THE bench at the Claypits open space area along Glennie Way is now in place and is already being used daily by people stopping to enjoy the view.

  • BEFORE Christmas work will be starting on laying the hedge at the north end of the Old School playing field between the footpath entrance and the first house. Unfortunately it will look harsh to start with but hedge-laying will rejuvenate and old hedgerow and encourage new shoots and new life into the hedge. Come the spring new shoots will be seen.
  • A CHRISTMAS sale is to be held at Marshallsay Court on Saturday, November 8. It opens at 10am and goes on until noon. All proceeds will go to the Weldmar Hospicecare Trust so please do go along and support them. There will be various stalls including Christmas cards, calendars, jigsaw, a tombola, bric-a-brac, books and, of course, a homemade cake stall.
  • LIFT, Ladies in Fellowship Together, will be meeting on Wednesday, November 12. Any ladies are welcome to attend these meetings which usually end in a coffee and a chat.
  • THE PACT group met to update on the priority points voted for from the previous meeting. Members of the public attended including young people from the local Chickerell youth club. The action points discussed included anti-social behaviour, speeding and litter. It was reported that the police had kept an eye on the usual places where anti-social behaviour occurs and they had found the groups of young people to be polite and well behaved, they just did not have anywhere else to go and were using the area as a place to meet.

The speeding around Chickerell continues to be a problem but PC Stan Knight reported that data strips and speed cameras had been in place but he had not yet been given the results.

Brian Bean reported that the litter problem has improved. The litter team had also carried out a bin survey for dog waste and had identified four areas for bins. The bins could also be used for general litter.

There was also some discussion over the future of the PACT meetings. PC Knight felt that instead of holding public meetings, people may prefer to air their concerns via the new satellite police station at the sports pavilion in Lower Way. The idea is that people can drop in or leave a note, they will be present on Monday morning between 9am and 10am and Thursday evening between 5pm and 6pm. There may be other times when they may drop in as well. Visitors to the Victory Hall coffee mornings and those using the Chickerell Youth Club would also be able to chat to the local police team as they will be dropping in on these venues regularly. PACT would continue but would only have one meeting a year.