Ride and Stride Wiltshire Historic Churches Trust Ride and Stride, Great Somerford The Ride and Stride was very different this year as churches could not be open, but it was decided to run it while respecting COVID restrictions. We were certainly blessed with the weather on 12 September when six of us took part on behalf of Great Somerford. Anna Kent and her grandchildren, Grace (5years) and Leo (2years) visited 3 churches - good going for little legs. Sally and I managed 13 and Adrian a very creditable 35. We were able to raise £275 for the Trust and would like to thank all our sponsors for their generosity. My thanks to them and the participants. Tina Johnson, Hollybank. Great Somerford
Enginuity A monkey was sitting in a tree eating some fruit and being a clever monkey he thought that this was messy. So he got a piece of wood and made it into a tool that could slice his fruit. However when he sliced up his fruit he still had to pick it up with his fingers which made them all sticky. So being a clever monkey he made a tool with four points so that he could eat in a state of cleanliness. Then for many a day he sat in the trees eating his fruit with his one point tool and his four point tool as happy as Larry. However one morning he awoke to find his four point tool was missing. The monkey was bereft and went on a search. He asked a lion who said he had not seen it. He asked a giraffe who said he had not seen it. He asked a herd of gnus who shook their heads sadly and told him sorry there had been no sign. And then he bumped into a jaguar and asked 'have you seen my four point tool?' 'Yes' said the jaguar. 'Oh thank goodness' said the monkey, Where is it?' 'I ate it', the jaguar replied. The monkey was really angry and shouted 'what the heck!' and was answered with "but I'm a four-point-tool-eater jaguar."
Seagry Parish Council Since March 24 this year the Parish Council, following WCC instructions, had not met in person, although our duties were largely carried out by email. The Annual Parish Meeting in April had to be cancelled along with the Neighbourhood Plan referendum. It is planned for both to run in 2021, with the NP referendum to be held in tandem with the local elections in May. We recently held our first meeting using ‘Zoom’ and it was good to meet - virtually - face-to-face at last! Full council minutes, including planning decisions can be found on the website. A major discussion item at that meeting, of concern to many parishioners, was the detrimental effects of increased levels and speed of HGV traffic through the village. The PC is pursuing various lines 8
Signpost November 2020
of enquiry here, both with Wiltshire County Council and local bodies. One of the difficult issues is the need to collect and present evidence of the problem for Wiltshire Police and the Highways Authority. Consequently the PC has bought two ‘Autospeedwatch’ devices to do exactly that. A voluntary ‘Community Speed Team’ is being put together to run this project. A related issue is the poor quality of road reinstatement following works to install high speed broadband - we are following this up with the company Gigaclear. Following local consultation the PC went ahead with the purchase of two defibrillators. These are now installed at the pavilion on the Recreation Ground and at Lower Seagry, at the junction with the lane leading to the church. Lastly, during the lockdown, the PC offered support to parishioners needing help with food deliveries etc. More than 70 such deliveries have been made thus far - many thanks to all those volunteers who helped. More details of PC activities can be found on the website - www.seagryparishcouncil.gov.uk
