West Dean Parish Council Newsletter Winter 2018 Volume 2 Issue 11

Our villages remembered Berry Hill; Bream; Brockhollands; Cannop;

Christchurch; Clements End; Edge End; Ellwood; Joyford; Little Drybrook; Nine Wells; Oldcroft; Parkend; Pillowell;

Shortstanding; Sling; Viney Hill; Whitecroft; Yorkley

◼ The Cenotaph at Bream beautifully dressed in knitted poppies for the well

supported Service of Remembrance. © Nigel Woodhouse

◼ Preparing for Whitecroft’s annual Remembrance Service the Rev Denise Hargreaves, with, left to right, Ken Giddins, Paul Roberts, Ian Howells (Standard Bearer), Dave Kent (clerk, West Dean Parish Council) and Barry Jessop, service organiser.

◼ Yorkley’s watchful soldier at the war memorial in readiness for the Service of Remembrance

More reports P12

Spotlight

on

West Dean Centre Users

BREAM

EARLY

LEARNERS

BREAM Early Learners

is a registered charity

and not-for-profit

business, which has

been serving the local

community for 53 years.

An Ofsted ‘good’

rated pre-school, our

last inspection found our

children “make good or

better progress” and our

staff team “create a very

welcoming environment

for children and

parents”.

A 2016 building

survey of our old

modular building, on a

Bream Church of

England Primary School

site, highlighted the poor

condition of the building.

We are unable to

renovate it because it is

situated on both county

council and Gloucester

Diocese land. We are

also able to use the

West Dean Parish

Centre one morning per

week.

Now the county

council and Bream

School have identified

land at the school where

we can put a new

building. Our current

lease expires in

November 2019.

Over the past six

years we have raised

almost £33,000 but

require £130,000 for our

new building.

As the only pre-

school in the village and

the main feeder nursery

to Bream School, we are

very concerned about

raising sufficient building

funds.

If something were to

happen to our current

building or we were

unable to raise sufficient

funds for new premises,

we may have to close —

meaning a great loss to

the local community. We

would be grateful if you

could help us raise

awareness and lend

your support by

❖Spreading the

word

❖Completing a

questionnaire

❖Supporting

fundraising events

❖Donating on our

website - http://www.

breamearlylearners.

com/fundraising/

Estelle Harvey

to support your

local pre-school

WEST Dean Parish Council makes

grant awards twice a year. The

dates and times for next year been

decided and will be strictly ob-

served.

NOON on Friday 31st May 2019

is the closing date for the summer

grant applications and Noon on

Friday 4th October, 2019 is the

date for the second round of appli-

cations.

To make a bid for either of the

dates please download the rules

and the application form from the

parish council web site.

Alternatively contact the clerk at

West Dean Parish Council, The Par-

ish Office, The West Dean Centre,

High Street, Bream, Lydney, GL15

6JW; 01594 564484 or email:

admin@westdeanpc.org.uk

Please read the rules very care-

fully to ensure your application

complies in every way with the

rules on the application form.

Non compliant applications will

be rejected.

If you need further advice

please contact the clerk.

£ £ Financial support is available

for your community work £ £

◼ Need financial help with

community project?

Image for illustration only

Page 2

Page 3

Inside this issue

Bream Early

Learners

P2

Stake your claim

£ £

P2

Visit The Shed

P3

P4

What’s in store?

P5

How can we use these?

P5

Creative Canopy

P6

Dabdown P7

Sling

P8

You shop — we win!

P9

Christmas comes early

P10

Meet your councillors

P11

Shed celebrates

NOW one-year old, the Forest of Dean & Wye Valley Men’s Shed is a registered Communi-ty Interest Company.

Originally set up for lonely older men and women, we now welcome anyone over 18 years of age.

The group meets in White-croft on Thursdays from 10am to 5pm and offers a safe, sup-portive and friendly place where we socialise and work together to learn and share skills.

In our workshop we pursue hobbies, chat and have re-freshments. To raise funds we work on our own projects; help others and contribute to com-munity projects. Run by the members who decide what is

done, we also contribute a small amount voluntarily to the club's future.

Does this sound of interest to you or to someone you know? Then 01594 780170 and join us.

If you are a voluntary group or charity looking for assis-tance we can also help. Our activities range from carpentry, to furniture repair and renova-tion and sharpening tools and knives.

With more than 30 men and women, from 29 to 95 years, we need permanent, larger premises and would also wel-come donations of woodwork hand tools. In this way we can extend the type of activities.

Secretary Jane Trout

◼ All the tools of the trade at Whitecroft Men’s Shed.

BREAM

Page 4

Your

village

matters

BREAM

from

Mary Rontree

&

Jon Graham

MANY scarily dressed visitors were at Bream Sports Club for the annual Trunk or Treat evening held in October.

To add to the atmos-phere residents dressed up their car boots with scary items relating to Hallowe’en.

There was also a fami-ly disco including party

games for all the kids. The organiser Julie

Holder said: “I hope next year’s event will be a draw for even more scary cars and their owners to come and join in the fun.

“I thank everyone who came to support us this year.”

Jonathan Graham

WEARNG two hats at the same time, I’m entering pleas for both Bream Community Library and the West Dean Centre Café.

◼ AS you know the Library is run by cheerful

volunteers, however, for various reasons numbers have recently become depleted.

Now, in order to sustain our current opening hours, we desperately need more people.

If you would like to join us, please pop in for an informal chat during opening hours, which you will find on the door.

◼ MY second request is for milk bottle tops —the red, green and blue

varieties so often discarded when bottles are put for re-cycling.

We have identified a charity supporting the manufacture of prosthetic limbs and they will be grateful for any contributions large or small

Please bring milk bottle tops to the West Dean Centre collection point in the café during the Centre’s opening hours.

We will ensure they reach their final destination.

Mary Rontree

Now you can help — both home and away

Spooky goings on at

Bream Sports Club ◼ Isobel and Jack Eisel with Violet Rose-Hunt ready to enjoy a spooky night in Bream.

FOUNDED in 2010, the Forest of Dean Allot-ment Association has taken on land at two sites — Parkend and Whitecroft.

Tucked away next to the church the Parkend site is tranquil and sur-rounded by wonderful woodland while the Whitecroft site is over-looking the hills rising towards Bream offering stunning views of graz-ing land and the Forest.

Both sites were ear-marked for community use and allotments were decided to be a fitting use.

Our aims are primari-ly to have a place to grow our own food and

a plot of our own and a volunteer committee ensures the sites are managed fairly for all.

We also wish to help others in the communi-ty to have access to a growing space.

The Whitecroft site has a raised bed which is available for people who would not be able to manage a full or half plot.

The long dry spell much enjoyed by many led to problems getting water to both sites. Water was being carried by hand which was back- breaking work.

An emergency grant request was made to West Dean Parish Coun-

cil towards buying wa-ter harvesters.

Members were re-lieved and pleased to receive the grant and after hard work by the allotment holders, in-cluding a fall which led to broken ribs for one

volunteer, the harvest-ers were in position when the rain came.

Thank you WDPC.

Water harvesters come to rescue after long dry summer

Page 5

◼ Water harvester in situ to ensure produce

grows.

WEST Dean Parish Councillors have bought 14 former British Telecom iconic red telephone kiosks. We have carried out an audit on their condi-tion and now need YOUR support and ideas on their future use. We need to establish whether they be retained for purely heritage reasons or encour-age communities to use them as lend-ing libraries, defibrillator boxes etc.

If you are interested in being in-volved please contact Phil Jones at the parish office in Bream, email deputyclerk@westdean pc.org.uk or

01594 564484. The kiosks are at: Holly Tree Place, Old-croft; Viney Hill, GL15 4LZ; Clements End, GL16 8LN; Pillowell Road, White-croft, GL15 4RL; Yorkley Wood Road, GL15 4TX; Main Road, Pillowell, GL15 4RB; Bailey Hill, Yorkley, GL15 4RS; Parkend Road, Bream, GL15 6JX; Park Road, Berry Hill; Woodland Road, Christchurch, GL16 7NR; Oakwood Road, Sling, GL16 8JH; Ellwood, GL16 7LY; Brecon Way, Edge End, GL16 7EW; Highfield Road, Bream, GL15 6HU.

Phil Jones, deputy clerk WDPC

Parish saves the red BT phone kiosks – how will you use yours?

Page 6

CREATIVE Canopy is a newly established organisation, cur-rently supported and hosted by West Dean Parish Council. (WDPC)

Because of comparatively low arts engagement and invest-ment, in 2016 Arts Council Eng-land chose the Forest of Dean as a priority area for the South West Region.

Like us they want to see more cultural, creative, artistic events and opportunities in the Forest and are willing to invest signifi-cant funds to make this happen.

West Dean Parish Council, working with artists and arts or-ganisations from across the dis-trict, has pulled together to make this ambition a reality.

Get involved

As a major partner in Creative Canopy’s establishment, WDPC has stepped up to the mark and provided significant guidance which will continue throughout its set-up, giving input into the steering group, and leading its growth and development by providing hot-desk space and a physical home to the organisa-tion.

WDPC led the successful bid to Arts Council England in 2018 and supported the recent recruit-ment of a project manager.

The goal is for Creative Cano-py to engage more people in the arts, build partnerships to max-imise opportunities and celebrate the culture of the Forest of Dean.

As the community will be at

the heart of Creative Canopy, now is a great time to get in-volved. Tell us what you’d like to see happening in the Forest, help shape the future of this ex-citing new initiative and dream big about what we can achieve in the years to come.

For further information or to get involved, please contact Donna Baber, Creative Arts & Culture Project Manager for Cre-

ative Canopy on fodcreative canopy@gmail.com

Based at West Dean Centre, Bream, my normal working days are Mondays and Tuesdays.

Donna Baber

Opportunities

to celebrate

Forest’s culture

THE Purple4Polio cam-

paign launched by Rotary

in Great Britain and Ire-

land is providing commu-

nities with ideas to help

rid the world of polio.

Recently Yorkley

Community Centre re-

ceived 1,000 purple cro-

cus bulbs from Forest of

Dean Rotarian, John Free-

man, to support the cam-

paign.

By raising both funds

and awareness to eradicate

polio across the world

they also promote the

work of their global cam-

paign End Polio Now.

For more than 30

years, Rotary members

have been committed to

fighting to eradicate polio

across the world.

When a child receives

a life saving polio drop on

mass immunisation days

in many countries their

little finger is painted with

a purple dye so it is clear

they have received their

life saving vaccine.

Rotary’s pledge for a

polio free world was made

in 1985 when there were

125 polio endemic coun-

tries with hundreds of new

cases every day. In 2017

there were only 22 cases

in the world.

However, as long as

there is a single case any-

where children every-

where are at risk.

Thanks to Rotary, and

the support of their part-

ners WHO, UNICEF,

CDC and the Bill and

Melinda Gates Founda-

tion, just Pakistan, Af-

ghanistan and Nigeria are

now classed as endemic.

To ensure total eradi-

cation two billion oral

polio vaccines have to be

administered every year

until the world is finally

certified polio free.

Yorkley volunteers,

Jackie Dale, Heather Don-

nelly and Sharon Freeman

planted the bulbs.

These will be enjoyed

by everyone when the

beautiful purple crocuses

appear in the early Spring,

acting as a reminder of the

enormous task yet to be

completed.

Purple for

hope

◼ Volunteers

Sharon Freeman,

Jackie Dale and

Heather Donnelly

◼ Brass instrument reflection.

© Tina Dorner

Page 7

LIKE the ubiquitous buses, you wait patiently for a book about your village and then two come at once.

Welcome to Dabdown and A Whitecroft Scrapbook celebrate the diversity of a village that rose from a farming community into a bustling Forest industrial hub.

Welcome to Dabdown tells the story of Whitecroft, the original home of Marigold Gloves and a world famous pin factory.

From a time when 1,500 peo-ple were bussed into Whitecroft every day to work, shop and play, the book also explores ex-planations as to why the hamlet is called ‘Dabdown’ and why the sporting sides have always been known as ‘The Greeks’.

A Whitecroft Scrapbook is a collection of photographs and

newspaper cuttings showing Whitecroft’s rich heritage with many images of fun times and views that have long disap-peared.

It has been published to help raise funds for the Whitecroft Defibrillator Fund and volume two is already being compiled.

Alongside volume one the vil-lage is also selling limited edi-tion mugs (blue, purple or multi-

coloured) towards the fund and decorated with words associated with Whitecroft.

Welcome to Dabdown (£14), A Whitecroft Scrapbook (£7) and the mugs (£7) are available by contacting Jenny on jennycare @btinternet.com or phoning 07908 374291. The same contact details can be used to contribute towards A Whitecroft Scrapbook Volume Two.

Do you

know

the link?

MEMBERS of St James' Church, Bream, have been settling into their new centre and a number of groups are enjoying the bright hall.

The Under-5’s group meets on Monday mornings, and the Luncheon Club meets fortnightly on Fridays.

The church has now employed Charlotte Butcher, a full-time

Church and Community Youth and Children's

Worker. Charlotte is in-volved with activities based around Bream Church and School as well as more widely in the Forest.

The church contin-ues to have a befriend-ing scheme for isolated and lonely people, in addition to Barry Ste-vens who works in schools with particular children and families.

He also offers par-enting courses etc.

In the new year it is likely we will offer a Re-solve course based

around New Year reso-lutions to make positive changes in our lives.

In addition we will have a Happiness Lab which takes a 6-week look at Happiness.

Everyone is welcome at all our events.

Just drop into the office at the centre, or search the website breamchurch.org.uk

St James’ Church

offers something

for everyone

◼ Books full of surprises.

◼ YOU are invited to join in fes-

tive fun at Sling Club on Friday,

14th December, at 7.30pm when

Pillowell Silver Band will be playing

Christmas favourites.

◼ THE Friends of Scarr Bandstand

are delighted that during summer

2019 all Forest brass and silver

bands will be represented in the

third season of events since the

start of the bandstand restoration,

with its links to Forest bands

stretching back over 100 years.

In June, Forest training bands

will play at the new Rising Stars

event; your chance to hear future

virtuosos. In July and August, eight

Forest brass and silver bands will

play at either the Brass Festival or

the Festival Saturday events.

Returning by popular demand,

we will again host the Gloucester-

shire Youth Players and Jenny Wren

Productions.

We have already received very

generous sponsorship towards the

costs of Summer 2019, but more is

still needed. Might your local group like to

use the Bandstand site for your

own event, picnic or party? Do get

in touch with:

alison@alisonneil.co.uk

(secretary)

THE district council is warning residents to be wary of bogus calls from a company claiming to be working on behalf of the council.

Callers are advising resi-dents that council tax or prop-erty banding on their property may be too high and offering to reduce it for a fee.

They also ask for personal information, including bank details.

Several residents have contacted the council after being targeted by scam calls.

Councillor Paul Hiett, Cabi-net Member for Communities and Parish and Town Coun-

cils and Community Safety said: “We urge residents to be wary of phone calls of this na-ture.

“This nationwide telephone council tax banding scam is currently targeting our district.

“The council will never use a third party to contact a tax-payer in this.

“We urge anybody receiv-ing such a call to end the call immediately and never to pro-vide personal information over the phone, especially bank details.”

If you have any doubt about such a phone call, 01594 810000 to speak to a

member of the council tax team.

Should you wish to appeal against your council tax band-ing, you can do this yourself, free, by contacting the District Valuation Office on 03000 501 501.”

For details of council tax bandings please visit the Council Tax Bands and Ap-peals page of our website www.fdean.gov.uk.

For more information or to report a telephone scam visit the Action Fraud website www.actionfraud.police.uk or 0300 123 2040.

Page 8

Winter or Summer — there’s something for all at Scarr Bandstand

◼ The Brass Festival, 10th June 2018.

Be telephone aware

Forthcoming Council Meetings

All meetings will be at 7pm, where an open forum is

followed by the full council meeting.

Residents of the parish are invited to attend and raise

matters of concern at the open forum.

There is no meeting in December

2019

Wednesday 30th January

Wednesday 27th February

Wednesday 27th March

These meetings will be held at West Dean Centre, Bream.

Agendas are published on the parish council website and

on notice boards five days before each meeting.

Page 9

SIMPLY by shopping online you can help to raise money for Forest of Dean Dementia Action Alliance .

Using the great website easyfundraising turns your everyday online shopping into free donations when you shop with more than 3,300 retailers such as Amazon, eBay, John Lewis, Argos, NEXT, TESCO and Booking.com.

The retailers make a small donation to say ‘thank you’ and easyfundraising gives the donations free funds to us. Please register using this unique link – just search for 'Forest of Dean Dementia Action Alliance and click support us —https://www.easyfundraising. org.uk/invite/AEJ75W/6QW1KA/ Once you’ve signed up and raised £5 in donations, easyfundraising will give us an extra £5 dona-tion. There’s no catch or hidden charges.

Forest of Dean Dementia Action Alliance will be really grateful.

You shop — we win!

AFTER almost 20 sea-sons away from home Bream Amateur FC hope to be playing in the village in the next 12-18 months.

Once the seeding and growing period is com-plete the club playing field will begin to take shape.

Members thank all residents and local busi-nesses for their support during the initial con-struction phase of the pitch.

Despite the progress

already made there is still much fund-raising to be done to help with expensive tasks

These include weed killers, fertilisers and seeding.

The football club is arranging a variety of fun, fund-raising events in the next few months from a horse racing evening, to a beer ping pong evening and the much welcome return of Breamfest.

In addition to raising funds for these items

they also hope to buy a state-of-the-art grass mower.

Looking further ahead members are looking to redevelop .

the changing rooms and facilitate the return of junior football to the village.

Jonathan Graham

Long wait almost at an end

◼ The start of work to end 20-year wait

AFTER a five-year campaign, spearhead-ed by the dynamic and influential Berry Hill action group FANS and the West Dean Parish Council Neighbourhood

Development Plan, the Five Acres for-mer Gloucestershire College site is now safe from unwanted development and is secured for community use.

WDPC has possession of the sports fields, while the district council is the owner of the rest of the site — thea-tre, leisure centre, other buildings on the site and the tennis courts.

The parish council has made the sports fields available to Broadwell Football Club and Berry Hill Rugby Club.

The parish council with the district council will make the aspiration to cre-ate a leisure and recreational hub at the site for the local community, the wider Forest and for tourism, a reality.

Five-year campaign

secures college site

Page 10

WEST Dean Parish’s second Neigh-bourhood Development Plan (NDP) is well under way. An NDP allows communities to influence develop-ment in their areas.

The new plan is for Forest Edge (South) area — the old Pillowell ward, which includes Yorkley, Pil-lowell, Viney Hill, Oldcroft, White-croft, Parkend, the Barracks, and large swathes of the Forest as far as The Speech House.

Dedicated teams have been working in the area, identifying the important community features in the form of Character Assessments.

These provide the necessary information to present an NDP strong enough to stand up to the rigorous legal check which will be made once the document is ready for the referendum process.

As large amounts of data will be collected, it is important to keep the information in an accessible way to ensure the development of

the final document in a clear and well-referenced way.

Therefore we are looking for an experienced Document Manager to take charge of the documents, to store and log them, and to ensure the integrity of the final document

in terms of references, footnotes and photographs.

This would suit someone with considerable experience in filing and retrieving information electron-ically, in archive management and in the presentation of technical documents. An interest in local communities, in particular the vil-lages of the Forest Edge (South) area, would be an advantage.

The position will be on an ad hoc basis, involving attending meetings once every two months, working with community teams, and ensur-ing safe and accessible storage for documents. Remuneration will be mutually agreed. If you are inter-ested, please send details to the Parish Clerk, (see page 11).

The next meeting of the NDP team is at Pillowell Village Hall, on Wednesday 12th December at 7pm.

If you are interested in taking part in this exciting project as a vol-unteer, please contact the clerk.

Exciting time for involvement

THE Forest of Dean Dis-trict Council has wel-comed the announcement that toll charges on the Severn Bridge will be scrapped before Christ-mas.

The original plan was to abolish the toll on 31st December, 2018, but this has been brought forward to the morning of Monday 17th December.

The Prince of Wales Bridge will close west-bound on the penultimate weekend before Christmas to remove the M4 toll

booths as the bridge goes toll free.

The renamed Second Severn Crossing will shut westbound on Friday, 14 December at 20:00 GMT ahead of the Severn tolls being scrapped on Mon-day, 17 December.

Motorists will be di-verted around the original

M48 Severn Bridge. The M4 bridge will

reopen early on 17 De-cember for a formal cere-mony, as it is believed it will be the first time in about 400 years that cross-ing the Severn estuary will be free.

There will be narrow lanes with a 50mph speed

limit. The M48 crossing be-

tween Aust and Chepstow will be closed westbound later on 17 December, reo-pening early on 19 De-cember so the booths on the English side can be taken away.

Further work will be carried out in 2019 to re-turn both routes to a three-lane motorway with the usual 70mph speed limit.

Vehicles have had to pay to cross between south west England and south Wales since the first bridge was opened by the Queen in 1966

Regular users of the bridges, which costs £5.60 for a car travelling west-bound, could save as much as £1,500 a year.

◼ The Parkend community

has already come forward

with plans for the derelict

Sheward’s shop.

Christmas is

coming early

◼ Tolls to be scrapped for Christmas.

Page 11

How to contact YOUR West Dean Parish Councillor

Email: firstname.lastname@westdeanpc.org.uk

e.g. mary.smith@westdeanpc.org.uk or as below:

Bream Ward:

Paul Hiett (chairman)

Baytree Cottage, The Tufts

Bream, GL15 6HW

01594 564571

Steve Crick

Woodside Farm,

Beech Way

Bream GL15 6NB

01594 564657

Bill Evans

Hill Dene, High Street,

Clearwell, GL16 8JS

01594 837211

Frank McGuinness (deputy

chairman)

Brockaran Barn,

Blistors Farm,

Bream GL15 6EW

01594 564421

Claire Smith

The Forge Bungalow

New Road

Bream GL15 6HJ

07903397277

Ellwood & Sling Ward

Debra Oliver

46 Tufthorn Avenue

Milkwall GL16 8PT

01594 810836

Bill Gayler

Julola,

Marsh Way, Sling

Coleford GL16 8JN

01594 832969

Pillowell Ward

Bob Freshwater

Bemerton, Crown Lane,

Yorkley, GL15 4TP

01594 562014

Peter Dunford

The Willows,

Upper Road

Pillowell GL15 4QZ

01594 562170

John Pemberthy

Sunnycroft

Castlemaine

Parkend GL15 4HH

01594 560105

Sharon Freeman

2 Arlin Cottages,

Lower Road

Yorkley GL15 4TH

01594 560105

Andy Moore

Anna’s Cottage,

Wesley Road,

Whitecroft, GL15 4RE

01594 563784

Berry Hill Ward:

Tim Gwilliam

15 Astridge Close,

Coleford GL16 8GA

01594 781451

Jim Richmond

29 Woodgate Road

Mile End GL16 7QJ

01594 836728

Christchurch Ward:

Mike Costley

Touchwood,

Woodland Road,

Christchurch, GL16 7NR

01594 836528

Dave Kent (Clerk)

01594 564484

Phil Jones (Deputy Clerk)

01594 564484

Member of Parliament

Rt Hon Mark Harper, House of Commons, London SW1 0AA 01594 823482: mark.harper.mp@parliament.uk

County Councillors

Richard Boyles Bream and Pillowell 07979755101: richard.boyles@gloucestershire.gov.uk

Carol Allaway Martin Sling & Ellwood 01594 834345: carole.allaway-martin@gloucestershire.gov.uk

Terry Hale Christchurch and Berry Hill 07702660430: terry.hale2@gloucestershire.gov.uk

District Councillors

Marrilyn Smart OBE Christchurch 01594 837303: Marrilyn.Smart@fdean.gov.uk

Tim Gwilliam Berry Hill 01594 836441: Tim.Gwilliam@fdean.gov.uk

Diana Edwards Pillowell 07712160452: Diana.Edwards@fdean.gov.uk

Alan Grant Pillowell 01594 562789: Alan.Grant@fdean.gov.uk

Paul Hiett Bream 01594 564571: Paul.Hiett@fdean.gov.uk

Richard Leppington Bream 07816381909: fodukip@gmail.com

Chris McFarling Sling & Ellwood 01594 531225: chris.mcfarling@fdean.gov.uk

Terry Hale Sling & Ellwood 07702660430: terry.hale2@gloucestershire.gov.uk

Page 12

◼ In a moving ceremony accompanied by Parkend Silver Band and with standard bear-ers from the Royal British Legion, Parkend Parish Councillor John Pemberthy laid a wreath at Parkend Memorial Hall on behalf of West Dean Parish Council to commemo-rate the hundred year anniversary of the armistice.

◼ The final word lies with pupils from

Berry Hill Primary School who wrote and

read their own thoughts at the school’s

Remembrance Day Service