Update from Adele Metcalfe and Dan Yates, Live & Work Rural Officers at the Peak District National Park Authority
Since April this year, following the completion of the Peak District Community Planning project, we have both been working on the new Live & Work Rural Programme. This is a £1.253 million scheme involving the East Midlands Development Agency (emda), the Peak District National Park Authority and the Derby and Derbyshire Economic Partnership (DDEP) to support rural businesses and communities.
The three-year programme aims to help businesses create new jobs and safeguard existing ones and enable communities to carry out projects to benefit local residents. It is funded by a £595,000 grant from emda and DDEP, £458,000 of funding from the Peak District National Park Authority and £200,000 of additional support from various other partners. Continue Reading »
On behalf of the blog we have emailed all five with the following letter, hopefully encouraging them to engage with the site and respond to the issues raised here over the last year. Continue Reading »
A friend of mine emailed me to say that her son and girlfriend are staying in Ashbourne next week and looking for somewhere nice to go out for dinner that’s not too pricey. Any recommendations? Lynne on 474.
Tomorrow, Wednesday 10th June at 7pm at Parwich School there is a meeting for parents of current pupils and former pupils to plan marking the two staff leaving this term. Mrs Black in particular has served 24 years at the School. It is hoped that former pupils will also want to get involved.
As can be seen from today’s School Newsletter the two up coming vacancies at Parwich Primary School are now being advertised by Derbyshire County Council. Both have a closing date of 28th June. Click on the links below for more details of each job:
Parwich & District Horticultural Society are calling for contributions to their plant stall and tombola prizes for the Open Gardens & Children’s Horticultural Show Day (Sunday 21st June 2009).
Prizes and/or plants can be left at Hallcliffe House in advance or brought to the Memorial Hall on the morning of the Show. Many thanks to all those who support one of our busiest days of the year.
The Peak Park planners are currently considering a re-application for “change of use from retail shop to domestic residential” for the old Spar Shop in Parwich.
For the Authority to grant permission for change of use of a former village shop it must comply with their Local Plan, chapter 5 section 5.6:
Only where it can be shown that a shop is no longer viable or required by the local community, and that the proposed new use meets another community need, should change of use be allowed.
The four sitting MEPs that stood were re-elected, and the fifth seat was won by Emma McClarkin for the Conservatives. The turnout in the region was 38% overall, but it rose to 46% in the Derbyshire Dales. Continue Reading »
The phone box in Main Street has not been decommissioned but apparently the pay phone has been stolen. BT do have a long list of public phones that are being decommissioned, but so far ours is not one of them. (The confusion arose because ours disappeared at the same time as BT were removing phones elsewhere. However there have also been a number of phone thefts.)
The Parish Council are in contact with BT in order to get it reinstated as soon as possible.
‘Embroidery around the World’ with Kathleen Mason has proved to be a very entertaining meeting with other WI’s. She has a delightfully amusing way of getting her message across and enthrals everyone with her many items of embroidery from around the world. From her Pandora’s box of a suitcase, examples are reveals from many countries including India, China, Canada, Italy, Norway and Sweden. Kathleen is a talented speaker, so come along and enjoy the evening.
Many thanks to Parwich Parish Council (and maybe others) for helping to get the road by the school resurfaced. It has been noticed however that the absence of lines on the road by the old shop is causing a bit of confusion with people not familiar with Parwich. Cars coming from the school can think they have right of way when they reach the corner. Likewise cars coming from the opposite direction can go shooting straight on up to the school rather than following the road round to the right. If the Parish Council have any influence on the Council it seems like a good idea to get the road marking reinstated as quickly as possible. In any case, us locals should take some care at this junction.
Maybe you have similar items you might like to put to the Parish Council. For instance, our telephone box has been decommissioned. Did we really want this to happen? Do we have any plans for it? Bonsall for example have adopted their decommissioned phone boxes and grow plants in them!
If you have village improvement ideas , maybe you could use parwich.org as a means of starting a dialogue on them.
As part of the fund-raising for the Memorial Hall, we are looking at whether any further large companies in the area would be prepared to support the project as part of their community charity programmes. Some companies, including Egg and Toyota, will consider contributing to local charity projects where their employees are involved. If anyone in Parwich, Alsop, Ballidon or Pikehall works for either of these companies or for other large companies in the area, we would be grateful if you would either call Lynne on 474, contact me at parwich@hotmail.co.uk or leave a contact name / phone no. as a comment to this post. Thank you.
The results for the Derbyshire County Council elections in our local divisions are now in.
Simon Spencer wins Dovedale making it a Conservative hold. Best wishes to former Cllr Ray Caswell who did not stand for re-election. The count was:
Dovedale (including Alsop and Parwich)
Simon Spencer, Conservative – 2321
Colin Swindell, Labour – 1000
James Jennings, Liberal Democrats – 813
Garry Purdy, Conservative has taken Wirksworth from Irene Ratcliffe the Labour incumbent. Congratulations to Garry, but also commiserations to Irene Ratcliffe, who has worked hard for the division also representing the County Council on the Peak Park Board. The count was:
In both divisions it would appear there was a massive drop in turn out from around 68% in the 2005 elections to less than 45% in the current election (not official figures).
To find out more about the results for other Derbyshire divisions see the County Council’s website (do have a look at their map and virtual council chamber) and for the results nationally see the BBC website.
Please click on each candidate’s name to view their answers to the questions which we recently sent to them. We’re grateful to all of them for taking the time and trouble to reply.
Finally, there’s an interesting article by Matthew Parris in The Times on the state of political play in Derbyshire (“Labour on red alert as Derbyshire Tories scent victory at county council“), with quotes from several of our county council candidates. Please click here to read it.
Because of the confusion over the two meetings for school leavers, tonight’s meeting, to discuss the teachers leaving, has been postponed to next Wednesday (10 June). A note to this effect will be going home from school today.
I am probably the only person to be ordering heating oil in this heatwave. After paying over the odds last time, I decided to shop around this time and thought I would leave a list of oil company numbers on the blog for anyone else who’d like to shop around now or when it gets cold again (tomorrow perhaps). Today, EMO and Stoddards were the cheapest and CPL and Halso the most expensive but I guess that changes each time you call.
As everyone will be aware elections for the European Parliament and the County Council are on Thursday 4th June. The polling station in Parwich Memorial Hall will be open from 7am to 10pm. If you are not sure which is your Derbyshire Dales polling station contact 01629 761335.
To read the candidates’ comments on our local issues click here. To find a full list of local candidates click here.
Colin Swindell, Labour candidate for the Dovedale Division is visiting Parwich tomorrow morning to meet the electorate:
I will be visiting Parwich on Wednesday 3rd June between 9am and 11.30am. I will be walking around the village putting a second leaflet out. If anybody is about I will be willing to talk about any concerns they may have. I hope to meet as many of you in person as possible during this time and would happily discuss any further issues with you. Alternatively, you can contact me on 07816 986 956 or email colinswindell@hotmail.co.uk.
Thanks,
Colin Swindell
County Council Candidate (Labour)
Dovedale Division
Have you collected your unwanted clothing, bedding, curtains, soft toys, shoes, belts and handbags? Remember the School receives £200 per tonne so the more the merrier.
Children please bring your bags into Parwich School tomorrow (Wednesday 3rd June) ready for collection on Thursday. Others also please leave your unwanted clothing, bedding, curtains, soft toys, shoes, belts and handbags in the School porch on Wednesday.
If you would like to open your garden on Sunday 21st June, please could you let Mike or Dot know by Saturday.
Help is always needed on the 21st, setting up the Memorial Hall, clearing up, serving cream teas and washing up or making scones. If you are able to spare an hour please ring Pat if you are interested in helping with the teas etc and Mike if you can help in any other way.
Mike & Dot – 456
Pat – 455
The Annual Open Gardens and Children’s Show are a super village afternoon and it’s success is due to the hard work put in by the Horticultural Society and those who open their gardens. Please come and support the afternoon. Remember that the funds raised then go towards supporting the Show in September and other projects in the village.
Congratulations to Tom Chambers for landing a part on the BBC1 series Waterloo Road as Max Tyler (super head) in series 5. It might not be Hollywood, but it is a high profile TV role.
Having finished Strictly Come Dancing On Tour, Tom has now started filming for the drama series set in a comprehensive school. He is coming in as the new headmaster after Waterloo Road merges with another local school. He should be appearing on our small screens in the Autumn.
The Memorial Hall Committee are thrilled to hear that £26,000 has been awarded from the Trusthouse Charitable Foundation towards the rebuild of our new hall.
According to the Foundation’s website, only one in ten applications for its Large Grants Programme are successful – which makes the funding group’s achievement all the more remarkable.
Anyone involved in applying for grants will appreciate just how much work is involved in these applications: not just the hours of research to find the grants, but also the many more hours spent filling in pages and pages of information for the application. Each funding organisation has to be very sure that the project is worthwhile and that their funds are going to be administered properly, so it is great to know that our new Memorial Hall fills their exacting criteria.
The Committee is hoping for more good news over the next few days, so watch this space.
It was one of those days when the weather was so perfect that everything felt special. The barbeques came out, people enjoyed their gardens and the pub beer garden was put to good use.
Morning interest was provided by the first Cycling Plus Sportive event which chose to come through Parwich as part of their 100 mile route. Starting from the Donnington area over 500 cyclists took part in the event. Looking at the event website, many participants found the Peak District section the most enjoyable.
The Wakes Market will be as usual on the afternoon of Wakes Saturday (27th June).
