The Old Phone box in the Street has been transformed this year into our own Stinchcombe grotto. All we need is a Santa!
Well done to those involved in the creation of this bit of happiness. Lets us hope it’s the start of something better in 2021.
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Stinchcombe residents sorely miss the Oldhill Lane post box. People now need to get into their cars or face a longish walk along a busy road. Before, they had a convenient box.
The post box was first spotted with its pole bent almost to the ground in February. The Chair of the Parish Council, Marian Shaw, made her own arrangements for a speedy repair to the pole because of the problems getting another Stinchcombe post box replaced a couple of years ago. Unfortunately The Royal Mail removed the box before this could happen.
With the box still missing 3 months later, local resident Mandy Delafield contacted Royal Mail’s Customer Services. She was assured that it would be returned. A promise then repeated when she checked on progress in June and again in July. Mrs Delafield was then horrified to learn in late August that Royal Mail no longer intended to replace the box.
Parish Councillors, District Councillors and MP Siobhan Baillie all added their voices in support of residents to no avail. District Councillor Catherine Braun took the matter to a Postal Review Panel, insisting on an explanation. She was told that the box “gets knocked over a lot by we suspect farming machinery, and by vehicles trying to turn”. Long standing residents have no recollection of this ever happening and no hard evidence has been provided to support the claim.
Villagers have good reason to be sceptical – in the recent previous post box dispute The Royal Mail talked to The Gazette about the wrong post box entirely, one that was not even in Gloucestershire!. Bizarrely, The Royal Mail gave our MP an entirely different reason for not replacing the box, citing “the balance of economy against service provision”.
To make matters worse, a Royal Mail Customer Services Advisor suggested the Postal Redress Service to resolve the deadlocked complaint. It quickly emerged that the matter is outside their remit. This shows The Royal Mail’s willingness to turn its back on solutions previously agreed with customers, undermining its own complaints procedure. The Parish Council has had to contend with a system that is both confusing and confused. The contrast with the highly regarded postmen and women on the ground could not be more pronounced.
Stinchcombe is in no mood to give up and is considering how to continue its fight.
See previous Posts:
Forget all the lorry chaos at the ports, it’s time to plan your summer Holiday in France next year. So what do you now need? After, years of just hoping onto a ferry with your E111/EHIC card, what are the new requirements in 2021? In the brave new world after Brexit surely all you will need is your Great British Passport! I have been looking at the UK GOV website.
You may need to renew your British passport earlier if you’re travelling from 1 January 2021.
On the day you travel, you’ll need your passport to both:
You should always get appropriate travel insurance with healthcare cover before you go abroad.
Your European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) will only be valid up to 31 December 2020.
It’s particularly important you get travel insurance with the right cover if you have a pre-existing medical condition. This is because the EHIC scheme covers pre-existing conditions, while many travel insurance policies do not.
You can read advice on buying travel insurance with the right cover.
At border control, you may need to:
If you’re a tourist, you will not need a visa for short trips to most EU countries, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. You’ll be able to stay for up to 90 days in any 180-day period.
Different rules will apply to Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus and Romania. If you visit these countries, visits to other EU countries will not count towards the 90-day total.
You may need a visa or permit to stay for longer, to work or study, or for business travel.
Check each country’s travel advice page for information on how to get a visa or permit.
There may be changes from 1 January 2021. What these are depend on how you’re travelling.
You may need extra documents from 1 January 2021.
You might need an international driving permit (IDP) to drive in some countries.
If you’re taking your own vehicle, you will also need a ‘green card’ and a GB sticker.
From 1 January 2021 you will not be able to use the existing pet passport scheme. Instead you’ll need to follow a different process, which takes 4 months.
Follow the guidance about pet travel to Europe from 1 January 2021.
From 1 January 2021, the guarantee of free mobile phone roaming throughout the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway will end.
Check with your phone operator to find out about any roaming charges you might get from 1 January 2021.
Read all the above at the UK GOV website
The Gazette will be holding a meeting with residents at the end of Old Hill Lane, by the notice board on Tuesday 8th December at 11am. They will write an article about the missing post box. Also the failure of the Post Office to reinstate the post box, and highlight how it’s absence is affecting those of us who relied on the post box.
Please come along to show your (socially distanced) support to put your point across to the journalist.
After over a year of fundraising, donations and a grant from the Parish Council it has finally arrived! A new Automatic External Defibrillator at the Village Hall. There are now 3 in the Village. At the following locations:
The AED’s are easily accessible and visible and hopefully it will never be needed.
Defibrillators are very easy to use. Although they don’t all look the same, they all function in broadly the same way. You don’t need training to use one. The machine gives clear spoken instructions – all you have to do is follow them – and it won’t shock someone unless they need it.
If you come across someone who is unconscious, unresponsive, not breathing or not breathing normally, they’re in cardiac arrest. The most important thing is to call 999 and start CPR to keep the blood flowing to the brain and around the body. After a cardiac arrest, every minute without CPR and defibrillation reduces someone’s chance of survival by 10 per cent.
If you’re on your own, don’t interrupt the CPR to go and get a defibrillator. If it’s possible, send someone else to find one. When you call 999, the operator can tell you if there’s a public access defibrillator nearby.
To use a defibrillator, follow these simple steps:
Heartstart courses teach you CPR and other emergency life saving skills. They are free to attend.
There are over 1,000 Heartstart schemes across the UK supported by the British Heart Foundation.
Visit the BHF Heartstart courses page to find out more.
First Aid and CPR are useful skills for all people to have some knowledge about. The Village Hall Committee hope to arrange for some training in the near future for all residents of Stinchcombe. The AED still needs the operator to understand how to give CPR.
There is little doubt that 2020 has been a year of unanticipated surprises for most of us which have not always been entirely welcome!
Probably best not to dwell on the negative elements, but better to remember the positive and look forward with optimism to 2021 and beyond, especially with the prospect of enjoying the benefits of having a vaccine for coronavirus and learning from experience. There is also something about a new year that encourages a new look at the familiar.
The PCC has proposed this initiative as a fundraiser for St Cyr’s Church. We hope it will give pleasure throughout the year, provide opportunities for your creative skills and raise some much needed funds to keep the church active in our community.
To be ready to sell our calendars for 2022 however, requires organisation a year in advance.
To invite you to consider submitting a possible photograph, painting or drawing relating to Stinchcombe for a particular month, which could be selected for the 2022 calendar.
There is no age limit for entries. We encourage all age groups to join in. Entries do not have to come only from local residents, although local knowledge is important.
Entries should be submitted by the beginning of September 2021, ready for the panel of experts to make their selection. We will consider all pictures submitted but the judges’ decision will be final. The calendar will then be prepared for printing.
So help make 2022 a special year that captures some of the best memories of our lovely village during its different seasons, activities and events.
(Any questions should be directed to Pippa Leggate on behalf of the PCC)
Now that we seem to have successful vaccines coming on line very soon, the one question we all want answered is “When do I get my COVID-19 vaccine?” It goes along with “When will life return to normal?”
The UK Government is talking already about mass vaccinations but unless they know something that I don’t, we are all going to have to wait.
At present Pfizer is planning to produce 50 million doses by the end of 2020 and Moderna 20 million and let’s say they both get approval and let’s say the UK gets 10% (my guesstimate) of the production, that would be 7,000,000. This would be enough for everyone over everyone aged 80 and over.
Next year, 2021 Pfizer is planning to produce 1.3 billion and Moderna 500 million. Britain has ordered 40 million from Pfizer. So this would give us in the UK a further 35 million by the end of 2021. Enough to vaccinate everyone over 35 years old.
The Vaccine that could change everything is the Oxford vaccine by the University of Oxford (Vaccitech) and AstraZeneca which is still three months away. It is a different vaccine and made in a different and easier way. 2 billion doses could be made next year in the UK alone. This could easily satisfy our requirements. Let’s hope it passes all tests.
This is my suggested timescale for Vaccinations for different ages: