Double Plus Ungood: the Hernhill Thought Police

After yet another incident involving the School and local parents over Facebook, we felt we should advise readers that a few people have taken it upon themselves to patrol the virtual corridors of Facebook on behalf of the school, monitoring user content and reporting back on what they feel might be inappropriate content.

Double Plus Ungood

Whilst the issue of Facebook and institutions may be a contentious one – although it is perhaps less so for people who are not directly employed by or affiliated to an institution or organisation, who presumably have the right to use their individual and personal pages as they choose  – it can’t hurt for our local users to be mindful of this small group of Facebook Vigilantes when posting to Facebook, and to be aware of their privacy settings and / or Facebook ‘friends’ when using it.

Happy use of social media, everyone…

Toys Please!

Hernhill Village Fete, Saturday 5^th May

Toys Needed

For the Toy Stall

Please bring any unwanted toys to

TODDLER GROUP, Hernhill Village Hall, every Thursday Morning

or give them to Abbie or Miriam

All Proceeds to Village Charities

Image: www.bergencountytoysfortots.com

A Day in the Life of Hernhill Parish

1st May 2012

As part of the Jubilee celebrations, Open Dawes propose a PHOTO EXHIBITION of “A Day In the Life of Hernhill Parish”, a snapshot of village life in one day, capturing the ordinary, every-day activities of everyone living, working, walking or just passing through the village. We would like everyone to join in and photograph themselves, their neighbours, the post-man, the workmen, animals, plants, buildings, everyone and anyone, anything and everything, they see in the parish on the day, doing their every-day activities.

If you have a digital camera and are willing to volunteer as an amateur photo-journalist for the day, (or evening) please contact me. If you would like to be included in the project, or have any suggestions of what should be included, but do not have a camera, we can send a volunteer with a camera out to you on the day. We would like to include as many residence of the parish as possible (everyone, ideally!) If you do not have a digital camera, but would like to take your own photos, I do have a scanner and can scan photo prints for inclusion in the project. We will ask for photos to be submitted by 8^th May, so that we can display them over the Jubilee weekend, they will then be made permanently accessible via the hernhill.net website. Please contact Miriam with offers of help or suggestions on 01227 752189 or Miriam@machin.f9.co.uk.

All photos should be taken on Tuesday 1^st May 2012 please – Get your cameras ready!

Hernhill Horticultural Society

The Hernhill Horticultural Society will welcome Families or Children who would like to join.

The AGM will be held at the village hall on Thursday, February 16. After the business meeting, Len Olive will give a talk on growing and showing dahlias. Mr Olive is an RHS judge and has exhibited dahlias and narcissi internationally. Members are welcome to bring along guests for the talk.

The spring show will be on March 24 and the summer show on June 9.

 

Ding Dong Merrily!

Everyone Welcome! No experience necessary. Meet outside the Village Hall at 7pm.

The More the Merrier!

Could We Bring Back a Village Shop?

Parish power can save struggling village shops and pubs

Local Government Minister Grant Shapps said:

“The village shop, pub or post office is often the beating heart of a community. So when one is threatened with closure, often for a reason as simple as the shop owner or pub landlord retiring, I would expect the local parish council to pull out all the stops to keep it going.

“Some have done this brilliantly, but many have watched local amenities close when the power to save them was within their grasp. This is not about propping up failing businesses; it is often about providing temporary financial assistance or putting new community-run facilities in place, so vital services that people rely on are maintained.

“So if an important local business is struggling, I would urge the parish council to sit down with their community and explore every option to keep it running for the benefit of local people.”

Find out more here

Test your broadband speed: feedback required

The Hernhill Village website is asking for people to measure their broadband download speed, using a free on-line Speed Checker, and to leave a comment with the results, as part of a fact-finding project.

Please visit the on-line Speed Checker by clicking here, and then posting your result as a comment on the village website here. Hopefully the Parish Council will be motivated to act on the results if feedback shows a poor speed in the local area.

We’ve tested ours: 2126 kps: pretty poor. Over to you…

Looking to the community’s future

There’s a burgeoning teenage sector of our community looming in the next few years.

There are many children in the village, curently aged between 5 – 9 years, who in about four years’ time will begin to evolve into an ever-growing teenaged community.

As some of the village have been observing in recent weeks, as a rural locality, it’s going to become an important issue, how we can engage this part of our community when it begins to emerge.  With limited access to places like Canterbury and Faversham – the local bus service is sporadic – for recreational activities, such as cinemas, cafes, shops and sports and social facilities, at some point, the community will need to assess how it will entertain and occupy them, what recreational and social facilities we can offer.

It’s time to start planning ahead, to make sure that, when this sector of the community emerges, there are means for them to grow and be engaged by their locality. Time to think ahead…

Let us spray: don’t come a cropper

A meeting of local residents this week brought up the issue of crop-spraying, particularly in the area around the school.

With many children (my own youngest child included) susceptible to asthma, and with attacks capable of being brought on by a reaction to the spraying of the orchards, it’s becoming an increasing concern.

It’s currently left to the discretion of local farmers as to whether or not they inform local residents when they will treating their lands with crop-spraying techniques. It would be interesting to know if this courtesy is currently being extended to our local residents…

The residents would warmly welcome any information as to the nature of the chemicals being used to treat the orchards as well; by all means contact the Forum if you are able to clarify the situation (Figgis major and minor, we look forward to hearing from you).

It’s a constantly contentious issue, as articles here and here demonstrate.

In the meantime, make sure you are aware of when the land is being treated, and make sure those susceptible to ashthma or other bronchial conditions aren’t exposed.We’ll be investigating the legalities surrounding this issue, in particular the duty of care and obligations of those executing the practice, and keep you informed. In the meantime, you can read the advice on the Health and Safety Executive website here, including the various sections on the Code of Practice here.

Local pub gets rave reviews!

Roar talent ?

We’re delighted to see our very own Red Lion, deftly steered into new waters [is that mixing metaphors ? Possibly. Ed] by Ben Edwards, has received a terrific review in ‘YourCanterbury.’

Congratulations to Ben and the team!

Click to read more.