Month: <span>December 2013</span>

Local Walk Ideas

Over the last two years the Hodnet Footpath Group have produced a series of five leaflets giving details of walks in the local area. The latest of these marks the opening of the new path to Wollerton Wetlands.
The leaflets now have their own page in the Tourism section of this website, from where they can be downloaded as printer ready PDF files.
Printed copies of the leaflets are also available in The Post Office; Hodnet Village Stores; The Bear Hotel and the Hodnet Medical Centre.

Fire Station Survey – Just days left to respond

There have now been over 60 visits from this website to Shropshire Council’s on-line survey about the future of Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service. Facing pressure for further cutbacks in coming years the Service is considering how it reduce further its operating costs. One option is to close a number of local retained fire stations of which Hodnet is one. It is important that as many local residents as possible complete the survey before its closing date of 31st December.
If you have not already completed the survey, please follow the links below for more information and to access the survey pages.

It does not take long to complete the survey, so if you have not done so already please respond to it in the next few days.

Hodnet and District Garden Club

Our next meeting will be on  Tuesday 21st January,  at 7:30pm when we welcome Derek Heathcote who will be speaking on the subject of Growing sweet peas from seed to the show bench.
Derek has been growing sweet peas since the age of 10 and has built up his sweet pea business gradually over the past thirty years.  They have achieved 4 Silver Gilt Medals and 6 Gold Medals at the Chelsea Flower Show. They also exhibit at most of the large flower shows across the country, including the local Wem Sweet Pea Show (home of the sweet pea).
EVERYONE WELCOME – we meet every month on the third Tuesday at the Lyon Hall, 7:30pm. Visitors are most welcome to come along to our talks and partake in a cup of tea and biscuit.
 
 
 
 
 

Have you had your Flu Jab?

Take up for the Hodnet Area is below average. Please be sure to get inoculated, especially if you are in one of the more vulnerable groups, ie children, mature citizens and those with certain medical conditions .
Some Myths about the flu Jab can be fond here  … Flu Myths
 
Contact The Surgery for an appointment.

Walk to Wollerton Wetlands

You may have seen the website ‘news’ announcement that a new path has been created from Wollerton down to the bypass Wetlands. As an introduction to the route, Hodnet Footpath Group has arranged an accompanied walk over it on Sunday 29th Dec 2013.  
Please come and join us – perhaps to walk off the Xmas excesses!
Meet at 11.00 AM by the Village Room on Mill Road, Wollerton – (That is where the bridge club meets, not the social/bowls club). As an alternative you can first walk from Hodnet, via the old railway line, to Wollerton – meet at 10.30 AM by the bridge on Station Road.
If you are driving, please park on the road by the Village Room – do not park on the private drive leading into Wollerton ‘Old Yard’ and ‘Cow Lane’ – which in fact forms part of the new route.
Children/dogs welcome, the former supervised please (water present) and the latter on leads. Suitable walking shoes/wellies and clothing advised.
Note. If it is pouring with rain the walk will be cancelled.

New path to Wollerton Wetlands opens

Wetlands Bridge

Hodnet Parish Council is very pleased to announce that a new public footpath has opened from Wollerton down to the bypass Wetlands.


Working with Shropshire Council, this long running project involved a detailed investigation of claimed past rights of way and, after a protracted period of consultation and a formal legal process, has resulted in the opening of a new access path via ‘Cow Lane’. See Map.
From the Wetlands an existing public footpath (FP 28) runs to Stoke Heath, via Helshaw Grange, providing access to a variety of wider country walks. 


Those who are interested in a fuller account of what this project entailed should click HERE
If you wish to gain access to the Wetlands, and the paths beyond, only use this new route – please do not create nuisance/trespass by trying to use other routes, even if you may have used them in the past. This new path is the only legal means of access.

Please remember the Fire Station Survey!

Last month we published a request for local residents to support the crew at Hodnet Fire Station by completing the on-line survey on the Shropshire council’s website.
First a BIG thank you to those who have done so. From the website’s statistics we know that over 40 of you have clicked on the link to the survey – though we cannot tell how many of you have completed it.
This is to remind those of you who haven’t yet done this that the closing date for the survey is 31st December, which means that with the holidays there are very few days left for you to so.
Here are the links to the survey and our previous reports:

Since our last report it has been good to hear that the local MP, Rt. Hon Owen Paterson has made known his concerns about the threat to close four rural fire stations, including Hodnet. A report carried on the MP’s website and a similar one in the Shropshire Star and Market Drayton Advertiser, tell of a meeting between 4 MPs, including Owen, and the Minister with responsibility for fire and rescue services, Brandon Lewis MP. The MP’s were accompanied by Shropshire’s Chief Fire Officer John Redmond.
According to the Shropshire Star, at a private meeting with local parish councillors and fire service officials at Prees Fire Station last month, Mr Paterson said:

The thing that’s really bad about this is that it will be a major degradation on the service all around Shropshire. These four stations cannot be shut, let’s be clear about that.

Beside completing the survey, it would be good if Hodnet residents contacted Owen to thank him for his support and to stress how important it is that Hodnet and the three other stations are kept open. You can email him from this page on his website.

Check your bin collection days for the holiday season

Shropshire Council is reminding local residents across the county are being reminded to double check their bin day over the holiday season. Due to the Bank Holidays there will be changes to the day on which rubbish, garden waste and recycling gets collected across the whole county. In particular some collections will actually take place earlier than might be expected.  This is to allow for all the bank holidays that take place over this holiday period.
Details of the alternate collection dates are available from this page on the Council’s website. Residents can check their collection days at any time by entering their post code on the ‘Waste Collection Finder‘ which also gives details changes caused by Bank Holidays.