Jan 1

Chris Carter returned to the Parish Council last night when he was co-opted to fill the vacancy left by Miles Freeman. As readers will appreciate, Chris is the Editor of this fine publication, Editor and Webmaster of your local website 'www.lympstone.org', Secretary of the village Shops Supporters Club, Secretary for the Sea Scouts and local sailor. He was also a councillor from 1992 to 1996.

Two other candidates put themselves into the frame, Jim Morris and Paul Hickson. After the vote, which Chris won on the first round, Council Chairman Peter Acca thanked the others for coming forward and hoped that they would still be involved in village affairs as other opportunities to join the Parish Council would come forward.

It is 'Use it or lose it' time for the opportunity to speak to a parish Councillor outside of a Council meeting.

Unless there is a major response, the next Councillors Surgery will be the last, as there has been very little interests shown since the Surgeries were set up twelve months ago.

The next Surgery is to be held at 10.00am on Saturday 17th January 2009 in the Village Hall. On this occasion at least one District Councillor will also be available for discussion on any matters involving EDDC.

The Youth Club is looking for people to help with renovation works to the building. There is always work to do, so if you can find a few hours to spare to improve this vital activity for children of the village why not come along to the Surgery to find out more. In particular the Youth Club have an immediate need for someone to fit carpets and fix tiles.

Digital TV is coming to Lympstone this year. This means that all residents may have to make some adjustments to their TV reception if they are to continue to watch TV. Most of Lympstone should come under the Stockland Hill group of transmitters which switches on 6^thMay 2009 . However there may be some homes that point their aerials towards the Beacon Hill group which switches on 8^thApril 2009. By then you will need to have set up equipment to receive digital TV, if you have not already done so.

The Parish Council will hold a Digital Switchover Awareness Event in place of its next Councillor's Surgery at 10.00am on Saturday 14th February 2009 in the Village Hall. Staff from MAKRO and others will also be on hand to explain the switchover and answer questions in an unbiased way. (This is not a sales pitch by them).

If you are unsure about the options that are available or about help in making the switchover, or know anyone who might need help, please come along.

Robert Harrison has led the 'Beating of the Parish Bounds' for the last three events and maintains an historical record of the proceedings. He gave an informative presentation to the Parish Council meeting when he described the success of last year's event when 80 people took part. Most landowners are happy to support this important event by allowing the group to walk across their land, provided that no damage or great inconvenience is caused. Even then, very satisfactory compromises have been reached and so the walk was regarded as a complete success and a very enjoyable day. The Parish Council expressed its thanks to Robert for continuing to organise these events.

This year's Annual Parish Dinner is to be held in The Globe at 7.30 on Saturday 7th February 2009. All Parish Councillors are expected to attend and anyone else with an interest in Parish Council affairs is also invited. Please contact the Chairman, Cllr Peter Acca Tel 270209 or theaccas@yahoo.co.uk for tickets.

2009 sees the 600th Anniversary of the Parish Church in Lympstone. The PCC would like to mark this with a series of events in the Parish during the year.

The Parish Council fully supports this idea as the Church has been the backbone of Village Life through many turbulent times. If you would like to organise an event or help others to do this, please contact Brian Mather, PCC Secretary, Amanzi, Harefield Drive, Lympstone.

Clerk to the Council: A J Le Riche, DMS, 43 Salisbury Road, Exmouth, EX8 1SL, Tel 279665/ 07866 535580 lympstonepc@leriche6.wanadoo.co.uk

FROM THE EDITOR

Good Christmas? Good, then you will be all ready to involve your self doing ‘good works’ in the village as our Parish Council Chairman suggested in last month’s Herald.

Cllr Jane Moffatt is particularly interested in finding volunteers who can lay carpet or do tiling at the youth club.

Happy New Year? Made any resolutions? No? Well at least you have nothing to break. I am feeling very virtuous as I have already started to work on my TTD (Things To Do) file starting with all those little things I noticed last year and did nothing about. One of my first jobs is cutting back bushes and trees which are overhanging the public footpath outside my house. Are yours?

Congratulations to people like those dustbin men and those working on the recycle lorries around Christmas. This year they apparently made a real effort to clear all the rubbish over the holidays including some very extraordinary items, and did so on time and on date without leaving any further mess.

No such congratulations to those who arranged for refurbishment work on the cycle path to Exmouth which a couple of weeks after they left was almost blocked again by minor landslides spilling onto the path and blocking drains. And whilst in that area, have you noticed that all notice boards on the path have photos of sections of the Dart estuary rather than our own?

Whilst on the subject of the cycle/footpath – the latest schedule for the extension from Lympstone towards Exeter indicates that the section up to The Puffing Billy should be completed by next Christmas. May be then Devon CC will accept that Lympstone is on the cycle path, ie it does not finish by The Lookout, and do something about the road safety aspects of cyclists ploughing through the village.

More from the last Parish Council meeting

Someone has recognised the danger of mixing cyclists with pedestrians on Station Hill as a coloured footpath is planned for along side the embankment.

Crime figures from the police indicate a 6% drop in crime in the village last year.

Scouts

Thanks to all those that supported the Scouts Christmas postal service and the Bingo session which was a great success and call for another in the near future. Perhaps we could have a Horse Racing night?

Chris Carter, Ed Lympstone Herald

Under the Freedom of Information Act it is the duty of every public authority (such as our Parish Council) to adopt and maintain a publication scheme.

Details of this scheme which came into effect on the 5^th of January 2009 will be published as part of the above website.

Exercises are a sure follow-up to Xmas. Medical adverts indicate how much we look for help outside the NHS. Takeaway food and home catering indicates the need to cut costs whilst still feeding hordes of people. Property maintenance and energy monitoring indicate cost cutting whilst doing essential jobs. The creation of a new business park is good news all round whilst offsite storage indicates that more of us are trying to avoid moving although renting a property might be the only alternative to a moving problem. Computer, clock, and garden maintenance and dog grooming all indicate a desire to keep one’s precious possessions fit and working well. Financial advice is especially useful now but if you need extra money then why not become a Host Family or do B & B. And don’t forget, extra tuition may be essential for young people to achieve essential academic qualifications.

All the above and more are covered by advertisements in the Herald and indexed on the www.lympstone.org web site.

Editor: Chris Carter, Hillcrest, Greenhill Ave, Tel 274104. Copy editor – P Acca

Distribution: Jill Newton, Two Jays, Burgmann’s Hill Tel 263809

Herald archive and Lympstone web site – www.lympstone.org

Copy deadline for next issue – Wednesday 4th Feb – 10 am

Copy by e-mail, if possible, to chriscarterathome@hotmail.com or to

The Editor at Hillcrest, Greenhill Ave, Lympstone EX8 5HW