We are sorry to have to report that a group of teenagers chose to deliberately smash numerous glass bottles on the recreation ground, by the youth shelter, the children’s play facilities and by the social club / memorial hall on Friday night. Their thoughtless actions left our community facility unsafe and a team of dedicated volunteers spent much time on Saturday morning clearing it all up so that the children and adults playing football, those using the kids play area and those walking their dogs could do so without risk of injury. The parish council would like to extend their sincere thanks to all those volunteers.
If your child / teenager was hanging out with their mates on the recreation ground on Friday night we hope they are thoroughly ashamed.
Unfortunately, whilst this is probably the worst incident of the summer, it isn’t the first. Rubbish has been dumped anywhere except in the bin, labels have been stuck all over the youth shelter and the youngsters keep trying to set light to the rear panel.
The Waddesdon Neighbourhood Policing team is organising its annual Emergency Services Open day to coincide with Heritage Day.
The event will take place on Saturday 14 September and will run between
10am and 3pm in front of Waddesdon Manor on the High Street. The neighbourhood policing team will be accompanied by the Fire, Ambulance and other emergency services. As it is the Heritage Day, there will be free entry for members of the public to the Waddesdon Manor and surrounding grounds. PCSO Denise Grayburn said: “The neighbourhood officers will be out and about, offering crime prevention advice and raising awareness of how people can
sign up to the two-way communication system – Thames Valley Alert.
“On the day we will be supported by two horses from the Milton Keynes
Mounted section. We encourage members of the local community to attend
this free event and this will be a great opportunity to meet your local
neighbourhood officers for a chat about any concerns you may have.
“We will be located in front of the manor, so you can’t miss us. We
anticipate this will be very a successful event, with a huge turnout
likely.”
The youth café re-opens for all senior school aged children on Wednesday 11 September from 6.30-8.00pm held at Brookmead school. Admittance £1.
This week, the portable skate park will be at the café so bring your bikes, skateboards or scooter PLUS your helmet, or you wont be able to ride.
Pitstone has been awarded a Certificate of Merit in the Buckinghamshire Best Kept Village Competition 2013 for achieving a highly commended grade in the Defraine Cup.
Our thanks go to the village litter pickers, grass cutters and ground keepers along with all the residents that contribute to keeping our village looking well kept, clean and tidy.
Laurie Eagling, Clerk to the Council
Our Youth Café aims to provide young people with a safe place they can meet their friends (especially as many go to different senior schools), enjoy themselves and learn new skills. It has been a great success.
Pitstone Parish Council has funded the project for the last two years and employs trained leaders to run the Café. Councillors are also bolstering the volunteer numbers each week. We have over 200 youngsters on our database and each week you will find between 30 and 60 young people at the café. We are sure you will appreciate that we can’t operate with this many children without a significant number of volunteers on site as well to ensure their safety and help provide a stimulating environment.
We are exceedingly grateful to all our volunteers, most of whom don’t even have children that attend the café but continue to give up their time as they value your child’s development within our community. Unfortunately, many now need to step down due to other commitments and for the youth café to be sustainable we need more parent volunteers. We need people to serve refreshments from the tuck shop, join in activities, teach the children new skills, play games/table tennis/snooker/pool and/or help sign people in and out. The children respond more positively when adults they know are on site.
If you aren’t available to attend on the night because you have other children or work, we still need help on the management committee – organising the rota, fundraising and helping decide what works/what doesn’t at the café for your children so that we can adapt accordingly.
Over the next couple of weeks please: phone: 01296 660791 or Email: parishclerk@pitstone.co.uk and volunteer to help in whatever way you can.
At the moment, there are insufficient volunteers to enable the café to open again in September and if the committee isn’t up and running/the volunteer issue solved by the October half term, then the café will be forced to close due to insufficient parental support.
If all parents help just a little bit, your child will be able to continue enjoying the café every single week. Please don’t let all the good work go to waste and help us continue to provide this vital service for our young people. Thank you for your help.
The planning application for the new play space on the recreation ground is now live. Aylesbury Vale District Council is inviting any comments before 19 July 2013.
You can find full details of the application, design reasons, equipment, access, inclusivity, materials and other considerations on the AVDC web site by searching the planning portable for application reference 13/01436/APP, via the following link:
http://publicaccess.aylesburyvaledc.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=MNM080CL0BI00
The parish council is delighted to be able to reveal the winning play space design, developed over a number of months and taking on board all the feedback both the children and parents gave us at the consultation sessions, as well as input from RoSPA and Aylesbury Vale District Council. We are sure that you will be delighted – even RoSPA tell us that “the new play space certainly has the “WOW” factor”!
Please click on the link to read all about it and see the fab design – we hope you will be as excited as we are. The planning application is being submitted this week, so hopefully we will be able to install it this autumn. Bigger, full colour illustrations, will be appearing on the parish council noticeboards shortly.
Coming up during the course of this term, you’ll find table tennis competitions, superhero craft activities, a jewellery workshop, digital photography workshops, good food for kids, a visit from the sports cage and the portable skate park, baking, outside games and a BBQ.
If you’re already at senior school we look forward to seeing you at youth café on a Wednesday evening from 6.30-8.00pm during term time. If you are currently in year 6, we’ll be running some ‘taster’ sessions for you in July, so watch this space.
All households in Pitstone should now have received their copy of the Pitstone Parish Post spring edition. This includes updates on:
- This years Volunteer of the Year – Joe Marling
- Further education survey for Pitstone
- Updates on the new play space and skate park
- Update on the land surrounding the recreation ground
- Details of our mVAS scheme
- Information about Castlemead bus shelter delays
- Information about dog fouling and requirements to micro-chip your dog
- Highway improvements coming soon
- The foot/cycle path to Tring station
- The annual parish assembly on 21 May 2013 and
- Party in the Park on Saturday 13 July 2013
An electronic copy can be accessed here issue 97 main body
