BROAD TOWN NEWS – FEBRUARY 2024
Keeping everyone in touch with what is going on in and around our parish
CHURCH ITEMS
Services
4th February 10.30am Communion followed by refreshments
25th February 5pm Evening Service
Christmas 2023
Thanks to the Parish Council and Jason, Vincenza Bayliffe and family for donating Christmas Trees for the Church and Churchyard. Thanks also to Andrew, Chris, Clive, Rosie, Annette, Helen, and Christine who helped to decorate the shelter and Christmas trees (and dismantled them in January).
The Village Carol Service was well attended and enjoyed by all who came. Half of the collection (£130) was donated to Broad Town's chosen Christmas Charity - Cancer Research UK.
Church Work Morning. We had a post-Christmas/Early Spring Clean of the Church: - Windows cleaned, floor washed, chairs polished, brass cleaned etc. etc. Thanks to all who helped.
Church Fundraising
February Pancake Coffee Morning next Saturday
March Prize Bingo - Courtesy of Trevor and Social Club
April Art Exhibition in Church - 11th/12th/13th - Further details to follow.
May Judy's plant stall - Date to follow.
Broad town church pancake coffee morning Saturday February 3rd 10 - 12 noon in the village hall
Raffle, Pancakes, cake by the slice to eat in or take away, Coffee, tea, cold drinks, Children’s crafts, Terri’s hand-painted glass. All proceeds to help keep your church open - please come along and support us!
FEBRUARY LETTER FROM BISHOP STEPHEN
It won’t have escaped many of us that this year, Ash Wednesday falls on Valentine’s Day. This may feel like an uncomfortable union. Whilst we know that Valentine’s Day is Saint Valentine’s Day, the commercial reality of this occasion means that it has become a day of heart-shaped balloons and chocolates, red roses and looking your best for that romantic meal for two. This doesn’t sit easily with the sombre, penitential tone of Ash Wednesday when flowers are removed from our churches, and we are brought face to face with our imperfections; our daily ability to turn from God. As a gritty cross of ash is marked on our forehead we are told: Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return. Turn away from sin and be faithful to Christ. This stark, deeply humbling, yet powerful moment sets the tone for the season of Lent when we are called to step into the wilderness with Christ and therefore into a time of prayer, self-reflection, repentance and selfdenial. Yet, nothing about Ash Wednesday or Lent is about dwelling in selfloathing or indeed an unforgiveness of ourselves for the times when we have turned from God. On the contrary, it is a time when we are re-directed and re-centred on our absolute need for God – for God’s forgiveness, for God’s grace, for God’s saving love made known to us through Jesus.
Maybe then Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday are not poles apart after all. For it is in the wilderness of Lent, and indeed in the events of Holy Week that follow, that we see face to face the depths of God’s love. A love that isn’t expressed in fine dining or red roses, but the bread and wine of the Last Supper, the blood of Christ shed on the cross and the joy of the open tomb on Easter morning. Bishop Stephen
FOODBANK
The next Village collection will be on Saturday 10th & Sunday 11th February from 9am to 4pm at the Hall.
The RWB satellite centre have been extremely busy, so please be as generous as you can.
COMMUNITY COFFEE MORNINGS
Our coffee morning on the 13th of December raised £171 for Cancer Research UK, the village’s chosen Christmas charity. A big thank you to everyone who came along to support this event which made a great end to the year.
The 2024 coffee mornings got off to a good start with many people coming along to enjoy the homemade cakes and drinks on January 10th and 24th
The coffee mornings in February will take place on Wednesdays February 14th & 28th, so please do join us.
The community coffee mornings are always on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of the month, from 10 – 12 noon in the village hall, so come along to enjoy delicious homemade cakes, sausage rolls, coffee, tea and hot chocolate.
BROAD TOWN SOCIAL CLUB EVENTS
Happy 2024 one and all from the Social Club. It’s been a busy Christmas and New Year and we’ve just about recovered!
Broad Town 2023 Christmas Charity Fundraiser. Thanks to all who supported this in aid of Cancer Research UK. The total raised was a massive £441.97 with contributions from the following organisations:
- Community Coffee Morning Raffle £170
- Christ Church Carol Service £130
- Social Club Community Carols £81.57
- Carol Singers around the village £44.40
- Made in Broad Town additional donation £15.00.
It is amazing how much Broad Town raises for charity whilst having fun. BROAD TOWN - YOU ROCK!!!!
New Year’s Eve Party What can we say? 72 villagers rocked the night away to the sounds of the Dog House Band. A great time was had by all. Thanks to everyone who donated prizes and congratulations to the lucky winners. The Committee would like to note special thanks to Tina Hillier, Keith Wiffin, Paul Granger, Andy Blackburn, and Melissa & Ian Fisher for helping to set up and clean up.
Friday Night Opening We are open every Friday night from 8pm to 11pm and offer reasonably priced drinks and snacks, along with free pool and darts, and any amount of banter at the bar! If you want to come along as a group or a family and would like to have a table and chairs set out just let us know and we’ll magic the furniture out of the store!!
Food for Thought Evenings (Fish & Chips), Dates for the first quarter of 2024 are:
Friday 26th January, Friday 23rd February, When Food for Thought are on site the Social Club opens at 5pm through to 11pm for you to enjoy your takeaway in the Village Hall with a drink or two. Feel free to bring your own cutlery and crockery if you wish but please take it home with you afterwards to wash up!
Menu on Facebook along with details of how to pre-order to avoid the queues.
(https://www.facebook.com/FoodForThoughtSwindon).
For vegan, GF and other dietary requirements please contact them directly to discuss.
They have limited space to carry stock but will gladly try to meet all requests.
Future Events We are currently drafting up the programme of events for 2024. By popular demand we will have a return of The Gin Bar (for one night only!) and another Games or Quiz night. If you have any suggestions for events (particularly if you would like to lead or help organise one) we would love to hear from you. All ideas welcome via Anne on 07916 701844.
Not yet a member of the Social Club?
Read on to see why you should join and how.
FOURWAYS COMMUNITY PUB (THE SOCIAL CLUB) MEMBERSHIP 2024
A reminder to all that January is the time to renew your membership and to invite new members to join. Why become a member? The Social Club is licensed as a members’ club and therefore we have to have members to keep going! The Social Club is a not-for-profit Community Pub, run entirely by volunteers and we maintain the bar facility for Village Hall bookings such as private parties, wakes etc.
What do we offer? Open every Friday evening from 8pm – 11pm. Free darts and pool. Convivial company. Free or subsidised events (Games Nights, Quiz Nights, Screening of Sports Events, New Year’s Eve Party). Support for members wishing to run charity events.
Early opening when the Fish & Chip van is on site.
Reasonably priced drinks, with pints, shorts, and wine @ £3 each. A range of snacks and chocolate.
What does it cost? Membership costs just £3 for the year but if you renew or join in January the cost is a princely £2. Families with children are welcome providing the accompanying adult is a club member. U18s must be accompanied by an adult. Assistance dogs also welcome. Come along on any Friday night to renew or join. New members, simply introduce yourself to Trevor (behind the bar) and he will sign you up and introduce you to other members.
PARISH COUNCIL UPDATE - Email: btpcclerk@outlook.com
Budget & Precept for 2024/25
Despite increases in both the Clerk’s salary (dictated by the Local Government Association pay agreement) and the cost of grass-cutting for the playing fields, the Parish Council has decided to limit the precept increase to 0.92% with any additional amounts paid for out of the existing reserves. This means that the annual budget will be set at £10,146 and the annual amount requested from a household in tax band D in the village will increase slightly to £36.87 from last year’s £36.53. The Parish Council precept forms a small part of the overall annual Council tax requirement which will be communicated by Wiltshire Council direct to householders.
Grants available for Community Groups Remember that grants are available for Community Groups to help with any funding needs – each application is assessed by an independent advisory board prior to being submitted to the Parish Council who administers the funding from the Bluefield solar farm (previously Good Energy).
Details are available on the website www.broadtownparishcouncil.org.uk
The next Parish Council meeting will be at 6.30pm in the village hall on 12th February. All are welcome and the agenda will be posted on our website and on the notice boards in due course.
Keep your dogs on a lead around livestock
Wiltshire Police Community Speed Watch. The Parish Council has received the results from the metrocount which showed 85 percentile speeds of 38mph in the 30 limit by Redhills. This therefore qualifies for the setting up of a Community Speedwatch team in Broad Town. If you are concerned about speeding in the village and would like to do something about it please contact Chris Woodhouse on 07790 815616 or woodhousecj@gmail.com for further details.
Next PC Me would like to remind people who may be out and about enjoying the wonderful Wiltshire countryside with dogs that it is a sensible precaution to keep them on a lead when livestock are nearby.
Click this link for more details: https://www.wiltsmessaging.co.uk/Alerts/A/133415 Find out more about livestock worrying and how to report it on the Wiltshire Police website: Livestock Worrying If you see a dog worrying or attacking livestock please call 999 or report online at https://www.wiltshire.police.uk/ro/report/rwc/rural/report-rural-crime/ or call 101 after an occurrence.
WHAT OUR S.I.D. SAW LAST MONTH
The SID has been located at the School monitoring Southbound traffic (heading to Broad Hinton)
The SID counted 14,828 vehicles passing which equates to approx. 618 a day. 18% of vehicles were speeding.
COMMUNITY SPEED WATCH SCHEME – YOUR VILLAGE NEEDS YOU!
In November 2023 the Parish Council organised a check of vehicles passing through the village over a six-day period. Over 12,000 vehicles were recorded and of these 65% (over 7,800) were travelling in excess of the posted 30mph limit. To try and reduce this figure it has been suggested that the village instigates a community speed watch scheme.
Are you interested in helping to keep our village roads safe? Are you interested in meeting up occasionally with like-minded villagers? Do you have a few hours to spare periodically throughout the year? If the answer is Yes, then read on. Broad Town has successfully made it through the first stages to become involved in a Community Speed Watch Scheme. This involves volunteers from the village using police issue equipment to ascertain speeding vehicles through the village.
Full training is conducted by Wiltshire Police and all volunteers would be authorised to use this equipment.
Vehicle speeds will be monitored by volunteers periodically throughout the year. This may be every two - three months. This would involve a rota of volunteers to be out at the roadside at designated times and locations to monitor traffic. Speeding vehicles/drivers are identified and details forwarded to Wiltshire Police.
Likely commitment will be 1 - 2 hours at the roadside a few times a year.
This cannot be done through the electronic SID because it does not identify individual vehicles.
Details of how those speeding are followed up and the success of the Community Speed Watch Scheme nationwide can be found at www.communityspeedwatch.org.
If you wish to become involved or require any further information contact:
Chris Woodhouse 07790 815616 or woodhousecj@gmail.com
MADE IN BROAD TOWN CRAFTS & HOBBIES GROUP
Our first ever stall at the Church Christmas Coffee Morning on December 2nd proved to be extremely successful. Sales of Christmas cards, crafts, gifts, preserves, home baked goods and decorations raised the amazing total of £587.80 which we have donated to the village church. We also raised just over £40 from sales after the coffee morning. Thank you to everyone who came along to support both us and the church, and to all our crafty people, we all enjoyed making products to sell and we learnt a lot along the way!
We were also able to contribute to the total raised at the Wednesday Community Christmas Coffee Morning which was given to Cancer Research UK, and we had a stall at the Broad Town School
Christmas Fair on December 15th. Here we raised £51.50 which has been donated directly to the school. Some of the money raised from nest box sales has also been donated to the Wiltshire Air Ambulance. It’s fantastic to have been able to support so many good causes in our first year.
Our next sale will be at the Bushton Plant Fair on Monday May 6th, so please look out for further details. If you are reading this before the end of January, please come along to our extra ‘bunting making’ session on Wednesday January 31st from 10am-12 noon. The meetings in February will be on Wednesdays February 7th & 21st, please join us from 10-12 noon in the village hall. You don’t need to be creative as everyone is welcome to come along for refreshments and a chat. You are very welcome to do your own crafts/hobbies – there is no obligation to make items for the sale. A wide range of hobbies and crafts takes place during the meetings and it’s always interesting to see what people are up to!
We ask for a £2 donation please, to help cover hall hire and refreshment costs. If you have any questions, please email us, we would love to hear from you!
We are still looking for donations of any craft materials and plywood, but also any summery/pastel fabric remnants that could be made into e.g. bunting, including unwanted men’s shirts, and floral dresses etc - we would be very grateful to receive them.
Please bring them along to the village hall or if you contact us, we can collect them from you. Thank you!
Email: Linda Boyden lindaboyden12@gmail.com; Helen Greer hjgreer1@gmail.com
BURGLARY PREVENTION ADVICE FROM WILTSHIRE POLICE
Burglary is an operational priority here in Wiltshire as outlined by Chief Constable Catherine Roper at the start of the year. In 2022, following a review by the College of Policing, the National Police Chief’s Council requested all forces attend all home burglaries. We joined the national pledge to commit to this – in October, our most recent figures show we attended 96.1 per cent of all residential burglaries and 100 per cent of all reports of distraction burglaries.
Since April, there have been 327 residential burglaries – a 15 per cent decrease on the same time period last year.
Back in July, we established our Burglary Team to help target prolific offenders, investigate series offences and out of force offenders who travel to Wiltshire to commit crime, and subsequently support us in achieving our pledge.
Det Insp Darren Ambrose, of the Burglary Team, said: “Burglary is one of the most impactive crimes that a member of the public can suffer. Your home is the place you should feel most safe and secure and somebody breaking in can change the life of a victim and their family forever. That is why burglary is a priority for the Force and why we are taking steps to improve our approach to dealing with residential burglary.
“The newly established Burglary Team are able to support local neighbourhood officers investigating burglary to help reduce the number of burglaries and provide the victims of burglary with the best possible service.”
As part of our campaign, we will be raising awareness of important crime prevention advice to help you reduce your risk of falling victim to this type of crime.
Here’s our crime prevention advice checklist:
- Lock your doors and windows every time you leave the house, even when just in the garden. And make sure you have approved locks or bolts to all doors and windows.
- Never leave a spare key in a hiding place like in a plant pot or letter box - a thief knows all the hiding places.
- Register all serial numbers from electrical items, tools and garden equipment with Immobilise.com, the free national property register. Mark items without serial numbers with an artificial DNA property marker such as Smartwater or SelectaDNA.
- Use a timer to set lights to mimic your usual activity when you are not at home.
- Do not open the door to anyone you don't know or are not expecting. Always check by using a spy-hole or look through a window. Don't trust an ID card.
- Trim back any plants and hedges at the front of your property to no higher than one meter to remove hiding places.
- Always report any suspicious activity, note any vehicle registrations, descriptions of persons involved and direction of travel.
- Consider installing a monitored burglar alarm, and only use a company that is registered or certified with the NSI or the SSIAB.
- Take photographs of all jewellery including hallmarks and keep them safe. Make sure that you have up to date contents insurance.
- Keep all keys, purses and wallets out of sight and away from the letterbox.
Throughout the month, you can follow our advice on social media under the hashtag #BeatTheBurglar.
FOODBANK NEWS…
Please remember our village hall foodbank collection will be on February 10th & 11th. As you can see below, your generous donations have made a real difference to those in need.
Dear Supporters, We would like to say a massive "THANK YOU" for supporting us in 2023 through food donations and financial donations.
The generosity and thoughtfulness of everyone who supports us is much appreciated and very welcome at what continues to be a tough time for so many people in crisis and will help us continue to help those who are most in need in our local community.
In 2023, we helped almost 11,000 people and distributed over 119 tonnes of food. The level of donations in 2023 was just over 98 tonnes, which doesn't quite match the amount of food needed, so we are spending some of our funds, for the first time ever, buying food and products to fill our food boxes, to meet the increased demand, so your support has been more welcome than ever.
Your support allows us to deliver food boxes to our 12 Distribution Centres, collect donations from companies and supermarkets, purchase food that we may be in short supply of, fuel our vans, pay our five part time staff and has enabled us to open another new food distribution centre in Wroughton, to support and meet the need in that area.
Please remember, if you know of anyone who is facing hardship, whether they are working or not, direct them to our website: https://www.swindonfoodcollective.org/get-food/
Your fantastic support enables us to continue helping those who, in times of crisis in their lives, need support to feed themselves and/or their families.
Once again, thank you so much. Wishing you and yours a very happy and healthy 2024.
Best wishes, The Trustees, Staff and Volunteers of Swindon Food Collective
POLICE & CRIME COMMISSIONER PHILIP WILKINSON’S FEBRUARY PARISH COLUMN:
Delivering a police service which meets the needs of its communities has never been more important – or challenging. I know residents want greater public engagement with officers, more public access to officers and an increased officer presence at community level. Wiltshire Police is addressing this with the introduction of a new operating model with neighbourhood teams providing visible, neighbourhood-focused, policing and delivering a recent improvement programme to provide a better-quality service 999 and 101 callers.
My commitment has been to invest in mobile police stations so our rural communities receive the same level of service, improve Melksham Custody so it is fit-for-purpose and the future, invest in training facilities to provide an exemplary environment to equip our police officers to keep you safe and to challenge the force to consistently provide a quality service to residents – regardless of location.
All of this is underpinned by the importance of investment in police ‘estate’ to support the delivery of a policing service I know our residents want - and deserve.
My newly launched Estates Strategy sets out this vision. I believe Wiltshire Police will be better equipped to provide the policing service our communities want if they have the infrastructure which supports them to respond more effectively and efficiently.
The strategy ensures we have well-placed police stations and hubs providing a base for our staff to work smarter, adapt to changing crime and, more importantly, ensuring that not only will communities be safer but they will start to feel safer too.
You can read the full strategy on my website:
https://www.wiltshire-pcc.gov.uk/
FEBRUARY AT A GLANCE…
Friday January 26th – Food for Thought Fish and Chips
Wednesday January 31st – Made in Broad Town Bunting Making
Saturday February 3rd – Church Pancake Coffee Morning
Sunday 4th – Church Communion Service 10.30am
Wednesday 7th – Made in Broad Town
Saturday 10th & Sunday 11th - Foodbank Collection
Monday 12th – Parish Council Meeting
Wednesday 14th – Community Coffee Morning
Wednesday 21st - Made in Broad Town
Friday 23rd - Food for Thought Fish and Chips
Sunday 25th – Evensong 5pm
Wednesday 28th - Community Coffee Morning
Please note that all copy to be included in the next edition should be emailed to:
BroadTownNews@gmail.com by the 22nd of EVERY month. For any queries, please contact Ray Manley 01793 731564