Paxton Post - Edition 7

Issue 7 July - August 2018

Paxton Post THE MAGAZINE FOR GREAT PAXTON

Brownies Litter Pick

"Our business is built around 3 things, As we care about our customers and the service we provide, this enables our business to grow from strength to strength. Over the past 38 years, our customer records have flourished, but our values remain. 'Our pride is in our promise offering the best value and customer service'�.

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You adv r herert e

Green Waste Monday 2ⁿd July Monday 16th July Monday 30th July Monday 13th August Monday 27th August For more information on your bin collections, including what goes in what bin visit http://www.huntingdonshire.gov.uk/bins-waste/

Black General Waste Wednesday 11th July Wednesday 25th July Wednesday 8th August Wednesday 22ⁿd August

Recycling Waste Wednesday 4th July Wednesday 18th July Wednesday 1st August Wednesday 15th August

Paxton Post is published by Easiprint in association with Great Paxton Parish Council. It is funded by the Parish Council, with help from advertisements. Whilst every effort is made to ensure information in this publication is accurate, neither the Editor nor the Parish Council can be held responsible for any errors. The views expressed in this publication may not necessarily reflect those of the publisher or the Parish Council.

Please note the new times for services from JULY. 1st Sunday in the month: 9.00am – Prayer Book Communion 2nd Sunday in the month: 11.00am- All Age Worship 3rd Sunday in the month: 11.00am – All Age Worship.

Vicar Canon Annette Reed.

01480 211048 canonannettereed@gmail.com

4th Sunday in the month: 11.00am – Morning Prayer.

Churchwardens: Mr Bob Hacking: 1 Mint Lane, Great Paxton Tel: 01480 219846 Mrs Sarah Gray: 12 Church Lane, Great Paxton.

Tel: 01480 214015

All-Age Worship Services.

Sunday July 8th at 11.00am Sunday August 5th at 11.00am

Tower Captain:

Sunday September 9th at 11.00am with a bell ringing theme.

Mrs Mary Parnham Tel: 01480 394727

Sunday October 14th at 11.00am (Harvest Thanksgiving)

• Anyone is most welcome to contact Annette with an enquiry about a wedding, baptism or funeral.

If you would like her to visit you, please do get in touch.

Update on the Bell-Project.

The five old bells and the new treble bell will be returning to Great Paxton Church sometime in July. At the time of writing we haven’t got an exact date but it will be mentioned when appropriate to do so on the four churches Paxton’s benefice Facebook page.

The work will take c two weeks to complete and we look forward to the first ring of bells once they have been installed.

There will be a chance to benefit from the new CCTV installation which will enable those of us at ground level to watch the action of the bells in the belfry when being rung.

The installation should be ready by September 9th when we have an allage worship service at 11.00am Everyone will be so welcome to come along to the dedication of the bells on Thursday October 18th at 7.00pm with Bishop Stephen.

The auction of old fixtures and fittings took place at church on June 2nd.

An amazing £700.00 was raised on the day, much needed funds for our every day running costs. Most of the items went to local families (we weren’t sure what they were going to do with them!) and the auctioneer for the day was Michael Alexander, to whom we are very grateful.

Here is a picture of the bells at Taylor’s awaiting their new headstocks which have been sponsored by local families. The older bells will also be coated so they look like the new treble and recast tenor.

The project, which costs in the region of £90,000 is receiving a grant of £47,200 from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

OPEN GARDENS! SUNDAY JULY 15TH AT PAXTON PLACE (The Old Vicarage by kind permission of Matthew and Sophie Cook) 2.00pm – 5.00pm.

Variety of stalls in a lovely setting.

Refreshments to compliment the glorious summer weather.

Any gifts for plant or cake stall would be much appreciated on the day.

All proceeds to Holy Trinity Church Great Paxton.

Great Paxton Churchyard.

As any visitor will see if they visit the churchyard, it is now well kept and tidy. It is a very large area to be maintained, and it is done so by a combination of a paid grass cutter and voluntary work, not least by churchwarden Sarah Gray.

If any of you attend graves in the churchyard, we are very grateful for any ongoing tidying you can do if flowers or plants etc need to be removed after they have flowered. There is a bin now for items such as paper or wire as well as a green bin.

It is lovely to sit in the churchyard on a summers day and have a time of reflection and memory.

We meet the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of the Month at The Bell Great Paxton at 11am til 12.30.

We have Tea, Coffee and cake and charge 2.00 for per person . We are a non profit club.

Come and have a chat, play board games, quizes.

This month we have a florist visiting to give a demonstration, Tuesday 17th April.

We are a friendly club and welcome new members. Some of the members book a lunch at the Bell after our meeting.

For more information you can contact Sue Cox on 07790449010 or Marion Reeves on 07730162249.

Our meetings recently have concentrated on the plans for Great Paxton to remember the end of World War One and the soldiers who died, whose names are on the War Memorial in the churchyard.

We have nearly finalised the plans for the two weeks around November 11th, and have presented them to the Parish Council at the Annual Meeting in May. We are very pleased that the council have adopted us as an advisory group which allows us to have an official ‘parent’ so that we can open a bank account for donations and grants to cover such things as the central village display, publicity costs, and refreshments and heating for Sunday 11th in church. A Parish Councillor will now attend our meetings.

The custodians have researched as much information as possible about the names on the War Memorial and we intend to publish a book to record the research and to put our village into context with the happenings on the Western Front. We hope this will be ready mid September so available for sale in November. If there is any profit after costs deducted it will

be divided between our church and one or two service charities.

We are hoping to have village wide displays in church, on Church Green and outside private houses.

These are to be installed the weekend of Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th November, and dismantled the weekend Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th November.

We aim to have poppies on every lamppost on High Street, London Lane and Church Lane - being the older part of the village - as well as a display at either end of the High Street by the village signs. If you would like to join us in making these, and the poppies and other items needed for the display on the green and in church, please contact Jacqueline or Diane.

We hope there will be many individual displays around the village, especially outside the properties that the servicemen came from. We would like those who live in older houses to search their property deed for clues to previous owners. If you are the current owner of one of these properties please contact us. We hope to produce an interactive map of displays so that a walk can be created for visitors.

The main indoor display in the Church will be of the individual research, augmented by poppies made by our school children and some flower displays. This will be set up on Saturday 3rd November as there will be a concert in the church on Sunday 4th November

by Cambridge Voices, organised by and for the church as a fund raiser.

On Sunday November 11th we are having a Parade from Church Green to the Church, arriving in time for the service to start at 1045. The Brownies will join us.

The Two Minutes Silence at 1100 will be at the War Memorial in the churchyard. There will be light refreshments provided (profit to church) and our group will need to contribute to church funds for heating for the whole day, as we hope people will stay to look at the displays, and maybe return for tea after visiting the outdoor displays.

Wider general research work is continuing into finding the names of service people who went to war and survived (with a view to making a ‘Roll of Honour’ in the Church), as well as the names on the War Memorial of those who died in the Second World War, and the names of the crew of the Lancaster that crashed in the village. Any information please

contact us.

Our next meetings at The Bell, 7.30pm may change from Wednesday as meals are now being served at the pub Wednesday to Sunday; we are also trying to arrange some dates and times for craft session in The Bell to make the display poppies.

Please look out for news on: the Great Paxton Community Group Facebook page, our dedicated Facebook page Honouring Great Paxton’s 1st and 2nd World War Heroes the Village website Great Paxton Online - http://greatpaxton.org/ and posters around the village.

For further information contact: Diane James. diane.james42@outlook.com 01480 406938 Or Jacqueline Wieczorek jacqueline.wieczorek@gmail.com 01480 477035

Abigail Best Electrolysis and Beauty Therapy Great Paxton, Cambridgeshire www.abigailbestelectrolysisandbeautytherapy.com https://www.facebook.com/abbybestgreatpaxton abby.best@btinternet.com 07929918965

We urgently need contributions for future editions of the Paxton Post.

Private or Commercial Adverts, Articles and Photographs are always welcome.

Village Groups? Send us your details and we will publish them!

Email them to the editor at simon@easiprint.ltd

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Your new Parish Council was elected unopposed in the May 2018 elections and quickly dealt with the necessary formalities at their first meeting recently, including the GDPR!! Your new Councillors are listed on the village website where you will also find the latest Parish Council agenda and minutes – www.greatpaxton.org Anxious to get started, the Parish Council heard all about the project ‘Great Parish Remembers’ launched by residents to commemorate 100 years since the end of the First World War. To help the organisers to apply for grants and operate financially, the Parish Council has agreed to set up a bank account under their banner and in support of the venture, to award a grant of £200 towards the cost of an information booklet.

PCSO Richard Braddick has told the Parish Council about the successful impact of ‘Neighbourhood Watch’ in The Offords. Councillors would like to relaunch this scheme again in Great Paxton but need the support of a volunteer Co Ordinator and Team.

Elsewhere in the Post is an article on how, with Richard’s help, it would be possible to get the scheme up and running again! Councillors are hopeful of a positive response?

As representatives of the Parish, Councillors will attend progress meetings, organised by Highways England, on the new A428 Improvement Scheme and St Neots Town Council to seek to encourage financial support for the development of the Cycle Path.

Updates on both issues will be reported in July.

Not surprisingly, the play equipment at Saxon Green is beginning to show its age. The Parish Council has recently replaced the toddlers swing and recognise that there are other items that need to be renewed. Play equipment is expensive so the Parish Council is hoping to attract some grant support towards the cost of a new Junior Swing and a Multi Play Unit with Slide – both next on the list for replacement! More news in the Autumn.

The Council continue to support other organisations in the Parish and have made contributions towards the Recreation Ground Committee, to the PCC for the Holy Trinity Church and St Neots Museum (remember-this entitles residents of Great Paxton to free entry!).

Your Parish Council will also continue to: •Keep a very close eye on planning development; •Look at improving signage from the High Street to the Church and Community Shop; •Press the County Council to install a dropped kerb outside the Community Shop; and •Report all potholes and overgrown/overhanging trees and shrubs to either the County Council or local land and property owners.

The Parish Council meets again on 2nd July at 8pm in the Community Room at the Primary School. Please join us if you can! Because of GDPR, the Council can only send you copies of the agenda if you have given it permission to use your

contact details. If you wish to continue to receive Parish Council news, please email the Parish Clerk who will add you to the new list - gppc1@outlook.com!

As most of you will be aware, we have had two reports of serious fires in Great Paxton within a few weeks of each other, I respect that this has bought about some concern within the village and questions have obviously been raised.

Both cases have been investigated by both Police and fire and although I cannot discuss within this report the full details I can say that the first fire in Bishops Way is still under investigation and the second fire which affected a caravan and the surrounding properties has been disclosed by the fire investigator as being NOT deliberately started. I will keep it brief due to the upset and loss of property that these residents have undergone.

The police have patrolled the area both day and night over the past few weeks as re-assurance to residents of the village and I can report that no suspicious activity has been disclosed. If anyone has any real concerns I will be happy to hear from you and you can email me at Richard.braddick@cambs.pnn.police.uk Whilst writing I would like to mention the increase in rogue traders and scams within St Neots and surrounding

villages. A rogue trader can be someone who is touting for business by calling without appointment, they could offer to clean your driveway, tidy your garden, mend your roof or cut down trees. They tend to prey on the more vulnerable members of the community and will carry out average at best work and charge cash only for the privilege.

Recently, a widowed female was convinced that her drive needed cleaning and was charged ÂŁ120.00 for less than 10 minutes work. Once employed these traders will return time and time again and find further problems and bigger fees.

Please if you see or have a caller think about what you really need, no harm in asking for quote, but make sure that you also speak to a recommended builder or gardener and get further advice before agreeing to have work carried out. Call the Police on 101 we will be happy to check them out first.

Speak with a neighbour, relative or friend first before employing someone and lastly do not let them into your home.

Please report any suspicious activity to the police on 101 or if an emergency 999

Lastly, I currently work alongside several Neighbourhood Watch groups in nearby local villages and have had some great successes with reports on suspicious activity, intelligence leads and stop checks of people and vehicles.

It seems that Great Paxton does not currently have an active Neighbourhood Watch Team and both the Parish Council, and I would like to get one up and running again. This would require 6 plus residents one of which would need to act as a co-ordinator to get things started. So, if anyone is interested, please me know and I can contact my colleagues in Neighbourhood Watch and arrange a meeting to get the scheme up and away in Great Paxton.

If you would like to volunteer, please contact me Richard.braddick@cambs.pnn.police.uk

THE PEOPLE WHO PROTECT YOUR PLATE IN HUNTINGDONSHIRE Huntingdonshire District Council is partnering with the Food Standard Agency to check food safety by working behind the scenes in Huntingdonshire to ensure that the food you buy and eat is good and safe across the district.

There is team within the district council environment health officers who keep food safe by inspecting businesses supplying or serving food direct to consumers such as restaurants, pubs, cafes. Takeaways. food vans or stalls, canteens, hotels, supermarkets, schools, hospitals, Important part of the work to ensure hygiene standards are high 97 % of businesses inspected in

Huntingdonshire currently have a food hygiene rating of 3 generally satisfactory or above under the food Hygiene Rating Scheme.

The Food Hygiene Rating Scheme helps to choose where to shop for food and where to eat out by giving clear information about the businesses hygiene standards.

There are six hygiene ratings ranging from 0 urgent improvement at the bottom to 5 very good at the top.

Businesses are given green and black stickers for display at their premises and all ratings are published online http;//ratings.food.gov.uk/ so you can make more informed choices about where to buy and eat food. The majority of food businesses in and around

As residents you are the eyes and ears of the village, let’s start working together to deter crime.

Richard PCSO 7101 Richard Braddick St Neots Safer Neighbourhood Team St. Neots Police Station | Dovehouse Close | St. Neots | Cambridgeshire | PE19 1DS Mobile: 07921-094801| Call: 101 Richard.braddick@cambs.pnn.police.uk

Huntingdonshire are ranked generally satisfactory, good or very good.

As a nation there is spend of over £203 billion on food and drink. 4 – 10 June was part of National Food Safety Week RICHARD WEST DISTRICT COUNCILLOR GREAT PAXTON WARD Abbotsley Great

Gransden Great Paxton Toseland Waresley=cum Tetworth and Yelling.

Tel 01480 811467 mobile 0784 1866630 Email Richard.west@huntingdonshire.gov.uk

ROADS ROADS ROADS ROADS ROADS A428 – Highways England invited parish, town, district and county councillors to an update on what is happening with regards to the proposed new route for the A428. The update is that Highways England are hoping to get a Preferred Route Announcement PRA out later this year and they are currently busy working on traffic modelling and environmental impact assessments. The first consultation bought to light interesting local knowledge such as a previous landfill site near Yelling which would not be suitable as a route for the new road. Highways England are building on all the work to date which includes traffic surveys, road designs and comments that were received from the previous consultation. They are currently 3 months into a 6 month air quality monitoring which will be supported with a Health Impact Assessments. Once the Preferred Route has been announced Highways England will visit all directly affected parish councils. There will be 4 months between the PRA and the statutory consultation which will contain more detailed information than the previous consultation. This statutory consultation

will last 6 weeks. The time between PRA and the application to the Secretary of State for Transport with the Determination Consent Order is 1 year and the DCO will take approx. 16 months. The expected start date for the scheme is now 2021 due to the delay in the PRA. There is no change to the governments’ commitment to delivering the scheme and the construction period is thought to be 3.5 years.

There are some designated funds which are currently available for communities that will be directly affected by the new road and parish councils can apply for small project funding at A428blackcattocaxtongibbet@highways england.co.uk Huntingdon viaduct A14 – plans have been released for the new road and proposed transport hub at Huntingdon train station including bus stops located for the railway station. Following the demolition of the A14 viaduct which will subsequently improve noise pollution and air quality in Huntingdon and further facilitate improvements to Huntingdon town centre.

County Councillor St Neots East and Gransden Julie.wisson@cambridgeshire.gov.uk

As always, it's been a jam packed couple of months...

After the Easter break we decided to get moving and take on a host of activities to celebrate the Commonwealth Games.

From opening ceremonies to relay races, bench ball, team challenges and a closing ceremony. They was lots of laiughter and fun not least when Little Owl and Snowy Owl tried to join in!

Both the Rainbows and Brownies have been having an opportunity to voice their opinions about what is important to them and sharing incredible ideas that will make the world a better place as they contribute to Future Girl. "Future Girl will give every Rainbow, Brownie, Guide and Senior Section member the chance to tell Girlguiding what matters to them, so that Girlguiding can tell the world. Where else will they get an opportunity like that?

We had a great night with the Rainbows having royal wedding inspired fun; Girl Scout USA games, bridemaids relay, creating fascinators, making wedding cards and trying on a real wedding veil.

Both groups celebrated National Scavenger Hunt day and made the most of the outdoors. The Brownies had created their own scavenger hunt trails in their sixes and swapped them for other sixes to complete.

There's been more work on our Clever Clogs Engineering Badge for the Brownies - exploring civil and aeronautical engineering with egg parachutes and balloon towers. The Rainbows have been working towards their Roundabout Seasons badge; we've headed to the seaside and tried our hand at beach volleyball, found our inner bunnies and listened to nature for spring - just Autumn and Winter to go.

The Brownies were joined by two other Brownie groups to to complete their Smashing Boundaries Cricket Challenge badge whcih was created in conjunction

with Essex Cricket.

You can read more about it below from Mia. Great Paxton Rocks! has seen additional painted rocks placed throughout the village as both groups have shown their creative side with their rock painting skills. The Brownies placed these whilst doing a litter pick in the village.

They reported that the village was quite tidy as there wasn't much to pick up!

They were inspired to take on this community action after completing their Right to Work Together the previous term.

A group of our eldest Brownies have visited Little Paxton Guides recently to help them prepare for moving on this autumn. They had great fun learning cooking cakes on an open fire, trying out new games and making new friends.

Brownie Cricket Tournament

by Mia Hardie On Thusday 7th June three Brownie groups, 1st Great Paxton, Loves Farm and Little Paxton joined together for an amazing tournament that involved teamwork, laughter and of course, smiles.

The leaders split us into four different groups mixed from the three Brownie groups. The activities that we completed were: Cheerleading; coming up with a cheer about our Brownie group A cricket match; We played in our teams against each other. We then used a lot of teamwork to field as quickly as we could whilst the other team were trying to get as many runs as they could whilst batting.

We would then switch over sides, and have a chance to either bat or bowl.

Which two teams had the most points went into a grand finale.

Design a cricket shirt; to design a shirt either for the team you were put in or for your Brownie group. We had to make it as colourful as we could to show it off to our parents.

SImon say cricket version; to learn the signs that the umpire would do during a cricket match and the last girl standing wins.

An exciting obstacle course; we ran to the first cone, threw a ball to the next person who then threw it back to you.

Then you would pick up the cricket bat,

place the ball on the floor and weave the ball in and out of the of the cones. The next task was to hop to the next cone and then try to hit the stumps with the beanbags. Once you hit the stumps you sprinted back, high fived the next person in the line and join the back of the queue.

The team that completed the course in the quickest time won!

This was a great evening of teamwork, fun and a great opportunity to make new friends. I would like to thank all of the leaders who organised this event and they hope to see you soon at 1st Great Paxton Brownies.

The Bell has undertaken a number of changes since the take over on 1st April 2018 which has included the new menu, a new wine list, new opening hours and we are soon to leave Greene King and utilise a more independent and local brewery.

We have a facebook page (The Bell, Great Paxton) which is up and running and has all our latest info about the pub and what is going on. Work is being done behind the scene's to set up a new website and we hope this will be up and running soon.

We have also started some work in the garden which includes new garden benches and the marquee, which has already hosted numerous events including two wedding receptions!

We are happy to cater for all events and supply quotations for food whether this be a sit down meal, bbq, or hot or cold buffet.

We have achieved a lot as a team in 9 weeks of being at the helm and believe me there is so much more still to do, but this will take time.

Our new menu is now available and has so far taken off really well and we also have a range of Chef's Specials available on the evening menu. We have really gone back to basic's with our menu to make it affordable and desirable to families, we are also proud to say that all of our food is home-cooked by the chef and we believe that we are offering value for money.

Our opening hours are: Monday 17:30pm - 23:00 - No food Tuesday 17:30 to 23:00 - No food Wednesday and Thursday 12:00 to 14: 30 and 17:30 to 23:00 (Lunches 12:30 to 14:30 and evening meals 18:00 to 21:00) Friday and Saturday 12:00 to 00:00 (Lunches 12:30 to 15:00 and evening meals 18:00 to 21:00) Sunday 12:00 to 23:00 and Sunday Lunches served 12:30 to 16:00

The Bell is certainly heading in the direction we as a team wanted it to and there is going to be lots more to come in the future so please do keep supporting us as the reality is without the customers we could not do what we are doing!

Rachael Manager, The Bell.

01480 700107 thebellgreatpaxton@yahoo.com

1st Gt.Paxton Brownies 1st Gt.Paxton Rainbows

Emma Christie

1stgreatpaxtonbrownies@gmail.com 1stgreatpaxtonrainbows@gmail.com

Church Bell Ringers Holy Trinity Church Church Warden Community Room Crib Team Football Club Friendship Club Gt. Paxton Community Shop Gt. Paxton Cubs Ladies Group Parish Clerk Petanque Recreation Ground School Headteacher St. Neots Police Village Website Woodsooners Golf Society Walkers Group

Mary Parnham Rev. Annette Reed Bob Hacking Julie Edwards Simon Black Tom Marion Reeves

394727 211048 219846 472132 700107 07576600523 marionreeves@btinternet.com 01480 218 624 Andy Ottley 07704857636 Melanie Dingemans melanie.dingemans1@gmail.com Christine Brandon gppc1@outlook.com Brian Wright 473697 Michael Fairs Michael.fairs@gmail.com Lee Frost 472132 101 www.greatpaxton.org Martin Bazley 21927 Linda Richardson 213768

Any corrections please notify the editor or email jillatgp@gmail.com