Archive for category: News

Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission are carrying out an inspection of services and support for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in Devon. This includes children who are waiting for a diagnosis or have SEN support in place, from early years settings through to post-16 providers.

As part of the inspection, inspectors want to hear from:

• Children and young people with SEND
• Parents and carers

The survey will only be open until 9am on Tuesday 13 October, so there are only a few days to share your views.

Take the survey here.

Apple Day, one of the best-attended community events of the year, takes place a fortnight tomorrow, Saturday 17 October. On that day your trusty team of volunteers will, in time-honoured tradition, carefully set up Orchard Link’s largest oak apple press outside the village hall in Chillington, and go about their allotted task of pressing every spare apple in the parish into delicious juice (or, for those who have the skill and patience, a cider of rare delicacy) before the sun sets. Many of the apples will have come from one or more of the three community orchards in the parish, located in Beeson, Stokenham, and Chillington, gathered by schoolchildren or youth groups. Others will have been donated by generous orchard owners. Some will have arrived direct from village gardens in a plastic bag. All apples are welcome – all will be pressed, and there will be juice for everyone!

It’s been a funny old year in the orchard. Climate change has played havoc with temperatures, rainfall, and seasonality. Some trees have thrived while others have failed to produce a single fruit. Chillington Great Wood, normally a reliable source of apples to press, has had a very poor season, with over half the trees bearing little to no fruit at all. Beeson and Stokenham have done better, while a number of private orchard owners are reporting an excellent crop. A certain amount of variability is to be expected, the result of site microclimates and the range of varieties planted, but there will certainly not be as many apples as there were after last year’s bumper harvest.

All of which is a long way of saying: if you have any apples in your garden that you would like to have pressed, or if you fancy a morning or afternoon scrumping in one of the community orchards to gather a bag or two to bring along, then please do go ahead – the more, the merrier! Remember, apples to be pressed do not have to be perfect. Skin blemishes, a little bird peck or two, even a brown spot – all of these press well to give a delicious blend of juice. Come along on Saturday 17th – with or without apples – and try some yourself!

 

 

 

Draft minutes of September’s Full Council meeting are now published and available here.

The quest for a replacement of the ageing heating system in Stokenham parish hall continued this week, with a visit by representatives from both the parish hall committee and parish council to the very impressive and recently renovated village hall in Blackawton. There, in addition to a spanking new engineered oak floor, a large rooftop solar array with battery storage, acoustic reflective panels, and in-ceiling spotlights and projector, the visitors from Stokenham were able to witness the air-to-air heating system in operation, whisper quiet, keeping the hall at a comfortable 22 degrees at the touch of a button. They were advised that the village hall had also acted as a cool space for villagers during the recent heatwaves, maintaining a constant temperature of 17-18 degrees when outside temperatures exceeded 25 degrees. Best of all, the cost of the cooling was entirely covered by the energy generated by the on-roof solar panels, export from which produced an income of several thousand pounds each year. Pretty impressive!

The parish hall committee meets on Monday to make its decision.

Residents and visitors will be aware that the Tank car park at Torcross has been commandeered by the Environment Agency for plant and equipment necessary for the approaching sea defence works at Torcross. As a result, the bus is now using a portion of the Triangle to turn and manoeuvre. The upshot of all of this is a significant loss of parking within the village. Following representations from the community, South Hams District Council has made the following changes to parking regulations in the lay-by, effective today, 11 September:

The maximum stay is increased to 4 hours and the low-season tariff will come into operation immediately, rather than on 31^st October.  This will ensure turnover of vehicles as well as allowing longer stays. The tariff in the lay-by is as follows:

1 hour £1.60

2 hours £2.60

3 hours £3.70

4 hours £5.20

Additional parking is available at Stokeley Farm Shop, where the first two hours are free for shoppers and cafe customers. Other users pay £3 for up to 4 hours, and £5 for all-day parking.

The issue of the bus-turning area in Torcross is still under discussion between the parties.