Thursday 30 June 2011

Village News

with Margaret Morbey

Chearsley on Sunday July 10th
What better way to spend a very local, relaxing afternoon and evening in Chearsley with friends and neighbours than by enjoying a Traditional Afternoon Tea in the Village Hall, followed by a Choral Floral Delights concert in St Nicholas Church.

There will be sandwiches, cream teas and cakes at a Traditional Afternoon Tea organized by the Village Hall Committee to raise funds for the Village Hall from 3 until 5pm on Sunday July 10th. Tickets for this will be available price £4.50 for adults, or £5.00 on the day. There will be face painting and a nature trail to keep the children occupied. Please contact Claire Lazaruk on 07810823629 or Julia Witcher on 07905755995 or email clairesamp@aol.com for tickets.

A Choral Floral Delights concert is being held on Sunday July 10th at 7pm at St Nicholas Church when the Aylesbury Consort of Voices conducted by Kelvin Turner will be singing music by Wilbye, Byrd, Finzi, Pearsall, Britten, Howells and Saint-Saens. Everyone is welcome to come and enjoy these lovely voices in the beautiful setting of our 14th century village church. Tickets cost £8 each which includes wine and canapés. Tickets are available at the door or from alicia@tangerinetiger.net

Cricket Club – 100 Club
More members of this fund raising scheme are welcomed. It costs £24 to take part in the monthly lottery, when approximately 50% of the ticket revenue is paid out in prizes. The more participants there are means the greater the amount of money available for prizes and for vital funds for the Club. If you are interested, please contact louisagadsby@hotmail.co.uk.

Recycling
Baskets for plastics, paper and cans are due to be collected on Tuesday July 12th

Hanging Basket Competition
Don’t be shy in entering your hanging basket into this village competition. This will be the third year, this category has been included in the annual Village Show. New competitors are needed. Judging takes place in the week beginning 18th July.

Entry forms for this are available from Rosemary Wallis, Merrifield, Dark Lane.

Summer Party at The Bell
This is taking place on Saturday 27th August. There will be Alvin as Elvis, a Steel band, pig roast, Thai buffet, real ales, activities for the children. Tickets cost £30. No charge for children. There are a few tickets still available from The Bell.

Wednesday 29 June 2011

Footsteps 2011

For the past 2 years, Chearsley children and their parents have had a whole heap of fun at the church’s FOOTSTEPS day held each August. The day typically starts off with craft in the village hall, followed by a picnic lunch and then games and drama and more crafts in the afternoon. The idea is that the children “walk in the footsteps” of a biblical character, getting to know more about them while having fun at the same time. Last year we learnt all about Moses. Some of the fun activities we had were making clay bricks, pitching tents in the desert, eating rice paper manna and covering an amazing papier mache calf with gold paper.

This year we will be following in the footsteps of “Jesus the Storyteller” and will be sending the children on “quests” for answers! We will be split into groups with a baby/toddler area for younger siblings, a pre-school group, an infant group and a primary group. The younger children will do lots of crafts and games while the primary children will prepare a drama to show the younger ones at the end of the day. We are planning to finish off with a feast and a disco (but ‘shsh’ keep that a surprise from the children!).

The day is open to children from 0 to 12 and each child will need a parent or nominated adult with them at all times. Over 12s would be very welcome to help.

If you would like to spend a day having fun with your children and other parents at Footsteps, please contact Sharon Sampson for more information.

Tel: 01844 208740 Email: sharon@cloverdale.biz

Thursday 23 June 2011

Community Message

This is a Community Message from Aylesbury Watch Office on Thursday 23 June.

Police are seeking assistance from the public across Aylesbury Vale to look out for a white Seat Leon which is suspected of being involved in 4 burglaries across the Vale and into Hertfordshire. The offences have been committed since the 31st May when the car was stolen from a house in Bierton.

If you see a white Seat Leon in suspicious or unusual circumstances (parked outside neighbour's house or on their driveway when they don't use such a car, of if they aren't home, etc) then please record the registration and call police immediately informing them you believe the vehicle to be in suspicious circumstances and have been asked to call in with the registration following an appeal on Community Messaging. This will enable police operators to conduct further checks and deploy police officers if this is necessary.

Any information can be passed to the Police via the 24 hour Police Enquiry Centre on 0845 8 505 505 or if you suspect a crime is in progress dial on 999.

Wednesday 22 June 2011

Neighbourhood Police Team: June Newsletter

The Neighbourhood Police Newsletter for June can be downloaded here.

Monday 20 June 2011

CAB Newsletter

Changes to Incapacity Benefit

The government has started to re-assess people currently claiming Incapacity Benefit (IB) in order to decide if they qualify for the new Employment and Support Allowance (ESA).

If you currently receive IB, the Department for Work and Pensions will write to you between now and March 2014 about reassessing your benefit entitlement.

First of all, you will have to fill out a questionnaire which asks about your health condition or disability. You must complete this questionnaire with as much detail as possible and return it by the date requested. If you don’t, your benefit may be affected.

You may then be asked to attend a face-to-face assessment. You will be asked a number of questions to help determine what you are able to do and whether you might be capable of work.

If the assessment finds you meet the qualifying conditions for ESA, you will be automatically transferred to this benefit. If the assessment finds that you're not entitled to ESA, your Incapacity Benefit will stop. You will then have to make a new claim for Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) or another benefit that suits your needs.

If you attend an assessment and are unhappy with the way it's carried out, or you don't agree with its outcome, you can get advice on what to do from your local CAB.

CAB adviceline  08 444 111 444 or 0300 3300 650(mobile)
For general advice visit www.adviceguide.org.uk
Your local CAB is in Market Square, Thame

Concert at St Nicholas

On the evening of Sunday 10th July there is to be a concert of ‘Choral Floral Delights’ at St Nicholas’ Church Chearsley. What better way to relax at the end of a busy weekend than to enjoy some lovely voices in the beautiful setting of our 14th century village church!

Tickets are £8 each and include light refreshments of wine and canapés. Please come and support this local community event – everyone is very welcome! Contact Alicia Howard for tickets.

Thursday 16 June 2011

Cold Caller Warning

Received from AVDC on 16th June:

Roof Exchange UK

We have reports of a company called Roof Exchange UK who have been cold calling in the South of the County, but they could be operating in other parts of Buckinghamshire. A person calling himself James Smith, will cold call on the home owner and state that the roof needs some repair. He may offer to repair the roof for a small fee, then after some work has been completed he will say there are other problems with the roof and the price will increase considerably.

The company also appears not to give cancellation rights in writing. We advise people not to deal with cold calling traders.

Building contractors can be found by visiting the Buy With Confidence website. Traders on the BWC website have all been Trading Standards approved. Companies offering services in your home must give cancellation rights in writing. Where possible get written quotations before agreeing to having the work done.

The Bucks CC "Doorstep selling information" web page can be found here.

If you are approached by a Mr. James Smith of Roof Exchange UK, please contact the Police immediately on 0845 8 505 505 - they in turn will alert Trading Standards on 01296 382386

Sunday 12 June 2011

Village News

with Margaret Morbey

Litter Pick
It was Sandra Towell’s birthday which she celebrated by joining in the Village Litter Pick on Sunday 5th June! I hope she went on to spend the day more pleasantly. She was one of 2 Parish councillors who joined 9 other villagers to scour the village for litter and dog poo. It was generally agreed that there was mainly little rubbish, but weeds outside houses could be tidied up by arranging a strimming/weeding party.

Mobile Library
This will next be at The Green in the village on Monday 20th June from 12.20 until 12.45pm.

Chearsley W.I. – Tuesday 21st June - Volcanoes and Dragons
Everyone is invited to the W.I.’s next meeting at Chearsley Village Hall to hear a talk and see slides about komodo dragons and active volcanoes in the Indonesian Islands by John Tyler. The meeting starts at 2pm.

Aces and Queens Summer Ball – Raffle tickets
Raffle Tickets for this prestigious event are on sale in Chearsley shop. The cost of each raffle ticket is £5.00, all of which will go to Cuddington and Dinton C of E school and will give you the chance to win one of many impressive prizes including a hot air balloon flight, an Amazon kindle and a Nintendo DS, family days out, hampers, theatre tickets – the list goes on. The raffle will be drawn on Saturday June 18th at the Ball at Nether Winchendon House. If you are not attending the Ball, buying a raffle ticket is a way of supporting our local school. For more information please visit www.acesandqueens.wordpress.com

Bingo at The Bell
Another successful session of Bingo was held at The Bell on Tuesday 7th. There will now be a break for the Summer period until September.

Wednesday 8 June 2011

Community Message

This is a Community Message from Aylesbury Watch Office on Wednesday 8 June.

Following a recent report of a bogus telephone caller in the Aylesbury area, Police wish to remind all watch members not to divulge personal information to unknown or unexpected callers, either in person or on the telephone.

Bogus callers can be very plausible and build confidence to make the victim believe they are genuine. They can claim to be from official organisations, such as the Council, banks, credit card companies or even the Police. The aim of their call is to obtain sensitive information, such as bank details, address history, mother’s maiden name etc. If they are successful in gaining this kind of data it can be used to defraud you.

DO NOT be tempted to give out this information – always check the identity of the person, by calling the company they claim to be representing. Do not assume someone is genuine, no matter how ‘official’ they sound.

For further information about protecting yourself against fraud and identity theft please visit our website www.thamesvalley.police.uk and click on the Crime Prevention tab or call the 24 hour Police Enquiry Centre on 0845 8 505 505.

Thursday 2 June 2011

Village News

with Margaret Morbey

Wedding Congratulations
Best wishes to Toby Sampson of Chearsley and Karen Small who were married at Cuddington Church on Friday 20th May.

Sunday Quiz at The Bell
This will be held on Sunday June 12th at 7.30pm, when last month’s winners will be putting the questions. Book your table by contacting Ollie or Sharon at The Bell as soon as possible.

Volunteer Gardeners wanted
Vale Volunteers Gardening Services, which is part of Community Impact Bucks is looking for more offers of help.  Experience in gardening is not necessary, just enthusiasm to come and help maintain the gardens of elderly and disabled in the neighbourhood, doing jobs such as cutting the grass, light digging, pruning, weeding.  Please contact Leona on 01296 744736 or email leona@communityimpactbucks.org.uk. for more information.

Summer Boutique Event – Sunday 19th June

This event in aid of Cuddington and Dinton School is being held at Nether Winchendon House from 2.30 until 7.00pm on Father’s Day. There will be a creative and unusual mix of Boutique shopping. Come with friends and bring a picnic to enjoy a Sunday afternoon out in a beautiful setting.

Wednesday 1 June 2011

Litter Pick - Sunday 5th

Keep Chearsley Beautiful!

Please come and help pick up litter in the village lanes by meeting at The Bell on Sunday June 5th at noon. Bags and gloves will be provided. As we have entered the Best Kept Village competition for the first time this year, it needs us all to be especially proud of the appearance of our village and make an effort to keep it tidy