Perton Pages April 2015

APRIL 2015

Perton & Pattingham Pages MAGAZINE ▪ ONLINE ▪ SOCIAL MEDIA ▪ MOBILE DEC

LIST YOUR BUSINESS, EVENT OR GROUP – CALL 07734 461934 NOW ››› Local Business Index

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››› Gavin Williamson Column

p2 ››› Perton Carnival News p4 12 ››› Stagecoach Enrolment

››› Spring Festival @ Library

p11 ››› Local PGA Golf Tips

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PP/APRIL

LOCAL BUSINESSES ▪ EVENTS ▪ GROUPS ▪ CLASSES ▪ NEWS 1

Perton Business Index Home& Garden Ala rms /CCTV/Home Se curity Ba throoms Blinds Builders Ca rpentry Ca rpet & Interiors Clea ning Services Domes tic Applia nce s & Repa ir Ele ctricia ns Flooring Ga rden Ce ntre Ga rdening & La nds ca ping Kitchens Lighting Locks mith Oven Cle a ning Pa inter & De cora tor Pla s terer Plumbing & He a ting Property Ma intena nce Roofing Tiling Tree Surge on Windows, Doors & Conservatories

Window Clea ning Eating & Drinking Re s ta ura nts & Ta ke a wa ys M otoring & Transport Bodywork Driving School Ma inte na nce Minibus Hire Ta xi Service Classes, Groups & Events Da nce Cla s s es Events Guita r Les s ons Slimming The a tre & Pe rforming Arts Tuition IT, Finance & Property Computers & Re pa ir Fina ncia l Advis e r Office Letting Property Purcha s e Property Sa les & Lettings Wills & Es ta te Pla nning Lifestyle, Leisure & Retail Childca re & Schools Community Ca re Footca re Fune ra l Directors Gifts & Home wa re Golf Clubs Ha ir, He a lth & Be a uty Home a nd Building Supplies Ironing & Altera tions Photogra phy Toy Shop Animals & Pets Pe t Grooming

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Visiting Foot Care Service NOW available in this area Nails Trimmed Corns Removed Painful Toenails Verruca Treatment Fungal Conditions Cracked Heels Hard Skin/Callus Reduction

Call 01902 687814 for appointments

VILLAGE BLINDS

NEW SHOWROOM AT 1 FINCHFIELD ROAD WEST 3 vertical blinds supplied for £75 up to 5' width.

Individual blinds supplied from £20 each ________________________________

Fitting service offered Free home visits with pattern books. ________________________________

All blinds are made to measure.

We supply and fit roller blinds, aluminium venetian, wooden venetian, roman blinds etc.

CALL US FOR A FREE QUOTATION 01902 766755 OR EMAIL village.blinds@hotmail.co.uk

A Word From Gavin Williamson...............

I am always extremely proud the amount of volunteer organisations that we have in South Staffordshire. We are so lucky to have a wide variety of local charities and support groups, and it is a huge comfort to live in an area where you know that this kind of support is readily available to us.

However it isn’t just the people of South Staffordshire that need our support, but our countryside also. You may recall I have led many campaigns to protect our green belt and our beautiful surrounding area whilst representing South Staffordshire.

I am very much looking forward to attending the Perton Springwatch Festival once again that will take place at the end of April. The event is hosted by Wild About Perton and Perton Library and celebrates the wildlife and wild places in and around Perton. This year will mark the seventh edition of the festival which is extremely popular in the local community and links with the hugely popular BBC Springwatch programme.

I am always amazed at the diversity of wildlife that we have here in South Staffordshire and holding the Springwatch event is a brilliant way of demonstrating to people, young and old, the massive range of animals, trees and fauna that we have in our local area.

It is brilliant to see the amount of local community groups that we have that are dedicating to preserving and protecting our wildlife. At the Springwatch Festival last year I was able to get up close and personal with bats with Staffordshire Bat Group, find out more about endangered bumblebees with the Bumblebee Conservation and discover the different types of butterflies found in Perton’s Green Spaces with the Butterfly Conservation Group as well as hear about the mini-beasts found in Perton’s lakes and ponds with Wild About Perton. There were many more organisations such as Staffordshire Wildlife Trust, Halfpenny Green Owl & Falconry Centre and the West Midlands Hedgehog Rescue Centre.

I am so looking forward to going back to the Perton Springwatch Festival and I hope that it will encourage all the people that visit, as it did me last year, to get more involved in preserving the wonderful wildlife that makes South Staffordshire so special.

It is always fun to get to know some of the feathered and furry constituents a little better at these events and makes me even more determined to protect them and their habitats for future generations.

To contact Gavin Williamson call 01902 846616 or 0207 219 7150 4

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Perton Parish Council: News Update April 2015 Perton Parishioners interested in local affairs and activities are advised to regularly check local notice boards around the area and, for full details the Parish Council website on www.pertonparishcouncil.gov.uk or call 01902-745971 Parish Council Meetings: Monday 13 th April & Annual Parish Meeting: Monday 27th April both at Perton Civic Centre @ 7pm Help make Perton an even Safer Place to Live; Look out for each other and join your local 'Neighbourhood Watch' now. (see poster on notice boards for more details) 'Flicks in the Sticks' Movie Magic: Senior Citizens from Perton, Kingswood & Trescott admitted Free of Charge, all others £3.50 intermission refreshments @ 50p per person • Belle: Thursday 16th April 2015 @ 2pm (The mixed race daughter of a Royal Navy Admiral is raised by her aristocratic great-uncle in 18th century England) • The Theory of Everything: Thursday 16th April 2015 @ 2pm (Based on Jane Hawking's memoir of her life with Stephen) PERTON PARISH COUNCIL: SERVING THE LOCAL COMMUNITY

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Brian Breakwell Painter & Decorator Semi-Retired with over 40 Years Experience Cheap Rates All Work Guaranteed

Tel: 07976 152817 or 01902 753364 Email: sarah-2503@hotmail.co.uk

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PERTON CARNIVAL 2015 NEW VENUE- the centre of Perton NEW PARADE ROUTE- Gainsborough Drive to Severn Drive This year Perton Carnival will have a new venue, the centre of Perton, where the public will have free admission for the first time. Sainsbury's have kindly given permission for the use of the pedestrian area and South Staffs District Council for the use of the green area next to the Library.

Local organisations and charity support groups are bringing their fund-raising stalls and local businesses are also invited to attend. There will be fairground attractions, including a Giant Slide, Bungee Run, Roundabout, Laser Quest, Rodeo Bull and candyfloss. The Wrottesley Arms pub will be the stage venue, with a barbecue and outside bar. West Midlands Classic Cars will be on the pub car park with the First Responders. The Civic Centre will host Picklelily, the magician and refreshments. Stalls will be in The Church At Perton.

The Parade will start from the Pavilion car park on Gainsborough Drive beginning at 12 noon., turning left on the Parkway, then right into Severn Drive at the second entrance. MP Gavin Williamson will again judge the floats. We would like to have more entries this year so invite groups of friends, charity supporters and neighbours to enter. Previously we have had people decorating cars, pushchairs and even mobility scooters.

We hope to see a good turnout again for our village's largest event and ask for donations so that this important fundraiser for our local organisations can continue next year. We particularly help our uniformed young people from the Scout and Guiding movements and participating local groups.

All money raised is for our community.

Penny Allen, Secretary, tel. 01902 756125, For booking forms tel. 01902 758140

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Words of Wisdom from Rev Julia Cody..........

Any Easter eggs left? Even if not, I’m sure you can picture a chocolate egg! Most of the eggs lining supermarket shelves before Easter are hollow, with additional chocolates depending on the brand. The eggs themselves are all similar - hollow, chocolate.

Real eggs - the non-chocolate kind! - are symbols of life. New life springs from eggs: from chickens to spiders, fish to dinosaurs… even us! At Easter we think of little fluffy chicks, newly hatched from their eggs, celebrating spring and new life.

At the heart of Easter is a celebration of new life. On Good Friday we commemorate Jesus’ death on the cross, and his body laid in a tomb.

Three days’ later, his tomb was discovered to be empty… and at Easter we celebrate that Jesus was given new life - he was resurrected.

Our hollow chocolate eggs can remind us of the empty tomb. On the first Easter, when Jesus’ friends went to visit his tomb, they found it empty - like our empty chocolate eggs. New life breaks out of eggs, leaving them cracked open and empty… Jesus broke out from the tomb with new life, leaving it cracked open and empty. You can’t confine new life in an egg, or a tomb - it breaks free.

When you’re enjoying your hollow, empty chocolate eggs, perhaps remember the empty tomb and Jesus’ new life. This is the great message, not just of Easter, but every day, that God’s love for us even defeated death, giving us incredible hope.

01902 750232

www.churchatperton.net

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Wild About Perton in April..... Perton is close by the main watershed of England. The brooks and rivers to the west such as Smestow Brook, lead into the River Severn, and then into the Bristol Channel, whereas the River Penk which flows through Perton, leads to the River Trent, and then on to the Humber Estuary and the North Sea. If you seek out the source of the River Penk, it’s not a long walk. Follow the concrete banks of the watercourse, up alongside Gainsborough Drive, to the gentle more natural stream in the woodland beyond, then over the road into Tettenhall, where the river soon hides its true origins in an underground culvert. Wildlife at this end of the Penk is limited, no fish, but often full of tiny fresh water shrimp; a welcome meal for the grey wagtail, constantly pumping its long tail, as it moves along the stream. Downstream from Gainsborough Drive, the Penk disappears into a concrete culvert, like some shameful relative out of sight out of mind, until it bursts into the Upper Lake. Life in the waters of the Upper Lake is full on; with constant bird activity on the water from resident coots, and off the water from their nervous moorhen relatives who scratch for food, then scrabble back to the lake, hot foot, when danger threatens.

In recent times, constantly wheeling black-headed gulls have been joined by their more sedate and much larger cousins, the lesser black-backed gull. Not content with the offerings of food from the public, the lesser black-backed gulls predate goose and duck chicks, plucking them from the water under the noses of their parents. Photographs of the upper lake taken 20 years ago show banks devoid of vegetation; bare and eroded. What a difference now, particularly the bright yellow marsh marigold ringing the island, the hot pink ragged robin by the gate and the lush reed beds. But what lurks beneath those dark waters. Find out at the Perton Spring Festival on Saturday 25 April at Perton Library. Monthly wildlife walks, leave Perton Library at 2PM every first Saturday of every month or for the Dawn Chorus join us on Monday 4 May at 4AM. For more information contact Keith Elder on 01902 754245 or keith.elder@hotmail.co.uk

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Tips From Your Local PGA Pro at Perton Park.....

Make some basic checks to get back in the groove: Over the last few weeks we've been talking about the importance of regripping. We've established how crucial it is to play with grips that aren't worn and if you have been to see us for a re-grip then you're well on your way to passing your MOT. We want you to enjoy your best ever year at the club, so in a final effort to get your basics right, here are a few pointers.......

Jeremy Harrold, Tel: 01902 380073 or email: jeremy@pertongolfclub.co.uk

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Useful Numbers

Lakeside Surgery: 01902 755329 Tamar Surgery: 01902 755053 Pattingham Surgery: 01902 700462 Perton Dental Practice (Anders Square): 01902 758120 Dental Surgery, Tamar Medical Centre: 01902 756114 Perton Funeral Directors: 01902 756830 Perton Clinic : 01902 758150 Perton Civic Centre: 01902 745971 Perton Library: 01902 755794 Church at Perton: 01902 750232 Lakeside Community Church: 01902 753595 St Chad's Church Pattingham: 01902 700257 Neighbourhood Police: 0300 1234455 Staffordshire Police: 08453 303132 MP: Gavin Williamson: 01902 846616 Souths Staffs District Council: 01902 696000 Staffordshire County Council: 01785 223121 Perton Parish Council Office: 01902 745971 Pattingham & Patshull Parish Council: 01902 746898 24