Newsletter

 Village Entrances Scheme.

We are grateful to Mr P.Hutchinson of Kilsall Hall who has donated many thousands of bulbs which, by the time you read this, will have been planted by our many volunteers in various locations. Most of the work planting shrubs and trees has now ended for this season but we continue with tidying up and clearing ready for the next planting. We are now planning the purchases for next year and also continuing to seek donations of bulbs, plants and trees and also the pledge of work or discounted supplies by local firms and organisations. We are still keen to also have volunteer help – please contact John Bulmer (T: 01902 372291) for further information.

Civic Award Scheme for Schools.

We have started to receive the first entries and what a good impression they make. Some drawings by the younger entrants are very colourful and magnificent. The older entrants have obviously spent considerable time researching and their presentations are well made. We hope to receive the submissions from the remaining schools soon. We will have a difficult task choosing winners.

(What is the Scheme? :- It is for Albrighton Primary, Birchfield School, Idsall School & St Mary’s Primary School. Prizes will be awarded for the best projects on local, historical, environmental or conservation topics relating to our district. A project can be a drawing, a picture or painting, a piece of writing, a story or poem or essay. The project can be produced by an individual, a number of pupils working together or a whole class. It may consist of one item prepared by the whole class jointly or a collection of items prepared individually by all the members of a class. The aim: to encourage civic pride & care for our locality in our young people.)

Eyesores.

We reported last month that we had held meetings with Brian Bennett and Glen McGrandle of Shropshire Council who are charged with the responsibility of repairs to roads/pavements and the “appearance of the street scene” (i.e. weeding, cleaning and maintaining street furniture). Promises were made to deal with the many eyesores we presented to them but so far there has been very little action. As we have now spent almost two years trying to get Shropshire Council’s officers to carry out what we understand is their job of keeping our streets clear of weeds and maintaining footpaths and street furniture we have concluded that correspondence and meetings with officers is not getting results. The Chairman has now written to Shropshire Council’s new Chief Executive Mr Kim Ryley to request that he meets with the Civic Society. The letter comments “...we are increasingly disillusioned with the lack of progress made by your staff in dealing with issues that have been discussed and action agreed with them over a two year period, with very little tangible result. The issues relate principally to maintenance of highways and footpaths and the street scene generally, planning procedures.......”. We hope that he will meet us.

Albrighton Rail Station

Bridges & Platforms. We continue to support Albrighton Parish Council’s initiative to get the repairs and maintenance carried out as promised by Network Rail (NR) at the meeting we attended with them last May (see Civic Society website for details). Alb PC and ourselves are still awaiting the next updating meeting which was promised by NR to be last Autumn. Albrighton Parish Council Chairman Cllr David Beechey, a member of our committee, is now writing to NR and London Midland Trains to request the meeting. In support of this, the Civic Society Chairman is writing to our MP Mark Pritchard to ask him to put pressure on the newly appointed Chief Executive of NR Mr David Higgins for some action.

The old Station Building (on the “to Shrewsbury” platform). The current owner has kindly lent us the keys and we have carried out a first inspection of the building which consists of:- ground floor with a kitchen and steps leading down to ladies & gents toilets in the basement and a first floor comprising two rooms & toilet and shower. We have asked local builders to provide cost estimates to repair the building and bring it up to standard.

(see Civic Society website - monthly newsletter March2011)

Albrighton Flower Show 2nd July. To support the Flower Show and to encourage better looking streets/roads, the Civic Society will award a prize for the best front garden. (The judges will tour the area but if anyone wishes to ensure that their garden is not missed please contact Jane McLachlan (Flower show organiser) on T: 01902 584656)


 

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