News

How well do you know the parish? If you want to explore and find out more, then why not enter the Littlehempston Parish Quiz? It’s a fun way of having a walk with family or a friend, with sixteen questions to challenge your powers of observation, including ones that even the younger ones can help answer. And there’s a tiebreaker challenge if more than one entry gets everything right!

It’s handy to have a map for this. A useful laminated OS map for local walks that covers the parish and fits in your pocket is Around & About Totnes and covers Littlehempston as well as Dartington, Staverton, Broadhempston and Ipplepen. It costs £3.99 from Yellow Publications. Or for £5 you can buy a beautiful Parish Map (pictured here) created by local people in 1996 and which is accurate even down to the trees. You can see one framed on the church wall (during lockdown, the church is open Sundays from 10am to 3pm for private prayer). Get in touch to order one.

Contact Val Hoare or phone her on 07792 802307 to get details on how to pay your entry fee of £5 per household bubble, and to receive your unique number plus the all-important questions. You then have until midday on Easter Monday, 5th April to submit your answers. Results will be announced on Wednesday 7th April, with first and second prizes being awarded. The size of the prizes will depend on how many entries there are. So please join in the fun, get some exercise and win some cash.

The first draw of the Littlehempston Lottery is on Wednesday 31st March and already lots of you have entered. The draw will no doubt take place in somebody’s garden, as sadly the Tally Ho will probably still be out of bounds. (Though they open up every Friday night for takeaways – highly recommended!) There are 4 draws a year and it costs £10 to enter each one. Started nine years ago by Ken Wood, the lottery has raised over £11,000 with half donated to community activities and half going to lucky winners. More information and the Application Form can be found on our Littlehempston Lottery page or contact Ali Taylor.

It’s finally almost here – the new Super Recycler service for the South Hams will begin to be rolled out from Monday 8 March.

So get ready and set to become a Super Recycler!

Many local residents are already great recyclers, and South Hams currently recycles more than the English average. Now, the Council has made a commitment to do everything it can to help residents recycle even more.

In 2019 the Council declared a Climate Change and Biodiversity Emergency, showing its commitment to the Devon-wide plan of being zero carbon by 2030.

Under the new service residents will have a weekly recycling collection and, for the first time ever, will be able to put glass and plastic pots, tubs and trays out for recycling. Food waste will also be collected weekly in a new container.

In addition to this, the single-use clear and blue sacks will be a thing of the past, and all households will receive new containers for recycling.

Grey bin collections for non-recyclable items will continue to be collected every other week, but with more opportunities to recycle, South Hams expects to see less waste being incinerated and more being turned into new products.

Residents will also be pleased to hear that the garden waste service will continue to be provided free of charge with the brown bins being emptied fortnightly.

The change of service will happen gradually over a couple of months and all households will be informed individually.

FCC, the organisation who is contracted to collect waste and recycling on behalf of South Hams, says: “New vehicles will be used on this service which will help to keep each type of material separate. The result will be better quality materials which can more easily be recycled into new products.

If you are passionate about recycling or want to keep up-to-date with the latest information SHDC publish about the service, you can sign up for their Waste and Recycling email bulletin here:
https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/UKSWDEVON/subscriber/new

You can find more information on the new scheme on the SHDC website:
www.southhams.gov.uk/newservice

For most people an AGM is a thing to dread and avoid if possible. But please consider joining the Community Space Team online at 7pm on Tuesday 23rd March 2021 to help plan what may be another challenging year. Despite the church being shut since March last year, the team has done its best to provide much needed light relief and entertainment, whilst fostering the excellent community cohesion that is so apparent in Littlehempston. Some of the events have raised funds to pay for projects and keep the church building in good nick to be warm and welcoming when our Space re-opens.

It’s hard to believe that next year the Community Space will celebrate its first ten years. Over £100,000 was spent on adapting the church so that it could also be our “village hall”. The innovative idea to put the pews on wheels so the Space could be re-arranged for different uses such as exercise classes, dances, communal meals and talks has become quite famous. Churches from all over the UK and even abroad get in touch to find out more. Just Google “Pews on Wheels” and you’ll see for yourself. Pictured here is Rev. Nicholas Pearkes fitting the wheels. Money for the building work came mainly from grants and donations, but a bank loan of £25,700 remained to be paid off. Over £20,000 has already been raised through lots of fundraising events and activities and if all goes to plan, the loan will be paid off by the end of next year.

The AGM will take a look at the past year and then plan more fun (and fundraising) activities for the year to come. If you’d like to join the Space Team, you’ll be made very welcome – meetings are friendly, fast and involve good humour and wine. A well oiled team in fact. Whether you join the team or not, you’ll be made very welcome at the online AGM held on Zoom. Please contact Val Hoare or ring her on 07792 802307 to get your invitation.

The Department of Work & Pensions have provided a fund to County Councils and Unitary Authorities across England under the ‘COVID Winter Grant Scheme’. The aim is to support vulnerable households with the cost of fuel or food due to the continuing hardships caused by Covid-19.

Citizens Advice South Hams are working on behalf of Devon County Council to help Devon residents in need. They are able to provide vouchers, top up smart meters online, or make payments to online fuel accounts.

So if you think you, or someone you know, could benefit from this scheme, get in touch with Citizens Advice South Hams. But don’t delay – the scheme ends on 31st March.

Applications are invited for the role of Parish Clerk and Responsible Finance Officer (RFO) for Littlehempston Parish Council.

The post is part-time, around 4 hours per week, with a start date of 1 May 2021. The salary will be as per the national recommended scale for part-time Clerks (NALC LC1 SP16) £12.48 per hour.

The successful candidate will be expected to handle the agendas, formal minutes and correspondence of the Council, as well as bookkeeping and PAYE for the accounts. Attendance at the evening meetings of the Council is a requirement of the position – generally the first Tuesday bi-monthly.

Experience of local government administrative practices would be helpful, however, training can be provided through the Devon Association of Local Councils (DALC).

To apply or for more information, please click on this link to contact Joy Book, Clerk or phone her on 07704 584953.

Here are links to download the job description and application form.

2021 is a census year, and census day is Sunday 21st March.

You’ll receive an access code through the post that will allow you to fill in the census form online, and you can request a paper version if you’d prefer that. It should only take about ten minutes to complete the form.

You can fill in the census form as soon as you receive your access code, but your answers should be about the people who will be living in your house on the 21st March. And you can help family, friends and neighbours fill in the form, or get them to help you.

There’s a lot more information about the 2021 census in this leaflet from the Office for National Statistics and on the census website.