Chatbox

Well said Mr. Oakes.

Kevin I think your tongue-in-cheek suggestion has more merit than your idea of housing development!! The Parish Council purchased the Turnpike field first and foremost to retain the land as a green space and most importantly to stop any building whether residential or commercial. Any suggestion of housing on the land would be a betrayal of the reason why the land was purchased in the first place and would receive little support from the community.

Possible solutions would be to abandon the idea of a car park and leave the land as a green resource for Audlem parishioners to enjoy or to spend a minimum amount on a small green car park for perhaps 10 vehicles which could be near the vehicular entrance to reduce costs. As I have indicated in a previous post l would be amazed if it would be fully utilised even with just 10 spaces as vehicles will still be parked by the Co-op or on the nearer residential estate. Obviously for special events the field could be opened to accommodate more substantial parking requirements.

I hope that everyone who read my earlier posting realised it was just a tongue-in-cheek suggestion regarding the Co-op re-locating.
On a more serious note, I have not seen any postings with a solution to the issues raised. The postings are either quoting statistics or grumbling about something or other.
I know that my previous suggestion of selling off some plots for building was not well received by many but it would be a method of generating cash. So my new thought is for the APC / Cheshire East to devise a plan to utilise part of the field for affordable housing for some of the young people of Audlem to buy. It could be restricted to, say 4 units and as the previous land owner clearly has some interest in the village by selling the land to the APC initially, they may be persuaded to waive any right for a share of the profits arising. If this were the case, all monies raised could be used for other requirements on the Turnpike Green Space. If contributors to Chatbox don't like the idea then please help find a solution because the cash requirement will not go away unless all ideas for a car park are abandoned.

Having read some of the recent posts about the Turnpike Green Space, the obvious solution is to relocate the Co-op on Turnpike. The Co-op could then be required to build a car park large enough to accommodate all future parking requirement for the village under the planning regulations. The parking problems around Kingbur Place and the Methodist chapel would be resolved, the congestion in the village would be alleviated and everyone would be happy (or maybe not). Just a thought.

We all know our charity shop is the best, but being asked to bare with you in the middle of February is a strange way to attract customers. Maybe leave it until the weather's a bit warmer?

Hi Peter,

Further information re drones and LFA9 from RAF Shawbury website.

"The National Air Traffic Service (NATS) have also produced a free safety app called Drone Assist which is well worth downloading. The App along with others, can be found on the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.

Finally, we would kindly request that any drone operator intending to fly within Low Flying Area 9 (Shropshire and borders of adjacent counties), please inform us on 01939 250351 Extension 7163 so we can warn our crews. In times when this number is unavailable, please use our Drone Notification Form. We will only want basic information such as location, height and timings. "

Well said Geoff. If people (or rather, when) people park on double yellow lines near the Co-op or outside Kingbur Place or the Fire Station when theres legal, empty spaces outside the Upholsterers or Willams' for example, theres no way they're going to park on the Turnpike Field and walk all that way to the Village!
As always; I'm not talking about people with exemptions of course.

Nigel, thanks for the link. What a load of largely unenforcable red tape. I suspect there are many "blind eyes" in HMRC or Trading Standards over this.
Nick, the answer to your question is (I think) here buried in the rules:
"You can use rebated fuel for electricity generation and to heat premises that are not used for commercial purposes."

On loan for one day on 19th March, for a private lunch party (which will incidentally also be a 'Christening' of the new extension of the Audlem Methodist Church) I wonder if anyone has a flip-chart, smallish black-board, notice board or similar that I could borrow to display a seating plan ? Thanks.

Thanks David, but I didn't mean to imply that the drone was being flown irresponsibly. I understand that they can be flown up to 400 feet high and I have no way of knowing what altitude this one was, probably quite legal though. My concern is with the potential issue of shared airspace over the village.

Well said Wes. I have the feeling a car park on Turnpike field will be something of a white elephant as car owners will still park outside the Co-op and on the Windmill Fields estate as both are nearer to the village centre. When the road was resurfaced some months ago and the Chairman of the Parish Council opened the field I never saw more than 3 cars using the field and if they were entering the village from the Whitchurch/Market Drayton they had no other alternative.

As ratepayers we are providing toilets for visitors and I don't think it is a Parish Council responsibility to provide additional car parking for visitors as surely this should be a responsibility of Cheshire East. It's not surprising we have one of the highest precepts when the Parish takes on financial commitments which should be funded by the unitary authority.

Good to see that having long left the EU people still like to blame it for government policy they don't like. Meanwhile the British Chamber of Commerce reports that Brexit is said by 71% of businesses to be hampering business.

So , for the original question and from the government site.... Quote ... Fully rebated kerosene is unaffected by these changes and can be used for all heating uses.

So for heating oil nothing changes

Hi Peter,

I'm not sure if there is a form to submit to RAF Shawbury before drones are flown in the area, but these are the details to report drones that are flown irresponsibly. RAF Shawbury Operations on 01939 250351 Extension 7163.

It is also well worth noting that the pilots from the base do use the A525 as a visual reference point when flying to areas like Whixall Moss or the Coole Lane area, and from personal experience, there are a number of Confined Area locations in the vicinity too (where they hover only a few feet from the ground)

From 1st April there are changes to the rules over the use of red diesel. Plant and machinery that were able to use it will not be able to from 1st April, unless they are being used for agricultural use of fur maintaining a golf course, so things like diggers, mowers etc used elsewhere will have to use white diesel.

See the link.
Unless I am mistaken then there will be changes from April.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/changes-to-rebated-fuels-entitlement-from-1-april-2022/check-when-rebated-fuel-can-be-used

On Tuesday afternoon approaching four o'clock, I noticed a large drone complete with flashing strobe light over Salford side of the village. It seemed to be flying high and was visible for 10 minutes or more. Whilst it was still in our vicinity one of the Shawbury helicopters flew past, fast and low, just to the south of us and from my position appeared to be lower than the drone. Food for thought.

As the Shawbury squadron regularly have periods when they overfly our village, is there any requirement for local drone fliers to give Shawbury advance notice of their activities?

I saw somewhere that the ongoing problem is that they are not being permitted access to the adjacent farmland to effect whatever repairs they need to complete. Hard to see what they can do in the circumstances – I assume they'll have to take the matter through the courts, although I would have thought that public authorities have some sort of statutory right of access in these circumstances.

It's very public spirited of Mrs T to reply, although I don't recall directing my post to her specifically, and I'm not sure what official role she plays in inviting me to source quotes. Unfortunately the points made seem a little non-sequitur. My post was primarily following others alarmed at the near five-fold increase in the estimated cost of provision of car parking and offering different ideas. This is a very significant change upon what people voted for and hence my support for a rethink – that could result in many ways forward. I'm not alone in this thinking.
As to some of the points – who said anything about ID cards? Precept payers all have council tax bills – present that at the door. And it's possible to issue a referendum using council tax details, it's been done before. The main thing is that there should be a substantial body of support before a spending proposal goes ahead, not an assumption that lack of interest signifies approval. Alternatively, maybe those 180 or so voting so keen on it all should just form a trust and fund it themselves?
Whether neighbouring parishes are interested or not is a red herring – they're not paying for it. The parish precept is a substantial ask already for those on a basic state pension – not everyone has a generous occupational pension. If their residents want to take advantage of services here let them make a contribution.
All the stuff about the Brexit vote and HS2 etc are simply false analogies and I really don't see how any of that fits it, except to say I think voter turnout in the referendum was over 70%. And how does massive cost overruns in other projects somehow justify this? Bizarre.
I actually have a lot of sympathy for Parish Councillors – I think a lot of people enthusiastically sign up only to find it ain't so simple when they actually hold the responsibility and which I suspect partly explains the big turnover and constant vacancies.

For Info – The road is closed from longhill lane / windmill lane ( triangle ) towards Hankelow from 26 /2 for 5 days

Nothing changes

Nick
I'm pleased to say you're at least partially wrong, and hopefully totally wrong!
I don't know about heating oil, but the rules for red diesel stay the same as they are now. You're right that there was a planned change in April this year. This was forced on us by the usual EU interference (that'll get scrubbed as polotical by the editor!), but HMRC have scrapped the change for red diesel. Boats use red diesel, so us narrowboat owners are really pleased HMRC had the sense to scrap the change. Yippee!!
It would have caused massive cost increases across the boating industry, raising little extra revenue for HMRC, but would have kept the Brussels bureaucrats happy.
As to heating oil, I simply don't know.

A lot of traffic lights & some of your money back when you sell them at the end. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SRL-traffic-lights-portable-battery-radio-light-towable-/265524114213?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l6249&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0 in

On 1/04/2022 red diesel will only be able to be used on farm machines, does anyone know what will happen about HEATING oils.

Shrops Cc have confirmed from an FOI request that the temporary lights at Adderley have run up a bill of £41,000 so far. And the meter is still running. That's approx £1140 per month.