Summer 2019

Issue 66

This is my final Annual Report as Chair as I felt after 6 years it was time to pass the baton on and give

someone else a turn! I therefore did not stand at the AGM for re-election, although I will continue to be

a Hepscott Parish Councillor. I am delighted to say that we have an excellent new Chair, Carolyn Reid,

and she has my warmest wishes and support for the future, and she has an excellent team around her.

PARISH COUNCIL NEWS

Annual Report 2018 –2019

The last 6 years have been a privilege for me. I have enjoyed

them enormously and learned such a lot. I have had great and

loyal help from Vice Chair David Cowans and all the

Councillors of the Parish Council, both past and present, and

give them my sincere thanks for their support over my time. A special mention for Sylvia Johnson, who as Clerk has been

absolutely invaluable and without whom the Parish Council

would not have functioned--to her my special thanks and

appreciation.

I will look back with great pleasure to issues on my watch

where I hope I have made a contribution--the Morpeth

Neighbourhood Plan, Green Belt and the Local Plan, our work

on flooding, our improved road safety and the appointment of

our first Councillor for South Fields. But I realise that every

issue depends on the work of others in the team. So many,

many thanks and best wishes to you all.

My last job as Chair was to report at the AGM on the 2018-19 year’s activities and a summary is below.

Councillor Changes. During the year a good Parish

Councillor, Ken Reed, resigned. He was a much-appreciated

colleague for 5 years and helped us greatly and our thanks go

to him. The silver lining is that we welcome John Sadler as a

Councillor who is a resident of South Fields. In the last year

South Fields has grown to about 200 families and it is excellent

news that they have an able and energetic Hepscott PC

representative in John.

It is not an exaggeration to say that Morpeth Town Council’s

(MTC) attempted Land Grab this year comes very close to threatening the existence of Hepscott Parish as we know it.

MTC’s proposal involves them attempting to take half of the

Parish’s population (South Fields and Stobhill Manor) and half

our income, and badly affects residents. We invited MTC to a

Parish Council meeting last July to hear their views and had (at

times) a heated discussion. We tried to get across the

magnitude of the impact of their land grab on our residents

(increases in £100-£150 council tax with no advantages) and

on our Parish, but to seemingly little effect. If they persist, the

issue is decided by Northumberland County Council (NCC)

and we shall fight it very strongly on behalf of our residents

and Parish. Local elections are approaching in 2021 and we are told nothing can be put into effect until then.

We have done a lot of work this year on speeding and road

safety through our active Speed Awareness Team. South Fields

is now better protected with the installation of a new speed

awareness sign on A196 near Coopies Lane. Nearly all main

roads in the Parish are either 50mph, 40 or 30, with only half a

mile of A road 60 mph. Stobhill Manor East is 20 mph and has

speed bumps; Hepscott village is 20 mph and we are looking at

traffic calming measures. With so many families, both young

and old in the Parish we can sleep a little easier in our beds, but

we are still plagued with driving that is too fast. Hot spots are

Barmoor Bank (where we have made persistent, unsuccessful requests for Police radar checks) and in our residential areas.

Roads. Over the last year I hope you will have noticed an

improvement in road surfaces and road markings and pot-holes

in the Parish. This is NCC’s province and the major contributor

has been Glen Sanderson, our County Councillor. Many thanks

to him.

In the last year we have made further real progress with flood

alleviation, thanks to our Flood Group team of Malcolm Paton,

Carolyn Reid, Andy Youngs and myself. Organisationally we

are much better prepared, with a detailed Flood Plan drawn up

and Flood Wardens appointed. We have had better engagement with NCC, who now gives us more regular updates of its

Hepscott flood alleviation study.

Planning issues took up a large amount of time in the last year.

I am delighted to say that NCC’s Local Plan has been

submitted to the Secretary of State in May. Eventual adoption

is due in March 2020. If it remains as proposed, Hepscott Par-

ish will be virtually covered by Green Belt, a fantastic

achievement.

We have of course also dealt with a multitude of individual

local planning applications, from Stobhill Manor, South Fields,

Hepscott village and the rural parts of the Parish.

And of course there have been the “usual suspect” issues--litter and dog bins, bus shelters, extra grass cuts, fly-tipping—were

covered.

Another busy year but we are in good shape for the future.

Phil Ashmore

All set to sweep,

blow, spray,

spread, roll, blow, sweep, glaze and

paint.

Speeding through Hepscott village on the C132

The Community Speedwatch Volunteers have been out on deployment in the village through May and June. From the data collected the analysis below shows a comparison with data collected through the village in June 2018.

2018 Vehicles checked: 246, No. of speeders: 85 (34.6%), Av.speed of speeders: 29.1mph 2019 Vehicles checked: 249, No. of speeders: 76 (30.5%), Av.speed of speeders: 29.5mph

Comparing 2019 with last year there has been a small reduction in the number of speeders while the average speed has remained roughly the same. This is only a ‘snapshot’ but from these results there is no reason to believe speeding through the village has significantly increased. However we must continue to monitor the situation.

PARISH COUNCIL NEWS - New Chairman

I am writing this sitting in the garden hoping that the sunshine will bring me inspiration .My first job as

the new chair of the Parish Council is to thank Phil Ashmore for the great job he has done over the last

six years- keeping the council members in order and leading on so many important issues such as

flooding, planning and bringing Southfields into the parish. Many of these issues are ongoing and will

continue to be of importance in the future.

The membership of the parish council remains as before with David Cowans as vice chair and Sylvia

Johnson ,thankfully staying on as parish clerk.

The recent roadworks have now finished and the village road looks really quite smart and is certainly

much nicer to drive on. Talking about roads, speeding continues to be a problem especially in the early

morning and late afternoons. I would like to hear people’s views on the topic and their ideas how to deal

with it. NALC(National Association of local councils) reported that there are to be some new small road

signs depicting small mammals e.g.otters,hedgehogs, badgers and squirrels. What a great day it would

be to put up a new red squirrel sign. Carolyn Reid 01670 515308

Hepscott Parish Council Members

Chairman: Carolyn Reid 01670 515308

Vice Chairman: David Cowans 01670 516397

Members: Philip Ashmore 01670 516726

Anne Colver 01670 517199

Fred Dye 01670 514871

Malcolm Paton 01670 511640

John Sadler 01670 513005

County Councillor: There are two County Councillors covering Hepscott Parish. They are Glen Sanderson and John Beynon. They can be contacted at the following email addresses:

glen.sanderson@northumberland.gov.uk John.Beynon@northumberland.gov.uk

Website address for the Parish Council: http:// hepscottparishcouncil.org.uk

There is a contact form for Hepscott Parish Council on this site.

VIEW FROM COUNTY HALL

In June we agreed to declare a climate change emergency. This is a big word to use but having spoken to many young people and heard their views I felt emergency is appropriate. As part of this we have committed to reduce the Council’s carbon footprint by 50% by 2025 and to work with Government to achieve carbon neutrality for the County as a whole by 2030. Additionally we have set up a multi organisation steering group which will bring forward an Action Plan laying out key actions for the next three years. I will be chairing this group. We hope to introduce a pilot kerbside glass recycling trial this year which, if it’s successful, we will roll out across more of the County next year. Work is continuing well on our County Hall refurbishment programme and the new school nearby. Our Parks improvement programme is proceeding well - we have just completed a new bird hide at Bolam Lake as well as other improvements there, put in a new play area at Plessey, and will be refurbishing the cafe at Druridge Bay over the winter. Our roads programme is well underway with surface dressing repairs in Hepscott. We will be starting on our new car park at Morpeth station once the work is finished on the building and we are looking at other sites for extra car parking in the town. As always if I can help in anyway or you would like more details on Council matters please get in touch anytime.

Glen Sanderson - glen.sanderson@northumberland.gov.uk 07730 979737

PARISH HALL MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE

The hall is as busy as ever with many different activities, shows and events. As well as the shows put on by the committee there are many private clubs with a variety of activities and providing there are vacancies I’m sure new members will be welcome.

The last two Highlight shows were a sell out. The shows were very different from each other and both were very entertaining. The next Highlights event is in December and details will be posted on the board outside the Village Hall.

The Film Nights, which are usually every two months, are proving to be quite popular. Most of the films are recent releases and some are requests. This is a free show only paying £2 for the refreshment - usually ice cream, popcorn, tea/coffee and of course anyone is welcome to bring their own alcohol. No booking is required just come along grab a front seat and be entertained.

This year we are hoping to screen the Last Night of The Proms again. This is a free show so don’t sit at home come and watch it on the big screen and join in the fun. Bring your best singing voice, wave the flag and have a good time

The flower show is scheduled for 7th September. Entry forms for this will be in the hall. As usual there will be a variety of flowers, veg. and cakes. So get talking to those lovely dahlias and put them on display.

The Keep Fit class on Friday morning always welcome new people. Again just come along, no booking required, no club to join - just feel free to come whenever the time or inclination takes you. Pay your £1.50 and join in. I must warn you the keep fit ladies like to chat so vocal chords get a good work out. Please keep an eye out for other activities that may come up. All will be advertised outside the hall.

The Parish Hall management committee is in need of enthusiastic new members - particularly a treasurer. Please contact Katie if you feel you can help us and your community. Katie McDonald 514031 Chair

Mondays

Hepscott Quilters 10.00 a.m.

Harp lessons 4.30 p.m.

Tai Chi 6.30 p.m.

Tuesdays W.I. 3rd in month 7.30 p.m.

Village Tea Last Tues 2.00 pm.

Wednesdays

Bridge Class 10.00 a.m.

U3A Gardening Group2.00p.m.

Yoga Class 7.00 pm

Thursdays

Art at Hepscott 9.00 a.m.

Bridge for All 1.30 p.m.

Parish Council 6.30 p.m. 3rd in month bi-monthly.

Fridays

Keep Fit 10.30 a.m.

Bridge for All 1.30 p.m.

Pilates 6.00 p.m.

Saturdays

ChatterboxQuilters 2nd Sat

Orchard Last Sat 10.00 a.m.

Some Saturdays 9.15 a.m

Hartbeeps Baby Sense

SPECIAL EVENTS

Regular activities

JULY

Thursday 18 July 7.30 pm

Election for

Police Commissioner

7.00am—10.00 pm

Friday 19 July 7.30 pm

Film Night

Thursday 25 July 6.30 pm

Parish Council Meeting

AUGUST

SEPTEMBER

Saturday 7 September

Village Flower Show

Saturday 14 September

Last Night at The Proms

Thursday 19 September 6.30pm

Parish Council Meeting

Friday 20 September 7.30 pm

Film Night

OCTOBER

Hall Management Committee

Saturday 5 October 7.30 pm

Bavarian Night

The Hepscott Herald is a community newsletter provided by Hepscott Parish Council. The views expressed are not necessarily those of the council or the editors. Whilst every effort is taken to check accuracy of the information contained herein, no responsibility can be taken for errors or omissions.

HEPSCOTT HERALD DEADLINE

Friday 27 September 2019 Editors: Anne 01670 518888 Kate 01670 515504

As we head into summer we can only be grateful that our gardens need no watering and our activities will not be deterred – with umbrellas at hand! In February we were fascinated by the stories of Bob Young, member of the well- known Smail family. He told us about the history of this famed local emporium which served our community for over 100 years, enlivened by wonderful photographs of family and employees. We shared our fond reminiscences of the best known family member Isobel Smail OBE and giggled as we tried to guess what some of the artefacts he brought had been used for. Jared Johnson bravely stepped in at the last moment when the promised March speaker was unable to come. He gave us a delightful insight into Owls with some delightful slides to accompany his narrative. Our AGM in April had a fun element in the competition to write a limerick about ladies of Hepscott. They were read out to gales of laughter and Betty Wilson’s was judged the winner by visiting Adviser Anne Dixon. In May our meeting was held at Cresswell House where Jackie Gaughan gave a cookery demonstration of easily prepared suppers including two show stopping desserts – then we ate everything! A nostalgic trip for many in June came when Peter Brennan, who managed Newcastle City Hall for 35 years, spoke about its history and the entertainers it has hosted – famous names past and present and world famous orchestras have all graced the stage of this iconic building. In May it was our turn to host the annual East Coast Group meeting and we were enjoyably entertained by the St. George’s Community Players who presented a Murder Mystery. As a group we take it in turns to donate sanitary products to the Food Bank and at our June meeting Hepscott members were again generous in their contributions. And to come – a demonstration on Corn Dollies in July, and an invitation to join Warden W.I. at Hexham for a talk on The Great Fire of Newcastle and Gateshead, a trip to Paxton House in August and in September an insight into the daily life of a Jewish lady with Brenda Dinsdale. A warm welcome is extended to anyone who would like to try us. We meet at 7.30pm on the 3rd Tuesday of the month, - look for the details of the next meeting on the village hall window.

100 CLUB WINNERS

March winners: Mrs V Whitfield, Mr D Cowans, Mr N Hetherington

April winners: Mr M Robson, Ms S Armstrong, Mr Allen Smith

May winners: Mr M Robson, Mrs K Scott, Mr Alan Murray

Please contact me on

01670 517199 or

07540607860 if you

would like to join the

Hepscott 100 club.

It costs just £12 /year

and is a bit of fun and

raises money for the

village hall.

Anne Colver

The editors welcome contributions - Letters/ Pictures/Announcements/ Puzzles/etc. to this Parish newslet-ter. There are 3 issues per year and it is delivered to every household in the parish.

Hepcott Women’s Institute

Volunteer Features Reporter Wanted As mentioned below the editors welcome contributions for future newsletters. Two people have suggested “ What about short interviews with ‘People of the Parish’ before we all die off!?” Would you enjoy taking on this project? It could look good on your CV or uni applications, or fill in some spare time if you are newly retired, or you might enjoy meeting more people in the neighbourhood. OR you could write your own and send it to the editors directly!

There are no age limits for interviewer or interviewee in this project. If you can help us please contact Anne 01670 518888