News: April 2010 Archives

Mayfest 2010 is an exciting programme of activities that will be taking place throughout the month of May, bringing together all the villages along the Spires & Steeples route. Residents and visitors will be able to see just what makes each village special and unique by joining in with craft activities and guided walks, visiting open churches and chapels, watching the unveiling of new artworks and being part of unique drama and music performances.

The Spires and Steeples website has a downloadable leaflet outlining the planned activities. (pdf)

As a direct result of the Nocton Dairies planning application, a new website has been launched, campaigning against the type of farming that is proposed.

The site can be found at www.caffo.co.uk

From Dot Howes

Metheringham's Annual Parish Meeting on Tuesday concluded with a colourful and informative talk and presentation by Vivienne Chambers, a Volunteer with Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire Air Ambulance. The talk ended with fundraising examples and ideas to stir the audience to help raise the £1.5million needed each year to keep the helicopter flying.

Proceeds from the raffle during the evening were donated to the Ambulance.
Earlier in the evening Chairman of Metheringham Parish Council, Dr Mike Allen welcomed everyone and gave a report on the work of the Parish Coucnil for the past year. He highlighted the achievement of Quality Council Staus for which he thanked parish clerk Sharon Wetherall for all her hard work. The other big achievement was the New Village Cross unveiled at the Fayre and Feast. The optimism of last year's meeting when it looked as if the plans for a safe and secure playing field for Metheringham might at last be coming to fruition was premature and the County Council are still holding up plans. Sadly this has also impacted on the long term plans for improvements to changing room and toilet facilities for the playing fields and swimming pool.

Work has though been undertaken to tidy up the Spring Garden on Drury Street and the WI gate is open again. It was requested that a sign should indicate where it is.
Outdoor exercise equipment has now been installed alongside the car park at the Prince's Street Play Area. There is also some new children's equipment.

The accounts and budget for the council show a projected reduction in income for the coming year. It is hoped there will be a reduction in spending on street lighting although increases in play area and administration costs were expected to be higher.

The 2010 Fayre and Feast will be on 23rd October and once again there was a request for more stewards and also teams to help with setting up and dismantling stalls at either end of the event. The parish council thanked the management committees of the Bowls Club, the Village Hall and the Swimming Pool for keeping these amenities up and running on their behalf with the constant struggle for volunteers and to keep within changing legislation.

The Silver Sounds brass band entertained the audience with a short selection of tunes and began the reports from village organisations.

Other organisations speaking were Metheringham Fire and Rescue, the Methodist Church, Metheringham and District Swimming Pool Association, Mission X children's and youth clubs, Metheringham Amateur Drama, The army Cadet Force and Metheringham and Dunston LIVES. During the sumptuous and very elegant buffet the public were able to look at displays from the Police, the Community led Plan, the Methodist Church, Metheringham Animal welfare supporters group ( MAWS), Countryside NK, MAD and the Air Ambulance. District Councillor Bill Chambers gave a vote of thanks to the parish council for arranging the evening and to all involved in all the groups that keep the community alive.

Metheringham Parish Council made a presentation to Butch and Maggie, (Graham Bromfield and Maggie Kirsten) formerly proprietors of the Star and Garter, at the Annual Village meeting on Tuesday 27th April. Dr Mike Allen, Chairman of the council said that the Star and Garter under their management had always been happy to provide a venue for meetings and they had been a tremendous asset to the community through their help and involvement in village activities. He did not expect things to be quite the same again. While receiving a framed dedication with a photograph of the new cross outside the Star and Garter Butch assured the community that he and Maggie will still be resident in the village and will still want to help village groups where they can.

St Wilfrid's Church will be the venue for a night of Songs from The Shows performed by the Hi-Notes on Friday 14th May 2010 at 7.30p.m.
Tickets are £5.00 and there will be nibbles.

From Dot Howes

The Spring Fayre will take place in the village hall on Saturday 8th May 2010 between 9.30a.m. and 1.30p.m.. Raffle and refreshements will be available and stalls have been booked by many local groups and individuals. There will be plants, jewellery, crafts, bric-a-brac and games and activities. To book a stall contact Gwyneth Holland on 01526 322633.

Metheringham Village Hall Management committee held its' Annual General Meeting on Tuesday 20th April at 7.30p.m..There were 15 people present. In her report the Chairman said the year had been less hectic partly because of the delays in plans to put up a children's fenced play area in the car park for the pre-school. This has now reached the planning application stage and the awning is in place. Work done during the year included stripping and se-sealing the floor. The retiring caretaker/ manager, John Harrison; booking clerk, Anne Harrison; and the cleaner, Carole Knox were all thanked for the incredible amount of work they put into keeping the village hall used and in excellent condition. Rob Halls is the new caretaker and bookings officer. Currently applications are being received for a new cleaner and in the meantime groups are asked to leave the hall as clean if not cleaner than they find it. It had been suggested that the side door should be locked at night again to reduce vandalism and also to give pre-school their own key. The treasurer presented the accounts which showed a loss of £1719.43 during the year which was better than the previous year but on purely operating costs showed a loss of £600. This showed the importance of fundraising which last year raised £2321. The accounts were accepted.

The committee had agreed to use a local accountants to administer the PAYE for staff. Jenni Honisett, Gwyneth Holland and Cliff Tompkins were re-elected as Chairman, Treasurer and Secretary respectively. Other trustees making up the committee are Mr John Duggins, Ronnie Wright (WI), Dian Robinson ( District Swimming Pool Association),Nick Dobbs (Parish council), Pauline Ventress (Badminton), Sue Clark (over 60s), Pat Healey (MAD), Anna Russell (Pre-School), Margaret Amos (St Wilfrid's Church PCC).

The committee have several fundraising activities planned for the coming months, the first of which is the Spring Fayre on 8th May. The recent 50:50 sale raised £165.
Items raised included licensing for functions in the hall, the use of the PA system for regular hall users, the delays regarding the pre- school fenced play area and the use of CCTV to catch the vandals who have broken roof slates. MAD notified the committee that the useful keyboard has apparently been swapped with a broken one while in the hall. If anyone know the whereabouts of the Yamaha keyboard that MAD use please could they contact either MAD or the village hall. Dr Mike Allen, chairman of Metheringham Parish Council expressed the council's thanks to the management committee for all the work they do and the fundraising undertaken. He said the hall is a wonderful asset for the village and the villagers owe a debt of gratitude to those who maintain and have maintained it in such excellent condition.

Metheringham Amateur Dramatics (MAD) will be performing at the Playhouse in Sleaford next weekend in an evening of one-act plays as part of Sleaford Live 2010. The other performers will be Sleaford little Theatre and the Horncastle Theatre Company. MAD will be presenting a shortened version of the Shakespeare Review they performed in Metheringham last year. The shows are on Friday 30th April and Saturday 1st May at 7.30p.m.. Tickets are £5 available from Keith Dolby Jewellers or at the door on the night.

AGENDA

1. Introduction:
- Councillor Dr Michael Allen
Chairman Metheringham Parish Council

2. Notes of the last Annual Village Meeting held on 28th April 2009 to be approved and signed as the minutes

3. Annual Parish Council Report
- Cllr Dr Michael Allen

4. Question Time Session

5. Reports from village organizations

6. Break for refreshments, a chance to view exhibits and socialize with guest speaker and representatives from the village organizations.

7. Guest Speaker:
- Vivienne Chambers - Lincolnshire & Nottinghamshire Air Ambulance

8. Date, time and venue of next meeting: To be announced.

Signed:
Councillor Dr M J Allen
Chairman to Metheringham Parish Council
Date: 16th April 2010

From Dot Howes

The Annual Village Meeting takes place in the village hall on Tuesday 27th April at 7.00p.m.. Several village organisations will be represented with either short talks or displays and information. If you aren't sure, come along and find out more. This year's guest speaker is from the Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire Air Ambulance. There will also be a report from the parish council and the opportunity to ask questions.

This is the last week with Butch as landlord of the Star and Garter.
He is moving on to the Ferry Boat Inn at Washingborough and will soon be followed by the rest of the core staff.

Metheringham Football Club raised around £500 at the Race Night at the Star & Garter on Friday night and would like to thank all those who supported the event.

Metheringham Over 60s have signed on their members for the coming year and set about their summer programme already. On 28th April they visit Long Sutton and in May there is entertainment from Just Chilled on Wednesday 5th May and a trip to Norwich on the 12th.

This interactive representation of the Civil Parish Boundaries within the Metheringham Area is derived from data extracted from the Ordnance Survey Boundary Line dataset. The data is used in accordance with the OS Open Data Licence. The mapping interface is built using the Google Maps API

For Metheringham Civil Parish, this new map replaces the previous manually encoded one with definitive data from the Ordnance Survey.

A few days ago, there was a post about the delights of Street View in our area. The MACLA Web Team is pleased to announce the arrival of Street View on our very own website. A fully interactive map is now available at the Metheringham Area Street View page.

On the top map click anywhere there's a road or street with a blue outline. A few seconds later a360 degree panorama will appear underneath it. You can move the map around by leftclick+dragging. As before, if nothing happens, you will need to install the Adobe Flash plugin for your browser.

Have fun.

The Weaver

From Dot Howes

Health Care will be the subject of April's WI meeting with Sean Barkes on Wednesday 21st April at 7.15p.m. in the village hall. The competition will be for something beginning with B.

Metheringham Village Hall Management Committee hold their Annual General Meeting in the village hall on Tuesday 20th April at 7.30p.m.
Any nominations for positions should be with the secretary by 13th April.
The new booking clerk for the village hall is Rob Halls and he can be contacted on 01526 321807. The hall is kept free of regular bookings on Friday and Saturday evenings for private parties, one off functions etc.

Nocton Dairies Ltd are proposing to build a large diary farm holding over 8000 cattle on Nocton/Dunston Heath. It will be the first time that such a large capacity farm has been built in the UK. The planning application has aroused controversy and is polarising local opinion.

Nocton Dairies on their own website outline some of what they are planning and have including a FAQ section where they answer some questions about their plans.

Facebook, the social networking site, has a very active page (over 4000 members) regarding the proposal.

You don't have to be a Facebook member to read the comments . You do have to be a member if you want to contribute to the discussion.

Opponents of the proposal have published an information leaflet

There's also an e-Petition on the Government's own site.

(thanks to Geoff Hall for the above - from his blog, Nocton in Lincolnshire)

Finally, the people of Metheringham and it surrounding area can now get to see what has been causing all the fuss in the media. Google Street View is now available for our area.

To access it you will need to navigate to the Google Maps website. Search for Metheringham (or other village name) and the map will zoom to the village. Once there, drag the little orange pegman onto the map and most of the streets will turn blue. Drop the pegman onto the blue part of street you want to see and wait for a few seconds whilst the image renders. You will be presented with a lovely 360 degree panorama from the middle of the street. See if you can find your street. Is your house shown?

Most of the images were captured last summer (2009) and Google reckon to have covered 95% of the UK. A remarkable feat. So far I've noticed that bits of Caroline Street and Prince's Street are missing.

The fuss in the media was over privacy issues. Some people thought that Google were invading their privacy by capturing the images. Google have 'fuzzed out' people's faces and car number plates in an a attempt to assuage people's fears.

Here are a couple of examples to get you started. Just click on the link or image and it'll take you directly there. Allow a few seconds for the image to render.

Have fun searching for your favourite!

The Weaver