Brailes Parish Blog

It has become apparent that some people, even though I have endeavoured to make it obvious how the blog functions, have some difficulty in grasping the concept. I do understand that as the administrator of the blog, people could confuse “which hat” I am wearing when I post articles to it. That was something which occurred to me as soon as I set the blog up, and something which I took great care to try to prevent. So, anything I wrote as the administrator of the site, I signed as “Admin”. Anything I wrote as my personal opinion, I have been careful to sign with my own name. How difficult can that be to understand? Very, apparently…

I also made sure that it was and is made very clear that original articles, and responses to existing articles are actively sought - at the end of every article and response is a clickable link to respond to said article. As was apparently pointed out in the recent Parish Council meeting, the whole point of a blog is to enable comment and discussion on topics pertinent to the blog!

Nowhere within or without the blog is it stated or implied that the content of the blog is the responsibility of the Parish Council, is consistent with the “opinion of the Parish Council” or is condoned by the Parish Council. The blog was set up following the comment - I believe of the County Councillor - at one of the Parish Council meetings that it would be a useful feature. Despite canvassing the Parish Councillors repeatedly for content for the website and the blog, and only a little content being forthcoming, I was slightly bemused to understand from comments said to have been made at the Parish Council meeting that some members of the council have never even seen the site…

So to summarise: if one has comments to make about the blog - or articles or comments contained within the blog - the best place to take issue is on the blog itself: if one feels something is inaccurate, then that could be addressed by a reasoned comment - which also has the benefit that those who have read the original article will also be made aware of the contrasting viewpoint, and can then add their comment or not as they see fit.

Hopefully that makes the situation somewhat more transparent!

Admin / Will Doherty.

I have been inspired to include a new section in the blog, by some amazingly thoughtless and dangerous parking within the villages, in the hope that maybe a potential accident may be averted. I happened to have my camera with me yesterday, and took a picture of a car parked partially on the pavement, partially on the road, on the blind apex of the bridge bend in Lower Brailes. It so happened that I nearly ended up with pictures of an accident too, as you can see…

Will Doherty.

There is at present no prize available for this ‘competition’, but more entries are welcomed!

Admin.

I arrived home today to find a collection envelope containing a plastic sack, for me to fill with “Good quality clean clothing, linen curtains, as new underwear, socks and tights, shoes, belts, bags, teddy bears, toiletries, cosmetics, cd’s (sic), dvd’s (sic), unwanted mobile phones. No electrical items, books or bric-a-brac”

The envelope gives a lot of information about the “Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance” and quite rightly praises it highly - and proclaims that the Air Ambulance needs an enormous amount of funds to continue its good work - which it undoubtedly does.

The information printed on the envelope is all designed to lead one to believe that when you fill the sack, the funds raised from the sale of “your” goods will go to the Air Ambulance. If one looks at the detail, then it states that for every tonne of items received by the collectors, £40 will be donated to the Air Ambulance…

If we spend a moment considering that statement, we can work on the following to be close to fact: each item collected on average weighs approximately 0.5kg, so there are 2000 items to the tonne. For those 2000 items, £40 is donated to the Air Ambulance, which equates to 2 pence per item…

TWO PENCE PER ITEM!

I suspect that most of these “Good Quality Clean” items end up on the markets - unlikely though to be priced anywhere near 2 pence per item…

I would be the last person to advise against donations to charity in general, and the Air Ambulance in particular - I believe it offers a tremendously good and crucial service - but unfortunately in this case the collection company is taking nearly all of the proceeds. There can be little doubt that both the Air Ambulance and other charities would be much better off if we all donated a couple of pounds to the Air Ambulance and sent our clothes to the local charity shops.

I am sure that we all support the efforts by some of the locals to hold events to raise funds for the Air Ambulance - more strength to them - and that makes it all the more galling for people to profit extortionately, whilst pretending to do good deeds - I’m sure we can all imagine how much collecting they would do if they asked for your items for free, in order to sell them for personal profit!

Will Doherty.

There is a relaunch of the Brailes’ Neighbourhood Watch Scheme on Wednesday 12th March, at 7pm in the Village Hall.

If you wish for the Scheme to assist in the prevention of crime and detection of the perpetrators of crime in the area, then your attendance at the relaunch would be very much appreciated!

Admin.

As is my wont on occasion, I attended the Parish Council meeting that took place last evening, as a member of the public.

The meeting is the latest of several I have attended over the past twelve months, and not surprisingly, was not remarkably different to the other recent meetings I had attended.

As usual, the “Flooding Committee” was particularly well represented and vocal, on the public benches.

Prior to the Flooding Committee being formed, I have to say that I had only set eyes upon one member of it, and getting around the village as I do, that suggests to me that the committee consists primarily of “newcomers” to the village.

Whilst no-one would wish anyone the hardship, inconvenience and unpleasantness that the flooding of one’s property entails, and of course one has sympathy with those whom are flooded - particularly the more mature and long term owners of such properties, one has to ask who on earth would be willing to buy a house that has been subject to flooding on so many occasions over the years. Certainly I would not even for a moment consider living in the properties which are most at risk, and I suspect it would be difficult to find any long-standing inhabitant of the village willing to do so either.

But, one has to accept that if someone wishes to live in such a place, so be it. However, it seems a bit of a paradox to me, that one could purchase such a property, then when it has again flooded, approach the authorities for some redress…

There are another couple of points that I found interesting regarding the Flood Committee - it seems logical to me, that if you have an area that is prone to severe flooding, and you want to alleviate that problem, then you clear the downstream side of the flood site as much as is possible or practicable, in order to disperse the floodwater, and leave in place anything upstream that slows the flow of floodwater into the problem area…

But it appears from what was said last evening, that great efforts are being made to clear the watercourses which are part of the infrastructure which bring the floodwaters to the area in the first place… Hmmmmm.

Finally, we come to the issue of the brook, the local children and a proposed new fence. It was alleged at the meeting that some local young children - mine included - have been playing on the grassed area adjacent to the streetlamp after the hours of darkness, at the bottom of Jeffs Close - and whilst they have been so doing, they have been making so much noise as to have frightened an “Elderly” neighbour of the contributor at the meeting. This same contributor noted that the children were throwing stones and dirt into the brook, undoing the work carried out over a weekend by a mechanical digger and a number of volunteers… Apparently this is worthy of a report to social services! A correspondant to the meeting asked for a new fence to be purchased and erected by the Parish Council, to run from the edge of the bridge in Orchard Close to the hedge adjacent to the “Coach House”. Upon being questioned as to the reason for the fence, I was informed it was “to stop children falling into the brook when it is in flood…” As I pointed out - there has certainly been no fence there for the past 41 years - and since prior to that time the area was grassland, there likely never has been. One gets the feeling of an amount of disingenuity taking place… To my surprise, rather than discussing the issue as to the needs or sensibilities of having a fence in that area, the Parish Council chose instead to investigate the costs of such a fence, then to discuss whether or not to proceed with it on a cost basis at a later date…

I’m beginning to look around the village to see what projects I can ask the Parish Council to carry out…

Will Doherty.

Dear Sir,

My Mother - Amy Edith Archer - was born in Brailes in 1899, to Thomas William Archer & Ann Mary, in the registration district of Shipton on Stour, sub-reg district Halford. 2 brothers & 2 Sisters in the Household. My Mother had 3 children Douglas, Peter & Joy. Douglas d. 2004. Peter & Joy are now living in Vancouver BC Canada. Some other information I have regarding the Archer Family, but not all. I’m interested in any contact or information you may add to my ancestry.

Thanks, Peter

I’ve had a request for information regarding a family who used to live in the parish - it will be uploaded shortly. Similar requests are welcome…

Is anyone interested in setting up a Eco/green group in Brailes?

Paul Taylor.

Anyone interested can respond to the blog email address, and a new catagory will be provided if there is a demand. 

Admin 

New catagories are easily created, so any suggestions or requests are welcome - Anything from Planning to Streetlights to Pot Holes could for example be included in a Parish Council  catagory - we could have a Website catagory for discussions of the Parish Website - almost anything in fact…

Admin.

Following a couple of requests, you now see the new Brailes Blog! You can use it for any (legal!) discussions or to raise points related to the Parish - see the entry page for information on how to submit articles and comments for inclusion.

Admin.