Added on Tuesday 7th May 2024
Parish Council News May 2024
Issue 3
First, a reminder that you are always welcome to attend our regular monthly meetings, held in Endecott House on the 2nd Monday of every month at 7.30pm. If you would like to receive a regular copy of the newsletter by email please contact Ruth the clerk with your email address.
News since issue 2
• At last, the Bellacouch Car park is open and being used! There are still some important features that are not yet in place. Signs for the footpaths into town have not yet been installed – but will be in the pipeline very soon. An information board with a beautifully illustrated map by local artist Sara Nunan is being made and will soon be installed. Parking is free at the moment, but a Pay and Display machine will be installed at some stage in the next few months. We will publicise on our Facebook page as well as on notice boards when this is going to happen. We also hope to install EV charging points in the not too far distant future.
• We are delighted to announce that our logo competition was won by Cornelia Holyoak. She will be working with a local artist to complete her design. Here she is receiving her prize, a voucher to spend at Astor’s, our fabulous book and art store.
• Our Parish Annual Assembly took place on April 18th and was very well attended. Our community raised several valid points; these will be followed
up in the first instance at our monthly meetings. Watch out for a copy of the minutes on the notice board. It was followed by cheese, wine and soft drinks which were enjoyed by many.
• Topics raised by parishioners at the Annual Assembly included:
Streetlighting – Is it too bright? How much is it affecting wildlife? Is it on for the right times at night?
Redesign of the square – now that we have more car parking space in the new car park could part of the square be pedestrianised?
• Our Facebook page (Chagford Parish Council) has been getting more attention, and we use it to post news items. Do try and follow it if you can. We are also in the process of updating the website.
Other Items
• Rogue Traders - A warning from South Devon and Dartmoor Community Safety Partnership
We have been made aware of incidents in Devon of rogue traders knocking on doors and suggesting work needs carrying out on the owner’s roof. These people are giving the false impression of being a local reputable company making it difficult to instantly recognise as a rogue trader. Advice from the Local Authority, Devon and Cornwall Police and Trading Standards is not to employ anyone knocking on your door touting for business; they have asked town and parish councils to advertise this message in their newsletters and on local notice boards so we can get this message to those residents who are not regularly on social media. For more information visit www.tssw.or.uk/doorstep_crime
• Asian Hornets
You may have heard about Asian Hornets. An Asian hornet arrived in France from China in 2005. It had accidentally been shipped there with some pottery. Since then, it has bred and spread steadily through Europe and was first found in the UK in 2016. It hunts, kills and eats bees, both wild bees and honeybees, and many other pollinating insects. In has greatly reduced the number of honeybee colonies in Europe and is a very serious threat to bees. Our European bees have not evolved to defend themselves against the Asian hornet, whereas they survive happily alongside our native European hornet. The Asian hornet looks different to the European hornet – it is smaller and has yellow legs and a red head.
The European hornet has brown legs and a yellow head. There is a very useful free App which you can get on a smart phone called Asian Hornet Watch which has good pictures for identification as well as the facility to notify a possible sighting. If you think you have seen one, don’t kill it but report it, either using the App, or email alertnonnative@ceh.ac.uk. If seen, the aim is to track them back to their nest and destroy the nest. The picture below shows an Asian hornet on the left and a European hornet (much bigger) on the right.
• Verges
Wild flowers are blossoming on our verges. A lovely early purple orchid has appeared on the bank past the school.
We need to celebrate and protect these plants and avoid mowing them!
• Chagford Library
Our library is on the side of the Jubilee Hall, beside the car park. It is open Tuesdays 3-5pm, and Fridays and Saturdays 10.30-12.30pm. In addition to being a lending library for books for all ages, it has free access to computers and Wi-Fi. Library membership is free. Printing, photocopying and laminating are available for a small charge. The library hosts regular events for adults (eg Knit & Natter) and children (eg Bounce & Rhyme, and Lego Builders). Library card holders also have free access to digital services such BorrowBox (eBooks, eAudiobooks, eNewspapers and eMagazines), Naxos Music Library (over 2 million classical music tracks), Ancestry.com and Which.
Date for your diary
D-day celebrations
Chagford will be joining the national celebrations for the 80th anniversary of D-day on June 6th. Put the date in your diary. A beacon will be lit on the top of Meldon at 9.15pm and there will be other activities as well. Watch out for more detail on the notice board and on our Facebook page.
Feedback please
Please feel free to give us feedback on our newsletter (clerk@chagfordparish.co.uk) and let us know what else you would like us to tell you about.
Jill Millar
jill.millar@chagford-parish.co.uk
(chair)
