a series of Community Planning Days during April at which you may have been involved or have been present, which was specifically regarding EDF’s Stage 1 proposals.
The report of that engagement process which highlights the communities views of the Off-site development proposals is attached with this e-mail (below) for your information. It is a public document and you are therefore entitled to distribute it and make it available to your Councillors and community.
It is expected that EDF will be consulting the community regarding their Stage 2 proposals during July and we will continue to offer support to the community regarding those proposals.
We will contact you again in the near future with specific details of how we will be providing that support.
Puriton Parish Council Achieves Quality Status
Puriton Parish Council is delighted to report that it has been awarded “Quality Parish Council Status”.
The Quality Parish scheme was designed and launched in June 2003 (following the Government Rural White Paper 2000) and provides a benchmark minimum standard for parish and town councils and enables them to better represent the communities they serve. The scheme also aims to give enhanced relationships between local councils, principal authorities and community and voluntary sector organisation's.
In order to achieve Quality Status town and parish councils must demonstrate that they have reached the standard required by passing several tests including:
Electoral Mandate
Qualification of the Clerk
Council Meetings
Communications
Annual Report
Accounts and
Code of Conduct
For more information on Quality Status visit: www.nalc.gov.uk
Puriton Parish Council was presented with its Quality Parish Council Certificate at the February Parish Council meeting held in the village hall.
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Richard and Christine's 60th Wedding Anniversary
“Richard Edward Wilkins was born in October 1926 in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, the eldest of four boys. He served in the Royal Navy for the final 18 months of the 2nd world war on an aircraft carrier in the Far East. After de-mob he trained as a draughtsman.
Christine Mary Williams born in October 1922 in Pinner, Middlesex and had one elder brother. She worked in the civil service during and after the 2nd world war.
Both were living and working in Reading when they met and were later married at Christchurch in Reading on 4th March 1950.
They had three boys:- David, born December 1952, Kevin, born May 1956 and Paul, born August 1957.
Richard and Christine emigrated to Tanganyika (now Tanzania) in 1957 and lived near the coast in Dar Es Salaam. They returned to live in England in the early 1960's and lived in Caversham, Reading. Richard worked in the construction industry and Christine was at home looking after the 3 boys until the early 1970's when she returned to work at the civil service.
After Richard retired they continued to live in Caversham until deciding to move to Somerset, choosing Puriton, in 1994 and have lived in the village ever since.
They have 9 grandchildren. These are as follows with the eldest first:-
Nicola, Clare, Amy, Lauren, Ryan, Luke, Christie, Clara and Sophie.
There are also 2 great-grandchildren...again eldest first:-
Carl and Oliver (Oliver is the 10 day old boy in the photos).
As far as we are aware Richard and Christine are the only members of the Wilkins family to have celebrated a 60th wedding anniversary.”
Congratulations to Richard and Christine on reaching such a milestone anniversary – may you live to enjoy many more.
Also thanks to son David for supplying the photographs and the above information.
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Green Waste Collection Service
Sedgemoor District Council have issued the following news release -
Green Waste Collections – Cheaper than a trip to the tip
Green fingered enthusiasts are no doubt itching to get out into their gardens and a service on offer in Sedgemoor could be blooming useful.
Sedgemoor District Council is inviting residents to sign up to garden waste collections in time for the spring. At a cost of just £35 per year, those signing up to the scheme will receive 25 collections a year, when their garden waste will be picked up from their homes.
The scheme is part of a subsidised project offered by the district council as one of its non-essential services. It encourages residents to not only take pride in their gardens but also to recycle their green waste.
Customers signing up have the option of receiving a green wheelie bin for their garden waste or garden waste sacks at a cost of £20 for 10.
Letters will now be sent to more than 8,500 current customers inviting them to renew their subscriptions, which start in April.
Cllr Stuart Kingham, portfolio holder for Environment said, “This service is a valuable one to many people, but it is a service that as a council we don’t have to provide. However, we’ve listened to what our customers what and their feedback and continue to provide it at a subsidised rate, meaning that the council also puts some money towards the project.”
“It is also important to recognise that there are people who don’t have gardens or don’t want to use this service, and it is therefore unfair that they should be expected to help fully fund this project through their council tax.”
Community Speed Watch
Puriton now has a Community Speed Watch team which will be starting to operate speed checks at various locations in the village later this month.
This work is voluntary and part time and so far there are eight people involved but more volunteers are needed.
If you have a little time to spare and would like to help to make our village roads a little safer then why not join the team?
If you are interested just contact PCSO Lora Bray on 07825125099.
Alternatively contact any parish councillor or email us at info@puritonparishcouncil.gov.uk.
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Puriton Primary School
We've now teamed up with Puriton Primary School to show information about the school and its events on this web site. The school of course has its own web site at www.puriton.somerset.sch.uk.
We do however have a section on this web site dedicated to the school and much of the information on the school's site can also be seen here - just go to the 'About the Village' section and select Puriton Primary School from the left hand menu.
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Pictures of Puriton in the Snow 2010
We've had lots of photos of the village covered in snow sent in and these can all be seen in the picture gallery in a new section called (surprise surprise) Puriton in the snow 2010.
Thanks to Jessica Cather, Pete Maddock, Colin McCormack and Paul D'Arcy (the latter for some excellent aerial shots) for sending in their pictures. There are also a few from yours truly.
Incidentally does anyone know who the person was in the aerial shots of the church, walking down the path away from the church? The shot was taken around lunchtime on the Friday after the first snow (8th January) - if it was you, or you know who it was, please let us know.
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Christmas 'Bright Lights' Competition 2009
Photos of all the entries in the competition are now in the picture gallery - go to "About the Village", select "Picture Gallery" from the side menu then select "Christmas Lights 2009". While you're there, why not have a look at some of the other categories?
Don't forget that you can also have your own photos in the picture gallery - just email them as jpg files to info@puritonparishcouncil.gov.uk (but keep them small and nothing outrageous - they will be vetted!).
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Christingle Service 2009
This year's Christingle Service was on Sunday 6th December, and the church was full for the traditional service in aid of the Children's Society, in which the children were given the oranges with candles symbolising the light of Christ over the world.
The first Christingle service was held on Christmas Eve 1747, at Marienborn, in what was then Moravia, now part of the Czech Republic. The pastor, John de Watteville, who devised the service, encouraged the children to take their Christingle home, to re-light it and place it in their cottage window to show the light to passers-by. It's now a national tradition organised by the Children's Society which most churches take part in with a service each year.
Below are some pictures taken by Jim Goddard.
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Parish Council Election Result
On Thursday 5th November we had the first formal election of a parish councillor to be held since 1979.
Out of a total of 1600 registered electors in the parish there were 232 votes cast, including 61 postal votes. This was a turnout of 141/2 %.
The successful candidate was Nick Garnett, who received a total of 168 votes. The only other candidate was Barrie Greenwood, who received a total of 63 votes. There was one spoilt ballot paper rejected.
Congratulations to Nick, who will formally take his place on the council at the next Parish Council meeting on Tuesday 10th November.
The pictures show (below) Nick and (bottom) Barrie congratulating Nick after the result was announced.
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HINKLEY POINT C
As part of the planned proposals to build a new nuclear plant at Hinkley, EDF have asked National Grid to install a new 400,000 volt overhead powerline from Bridgwater to Avonmouth.
They are holding a number of public exhibitions up until the beginning of December.
Unfortunately two of the exhibitions in our area have already taken place, at Mark and Bawdrip. There is, however, one yet to be held at Chedzoy on 25th November and one at Stogursey on 2nd December.
You can get more information about these exhibitions by clicking here.
You can also get more information about the proposals:
Freepost PRKX/EBGK/XXHT
Hinkley C Connection Project
Consultation Response
PO box 5689
London W1A 4FG
- via their freephone number
0800 377 7347
(Lines open 7.30am - 7.30pm Monday to Friday and
7.30am - 1pm Saturday)
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PURITON STUNNER
Celebrating its 30th year since it was revived in 1980, Puriton Flower Show again raised the bar, in standard as well as support, with a display which filled the Village hall in splendour. Make no mistake about it, this one will go down in the record books as a superb effort.
There was a near record numbers of exhibitors and also in the total number of entries, many of which were of a high standard.
This was an outstanding show in every way with 563 entries just from the parish of Puriton.
It was appropriate that Mrs Margaret Brown won the Puriton Inn Cup for most points in show, she had also been an exhibitor in the very first show. Also another exhibitor Mr Mike Parker won the Puriton Challenge Cup for vegetables, a feat he achieved at the 1980 show.
A dry afternoon saw large crowds turn out and it also meant that the Watchet Town Band (Kindly sponsored by a donation from the Puriton Inn) were able to play on the adjoining field, where the annual car boot sale also took place.
The presenters of Trophies were Councillor & Mrs Mark Healey.
The committee would like to thank all exhibitors for making it such a wonderful community event, also everyone who helped in anyway.
Special thanks to the W.I. for their hard work in serving refreshments, and the Judges for giving us their time: Mr Richards; Vegetables & Fruit, Mr Addison; Flowers & Floral Art, Mrs Hobbs; Domestic, Mrs Spicer; Handicraft and Mrs Morley; Art.
If you want to see who won what, there is a full list of all the winners - just click winners list to see it.
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Explore your Somerset Routes
Where in the world could you find a Bakelite coffin, the oldest manmade road in Britain, the largest collection of Naval aircraft in Europe or early Victorian prosthetic limbs?
You might be surprised to find out the answer is Somerset.
For a county with a history as rich and diverse as its countryside, Somerset boasts an amazing number of museums and heritage attractions. Explore your Somerset Routes is a unique touring exhibition which highlights over 100 of the counties best heritage sites to visit.
Created by Somerset County Council and the Museums in Somerset group the exhibition celebrates the most fascinating, quirky, important and breathtaking sights in the county.
Taking the form of a 'tube map', the county has been broken down into seven different lines to travel on, spread across the country and taking in the best sights and things to do. Each line takes you to the museums, historic railways, castles, gardens, stately homes and archaeological sites that make Somerset's heritage unique.
Along with the map, a free booklet has been created which for the first times gives information and contact details about all the major heritage sites in the county. Get them while stocks last though because this is a one-off print run of 5000 copies! The booklet details each suggested stop and includes a website link where possible. And there's a useful tip or nugget of information with every entry.
The exhibition will tour across the county over the next year and if you don't manage to see it there are plenty of other ways to find out about Somerset's Heritage. All the information relating to it, including the touring map and itineraries are available at the download at www.visitsomerset.co.uk/touring-map. Taster videos are available at www.youtube.com/somersetmuseums which shows details of all the sites.
For more information contact Natalie Watson, Museum Development Officer on
01823 362849 or nawatson@somerset.gov.uk
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