Articles December 2024

Longhorsley Parish Council

The next Parish Council meeting will be held on Wednesday, 11th December, in the Village Hall, starting at 7pm, with a parishioner slot at 8pm. Meeting notices are displayed on village notice boards, with minutes and other information found on the Parish Council website.

Contact details for the current members are detailed below:

Clerk: Gillian Turner, 4 Lowther Close, Seaton Manor, Ashington, NE63 0HY  01670 812704 or  parishclerk@longhorsley-pc.gov.uk

Chairman: Norman Douglas 07485 174529 norman.douglas@longhorsley-pc.gov.uk

Councillors: Sarah Alcock, Kirsty Bell, Peter Boyle, Jennie Parker, Anne Peat and Trevor Potts.

New Noticeboard

You may have seen the new noticeboard situated by the Tree on Drummonds Close? This is a public noticeboard for residents to use to advertise local events/news instead of pinning notices to the tree.

Tree Works along the A697

We recently had a survey undertaken of the trees along the A697 heading South from the Shoulder of Mutton, by a specialist tree arboriculturalist.  Unfortunately, about 30 trees have been identified as being of a dangerous condition or dying of Ash-dieback disease. We are planning to carry out felling and pruning works come the new year. The works will require traffic management i.e. lights/stop-go signs being put in place in order to protect workers. This will cause some disruption to motorists, so please bear with us as the works are absolutely necessary to protect road users.

Anonymous Complaints/Requests

We have received a couple of anonymous complaints and requests of late.  

Unfortunately, we cannot act on these and we want to ensure that all of your comments/requests are considered appropriately. So please if you have an issue to bring to the Council’s attention you can do this in person by coming along to the Parish Council meeting or by sending an email or letter to the Clerk.

Christmas Greetings

Members of the Parish Council would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Peaceful and Safe New Year.

Finally, we would like to say Goodbye to our Clerk, Gillian Turner, who has been our Clerk for the last 9 years. Gillian is retiring at the end of December, so we wish her good luck for the future. We would also like to welcome Samantha Doyle as our new Clerk who will be taking over from January.

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Your County Councillor

Whatever the future holds for dualling the A1 there is already traffic movement away from the road to the A697 and other routes and to shortcuts to avoid the worst bottlenecks where dual carriageway becomes single.

So, in advance of next year, I’ve asked for a meeting with National Highways about these and to see what might be done to help early in the New Year.

I am expecting the fixed camera to be working again next summer through the village but I still have a job to do to keep this on course. 

The Police have confirmed to me that the camera van will visit the village over the next few months and I will be keeping an eye on this.

In the meantime - I hope you have a very restful and happy Christmas and New Year. Please remember you can contact me anytime - even Christmas Day!! - if you have any Council issues and I will be glad to help.

Glen Sanderson  07730 979737 glen.sanderson@northumberland.gov.uk

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December Tweets along Archie’s Pond

The recent frosty weather has made it easier to see Redwings, Fieldfares and others from the Thrush family as they feed on berry bushes around the village. They have an amazing ability to spot the ripe ones - not necessarily the brightest coloured - and sometimes descend in numbers on a bush and strip it clean. Waxwings may appear in the village too, and they are more likely to come to gardens. With the almost horizontal sunlight at present, the colours of these birds are shown to their best effect.

Also good for colour and easy to see are Bullfinches. Take a slow walk along the path, try to get the sun from behind and pause when you see movement ahead. Bullfinches will feed on what appear to be bare twigs but are taking the autumn grown buds as well as berries. If you can withstand the cold, then be still for a while and they will resume feeding unconcernedly. Long-tailed Tits also feed amongst bare twigs and are relaxed about approaching closely if you stand still. They have black, white and pink plumage but must be close on a bright day for you to see their black eyes and coloured eye rings.

Another opportunity to record your garden birds is on 24-26 Jan 2025 with the Big Garden Birdwatch – see www.rspb.org.uk

Andrew Brunt  788352

For more information about birds in Northumberland, visit the Northumberland and Tyneside Bird Club website at  www.ntbc.org.uk

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The Longhorsley Masquerade Ball

Many thanks to all those who are attending our Longhorsley Ball on Saturday 7th December - we look forward to seeing you there and hope you have a fantastic evening. 

More news in the New Year on how much we raised and how we are distributing it; in the meantime a very happy Christmas to all from the Longhorsley Ball Committee.

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Post Office

The Post Office is considering closing the outreach services. Brook has persuaded them to let her try reducing the hours, but it is now definitely a case of use it or lose it. So if you want to keep the Post Office in Longhorsley then please make use of it!

Post Office in Longhorsley Village Hall

Monday 9.15am   to 11.30am

Friday 11.30am to 1.30pm

Please note that this Outreach Service cannot accept large parcels.

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Longhorsley Takeaway Food

We will send out a Breaking News if we are notified of any changes.

The Shoulder of Mutton

The Shoulder of Mutton is open and offering takeaways every day.

Sunday lunches 12-6pm ~ Monday to Saturday 5pm-8pm

See their menu at  shoulderofmuttonpub.com ~ phone 788236 to order

The Flying Fryer

The Flying Fryer will be here every Friday from 4pm to 7pm, depending on demand.

They will not be here for 2 weeks from 27th December, they will be back on 10th January 2025.

Facebook The Flying Fryer 07984 426 725

Dou_h&co 

Dou_h&co visits on one Thursday in the month from 4:30pm – 7:30pm.

The next visit dates are 5th December and 9th January.

Pre-order on  07507 834 628 from Monday 9am.

See their menu on the Dou_h & Co Facebook page, Instagram and Dou-h.co.uk

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Mobile Library Visiting Times

The Mobile Library visits Longhorsley once a month, on Fridays between 3pm and 4pm, in the Village Hall car park.

The next visit will be on the 13th December.

The Mobile Library Service website can be found here

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February Edition

The last date for submissions is 20th January. You can email or phone us.

Please keep articles under 250 words, if at all possible.

Jan and Sheena Haveman 07834 740649 longhorsley.tree@gmail.com

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