We just wanted to remind everyone that Thursday 24th May at 7pm in the Small Meeting Place, will be the AGM (Annual General Meeting) of the Galley Hill Residents Association. This is your chance to have a say in who is on the Committee of YOUR residents association.
As always, we are looking for volunteers to run or help run the GHRA. All of the Committee will stand down and open up their positions to anyone who wants to stand, then a vote can be taken if more than one candidate is proposed. We would like to see some more people willing to stand up for Galley Hill and the needs of its residents.
Please try and make some time to attend the meeting, and have a say in local matters.
We just wanted to remind everyone that the Council Elections are due to take place on Thursday 3rd May. This is your chance to vote to make a difference in how the MK Council runs the services they provide. Make sure you use your vote for the candidate you feel best represents what you would like to see in your area.
The referendum is your chance to have a say in the future of our area at a closer level. The Stony Stratford Town Council have put together a Neighbourhood Plan for the area which includes Galley Hill and Fullers Slade. We have placed a link to the SSTC Neighbourhood Plan online here for you to read so you can make an informed decision before voting for or against it.
There is also a copy of the Plan in the Town Crier which you can read below.
Our events team have been working hard on recent events and have managed to organise 3 fantastic events for the residents of Galley Hill. We take a quick look back at each of them here, while looking forward to more to come this year.
Easter Egg Hunt
The first major event of the year for the GHRA events team was a huge undertaking, as they organised an Easter Egg Hunt. The event was part funded by the Galley Hill Residents Association using funds from the grants given by the local Council. A small fee was asked to secure a place on the day, and we expected a modest turnout of 20-30 children and eggs were purchased to cover that amount.
As time went on the numbers grew, and soon we had over 40 children booked in for the Egg Hunt and crafting, more eggs had to be bought. And it continued to grow until we eventually had 68 children pre-booked for the event, and had some eggs in reserve for those who had promised to turn up on the day.
On the morning of the day, there were still last minute preparations to be done, as the decision had been made to make it a Peter Rabbit themed hunt. To win an egg the children would need to find several characters from the books around the St. Mary St. Giles School playground which the Headmaster had kindly agreed to let us use for the event. So characters were printed and wipe clean laminated hunt tick sheets made.
Finally the time was upon us to set up, and our team of eager volunteers (nobody was press-ganged, honestly) arrived at the school and set up craft tables, hid the characters and put on the display of eggs and the special fluffy bunny prizes for the Golden Egg Draw.
Our Treasurer, Roy, togerther with Flitton Court Rep Paul, found their usual places behind the counter serving refreshments: free tea, coffee and biscuits for the adults and fruit squash drinks for the children.
And the Galley Hill Residents Association Easter Egg Hunt 2018 began in earnest. With children and adults alike enjoying the Egg Hunt and Crafts which had been laid on, where the children got to make a paper plate into a rabbit face, and add cress seeds inside a cup with rabbit ears to grow hair (or hare maybe?)
Sue helps a one of the many children to make a cress haired rabbitFinding the characters and marking them off, some of those creatures were hiding very well!I found a golden egg 🙂 A golden egg got a childs name in a hat to win one of the six fluffy bunnies bought using a kind donation from a Galley Hill Resident
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The craft activities were going down a storm with the young children
A couple of hours and 70 odd Easter Eggs handed out later, it was all over -for the families who attended anyway. Our volunteers had the unenviable task of clearing away and putting the school back to how they’d found it before their day was done. A big thank you to Sue Titchmarsh and Kate Nicholls for organising the GHRA Easter Egg Hunt, but equally huge thanks to the backroom guys and gals, Roy, Joy, and Sue (another one) who were there helping to organise the event before the day and on the day, they are all stars.
Finally, thank you to all the families who attended the event and made it a successful day. We received some very positive feedback from so many people who said they had enjoyed the day. We also wish to give a special thanks to those who allowed us to use their childrens’ pictures to make this post.
Coffee Evening
As soon as the Easter Egg Hunt was over the preparations started for the first ever GHRA Coffee evening. This event was planned to complement the popular coffee mornings, to give those who work a chance to socialise with their neighbours. Free tea, coffee, biscuits and cakes were on offer at the Small Meeting place and attracted a few of the residents to attend.
Roy once again acted as our barista and was ably assisted by Paul who is his regular helper on the weekly Tuesday Coffee Mornings.
Thank you to all who attended and to our dynamic duo for making the beverages for everyone.
Litter Pick
Our latest organised event was the Litter Pick around Galley Hill on the 8th of April. This event was given an extra boost by the volunteers from the Stony Stratford Community Church, who helped organise and run the event, which will be a bi-monthly event going forward. On the day all the volunteers gathered at the parking bay outside St. Mary St. Giles School at 10:45 ready for an hour’s litter pick.
Galley Hill Residents and members of the Stony Stratford Community Church assemble to start litter picking.
Once Kate had organised the teams, we all set off and started litter picking in our designated courts and areas around Galley Hill. An hour later we all dropped off our litter bags in the agreed area for MK Council to collect for disposal.
A lot of rubbish was collected during the GHRA organised litter pick
All the volunteers gathered to show a job well done and were invited back to Sue and Doug’s for tea, coffee and biscuits
A good job, well done to the GHRA and Stony Stratford Community Church volunteer litter pickers.
A huge thank you to Stony Stratford Community Church for bringing along their helpers and their equipment to help the residents of Galley Hill clean up the area we live in.
Thank You to everyone who has volunteered, helped, and supported our recent events, we have more planned for this year so keep coming back for information on our events, and subscribe to our newsletter here.
Thank you all, from the Galley Hill Residents Association Committee.
8th March meeting of the GHRA saw another large turnout at the Small Meeting Place, and the committee would like to thank everyone for their support. It was a meeting not only packed with people but also with things to discuss and a bit of a shocker for all of us, read on to find out more.
Once the meeting was officially opened by our Chairperson, a very poorly Nyomie, we heard from Roy that the finances are looking good for the GHRA. Dave and Roy had also attended the Fullers Slade RA and reported briefly on happenings there.
We were then joined by local Police Officer Kate Story who was there to reassure the residents of Galley Hill that, despite appearances to the contrary, the area still has a very low crime rate. Reporting of crimes was discussed as there is a general feeling that smaller crimes aren’t being reported as people don’t want to bother the busy police service with seemingly trivial things. Kate advised that even if nothing needs to be investigated reporting crime (telephone 101 for non urgent calls or report online on the TVP website) helps the police to build a profile and may lead to preventing further crimes. Everybody agreed that the talk had been helpful, and we thank Kate Story for her time. Kate has also asked us to make this Home security booklet available for download.
CCTV was also discussed with Kate advising to be careful that it doesn’t intrude into a neighbours privacy. Also, signage advising of CCTV must be plainly displayed.
Following the usual discussions of potholes (the council have use of a new pothole filling machine so we should see it used over the next two years), Antisocial parking, trees and landscaping (still being brought to the attention of the council regularly by GHRA, councillors and residents) etcetera we heard from Roy that the tree carving project is still in progress and that the school is still involved in the designs.
Nyomie dropped the bombshell that she was stepping down as Chairperson with immediate effect. All present were a little shocked, but thank her for her hard work during the formative year of the GHRA. We all wish her well and hope to see her at the future meetings of the residents association she has helped to start and shape.
Cllr Mick Allsopp informed us of the upcoming elections of the local Council and the Neighbourhood Plan which will be important for all of us to get involved in. Mick also informed us that he has put Galley Hill forward as a Key Site which may help us in our efforts to get more repairs done to the area.
-Litter picking was discussed and the Steward at Stony Community Church, which helps run the Fullers Slade litter picks, can come on 8th April, 10:30 a.m., meeting outside the school, and then every second month on a Sunday. (6 times a year.) We need volunteers to help litter pick.
Finally we need to mention our Easter Egg event to be held on Good Friday again, please email our events team to prebook so we can get an idea of numbers.
Full minutes of the meeting will be available here soon.
We at the GHRA are organising an Easter Egg Hunt and small craft making session for the children of Galley Hill and the surrounding areas. All are welcome, see the flier below for more information.
Please support the events team and bring along some children for some fun, finding Easter eggs and making things.
Thanks
The Committee of the Galley Hill Residents Association
Please accept our apologies for the lack of updates, it’s been a busy time for everyone and the days just disappeared. We haven’t gone anywhere, and the Galley Hill Residents Association are still working to get things improved in Galley Hill. Following a recent discussion on the Friends Of Galley Hill Facebook group someone asked what is the point of the GHRA if nothing gets cleaned up?
And that is where we will start, we need more of the community to get involved to help us to achieve the changes we all want to see. At our last committee meeting it was suggested we do a monthly litter pick, like the one they have at Fullers Slade which is organised by a local church group who have offered to help GHRA to organise the litter pick. We need volunteers to come forward to help on a weekend for an hour or two once a month.
Could you help?
On the subject of volunteers needed we are currently looking for Court Reps for Stanbridge and Manshead Courts. Being a Court Rep doesn’t have to take a lot of your time, all it entails is the delivery of the Noose newsletter once a month and the odd leaflet drop. Of course if you want to do more then you can attend the committee meetings and bring in the concerns of your neighbours too!
We would also like to remind everyone to be vigilant once again as there have been yet more break-ins in Galley Hill as well as the mugging and an attempted mugging in the area. One involved the theft of car keys, and then the car was stolen, and in a separate incident a garage was broken into, both in Redbourne Court and within a week of each other.
We do have a Neighbourhood Watch in place to help co-ordinate a concerted effort into keeping us all safe, and an idea was raised at a recent meeting to see if we can get help to fund camera doorbells in a few houses around GH. Any other ideas to help prevent the thefts?
Finally a little update on things which are happening. The GHRA have been making a lot of connections over the past year, including working closely with our local Councillors, Mick Allsopp and Paul Bartlett to get our area noticed. Additionally we have been pushing to get the Stony Stratford Town Councillors and various important people from MK Council to our meetings and to listen to the concerns of GH residents. These efforts are starting to yield results, as we recently had Cllr Liz Gifford attend a meeting and take questions from those attending. As a result of this Cllr Gifford raised concerns about missing street signs and as a result the Clailey Court sign was replaced within a few days of her getting involved and following it up (although Redbourne Court still remains anonymous to outsiders despite the sign having gone missing a long time before Clailey Courts).
The tree carving project is getting closer to completion as Roy has been in contact with the St. Mary St. Giles school again to get the final designs from the children to complete the bench.
We have also had Kate Nicholls and Sue Titchmarsh step up to the events team. They are already planning an Easter Egg Hunt in Galley Hill so keep coming back for more information.
To sum it up, to some it may seem that it is all pointless, but in the grand scheme of things GHRA is still taking baby steps, but starting to get noticed by the various bodies who make the decisions. Work is always going on behind the scenes, a lot of hard work by the volunteers behind the GHRA committee and court reps, and if more people come forward to offer any help they can then we will be able to do more for our community, together!
Thanks to all those who volunteer their time, turn up to meetings and help to make our little but important part of Milton Keynes better.
The GHRA recently received the following from a TV producer looking for help. If you can help please contact us and we will pass on any information.
I work for a television company called Transparent TV. We are currently making a documentary about the history of social housing for Channel 5 presented by Michael Portillo.
>
> I would be incredibly grateful if you could help please. I am trying to track down former residents of Willey Court on the Galley Hill Estate. They were called the King family, they were photographed with Margaret Thatcher as they were some of the first people to go for the Right to Buy scheme. I am attaching a picture.
>
> Apparently they have moved on from Willey Court. But to track them down it would be really helpful to know their first names. Might you be able to help with this please? Is there an old register? Or a long- time resident who has been living at Willey Court since 1979?
>
> Here is an article that refers to the family:
>
> https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104142
>
> Thank you so much for your time,
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Anna
>
> Producer
> Transparent TV
> 1-3 St Peter’s Street
> Islington
> London
> N1 8JD
As the new year gets going, we wish all the residents of Galley Hill and everywhere else a great 2018.
Unfortunately we have to report that some terrible people have found their way to our area again. We are letting you know so you can be aware and take precautions to remain safe.
The first and possibly most terrible thing we have to report is that an elderly lady was mugged on the Red Routes around Galley Hill. A cyclist rode past her, then came back from behind and took her bag. Fortunately the lady concerned is, despite being small in stature, a tough cookie and while the incident upset her she is physically unharmed and won’t let this stop her being out and about. Another plus in this case is that the police quickly found and caught the mugger.
A second incident involved theft of tools from a van. The vehicle was broken into overnight and a number of tools taken.
A third incident involved an attempt to gain entry to a house on Galley Hill. The potential burglary involved using a flat blade, possibly a screwdriver, to attempt to force open a doir to the property, luckily in this case the attempt was unsuccessful.
Finally we have been made aware of a scam by our neighbours over at Fullers Slade. Helen from Fullers sent me the following after somebody tried this recently.
“Hi all just to remind you all to please ask for ID from anyone that knocks on your door as it came to our ATTENTION that there has been someone going around saying they are working on behalf of the council. If you are not sure about them then close the door, ask them to wait while you phone the company they claim to be from. If this person is GENUINE they will wait, if they go then please report it to the company they say they’re from
PLEASE ALL BE SAFE”
While these incidents seem to be on the rise there is no need to worry unnecessarily, just be vigilant and report anything suspicious to the police. As always, lock all doors and windows if you are away from your house for any length of time, make it as difficult as possible for these people to gain access to your property. Keep an eye out for each other and stay safe.
Thanks for your support, the Galley Hill Residents Association Committee.
The Galley Hill Residents Carol Singing evening was successfully delivered on Tueday 19th December by the Residents Association and some volunteers. Headed by Roy and Joy from the Galley Hill Residents Association, assisted by Mr. Salter the St. Mary St. Giles School headmaster, and supported by Sue Titchmarsh, Phoebe Titchmarsh, Bianca Titchmarsh and others along the way. Thanks to Dave, our Vice Chair for the pictures and video.
A big thank you to all who attended and all who supported them around the courts. A special thanks to Sue Fitch who helped organise the event but had to work and missed the actual singing.
Merry Christmas from all at Galley Hill Residents Association and we hope to see more of you getting involved in 2018.
Don’t forget that Tuesday 19th December 2017 sees the final GHRA Coffee Morning of 2017 from 10am at the small meeting place above the shop.
It is also the GHRA carol singing starting at the same place at 6pm and touring Galley Hill.
Hope some of you can make it.
Website for the Galley Hill Residents Association, Milton Keynes
