To All Art Lovers

The Village Hall Management Committee has for several years put on an Art Exhibition of work by local artists, held over two days at the beginning of March. Originally the brainchild of Rosemary Usher, and taken over by Lynden Carter, Ann Parnham and Rhian Peters, this has become a popular event, with visitors both from our community and further afield. The Committee now needs help; Lynden, who has meticulously organised the mail shot and finance, is leaving, and Rhian, who collates the entries and liaises with exhibitors, also wishes to take a break.

Is anyone willing to step forward?  If you are interested and would like to discuss this in more detail, please contact Rhian (tel 015395 60671).

Firefighters Strike 2 - 4 May

Residents across Cumbria are being urged to take extra fire safety steps to protect themselves and their loved ones when firefighters go on strike.

During industrial action, set to take place between 12 noon - 5pm on Friday 2 May, 2pm - 2am on Saturday 3 May and 10am - 3pm on Sunday 4 May, Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service (CFRS) is asking people in the county to minimise the risks of fire and avoid making unnecessary 999 calls.

The strike, called by the Fire Brigades’ Union (FBU) in response to a dispute with the Government over proposed changes to firefighter pensions, means CFRS will be operating a reduced emergency response when industrial action takes place and is going to be unable to provide the comprehensive level of cover residents in Cumbria can usually expect.

While 999 calls will continue to be answered as normal, CFRS response to incidents where life is considered to be in danger will be prioritised. Although the service will try to attend all emergency calls, on occasion some incidents where life is not considered to be at immediate risk such as small fires and automatic fire alarms may receive a reduced or even no response. It’s therefore vital that residents do all they can to prevent fires breaking out.


Valerie Ayre (Cumbria Fire & Rescue, Administrator, Cumbria)

Nominations in for new Parish Council

Now that the closing date for nominations to the Parish Council has passed, we can announce the names of those who have put their names forward for 2014–18. Three councillors have stepped down – Di Outhwaite (after over 12 years’ service, thank you Di!), Andrew Gill and Guy Weller – and the five councillors who will be elected unopposed on Thursday 22 May are:

Joan Lind
David Peters
Rhian Peters
Sarah Roberts, and
Lois Sparling.

As there are seven seats to fill on the Parish Council, the new council will be looking for two volunteers to co-opt. So it’s not too late to contact any of us if you might be interested in helping us repesent the parish and push forward the actions in the new Parish Plan. We will all be at the Annual Parish Meeting at 7.30pm on Monday 12 May in the Village Hall if you’d like to ask us more about what it might entail then.

Please note, there will still be polls on Thursday 22 May for the District Council and the European Parliament. Registration closes on 6 May and polling stations will be open from 7am to 10pm on the day.

Parish Directory 2014 out now!

If you live in the parish you will be getting a copy of the new Parish Directory, packed with local contact details and information, through your letterbox very soon. This is one of the first outcomes of the new Parish Plan and has been produced, and is being delivered, by members of the outgoing Parish Council. 

You can also download a copy from the Parish Plan 2014 page or by clicking on the link below. This means you can access the information when you’re on the internet away from home and it has been designed to let you print it out at a larger size if you would prefer to do so.

Click this link to download a copy of the Parish Directory (April 2014) as a PDF.

An Invitation to the Annual Parish Meeting

The Annual Parish Meeting will be held at 7.30pm on Natland Village Hall on Monday 12 May.

Click on the link to read the Annual Report and Accounts for Natland Parish Council. A paper copy of these documents has now been distributed to every household in the village by the parish councillors.

Each year, representatives from the various groups and organisations in the village are invited to present a report at this meeting, either in person or in writing, and we would be delighted if you are able to help us in this respect. Just let us know at the meeting if you would like to speak.

Parishioners have the right to ask for any resolutions to be placed upon the Agenda and these should be submitted no later than seven days prior to the meeting,  to Kevin Price, Natland Parish Clerk, by email, or by post to Braeside, Crook, Kendal LA8 8LA.

Concert in Church on Friday

Cold Callers and Mis-Described Fish

Cold Callers have been operating in villages in the South Lakes area this week. Two males in their 20's with North east accents say they are from First Step Forward in Middlesborough. They have some form of ID but this is not to be trusted. No offences have been committed by the males but they do not have SLDC permits to trade in our area. If these males are seen in your area please contact police on 101.

Trading Standards would like to reiterate the previous advice given on the community messaging board and warn residents to be wary of uninvited doorstep salesmen selling poor quality or mis-described fish.  Reports have been received of such traders operating in the Holme area on 16 April 2014 but they have been known to operate all over the county.

The fish is normally contained in polystyrene trays and has been transported from the North East of England in an unrefrigerated van.  It is often completely unlabelled and may be nearing the end of its shelf life.

The sellers normally want cash payment or a cheque with the payee section left blank which they say will be stamped later.  It seems that the elderly can be particularly targeted and persuaded to buy more fish than they actually need.  As some of the fish has been previously frozen it would then have to be stored in a refrigerator and consumed within a few days.

Our advice is simple.  Don't let uninvited door step sellers of any kind into your home.  For all your goods and services it is better to deal with reputable traders operating out of fixed premises who you know and trust.

If you see anyone appearing to sell goods and services door to door in your area please report the matter to Trading Standards via the Citizens Advice helpline on 08454 04 05 06.

Church Coffee Morning

Agenda for the Parish Council Meeting on the 22nd April

Click on THIS LINK to download a copy of the agenda for the next Parish Council Meeting.

Village Hall Meeting

The Village Hall committee meeting this month involved an animated discussion of acoustic panels and of the hiring fees.

The winners of the 200 Club draw in April were: 
1st    72    C.Wilson
2nd   23    D.Peters
3rd   17     L.Lewis

The Village Hall Annual General Meeting will take place on the 28th April and anyone who is at all interested in maintaining or developing this valuable village institution is very welcome to attend. It's at 7.00 in the Village small hall.

The Spring has Sprung ...

The grass is growing in the churchyard as well as everywhere else, and there will be a meeting there tonight to discuss the situation. A consensus is needed on which bits to cut and which bits to leave as a spring flower meadow, to be cut later in the season. Do come along if you would like to join the team. The meeting tonight, (Monday) starts at around 6.45 to 7pm in the church potting shed.

Steam Train Coming Through

Saturday 12th April northbound through Oxenholme 11.39, 46115 Scots Guardsman.

Pat Williams.

Are you on the Kendal phone exchange?

If you live in Natland parish, but on the northern edge of the parish, you may be on the Kendal phone exchange – with an 01539 area code, rather than an 015395 area code. Some of the Kendal area has been upgraded to superfast broadband, but not all of it, and as Broadband Champion I am trying to find out whether the service has reached any of our patch yet. (The Sedgwick exchange is supposed to be being upgraded later this year and that should cover the rest of the parish.)

If you are on the Kendal exchange I would be really grateful if you could take 5 minutes to go to the Connecting Cumbria Line Checker service and let me know what happens when you plug your number in. Just send me an email, including the message you get and your postcode: lois.sparling@gmail.com.

Thank you

Lois Sparling, NPC Broadband Champion

Update for Natland volunteers

Thanks to all those who turned out in inclement weather on Saturday for the annual Natland Spring Litter Hunt. The verges around the parish are now looking much tidier just as the new spring growth of grass gets underway.

The grass has also been growing elsewhere. You may have noticed that last week the contractors mowed the village green, and other areas, for the first time this season, and the team of volunteers who mow the churchyard are about to set to work. They would welcome additional recruits to help them in this task. Would you be willing and able to help? If so contact Collin Mansfield (collin4mansfield@homecall.co.uk or 015395 60231) to find out more about what this might involve.

Or perhaps you would like to have more of a say in how the parish is run and maintained? Now is your chance to throw your hat into the ring for the Parish Council election on Thursday 22 May.

Nomination papers are available now (from Kevin Price, the Clerk of the Council) and the deadline for would-be councillors to submit their nomination papers to District Council is 4pm on Thursday 24 April.  We already know that 3 of our 7 councillors will be standing down so it’s not likely to be too bitter a battle. You can find out more about becoming a councillor on the SLDC website.

Some new faces could bring fresh ideas and direction to your Parish Council. It needs no previous experience and only a modest time commitment. Any of the current councillors would be happy to have an informal chat if you want to find out more.

Monday Club Meeting

John Falvey will be the speaker at the next Monday Club Meeting which will be a week earlier than usual. He will be speaking about the RNLI at Barrow-in-Furness. It's at 2pm on the 14th April in the Village Hall.

Another good Litter Hunt – despite the weather

The ninth Spring Litter Hunt since the Natland Parish Plan of 2004 proposed its re-introduction took place on Saturday 5 April 2014. Our luck over previous years with the weather finally ran out. It rained most of the day, steadily during the morning picking period although the temperature was bearable, rising from 9°c to 12°c.  The forecast for Sunday was worse so postponement was not an option.

Despite the weather, 23 heroic volunteers turned up (compared with 25, 18, 26 and 32 in 2013 to 2010 respectively) and all the targeted roads and footpaths were cleared except for the east side of A65 Burton Road from Brow Head to ASDA which is in Kendal parish anyway. About 30 bags and a bike were left for SLDC to collect. There appeared to be a bit less litter than last year, but that could be partly due to being held a week or two later than usual, when vegetation has grown denser. It was mainly the usual collection of bottles, drink cans and fast food containers. Chekov vodka is very popular this year, particularly around the seat on Helm Lane and the Dilly Bridge/Watercrook parking area.

Thanks go again to SLDC for providing equipment and taking the bags to tip, and to the public-spirited volunteers who were: John Chandler, John Covill, Gerald Cummins, Barbara and Stephen Hitchcock, Keith and Sarah Miller and Harry, Karen Oliver, Di Outhwaite, Alan and Jenny Paley, Rhian and David Peters, Adele Rennard, John Ritchie, Sarah Roberts, Judith Robinson, Roger Scott, Don Shore, Allan Towler, Marion Want and Guy Weller. Well done all of you!

David Peters
Chair of Natland Parish Council

Parish Council election confirmed for May

At last night’s Parish Council meeting, and after months of uncertainty, the Clerk confirmed that the Council will face an election next month, on Thursday 22 May. That date is the same day as the European elections and elections for some South Lakeland District Council seats.

We also learned that the deadline for would-be councillors to submit their nomination papers to District Council is now 4pm on Thursday 24 April (not Friday 25 April as previously thought).

Nomination papers should be available next week (from Kevin Price, the Clerk) and it would be great if residents who have not served the parish in this way before were to put their names forward. We already know that 3 of our 7 councillors will be standing down so it’s not likely to be a hard fight!

Visit the SLDC website for more information about becoming a councillor or you could just give Chair David Peters (015395 60671) or Vice Chair Lois Sparling (01539 731737) a ring to find out more.

Don't forget the Litter Hunt!

Just a quick reminder that the annual Spring Litter Hunt takes place this coming Saturday, 4 April, and we’d be delighted to see some new faces coming along to help out.

If you’d like to help, just come along to the Village Hall at around 10am or 2pm to pick up all the equipment and hi-vis clothing you will need and be pointed in the right direction.

Last year, despite the bitter cold and wind, we had 25 volunteers (who were all name-checked on this website afterwards). If this weather holds, surely we can top 30 this year...

Parish Council Minutes 31st March

To view the minutes of the Natland Parish Council meeting held on Monday 31st March please follow link to
MINUTES

Lynden in Philadelphia

Lynden Carter, our Village Hall Treasurer, continues her account of her travels. 

St. Mark's Church magazine for April

Here is a link to the latest Parish Magazine where you can find descriptions of all that is happening in the parish, together with a report from school.

Oxenholme playground gets cash to replace slide

• The Bolefoot playground in Oxenholme has received a £1,800 grant from Cumbria County Council’s South Lakeland area committee for the erection of a new embankment slide.                                                A Westmorland Gazette news item.

The Weather in March in Natland

		WEATHER STATISTICS			MARCH
				2014		2013
Temperature at 8 am				4.8		1.2
Minimum Temperature (average)				3.7		-0.6
Maximum Temperature (average)				9		4.6
			mm	in	mm	in
Rainfall			84	3.4	43	1.7
March was an average sort of a month , much warmer than last year.
The only unusual feature was that it started mild and the coldest
period was towards the end of the month.                                                                                               John Dobson