LONGPARISH SCHOOL & COMMUNITY PROJECT

PROGRESS ON ALL FRONTS

The Building .   With the roof structure in place and most of the walls built, the building is developing rapidly. We are still a little behind schedule due to the late arrival of some of the roof trusses and some engineering being more complicated than was anticipated.   The next site visit is on Wednesday 2 nd March, followed by further discussions with the architect on ‘fitting out'.

The Management Committee.   Looking to the future management of the new facility, an excellent team has volunteered (see Dec 04 H&V) to form a management committee.   The governors will delegate to the committee the day-to-day management of the facility.   As with the project steering committee, there are representatives from the school, Church, playgroup and community, to ensure that it is managed with all interest groups in mind.   Richard Maloney has agreed to be chairman and the members are:

I am very grateful to Richard and his team for taking this on.   They will be working over the coming months with the governors to ensure we optimise the use, care and maintenance of the new facility.   There are bound to be teething troubles but this preparatory work should minimise them.

Playing Field .   I reported in Dec 04 H&V the possibility of getting funding from the Local Education Authority (LEA) to raise the level of the playing field to prevent it flooding.   The LEA had previously turned down our application, as it was too expensive a project for them to support.   Thanks, largely to the good work of our architect, John Alexander, the LEA have now confirmed a grant of £50,000 towards the cost of £78,000.   This is enormous good fortune.   It does mean, however, that we have to raise a further £28,000 ourselves.   We applied for planning permission before Christmas and it was received earlier this month.   Unfortunately, the planners are insisting on an archaeological survey, which we will have to fund at a further £2,000.

Fundraising.   We are doing well but now have to fund the additional £30,000 for the field.   We also hope to raise money, particularly from trusts, to upgrade our fitting out of the premises to a high standard.   Approaches to trusts, outstanding pledges and a few more fundraising events should get us there.   I am also extremely grateful for those people who have recently given donations to the general appeal we started last year.

St George's Day Port Tasting

23 April 6.30-8.30pm

Come to a tutored port tasting

With champagne and canapés

Tickets £25 per head

in aid of School & Community Project

from Helen Mehaffey 01256 893119

or Tim Sweet 01264 720550

Venue to be announced

Longparish Cricket Club

Sponsored by Barker,Son & Isherwood, Solicitors

As Secretary of the Club, this is the time of year when attendance at various Annual General Meetings comes high on my agenda, as well as ensuring that all documents, payments etc. For the coming season are returned to the relevant organisations in good order and on time.

With our chairman, Martyn Clarke, and First XI scorer, Frank Hibberd, I have recently attended two very informative and helpful meetings – the Hampshire Cricket Board AGM and the Hampshire Cricket league AGM.

At the first meeting the Club received its documentation relating to ClubMark Accreditation (including a file of papers and forms that we are reliably told could take us up to 100 hours of work to complete) and an “explanatory” CD.   Very simply, ClubMark is the “Kitemark of sport” run by Sport England covering all aspects of the running of a cricket club, including the ECB rules dealing with young members, and the Hampshire Cricket Board is pressing for all clubs in the county to attain this standard within the next few years.   An LCC working group, under the chairmanship of Martyn Clarke, has been set up and will be meeting regularly to complete the paperwork and hopefully move us from ClubMark Registered to ClubMark Accredited.   I will keep you posted.

100 club

Many thanks to everyone who responded so well to the recent “flyer” from James Young and, as a result, numbers are slightly up on 2004.   However, membership is still open so if you would like to join for 2005, please contact James Young at Elm Lodge, Longparish, SP11 6PW, (tel.01264 720233) – he will be delighted to hear from you.

Winners in the first 2005 Draw , made at

The Cricketers on Wednesday, 26 th January, were:

                                                            Kate Hibberd

Longparish Parish Plan

Planning for a thriving community

You may not have heard very much about the Parish Plan recently, but that's because groups have been busy looking for ways to take forward the issues that you   raised in the consultation process. We are now putting together a draft Parish Plan and would like to get your thoughts and responses before the plan is put into final format for publication.

There will be an exhibition in the village hall on Saturday 5 th March from 10am – 2pm. Members of the group that have been working on the proposals will be there to discuss them. We'd like to know if you support the proposals; where you might have concerns, and how any such concerns could be addressed   before the Plan is published.

The proposals cover such issues as:

The group is already working with a number of external bodies such as Test Valley Borough Council, whose support will be needed if we are to achieve some of these proposals – all of whom are being very supportive. This has been possible because the Parish Plan has been so widely discussed in the village and therefore we have been able to represent the wishes of the majority of the community.

Do come along and discuss the proposals to make sure your plan stays on track!

Copies of the draft Parish Plan will be available in the shop in March. If you can't come to the exhibition, please contact Fiona Gould on 720709 or any other member of the committee and we'd be happy to talk you through the proposals personally.

 

What is a Senior Citizen?

A Senior Citizen

Is one who was here before

The pill, television, frozen foods,

Contact lenses, credit cards….

And before man walked on the moon

 

For us, “timesharing” meant

Togetherness, not holiday homes,

And a “chip” meant a piece of wood.

“Hardware” meant nuts and bolts,

And software” wasn't even a word.

 

We got married first, then lived together.

And thought “cleavage” was

Something butchers did.

A “stud” was something that fastened a

Collar to a shirt, and “going all the way”

Meant staying on a double-decker

To the bus depot.

 

We thought “fast food” was what you ate

In Lent, a “big mac” was an oversized

Raincoat and “crumpet” we had for tea.

In our day “grass” was mown, “pot” was

Something you cooked in, “coke” was kept in

The coal house and “joint” was cooked on Sundays!

 

We are today's SENIOR CITIZENS.

A hardy bunch when you think how the world has changed.