Town Lights 25th November - St Neots Town Council

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Priorities St. Neots Chairman of the Town Centre Initiative John Davies Editors Veronica Webb and Ed Reilly To contact Priorities email: mail@stneots-tc.gov.uk © 2011 Priorities Imagery and articles submitted in this publication are subject to Copyright from various sources and no reproduction of any part of this publication is permissible without the prior consent of St. Neots Town Centre Initiative, St. Neots Town Council and SWF Creative as a whole. Part thereof does not give permission for its use. Designed by: SWF Creative, St Neots email: studio@swfcreative.co.uk Printed by: MPG Printwise Front Picture St Neots Camera Club Deadline for contributions to future Priorities 20th February 2012 Bridging the Divide A momentous and memorable event occurred in September when Eynesbury Village Association (EVA) and Eatons Community Association (ESCA) celebrated the completion of the £3.5 million ‘Willow’ Cycle and Foot Bridge across the Great River Ouse – joining the two communities. The bridge unites the two historic settlements of Eynesbury and Eaton Socon and their two former counties, Huntingdonshire and Bedfordshire. Celebrations included issuing first day crossing passports with over 400 people crossing over from one side to the other, or just visiting the bridge to collect their souvenir passports. The more members they have the more they can do. So EVA say why not come along to one of their monthly meetings on the first Monday of each month (or the following Monday if there is a bank holiday). For just £1 a year membership they will enjoy the company of other members, quizzes and competitions etc. The Chairman’s Column A message from John Davies, Chairman of St. Neots Town Centre Initiative As I write this column we are in a mini heat wave. By the time you read my words (hopefully someone does) we may be walking through the snow. Being an optimist I will hope for a mild period to enjoy the Christmas Lights Festival on Friday, November 25th. Then onward to Christmas when our noble band of local retailers will John Davies hope to see you all darkening their doors in the festive season. For many people this has been a tough year and the retailers have been amongst the most effected. Remember the adage that ‘if you don’t use it you lose it’ and that applies to your local shops. There is a lot more on offer than you think and it will pay (not least in petrol money) to investigate what is to offer in your own Town, or nearest Town if you live in one of our wider community of villages. THINK LOCAL – SHOP IN St NEOTS is the slogan for a new campaign by our partner organisation, the St Neots Retail Club. The club is expanding its activities in the light of the tough times. There will be a poster campaign using the above slogan. We will be putting together a package of small practical help offers, which will be in the public domain by the time you read this edition. We are working with a number of local partners, like Barfords and the About My Area website to put this package together and then we will go public. Meanwhile the Retail Club are starting the third year of a big audit of the whole retail sector in our Town Centre. We have 11 headings against which we have to gather data which involves different teams looking at footfall, parking and analysing every retail unit and categorising them under four headings. This is used for local analysis but also submitted to Action For Market Towns to benchmark us against 70 other centres around the country. A change of subject takes us to next year’s St Neots Music and Arts Festival. We are putting together a programme for the four nights of May 10th to the 13th , with a close knit team growing in experience. We are all very conscious of next year’s Queen’s Jubilee and that our events will be close to the early June celebrations. We will be trying to choose programmes that, where possible, relate to the happy event and also liaising with other groups, and the Town Council who are taking a lead role. If you are organising an event please tell the Town Council so there is a central list that could become a programme that can be put on websites etc. They can share their ideas of how to improve Eynesbury, help organise village events or email with their thoughts and ideas, which could help make Eynesbury a better place - or email the Editor if they want a letter published in the EVA Quarterly Newsletter. More serious events are organised like ‘The Community Safety Meetings’ and ‘Intergenerational Project’. EVA need members of the younger generations to join to help them On November 26 why not go along to the CHRISTMAS BAZAAR at the Methodist Church, Church Hall, Berkley Street. For full details: email eva.voice@hotmail.co.uk or look at our Web site: www.eynesburyvillageassociation.org.uk 2 Priorities November 2011
The Chairman’s Column New Curator at Museum St Neots Museum has a new curator who says she is looking forward to the new challenges and experiences that lie ahead. Sara Taylor told Priorities, she has been working in museums since 1999 and in that time has undertaken a wide variety of roles, including tour guide, cataloguer, delivering education workshops, exhibition design and installation, collections management - not to mention painter and decorator and general DIY dogsbody! Sara’s background is in archaeology and classics which she studied at UCL. She said: “I have always been more interested in what happens to collections after they come out of the ground and how we can use them to understand how people lived and what they believed. Having worked with collections ranging from ethnography, regimental, natural history, Egyptology to agricultural, in addition to social history and archaeology, I have learned that there are often wonderful stories attached to objects people leave behind.” She added: “I believe it is the role of the museum curator to share these stories.” Sara’s last post was that of Assistant Curator at the century-old Hertford Museum which underwent a massive redevelopment in 2009. She said: “I am thrilled at my new post and the welcome from the staff and volunteers has been tremendous. I am really looking forward to continuing and enhancing the excellent programme of exhibitions and events.“ Supporting Young People Together St Neots Locality Team has recently undergone a re-structure which has directly affected the Connexions and Youth Services. These services have now integrated and are referred to as ‘The St Neots Locality Integrated Youth Support Service (IYSS)’. The purpose of IYSS is to support young people in St Neots with their health, lifestyle and career aspirations to enable them to achieve their full potential in their transition to adulthood Examples of the work the service has been doing recently include the summer holiday Switch Project which saw the team working with a group of Year 7 young people from both secondary schools to provide positive activities and opportunities for them, such as making sculptures from breeze blocks, sports, arts and crafts, orienteering around Hinchingbrooke Park and cycling around Grafham Water. Since February 2011 the team have also been conducting some detached work at St Neots Skate Park in partnership with HDC, St Neots Police and Hunts Community Safety Partnership. The Skate Board Project has been a success and an event was organised in June which was attended by over 100 young people from the community. The project also developed a young peoples committee that helped in the planning and running of the event. For more information related to young people contact Darryl McMurray, Youth Development Coordinator on 01480 376199. Homestart Opening Homestart, a charity providing support and friendship to local families, opened on October 3rd at 32 St Mary’s Street, Eynesbury. Homestart has been given this opportunity by Luminus who have leased the property to them, recognising the work they are doing in our local communities as vitally important. Homestart provides support for families who have at least one child under the age of five who may feel lonely or isolated in their community, are finding it hard to cope with illness or death, struggling with the emotional and physical demands of having a baby/ young children, or are looking for facilities available for young children and parents. If you feel that you could benefit from speaking to a member of the Homestart team then please contact them on 01480 700242. Mapping the Way FREE copies of a new map showing the improved network of cycling links, are now available from St Neots Library. Along with the recently opened £3.5 million Willow Bridge, it will also include the new sections of Sustrans’ national cycle network. Construction of Willow Bridge, which spans the River Great Ouse, connecting Eaton Socon and Eynesbury, was completed on time and within budget, for the start of the new school term and provides residents with a much needed, highquality link for local schools. The 346 metre span, steel-structured bridge features a bow string arch design and includes a three metre wide cycle and footpath coated with an anti-slip surface, with lighting to allow safe use at night. Access ramps at both ends of the bridge have been built to a gentle gradient (1 in 20) allowing easy access for people with disabilities. The bridge project provides a safe off-road route to the local schools and improves access to the green corridor along the Great Ouse. There will be minor landscaping and finishing work taking place over the next few weeks, which will not affect users of the bridge. November 2011 Priorities 3
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Town Lights 25th November - St Neots Town Council

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