Around and about

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Around

• Winter woes
  Update:
  

  Another blockage in the work that the Parish Council is trying to progress - a winter contingency plan for the village. To help push forward a Wolds-area co-ordinated winter plan, the Parish Clerk, Helen Pitman, recently attended the winter weather workshop at County Offices led by Alan Aistrup of Lincolnshire County Council and has passed on her feelings and concerns.

  Following the bad weather last Nov/Dec, Caistor and the Wolds parishes made it known that contingency plans needed to be urgently drawn up to prevent a re-occurrence of the situation we all found ourselves in. Despite a number of meetings earlier in the year at WLDC, arranged by Cllr Regis and completion of an LCC questionnaire in July/August it has taken until now, the middle of October, to meet with Highways. Sadly we are no further forward on finding solutions on the ground than we were at the beginning of the year.

  The ideas put forward to LCC in December/January of supplies of grit accessible to Wolds communities is still not decided upon. The insurance problems/fear of litigation felt by local farmers/use of red diesel have not been looked into, let alone resolved. So there are no local contractors at our disposal to clear snow should it arrive. It is pointless parishes having emergency plans if we don't have the tools to make them possible. (Editor's italics.)

  It is possible that feedback on the workshops will be given late next week and that steer from LCC will be given by the end of November. This is just not good enough. We have had nine and a half months to reach decisions/formulate plans. Most parish councils meet in November and not again until January, by which time we may well have had snow. Special consideration should have been given to the Wolds which was the worst effected area in Lincolnshire.

  Believe it or not, a councillor in a suburb of Lincoln asked that cycle lanes be cleared and salted (something Mr Aistrup said he would consider) when we are told there is a shortage of salt, resources and money to clear the village roads allowing access onto the cleared main roads.

  Rumours abound that this coming winter will be somewhat similar to the last one and we should be expecting snow from November onwards...The Parish Council has a number of wheelbarrows and shovels stored in the Community Centre for local emergency use, both to shovel away snow and to move grit to where it is most needed. However, with the number of elderly residents, it is up to everyone of us to keep an eye on out neighbours to ensure that they do not suffer and, if necessary, are able to get to doctors appointments or go shopping. To that end, volunteers, possibly owning four wheel drive vehicles, are required who are willing to drive in inclement weather as it looks as if we may be faced with deep snow on our local roads.

• Former RAF sites' seminar 7 September
  Update:
  

  On 7 September representatives from West Lindsey District Council and the four former RAF sites met at RAF Scampton to try to effect a common strategy for the future development of our communities. Representing Brookenby were Ian Round (Chairman, Parish Council), Brod Purdy (Vice Chairman, Parish Council) and three residents, Sarah Macready, Jon Ives and Cliff Spencer. Each of the four villages were formed into Teams and asked to produce a list of 3 concerns of their individual villages. These concerns were then passed over to a different village for it to prioritise the three concerns. The three concerns from the Brookenby Team were put forward as: the Community Centre development; empty houses and lack of public transport These concerns were then passed to Newtoft who decided that our priorities should be: lack of public transport, community centre and empty houses. Not only was the Newtoft team to prioritise our concerns, but also to decide how to resolve the issues and by whom. The Brookenby Team was then asked if it agreed with the prioritisation and the resolution. Funnily enough it did not, agreeing that the real issues were the buildings - both the empty houses and the partly demolished Officers' Mess and Annexe.

  By the end, all participants made individual pledges, pledges for which they will be accountable, and agreed to organise further strategy meetings where all village communities would work together to progress all actions and decisions to the benefit of all residents.

  The next meeting will be announced soon - but it is for all villagers to attend, so do not be shy about coming forward. Everyone's view is needed - in whichever part of Brookenby your house is situated.

• Brookenby's land purchase
  The Parish Plan and the grassed areas:

  It has probably slipped many residents' memory, but the Parish Plan, started way back in 2009, does highlight the need for the Parish Council to consider the purchase of these grassy areas. But, as in life, nothing is easy and money has to be found to enable the purchase, as well as the agreement by North Developments to sell in the first place. I understand that this issue came up before, but the owners at that time were using their possession of this land as collateral against which to borrow to fund other projects.

  Councillors discussed this issue in Council on 5 July.  As you will see from the notes of the meeting, it was agreed that the PC will contact North Developments with a view to opening up negotiations regarding the state of the grassed areas under the latter's management and offering to purchase the land.  To enable the PC to purchase these areas, the PC will have to investigate various means by which it can raise the money required.  Fortunately, the PC is now financially stable and its external auditors have again, for the second time, given the PC an  'unqualified opinion'; this could open the way for the PC to apply for various loans and grants to help with the purchase.

  The Parish Council is holding discussions with North Developments with a view to purchasing all the grassed areas around the village. This procedure will take time as Council needs to have the land valued by an approved land valuer approved by our local government authorities. Also Council will need to look at financing the deal, probably with loans and / or grants from the public purse. Any loan will have to be repaid, so Council will be very wary of digging too deep a hole for succeeding councils to maintain. We are already seeing the folly of overstretch by public bodies at a national level - indeed at international level. Council will not wish to emulate such proponents of bad practice.

  Should Council succeed in its plans, then all the land will belong to the village to do as we the residents would like.  Not only would Council be responsible for the grass cutting, but land would become available for allotments and better developed parkland and wild spaces.  These developments should then enhance the quality of life within Brookenby and make the village a more pleasant place in which to live as well as attract others to join us.

  Updated news (16 September 2011). Council has opened formal negotiations with North Developments regarding the purchase of the land. The official land valuer has valued all the land surrounding Brookenby and using this as a basis, Council has now made its first offer to North Developments. Its response is eagerly awaited.

  About

• Brookenby's Pantomime
  Little Red Riding Hood
  

  By Ronni, our new Arts and Entertainments correspondent.

  The Limelight Theatre Group performed a fairly traditional pantomime in the Brookenby Theatre over the weekend of 16 to 18 December. Fairly traditional? Read on.

  After a short synchronised dance, the audience was transported into the woods where the Hood family had their respective houses and we were introduced to Mother Hood (Martin Hare) - the archetypal pantomime Dame - who introduced us to her daughter, the young Red Riding Hood played by Alice Hare. And over the next few scenes we met the whole pantomime cast - the wicked woodcutter (Richard Mathews) who had designs on the hand of Little Red Riding Hood and unsurprisingly turned down the two ugly sisters (Gemma Beedham and Kerry Ward)  who were more interested in behaving badly and being rude to each other than settling down. The rest of the pantomime revolved around the means by which the woodcutter's scheming was confounded at every turn. Grandmother Hood (Ann Forward) managed to squeeze in a couple of nursery rhymes to help keep the young audience interested - and the wolf, played by Scott Smith, then appeared to dispute the traditional character of the 'Big Bad Wolf' by showing the truth (as he saw it) behind every nursery rhyme. And as the 'protector' of the young Little Red Riding Hood thus ensured that the wicked woodcutter would not get his wicked way. All good "He's behind you!", "No he's not!" "Yes he is!" slapstick with a brief interlude whilst Mother Hood and her ugly daughters joined the audience to entertain the smaller members of the audience. Then came the dénouement - Grandmother Hood had a special potion which she offered to the wolf to enable him the change into a human (to a cry of 'Don't do it' from amidst the audience) and allow he and Little Red Riding Hood to live happily ever after - which, after all, is always the end of a Pantomime.

  As befits a pantomime, there was a fair amount of singing and dancing throughout - but why did some actors and actresses have microphones hanging from their heads? Sitting at the back of the auditorium, it was very off putting hearing the voice of an actor or actress with a mike coming out of loudspeakers above the stage when accompanying actor or actress without microphone could not be heard. Many lines were thus missed. With such a small auditorium, there should be no need for such technical innovations. The music again was unsettling as most of the singing seemed to be coming from a karaoke-style backing tape, although there were a couple of very good songs within the production, sung by Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf, that seemed to have been specially written and recorded solely for the pantomime. With the amount of musical talent in Brookenby, I would have expected home-grown music. Perhaps next year?

  It is always very difficult to ensure a sound volume that ensures the back of the auditorium is aware of both voice and background music and to strike just the right balance. A little more time spent on the sound checks would have been very useful as the background music deafened those of us in the back rows, so just how deafening it must have been for those in the front few rows is hard to contemplate.

  The four performers who stood out in my mind were the Woodcutter, Little Red Riding Hood, Mother Hood and, eventually, the wolf who took some time to settle in to his role, but once he relaxed, his performance improved. That is not to denigrate the performances of the other members of the cast, all of whom managed to give the audience an excellent Saturday afternoon's entertainment. And that is what pantomime is all about, n'est ce pas?