All,

The next meeting of Shipston Town Council’s Planning Group is tomorrow (Monday) at 7pm in New Clark House. As always, members of the public are welcome, particularly those who have an interest in any of the applications.

The agenda is:

13/00294/REM Land At Stratford Road Shipston-on-Stour – Submission of reserved matters (appearance, layout, landscaping and scale) pursuant to planning permission ref: 11/00728/OUT in respect of the erection of 15 no. dwellings and associated vehicular garages; provision of public open space; provision of Local Area of Play (LAP); provision of car parking.

13/00352/TEL56 – STREET RECORD Market Place Shipston-on-Stour – Installation of 1 x openreach broadband cabinet (PCP002) at S/O 12 High Street, Shipston-on-Stour

13/00327/TREE – West Croft Old Road Shipston-on-Stour CV36 4HE – T1: Yew – remove two branches overhanging neighbour’s property – G1: Western red cedar no 2- trim branches overhanging car park and right of way

13/00253/FUL – 4 Simpson Road Shipston-on-Stour CV36 4JT – Demolition of existing single storey side extension. Construction of proposed two storey side extension and single storey rear extension to create Granny flat.

The full documents can be seen on Stratford District Council’s website, and there’s a link on the right of the homepage of this site.

Regards,

Philip

All,

Most will have heard of Warwickshire County Council’s plan to switch of street lights overnight in Shipston (and all over the rest of the County).

Shipston Town Council discussed the issue recently, and decided to launch a petition against the move, mainly following concerns about road safety and the risk of crime.  Councillor Mel Trapp has been leading the campaign, so all credit should be given to her!

Just to help in distributing the petition you can download it below. It can be emailed back to the Town Clerk – clerk@shipstononline.org – or posted back to Shipston Town Council, West Street, Shipston on Stour, CV36 4EL.

Regards,

Philip

All,

On Red Nose Day (Friday 15th of March) a group of local, and slightly insane, bakers will be getting together to bake fresh bread for sale on the 16th in aid of Red Nose Day. Thanks to the kindness of Karl and Sharon at The Bakery on Sheep Street we now have somewhere to sell the bread and for people to come and collect pre orders.

A pre order form will be available soon – and you can follow more news on Facebook or on twitter (@BreadNoseDay).

Back to the kitchen for practice!

Philip

All,

One for your diaries:

Shipston Climate Challenge

3.00 till 4.00 on Saturday 9th March

St Edmund’s Church, Church Street, Shipston

Organised by Transition Shipston & Surrounding Communities

To enter a team contact

Dave Passingham on 07973 846605, davepassingham@hotmail.com

The Climate Challenge is part of Climate Week. www.climateweek.com/

Climate Week is Britain’s biggest climate change campaign, inspiring a new wave of action to create a sustainable future. Culminating in a week of activities, it showcases practical solutions from every sector of society. Each year, half a million people attend 3,000 events in Britain’s biggest ever environmental occasion. Events are run by schools, businesses, charities, councils and many others. It is backed by celebrities such as Sir Paul McCartney and organisations ranging from the NHS to the CBI.

The Climate Week Challenge is an exciting activity for teams of four to six people. It helps develop creativity, innovation and enterprise, team-working skills and experience of tackling real-life environmental issues to a deadline. The actual challenge will be given to each team on the day.

The Challenge will only take one hour of your time. The ideas from each team will be judged and the winning team for the Shipston area will be announced 4.30. The best ideas will be sent forward to the National Competition.

To enter a team contact Dave Passingham on 07973 846605,
davepassingham@hotmail.com

In the next room to the Challenge we will have a ”SWAP SHOP” …

Climate Change Week

Swap Shop

Bring along items you don’t need, hui swap them for something you do!

CHILDREN’S CLOTHES AND TOYS

CLOTHES

KITCHEN UTENSILS

PLANTS, GARDEN TOOLS, SEEDS

BOOKS

FOOD (tinned or packaged, unopened, in date)
Sat. 9th March, 2013 2:00-4:30pm

St Edmund’s Church, Church Street, Shipston

All

Stratford-on-Avon CAB are running a campaign to ‘Get a Better Deal for Prepayment Users’, as part of this they are conducting a survey called ‘Left out in the cold.’

If you’d like to take part in the survey then then you can download it here.

With fuel prices as they are, I think this is a worthwhile campaign – but please note that it closes on December 17th.  You can print it from the link above and drop it off at either the Town Council, or if you live near me my house (but please put it in an envelope if you do that).  I’ve printed the explanatory letter from the CAB below.

Regards,

Philip

 LEFT OUT IN THE COLD:

Help us get a Better Deal for Prepayment Meter Energy Users

Ignored by government initiatives, local authorities and the media and treated as second-class citizens by energy providers, we urge you to support our Campaign for “ A Better Deal for Prepayment Meter Energy Users”.

What should you do?

• Help us to undertake an extensive survey of those who prepay for gas and electricity.

• Sign the e-petition which will be launched in the winter

Want to know why?

Around 5.9 million consumers who prepay for their energy usage through Prepayment Meters (PPM’s) pay more for their gas and electricity than those on standard credit meters who are billed after use or pay by direct debit.

Unlike the majority of energy users, they are unable to access the best energy deals and discounts on the market or lock into fixed price deals.  This means they can neither cut the cost of their fuel bills or protect themselves against price rises in the future.

Prepay energy users face an additional barrier to competitive and cheaper tariffs. If they wish to move on to a credit meter they may have to pay between £50 and £200; a prohibitive cost for those on low incomes who are regularly putting between £20- £30 a week into their meters, rising to £50-£60 in the winter.

Predominantly found in social housing and private rented accommodation, PPM’s are usually installed by energy suppliers as a means of recouping past arrears for electricity and gas by deducting a fixed amount every time the card or key is topped up. Combined with rising fuel costs. many of the most vulnerable low income households find they are unable to cover their other

outgoings and debts during the winter months as they have no alternative but to put more money into their meter.  Deprivation at every turn.

This is particularly true of families with young children who are hit hard when prices rise yet still have to maintain a continuous cycle of washing and drying clothes.  Like the elderly, disabled and unemployed who are more likely to remain in their homes during the winter months, they have to continually “top up” their card or key to keep their homes warm or move on to Emergency Credit (EC) when their prepayment runs out.

Lack of information and understanding of effective PPM management means those who prepay are frequently unaware that a daily standing charge is deducted from their payments nor that when they are on EC, standing charges and arrears deductions cease.  When they next top up their payment has to cover the EC used, missed standing charges and arrears deductions.  This leaves a minimal amount for current usage thus creating a cycle of continuous fuel debt.

This is exacerbated if a PPM user without transport does not live within walking distance of a “top-up” facility; even more so in rural villages without a regular bus service or the money to pay for the fare.

If we are going to succeed in reducing Fuel Poverty in Warwickshire we must take the lead in campaigning for:

• The option of Fixed tariffs for Prepayment Users

• Free transfer to Credit Meters if no arrears for 3 months

• Quarterly Easy to Read statements identifying  standing charges and deductions for arrears on a weekly basis

• Clear Instruction Manuals on Self-Meter Reading and Meter Management to be sent to new customers and

• Thereafter sent out with Annual Statement including  a breakdown on the cost of Emergency Credit used

• Automatic ring-back service from Customer Service

Contact Marilyn Price on 01789 200131 for questionnaires or email Marilyn.price@stratforduponavoncab.org.uk                                                            

Most people know that I’m not in a political party any more and my work commitments mean that the site’s only been irregularly updated.

So, this will be my last post here.  Thanks to all of you who have commented on and read the site over the years.  I’ll still be staying on the Town Council, at least for now, just with a bit of a lower profile.

If you  want to contact me over any problems then my contact details remain the same.

Regards,

Philip

All,

The County Council is proposing some changes to parking on Sheep Street.  I’ve put some of the documents Town Councillors have been sent here, here, and here (the last two are the drawings).

This is an extract from one of the documents which outlines the plan.  There is a consultation period, so let me or one of your other Town Councillors know your views so we can pass them on, or contact your County Councillor, Chris Saint, directly.

Philip

Sheep Street, Shipston on Stour is a one way street situated in the centre of
the town and is largely residential in nature. The west end of Sheep Street
has a narrow section of road with parking bays on both sides of the
carriageway and a narrow section of footway on the south side of the road.
To assist the free flow of traffic and improve pedestrian movement, It is
proposed to construct a build-out on the south side of Sheep Street where the
road narrows.
The build-out will require the introduction of a short section of No Waiting At
Any Time restriction.
To compensate for the removal of on street parking spaces it is proposed to
remove a section of No Waiting At Any Time at the east end of Sheep Street,
south side of the road and replace with Limited Waiting 2 Hours No Return 2
Hours Mon-Sat 9am-6pm Except Permit Holders.

All,

You may be interested to see the new website from the Shipston Heart Alive! Campaign – if so, you can find it here.

I’ve quoted (below) the introduction to the group and they have a petition that you may want to sign (I have).  In a fit of geekery, SHA!C have made their website pretty easily viewable on mobile devices, for those that want to have a look on their smartphones!

Philip

What Shipston Heart Alive! wants is to protect this proud town from over-development, and to promote its viability and vitality for future generations. We are not opposed to house building, supermarkets or a petrol station, but we do want to see development in the town being proportionate to our size and character and, especially, to be community led.

All,

I’m guessing that that not everyone who reads this is on twitter, so here’s a bit of news you may not have seen.  Conservative District Councillor Jonathan Gullis, who has said he is standing down from the Council in November, has changed his mind and now supports the ASL development on the Campden Road.  I’ve copied this from his twitter feed:

‘I have just signed the petition for a supermarket and petrol station in#Shipston.’

‘The detailed reason why I have changed my position on the ASL application will be avaliable to read by Monday.’

It will be interesting to see if this is now the official Conservative Party position, as this will mean the only (political) opposition to the supermarket in Shipston will be coming from the Liberal Democrats, and will give pro supermarketers (if that’s a word) a choice between the Conservatives and Labour.  At the very least it’s a U-turn comparable with Nick Clegg’s decision to support tuition fees after being safely elected…..

Regards,

Philip

All,

I talked in an earlier post about the Mencap’s proposed development in Shipston in an earlier post. Mencap came to talk about their proposals to a meeting of the Town Council’s planning working group (which I chair) and were generally favourably received.  The Town Council will be deciding whether to support the scheme in September.

Personally, I’m all in favour of this redevelopment of their existing site, but I’m happy to listen to the views of local residents. Some of the plans can be seen here and here.

Philip