Author: alpington-yelverton-admin

Please open the pdf file below for some comprehensive information from the NHS on the covid vaccination programme, dispelling some myths, and answering some common questions. Including religious beliefs, mild side effects, existing conditions, and if you’ve already had covid.

Yare Valley Farm Shop are trialling Surlingham’s first ever fish van down at the Farm Shop!

The lovely Tim from East Coast Fishmongers will be here every Thursday 12-4, from next Thursday 21st January.

This will be initially on a trial period for 4 weeks, so make sure you come and grab some wonderfully fresh fish direct from his van. The dates he’ll be here are:

• Thurs 21st Jan 12-4
• Thurs 28th Jan 12-4
• Thurs 4th Feb 12-4
• Thurs 11th Feb 12-4

Payments

Card payments accepted with minimum of £2 spend.

Directions

Just follow NR14 7GD to find us, when you’re on Mill Rd look for signs to Yare Valley Farm Shop or Teles Patisserie. Go down the drive and you won’t miss us!

Covid Measures

Please ensure to stand two metres apart if queuing for the fish van. Masks are required when purchasing your items and when queuing. If using the Farm Shop please be aware that only 2 people should be in the Shop at any one time and masks are to be worn at all times in the Farm Shop. There is a hand sanitiser dispenser located outside the Farm Shop.

Further info

Farm shop website

A free Compassionate Art online talk by Rev Dr Nick Garrard, Bishop’s Officer for Christian Spirituality through the Creative Arts in the Diocese of Norwich, will take place next week.

read more and sign up

Happy New Year!

January may seem like deep Winter, when staying warm by the logburner or fire holds more appeal that getting out in the garden however, weather permitting, there is a lot which can be done in your garden this month.

Protecting

Plants will need protection and maintenance at this time of year. Brush any snow from evergreens and conifers to stop the branches from being weighed down and breaking.

If wet weather has made ornamental grasses fall flat, start cutting these back to give them a fresh start. Check fleece and straw is still covering tender plants such as tree ferns.

Clearing, Weeding & Mulching

Remove any remaining dead top foliage from non-shrubby plants, fork over the soil between plants, burying any weeds. If feasible, continue digging heavy soils to be broken down by frost.
After plenty of rain, start mulching beds and borders with leaf mould, manure, compost or shredded bark – a layer 5-10cm deep is ideal.

Pruning

Thin out dead and diseased branches from established trees and shrubs. Winter prune Wisteria by cutting back – to within 3inches of the old wood – all young shoots not required. This will increase the size of your plant.

Feeding

Feed new plantings in late January with slow-release fertiliser such as Blood, Fish and Bone, but leave the application of faster-acting fertilisers such as Growmore until early March.

Wildlife also will benefit from your help at the beginning of the year. Put out various foods and water in your garden for hungry and thirsty birds. Stop ponds and bird baths freezing over by leaving a tennis ball to bob on top of the water.

Tidying up

January is also an appropriate time for tidying your garden and maintaining and repairing your garden furniture and decking. Tidy up the garden shed, cleaning, sharpening and oiling your gardening tools ready for action.

Recycle cut trees by shredding them for mulch or compost. Repair and stain or paint fences, pergolas and wooden furniture if weather conditions permit. Scrub slippery garden decking and paving with hot soapy water, or apply path and patio cleaner. On dry sunny days ventilate greenhouses and conservatories and wash the greenhouse glass to let in more light.

These tips were kindly contributed by local resident Cara MacColl

A post for anyone in the village who buys home heating oil.

Many residents may not be aware, but the village is a part of a wider oil purchasing scheme, where many people ordering at the same time can receive a better price. You order individually, without needing to time your order with others. It takes the hassle out of ordering, as the scheme negotiates the price on behalf of you and the others ordering near that time.

You can read more information with the button below, and then click through to the scheme’s website if you’re still interested. But basically there are two order dates per month, on each date you can send them an email with your order, and then within a couple of weeks you receive your oil. The price advantage comes from the fact that many other people will order at the same time, and the scheme can then negotiate a better price for the very large order.

oil purchase scheme details

Originally the parish council paid a lifetime membership for the village, so that all residents can take advantage. Since then the scheme has evolved so that there are now no collective or individual membership fees, and no need to quote any village scheme membership.

It’s worth looking into if you don’t enjoy ringing round to get the best price at the time. We are not sure of the exact size of the discount that is achieved by the scheme, but the idea is that you’ll get a better price for less effort.

Most dog walkers are responsible and clean up after their dogs.  However, there are some who don’t do this and we all know how unpleasant it is to step into dog poop on a footpath or playing field.

South Norfolk District Council has recently passed a public space protection order that requires people in control of dogs to clean up after them and to restrict dogs from enclosed children’s play areas.  There is a fixed penalty of £100 for breaching this public space protection order.

Alpington with Yelverton Parish Council has always taken the issue of dog fouling seriously and provides plenty of dog waste bins around the Parish.  This costs a good deal of money, as not only does the Parish Council have to buy the bins, it also has to pay for the emptying of them. The cost for emptying and the dog waste bins this year was over £760.

The Parish Council has also erected numerous signs encouraging dog walkers to “bag it and bin it”, including some colourful ones designed last year by children from Alpington and Bergh Apton C of E VA Primary School.

So, as the signs say, if your dog pooped please pick it up, bag it and most importantly bin it either in one of the dog waste bins or your own waste bin at home.

As 2020 draws to a close it’s a good time to reflect on what has been achieved in Alpington and Yelverton during the year.   

Much of 2020 has been dominated by the Coronavirus pandemic – something that we couldn’t have envisaged in January and February when we were planning for the Annual Parish Meeting due to be held on 16th March.  That meeting had to be cancelled, but thanks to having our Community Emergency Plan already in place we were quickly able to activate the Plan and coordinate volunteers in the villages to assist residents who were self-isolating or shielding during lockdown with shopping and collection of prescriptions.

Despite the pandemic a number of projects sponsored by the Parish Council were completed.  The Village Play Area behind the Village Hall was refurbished and expanded and reopened in time for the summer holidays and is now able to be safely enjoyed by children in the villages.

Last month we reported on the progress with the Village Pond restoration project and since then a small group of volunteers cleared some dead trees from the central island and tidied up the vegetation on the banks.  

Thanks to all the rain we had in October the Pond is now almost completely full of water and looking good. 

Both these projects were managed by parish councillors and made possible with grants from the Community Benefit Fund which receives annual payments from the local Solar Farm.  

The Community Benefit Fund is administered by the Parish Council and local groups can apply for grants for projects and activities that benefit the community.  We will be letting this year’s applicants know whether they have been successful by the beginning of December.

If you have driven or walked by the Pond recently you would doubtless have seen the restored Yelverton Village Sign.  

The old sign was in a very poor condition and the Parish Council approached the local Men’s Shed to ask if they would help restore it.  In the end the sign had to be completely replaced and the gentlemen at the Men’s Shed did a fantastic job.

The Parish Council would like to thank all the volunteers who have helped out this year.  We wouldn’t be able to achieve our goals without them.

The Parish Council meets every two months and meetings are open to the public.  Due to coronavirus restrictions we have been holding virtual meetings via Zoom since July but the public are welcome to join in.

Agendas and meeting details are posted on the Community website and Village Noticeboards.  The next meeting will be on 4 January 2021 at 7.30pm.

We would like to wish you all a happy and safe Christmas and best wishes for 2021.

Alpington with Yelverton Parish Council 

https://alpingtonwithyelverton.com/about/parish-council/

As this extraordinary year draws to its close and the days are at their shortest, slow down a bit. Try to limit your gardening work to some tidying up, protecting any tender plants and ponds and helping the wildlife in your garden.

Feeding

Keep your bird feeders topped up with a variety of seeds, nuts and suet products and make water available.

Watering

Although it makes sense to water plants sparingly at this time of year, do make sure that container plants and pots in the greenhouse don’t dry out completely.

Protecting plants

Protect tender palms and tree ferns. Pack a few handfuls of straw into the crown, tie up the leaves or fronds, and then wrap the whole plant in horticultural fleece or hessian tying it off securely at the bottom. Don’t be tempted to use plastic sheeting or bubble wrap because on warm days, your plants will sweat and rot.

Indoors, keep your houseplants happy by moving them away from warm radiators and into a sunny, cool place where they will fare much better.

Protecting ponds

If very severe frosts are forecast, float a football on the water in concrete lined ponds. When the water freezes, the ball will absorb the ice pressure rather than cracking the concrete sides. Fish may suffocate if ice persists for long, so melt a hole by standing a metal pan on the surface filled with boiling water.

Do not break up thick ice as this could injure the fish or if the broken ice falls into the water, this will lower the water temperature further and negate the insulating effect of the frozen surface.

Relaxing and planning for 2021

If you can find some quiet time, sit somewhere warm and comfortable and read some of the gardening magazines and books you never found time to read earlier in the year and conjure up some wonderful plans for your garden in 2021!

Let’s all look forward to the best Christmas we can create this year and to those short Winter days getting longer from Monday 21st December.

Merry Christmas!

These tips were kindly contributed by local resident Cara MacColl

The parish council has arranged for a chipping machine to be brought to Garrick field on Friday 4th Dec from 8.30am, to clear up the piles of felled trees currently lying along the side of the field. So two things to note:

1. Please stay away from that end of the field while it is going on, for safety reasons.

2. If anyone can spare the time to help us out with feeding the wood into the chipper then please let us know you’ll be coming, which you can do through the contact form on the website. There’s a lot to get through but with a few volunteers we can get through it much more quickly.

Many thanks!

After ten years of valued service to the community, Kevin Gotts will be standing down from his role as Parish Councillor at the end of the year.  We would like to thank Kevin for all he has done for our community over this time.

This means that there is an opening for a Parish Councillor from January 2021.  This is an unpaid role.   If you are a resident of Alpington or Yelverton and are interested in serving your local community in this way, please contact the Parish Clerk at clerk.alpington@gmail.com for further information on the role of a parish councillor.  There is also some useful information on the Local Government Association’s website, www.local.gov.uk , if you search for the Councillor’s Role. You might also want to have an informal chat with one of the Parish Councillors about the role. Contact the clerk on the same email address above if you would like to be put in touch.

The next Parish Council meeting is at 7.30pm on Monday, 4th January 2021.  These meetings are open to residents and are currently being held virtually via Zoom due to Coronavirus restrictions.  The agenda and login information will be published on the website in advance of the meeting.