Saints Alive: Stanhoe and Barwick Newsletter

February 2022

Parish Council Matters:–

• The Parish Council met in full strength on Wednesday January 12th.

• The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee:– The extended celebration will take place from June 2nd to the 5th. The national plan is for beacons to be lit on the 2nd. We hope that the village community will be involved in these activities and the Council members wish to play their part.

• Go to Town Bus Service:– We continue to lobby for more services to be available to Stanhoe residents and will report again.

• Budget 2022/23:– We have established our budget for the 2022/23 period with an increase of approximately 4% having requested zero increase last year. The main driver for this is a concern for more maintenance and renewal of the play area equipment and a need to maintain and protect the War Memorial at the Pond. Please note your Councillors take no personal payment for their efforts.

• Traffic:– The top speeds recorded in November and December were 55 and 65 mph respectively but half the traffic drove at or less than 30.3 and 29.2 mph. More to be done, but some optimism prevails.

• PC Meetings:– As previously advised, our meetings now take place on the second Wednesday of every other month. The dates for the rest of the year are March 9th, May 11th, July 13th, September 14th and November 9th. All are most welcome to attend; the meetings commence at 6.00 pm and normally last about 1.5 hours, but you can leave whenever you wish. There is always an opportunity at the outset to have your say or raise any questions you may have regarding the village, its activities, services or needs. The Annual General Meeting will take place after the May meeting and drinks, refreshments and nibbles will be provided for all; please make a note in your diaries.

• The Duck Inn:– The pub has accepted, on behalf of Stanhoe, a memorial plaque to be issued by the Office of the Lord-Lieutenant of Norfolk, as part of its efforts to commemorate the community resilience and generosity during the time of the pandemic. In this instance the pub continued to provide food and sustenance and thousands of meals to various charities including Help for Heroes, the Purfleet Trust, the Winter Night Shelter and the Kings Lynn Food bank as well as cooking for the ambulance and paramedic staff of Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Our thanks and congratulations go to Ben, Sarah, Sam, Bee and the others involved.

• Keep in touch:– It is very easy to contact us by telephoning or emailing our Clerk, Wayne Leighton, on 01485 518570 or ‘parishclerk@stanhoe.org’ should you have any need or issue you think we can help you with.

Christmas lights:–

Derek Scales would like to thank everyone who contributed so generously to the collection for Tapping House in appreciation of his display of Christmas Lights around his bungalow on The Green.

The wonderful sum of £1,014 was collected. Thank you so much everyone.

Stanhoe and Barwick WI news:–

We have a busy year ahead, with a fantastic line up of varied speakers. We’ll be hearing tales of Hollywood Royalty, the history of Trinity House as well as being entertained by a classical singer.

• On Thursday 3rd February, 2:00pm, our speaker will be from Norfolk Lowland Search and Rescue.

• Thursday March 3rd sees us partaking in some gentle, seated yoga with Jean Clarke.

Visitors are most welcome; please contact Valerie (01485 576261) for further details and to confirm your attendance.

Community speed watch:–

The 2008 annual open meeting of the Stanhoe Parish Council was when residents were asked their top priorities for Parish Council efforts to improve the village. The overwhelming majority of comments concerned speeding traffic within the 30 mph speed limit through Stanhoe. Community Speed Watch is a scheme to allow local volunteers to monitor the speed of passing vehicles using a hand-held speed detection device. The details of those speeding are passed to the Police, who will issue a letter to each vehicle owner, advising them of the dangers of speeding, and reminding them of the law.

As a consequence, the Stanhoe Community Speed Watch team was inaugurated later in 2008, and in 2018 received a certificate from the Mayor of the Borough Council of King’s Lynn & West Norfolk, as the longest serving team in the county – awarded on behalf of Norfolk Constabulary. We are still in business, as you may have noticed, and are obviously therefore still the longest serving team! However, a team should have a minimum of six active members, and although initially we had twelve volunteers, several were ‘encouraged’ to resign due to verbal abuse from motorists (not all of them speeding!), since when we have never been very far from that deadline; as we all become older, occasional absences for health reasons become more common, and we would very much like to have a few more volunteers to call upon.

For some years we have only done one hourly shift per week, due to the relatively small number of volunteers on the team – but this does still attract the attention of passing motorists, some of whom find that there is somewhat more to it than simply being observed driving through the village! With more on the team, there would be scope for a reduction in participation by the existing team, more shifts, and shifts on different days, which may suit some people better – although at present our shifts conveniently coincide with the village weekly coffee mornings in the Reading Room, where we can relax and refresh!

During 2021, the Stanhoe team reported 69 vehicles in Bircham Road and 16 vehicles in The Green (adjacent to the village pond) to Norfolk Constabulary, and letters were sent by the Police to the owners of 54 and 11 respectively. Of the 20 not receiving letters, 3 were hire vehicles (not included in the scheme), 2 were disputed and there was insufficient detail for 15.

If you would like to volunteer, or to learn more, please phone the current co-ordinator, Terry, on 01485 518033

Hunstanton choir:–

Our choir began rehearsals, as planned, on 5th January – but we would like more people to be singing!

• Where – The Christian Fellowship Hall, Downs Close, Hunstanton, PE36 5HU

• When – Wednesdays, starting 5th January 2022

• Time – 8:00pm – finish at 9:00 pm.

The first week is free so you can come along and have a go and see if it is for you!

Lesley Trebbick, Chairman https://hunstantonchoir.co.uk/