Local news.
Warm Space. 'Warm Space' restarting on Wednesday 4th January in the Village Hall. Coffee and tea from 10am, soup from 12 midday. Come and have a chat in a Warm Space; all welcome.
Uffington Wed Walk - No walk for January. Hope you have all had a good Christmas. It was great to see many of you at our Christmas walk and lunch earlier in December. The weather was kind to us and the Greyhound in Letcombe provided a wonderful Christmas lunch. Some photos attached: https://mcusercontent.com/c90a1a7b6d1f693a28c947f92/files/cf5dee42-aafc-b906-5ebf-857217e91b00/Wed_walk_photos.pdf
Just to remind you that there will NOT be a Wed walk for January this year. We will be back to our usual routine from February onwards with a walk as always on the first Wed of each month, starting from Uffington Village Hall car park at 9:30. An e-mail will be sent out one week in advance giving details of each months walk. This also appears in Simon Jenkins' weekly village message - thank you Simon.
Wishing you all you wish for yourselves and those close to you in 2023 from the Uffington First Wed Walking committee - Verity, Pamela, Joe and Hilary.
Vale District Council news
Car parking. Car parking permit fees in the Vale of White Horse District are likely to increase slightly, following a decision at a recent Cabinet meeting to raise permit costs by ten per cent, in line with inflation levels. From April 2023, monthly permits to district council car parks will increase by £7 on average, with annual ... You can see details on our website by clicking this link
From the Churches of Uffington Benefice
The Weekly Sheet covering Sunday 25th December and Sunday 1st January is attached here: https://mcusercontent.com/c90a1a7b6d1f693a28c947f92/files/3466bf8f-f4a8-0995-9e89-7aa248822ea7/wsh_2022_12_25_2023_01_01_23.01.pdf
For all information, please see: https://www.uffingtonbenefice.com/
Uffington Lawn Tennis Club From Uffington Lawn Tennis Club
Merry Christmas! I wanted to wish you all the very best over the festive season, and to recognise things have been quite quiet at the tennis club recently, mostly due to the cold and dark winter. However, I want to ensure you're aware of a few things coming up, to encourage existing, and hopefully new members, so you can start to get involved in January.
Firstly, we moved our club nights to club days late Autumn, and these continue with a small but very welcoming group on Wednesday afternoons at 2pm. Please join the 'Club Night' WhatsApp group to get involved by contacting Annabel Campbell on email. On 15 January we will kick off the New Year with a 'Club Night Plus', running 10am-midday, culminating with a sociable 'bring-your-own' tea / coffee / snacks to allow everyone to catch-up on each other's' news, and to meet people if you're new to the Club.
We are also planning to run more matches this year with entries planned in both local leagues (again email Annabel if interested in getting involved) and a series of local friendly/social matches, which Juliet Moss will co-ordinate. Please contact Juliet if you're interested in friendly/social matches by email. We are seeking a captain for the Men's league team, so please email Annabel if you're prepared to help with this - the league games are great fun so you won't be disappointed if you do!
Regarding coaching, in conjunction with the LTA, we are offering a fabulous introduction to tennis for children. Starting in January for the price of £29.99 (plus P&P) you will get 6 quality sessions, a free tennis racket, set of balls and branded T-shirt. Don't miss this one-off opportunity, spaces limited, sign up today LTA Youth Start / Course (Must be NEW to tennis). Unfortunately, if we don't get enough coaching enrolments we won't be able to maintain our coaching offering - Game Set and Match Play, who we use for our coaching, are a commercial organisation and need minimum numbers to make the scheme viable. We've seen numbers decline slightly this year so we're really hopeful this can build again from January. Please get involved yourselves, and invite friends and family too. Coaching is currently being offered on Saturdays from 1.30-2.30pm for primary age group and 2.30-3.30pm for secondary. To join in please use our website at the following links (Primary Age Coaching and Secondary Age Coaching).
Bookings for our new January - March 2023 Junior Coaching Programme are being taken; more information attached: .https://mcusercontent.com/c90a1a7b6d1f693a28c947f92/files/78a77fe5-3a3a-9be1-4ff6-5075fac39437/Tennis_Uffington_Coaching_Programme_Jan_Mar_2023.pdf
Come and join our highly qualified and experienced coaching team who will deliver fun and engaging tennis sessions. All coaches are DBS certified and first aid trained. Sessions are held on a weekly basis and our coaching team will teach both technical and tactical aspects of the game.
Finally, looking further ahead, we will hold our AGM around the end of the Financial Year, and will send more detail on that when we have a date and an agenda. We will also hold our summer tournament again, which as always was a great success this year, so I hope as many of you as possible will start practicing now! Again more detail and a date for your diary to follow. And very lastly, the LTA are now running their ballot for Wimbledon tickets in the summer, which as a member of the Club (and hence the LTA) you are eligible to bid for. They used to run this through venues, but now do so centrally, so please go to the LTA website 'My Benefits' area to register (LTA Benefits Website). The ballot closes mid-January so don't delay!
Thank you very much for reading this.
Robert Hart, Chairman Uffington Lawn Tennis Club, mail@clubspark.co.uk
Village news 23 December 2022 General information
Vital help with energy bills on the way for millions more homes across Great Britain and Northern Ireland - GOV.UK. See: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/vital-help-with-energy-bills-on-the-way-for-millions-more-homes-across-great-britain-and-northern-ireland
(This has the £200 payment for those on alternative fuels confirmed as being via electricity bills in February).
Local news
Church Services on Christmas Eve: - 3.00 pm Family Crib Service at St Mary's and 4.00 pm Nativity at St Nicholas' Baulking - both services are suitable for families with young children.
- 11.00 pm Traditional Midnight Mass at All Saints, Woolstone (Carols will be sung).
- Christmas Day: 9.00 am Baulking, 10.00 am Uffington, 10.15 am Shellingford.
Benefice draw results - 11 December. See attached: https://mcusercontent.com/c90a1a7b6d1f693a28c947f92/files/4178872d-590e-1ef5-1b24-8446e1b12f8f/Benefice_draw_results_December.pdf
Does anybody need the help of an accountant / bookkeeper? Ira has been living in Uffington with her 10 year-old-daughter, Liza, since August. In the Ukraine, she studied accountancy, and used her qualifications to work as a bookkeeper in a variety of offices. She would like to put her skills to use over here, starting locally to learn how our systems work. She is in her early 40s, has a friendly personality, a good sense of humour and is always willing to help. For the past five months, she has been working hard to improve her English, she knew none when she arrived so it is still limited but improving daily (and google translate is easy to use). She does have use of a car so is mobile. If anyone is willing to offer a trial project, no matter how small, or knows someone who might, please do get in touch with Adam or Jane Ruck - 01367 820571.
From the Wilts & Berks Canal Trust. We are pleased to announce that we have, this week, completed the purchase * of Uffington Gorse, 9 acres of public amenity woodland and 200m of canal in Oxfordshire. (* This could also be described as the acquisition of a lease for nearly 1,000 years).
We have therefore closed the fundraising appeal to the Trust's members, who very generously contributed 42% of the cost of this important purchase. For those who have contributed since the completion on 13th December 2022 we can offer two options: - Put your recent gift into the fund we are setting up to refurbish and maintain the site. If you choose this option, you will not need to contact us.
- Refund your gift. If you choose this option, please contact us at info@wbct.org.uk
It has taken eight months from the point where we identified the previous owner, negotiated the purchase, raised the funds and completed the acquisition - a spectacular achievement by all those involved, but most of all by those members who have supported this purchase.
The next steps, which have already started, are to create plans for the maintenance of the woodland, restoration of the towpath and dredging the canal. The site will be complementary to our Canal Park at Shrivenham. It's a special place with plenty of bird life and this week three deer were spotted in the adjoining field. Please take time to make a visit. The nearest postcode is SN7 7QD with the best entrance at the What3words location https://w3w.co/intruded.tables.wealth
Photo attached here: https://mcusercontent.com/c90a1a7b6d1f693a28c947f92/images/e85c76a3-a9d0-46c5-be29-adb5270aa2db.jpg
Vale District Council news
Please find attached District Cllr Boyd's December report: https://mcusercontent.com/c90a1a7b6d1f693a28c947f92/files/df36e4ad-b3e3-0c45-e788-076b60a7c8bc/Vale_December_Parish_Report.pdf
Christmas waste collections. Waste normally collected on Mondays will be collected as follows: Wednesday 28 December, Wednesday 4 January, Tuesday 10 January.
Information on Christmas tree collection points is here: Christmas tree collections - Vale of White Horse District Council (whitehorsedc.gov.uk)
From the Police. From the Churches of Uffington Benefice
Please find attached the Weekly Sheet for Sunday 25th December and Sunday 1st January: https://mcusercontent.com/c90a1a7b6d1f693a28c947f92/files/4f524a3c-3dd2-4536-3010-4348b502feb6/wsh_2022_12_25_2023_01_01_23.pdf
(There will be no Weekly Sheet next week).
For all information, please see: https://www.uffingtonbenefice.com/
The Parish Council wishes all residents a very happy Christmas and a healthy and successful year in 2023; the Council would particularly like to thank all those villagers who have given freely of their time and energy to improve our villages for the benefit of all residents.
SCAS declares critical incident due to extreme pressures SCAS declares critical incident due to extreme pressures
South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SCAS) has declared a critical incident due to extreme pressures across our services which have built through weekend and into this week.
This is related to the continued high level of demand with a large volume of calls being received by our 999 and 111 teams, staffing levels and crews caring for patients at hospital until being able to handover into the care of the hospital which impacts our ability to get crews back on the road to respond to patients.
999 calls are up 50% on this time last year and 111 calls up 75% over the same period.
Our staff and volunteers continue to work extremely hard to respond to calls and incidents and we continue to prioritise those patients with life-threatening injuries and illnesses.
Some patients whose situation is not a life-threatening emergency are being assessed by clinicians who are providing advice and urging them to make their own way to hospital if they do not require an emergency ambulance response.
Declaring a critical incident means we are able to focus our resources on those patients most in need and communicates the pressures we are under to our patients and health system partners who can provide support where possible.
In addition, we have also:
• Asked staff if they are able to work additional hours
• Explored the potential of increasing third party provision
• Reviewed the deployment of non-frontline clinically trained staff redeployed into frontline roles
We are asking the public to help us at this time by using our services wisely and also utilising other healthcare alternatives including 111.nhs.uk for urgent medical advice and guidance wherever possible and appropriate to do so, as well as urgent treatment centres, pharmacists and their GPs.
Industrial action impact on SCAS
Information on how industrial action planned for 21 and 28 December may affect our services has been published on our website at https://www.scas.nhs.uk/about-scas/industrial-action/
South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust
www.southcentralambulance.nhs.uk
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