Chatbox

Have been trying to get someone to work on my garage for years! Wants new door (ideally with wooden frame to fill in large gap, before adding doors), new window, painting and weatherproofing on top. Builders tend to agree and then get lured away as the job is too small. General handymen/women say job is too big. Any recommendations?

As anyone who knows me (especially Dylan) will tell you I can talk for England but whether or not anyone would actually like to hear me do such a thing is another matter. Pre Covid, I did a screen test for something and during it the producer asked me to talk for 10 minutes about something I'm good at. It was one of the rare occasions in my life I was silent for 10 minutes. On the other hand someone once said to me; "If I asked you the time you'd tell me how to build a clock". Just remembered another quote from someone else. "Why use one word when a hundred will do". ;-)

The results of enquiries in Sept 2006 can be read in the news archive (choose month and year from table at bottom of page which appears when you select'news') well done AOL I had forgotten about it.

Gardener wanted ASAP !

MUST be reliable and hard working

£12.50 hr 4-6 hrs a week.

Weeding, hedges and general tidying.

Contact lauren 07889 060 131

There was an article about Leslie Smyth, artist, in AOL 28 September 2006, only the headlines of which are returned by Google search. Someone else had been enquiring about him at that time.

It is time to renew our home insurance and I thought to get another quote for comparison. To my surprise Audlem is apparently outside the area John Lewis covers, at least the CW3 postcode is.
After 35 years living and insuring our home(s) here I am surprised . Was unable to find out if it was all Audlem or Broadways that is the problem.

He was a Lecturer in Economics at Keele University when I joined in 1980. He was also a friend of my Head of Department so we had a few of his artworks dotted around the building. Although we both lived in Audlem I only saw him around in the early 80s and think he must have left Keele and maybe the village around that time.
From memory I would have said he was "middle aged" then so would be very elderly now.
Doing a Google search I found the following link
https://artuk.org/discover/artists/smyth-leslie

Thank you Dylan for your help... BILLY GIBBONS are you interested????

He has gone from the village and he would be quite old by now. Tall with a red beard if I remember correctly, I saw him perform in one of our pantomimes and I acquired a pamphlet he wrote about his previous experiences in Australia, with illustrations. I will see if I still have it. I think he was probably working at Keele University but there should be others who knew him better than I did.

Hi all my name is Annmarie McPhilomey and I'm from Omagh County Tyrone Northern Ireland.
I recently stumbled upon a beautiful collage and linocut of Land and Seas 1986 by Leslie Smyth. Leslie resided at 14 Windmill Drive Audlem in 1986.
Has anyone any further information about the artist and are they still living?
I appreciate it so much.
When I saw the piece I knew it had to come home with me. Thank you

Try Billy Gibons. He can tell a good yarn.

To Norman Huntbach.
You have not responded to my 2 questions from 28th May 2020.
In your article 'Dog Walks' can you please advise to whom you are referring to when you write ' people get tired of pandering to people'

Are you referring to the land owners being tired of legitimate walkers?
Recently I found my path (footpath) blocked by newly installed plastic wired fence. and I am unable to stand on a section as you have instructed is the correct thing to do.

What do you suggest that I should do?
I very much doubt the validity of your 'Instructions for electric fences'

Dear Karen,

So sorry (again!) to hear you had a second accident with electrified fencing and I hope that your poor doggy is OK now. Silly me I hadn't realised that Norman Huntbatch had posted some instructions which you were following the second time around.

Dear Norman,

Please may I point out that suggesting that people (which one would take to include all ages and genders) should stand on a section of electrified fencing seems quite ill advised to me and from Karen's post it's clear this went rather wrong for her when she tried to follow them. I certainly don't feel confident or physically able to do that.

Some research on the matter suggests this should not be necessary and that the fencing should be signed with a way to provide safe passage.

Farmers Weekly had this to say

https://www.fwi.co.uk/business/business-management/health-and-safety/what-farmers-need-to-know-about-fencing-and-the-law

Barbed wire or electric fences
It is sensible to set barbed wire or electric fences back slightly because if it causes a nuisance to those using the highway you may be liable for any damage caused and the Highway Authority can force you to remove it.

It can help to ensure that barbed wire is not fixed on the public right of way side of the fence.

Where an electrified stock fence is placed alongside a route it should be clearly identified, best practice suggests warning signs should be placed every 50 to 100m.

Cheshire East Council State the Following

https://www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/leisure,_culture_and_tourism/public_rights_of_way/path_management/guide_to_problems_and_protocol.aspx

"Electric fences across a Public Right of Way
An electric fence erected across a Public Right of Way without a safe means of crossing is an offence. It is an obstruction to the Public Right of Way and a nuisance and a danger to members of the public wishing to use the Public Right of Way.

The protocol the Council has adopted in these matters is firstly to ask the owner of the electric fence to remove it immediately or, if it is necessary for agriculture, to provide an adequate means of crossing it on the line of the path.

The latter will require authorisation by the Council as it would constitute a new structure (see stiles and gates). If the owner fails to agree to either of these courses of action the Council will remove the electric fence where it affects the path without further notice. If the owner continues to commit further offences of this nature the Council will consider prosecution for obstruction.

Highways Act 1980 section 137, 137Z, and 149"

Shropshire Council Say this
https://www.shropshire.gov.uk/media/6358/pgn06-electric-fences-on-public-rights-of-way.pdf

"Temporary electric fences and public rights of way
Where the right of way has footpath status only, the use of a single strand electrified fence
to control stock is generally acceptable providing the following conditions are observed:

(1) hazard warning signs displayed as mentioned above and

(2) where the fence is across the path it should be routed through an insulated tube
providing sufficient width to allow the wire to be held down so that it can be stepped over
easily and without risk.

Alternatively, there must be a means of breaking the electrical current at this point by
providing some form of safe option such as an expandable type barrier gate with insulated
handle which can be easily and safely released by users. "

The official guidance differs greatly from the instructions provided previously and to me it seems far more sensible than standing on an electrified wire and risking a shock to persons or animals. Where this continues to occur the suggestion is to report it to the local council.

I really do hope people are not put off walking by these things as it is more important than ever to keep active and for our mental health and well being.

Susan.

Afternoon everyone,

I am just following the conversations regarding the switching of the current audlem postal workers and wanted to add my views as resident postmaster.

With regards to the relationship between Post Office and Royal Mail, the postal workers are not employed under P.O they're all employed by Royal Mail (2 separate entities lest we forget). I believe that Royal Mail are making some major structural changes to how they currently operate, whether this will impact collections for us, i'm not currently sure. Communication isn't their strong point to say the least, as i've only been made aware via audlem online!

I just wanted to point people in the right direction for sharing concerns, as much as post office have made their own share of "mistakes" in the past, this is solely a Royal Mail decision.

https://www.royalmailgroup.com/en/about-us/customer-support/online-complaints/

The above is the online complaints link for Royal Mail, should any of you wish to air your concerns.

I wish to once again thank you the local community for your ongoing support of both me and the Post Office/LLLovely Chocolates and let's work together to keep our neck of the woods as effective as it can be :)

The same thing happened to our postal service when I lived in Eccleshall, it was designed to give greater flexibility and efficiency. It resulted in wrong mail delivered and the posties not being allowed to stop and talk.
Customer satisfaction is not important anymore as my previous post about privatisation suggests companies now have a race to the bottom.

So the royal mail is to transition to a 'new system' for delivering the mail apparently? What new system could possibly replace the need for a person who has to physically walk up the drive and hand over/post the mail? Answers on a postcard, please.

Hi, l Wonder if anyone can help? I have a small event coming up in September , all is sorted, but I was wondering if anyone knows of a local storyteller, who might be happy to entertain a group of 40 at a 70th birthday party?

We completely agree with the comments regarding the importance of our Audlem Posties and the valuable role they play for our community. Most businesses would love to have a team that provide outstanding client service that their customers really appreciate, so when you have that, why would you get rid of it? The proposal by the Royal Mail is just illogical.

Not being a person who is continuously up to date with breaking news etc but highly appreciative of the work of the local postal delivery service – What exactly are the changes that are going to happen in the future ? or Where can this information be found ?

Much as I agree fully with all the comments supporting the Audlem posties and their role in our local community, it should be noted that this proposed change has nothing to do with the Post Office. Post delivery is done by Royal Mail, which has been a completely different and independent company for nearly ten years. So, any comments should be addressed to Royal Mail, and not Post Office, which has no involement in post delivery.

From someone who used to work for the GPO which became the PO, which became BT; all I can say is privatisation at its best

I agree with the messages posted about the great job that the Audlem Posties do for the community. I suspect there may be quite a lot of job cutting in the Post Office to pay for the software debacle named 'Horizon' that was the cause of more than 500 Postmasters being wrongly accused of theft and false accounting. Someone is going to have find a way of recovering the £58 million out of court settlement that was paid to the falsely accused and that look like it will be the people who do the work of delivering our mail. What a sad situation.

It would appear we will be fighting a loosing battle as their union are supporting the transition to the new system !!!

Yet again the Post Office manage to stir up anger and dissension with its disastrous management style. My recent article on the appalling dismissal and punishment of over 730 sub postmasters over a 13 year period was so strongly worded that the good editors of A.O. refused to publish it, calling it, 'a rant,' which it probably was. Although, if you had been one of the victims of the corrupted Horizon computer system that led to such a travesty of the concept of justice, you might well have agreed with my view of the mismanagement within the Post Office that has led it to this point.

I think that the idea of a petition on AOL is an excellent one. As well as being part of the community, the3 posties also play a valuable role in local security.
Is it also possible that the Parish Council could make a formal request to the posties' management for details as to the reasons for the change and what the benefits to our community will be.