Many who came to the Wakes event in June recall that Allison had a tombola stall raising funds towards her target of raising £1000 by cycling from London to Paris to raise funds for the Royal British Legion.

We are delighted to report that Allison has completed her ride and to date has raised in the region of £1200.

The route started at Eltham in London, crossed the channel and then from Dunkirk to Abbeville, Beavais and then Paris.

Allison said ‘Thank you to everyone who has helped me to raise £1200’ she added ‘Every village we passed through gave us such a warm welcome. The whole experience was amazing, so much so that I have decided to fund raise again by signing up for the Ride to Ypres next June’

Its not too late to sponsor her if you want to. To do so click the link here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/allison-held

A big well done to Allison for this most worthy of causes.

What a great weekend everyone had at the start of September when the villages first ever Scarecrow Festival was held. The aim was for around 15 crows but in the end, there was almost three times that amount with 44 entries. The theme was Nursery Rhymes and everyone who entered worked really hard to give the judges a very difficult task of judging the eventual winner.

The event was the brain child of sisters Julie Coates and Alison Reynolds who worked extremely hard over several months to pull everything together. They were rewarded with a super day on the Saturday with glorious weather which drew large numbers across both villages viewing the entries.

The Sunday was less pleasant with scattered showers but nonetheless, many people came out and traversed between the entries.

St. Werburgh’s Church was open on the Saturday for maps and refreshment and Kingsley Village Hall likewise on the Sunday.

Overall the event raised some £450 to be split between the hall and the church plus the money they raised through cake and tea sales etc.

The winner of the Judges vote was Old McDonald by Alison Pooler from Hollins Lane with Pussycat Where Have You Been from Churnet Valley Road a close second followed by Mary Mary on Sidney Drive.

Three more were highly commended these being Humpty Dumpty on Cheadle Road, Rub-a-Dub-Dub at Church Farm along with Jack and Jill on Churnet Valley Road.

The people’s vote went to 12345 on Barnfield’s Lane with Little Bo Peep (and her lost scattered sheep!) on Glebe Road coming second.

Said Julie Coates after the event ‘The scarecrows were of an exceptionally high standard and an amazing amount of work had gone into each one. The judges had a really difficult task to decide a winner and we would like to thank them for doing a great job on the day”

She added “There was a real buzz around the villages over the weekend and several people commented on how nice it was to walk around both villages and chat to friends and strangers alike and enjoy a real sense of community”

“Thanks also to St Werburgh’s Church and Kingsley Village Hall for all their help and providing refreshments on both days”

You will be glad to hear that the event will run again next year over the same weekend with the theme to be announced in the new year. Let’s aim for 50 plus this time!

The village hall will once again fully support and assist Julie and Alison but this time we may need some volunteers to help out.
Lastly its worth pointing out that the two villages have far more in common than not and it was great to see the community come together as one.

Long may it continue.

Due to holidays, there is a truncated service at the hall this week:

Today 4th September, the Post Office runs from 2.45pm to 4.45pm.

Thursday there is no service.

Next week there is a return to normal opening hours.

Many people will be aware of the incident on The Green on Friday 30th June (previous post HERE ) and the concern expressed as regards the failure of the Ambulance Service to provide the code to both the hall’s device and the delay in getting access to the one outside the Blacksmith’s in Kingsley Holt.

First of all we send our deepest condolences to the family of Mrs Kath Jones.

The Chair of the Hall committee wrote to West Midlands Ambulance Service immediately after the incident and asked that they investigate the circumstances surrounding it. This was followed by a letter from the family sent to the Parish Council which was forwarded on to the service.

Following the investigation and discussions between the hall committee and the WMAS we are able to advise as to the outcome of their investigation.

Quite simply the issue was one that is best described as an organisational failure in that despite being advised to the contrary, the ambulance service did not have a system that allowed call- taking staff access to the cabinet lock code via the box identification number. Senior staff had such access but the call taking staff had not been advised of this. This is the reason that when at both locations the box code was supplied the call takers did not know how to locate the lock code.

As a result of the investigation, a system has now been put into place and staff trained to prevent this occurring again.

Another issue that arose following the incident is that the location where the lady collapsed was just over 200 metres from the cabinet at the hall. The system that alerts call takers to the availability of the defibrillator had been set with a radius of 200 metres meaning that in this instance the call taker was not advised of the existence of the defibrillator by the call taking system. This prevented the code being made available automatically.

It is worth pointing out that when the devices were installed we were advised that the code was all that was required to gain the lock code and there was no mention of a 200-metre activation radius.

A senior manager from the WMAS attended the latest meeting of Kingsley Parish Council and updated councillors as stated above.

Initial discussions with WMAS has led to them extending the radius to 500 metres from each box, this gives almost complete coverage to Kingsley and improved for Kingsley Holt. It should be borne in mind that a person will potentially have to cover 1000 metres to get the device which may mean an ambulance being there before them.

The matter will be further  discussed at the next council meeting to decide on a number of issues namely :

1. The long term management of all three devices in Kingsley / Kingsley Holt and Froghall (there are also two at Whiston)
2. Taking up the offer of a further free device to be sighted in Kingsley Holt to give improved coverage (a further cabinet will need to be purchased via fund raising)
3. Raising funds to purchase a cabinet for the device at the Railway Pub at Froghall.
4. Consideration to taking off the locks from the cabinets – trials elsewhere have not led to thefts or damage to any devices.

In addition, the code has or will be given to the local school, bowling club, church and the Bull’s Head pub.

A number of nearby residents have volunteered to hold the code and have their details sited at the cabinet in Kingsley to ensure that should there be any issues access may be speeded up. This will be sorted out in the coming days. (Thank you to those who volunteered)

At Kingsley Holt, the new landlord has the code (the previous ones did not hand it over on leaving) and similar considerations as in Kingsley will be discussed.

It has been mentioned that the post code for the hall was not displayed by the cabinet. This was not required, as has been stated the box number should have been sufficient to elicit the code.

It is also worth pointing out that once the facts were ascertained it was clear that the actions of those on the night who tried to resuscitate Mrs Jones and to get defibrillator out of the cabinet deserve the highest praise.

We will, of course, update you in due course.

The scarecrow event will take place on 2nd and 3rd September in Kingsley and Kingsley Holt.

The crows will be judged at 11am on Saturday and prizes awarded for 1st, 2nd and  3rd place.

There will also be a ‘Peoples Choice’ prize where visitors can vote for their favourite.

The 75th annual show of this village institution takes place in just under two weeks.

As always there are plenty of classes for those who are serious growers and showers, those who bake or make, for photographers and not forgetting the children.

As always there will be a great raffle with lots of decent prizes and after the judging a chance to buy a prize winning entry be it vegetables, flowers or plants.

Entries can be registered between 10am and 2pm on the day after which there is the judging and then at 5pm doors reopen for the results and the auction.

Please do enter into the show, it’s not the winning seriously, its the taking part that makes the show.

The list of classes is attached here – Show Guide

The Post Master advises that due to holidays and long term absence the Post Office service will be reduced until 7th September.

Dates and the service are as follows :

Monday 14th and 21st August – 2.45pm to 4.45pm each day.

Thursday’s of those weeks remain unaffected.

Week commencing Monday 28th August (Bank Holiday) there will be no service on the Monday or Thursday.

Monday 4th September – 2.45pm to 4.45pm and Thursday 7th September there will be no service.

As from Monday 14th September normal service will be resumed.

Update 7/8/17 – bin found and returned!

On Friday 28th July the hall’s blue lid rubbish bin was left at the bottom of the driveway to await the refuse collectors.

Later that day when we returned to return it to the store it had gone. We have absolutely no idea where it’s gone or who has it.

We are quite sure it’s either children messing about or someone has mixed it up with their bin and might now have two.

To replace the bin will cost almost £40,  money we would prefer to spend on other things but we need a bin so our rubbish can get collected.

Please do let us know if you know where the bin is or have any information.