Thursday 31 March 2016

A month of activity in Old Buckenham

Diary dates for April

Sunday 3   Methodist 'introductory service', Methodist Chapel,10.45am

Sunday 3   Wargames Club, Village Hall, 2.30pm to 6pm

Monday 4   Monday Mardle, Church Rooms, 2.15pm to 4.15pm

Tuesday 5   Coffee and chat, Church Rooms, 10.30am onwards

Wednesday 6   Women's Fellowship, Methodist Chapel, 2.30pm

Wednesday 6   Village Hall AGM, Memorial Room, 7.30pm

Thursday 7   Breckland Flower Club, Village Hall, 2pm

Thursday 7   Parish Council, Village Hall, 7.30pm

Saturday 9   Village Hall Open Meeting, 10am

Sunday 10   Windmill open, 2pm to 5pm

Monday 11   Whist drive, Church Rooms, 2pm

Wednesday 13   Luncheon Club outing

Thursday 14   Social and Wine Circle, Church Rooms, 7.45pm

Monday 18   Monday Mardle, Church Rooms, 2.15pm to 4.15pm

Wednesday 20   Songs of Praise, Methodist Chapel, 7.30pm

Saturday 23   Scalextric Grand Prix, Village Hall

Wednesday 27   Luncheon Club, Village Hall, 10am to 2pm

Thursday 28   Women's Institute, Village Hall, 7.30pm

Wednesday 30 March 2016

Old Buckenham newsletter for April

Keep up with the village news
The printed copies have now been placed around the village for you to pick up.

Those of you who get a copy delivered along with the Six Villages newsletter should remember that that will not be available until Thursday 31 March so your copies will not arrive before then.

Tuesday 29 March 2016

Easter lilies in Old Buckenham

Remembering with lilies
At Easter it is now a tradition at All Saints, Old Buckenham, to decorate the church with many, many lilies. Each one is in memory of someone no longer with us, perhaps a parent, a husband, a wife or a dear friend. A small donation is paid towards each lily flower and much time and effort is put into producing arrangements throughout the church.
After the Easter Sunday service, people are invited to come to see the flower arrangements. In the afternoon this year there was also handbell ringing as well as refreshments.
This series of photographs aims to show how boxes of lilies were transformed into arrangements for all to see. The church is open every day so why not pop in and have a look for yourself? Little booklets are available that list all the people being remembered by the flowers.













Monday 28 March 2016

Old Buckenham Players on the run

There's fun ahead
It's Easter Monday and the rain is pouring down and the wind howling around. Time to look ahead to brighter times.
On Thursday 12 to Saturday 14 May the Old Buckenham Players will be performing Ray Cooney's farce 'Run for your Wife' in Old Buckenham Village Hall. Should be fun...


Friday 25 March 2016

Old Buckenham Village Hall

The village hall matters

There are two important meetings at the village hall early in April.
Old Buckenham Village Hall Management Committee (OBVHMC) have their AGM on Wednesday 6 April starting at 7.30pm in the Memorial Hall. Tea and coffee will be served.
On Saturday 9 April at 10am in main hall, OBVHMC are holding an open meeting and are inviting the public to come along to express their views on how they are running their village hall. Tea and coffee will be served.
Don't just assume that your views will be put forward by others, put the dates in your diary now so that you remember to come along.

Wednesday 23 March 2016

News of Old Buckenham clinic

The Clinic on the Green is closing

The Clinic on the Green is sadly closing after 13 years. The clinic was started by Emma Broom, an osteopath, in 2003. Many people have gone in feeling at the end of their tether and come out amazed at how much better they feel, not just from osteopathic treatment, with chiropody, massage, hypnotherapy, acupuncture and more. Some people just popped in to pick up a copy of the Old Buckenham village newsletter.
Last year Emma applied for planning to expand the clinic to increase from four treatment rooms to six. Although this was supported by the Parish Council, Norfolk County Council Highways decreed that there was not enough parking for all the rooms to be in use at once, which made the plan financially unviable.
Most of the therapists have found other places to work. Emma will be working closer to home, in Rowan House, a new complimentary health and well-being centre in Hethersett (01603 813987). The clinic building will be put up for sale in the long term, perhaps returned to a domestic dwelling. In the short term, Collette Murphy will continue to offer beauty treatments and massage from the clinic. Contact details of all the therapists will be on the clinic website www.thecliniconthegreen.co.uk and for those technophobes among you, on a good old fashioned bit of paper in the window of the clinic building.


(The official last day for the clinic is Friday 15 April although Collette Murphy, beauty and massage, will still be at the premises for sometime longer. She should be contacted on 01842 761325 as the existing clinic phone number will not be operative)

Saturday 19 March 2016

Breakfast in Old Buckenham

Getting together for discussions
Many residents of Old Buckenham arrived at the Village Hall this morning to hear about various current items of local interest. Perhaps they were attracted by the thought of sitting down to a cooked breakfast beforehand.
Breakfasts were served from soon after 8.30am and provided a chance to sit and talk to other villagers before the main event began.




Jonathan Kemp (parish councillor) talked about the progress so far on preparing a Neighbourhood Plan for Old Buckenham and how this needed to tie in with plans being prepared for Attleborough and for Breckland in general. He said that a questionnaire is being prepared that will come round to all villagers giving them an opportunity to give their opinions on what was good, bad or missing at the present time. Discussion was mainly on how Old Buckenham had to be aware of possible encroachment from the Attleborough direction.


Steve Milner and Rona Boggia (parish councillors) updated the audience on the progress toward moving Chapel Road School from Attleborough to the site in Old Buckenham (where it will be known as Chapel Green School). After an unfortunate delay to the start of building, re-tendering is taking place with work on site expected to start in May this year with the new buildings being ready in late 2017.
The general feeling on the meeting was that the new school would increase traffic in the village. The village welcomes the school moving to Old Buckenham but pressure for necessary road safety improvements needs to be put on NCC Highways and not on the Education Department.

Sarah Dye, chair of the Green Right Proprietors, led the discussions on the future management of the village Green. She explained who the Green Right Proprietors were and how they came into existence. Action that the Proprietors could take was limited and she felt the best way forward would be for a charitable trust to be set up including representatives from the parish council and the villagers along with some of the Proprietors. This would allow money to be raised to make some necessary improvements in the general care and management of this most important area of the village.


It was 11.30am before the discussions ended and the chairman Terry Cracknell thanked everyone for participating and also thanked those who had cooked all the breakfast food.

Friday 18 March 2016

Old Buckenham's telecommunications saga

The tangled web
Now nearly all those 152 Old Buckenham residents affected by the destruction of the roadside telecommunication cabinets in Cake Street near the junction with Ragmere Road are now back on line.
Here is a short history of the saga, illustrated by pictures. 
Thursday 3 March. Around 10.30pm, a car travelling from the New Buckenham direction failed to negotiate the bend while entering Cake Street and demolished both the telecommunications cabinets on the verge. The emergency services attended including the police, ambulance, fire brigade and a recovery vehicle. 
Friday 4 March. Openreach staff come in the morning to assess the damage.




Monday 7 March. More looking at the site and some basic tidying up.
Friday 11 March. Junction controlled by traffic lights to provide a safe area to work. Vehicles galore and many workers arrive and start clearing up bits of cable and wiring as well sorting out concrete bases for new cabinets.




Saturday 12 March. Contractors on site to sort out electric supply to cabinets.



Monday 13 March. More people on site to connect up all the wires. Majority of the 152 people in the village who had been disconnected able to use their landline phones for the first time in ten days.



Tuesday 14 March. By late afternoon most people able to connect to the internet again.


Friday 18 March. There are reports of a few individuals still not having everything back to normal. 

Thursday 17 March 2016

Meeting of Old Buckenham WI

WI February Meeting
Old Buckenham WI's speaker for their February meeting was Ann Newmeir. The title of her talk was "My Suitcase, My Patience and Him". She gave an animated account of her many holidays and, in more recent years, of cruises with her husband. She regaled her audience with many amusing incidents, including the time her husband climbed Mount Vesuvius only to discover on his return to their hotel that there was no film in the camera. She showed members a collection of colourful embroidered table cloths bought from around the world.
At the end of the meeting it was time to bid farewell to Pat Shearing who has moved away from our village. Susan Hunter (President) presented her with a gift for her new garden and said how much she would be missed by Old Buckenham WI. Pat had been secretary since 2007, she had organised many craft days and had been a driving force in the Cator Cup entries. Pat will now become a WI member in her "new" village and so there will be opportunities to meet up with her at county events.
The next monthly meetings will be on Thursday 24 March when the speaker will be Mary Graydon on prison monitoring and on Thursday 28 April when there will be a talk on the history of toys.


Sunday 13 March 2016

Latest from Old Buckenham

Parish Council in March
Three parish councillors (Jonathan Kemp, Adrian Joel and Graham Hart) were unable to attend and had sent their apologies. There were sevenmembers of the public present.
Public recess. A resident raised the matter of an email that he had sent which had not been replied to. He gave a document to the Parish Council which included five points he wanted acknowledged in the minutes. They were HGVs using Hargham Road and his email of December requesting copy of letter to Police on matter, potholes on the footpath leading off Hargham Road to the Post Office Store asking for it to be rectified by who is responsible for its upkeep, the road drain situated at the top of the Green between Tamworth House and the Hawthorns which has been blocked for some considerable time and no action seems to have been taken, the proposed housing development in Fen Street and asked if the residents concerns along with Parish Council’s concerns had been formally responded to. He wanted agenda items that have been discussed, addressed and resolved be listed for the past seven meetings and formally included in minutes. A resident raised the matter of flooding down Cake Street and Steve Milner said Highways would be dealing with the matter. A resident raised the matter of planning applications and said over past 40 odd years only 45 houses had been built in Old Buckenham. He said more need to be built to encourage support of local businesses and encourage young people to move to the village. Steve Milner responded referring to the Neighbourhood Plan which will look at housing development in the village. Three residents said they would be willing to join the Neighbourhood Plan working party which would also look at lack of footpaths and insufficient infrastructure. A resident raised the matter of the hedge in Cake Street and asked for an update. Steve Milner said he had inspected the hedge but it needs more measures to make the junction safe.
Minutes of February Parish Council meeting. After a small amendment the minutes were signed as a true and accurate record of the meeting. There were no matters arising from the minutes
Planning applications. Asparagus Field, Cake Street. Erection of new dwelling and garage. Proposed and seconded and agreed, no objections.
25 Oaklands, Single-storey front and rear extensions, enlarge front dormer and remove all flat roofs to pitch roofs. Proposed and seconded and agreed unanimously, no objections.
5 Fen Street. Oak-framed cart lodge and garage and store room. Proposed and seconded and agreed unanimously, no objections.
The Clowns House, Church Lane. Extension to ground floor, single-storey rear lobby to incorporate new WC and boiler room. Proposed and seconded and agreed unanimously, no objections.
Adoption of Child Protection Policy. Steve Milner said some amendments were needed so an item will be put on April agenda.
Adoption of Environmental Policy. After amending section 3 to read Old Buckenham Parish Council, it was proposed and seconded and agreed with 5 for and 2 abstentions to adopt the policy
Adoption of Digital and Social media Policy. Proposed and seconded and agreed with 5 for and 2 abstentions to adopt the policy.
Village Hall Grant. The Village Hall Management Committee had been awarded a grant of £3,500 for insulation of the building but now cannot get funding to complete the project. They had asked the Parish Council if they could use the money for another project for which they may be able to obtain other grant funding. It was proposed and seconded and agreed with 6 for and 1 abstention that the village hall should return the money. The Parish Clerk is to arrange.
Parish maintenance tasks. Ben Devlin suggested that a log be kept of allocated tasks and then a monthly report brought back to the parish council of what progress had been made during the past month on these allocated tasks. All councillors will be asked to send in five tasks that should be carried out and then the log to be brought to the council meeting each month. The Parish Clerk to send an email to all councillors on the matter. (Ben Devlin then left the meeting)
Chairman’s report. Steve Milner had attended a stakeholder meeting on the Chapel Road School. The Alston estate issues are now resolved and it is all systems go. The project needs to go to tender again and the forecast is for building to start in May. It was emphasised that all traffic, right from the start, enters the site from Attleborough Road. Access road restriction, Chris Haines of Norfolk County Council has stated that the access road restrictions will not be removed. There is no capital allocation to infrastructure and no measures will be taken to improve the existing traffic problems. No traffic forecasts will be accepted and the effect of the new school on traffic will be assessed when the school is open. The heads of the schools are sympathetic to the problems the village has but despite a strongly worded statement from the parish council chairman, no movement from the position was achieved. The Woman’s Tour of Britain will be passing through Old Buckenham on Wednesday 15 June. To continue last year’s Tour of Britain legacy. a cycling festival is being planned for the weekend of Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 September. This will include criterium races on the same circuit around the Green as last year, a long distance sportive starting and finishing in Old Buckenham and small scale cycling events for local people. This hopefully will be accompanied with a fun fair, stalls, beer tent teas and cakes.
Parish Councillors’ reports. Carol Marshall said that village garage sale will take place on Sunday 15 May and then asked if a contractor for the Recreation Area had been agreed. Steve Milner responded on this matter. Sarah Hornbrook said the Neighbourhood Plan Working Party would be meeting early in March. The main topic would be the drafting of a village survey. She is in contact with the ex-Parish Clerk of Cringleford Parish Council who has experience of neighbourhood plans who will come and speak to the working party. More volunteers were also needed for the working party and they hope to have the survey ready for May this year. Terry Cracknell said that following the Annual Parish meeting he would be holding a breakfast meeting at the village hall on Saturday 19 March with three items on the agenda and everyone was invited. Tom Johnson said at a recent Village Hall meeting he had a discussion with three residents of the Almshouses about the heating not being on all the time. Carol Marshall responded with the times that the heating was switched on, and Tom Johnson replied that perhaps the heating should be on all the time. Tom Johnson then raised the matter of an accident near his house when a car collided with a tree because of mud on road along with turkey droppings. The Parish Clerk said that landowners are responsible for clearing mud on the roads caused by their vehicles.
Parish Clerk’s report. The Clerk read out a letter and an email from a resident in response to Parish Council’s letter regarding flooding in Ragmere Road. His reply contained details of work being carried out on the weir and the lake. The person who is actually doing the work on the lake gave details of all work carried out so far over the last two years.
Highways. Potholes reported in Stacksford outside The Cottage and some smaller ones further along the road. A kerb is needed on the corner of the play area leading toward the Ox & Plough as the verge is being severely damaged. The Parish Clerk is to speak to Highways.
The Green. The AGM of the Green Right Proprietors was held recently and it was reported that Sarah Dye would be standing down. Tom Johnson asked what resident’s offer on the agenda meant. Steve Milner responded saying it related to the dispute as to the legal ownership of the Green. It was suggested that the Parish Council should support the general maintenance of the Green. Terry Cracknell said the Green was being set up as a charity in conjunction with the Parish Counciland Steve Milner suggested asking Sarah Dye to attend the April meeting of the Parish Council. The Parish Clerk will contact her about this.
Public Recess. A resident raised the matter of the County Council being informed of vehicle accidents in the village and asked what Parish Council could do about it. Steve Milner suggested Tom Johnson raise the matter at the next SNAP meeting. Mike Bartlett said he would report the accidents to Norfolk County Council. A resident suggested having a police representative. A resident raised the matter of heavy vehicles going up on the verge in Crown Road and two residents have put large logs on the verges to stop them. A resident raised the matter of the ditch at the entrance to the school being full of rubbish. Years ago the probation service offered young people to come to villages to carry out work but the Parish Clerk informed the meeting that the scheme had been stopped years ago. A resident suggested asking the school to clear out the ditch and the Parish Clerk will speak to the school on the matter. A resident reported a blocked drain at the junction of the Green and Crown Road. The Parish Clerk to speak to Highways on the matter.

The next meetings will be the Annual Parish Meeting on Wednesday 16 March with the Parish Council meeting on Thursday 7 April. Both meetings will be held in the Village Hall commencing at 7.30pm.

Tuesday 8 March 2016

Telephone problems in Old Buckenham

Normal service on this blog has been disrupted.
This is since a car was in collision with a roadside telephone cabinet in Cake Street on Thursday 3 March, interrupting phone and internet access in the village.
Normal service will be resumed when the blog editor is able to reconnect his home computer, but this may be some time.
If you have any copy for the next edition of the village newsletter, please deliver to the blog editor on memory stick, CD or old-fashioned paper (before Sunday 20 March).

Thursday 3 March 2016

Breakfast in Old Buckenham

Thinking about our village future























Book the date of Saturday 19 March into your diary. Make the effort to support Terry Cracknell who is arranging and sponsoring this event on behalf of the Parish Council. Following breakfast, the morning discussion will be on three important issues:
Preparing a Neighbourhood Plan for Old Buckenham has now started. What should be the way forward, what are your views and, perhaps more important, your concerns? Chaired by Jonathan Kemp.
The moving of Chapel Road School to Old Buckenham is supported by the Parish Council. However over 100 students are involved, each with a one-to-one carer. What infrastructure is needed to accommodate them? Should we have to meet any costs to accommodate four schools in the village?  How about safety issues ? Chaired by Steve Milner.
Old Buckenham Village Green, discussing the way forward. Chaired by Sarah Dye.


Please attend, enjoy breakfast, and contribute or hear others views on what has to be done for the future of the community and village. The parish council have set up working parties on these issues and your views are essential to ensure we are moving in the right direction.