Month: <span>January 2014</span>

Shropshire Council has announced a consultation starting on January 8th, 2014 seeking views on how to best shape and provide youth activities in the future. They define young people as those aged 10 to 19 in general and up to 24 for those with learning disabilities.  Youth activities are those things young people do after school, at the weekends and in the holidays. These include activities like youth clubs, organised sports, Scout activities and many others. Full details of the consultation can be found on the Shropshire Newsroom website.
The council is keen to hear from young people, their parents and others on their new approach to commissioning activities for young people as part of its consultation. At the moment, activities are provided by a range of organisations, including the council itself, providers commissioned by the council, and organisations who work independently of the council.
The council is proposing a commissioning model which involves Local Area Youth Boards, largely comprised of young people and supporting adults.  The role of a youth board would be to understand what young people want, what resources already exist in the community, and what they wish to add. To do this they will need also need to understand what can be used in their area and what works well. They will then be responsible for choosing and evaluating activities for young people. The Local Youth Boards will be made up of young people (at least 50%), local politicians and a few other supporting adults. The boards will report to the Shropshire Children’s Trust and members of Shropshire’s Youth Parliament.
Gwilym Butler, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for leisure, libraries and culture, and his deputy, Councillor Les Winwood, said:

“It is incredibly important that we hear from our young people what they think about our plans. Their suggestions will help shape the future of youth activities in their area.”

Further information about the consultation can be obtained by phoning Marion Versluijs, Shropshire Council’s commissioning officer, on 01743 253795.
An online survey will run from 8 January 2014 until 31 March 2014 and can be accessed via this page. Details of the proposal are also linked to from that same page.
It is important that young people and others take advantage of opportunities like this consultation. This is especially true in rural areas like Hodnet as they are often overlooked in favour of larger centers of population.

The Shropshire Star and Market Drayton Advertiser both report that the A442 was briefly closed yesterday (Jan. 2, 2014) after car hit a tree.
The accident happened at around 7.00am at the junction of the A442 and the Avenue in Peplow. The accident involved a Nissan Primera Estate. No other vehicle is believed to have been involved in the incident and no serious injuries have been reported.

Shropshire Newsroom has announced that a Christmas tree ‘amnesty’ is being operated over the next few weeks – see here. Working with their waste contractor Veolia, Shropshire Council are allowing residents to put out real Christmas trees along with their garden waste for collection and recycling. The trees will be turned into compost for use by local farmers and gardeners.
Points to remember when putting out a tree are:

• Make sure you put the tree out on the correct day for your garden waste collection.
• Make sure your tree is out on the kerbside by 7am as the collection crews start work early.
• If you can, please try to get the tree into your garden waste bin to make it easier for the collection staff.
• If you cannot fit your tree into the garden waste bin, you may on this occasion leave the tree next to your garden waste bin, but please take care to avoid blocking the pavement or causing a trip hazard.
• To help the collection staff handle them and make sure that they fit into the vehicles, please cut up any extra large trees to a maximum 5 foot (1.5m) lengths.
• Please make sure you remove all tinsel, fairy lights and other decorations first. These are not compostable!

Real Christmas trees can also be recycled at the various Household Recycling Centres – they should be put in the “garden waste” pile.

Now that 2014 has arrived, the opportunity to respond to Shropshire Council’s survey on the future of the county’s Fire and Rescue Service has come to an end. However, there are still other ways to show your support for Hodnet Fire Station and the crew of Retained Fire Fighters based there.
Thank you to everyone who did complete the survey – in the last three months of 2013 there was a total of 82 clicks from this site to the survey pages. It is probable that not everyone who followed that link completed the survey, but it is hoped the majority did so.
According to the survey’s Next steps page, what happens now is that the information gathered through it will be collated and presented to the Fire Authority for consideration at a meeting during February 2014. It is at this meeting that Members of the Fire Authority will decide which options should get taken forward for full consultation, scrutiny and possible implementation.  Those options that are eventually selected for implementation will be included in the Fire Authority’s Integrated Risk Management Plan 2015-20, due to be published in July 2014.
There is still time before the February meeting of the Fire Authority to make your concerns about the future of our local fire station known to others. Previously we have suggested that local residents write to the local MP Owen Paterson (via this page on his website) and Hodnet’s County Councillor Karen Calder email. Those of you on Facebook can also visit the Hodnet Retained Fire Station page.
More information is available from the following pages:

• Act now to protect Hodnet Fire Station
• Our Fire Station is Still Under Threat

The Hodnet webteam will make every effort to keep local residents updated on future developments.