2 S PR I NG I S SUE | APR I L 2 0 2 3 Parish Council and Community Group: Highlights Shapwick Starlets WI SUE SELLICK GRAHAM CROUCHER CHAIR OF SHAPWICK PC Shapwick Village Green update It is so exciting to be able to report that the purchase of “The Village Green” is now in its final stages, with sufficient finance available through local charitable grants and the use of Parish Council reserves. The legal teams are now preparing contracts ready for approval and signature. By the time this Shapwick News appears we will have held two Celebration and Consultation events to help plan the future development of The Village Green, driven by the wishes and ideas of Shapwick residents. We will have also launched our Justgiving campaign (try the QR code below!) and started to seek additional grants to drive the chosen developments forward. Time really does seem to have flown by since the last Shapwick News but much has been achieved, most of which is reflected elsewhere in this issue. The Parish Council has been focussed on the purchase of the Village Green but looking to the future, has also found time to engage with Somerset Highways (see p. 6), and kick-off an exciting IT project to evaluate the potential for a new Parish Council website and a possible wider IT solution across the various Shapwick community groups. We agreed to increase the village precept by approx £5.00 per month per household. This is the first increase for 5 years and aside from inflation reflects the increased activity of the Parish Council and anticipated additional costs from the ownership of the Village Green. The main focus of the last Community Group meeting was to start planning for the Coronation Big Lunch on Sunday 7th May (see p.1). All agendas and full minutes are available on www.shapwick.org. We would love to see more villagers at our bi-monthly meetings. See also "I wish Shapwick..." on p. 8! I would like to to thank everyone for making this historic purchase possible: the part played by past Parish Councillors, the hard working current Councillors, those villagers who have already made generous financial pledges and above all the residents of Shapwick for your support. So many interesting speakers booked this year, and lots of things planned for the forthcoming months! We were entertained in February by Kay, a living history presenter who volunteers at Glastonbury Abbey. In front of our eyes she transformed from Kay into Alice. Her talk has inspired us so much that we are planning a visit to the Abbey. In April, we will be busy crafting in readiness for the Coronation party on 8 May. Royal bunting is the theme to decorate the hall/village green...hoping to try out some découpage. We will be helping out with refreshments and as the competition for April is the best homemade crown, we may well be wearing them when serving tea! Can you hear distant drums? Well in May you might be able to as we are going to be having a Fabdrumming workshop with Marion, so excited about this, such a fun night. For June Rob is coming to tell us tales of Mayhem in Shapwick including a link to the Titanic! Our walking group is well and truly up and running, well more of a leisurely stroll to be honest. We have had fun recreating the scene at Jan Swaine’s Leap and tried out some tree hugging too! You can follow us on Facebook – Shapwick Starlets WI. Also see what has been going on behind the scenes on our Bag Full of Hugs Page and how we are supporting women who are fleeing domestic violence. We meet the second Tuesday of each month apart from August, at 7.30pm in the Village Hall.
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