News from Maidwell – December 2024

 

Church Services

 

1 December              Family Service                                  11:00 am

15 December            Holy Communion                           11:00 am

21 December            Carols and Christingle                      4:00 pm

25 December           Christmas Day service                    11:00 am

with Holy Communion

5 January                  Family Service                                  11.00am

19 January                Holy Communion                             11.00am

 

Wreath and table decoration making

Sat 7 December 11am-2pm in the church

£15-£35 per person (includes food and drink)

 

All wreath bases and greenery will be supplied and if you would like to add your own baubles, decorations etc., please bring them.

Prices from £15 to £35 upwards, depending on the size of the wreath or table decoration. See the wonderful wreaths made last year.

Children also welcome to make their own wreath or tree decorations.

 

Please let Amanda know if you can come 07707 530720.

 

MOSAIC at Christmas

Church of St Mary the Virgin, Maidwell (NN6 9JG)

Saturday 14 December 2024 7.00pm

The A Cappella Octet returns to Maidwell with a programme of beautiful Christmas music

Tickets: £10.00, including interval refreshments, from Amanda

07707 530720

All proceeds to St Mary the Virgin Church made each item a piece of real vocal chamber

The PCC would like thank all those who have helped and supported all the fundraising activities throughout 2024.

 

The Loder Hall

 

Thank you to all those who came and supported the Christmas Bazaar on Saturday 16 November, the vendors, the volunteers and all who purchased the lovely items available.  A grand total of £810 was made for the Loder Hall – well done everyone!

 

The Loder Hall is looking for additional committee members.  If you would like the opportunity to help maintain and improve this wonderful space for the benefit of all Maidwellians, then please contact Ann (07939 124521) or Colin (07771 806094) for more details.

 

The Loder Hall is available for hire at £10 for the first hour and £5 per hour thereafter.

The hall is approximately 10m x 5m with a small kitchen (NOT compliant with food preparation regulations), equipped with an electric hob, fridge, microwave and warming oven. We also have a good selection of crockery, cutlery and glasses which, along with tables and chairs, can be hired out separately. There is a secure outside area ideal for summer parties with direct access to the Maidwell recreation field.

Contact Ann on 07939 124521 or annrabjohn1@gmail.com.

 

Parish Council

 

The Parish Council met on Wednesday 13th November.  The meeting was dominated by two topics:

 

• 2024/25 budget.  This was our first discussion about the council budget for the next financial year.  Much of our expenditure is on relatively fixed items: our clerk’s salary, memberships/subscriptions such as Northamptonshire County Association of Local Councils (NCALC, who provide us with necessary support, advice and training), as well as essential costs such as street lighting, grass mowing and insurance.  We always seek to maintain a small amount of discretionary spend so that we can support and invest in items or activities that will benefit residents – such as the new defibrillators that are now in each village.  We are not anticipating any significant changes to the current budget (just over £12k) and it will be finalised at our next meeting in January 2025.
• Sustainability.  We were joined by Joely Martin, Sustainability Officer for West Northants Council and a Draughton resident. She provided us with an overview of a recent conference held by WNC focusing on nature, food and communicating climate change. We will be providing links on our website to Sustainable West Northants, where there is lots of valuable information for individuals, communities and business.You may be interested to know that:
  – only around one third of WNC residents use their food waste caddy to recycle food – increasing this number and reducing food waste into landfill could save WNC up to £2m!
  – you do not need special bags in your food bins – any bag will do (as long as not black).  Caddy bin bags are being sold at Brixworth library for £1 roll – a significantly discounted price.  You can also use newspaper – or no bag at all.

 

Did you know that there is a WNC app?  You can use this to report a whole range of issues including fly tipping, street cleaning/sign issues etc and you can get weekly notifications about which bins need to go out for the bin round.

 

Our next meeting is on Wednesday 8th January 2025 at 7.30pm in the Loder Hall.  All residents are most welcome to attend.

 

Please note that the contact details for the Parish Council have now changed. The Parish Clerk’s e-mail address is clerk@maidwellwithdraughtonparishcouncil.gov.uk and the website address is now https://maidwellwithdraughtonparishcouncil.gov.uk

 

Maidwell-being/coffee morning – come not bearing gifts, but with suggestions!

 

Thank you to all who came to our meeting on 9 November. Amanda provided sewing services, Fiona provided details about Lasting Powers of Attorney and the tech team were on hand – thank you.

 

The next date is Saturday 13 December between 10am-12noon. It will be a coffee morning to celebrate the festive season – we would encourage as many people as possible to come along, both to see neighbours and have a chat and to canvas your thoughts/suggestions as to what is needed in the village. There will be also tech support.

 

Don’t forget the recycling bins just inside the gate at Loder Hall for medicine blister packs, contact lens cases, old pens, used make up and toothpaste tubes.

 

Contacts: Amanda (07707 530720), Lynne (07785 790265), Paul (07710 096590), Mary (07703 291169) and Fiona (07903 137219)

 

Maidwell Wombles – pick a date next year to help!

 

A big THANK YOU to those who wombled in November – Andrew S, Colin, David, Fiona, Jo & Juan Carlos, Sally and Tim. They cleared from the Harborough end of the village up to and including the two A14 slip roads, collecting 19 bags of rubbish and finding 25 bags if fly-tipped garden waste on the eastbound A14 slip road.  Well done to all!

 

Pick a date! Despite having over 30 people who have expressed an interest in helping out, numbers have dwindled to approximately 5/6 people per session (usually, the same people at each session). If anyone would like to join us, even if just for one session a year, it would help enormously. Please contact Colin on 07771 806094 to put your name down for one of the forthcoming dates below, weather permitting (please note there is no wombling in January as Uncle Bulgaria & Co will be hibernating!):

 

Friday 6 December (9am), Saturday 8 February (9am), Saturday 8 March (9am), Friday 4 April (10am) and Saturday 3 May (9am) – more dates to be announced.

 

Maidwell Primary School

 

With summer well and truly behind us, we are now firmly into our autumn/winter activities (sadly, from a costs perspective, we’ve also had to switch the heating on!).

 

We have recently taken part in a Children in Need swimathon.  Throughout the year we take all our children, from Reception to Year 6, swimming on a weekly basis by hiring the swimming pool at Maidwell Hall.  On Tuesday 12 November, at our swimming sessions, all of the children counted their widths/lengths to collectively see how far we could swim as a school.  The children were sponsored by family and friends and we have raised over £500 at the last count, having achieved 791 widths and 511 lengths.  All of these funds will go to the BBC Children in Need appeal.  BBC Radio Northampton, on hearing about our event, interviewed us on live radio on Tuesday morning and played a second recorded interview on Friday morning.  A subsequent BBC news item can also be found at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c89v1z7lpx1o

 

With all this excitement behind us, we can now look forward to Christmas and our annual trip to the Pantomime, along with our Christmas dinner in school.

 

Finally, I would like to repeat how grateful we are for the patience we receive from our neighbours when the road is busy.  Our regular times for drop off, pickup and all the school clubs can be found on our website:

https://www.maidwellprimary.net/Information/SchoolDay/

A diary, also on our school website, lists any special events we are planning and thus any extra traffic we might be expecting: https://www.maidwellprimary.net/Diary/

 

Other news

 

Carol singing

We are hoping to have carol singing around the village again this year – the tentative date is Thursday 19 December. Further details will be posted on the village WhatsApp group.

 

Digital membership of WNC libraries

Did you know about this fantastic facility to read books, magazines and newspapers for free?! You can sign up for your free digital membership here:

https://www.westnorthants.gov.uk/libraries/online-reference

 

 

All the Maidwell news above can also be viewed on the Maidwell with Draughton website:  https://maidwellwithdraughtonparishcouncil.gov.uk 

 

 

 

The latest report You said, We did report for South Northants for April to September 2024 can be downloaded here.

 

Food Waste and Climate Change

Did you know? ………..

In the UK we waste a quarter of all the food and drink we buy! This is responsible for producing 18 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions every year (imagine 36 million standard sized water butts full of petrol on fire) which contributes towards climate change.

Food Waste Prevention

One of the best things we can do for the environment and our wallets is not waste our food and drink.  An average family can save £1,000 a year by reducing their food waste.

Some top tips to reduce food waste include:

1. Planning ahead – by planning your meals and sticking to a shopping list you will avoid overbuying food and use up food you already have – remember to check what food you already have before going to the shops.
2. Know your dates – remember that a ‘Best Before’ date only refers to the quality of food, but most items are ok to eat after this date. ‘Use By’ dates refer to safety and food should not be eaten after this date.
3. Make the most of your food – correct storage of your food can extend its life by weeks (or months in a freezer), your fridge should be below 5^oC and you can freeze any food right up to the ‘use by’ date – ideal if your plans change.
4. Perfect Portions – cook only what you need and if you do have any leftovers they can be stored in the fridge for another meal another day. You can take the guess work out of portion sizes by using the food portion calculator on the love food hate waste website.

The Love Food Hate Waste website has lots of great hacks and guidance for making the most of food at home and saving you money.  See www.lovefoodhatewaste.com

Food Waste Recycling

Any food that can’t be used (for example tea bags, bones, plate scrapings etc) or does become wasted, should be placed into your food waste bin and put out for collection each week, on the same day as your other bins (currently unavailable to most flats but will be available to all by April 2026).

More and more people in West Northamptonshire are recycling their food waste when they see how easy it is.

Visit www.westnorthants.gov.uk/foodwaste for more information or to order a free food waste bin.

Did you know?:

• recycling your food waste, rather than putting it in your rubbish bin, saves the council, and therefore you, around £100 per tonne – money which could be spent on other services.
• all food waste bins are provided free of charge (an indoor caddy and an outdoor bin) and are collected every week.
• you can use any bag to line your indoor kitchen caddy, including plastic.
• food waste caddy bags are now stocked at all WNC libraries and are just £1 a roll (30 bags).
• food waste is processed into green electricity and compost, which fertilises local farmers’ fields
• reducing and recycling your food waste is one of the best ways to lower your carbon footprint and fight climate change.

For a FREE weekly reminder of which bin goes out when, and a comprehensive list of what can and cannot be recycled in West Northamptonshire,  download the West Northamptonshire Council App – available on either Google Play or Apple App Store.

Town & Parish Briefing

Edition 30 – Monday November 25, 2024

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