On Saturday morning volunteers from the Village Trust planted up over 50 tubs with tulips, daffodils, crocus and grape hyacinth bulbs together with polyanthus plants.
Thank you to our local councillors and the Project Genesis Trust for providing the funding.
The photos show just a few of the volunteers getting wet!
The next Open Meeting of the Trust is to be held on Tuesday 8th October at 7.30pm. Members, guests and residents all welcome.
For the fifth year running, the Trust is taking part in the Heritage Open Days Festival, over the next two weekends.
Volunteers from the Trust’s Heritage Group will be showing visitors around some of the buildings and sites in the village where new ‘QR’ Plaques are being installed and explaining the history of each.
The Village Trust now has a new community noticeboard in the village centre.
The Trust’s old wooden board that was erected in 2002 had become very dilapidated and the opening locks had been vandalised.
Fortunately, our local county councillor, Stephen Robinson, agreed to fund a new board from his Neighbourhood Budget.
It is intended that the left hand side of the board will be used for Village Trust notices whilst the right hand side will be made available for posters of other community organisations in Shotley Bridge.
The Village Trust has started using “Pooper Snooper”: a free mobile app designed to help communities tackle the issue of dog fouling. The Trust has marked all the existing dog waste and litter bins on a map, so that dog owners can find the nearest bin for wrapped waste.
It is also being used to mark the location of dog fouling. Over time ‘hot spots’ will build up showing the problem areas that will be reported to the council.
Watch the video to find out more … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jq9ZGcBgkFo&feature=youtu.be
Download the app from Apple … https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/pooper-snooper/id1371970577
or Google … https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.natural_apptitude.poopersnooper
For further information, Durham County Council’s web site explains the law, how to get rid of dog waste and report problem areas, plus campaigns and schemes to tackle dog fouling … http://www.durham.gov.uk/dogfouling.
A Consett man has recently been prosecuted [with a legal bill of £763] for failing to clean up after his dog and pay the fixed penalty fine … http://www.durham.gov.uk/article/21856/Consett-man-prosecuted-for-dog-fouling-offence
At the AGM a cheque was presented by John O’Connor, Chairman of the Project Genesis Trust, to Sue Shaw, Secretary of the Trust’s Blooming Shotley Bridge group. The funding was made available from the Project Genesis Trust Small Grants Fund.
A similar amount has also been granted from County Councillor Robinson’s Neighbourhood Budget.
Both grants will now enable the Trust to replant the tubs and planters, throughout the conservation area, with summer and winter bedding this year.
The Trust’s AGM is to be held on 21st May 2019.
It will be followed by an Open Meeting at which Sarah Burns, Locality Director for the Clinical Commissioning Group, will be giving a presentation on the future of local NHS Services in the Consett area.
All welcome.
The Trust will again be displaying old photos of Shotley Bridge at this exhibition next week …
The next meeting of the Trust will be on Tuesday 9th April.
Members and residents all welcome.
Half a dozen Trust members spent a couple of hours this morning collecting debris, moss and leaves from the Triangle in the centre of the village. The block paving around the history board has been cleared of moss and weeds. Eighteen bags of compostable materials were removed, for the council to collect.
Thank you to the volunteers and to Isabella’s who provided complimentary coffees on completion.
The council intend cleaning the moss from the tarmac areas and repainting the fencing and furniture. Two new seats are also to be provided with the last of the S106 money from the Storey Homes development on the former hospital site.
The annual Spring litter pick by the Village Trust was carried out this morning. Thank you to the nine members who volunteered their time. The village is looking much tidier. Lets try and keep it that way. Only 10 bags collected this year compared to 20 in April 2018.
The Purple4Polio croci are flowering a month earlier this year, because of the mild weather. These are the 5000 bulbs planted in 2017 by the Village Trust provided by Consett Rotary Club. Another 5000 more bulbs were planted last November but these are only just starting to peep through.
The purple crocus is a symbol of Rotary’s worldwide campaign to eradicate polio, with its colour representing the purple dye used to mark the finger of a child to indicate they have received their life saving oral polio vaccine.
More information can be found on the Rotary website
At the last open meeting of the Village Trust there was a presentation on the ‘Street Trees project’ being delivered by CEED, in partnership with OASES.
6 schools have now taken part in surveying trees around their areas and CEED are now looking for volunteers to help with local surveys of trees.
CEED will be producing a Survey Pack containing all the necessary information to help volunteers survey their local street/s. There will also be some informal training on tree identification and how to undertake the surveys for those who need it.
Any help from volunteers will be valuable to this project – whether they can survey one small patch or several streets – all data will be very much appreciated.
Surveying is probably best done once there are leaves on the trees, but if volunteers are confident with winter tree I.D then there is no need to wait.
If you are interested please contact susan@ceedcharity.com
The village Christmas tree in ‘The Triangle’ was switched on this evening but without ceremony.
It had not been possible to arrange a carol service for this year but it is hoped that the Shotley Bridge Primary School children will be present to sing carols next year.
Thank you again to our local County Councillors for providing the tree and lights from their Neighbourhood Budget.
Consett Rotary Club has given the Trust another 5000 crocus bulbs, to plant in the village.
They have been planted further along the grass verge in front of Riverside, around the Pant and in the verge at Snows Green.
Ten members of the Trust and members of Consett Rotary, who provided the bulbs, volunteered for a couple of hours.
The purple crocus is a symbol of Rotary’s worldwide campaign to eradicate polio, with its colour representing the purple dye used to mark the finger of a child to indicate they have received their life saving oral polio vaccine.
More information can be found on the Rotary website.
The next meeting of the Trust will be on Tuesday 16th October. Susan Nolan from CEED will be explaining about their ‘Street Trees’ project. Members and residents all welcome.
The Consett & District Local Heritage Initiative are holding another exhibition at the beginning of October and the Village Trust will be displaying old photographs of Shotley Bridge.
Again, the Trust is taking part this year in the Heritage Open Days Festival this September. The same walks as last year are being offered, but over 2 weekends. Volunteers from the Heritage Group will be guiding visitors around the heritage of the village.
Thank you to the 8 Trust members who came to the working party on Friday morning to weed the tubs, beds, triangle and paths in the village centre. The place is looking much more cared for now.
