It’s just a pity that it is always the same faces that turn up  -  we need more volunteers. If you didn’t hear about it and would like to be personally notified next year, please send me an email:  rpawson at nakedobjects dot org and I’ll let you know.

I know that some of you make a regular habit of taking a carrier bag with you on a walk and picking up a few items.  Keep up the good work.

 Richard P

A total of 17 people came together to install a 150 metre water supply to ensure that all plot holders have reasonable access to wtaer nearby.  trenches were dug, pipe laid and joined up, backfilled and turf re-laid all by 2 pm!  Cakes were supplied and shared to keep everyone going until the job was done, saving a bill of many thousands if the Water Authority had done it for us.  Many thanks to the Parish Council for the grant to make this possible.

it would be good for the residents of

to get together and make plans to resurface or simply make the road on

, level and pot hole friendly. Undoubtable it will involve costs however having just paid out a lot of money to fix my suspension on my Car I believe it will be cost effective in the long run.  Pro-s of it would be a safe and passer friendly road, no more pot holes, allow for excess water to drain off, dust and dirt free. A big factor would be making

a more desirable place which would benefit future sellers on

. Positive action is needed with the residents and the parish council of Binfield heath to get this fixed.

jude smith

SODC  will be leafleting everyone several times before it starts to inform us how it will work. Anyone with difficulties storing or moving large wheelie bins should contact SODC for advice well in advance - officers want to know where they should offer special help. Bins will start arriving at premises in the next month or so.

The following is a message from SODC:

There is less than 12 weeks to go until the new service starts!  As you
can imagine the logistics of delivering the new bins to over 56,000
households is no mean feat.  We will therefore be delivering the bins
from 30 March through into April and May, ready for when the new service
starts on 8 June 2009.  As tempting as it may be to use the bins we
won’t be able to empty them until the new trucks arrive so the
current service will continue until then. 

An introductory leaflet titled ‘Your waste collection is changing for
good…..’ will be delivered to all households between 16 and 27 March.
This leaflet will contain brief information about the new scheme and
when it starts (attached is a copy of the leaflet for your information).
A full instruction pack and more details will be delivered inside the
kitchen waste bin.  This will include bin stickers and a calendar of
when the bins will be collected.

For help or more information please contact Environmental Services
Tel: 01491 823452  Fax: 01491 823804
Email: melanie.mullen@southoxon.gov.uk
or visit www.southoxon.gov.uk

Where:   Dunsden Village Hall

Why:      To have fun!

Why:      To raise money for Comic Relief who are supporting, among others:

child carers, young people with alcohol problems and older people as well as   street children and others in Africa          http://www.rednoseday.com/change_lives/where_your_money_goes

Teams:         Teams consist of 5/6 players and on this occasion we are being very silly and dressing up – the best team will win a prize!

               All teams choose a name and this time you can dress accordingly.  It may be just a hat or a colour or you may like to become a Victorian or Roman for the evening.  Be a pop star, a pirate, a glam rocker or a character from your favourite film or TV programme – the idea is to have fun and amuse others.

Prizes:    These have yet to be decided but are usually small rewards, a token of your success rather than lavish.

Cost:         Tickets cost £10 to include a ploughman’s supper, cake and a welcome drink.

- there is no research to prove one way or another whether kissing gates do
increase access to the countryside to people who would not otherwise venture out;

- in some cases, access could be enhanced very simply by removing one tier
of the existing stile rather than replacing it with a gate (the stile at the end of my garden was recently ‘accidentally’ lowered to provide easier access to the field for some more ’senior’ neighbours who had complainted that it was too high for them to negotiate but there has been little evidence of that being enough to encourage them out. I suspect that the height of a stile is not what deters people for going walking…);

- gates are potentially less convenient for buggies, baby back-packs or any
other kind of rucksacs carrier and cyclists;

- with fewer and fewer animals in the countryside, it is often the case that there is not longer a need for any kind of gate or stile;

- the metal gates are hideously ugly and industrial, in stark contrast to
the rural environment;

- the purchase and installation (by volunteers) of ’sponsored’ metal gates is hugely
cost-effective for the local authority / environment agencies but at the
risk of defacing the countryside for a long time ahead (I don’t know the projected life of a galvanised gate but I presume they are expected to last longer than wooden ones which seem to have a life span of at least 50 years)

I have a personal interest in this topic as I certainly don’t want an ugly, clunky metal gate at the bottom of my garden but aesthetically, as a keen photographer and painter, I have already seen the impact of these hideously industrial ’silver’ gates in the beautiful rural scenery of South Oxfordshire.

I can’t get to the PC meeting to find out why they have kissing gates on the agenda but I would be interested to hear the views of other villagers.

Hope to see more of you next time.  For those who aren’t keen, may I recommend the Excuse-O-Mat

Incidentally, while clearing a bag of drinks cans (both empty and full) from the ditch on Emmer Green Road, a rather damp £10 note fell out.  I shall dry it out and donate it to the Village Society.  A modicum of justice in that, I feel.  Perhaps we should adopt this as an incentive scheme to involve some of our children in the tidy-up.

(Editor:  I have reduced the image size as it was slowing the page download considerably.)