Community, Parish Council & Village
St Mary’s Update – 1st September 2016St Mary’s Church update for 1st September provides listings of services, bible readings and other events and news such as Wired Youth Club, Messy Church, Ride & Stride & an Evangelism Course.
Starting at 7:45pm, Wired youth club kicks off the new term with a Lego evening! Continue reading “St Mary’s Update – 1st September 2016”
St Mary’s Update – 9th August 2016St Mary’s Church update for 9th August provides listings of services, bible readings and other events and news such as Ride & Stride, Messy Church with an Olympic theme & Coggeshall Flower Festival.
This coming Sunday the theme for Messy Church will be the Olympics. Hope you can join us! Continue reading “St Mary’s Update – 9th August 2016”
Women’s Institute August 2016 Update
Newly elected joint Presidents are Sheila Boxshall and Manya Barrow. West Bergholt W.I. Membership now stands at 55.
In June, members brought cakes, which they donate once a year to St Helena Hospice, for visitors and patients afternoon teas. The speaker that month was Sheila Gunson with her talk entitled Continue reading “Women’s Institute August 2016 Update”
Films & LiteratureFilms & Literature is the topic of the upcoming WEA course starting at 8pm on 13th September. The course will investigate the way books & cinema have influenced the other as David Read, the tutor, says:
From the early days of cinema to the present day film has shared with the novel a passion for storytelling. Early pioneer of the Silent Film D W Griffiths, cited the novels of Dickens as an influence on his technique and to this day film makers continue to use literature as an inspiration.
Films/books that we will consider in the study are “The Great Gatsby” and “Pride & Prejudice”.
WEA classes are friendly and supportive. You will work in groups and with the whole class, sharing ideas and views and giving and receiving feedback. The WEA tutor uses a range of different teaching and learning methods and will encourage you to be actively involved in your learning. You will get the texts for the following week each session and might find it it useful to supplement them with some internet research or background reading.
Find out moreThe course will run for 9 evenings at the Methodist Hall, Chapel lane, and will cost £47.25. (If you are on low income and benefits, let the organiser know, the fee may be waived). If you would like to find out more contact Gill on 01206 240512, you are also most welcome to try the first evening for free.
A selection of some activities that are coming up that are suitable for family days together at Holytrees Museum, Colchester Castle and the Natural History Museum.
This summer, the CHaOS Roadshow will be heading across the country with free science events including one in Colchester on Monday 8th August. Just turn up between Continue reading “Chaos & Other Events this August”
The Premises & Recreation Sub-Committee of West Bergholt Parish Council met on 4th July when, among other items, they discussed Health & Safety, Scouts, Social Club, Youth Football, Flower Club, Orpen Players & Orpen Hall toilets.
The Environment & Highways Sub-Committee of West Bergholt Parish Council met on 21st July 2016 and discussed a range of issues including football club storage, handymen work, hover mower, allotments, school entrance & play equipment.
Community Broadband Update July 2016The Community Broadband Group recently sent a letter to residents, and are now offering further information which requires attention by 1st August.
Nearly 4 months ago, after recognising that the availability of broadband services in the West Bergholt area was becoming progressively less satisfactory, Aaron Williams was invited to give a presentation to the Parish Council meeting in April and it was agreed that improvement was essential. As a consequence, presentations were subsequently made by County Broadband, British Telecom Openreach and Voneus, all who are potential providers of alternative solutions. The Community Broadband Group was established to review presentations that had been made, to consider the options potentially available to the village, and to provide an impartial and considered view of what the Group believes to be in the best interests of the community.
The Voneus presentation showed that they offered a solution that would improve the broadband speeds available in the village, but otherwise differed only in minor details from the wireless technology already in use.
The BT Openreach presentation indicated that they could offer higher broadband speeds by installing “fibre to the cabinet” (FTTC). Although this would improve broadband speeds for the majority of residents, for technical reasons improvement could be limited for those living a distance from the cabinet. BT Openreach would charge residents collectively as much as £50K before carrying out any installation work. Another important consideration is that if this option were to be taken by a significant number of residents, it would almost certainly prevent availability to the village of the latest fibre technology for broadband delivery for many years (if not decades) into the future.
The County Broadband (CB) presentation began with a brief review of how they have served West Bergholt in the past. Around 5 years ago, when no other supplier offered a high speed broadband service, CB provided a service of up to 8mbs based on wireless technology; that speed has progressively increased to 32mbs, although wireless technology still puts a limitation on the extent to which quality can also be improved. CB now plan to install a fibre infrastructure throughout the village (subject to survey) enabling them to offer a broadband service, using “fibre to the home” (FTTH), without any installation charge to the village. Apart from greatly improved quality and reliability, this would bring further advantages; firstly, any connection could have broadband speeds of up to 1000mbs and secondly that, once installed, a fibre network is effectively a future proofed technology with almost unlimited capacity for future upgrades.
After careful consideration of the options available to the village from Voneus, BT Openreach and County Broadband, the Group has unanimously agreed that the best interest of the whole village is most effectively served by supporting County Broadband’s Fibre to the Home project, although the Group supports the right of all residents to make their own choice of provider. The Group considered a number of reasons for its conclusion but believes that three key facts justify its view.
Should you not wish to take advantage of the service from County Broadband now, the existing BT Openreach service would still be available. The County Broadband system would then be available to you at a future date.
For further information, please contact [antibot mailto=”[email protected]”].
Signed Roly Buss
Chairman – West Bergholt Community Broadband Group
In the letter by ‘without any installation charge to the village’ it was referring to County Broadband requiring no funding contribution from the village as a whole. After the 1st of August the zero installation fee (to the individual subscriber) period is due to end.
All residents were sent a copy of the letter as shown above. It provides a summary of the groups discussions and its conclusion. A full assessment document, which will contain more detail such as pros and cons, will only be published shortly but only electronically due to its length & detail.
The following link is to a PDF file:
Murray Harlow – Communications Parish Councillor.
Chris Davies – Withdrew due to other commitments.
Bergholt Heath Football Development SquadBergholt Heath is keen to expand and is launching a “development squad” open to all local children. This will offer football training to children aged between 4 and 6 (before the age they are able to officially join a team and play organised football). Training will be on a Saturday morning at the Lorkin Daniel playing field starting in September 2016. The exact time will be set to avoid conflict with the existing Bergholt Heath teams also training on a Saturday morning at the Poors Field during term time. Any child entering EYFS (Reception) or Year 1 at the start of the 2016/2017 academic year will be able to join.
The focus of training sessions will be on children developing basic skills while having fun and making friends. Children will take part in a range of activities and games designed to ensure that everyone improves and enjoys themselves so they are ready to start playing games organised by the local Colchester league at Under 7 if they wish to. Boys and girls are welcome to attend training sessions. The cost is likely to be between £2 and £3 per session (payable only when they attend).
Training will be led by Gareth Minter, a teacher at Heathlands Primary School who holds FA coaching qualifications. All coaches will be DBS (CRB) checked and approved.
In order to take part in training children will need to be registered with the development squad. To register your interest in joining please email your name, the name of your child and their year group at the start of the academic year 2016/2017 to Gareth Minter at [antibot mailto=”[email protected]”]. If you have any questions please contact Gareth at this email address or speak to him at school.
More about Bergholt HeathBergholt Heath Youth Football Club is an FA charter standard club that has been running youth football in West Bergholt since 1999. Over the years, most of its young players have come from Heathlands School.
We are looking for enthusiastic coaches to assist in delivering the training sessions to the development squad. If prospective coaches do not come forward this will limit the number of children able to join the squad, so please, don’t be shy! Experience in playing and/or coaching the game would be ideal but not essential. If you are able to offer your help please contact Gareth Minter at [antibot mailto=”[email protected]”]. Please note anyone working with children will need to go through the DBS checking procedure (organised by the Club) to ensure the safety of the children attending the sessions. If there are people who wish to develop their coaching, Bergholt Heath will assist those wishing to take the FA level one coaching qualification.
First of all, the Parish Council held an extended Parish Council meeting at the end of April to review all the options open to us. Aaron Williams gave an excellent presentation and consequently meetings have been held with many ‘players’. These meetings with County Broadband, Voneus, BT Openreach and Essex County Council means the position about better broadband in the village is becoming a little clearer.
Continue reading “Broadband Update July 2016 – What Options?”