Parish News

Congratulations must go to FORA and its extended team for coming runners up in the Best Kept Village competition. This placing is recognition for the massive contributions that you all make in keeping the village looking as splendid as it does. This achievement should not be underestimated given the linearity of the village and the long stretch that it covers. Well done to all.

Congratulations to all who entered the Roughlee Hanging Basket, Planter and Garden Competition this year. The winners were announced at the FORA event: 1st Prize – Dawn Odgers for her array of hanging baskets and planters; 2nd Prize – Chris and Steve Worrall, Old Hall Close planters; 3rd Prize – Roy Hope’s garden at Waterfall Cottages. Thank you to Salterforth Garden Centre for generously sponsoring this event again.

There will be a short Remembrance gathering and silence at Roughlee memorial stone on Monday 11th November. Everyone is welcome to attend so do please join us! Please arrive a few minutes early ready for a prompt start at 11am.

Now, don’t shoot me, I know that we have not passed bonfire night, but planning and arrangements have started to taking place for our annual Seniors’ Christmas lunch. This will take place on Thursday 5th December in the village centre. The format will be the same as previous years with a 3 course lunch, mince pies, coffee and wine with our village school children coming to entertain us with their carols. This event is open to all village residents aged 65 or over at a small cost of £7.50 per head; non-resident guests can accompany them for £15. Invitations will be sent out later this month, we do recognise that we have a number of new residents in the village and we don’t always know everyone’s age, so if you qualify and haven’t received an invitation by 25th November, please raise your hand and we will rectify this. Please also note that due to numbers this is a pre-bookable event and we cannot accommodate walk-ins on the day.

This month we have taken delivery of 3 new recycled composite benches to replace some of the tired and damaged ones in the village and we have had a new back door fitted to the kitchen at the village centre. All of these items have been funded from capital grants that we obtained at the start of the financial year courtesy of Pendle Borough Council.

Whilst walking the village looking at the sitings of benches (and the location of a new one) it has come to our attention that we are “full” with no obvious apparent sites for new additional benches. With this in mind I am going to add this subject to our next meeting and table the motion that if any new requests come to us for memorial benches that we politely refuse and suggest the planting of trees with plaques instead.

Finally, we have a vacancy for a new parish councillor due to one of our own having to step down due to a change in working patterns. If you are interested, please give me a shout and we can have an informal chat about what it entails.