About Me and What I do

A number of new families have moved into the ward who probably don't know me from Adam, so I thought a quick resume might help.  I have lived and worked in Elmley and the Combertons since 1980 and Fladbury before that.  My two children grew up here and I now have 3 grandchildren.  My husband works for himself as an IT Consultant and we were the newsagents for 25 years for Bricklehampton, Elmley Castle & the Combertons.  As a local smallholder farming organically (as do all of my neighbours) and living in a rural community, I have a great empathy with farmers who, over the last 25 years have had a lot to deal with on the animal health and EU legislation front.  I served on the parish council for around 15 years; I am passionate about Bredon Hill and for 18 years was pleased to serve as secretary to the Bredon Hill Conservation Group.  Even before becoming a District Councillor, this gave me a pretty broad insight into the planning system and the District Local Plan and the way public enquiries are handled.  I have been directly involved in a number of local projects, including the new village hall which opened in Feb. 2001 which, until recently, included a community post office, and I am now in a position to help support other community groups with their projects.

I attend 5 different Parish Council's meetings held in Sedgeberrow, Aston Somerville, Great Comberton, Little Comberton and Elmley Castle village halls.  Meetings are advertised on village notice boards and generally take place every two months. Where deadlines are needed for planning applications, special meetings/arrangements are made in between.   If I don't make it to a particular Parish Council meeting it is because I am at a Council or Executive Board meeting because these sometimes clash.  However, I make sure I keep in touch with the Parish Clerks.

My time is freely available to anyone in my ward, irrespective of who you voted for.  You may contact me either by telephone, email or letter at any time and I will endeavour to answer your queries.  If I am unable to give you an answer straight away, I will seek the information you require and either call/email you back, or ask the expert to contact you direct.  

WHAT IS HAPPENING IN YOUR PARISH?

Great Comberton:  The village hall has recently completed repairs to it's roof, windows, heating etc.  An Air to Air source heating system has been installed which will be a great asset and a 'green' option for heating the hall.  It looks great, so well done to the village hall management committee for obtaining grants to do this work for the benefit of the residents and hirers.  I understand you may now have a Lengthsman too, which is great news for the parish.

Little Comberton:  Main issues relate to planning applications and bridge works in Wick Road, which have now been completed and look good to me.  I understand there has been some consternation at works carried out to ditches in the field surrounding the derelict barns on the Little Comberton to Pershore Rd.  On the face of it, this seemed to be fairly drastic measures to achieve some drainage clearance, particularly at a time when birds were nesting. However, a very thorough job seems to have been done and I very much hope that this is going to mean that more surface water is removed from the village during heavy rainfall, in particular through the ditch at the back of this field, which may alleviate issues for properties along the Wick Road.  

Aston Somerville:  Apart from drainage issues, and dog bins, mainly quiet, but it is still early in the year!   The playground project is still moving along thanks to Dee and her group applying for grants etc., - keep going girls!

Hinton on the Green:  Flooding of the Isborne is an ongoing problem and we are still looking into ways of helping with this.  Your new playground is now ready for the official opening and I am looking forward to coming along to see it.  Congratulations to Liz and the team for your hard work on behalf of the young people in your community. The removal of the BT telephone box was as a result of damage. The Parish Council are dealing with this.

Bricklehampton, Elmley Castle & Netherton:  I understand The Queen Elizabeth Public House is due to reopen soon.  A lot of refurbishment work has been done and we are all looking forward to seeing the end result.   Elmley Castle lost its post office facility inside the village hall in March and a mobile van is now operating outside the village hall (in the car park).  With the opening of the new shop in the same area inside the hall it is a great pity that this has happened.   We put up a good fight to save the post office room (I had several meetings with P.O. Ltd.) but at the end of the day it was a numbers game, and I suppose the consolation is we still have a service here.   I certainly don't believe that, in Elmley's case, it was a significant cost cutting exercise that would have made a big difference in the scheme of things. A new Post Office van is due and, I believe, different times will come with it.

The village hall had a very successfull open day on 13th Feb. 2009 to allow residents, village halls, and other interested parties to come and view the recently completed 'Carbon Footprint Reduction Project' undertaken by the village hall committee - namely, generating all our own electricity (and sending it to the Grid) through Photovoltiac panels, plus a new Air to Air Source Heating system that provides better heat at a 3.5:1 cost ratio for the hirers.  Those who came along to help inform visitors were Greenearth Energy - PV panels and other micro-generation techniques; RSC - installers of the Heating; Green Energy UK - taking our electricity;  The Big Lottery; Welcome to Our Future (Severn Waste Environmental Fund); Impetus - the local CDFI; Clist & Chandler - Architects for the village hall; members of the committee, and someone from the DTI doing some kind of study.  In the first half of this year 5000 kilowatt hours have been generated.  The benefit to hirers from this aspect of the project will be the ability to keep the hiring fees down while costs keep going up!  

Sedgeberrow:  I seem to be spending a fair bit of time in your village looking at the river!  It is still a source of concern to me, and I haven't by any means forgotten or put this on the back burner.  Money from somewhere is the all important factor here, and it is very frustrating that this is being directed elsewhere at the moment.  I have fairly regular discussions with Nick Haycock, the local hydrauligist who I believe feels the same as I do, but the solution, whilst appearing to be a simple one, is not achievable overnight.  At the moment, the Environment Agency have other priority areas to sort out, and, because it is 'Main River' it has to be at their behest.  Their statutory duty only allows them to defend up to a 1 in 100 year event plus 20%, which means that events of the kind seen in July 2007 falls outside this.  Because the problem starts in the catchment above the village, in the Cotswold escarpment, Defra are putting some money into helping farmers develop small scale water retention schemes which, when put together, could have a significant impact on the situation downstream.  Some ditches need clearing to prevent flooding, however, in other locations it is good to hold the water back and temporarily flood the surrounding land instead to protect properties downstream.  Sedgeberrow now has a Flood Group. 

Parish Plans:  Both Sedgeberrow, Bricklehampton Elmley Castle & Netherton Parish Councils are doing well with their Parish Plans but, again, this is all down to volunteer effort and by no means a 5-minute job - well done to all those involved. 

Some of the above parishes have developed a Parish Website which is useful for residents to learn about what is going on at Parish Level and has links to both Wychavon DC and Worcestershire County Council.

Wychavon publish a lot of information on its website so if there is anything you want to know, e.g. planning applications, waste collection dates, etc., it is worth a visit.