Constance Carter's Obituary

Christian Aid Collection
The Christian Aid collection which took place in the parish between 10 and 16 May raised £579.57.

Parish Council Report
The newly elected Parish Council held its first meeting on 14 May 2015. Cllr. Peter Hartop was re-elected chairman and Cllr. Marjorie Pipe was re-elected vice-chair. Councillors then took responsibility for various duties as follows:

Communications - Cllr. Clive Just
Village Hall - Cllr. Marjorie Pipe
Highways - Cllr. Marjorie Pipe assisted by Cllr Jason Boswell for Radwell.
Radwell Matters - Cllr. Jason Boswell
External Affairs - Cllr. Rosemary Drewery
Parish Assets (including Parish burial ground) - Cllr. Peter Hartop
Planning - Cllr. Peter Hartop
Grass cutting & Tree Warden – Cllr. Peter Hartop
Traffic Issues (particularly speeding and parking) - Cllr. Vanessa Coleman
Parish Litter - Cllr. Rosie Cheetham
Neighbourhood Planning- new Parish Council intention lead by Cllr. Rosemary Drewery with assistance from Cllr. Rosie Cheetham

The Localism Act 2011. Neighbourhood planning legislation which came into effect in April 2012 allows Parish Councils to produce a Neighbourhood Plan.

Neighbourhood Plans give every member of a local community a genuine say in the development of their area. Once a Neighbourhood Plan is adopted, any planning applications for new development in our villages, or decisions about the local environment will have to be assessed against policies in our Neighbourhood Plan. If we do not produce a Neighbourhood Plan we will have little say in the kind of development that takes place in Felmersham & Radwell.

The plan will cover areas such as Housing, Infrastructure, Transport, Community facilities, Business, Heritage and Environment

At the Parish Council AGM the Parish Council agreed to produce a plan for Felmersham and Radwell. To be effective this project will require an input from the whole community.

New Parish Council Elected
The following people were elected Councillors to serve on Felmersham and Radwell Parish Council. In alphabetical order:
Jason Boswell
Rosie Cheetham
Vanessa Coleman
Rosemary Drewery
Peter Hartop
Clive Just
Marjorie Pipe
The election took place on Thursday 7 May 2015 and the results were declared on Saturday 9 May 2015.

Another attempted break-in
A garage door belonging to a property in The High Road was recently forced by thieves, but they failed to get into the garage.

Crime Stats for February
February was a bad month for crime within the parish. There were 7 burglaries "in a building other than a dwelling" and one attempted. There were two other "miscellaneous thefts".

A total of 9 plus one attempted.

 
Roadside Hedge Coppiced
Several parishioners have expressed concern over the “grubbing” out of the hedge between Felmersham and Radwell and to the uninitiated it does look a bit drastic. However the roadside hedge has been coppiced, which is the traditional method of dealing with a problem hedge, and within a couple of years a new hedge will have sprung up. There will be some strategic new planting where there are any large gaps, but in the experience of the farmer, it is incredible how much new growth appears after coppicing especially as there is a high proportion of blackthorn in and around the hedge.

The farmer writes: “to emphasise our commitment to conservation under our stewardship scheme with English Nature we are committed to over 21,000 meters of hedgerow management of one form or another, 1.85 hectares of wild flower nectar plots, 7.37 hectares of wild bird seed plots, 2 hectares of un-cropped land for Lapwings along with feeding in excess of 3 tonnes of wild bird seed over the hungry gap period. To complement this we have also re-established wild flower margins around twelve fields scattered about the farm and along with managing the traditional river meadows in a sustainable way we are attempting to improve bio-diversity.”
Walkers and riders are asked to stay on the footpaths and bridleways and not stray onto the headlands.
The above is a précised version of the correspondence between Cllr Hartop and the farmer.

Michael Thomas	An Obituary.
	A Memorial Service was held for Michael Thomas at St. Giles Church, Standlake, Oxfordshire on Monday 12 January 2015. He was 80 years old and lived in the parish for 25 years before moving to Oxfordshire.
Mike served on the Parish Council and help set up the Felmersham and Radwell Community Care Scheme. He was also inaugural chairman of the Community Trust. An Obituary.

Mobile Library - New Dates
Edith Caldwell writes:
We were expecting the mobile library in Felmersham on 8th January but it didn't arrive. I've spoken to Kempston Library and they apparently reset the timetable from week 1 this year so it will visit Felmersham on 15th and 29th January and so on every two weeks. So the next visit to Radwell should be on 22nd January. Visiting times: Felmersham 2.45 to 3.10 pm. Radwell 2.20 to 2.40 pm.
 
We seem to have had a run of problems recently with the mobile library so let's hope things will run smoothly this year.
 

Pinchmill Lower School Notice to all Stakeholders
On November 17th at 2:30pm there will be an open meeting at Pinchmill Lower School, for all stakeholders regarding the consultation on the schools proposal to change age range.
Notice of Meeting Pinchmill School Consultation Document

Parish Council Clerk Retires
After 20 years service as clerk to Felmersham and Radwell Parish Council, Daphne Payne announced her resignation at the recent council meeting. Daphne has served the council under four chairmanships the longest (12 years) with the current chairman. Cllr Hartop presented Daphne with a bouquet of flowers and said her friendship, advice and good humour would be missed by the Parish Council. David Cook, a former chairman, also thanked Daphne on behalf of the community.

Parish Council Meeting 7 July 2015
Three councillors visited the launch event of Pavenham Parish Council's Neighbourhood Plan. All three councillors were impressed with Pavenham's approach to this important planning initiative. Cllrs Drewery and Cheetham will report back to the next meeting a proposed time table to launch the initiative in this parish.
Cllr Cheetham presented several ideas to the council regarding litter in the parish. After discussion it was agreed a notice will be placed on the litter bin on Jubilee Lawn and Sharnbrook Upper School will be made aware of the litter problem between Sharnbrook and Felmersham. Cllr Cheetham also expressed concern over crossing the High Road and Church End near the blind corner caused by the Tithe Barn. A 20 mph speed limit was considered by some Cllrs to be the solution. (Webmaster comment: There is a footpath behind the tithe barn which avoids the blind corner and the traffic in this part of Church End)
The council propose publishing Council information on pages hosted by felmersham.net.
 

April Crime Stats
Criminal Damage to vehicles in Pavenham Road at 17.30 on 21 April 2015.
Theft from motor vehicle on 26 April at 15.00hrs in Hunts Lane.

Di Stephenson
Di's funeral was held on Thursday 2nd April at the Glynn Valley Crematorium, Bodmin. Approximately 150 people attended including many from this parish.
 
800 Litres of Oil Stolen
Upon returning from holiday a Felmersham couple discovered that thieves had stolen 800 litres of heating oil from their storage tank. It is believed that the theft was connected with the other recently reported burglaries.

CAMRA Pub of the Year 2015
Congratulations to Ben and Hannah whose pub, the Sun, Felmersham, has been voted North Beds CAMRA Pub of the Year 2015.

Burglar on the loose in Felmersham
During the night of Tuesday 10th February several burglaries were reported in Felmersham.
Dave Girling, the Neighbourhood Watch co-ordinator for Felmersham writes: There were a number of break-ins in Felmersham Tuesday night the 10th Feb., they were to vehicles, sheds, barns and garages. In some cases nothing was taken, in others tools or gardening machinery were taken. If you have had anything broken in to please phone 101 even if nothing was taken, so they can see the extent of the problem. 101 may pass you on to another group as burglary of outbuildings is treated separately from burglary to dwellings. They should give you a crime number. Wednesday evening and Thursday morning the police visited some of the residents that were burgled. Feel free to talk to the driver of the white police van if you see them and if you were also burgled.

Crime Stats for January
The following unclassified thefts were committed in January:
January 8 at 18.00hrs
             Town Lot Lane, Felmersham.
January 12 at midnight
             Radwell Road, Felmersham.