Christmas Craft fair and Christmas Tree Lights was a Cracker!

Christmas Cracker!

The craft fair was in full swing by 3:30pm with the hall filled with eager parents and children looking for Christmas gifts on the fully stocked stalls.  Children queued patiently for the grotto to see Santa in the hope that they were on his Nice list.

At 5:45pm the craft fair ended and Santa and his elves led the school choir through the twinkly woodland walk in the lantern parade to the Christmas tree where Santa was reunited with his sleigh.

This year, the Christmas tree lights had to be installed with the help of a cherry picker as it had grown somewhat over the last year.  The multi-coloured lights were switched on by the Villager of the Year, David Gaygan.  The tree shone bright and did not disappoint.

 

In a change to the billed singer due to illness, the wonderfully talented Claire Coupland sang Christmas carols for the villagers.  Her beautiful voice belted out the most popular Christmas favourites.   In addition, this year we were spoilt as we also had carols sung by the primary school Choir and the 24 children sang their hearts out, it was beautiful to see and hear.

Festive treats of mince pies, Christmas biscuits and sweets were enjoyed accompanied by a cup of mulled wine, cider and juice to warm everyone through.

 

It truly was a great start to the Christmas season and another nice community gathering for the village: this year’s turnout far exceeded last year’s.

Overall, the Christmas Cracker event was a resounding success.  The money raised has been given to the primary school to put towards buying new playground equipment.

Commissioner Zoe launches survey to measure public trust and confidence in North Yorkshire Police

Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Zoe Metcalfe has today launched an online survey which invites the public to complete a set of questions that will gauge the level of public trust and confidence in policing response across North Yorkshire and York. The survey takes under 5 minutes to complete and is open to everyone, whether they’ve been a victim of a crime, a witness, a suspect or have an opinion to give on how they would perceive to be treated by the police if a situation occurred. Responses will influence Commissioner Zoe’s wider work, to promote change, ensure accountability and spread best practice and high standards of Police service.

Here is the full article with links to the survey: police survey

Villager of the year 2022 – winner announced!

The Parish Council asked for your nominees for Villager of the Year 2022 which resulted in 4 nominations; David Gaygan for his dedication to the village hall; the mystery crocheter for making the village smile at the wonderful post box toppers they make throughout the year; Madge Braid for her work running the village hedgehog sanctuary and Georgia Lambert for being caring to those around her. A vote was taken and David Gaygan was decided as this year’s winner. David attended the October Parish Council meeting where he was presented with the winner’s certificate and rosette.

Winner – Mr David Gaygan – Villager of the year 2022

The Death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth Il

It is with great sadness that we join our residents in this period of national mourning following the announcement of the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth Il who passed away earlier today.
The Parish Council would like to express their sincerest condolences and sympathies to all members of The Royal Family and everybody touched by the loss of our Sovereign.
The flag on the village green is now flying at half-mast.
On Saturday at 11am the flag will be raised to full mast to coincide with the reading of the principal proclamation. It will continue to fly at full mast until 1pm the following day, (Sunday) when it will be lowered again to half-mast. There it will remain until 8am the day after the Queens funeral

Charity chosen to receive the money raised from Jubilee Tickets

In the last parish council meeting held on the 11th May 2022, it was decided that the £450 raised from the Jubilee ticket sales would be donated in its entirety to Thorpe Willoughby Village Hall (charity number 503492).
The donation is to be used to help them improve the facilities in the kitchen, which will benefit all of the different village groups that use the hall each week.

Could you offer advice and support to North Yorkshire Police?

Why not join the Independent Advisory Group, where you can help influence local policing decisions on a wide range of issues?

What is an IAG? An Independent Advisory Group is a panel of volunteers who are committed to working with North Yorkshire Police by
providing advice and support on a number of issues. The aim of the group is to improve local policing, with you acting as a vital link between your community and the police.

Full details can be found here: Leaflet IAG

Gritter tracker launched to help you plan your winter journey!

People who live and work in North Yorkshire now have an extra tool to help them to plan their journeys in wintry weather with the launch of a new gritter tracker.

The online service from North Yorkshire County Council will enable people to see in real time where gritters are on the authority’s priority routes and where they have been during the preceding ten hours. The tracker went live today (Friday, 28 January) and can be found at www.northyorks.gov.uk/gritting County Councillor Don Mackenzie, Executive Member for Access, said: “Already, to help plan their journeys, people can view our priority routes and see up-to-date images from cameras at key locations around the county, as well as following our regular social media gritting updates. “The online gritter tracker is a further tool to help people to make informed journey planning decisions with confidence, particularly during wintry conditions. It gives more detail than ever before, allowing people to see where gritters are and which parts of the network have recently been treated. “This is a bespoke service that has been developed in-house specifically for North Yorkshire. It is no small feat to develop a system to track up to 80 gritters and all the data they generate.
“We are confident that from day one it will provide a useful service to people travelling in the county, but we are keen to hear from those who use it about any refinements that could improve it further. “By launching it during this winter, we hope to receive feedback on live situations, which we will be able to review over the summer. Ahead of next winter, we will be able to introduce any enhancements to ensure it provides information that is as full and accurate as possible.” The online trail disappears after ten hours to avoid confusing previous treatments with recent or current ones.

View the gritter tracker at www.northyorks.gov.uk/gritting, where you will also find details of how to give your feedback.