LITTLE MILTON  NEWSLETTER

www.littlemilton.org.uk

MARCH, 2006

PARISH COUNCIL

The Council meeting held on Wednesday 8th February was attended by three Councillors, the Clerk, the District Councillor, the County Councillor and no members of the public.

Triangle of land adjacent to Wells Farmhouse

The Clerk informed the meeting that the statutory notice was now displayed on the green and that nothing would now happen until the statutory notice period had expired

Hedgerow at the top of the Wheatley Road. (Windmill Hill)

The Clerk informed the meeting that the road lining had not yet started. Although the OCC Highways were only lining parts of the roadside the Council agreed that some central lining should still be carried out.

Invite to Punch Taverns re the Lamb

The Clerk reported that Mr Paul Thomas had cancelled his presentation to the Council as the capital investment proposed for the Lamb had worked out higher and as a result the project was being re-evaluated. It is hoped that he will attend the next meeting.

Recreation Ground

Mr Stuart McGill reported that the recreation ground committee had received further advice that the ground should not be ploughed and reseeded but rather that selective repair should be carried out as well as the ground being rolled by a heavy roller. There is also a need to properly fertilise the ground on a regular basis. The committee will make recommendations to the Council in due course.

South Oxfordshire Community Safety Partnership – Antisocial Behaviour

The Council received some antisocial behaviour bookmarks that contain a number of useful contact numbers. It was agreed that the Clerk should include something in the newsletter to heighten the awareness of the support afforded to counter antisocial behaviour.

SODC – Proposed new garden waste service

The Chairman informed the Council that SODC are proposing to introduce a fortnightly collection service of garden waste from wheeled bins. The cost to residents for this service will be £29 per year. The view of the Council was generally supportive but had some concerns that the scheme is likely to replace the eco sacks and the garden skips at the community waste sites. The Clerk was asked to inform SODC of the Council’s concerns.

Village Shop/Post Office

Mr Stuart McGill reported that after further consultation with the Post Mistress it had been decided to increase the size of the proposed area for the Post Office/Village Shop and to include a conservatory that would be used as a tea room. These changes will be included in the planning application.

The Parish Council will meet on Wednesday 8th March 2006 at 8.00 p.m. in The Pine Lodge Little Milton unless there is a need to convene any planning or other meetings.

R. Fergusson Parish Clerk

Please note that the complete minutes of the Council are now included on the Council website www.littlemilton.org.uk  after they have been approved by the Council.

PARISH COUNCIL VACANCY

A vacancy has arisen on the Parish Council as a result of the resignation of Isabel Fox. The statutory notice of the vacancy has been displayed on the Council notice board. If you are interested in becoming a Parish Councillor please contact the Clerk in the first instance. The vacancy will be filled either through a bye- election or by co-option by the Parish Council.

Raymond Fergusson, Parish Clerk

Freedom of Information Act – Parish Council Publication Scheme

Residents can see the records of the policies and practices of the Parish Council including minutes, financial information and responses to planning consultations, on request from the Parish Clerk (Raymond Fergusson –279150). Current Council member are:

                        Mr Stuart McGill          Chairman                      Mr Simon Oddie          Vice Chairman

                        Mrs Mabel Wood                                               Mrs Alison Shelton                                                     Mr Barry Coward

VILLAGE OF THE YEAR

Each year the Parish Council is advised of the Village of the Year competition. If the village is going to enter we need an individual or a group of people to co-ordinate our entry. If you would like to enter the competition please contact myself on 01844 279150 or contact the Oxfordshire Rural Community Council on 01865 883488

BUS PASS AND TRAVEL TOKENS SCHEME

From 1 April 2006, the District Council will offer free bus passes to people aged 60 and over, the disabled and their necessary travel companions. Residents who have a current half fare pass which expires after 1 April 2006 does not need to do anything, their passes will automatically convert to a free pass. Residents whose half fare pass expires before 1 April 2006 should have received a letter from the District Council asking them to reapply.

From the same date, the District Council’s travel token scheme will change. As an alternative to the bus pass, the Council will continue to offer travel tokens to the value of £20 per year but the eligibility age has changed from 60 to people aged 70 and over, the disabled(including children aged 15 and below) and their necessary travel companions.

For further information contact Vivienne Taylor on 01491 823413

AFFORDABLE HOUSING

New guide to help find affordable housing published

The Oxfordshire Community Partnership has published a new guide that will help people to find out about affordable housing options in Oxfordshire. The booklet provides contact details for local housing authorities, housing associations and where to go for housing advice.

Affordable housing: buying and renting in Oxfordshire is available at all libraries, council offices, town and parish councils, and at places such as doctors and dentists surgeries and community centres. It can also be downloaded from the Oxfordshire County Council website at www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/affordablehousing.htm .Alternatively, copies can be ordered by phoning 01865 816025 or emailing alice.goldsmith@oxfordshire.gov.uk

SODC: WASTE MANAGEMENT CONTRACT

For a charge of £35 residents can arrange for their unwanted vehicle to be collected from within the District and a charge of £7 per bulky item e.g. fridge furniture etc. To arrange this service residents can call the Public Amenities Team on 01491 823416 or print a copy of the form from the Council’s website www.southoxon.gov.uk .

SOUTH OXFORDSHIRE DISTRICT COUNCIL -REFUSE SKIPS FOR MARCH

Our nearest Rural Community Waste Sites are at Chalgrove Village Car Park and Wheatley Primary School, Littleworth Road.

Please note that the following items have now been classified as hazardous household wastes and will no longer be accepted in the community waste vehicles.

TV’s, Monitors, Fluorescent tubes, Air conditioning units, Fridges/Freezers, Asbestos, Tins of paint (even if empty), Oil or Oil tins (even if empty), Car batteries, Gas cylinders.

The Oxfordshire County Council Waste Recycling Centres at Redbridge and Oakley Wood are open Monday to Saturday 8.30 a.m. – 4.00 p.m. and Sunday 9.00 a.m. – 4.00 p.m.

CHURCH CLEANING ROTA FOR MARCH

Week ending 4th March, 2006                         -          Mrs L. Lovegrove/ Mrs C Coward

Week ending 11th March 2006                                    -          Mrs E. Summers/ Could this be you?

Week ending 18th March, 2006                                   -          Mrs. G. Taylor/Mrs H Ridley

Week ending 25th March, 2006                                   -          Mrs A. Hawkins/Mrs. S. Jones

Week ending 25th March, 2006                                   -           Mrs. M. Davies/Mrs S A Dennis

Week ending 4th April, 2006                                        -          Mrs L. Lovegrove/ Mrs C Coward

This month we are one cleaner short as last month we said a very grateful thank-you to Isabel Fox for all the hard work she has put into cleaning St James’ Church over recent months. Is there anyone in Little Milton who could spare I hour every five weeks to clean the church? Please phone Raymond (279150) or myself if you can help us out. Don’t wait a second…apply today to avoid the rush.

Sally Ann Dennis 278029

CHURCH FLOWER ROTA FOR MARCH          

Week ending 5th March                                               -                      Lent                            

Week ending 13th March                                             -                      Lent    

Week ending 20th March                                             -                      Lent

Week ending 27th March                                             -                      Lent

We are looking for new volunteers to help with flowers in the church. If you can spare a short time on a Friday or Saturday and would like to help, please contact me. No skills needed just enthusiasm!

Teresa Quested

BELL RINGING PRACTICE DURING MARCH

Just to let Villagers know that the Bell Ringers will be ringing in St. James’ Church, Little Milton on 

Tuesday 7th March                                                                               7.30 p.m. to 9.00 p.m.

Sunday 12th March                                                                           10.30 a.m. to 11.00 a.m.

Tuesday 14th March                                                                             7.30 p.m. to 9.00 p.m.

Tuesday 21st March                                                                             7.30 p.m. to 9.00 p.m.

Raymond Fergusson (279150)

WITH UNVEILED FACES

The other week a couple who I married here about four years ago called by to see me.  It was good to see them and to catch up on their news. In the course of our conversation, we recalled their wedding day, and to my great surprise and delight they had brought with them some photographs of their great day, and in some small way we shared in again their wedding. I remembered the day very clearly, not  just for the glorious sunshine, but for the quite dramatic moment when the bride removed the veil from her face.

Whatever the origins of the symbolism, unveiling is a very telling sign of what marriage involves. Unveiling, undeception, clear and just vision. The man and his wife are promising to look at each other for the rest of their lives, and to be looked at by each other: lovingly, faithfully and above all, truly and honestly. The married man or woman has opened the doors and let another person in, the stranger has come in to be at home.

All of this means many things. Certainly it means a commitment to listen to each other’s questions, to face the other’s search for your truth and theirs, searching out the other, not letting them deceive

themselves, and within the boundlessness of love, each one helping to create the other in their wonderful uniqueness. There can be no love without truth, and no truth without love. Without trust

and tenderness, patient forgiveness, truth will vanish, only to be replaced by fear and pain. Marriage gives us a vision of truth and love, clarity and charity.

Jesus was very fond of using weddings as subjects for his parables. We cannot tell if in those days, a bride wore a veil, but we believe that God unveils his face to us in Jesus, and in that face, we are all exposed, for God is the God, unto whom all hearts be open. Christ with his loving eyes will see behind all our veils and masks, through all our pride and disguises, through all that we fancy ourselves to be,

to the true and lovely person he knows us to be and created us to be. There is pain here for us, especially as we are called to admit all this before God, and to recognize ourselves as the light of

Christ shows us to be. This pain though is made bearable by God’s perfect love, forgiveness and acceptance which even death and injury cannot destroy.

In our common life together, we have to show to one another the unity of love and truth in committed faithfulness to each other. What we have to seek to do is to help each other to become the true and lovely person which God intends us to be. We must become a sacrament to each other of that astonishing acceptance and forgiveness and compassion which God shows us in his crucified Son’s love. Should we do otherwise without denying what we say we are? Finding this love in Christ, we must then turn to find it in each other and offer it to each other. This is the way we grow more Christ like.

Unveiling our faces, our minds, our souls to God and each other, in moments of strain and hollowness, in moments of delight, tenderness and generosity-“for richer for poorer”,; All of us, then, must reflect the glory of the Lord with unveiled faces; and that same glory, coming from the Lord, who is the Spirit, transforms us into his likeness in an ever greater degree of glory. (II Corinthians 3:18)

Victor Story (01844 279498)

FROM THE RECTORY.

Ash Wednesday falls on the 1st March, and so ushers in the forty days of Lent. Lent is a kind of parenthesis in our own ever so restless world, a space when we give ourselves the opportunity to consider afresh what we consider is amiss with ourselves, and, under God, to look again at our priorities, and seeking his grace, bring ourselves back into conformity with the ways and patterns of living revealed to us through Jesus Christ.

Each one of us has something different to bring to God, and God will have a different way of giving of his grace to each one of us, to enable us to grow more into the ways of his Kingdom.

To help with this process, at 7.30 p.m. on each Wednesday evening during Lent, there will be a short meditative service, called Compline, and each Friday morning at 9.00 a.m. a Holy Communion Service in the Churches of our Benefice, taken in turn, beginning with  Great Milton  on the 8th March. Please do check the list of services for the venues and times.

LENT LUNCHES 2006.

Lent Lunches around our parishes begin on Monday the 6^th March. These do provide everyone an opportunity to come together in friendship in the context of a simple shared common meal. There is no need to book, simply bring yourselves and your friends. We would love to see you. Who knows, you may meet some friend you haven’t seen for some time, and certainly you will meet new friends.  Any donations will be given to Christian Aid, the Church organisation which seeks to help the world’s poor. Le Manoir is once more kindly providing us with the rolls for each Monday. The programme of Lent Lunches is as follows:-

March 6th                                                                                    March 13^th

Lunch will be held at Harrington Farm,                     Lunch will be held at Simeons, Little Milton       

Great Milton By kind permission of                           by kind permission of Mrs Helena Lawrence      

Miss Marygold Nixey                                                    From 12.noon – 1.30pm

 From 12.noon – 1.30pm

March 20^th                                                                              March 27^th

Lunch will be held at The Dell, Great Milton                Lunch will be held at Church Farm, Church Hill

By kind permission of Miss Thelma Blake                 Great Haseley    

From 12.noon – 1.30pm                                               by kind permission of Mrs Judy Alexander

                                                                                         From 12.noon  - 1.30pm

MOTHERING SUNDAY.

Mothering Sunday is on the 26^th March, and on that day, there will be a special Benefice Family Service in St. Mary’s Great Milton at 10.00 a.m. (Note the time). This does provide us an opportunity to come together to give thanks for what has come to us through our mothers, in particular, and our friends and families. I recognise that that day some of you may be journeying to visit other family

members and I hope the earlier time for a Family Service will enable more of you to be free to be with us in church. Let us make our Mothering Sunday celebrations that extra special this year. And children, bring your mother (and father, of course) along, we would love to see you all. The other services that day are an 8.00 a.m. celebration of Holy Communion at St. Peter’s, Great Haseley, and at St. James’, Little Milton an Evening Prayer Service at 6.30 p.m. The Evening Service is to be arranged in response to a parishioner who requested an evening service rather than one in the morning. Please note this and do come along if you feel that this time for a service is more convenient for you.

Victor Story

BENEFICE SERVICES FOR MARCH

SUNDAY SCHOOL

Our dates for the month are:-

            March 5th at 11.00 a.m. in St James’ Church – Godly Play

            March 11th  ‘Walk with a Child’ .This is a Diocesan event in Woodstock (9.30am to 4.00 pm.)

            March 19^th  10.30 am Brunch meeting at 46 Chiltern View, Sarah’s Jones.

There is a Sunday School Teachers meeting on March 16^th at 7.30 p.m. at either the Rectory or 46 Chiltern View, the home of Sarah Jones. If you are interested in joining the teaching team or even just learning more about us then please telephone for the venue and come along and join our meeting.

Sally Ann Dennis (278029)

on behalf of all the Teachers

GREAT MILTON METHODIST CHURCH Minister:  Revd. Derick Chambers Tel: 212019

SUNDAY SERVICES IN MARCH

For further information please ring me.

Evelyn Holme 278938

NEWS FROM LITTLE MILTON SCHOOL

We were delighted to welcome Bishop Colin of Dorchester to our Candlemas Service at St James Church at the beginning of February, along with children from The Orchard Pre School

Our theme was sharing, and showing Jesus’ light to the world.  The children sang songs, performed a dramatized reading of the Feeding of the Five Thousand and a letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians.   Paintings were on display to show how we show God’s love to others.

A dance specialist, from a company called PERFORM!, came to school for a day and worked with each class, producing dance related to their topic work.  The day was so successful that we have asked PERFORM to come in to do after school activities with the children.

Eve Hunter

LITTLE MILTON CHURCH FETE

We are in the early stages of planning our next Church Fete; the date has been fixed as Saturday 17^th June at The Manor. Please make a note of the date in your diary, as we really need your support whether helping or just coming along and enjoying the day.

We would really welcome any offers of help for the day or any bright new ideas that would add to the fun of the day.

Now is a great time to set aside toys that have been replaced at Christmas by more exciting varieties, any bottles or unwanted gifts that may be gathering dust. All these items will be put to great use on our stalls, we will let you know nearer the time who to contact.

Sarah Jones 01844 278120

THE PINE LODGE - 2006

Going into the New Year, we are pleased to say that the Pine Lodge continues to enjoy great utilisation from both Little Milton and the surrounding villages. 

·        Computer Club - Following our successful application for computer funding, we will shortly be installing a wireless internet enabled, computer system and this will be available for your use via the new Computer Club.  Please see separate the separate announcement for details.

·        Quiz Night – Following the great success of our last Quiz Night and the installation of new champions, our next one will be on Saturday 4^th March 2006.  Thanks to everyone for booking in advance, it enabled us to get the catering numbers right.  Please buy tickets in advance from the Post Office or phone Stuart on 279092 and give him your number of reserved places.    If you would like a vegetarian meal or have any special dietary requirements, please let us know in advance. Tickets will be £6 per head bought, or booked in advance and £7 if bought on the night including a meal.

• Barn Dance    A Barn Dance makes a very welcome return on Friday 31^st March from 7.30pm till 11.30pm.  This is a fantastic fun night out, with food provided in the price.  It doesn’t matter if you haven’t tried a Barn Dance before, all the dances are walked through slowly first, so that everyone gets the chance to learn.  We will start with dances, take a break for a meal half way through and then finish by about 11.30pm.  We have a great band booked but tickets are limited to buy yours early. Buy tickets in advance from the Post Office or phone Stuart on 279092.  If you would like a vegetarian meal or have any special dietary requirements, please let us know in advance. Tickets will be £10 per head and £6 for accompanied children, £27 for a family of four and this includes a two course meal.
• Dance classes – Have you reserved your place?  Classes started on Mondays 27^th and every Monday evening for 10 weeks, more details from Teresa Quested on 278922.
• Dates for your Diary

a)      24^th June 2006  - a Horse Race night.  Further details to follow

b)      8^th July 2006 - Following the great success of the September Picnic concert we are holding a Midsummer Picnic concert.  Further details to follow

Can you help us?  We need volunteers to assist with organising a variety of events, for example the Barn Dance, the Horse Race, the Picnic Concert etc.  If you would be happy to help occasionally

but don’t want a full involvement in the management committee; your assistance would be greatly appreciated!  Please contact Richard on 278045 or Stuart  on 279092 to discuss this further.

Sound system

We are pleased to advise that our application for grant funding for an Audio system in the Pine Lodge was approved by the Lottery fund.  This means we can now install a “surround sound system” that will

allow the use of a CD/DVD player together with attachments for Public Address and film/slide shows.  We have made another grant application for funding for a DVD projector and screen and await the outcome.

Licensing and Hours

Following a review of bookings, consultation with hirers and the new licensing laws, we are pleased to advise that we are able to be more flexible on the hours available on Friday and Saturday evenings.

Subject to confirmation from the Licensing authorities, it will be possible to hire the Pine Lodge beyond the current time of 12 midnight if you wish. Music/entertainment and alcohol sales can run until 1am and the hirer may then have up to a further hour to wind down, chat, clean up but must vacate the premises by 2am.  If you choose this option, each hour after midnight, or part thereof, will be charged at £20 in addition to the flat rate for hire from 6pm – 12am  Monday to Thursday and

Sunday evening has been extended slightly with the option to run until 12 midnight but be out by 1am. If you choose this extended hour, it will be charged at £20.

Discounted Hire rates for Little Milton residents only