Important news update from Ruyton Parish Council

Message from Lydia Bardsley, Ruyton XI Towns Parish Clerk

Ruyton XI Towns Parish Council e-newsletter View this email in your browser

RUYTON XI TOWNS PARISH COUNCIL NOV 2022 UPDATE   Welcome to the Parish Council November update I hope you are all keeping safe and well as we move into the colder months. This newsletter aims to give an update on some Parish Council matters, but there is also an important survey we'd like you to fill in to help us establish demand for local Warm Hubs so we can lend our support where it is needed. Important to note Council meetings now back at the Victoria Room Parish Council meetings are now taking place face to face at the Victoria Room on Little Ness Road. Our next meeting is Tues 6th Dec, and you can view Agendas and past meeting minutes here. Thank you very much to St John's School and the Village Hall for accommodating our Council meetings over the last 18+ months since remote meetings ended.  Remembrance Day 2022  The Parish Council would like to extend a big thank you to Mark and the team at RDW Exhibitions for remodelling and donating the new Remembrance Day poppies you may have seen around the parish. Thanks also to Cllr Luke Penton for approaching RDW in the first place and making this happen. An especially big thank you goes out to Cllr Scott Denyer and his wife Rachel who spent hours and hours of their free time over a weekend putting the poppies in place to make sure they were all up in time for Remembrance Day. They also arranged and added new labels to commemorate the soldiers who fell during the First and Second World War (including those who died later as a result of their injuries), this helps passers-by to identify those who selflessly gave their lives.   In the words of our Vice Chairman Alyson Lister, "We are blessed to have such a lovely place to live, and such thoughtful and generous people in our midst." The Parish Council's thoughts go out to those who have loved and lost and who are still living with the effects of conflict. Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash Cost of living crisis and Warm Hubs Survey With the eye-watering rise in energy costs and ongoing cost of living crisis, the Parish Council is acutely aware of the challenges facing many in our parish (and neighbouring parishes) over the next few months. We have come together with local organisations and neighbouring parish councils to consider how we can best help those in need during this difficult time. Warm Hubs (or Warm Welcomes) are places where you can go free of charge to meet others, socialise, and save on heating your own homes, and there are a number of Warm Hubs across Shropshire, including the Oswestry and Shrewsbury area, but nothing in the parish itself currently. We will be delivering a flyer to all residents asking them to complete a short survey to establish what need there might be for Warm Hubs nearer to those parishes, or whether there is demand to put on transport to help get people to a Warm Hub locally or a location elsewhere. You can complete the online Warm Hub Survey here, or alternatively you can also fill in the survey on the flyer itself and drop it off in Café XI, or contact us to arrange collection. Even if you don't think you will need to use a Warm Hub yourself, please do complete the survey as the results will help us to support those who need it in the most effective way, and will also help identify people willing to volunteer at Warm Hubs, and/or help with transport to Hubs. Thank you in advance for your survey responses. Mill Lane Arboretum Some of you may know about this hidden gem in our community, and the Parish Council is working with the family who set it up to ensure it remains open and accessible to the local community for the future. We organised a small working party on 23.11.2022 to help clear some of the vegetation that has become a bit unruly.  CIL ROAD SAFETY IMPROVEMENT PROJECT & STONE CROSS Even though it may appear that there has not been a lot of visible activity to repair the Stone Cross, those who have been coming to Parish Council meetings will know that this has been an ongoing project, with a lot of work going on behind the scenes. Unfortunately, there were some considerable delays by Shropshire Council due to staff absences, which made it difficult for us to share meaningful updates on what was happening. Thankfully we are now having monthly meetings to progress the road safety project.   As soon as the design proposals have been finalised, arrangements will be made to inform residents about the proposals and ask for their comments. Dates for public displays and involvement will be published as soon as we are able. We will update the Council website and put up posters once we know more, so please keep your eyes open for updates. Cliffe Local Nature Reserve In Ruyton we are very fortunate to have this fantastic site on our doorstep, with numerous footpaths and bridleways for the community to enjoy the outdoors and appreciate local wildlife. The northern part of the Cliffe is owned by the Parish Council, and was declared a Local Nature Reserve earlier this year. To help raise awareness of the local plant life and wildlife and to encourage appreciation of the Cliffe, we are hoping to set up a Management Committee to oversee projects for this new Nature Reserve, for example information boards with maps and information on what you can see during your visit to the Cliffe. Cliffe Crew volunteers Cliffe Crew volunteers work with Shropshire Council rangers to help with habitat management to help local flora and fauna thrive in this special place. If you are interested in being involved in the Cliffe Crew, the Management Committee, and/or if you would like to help with the Nature Reserve project please do get in touch with us. Butterfly habitat management If you go down to the woods today …. you won't be surprised by a teddy bears picnic nor by this butterfly because it will be hibernating.  However if you are on the Cliffe on Thursday afternoon (1st Dec) then you may see a few members of the Cliffe Crew carrying out some practical conservation work aimed at improving the habitat for butterflies. A group of 8 people have been carrying out a butterfly survey for the last two years, once a week from the beginning of April to the end of September. We know what butterflies we have on the Cliffe (23 species in total) and we know what their habitat needs are. So now with other members of the Cliffe Crew we are going to try and meet those needs. If you'd like to know more, why not pop over to the Cliffe and have a chat with some of the Cliffe Crew members? Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash Climate Emergency Working Group A few years ago the Parish Council set up a Climate Emergency Working Group made up of councillors and members of the community. The Clerk and one of our newer Councillors, Kerry Coldwell have recently attended training for the Carbon Literacy Project and we are very keen to revive this Working Group to find ways to tackle the Climate Emergency on a local level through both individual and collective actions. If you would like to be involved, or if you have any suggestions for something you would like the Working Group to consider as a Climate action, please get in touch. In the meantime, here are a couple of small changes you could make in your homes, to reduce your own carbon footprint and the impact on the planet (and save you money too!): Make do and mend – Channel the thrifty mentality of an earlier generation and fix things rather than buying new. You can book in repairs for a range of items with the Oswestry & Borders repair café. The next Repair Cafe is 12-2pm on 10th Dec in Senior Citizens Centre on Lorne Street, Oswestry. Make sure to book in your repairs before 5th Dec! If you can sew or knit, you could make small fixes to clothing rather than throwing them away, or if they're really not fixable, you could use the old fabric to make a door draft excluder to insulate your home, and save yourself some money on energy bills. Repairing things will save you money, prevent things ending up in landfill, and save the carbon cost of manufacture and importing new goods. Do you have any tips, or lifestyle changes you've made to reduce your impact on the planet? Share your climate emergency ideas with us here. Ruyton XI Towns Parish Council use mailchimp to provide  e-newsletters or bulletins, which contain the latest local news and information relating to our Parish. The Parish Council are very grateful for the excellent work Yoland Brown does keeping residents informed and would like to say a special thank you to her for her efforts. Did someone forward you this newsletter? To stay in touch you can sign up to this official Parish council newsletter mailing list by clicking the link below.  Sign up to Parish Council Mailing List