Month: <span>November 2015</span>

CANCELLED – Get to know your locality – walk it!

SORRY, WEATHER SO FOUL WE HAVE CANCELLED WALK – MAYBE NEXT TIME……
The Hodnet Footpath Group are organising another Sunday morning walk, this time on the 29th November.
Meet at 9.45am at the Lyon Hall Car Park to travel at 10.00 am to Stanton, by own cars or lifts available.
In Stanton we plan to follow a route detailed in one of their past published series of walks [no 5], starting and ending at the Stanton Arms – time for a swift half at the end?
Please bring suitable footwear and a drink. Children are welcome. Dogs too, provided they are on a lead.
Depending upon the numbers that attend we may either hold further regular walks, or revert to a more occasional foray – so if you wish to encourage us, please come along!
For Stanton walks info, see here.
 

Stolen dog found and returned!

UPDATE: 16 Nov.
Earleir this morning West Mercia Police published an update on their website announcing that Kaiser had been found and returned to his owners. It states that a member of the public contacted the owners with information about the whereabouts of a dog matching Kaiser’s description. Police and Kaiser’s owners attended the address where they recovered the dog. No arrests have been made but enquiries are still ongoing.
No details are given as to when Kaiser was found but two days earlier (13th Nov.) Peter Ellis had commented on our Facebook page “Dogs been found and returned, great news.”

Original Post:
West Mercia Police have appealed for anyone one with information about a dog stolen from a Hodnet home to contact them with information.
The appeal, which can be found here on the force’s website, asks anyone with information on the whereabouts of him to please call 101 quoting incident number 82 S of Wednesday 11th November 2015.
Two further photographs of the missing animal are available on the police website.
UPDATE: 12 Nov.
In a further post here West Mercia Police have named the stolen Hodnet dog as Kaiser a four-year-old Staffordshire Bull Terrier. The dog, which is described as blue in colour, was wearing a large leather collar which has the owner’s contact details on and is microchipped. Kaiser was asleep in the family’s utility room when thieves got into the address overnight between Tuesday 10th November and Wednesday 11th November. Electrical items and jewellery were also stolen during the burglary.
Det Con Helen Bailey said; “The owners are understandably heartbroken that Kaiser has been taken from them. They have had him since a puppy and he is like a member of the family and is extremely friendly. The family just want him home and to know he is safe.”

Summer Village Event?

Would you like to have a Summer Event in Hodnet?

There is a meeting for anyone who would be interested in making this happen.

Tuesday 10th November at 7.30pm
Venue: The Lyon Hall, Hodnet

If you are interested in the above initiative but cannot attend the meeting, or would simply like more information, please contact Jane: Tel. 07717-712315 or email

Shropshire Council's Big Conversation

Shropshire Council LogoShropshire Council has invited the county’s residents to get involved its “Big Conversation”. This page on the Council’s website introduces the thinking behind the project and the text is copied below in full:

There are big challenges ahead – so we need a Big Conversation
We, alongside our partners, launched the Big Conversation at a meeting of Cabinet on Wednesday 28 October 2015.
The idea of a Big Conversation follows the significant financial challenges that we face as a result of years of cuts by central government to our funding.
These challenges are highlighted in our Financial Strategy 2015/16 – 2020/21.
Like all councils, we need to make further substantial savings in the coming years. Since 2009, we have removed £146m from our budget.
By 2021 the Government’s £44m revenue support grant – money that is paid to councils each year to help provide services – will end.
By the time this grant ends, it is estimated that we will need to save a further £77m, due to the combination of inflationary increases in costs and further cuts in government grants.
We have already started to make some headway to tackle the deficit, and have been working hard to find solutions to central government cuts by working with partners and the local community to redesign services and make them more cost effective, whilst maintaining quality.
As a result, our adult social care services, which represents a significant proportion of our budget, have been determined by external bodies as being the highest quality and the lowest cost. Our wholly-owned company, ip&e, continues to win significant external contracts that will generate profit to support the council and Shropshire communities.
We will continue to look at ways to raise income, redesign our services and work with local communities to run services themselves. However, this won’t make up for the funding that we expect to be cut by the government. Neither will it be able to meet cuts with efficiencies.
In a bid to raise public awareness of these challenges, as part of its Big Conversation, we will be talking and listening to residents and community groups about how best to face the tough financial challenges together.
An online survey is being planned for November and this will be followed up with talking to as many people as possible, conducting further more detailed surveys by email with a representative sample of the population, holding face to face meetings, holding public meetings and through focus groups.
For more information about the Big Conversation or to have your say, email us at bigconversation@shropshire.gov.uk.