Tag Archives: GHRA

Updated MKCC Proposal for Community Space

A meeting was arranged by Milton Keynes City Council on June 12th 2024 to update GHRA on the now completed feasibility study that was looking into how best to provide a long term space for residents.

A copy of the presentation is available below:

The proposal included the following key points:

  • Construction of two new classrooms at the Watling Way Centre
  • Reconfiguration of the Watling Way Centre hall to use as a dual purpose hall
  • Removal of stairs and ramp to the former Small Meeting Place
  • Replacement of the parapet wall on the balcony of the SMP with low-maintenance railings
  • New gate to the front of the former Arts Centre
  • New fencing to the rear of the former Arts Centre
  • Removal of the children’s play area adjacent to the former Arts Centre
  • Play area to be re-landscaped and converted into a community garden leased to either GHRA or SSTC (who in turn would have a service agreement with GHRA)
  • Short-Term use of the former Arts Centre by GHRA prior to the charities moving in

The decision to proceed with these proposals and move on to procurement and awarding the contract for the works is scheduled for the 9th of July.

These extracts from the presentation show the site before works began:

And how the site may look after all works are completed:

Have your say!

This will be a key talking point for this months residents meeting, if you want to have a say in how GHRA responds to these proposals come along to the school hall Thursday 20 June at 7pm.

Litter Picking Resumed on Galley Hill

Galley Hill Residents Association along with the Stony Stratford Community Church have resumed the bi-monthly litter pick on Galley Hill. The rubbish collecting session on 14th November attracted several of the estates residents who helped collect several bags of litter to tidy our area.

Cleaning up Galley Hills litter

Thanks to those who attended and helped make our part of Milton Keynes a little tidier.

Great News For Galley Hill Community Centre

Under pressure from GHRA Milton Keynes Council agree to spend £390,000 to renovate the Community Centre.
Following representations from residents on Galley Hill led by GHRA spokesman Paul Randall, Stony Stratford Town Councillor Roy Adams, GHRA chair David Taverner and GHRA committee member Sue Fitch, Pete Marland, Leader of Milton Kes Council announced at the full MK Council meeting on Wednesday 24th February that MKC will spend £390,000 to renovate the Community Centre on Galley Hill.It has been three years since the former Arts Centre part of the building was closed, and since then, the council had repeatedly said that they would look to renovate the building and bring it back to community use. Following complaints by residents in the recent MK budget consultation that the community centre renovation had been “missed out” from the budget numbers, Paul Randall  lobbied Stony Stratford Town Council sucessfully to write to Milton Keynes Council to ask for funding for the community centre.
Paul, Roy, David and Sue gave advance notice of “questions from members of the public” about the funding on  order paper of the MK Council’s meeting on Wednesday night. At the start of the debate on the budget , Peter Marland announced that funding would be made available.  
All GHRA’s hard work in this area has finally paid off!

Thank you to all involved and everyone who supported the GHRA by filling in the recent survey and helping apply pressure on MKC.

Upcoming Meetings For Galley Hill Residents

Stony Stratford Town Council’s next meeting will be at 19th March at the Small Meeting Place in Galley Hill. The meeting starts at 7pm, and it may be good to have a strong turnout by interested local residents.
We should also mention that,  finding there was money left in the 2018/19 SSTC budget earmarked for local groups, Sue Titchmarsh, ( as Events Co-ordinator)   has put in an application ( countersigned by Roy Adams, GHRA Treasurer) on GHRA’s behalf for £200 towards running an Easter Egg hunt ( similar to last year) . It would be good if people were there to look  the other councillors in the eye when they are making the decision on this.
We are expecting another group of people will be there to express their concerns over some children within the Stony Stratford part  Radcliffe School catchment are not being able to gain places at the school.

So, it could be a lively meeting and worthwhile attending.

Following this, on Thursday 21st March it is the GHRAs own monthly meeting, at the Small Meeting Place again at 7pm. and we would like to hear from you there too.

Please try to attend one or both of these meetings if you can so we can remind the Council that we are still here, and to help the GHRA to decide where we should be investing our energies on behalf of everyone in Galley Hill.

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Recent Events For Galley Hill

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.

Easter Eggs

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.

Last Minute Preparations

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.

The GHRA Easter Egg Hunt Team and Prizes

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.

Free Refreshments

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?)

Crafting at the GHRA Egg Hunt
Sue helps a one of the many children to make a cress haired rabbit

Found a character over here
Finding the characters and marking them off, some of those creatures were hiding very well!

A golden egg got a childs name in a hat to win one of the six fluffy bunnies brought using a kind donation from a Galley Hill Resident
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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Paper plate bunny, and cress haired rabbit cup the children could make
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.

The Thursday Evening GHRA Coffee Evening

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.

Litter Pickers Assemble for the GHRA litter pick on 8th of April
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.

Litter pick rubbish pile
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

The volunteers show the litter they picked up from Galley Hill
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.

Galley Hill Residents Carol Singing

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.

Carol Singing

 

 


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.

GHRA November Updates

Well here we are at the end of November, and one year since the Galley Hill Residents Association was formed. From an idea Councillor Mick Allsopp had to improve the community we have come a long way in a year, and we will continue to campaign to make Galley Hill the best place it can be.

One of the GHRA projects which is coming to fruition is the bench carving, turning a fallen tree near the park into a bench for the community. An idea which started with Councillor Mick Allsopp (yes him again) who wanted to see the historic old tree remain a part of Galley Hill after it fell. With our treasurer Roy helping to get the funding from the local council, the project is well on the way to completion as you can see below.

Mick Allsopp, Nyomie Flecknell, the carver and Roy Adams with the bench
Mick Allsopp, Nyomie Flecknell, the carver and Roy Adams with the bench

The bench is awaiting some designs from the local school children to finish it off. In addition to the bench there will be a slice of the tree marking historic moments in history coinciding with the rings of the trees growth.

The GHRA are also keen to get the residents involved in creating a community, and are planning events for the future. One of those events is a Christmas carol singing evening being arranged by our secretary Joy Sumner along with two of our Court Reps, Sue Fitch and Kate Nicholls. They are also being supported by the St. Mary St. Giles school choir on the night. There will be posters and fliers around but here is a preview with the details.

It would be great to see some more people out there singing along with them.

Thanks for all the support from everyone over the last 12 months, and we look forward to helping improve our local area and build our community into the future.

The GHRA Committee.

GHRA – What’s Happening

Hello,
No we haven’t disappeared off the face of the earth, it’s just been quiet here because things have been happening behind the scenes. Things like:-

We have been working on making it even easier to contact us at your Residents Association and we now have a new telephone number (thanks Dave) .
Just call on 01908 973073  leave us a message and we will get back to you as soon as we can. This is also on our Contacts Page along with all of the other ways for you to get in touch.

Also some of you may have received the GHRA newsletter through your letterbox by now, if not it should be delivered very soon.  GHRA newsletter can be downloaded here if you haven’t received it.  Please take a little time out of your busy days to read it and let us know if there’s anything you liked, or didn’t like about it.  It would be great to hear from people if they have anything they would like to see in the next newsletter, or from any local companies who would like to sponsor a newsletter in the future as they cost money to print. Thanks to the sponsors of this newsletter, AW Diesel Services who paid for the newsletter to be printed for all the  houses in Galley Hill.

We have also finally got the bank account opened after much hard work by our treasurer, Roy who has been trying to get the rest of us to sign forms, which has been like herding cats for him. He has managed it though, and we now need to start filling it with money to spend on local community projects and events, if you feel like donating a little to help with the community events we will shortly have details posted on how you can donate (there is some information on making a donation contained in the newsletter, see the link above).

Plans are in progress for a disco and other events for the local community, but we need to set up insurances before any events can be organised, which again costs money. Hopefully we can get some local government help, but once again donations would help speed things up.
The coffee mornings are still being organised at the small meeting place above the shop every Tuesday morning from 10 am to 12 and all are welcome.

Finally, there is a public meeting of the Galley Hill Residents Association on Thursday 18th May. All Galley Hill Residents are invited to attend to have their say on matters concerning the area.

Thanks for reading this far, The GHRA committee hopes to hear from you soon.

Actions: Committee Meeting #1 Wednesday, 30th November, 2016 (7pm)

People

Present Absent
NF:  Nyomie Flecknell (Chair)

JS:  Joy Sumner (Secretary)

RA:  Roy Adams (Treasurer)

MA:  Mick Allsopp

DaT: David Tavener

DoT: Doug Titchmarsh

No one

 

Actions

Action On? Date Set Update
Handover discussion for relevant communications Doug T/ Dave T 2016-11-30
Update the constitution as noted in minutes Joy S 2016-11-30
Discuss registering GHRA with the council Nyomie F 2016-11-30
Investigate possibilities for a GHRA domain Doug T 2016-11-30
Investigate options for a GHRA bank account Roy A 2016-11-30
Find volunteers for court reps Dave T 2016-11-30
Scan and circulate email with first copy of Noose Mike A 2016-11-30
Send around date of next SSTC meeting Mike A 2016-11-30
For General Meeting of GHRA, make a list to see if there is interest in a children’s club Nyomie F 2016-11-30
Talk to Sue about the potential for using the school in the summer Nyomie F 2016-11-30
Investigate possible funding for a GH party for MK’s 50th. Mike A 2016-11-30
Book venue for next meeting Mike A 2016-11-30
Update on discussions with Council about making a bench for GH from the tree felled from GH. Mike A 2016-11-30

GHRA Coffee Morning. Tuesday 14th March 2017

Coffee morning imageThank you to everyone who turned up to the GHRA’s second weekly coffee morning for a coffee and chat on Tuesday, we were again very pleased by the response. We are very lucky to have the support of Pastor Kumi and the facilities at the venue, he has confirmed our coffee morning and monthly meeting for the forthcoming year. We hope to develop more ideas that our community can adopt such as social evenings, bingo, whist drive, maybe a disco, anything is possible given time.

Someone asked if they could bring along friends who are not resident on Galley Hill and this of course is most welcome, the more the merrier.

The committee are still seeking court reps and are grateful to Vicky for volunteering to support Redbourne Court, we just need a volunteer for Rovely and Stanbridge now if any of you are keen to help.

We would like to remind everyone that there is a general meeting this Thursday (16th March 2017) at 19:00 in the Galley Hill Small Meeting Place above the shop.

Thanks to everyone who helped out today, hope to see you at one of the Galley Hill coffee mornings soon.

Nyomie, Mick, Roy & David.