UPTON LADIES COVEN

The next meeting of the Upton Ladies Coven will be at the George & Dragon on Thursday 6^th August at 8pm

UPTON OIL SYNDICATE

The next order is scheduled to be placed on Monday 17th August. To be included, I need to have your orders by Saturday 15^th August at the latest.

My contact details are (preferably by e-mail) colin.batchelor@eggconnect.net or by telephone 01491 671253 (after 7.00pm).

Colin Batchelor

You will I am sure be pleased to hear that Upton is the first village in this area to set up its own Community Responder Group.

9 volunteers from the village have undertaken a NHS training course and all have passed an assessment to allow them to help out in the case of a medical emergency in the village. The 9 have organised themselves into a rota such that for most of the week, both day and night, at least one of them will be available to be asked by the 999 operator to attend an emergency and handle the situation until the ambulance arrives. It is hoped and intended that by having the right equipment and trained personnel within the village, parishioners will receive treatment much quicker than waiting for an ambulance and this reduced time will greatly increase the chances of a full recovery from the likes of strokes and heart attacks.

In operating the system there are some do’s and don’ts for both the volunteers and for the parishioners.

If you require emergency help, your first action must be to dial 999 or get someone to dial 999 for you. Do not call one of the volunteers before calling the emergency services unless you require help from the volunteer to make the emergency call. As soon as you call 999 the operator will decide whether a volunteer will be able to assist you and will immediately mobilise the volunteer who is on duty.

If after making an emergency call you are unable to answer your door please be aware that it is not permissible for a volunteer (or an ambulance crew) to use any force to gain entry to your property so please consider your present arrangements. If you live on your own why not ask someone living local to you to hold a key or know the details of your keypad. If you do have to call the emergency services and you are immobilised you may then also call your key holder such that when a volunteer or the ambulance arrives there will be instant access. Please consider making myself aware of who your key holder is such that I can draw up a list for use by the volunteers, it is absolutely vital that they know who to contact if they cannot get into you such that valuable minutes are not lost waiting for the police to arrive to gain access to you.

Please help us to find you. As all the volunteers live in the village they are more likely to know where you live than will members of the ambulance service but they will only be given the name or number of your house and the name of the road. All volunteers cannot be expected to know the names of all the houses so please make sure your house name or number is prominently displayed and can be seen and read from the road. If you have called the emergency services it may save valuable seconds if you get someone out in the road to wave down the volunteers and the ambulance. If it is after dark switch on as many lights as you can so that your house can be quickly picked out.

I am sure that most of you are grateful to know of the presence of the group of volunteers in our village, whilst we all hope we will not need their help it is reassuring to know that our chances of making a full recovery are greatly improved by their being on call. Data has been produced that indicates that by getting help to you just 2-3 minutes quicker in the first 10 minutes after the problem occurs will greatly increase your recovery chances. We appreciate the time the volunteers have already given up to undergo the training, the time they will have to give up in undertaking refresher courses and continued assessment and the time and effort put in by NHS staff in providing the training. We also appreciate the willingness of the volunteers to jump out of bed to help a fellow parishioner particularly if an incident occurs in the small hours of the night in the middle of winter.

Please be aware that the South Central Ambulance Service League of Friends have made available to our group, equipment to the value of £1600 that could help to save your life. Whilst we do not have to immediately pay for the equipment we are looking to repay the sum to this charitable organisation over a period of time such that they may continue to assist other groups to set up in the district. If you could consider making a donation I will be pleased to call to collect it.

If you are interested in joining the group of volunteers please give me a call.

Mike Brown

850135

Swine Flu

All Parish Councils are being asked to consider putting in place an emergency plan to lessen the impact should the village succumb to Swine Flu en masse. We have looked at a very detailed plan drawn up for a much larger village and have selected just a few of the points that we feel we should be putting in place for Upton.

We are well aware that this village is well blest with people prepared to help others and therefore we do urge all of you who are likely to need medication or other essentials during the time that you may be unwell to seek out a ‘Flu Buddy’ who will do their best to keep you provided with your essential needs. The problem will come if your flu buddy is also unwell so we are setting up a back up service in which you can ring Maggie Maytham (850126) or Clare Lightfoot (850486) for help. Maggie and Clare will enlist a small team of helpers who as a minimum will provide you with a sandwich and a hot drink to keep you going.

There could also be two significant problems if all the adult members of a household are unwell at the same time.

There may be healthy under fives in the household who will need attention. We are hoping that in such an emergency the Tiddlewinks network of mums (contact Katie 851330) will help one another where they can but obviously this is a service we cannot guarantee as it will almost certainly mean taking the bug into another household where there are other young children.

We must not forget the dogs who will still need to be walked even if you cannot get out of the house. I am setting up a small team of walkers and will arrange for someone to call round to provide that necessary service (contact Mike 850135).

If you think there are other areas where we should be taking action I will be pleased to hear your suggestions but hopefully the bug will quickly pass through this area and that it will not cause any of us a serious problem. So far I understand there have been 7 cases in Upton, it is expected to peak early in September.

Mike Brown  850135

Cream Teas, Saturday 15^th August 2009, 2pm-4pm, Upton Village Hall
My name is Alex Thomas, I am 12 years old and have lived in Upton all my life.  4 Years ago my Auntie died of a Brain Tumour. I have always wanted to do something in her memory so I have decided to organise Cream Teas to raise money for ‘Brain Tumour UK’. 

I will be serving teas from 2pm-4pm so please come along and support me so I can raise as much money as possible.

PIMMS, PATE AND PUDDING EVENT
Sunday 9th August 2009 at 12.30pm
In Recreation Ground or in Village Hall if wet.
Salads, Homemade Pates, Puddings and 1st glass of Pimms
£8.00 per Adult in Advance or £10.00 on the door
£4.00 Under 15
Under 5s FREE
£1.00 per glass thereafter
Soft drinks available

Forget the Sunday Roast for once and come and join the UVHAT for a socialable lunchtime, sampling delicious homemade fare and sipping Pimms!
If you are new to the village this event is an ideal way to meet up with fellow villagers.

Tickets still available, please ring to reserve your table
Maggie Maytham 850126
Celia Davies 850684
Lesley Shaw 850308
Clare Lightfoot 850486
All profits to Upton Village Hall Extension Fund

There will be a “village picnic” in the recreation ground on Saturday the 11^th July.

There are no formal arrangements, just turn up shortly after noon, armed with food, drink and sun lotion and hopefully we’ll be able to entertain ourselves with frisbee’s, egg and spoons, three legged races and a game of footy or rounders. Not sure what the children will do……

Bob Lott

The total amount collected in the village during the recent collection for Christian Aid was £292 an increase of £55 over last year.

A sincere thank you to all who contributed and to those who helped with the collecting.

Alec Chenery

Planning Application: OCC Reference MW.0127/09

Location: Chilton Waste Services, Prospect Farm, Chilton

Application – proposed extension to MRF and waste transfer station

Applicant – Mr J Richardson

Application Date – May 09

Parish Council Reply – Extraordinary PC meeting to be held on 2nd July 09

District Council Decision –

Note

All drawings and other hard copy documents connected with the above application will be destroyed after 3 years.

The next two Drop-in sessions will be held at the usual time of 10.30 until 12.00 noon on the following Thursdays:

9 July and 23 July

Advance notice: There will be no Drop-in sessions during August.

Yvonne Collins – 01235 850989