Parish Council
March 2008
Latest Planning Applications
Parish Notes
Two Road works
The new resurfacing material being used should make the road quieter. Abbots Leigh Spring Clean - Sunday 16th March, 10.00am – 12 noon.Come and join us for this sociable and worthwhile annual Sunday morning event when teams of volunteers armed with black sacks and litter-pickers work their way back from the far ends of the parish to clean up the verges and hedgerows, ending up at the The George for a well-earned drink and a free lunch. Congregate outside the Village Hall at 10.00am with your boots and gloves. We will provide high visibility vests, rubbish bags and litter pickers (and gloves for those that do not have them). Then off you go in pairs to bag a haul (it can get very competitive!). A great way for newcomers to the village to get involved. Children also welcome. There will be a buffet lunch for all litter-pickers at The George afterwards, when we are able to marvel at how much has been collected into such a large pile outside the phone box in such a short time!To get involved, please let Pip A’Ness or Simon Talbot-Ponsonby know on 01275 375250 so that we can estimate numbers for lunch. |
Recycling and Rubbish
REDUCE REUSE RECYCLE!
Do your bit, reduce your rubbish and recycle as much as you can. 
New: Plastic can be now be recycled at Waitrose, Portishead. The plastic than can be accepted is either of the following two types represented by the adjacent symbols most commonly used in soft drink, cooking oil, milk and detergent bottles but also in many other forms of plastic packaging.Do not forget to also recycle Tetrapack and similar drinks cartons at Waitrose Portishead. Recycling (green boxes) collection days for the majority of Abbots Leigh and Leigh Woods are: Friday 7th, Tuesday 25th March and Saturday 5th April. Except Manor Lane and Blackmoor Road which are on Thursday 13th and Saturday 29th March Green Waste Collections (Green Bags) are back to twice a month and on the same day as the normal rubbish collection on Wednesdays 5th and 19th March and Thursday 3rd April for the majority of Abbots Leigh and Leigh Woods, except for Manor Lane and Manor Road beyond Manor Close which are on Thursdays 6th and 20th March and Friday 4th April. North Somerset have added a search facility on their website if you want to check when your refuse or recycling is due to be collected. Visit: www.n-somerset.gov.uk/waste and you should see the search facility text that you can click on to take you to the page where you then type in your post code. Refuse Collection Dates over the post Easter Holidays for the majority of Abbots Leigh and Leigh Woods are:
For Manor Lane and Manor Road beyond Manor Close the dates are:
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Introducing your new Parish Councillors:The third Parish Councillor who joined in June 2007Simon Talbot-Ponsonby
Simon has lived at Home Farm for 14 years. Married to former councillor Pip A’Ness, Simon has been involved with Parish issues over the last four years in addition to being on the Village Character Statement Implementation Group. He has three children aged 7, 5 and 2 who keep him young and busy and works as a consulting civil and structural engineer on Park Street. He has been a Trustee of Clevedon Pier for nearly 20 years.For 10 years Simon led the National Cycle Network Millennium project at Sustrans. An outdoors sort of person he cares deeply about healthy living and about reducing our impact on the environment and on our neighbours. You may have noticed him on the morning run to Christchurch School in Clifton with two children on his bicycle or spotted him on his old Ferguson tractor from the Old School Field mowing the grass at Home Farm. |
The Old School FieldContact Cllr. Audrey Telling to report any problemsWith Spring just around the corner we hope to see plenty of children, with parents and grandparents, taking advantage once again of our fantastic playing field opposite the church. The Civic Society has recently donated some more items of sports equipment for the box at the top of the field. Any resident of the parish is welcome to use the equipment in the box, which includes a cricket bat and stumps, two sets of boules, bats and balls. Just type in the code (shown in the Link) and have fun! All we ask is that everything is returned and the box locked before you leave the field and that you please replace anything that gets lost or broken (boules are no use without the jack, and tennis racquets need tennis balls). Please also check inside the box for items of lost property which have been accumulating in the field (e.g. kids’ gloves, a pair of boy’s shoes, navy hooded top).And a reminder to dog owners who walk their dogs through the playing field: dogs must be kept on a lead at all times in the field, and should your hound still feel the need to poo, for everyone’s sake please clean it up Skittle Alley RedevelopmentBackgroundThe Skittle alley is the long low building behind the village hall and is owned by the Parish Council. It was originally built in 1910 as an indoor rifle range.The Alley was leased to the private Abbots Leigh Skittles Club for 24 years. In August 2007 the management of the alley reverted to the Parish Council. The Skittles Club still holds regular matches there and holds the license for the bar. The Abbots Leigh Parish Plan questionnaire in 2004 suggested there was a demand for the skittle alley to be more widely available for use by the community, and the Parish Council has been exploring ways to do this, by refurbishing the Alley and widening its potential use. Working GroupA working group has been set up, consisting of volunteers from the Parish Council, the Civic Society and others from the village. Its objectives are, through consultation, to establish whether there is a clear desire for the alley to be developed, and if so how it should be used for the maximum benefit of those living in the village. If there is a desire for the alley to be developed, the working group will develop a brief and plans which, after further consultation, will be submitted for planning permission.Once this has been done, it will be possible to apply for grants towards project costs. The working group will coordinate the bids for funding, which would be submitted by the Parish Council. Any bid would have to show how the development would take place, its likely impact on the community, and how the completed amenity would be financially and administratively managed. It would also need to demonstrate widespread community support. If you have any questions or comments, or would like to get involved, please contact Gill Coleman on 372016, or John Blain on 372387 For a vision of the future Click on the Arrow  |
Grants for Native Hedges & Pond WorkTom Walmsley has been in communication with Susan Stangroom, Biodiversity Officer, Strategic Projects Group from N. Somerset Council. She has a pile of money for biodiversity projects that is available only to the end of this financial year. Anybody interested in having a native hedge or developing a pond in their garden needs to submit a simple form to receive match funding and lots of free advice.
Tom is collecting names of interested parties and then arranging a tour for Susan around the village to see those sites. The whole process would need to be completed by the end of this financial year. So she will visit in early February while the work will need to be done in March so the landowner can be reimbursed 50% of total cost before April. (Maximum grant per project £500 (the total cost of the project would have to be £1000. Volunteer rates are £6.25 per hour or £50 per day for match funding purposes.) Please contact Tom Walmsley (01275 275530) to go on the list or Susan Stangroom (01934 426762) if you have any queries on this. |