Gaydon Parish Magazine October 2023
index of magazines
Gaydon Gazette for October
Parish Council Tues 3rd at 7.30pm Village Hall
Friendship Club Tues 10th at 2.30pm 2 The Cottages
Coffee with Police Sat 14th at 11am Village Hall
Mobile Library Fri 20th at 2.40pm Phone Box
Harvest Festival Sun 22nd at 3.30pm Chadshunt Church
Hallowe'en Tues 31st at 4pm The Bungalow
Tai Chi Wednesdays at 7pm Village Hall
Craft Circle 2nd & 4th Suns 5pm Church
October Church Services
1st 10am Holy Communion Burton Dassett
8th 9.30am Agape Gaydon
10am Morning Prayer Northend
15th 9.30am Holy Communion Gaydon
10am Morning Prayer Northend
22nd 9.30am Songs of Praise Gaydon
10am Agape Meal Northend
3.30pm Harvest Festival Chadshunt
Roman Catholic Church of St Francis, Kineton Sunday Mass 11am
Parish Council News
The September parish council meeting was held on 5th September with three councillors and eleven members of the public in attendance.
The following matters were discussed:
Grant A request was received from the Parish Magazine for a grant of £132 towards 12 months' paper costs. This was approved.
Garage The bollards recently installed by the garage were reported to be effective in preventing vehicles parking there.
Cemetery Works to the footpath and turning circle have now been completed to provide a flat and substantial surface in the cemetery.
JLR Planning application 23/01994/FUL has been received for the erection of a surface-mounted ancillary storage building of non-permanent construction on existing hardstanding on land off Banbury Road at Jaguar Land Rover. No representation is to be made by the council.
County Councillor Chris Mills's full monthly report is enclosed at Appendix A to the Minutes, available at ww.gaydonparishcouncil.org.uk
Cllr Mills highlighted the following items:
There is help available for the cost of living crisis; The Green bus school service is no longer operating;World Suicide Prevention Day was on 10 September. This link https://www.dearlife.org.uk/ contains information which may help.
Next Meeting
The next parish council meeting is Tuesday 3rd October at 7.30pm in the village hall.
Harvest Festival Service at All Saints' Church Chadshunt
Candlelight Harvest Festival Service on Sunday 22 October at 3.30pm. Do take advantage of the rare opportunity to worship in this ancient church! The congregation is invited to have tea at Chadshunt House after the service.
Thanks
The Christmas Lunch fund-raising Coffee Morning held last month saw a brilliant turn-out of supporters at the village hall, in spite of Saharan temperatures. We raised well over a hundred pounds to help pay for the Over-65s Lunch on 3rd December. Thank you for all the raffle prizes, cakes, bric-a-brac, helping out and washing up! N.B. Invitations to the Lunch will be sent out in November. If you are new to the village or have had that magic birthday during the past year, please let Debbie or Julie know if you would like to come. Helpers will be contacted over the next few weeks. Again, if you are a newcomer or have never helped before, just tell us you want to help and you will be added to the team! Debbie is on 640757 and Julie on 640349. DP&JR
Allotment News October
It has been a very topsy turvy year...however, still plenty of water in the tanks.
Recent crops have been beans, courgettes and plenty of apples. We are collecting a late lot of raspberries and seasonal blackberries, including yellow raspberries that we had forgotten we planted a few years ago.
Several of our currant bushes came from Kilkenny in Ireland when we went on holiday and couldn't resist the €1 bargains in a gardening shop - even cheaper than Morrisons!
I have given up growing tomatoes as they have tended to get blight but on one allotment some plants appeared out of nowhere and are cropping well. We are eagerly waiting for what looks like a promising crop of sweetcorn.
Does anyone know any recipes for nettles or docks? They do so well on the allotment without any nurturing! DP
Help the Village Hall!
The Village Hall Committee is grateful to the working party who have been cutting back the hedge on the side of the driveway alongside the Hall. Over the years, shrubs have become trees and require the sort of acrobatics illustrating the front of this magazine. Help with further work parties in October would be much appreciated. Please contact John on 640349 or Siobhan on 07780 689582 if you have time to join us!
HALLOWE'EN
is coming to The Bungalow, St Giles Road 4pm to 9pm on Tuesday 31st October.
Trick or Treat Sweets
Cakes
Hallowe'en Displays
All donations go to the British Heart Foundation.
Mobile Library
The Mobile Library will call at the Telephone Box at 2.40pm for half an hour on Friday 20th. There is a new timetable.
This route will operate on:
20 October 2023
17 November 2023
15 December 2023
19 January 2024
16 February 2024
15 March 2024
Coffee Morning with the Police
Saturday 14 October at 11am in the Village Hall. Raffle, Bring & Buy, Books, Puzzles, Tea & Coffee and Biscuits.
In aid of Church funds.
Neighbourhood Watch News
Local Police will be present at the next Coffee Morning to talk to residents about Neighbourhood Watch. Everyone is welcome to come and meet Chris Pickering, our NHW representative, and find out what the Police have to say about crime in Gaydon.
Friendship Club
The next meeting will be on Tuesday 10 October at 2.30pm at the home of Jan Ewers, 2 The Cottages, Banbury Road.
Tai Chi
The Tai Chi group meets every Wednesday evening at 7 o'clock in the Village Hall. Please text 07514 011406 so that we can look out for you. After a month, please donate a coin for the hire of the Hall.
Gaydon Cake and Crafting Circle
Every second and fourth Sunday we gather over cake and tea and get creating. If you don't know how to knit or crochet, we can teach you; and You Tube is also a useful tutor! Pop into Church on the 8th or 22nd of October after 5pm or get in touch with Jo Hotchkiss.
Millennium Group
There will be no Apple Day this year in Gaydon but there are other events in the wider area to celebrate Britain's apple heritage. Visit Hill Close Gardens in Warwick which is holding an Apple Day on Sunday 8 October from 11am-5 pm. DP
Proposed Development Update
The most important development is the moving of the ‘determination’ date (originally 12th October) for a decision to be taken. I spoke to Neil Hempstead (Planning Officer) on Friday 22nd September and he supplied the following information:
Because of the size and potential impact of such a development, it will be considered under the criteria of E.A.I. (Environmental Impact Assessment) which usually takes 16 weeks to evaluate, so late November/early December is likely to be the earliest determination date. The actual date will be posted on the e-planning application itself. We should look on a regular basis for this (‘D-day’) date.
Although the process is under way, the sheer amount of evidence and objections we produced requires extended scrutiny and the Planning Department is requesting more information from ‘consultees’ causing a delay. (N.B. It also allows further time for the developers (CEG Land Promotions (Malta) Ltd.) to comb through the submitted comments and objections presumably to take issue with arguments and points made by us and other opposing agencies e.g. CPRE.)
It will probably go to a full Planning Committee meeting where proposers and objectors can attend and one brief contribution from an agreed representative is allowed. (Full details can be found in the very useful, informative leaflet: ‘Public Involvement in SDC Planning Committees’ accessed via this link:
https://www.stratford.gov.uk/planning-building/the-application-process.cfm )
The full planning committee comprises planning officers but also councillors whose numbers will reflect the changeover from the last election (Conservative to Lib Dems). However, we should be wary of thinking that the mere presence of more environmentally-attuned councillors will mean that the development will automatically be thrown out: that would be complacent and misguided… There are no ‘shoo-ins’ in these processes!
Our constituency M.P., Jeremy Wright, has now submitted his objections (the full text can be found under ‘comments’ in the application 23/01054/OUT on the SDC e-planning site). While his support is welcome, we shouldn’t assume that his status and opinion automatically adds a decisive weight in any decision process.
By way of anticipation for the next stage (Planning Committee, November/December?), we should consider laying the groundwork to further voice and publicise our opposition:
Our Parish Council must formally request a full SDC Planning Committee meeting for the decision.
The ‘Scarecrow Fest’ on the theme of road safety, held in the village a few years back, attracted attention and publicity for that issue. It’s been suggested that we stage a similar event with accompanying photo opps for the local press e.g. David v.Goliath?
Photos of numerous villagers with banners/placards standing in the foreground of the threatened fields, to be taken and forwarded to the Herald? (Ideally, the week before ‘D-day’!)
Could someone, with the necessary photographic/computer skills, take photographs of the view south as the B.4100 descends (from approx. the entrance to the BM Museum)? Then superimpose the planned hangar-size buildings CGI’ed on the landscape of Thorn Hill and the surrounding landscape to show ‘before’ and ‘after’ of the despoliation that will occur if the development is allowed? (Strangely enough, the developers - in all of their 6 binders, 13.7 kilos weight of documents – did not feature any such images. Wonder why?)
The resulting pictures could be used for publicising our opposition in different media, whether in the Herald, online, or with copies in strategic places in the village and generally across South Warwickshire to remind people of the potential loss of another ‘green lung’ in our precious countryside. It would not only be our loss: visitors travelling towards Gaydon have commented that this view, after coming south from the cluttered Warwick/Leamington and West Midlands conurbations, has a ‘classic’ landscape look to it with its panoramic sweep taking in the Dassett hills and the Edgehill escarpment that can give such viewers a psychological/spiritual ‘lift’.
However soft and sentimental that may sound, such experiences should be nurtured and preserved in a world where, unfortunately, too many corporate concerns know the price of everything and the value
of nothing. Tony Hughes
British Motor Museum Events
Sunday 1st October - Wedding Fair
Tuesday 10 October - Gaydon Gathering
Monday 16 October - Mini Motorists Mondays
Roadmap to the Future
Saturday 21 -Sunday 5 November includes Half Term
Sunday 22 October - Large model Aircraft Show
Sat & Sun 28/29th - Great British Model Railways
Book tickets online at britishmotormuseum.co.uk
October Memorial Book
1992 1st Rhoda Lovesey
2012 14th Christopher Wrighton
2022 15th Frederick William Morgan
2020 18th Alan Povey
2010 20th Joan Hare
2014 22nd Margaret Diston
If there is a special entry that you would like to see, let me know and I will try to make sure that the Book is open on that day. Julie Rickman
Nature Notes for September
A sudden drop in temperature in the last few days and strong winds, may herald the inevitable signs of autumn. The first Walnuts, Hazel nuts and Quinces have fallen and dusk is earlier.
A Song thrush is enjoying the aftermath of the first substantial rains which have brought out hordes of snails. I investigated the tapping in my garden and discovered a couple of 'anvils' - hard stones which the thrush adeptly used to break the snail shells!
A further mystery are numerous small holes in the leaves of my Comfrey plants: almost like having been shot at close range with bird shot! The culprits were rather attractive black and lemon striped spiny caterpillars, the result of the plague of Scarlet Tiger moths in June.
The Red Admiral is without doubt the most numerous butterfly this season and will almost certainly feed on the fallen fruits until the first frosts. My fig tree is a great favourite at present with many split open on the ground.
Humming bird hawk moths are also back in the village, favouring Valerian patches as usual. Look out also for large Dragonflies patrolling the hedgerows. There are substantial early crops of blackberries and crab apples in the hedgerows.
Buzzards and Red Kites still circle the skies above the village and one is often first prompted to look skywards by their piercing calls. Wasps are more numerous this year, as are Hornets. They are valuable pollinators and seem very placid of late.
The most interesting arrivals here are Ivy bees which nest in wall crevices and gather around Ivy flowers. I have a large colony in my garden; they resemble small dark honey bees and do not sting.
The first circular webs of the attractive Garden Spider may appear in Herbaceous flower beds soon, recognisable by their large size and intricately patterned abdomen of brown and cream; Gnats are entrapped in large numbers.
There is little sign of leaves turning colour so far. Another year of unpredictable climate... Bernard Price
Flag
If you have something to celebrate or commemorate, contact Siobhan Hannan on 07780 689582, and she will raise
the Flag for you in return for a £5 contribution to Church funds.