EDITORIAL
Contact Details Detail on PDF copy on home page
ASTON INGHAM & KILCOT NEWS
For Information about the village hall check out www.astoninghamvillagehall.com
For up to date information on our village and community please go to the website www.astoningham.wix.com/village
CHURCH NEWS
May Services
4th Evensong at 4.30pm
11th Parish Communion at 10.30am
18th Village Praise at 10.30am
25th Parish Communion at 10.30am
Thank you to the extremely kind person who donated so many Easter Eggs to the local food bank.
Annual Parochial Church Meeting
This is on May 12th in Church at 7pm Nomination forms for Churchwardens & PCC members are available from Sue Harding PCC Secretary. Contact Details Detail on PDF copy on home page
Advance notice
On June 29th at 10.30 am at Weston-under-Penyard Church, Nic Walker, who leads our Village Praise, will be enrolled as a Local Worship Leader, along with others in our Benefice. Please come and show your support to all those involved in leading services in Ariconium Benefice.
We offer our condolences to the families of Rita Porteous & Arthur Cook who both passed away last month.
VILLAGE NEWS
VE Day 80th Anniversary
On May 5th between 3pm and 5pm, the Village Hall will be hosting a bring and share tea to celebrate the 80th anniversary of VE Day. Please come along; no need to book. Just bring a plate of sharing food and enjoy the company and camaraderie of the evening. The bar will be open!
Ascot Ladies Day comes to the Village Hall
Time to bring out those posh frocks & hats, because on Thursday 19th June at 12.30pm, Ascot Ladies Day is coming to the Aston Ingham Village Hall! The cost of £15 includes a glass of bubbly or similar and a buffet lunch with strawberries or raspberries and cream. We watch two races and have the chance to place our bets with our regular bookies. Dressing up is encouraged but not mandatory — come along and have a lovely afternoon with the ladies of the village.
To book your ticket please get in touch with Janet Contact Details Detail on PDF copy on home page
Dates for your diaries
On Saturday 21st June Paul Evans recites Monologues, Anecdotes Poems & Recitations. This acclaimed performance by Paul will be accompanied by the usual fabulous selection of homemade puddings. There will also be a raffle, and the bar will be open throughout. Prior booking is required at £10 per person. Contact Janet Contact Details Detail on PDF copy on home page
On Saturday 5th July we will be hosting our Summer Afternoon Tea, more details next month.
By popular demand, Whisky River Trio returns on Saturday 20th September.
Aston Ingham Bowling Club – Open Day
On Sunday 11th May between 10 am and 4 pm, Aston Ingham Bowling Club is hosting an open day giving everyone a chance to try their hand at Indoor short mat bowls and outdoor lawn bowls.
All ages and experience levels are welcome, and complementary teas, coffee, and cakes will be available. You can contact the club via their website at www.astoninghambowlingclub.co.uk
100 Club resultsWe have started a new year of draws, so thank you to everyone for being so efficient with renewals and your continued support of the hall. We begin this year with 51 players; it would be great to have more. If you have not yet joined and would like to, please get in touch at treasurer-AIVH@hotmail.com
Winners in March, F Burns - £16, J May - £12, S Wheeler - £6.
Is Natural Flood Management (NFM) effective?
Aston Ingham Flood Group aims to find out
NFM is a national strategy designed to ‘slow the flow’ and alleviate flooding, using natural resources. Here in Aston Ingham, four main tributaries drain the hills around. Under certain rainfall conditions, flooding occurs in parts of the parish.
NFM has already been applied to two major tributaries in the Parish, but how effective is it?
DEFRA has commissioned reports over several years from various national pilot projects. The indications to date are that more quantitative data needs to be gathered.
Aston Ingham Flood Group (AIFG) in conjunction with Chester University and the technology company ANDEL, has been monitoring the water levels in their major tributaries for several years. This data will enable localised Flood Alerts to be offered to parishioners via a WhatsApp group. If you would like to receive alerts, please send an e-mail to astoninghamflooding@gmail.com telling us your mobile number so that we can send the alerts. (Continued on page 11)
(Flood Management continued) Thanks to local landowner John Whatley, who is also a member of the AIFG, a sensor has been installed at the base of the Marshfields tributary which drains water off one flank of May Hill and flows into the Cowley Lane culvert. The latest project was launched on 24th March, attended by Matt Smith General Manager of the River Severn Partnership, Cllr Nick Mason representing Steve Hodges, Herefordshire’s Lead Flood Authority Manager, members of AIFG, and parishioners. John led a tour of the Marshfields tributary indicating potential sites for NFM installations.
Phase 1 will begin shortly: gathering data before NFM is installed linking water levels at the Marshfields culvert to rainfall events. AIFG welcomes enquiries about their work and from new members wishing to join the group. Contact astoninghamflooding@gmail.com
Joe Cullingford (right), a technical engineer from technology company ANDEL, holds the latest sensor to be fixed to the culvert on 24 March with others involved in the project
With grateful thanks to Parish Councillors for their contribution to parish life
Aside from a great number of Statutory policies which can take up time in regular reviews, the Parish Council continues to work on matters important to parishioners and are in continual communication with a range of employees at Herefordshire Council. We probably share the same frustrations as yourselves - actions are not always as swift as we’d like but we are able in this issue to report a range of actions and responses:
Speed Indicator Device. SID has been delivered and is soon to be installed in the village to help tackle the problem of speeding traffic and further support the Speedwatch group. In March the Group went out 4 times and the number of speeding cars were larger than in February, with 12 cars caught in one outing over one hour.
Balfour Beatty, having exposed an old ditch a few months ago close to the speed limit signs on the B4222 West of the village, returned in late March with a jetting lorry to allow the ditch to drain into the stream and away from the road. Unfortunately, they were unable to unblock the pipe and will be returning with more powerful equipment. A second blockage was cleared close to The Old School. When we get some significant rainfall, we hope to see a reduction of the road runoff from Aston Court farm. The Locality Steward has been informed in both cases.
As regards the overall road run off from Aston Court farm, we are in close contact with Bruce Evans (Senior Engineering Manager) and await his response to a proposal put to him by his technical adviser.
Some of our potholes have been repaired but only using the ‘plugging’ method. The operatives explained that they were no longer allowed to do a ‘proper repair’. Parishioners, please continue to report potholes on Fix My Street.
Also of great concern is the condition of Oaks Lane. The Parish Council have contacted our Ward Councillor Harry Bramer on this matter.
Footpaths. Dave Aubrey has installed 5 Kissing Gates along the footpath from Aston Bank to Stockings Lane and awaits delivery of the final 3 gates- expected any day (as of April 3rd). Additional work is needed to improve some of the ditch bridges along that path which Dave is all set to do, once the gates are in place. We will soon be able to walk the path with greater ease. Stephen Organ from Herefordshire Council has provided the additional gates.
If you’d like to make any comments, please continue to contact our clerk clerk@astoningham-pc.gov.uk Our Annual Parish Meeting is on May 27th at 7pm in the Village hall – we hope to see you there.
Maggie Pettit
Chair
