Boughton News - October

Saturday 29th August 2015 Boughton Village Pond Working Party

It was a cool fresh Bank Holiday morning when a handful of villagers assembled by the village pond, armed with an assortment of gardening tools ranging from secateurs to heavy duty loppers! The task was to tidy up the vegetation around the pond, and in particular cut back a large clump of bushes on the waters’ edge which had become overgrown. Following a quick discussion a plan of attack was agreed and the motley crew split into three groups, one tackling the overgrown bushes, another pruning and tidying up other assorted vegetation around the pond, and a third under the “captaincy” of Parish Council Chairman Tom Roberts, who set “sail” on the pond in a small rowing boat to enable Paul Coulton to spray the reed beds. During the ensuing three hours an impressive two farm trailer-loads of prunings were loaded up and towed away by Geoff Procter, and there was even time for as short coffee break to devour home-made cake and survey their handiwork. It was not all plain sailing however, as Captn. Roberts’ boat took on water and the said captain had to come ashore sporting a very wet pair of breeches! The cutting back of the overgrown bushes also had to be curtailed slightly when a pigeons next was discovered containing two young chicks. This part of the bushes was left for a future date and once activity subsided the two parents were quick to return and feed their ravenous brood. On behalf of the Parish Council and the residents of Boughton I’d like to say a big THANK YOU to all who took part, and to the kind ladies who provided all the refreshments, not forgetting Geoff Procter for kindly providing the trailer and taking away all the debris. If you missed out on the fun and would like to offer your services at the next clean up then keep you eyes on the Parish Noticeboard or in the Group 4 News. Ian Davis – Boughton Parish Council.

Speeding in Boughton As readers will know vehicles speeding through Boughton have long been both a source of annoyance and concern. To help minimise speeding we arranged to have village gateways placed at both ends of the village. This appears to have had some effect however vehicles still speed. As many of you may know Norfolk Police placed a monitoring device in the village to get accurate data about the scale of the problem. This was in place for the last two weeks of July and whilst they did not capture registration marks they did get accurate figures for the numbers of vehicles passing through the village, the times and the speeds at which they went. At the time of writing this I am awaiting more detailed information from the police but one figure, if accurate, surprised me – it is that the average number of vehicle movements in Boughton appears to be about 500 per day. I hope to provide full details in the next issue but certainly as soon as we receive them from the police. Tom Roberts Chairman – Boughton Parish Council