Latest News
Our Sewage Works overflows four times as much as last year
Data covering 2023 across the whole country has just been released, showing that this year as a whole, there has been twice as much raw sewage bypassing sewage works and being dumped in rivers and seas. Yorkshire Water is just as bad but our Sewage Works has dumped over four times as much as last year into the Beck as it joins the Ure.
There were 112 occasions, with it running for 1500 hours - that's on average about 4 hours per day! We are now the 82nd worst out of over 2,000 locations in the Yorkshire Water area.
Martin Minett, who compiled this report, comments: ''The water companies claim it's because it rained more in 2023. Twaddle, the prime reason is that Sewage Systems and Works have had totally insufficient investment and updating over the last 40 and more years, of what are principally Victorian system. The water companies should be held to account but, agreeing with the media, also the Environment Agency and Ofwat, who are supposed to be the monitors but are failing the nation''.
Our high figures are despite manual efforts at our Sewage Works to solve the problem, as shown above.
Yorkshire Water and the Government need to act now.
----------
Villagers join Palm Sunday procession
On a cold but sunny Palm Sunday, 49 adults and 19 children from Bishop Monkton and Burton Leonard took part in a Joint Palm Sunday procession from the Top Green at Burton Leonard to St Leonard’s Church where we then had a service of Holy communion followed by drinks and cakes in St Leonards Hall
.-------------
Parlez vous franÇais?
Here's an easy way to learn French, or if you speak some already, how to improve your standard in the language.
Helen Heap is already giving classes at the Masons Arms each Thursday to people at all levels and has room to take on more students
For more details see above.
-------------
Round up of places to visit to this spring
Here's just one idea ..... a delightful celebration of all things connected with spring will take place at Ripon Cathedral on Saturday, April 13 from 10am to 4pm at the spring food, home and garden show. The day will be filled with food, inspiring home furnishings, and stunning garden plants and accessories. Tickets are £5 plus a booking fee.
A full list of ideas where to visit has been compiled by North Yorkshire Council and appears in the current issue of Your North Yorkshire. To read this click here
------------
Latest update on plans for a solar farm on our doorstep
Plans to build a solar farm on our doorstep are still active with many details to be supplied and questions to be answered by Harmony Energy.
The Parish Council has responded, saying that they cannot make final comments until a number of details have been finalised. These include concerns on Flooding, impact on the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust Reserve, the Security Fencing, Maintenance Plans and the Mains Lane Bridleway. Further details via the click link below.
The NYC Local Lead Flood Authority (LLFA) has also requested a wide range of extra details and figures relating to drainage from the site (within the catchment area of the Beck). These include Runoff, Peak Flow and Volume Control, Design for Exceedance and Climate Change plus plans during Construction and ongoing Maintenance.
Outline calculations, relating to the gravel to be used for the proposed channels for catchment of drip/runoff from the angled panel units, indicate that perhaps 5,000 tons would be required!
click here for further details and the outcome of a meeting with them during February.
-------------
The chips are down, the potato competition begins…!
(Late entries still welcome)
Queuing up to register their entry.
Over 75 people have signed up to the first ever Great Bishop Monkton Potato Challenge – in fact, so many have joined in that more seed potatoes had to be ordered! Participants arrived at the Vicarage to collect their potato and bucket, ready to start growing the biggest crop they can.
(Don’t worry if you wanted to join but lost track of time – it happens to us all! – you can still sign up, just check out the details at the bottom of this article.)
On Saturday, August 31, at The Grand Weigh In, everyone will bring back their buckets to have their harvest weighed and prizes will be given out to the winners. There are some wonderful prizes generously donated by brilliant sponsors, including:
· £50 voucher for The Masons Arms and a bottle of wine
· A children's gardening hamper, from Harrogate Garden Centre
· £20 book voucher for The Little Ripon Bookshop
· A bouquet of flowers from Bud Floral Designs in Ripon
We'd also like to thank Tim Abel for donating the seed potatoes!
Sophie, one of the organisers of the event, said ‘we’re delighted with the response to the competition! We’ve got a great mix of adults and children, regular gardeners and first-time growers – it’s been particularly lovely to hear people saying that growing their own veg is something they’ve always wanted to do but never tried, and that this has given them the perfect opportunity.’ The funds raised from the challenge are in aid of St John the Baptist Parish Church and Bishop Monkton Methodist Church.
-------------
Looking for how we should mark the D-Day 80th anniversary
.
Allied tanks advancing during D-Day.
On June 6th 2024 Britain will be celebrating the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
This was an important date. The allied forces attacked the Nazi forces on the beaches of occupied France, and this was a turning point in the outcome of the war. This meant the defeat of the Nazis and victory for the allies including Britain. Our life could be very different today if the result had been different.
We are hoping someone or some group in Bishop Monkton will have ideas for how the village should mark this important anniversary and would like to hear of any ideas they may have. The Ladies Group, for example, will be putting up British flags in the village centre .
If you would like to learn more about D-Day, Wikipedia has extensive details. Of course there are also a number of films about it and the Daily Mail on line has some incredible pictures.
Looking forward to your comments.
---------------
Changes to village bus services
Following a review of services North Yorkshire Council has awarded the York-Ripon-Knaresborough (22/23) village bus service to East Yorkshire Bus Company.
The service will start on Monday, April 8 and run a Monday to Saturday timetable similar to the current service. The York-Ripon service will be 82/83 and the Ripon-Knaresborough service 182.
Timetable from the East Yorkshire Bus Company website:
https://www.eastyorkshirebuses.co.uk/services/EY/182
There is an app available for ticket purchase, timetables, tracking, etc.
--------------
Local History Group discovers Bishop Monkton hidden gems
Local History Group members who visited the County Record Office.
A school report from 1848, a register of land ownership in the village from the eighteenth century as well as maps going back almost 200 years were among Bishop Monkton items shown to members of the Local History Group during a fascinating tour round the North Yorkshire County Record Office in Northallerton this week.
Ten members of the Group were given a tour round the office, which holds millions of documents and photographs about the history of the County. Archivist Daniel Sudron led the tour explaining the range of different records held there including council records, church records, local newspapers, parish registers and much else besides. He also outlined how anyone can organise to visit the Archive to research the history of North Yorkshire or their own family history.
The Local History Group is currently working with the County Record Office to enable Bishop Monkton’s village websites to be archived at the Office and therefore become a permanent record of village life for generations to come.
----------------
Ripon Surgeries to merge
The three Surgeries in Ripon (North House, Spa and Park Street) are to merge on 1st July. All have issued a statement, click here for an example, outlining why and how (and asking for comments). It appears they plan to continue operating out of the same sites and initially, at least with the same staffing. It would appear that most of the overall benefits, to all parties, would be for the new setup to be all on one new site - but apparently, that is not on the horizon. North House held an open house session on Saturday 10-11.30 which was pretty chaotic!
-------------------
Village Hall Bookings Secretary
You will know that Lesley Shervington, after 12 years handling the bookings of the Village Hall and in a very capable way, is standing down and we are looking for a successor. The online system at present uses Google calendar, familiarisation and training will be provided on all parts of the procedures, together with a laptop computer. There is emergency cover already familiar with the system. This is a vital role and we hope somebody will come forward, so enabling the village hall to continue in its successful way. Lesley can be contacted on 01765 677482 or lesley.shervington@sky.com.
------------------------
Upbeat report on village activities
Gerald Shervington in his Chairman's report at the Village Hall AGM presented a pretty upbeat picture of the activities and the state of the Village Hall.
Most of the sections were very active, particularly Bowls where several trophies had been won and prestigious appointments made. Croquet too while Tennis had successfully expanded to include Pickleball and Table Tennis numbers had recovered to the 90's but are searching for younger players as many are in their mid 70's and above. Good news also that a Junior Table Tennis section had started and that the WI had increased in membership and activities. However, there were some downside with Cricket losing several players, dropping a team and having to default on a few matches. Also the Entertainments Group (BMEG) folded as there were no longer people willing to run it. Their considerable financial and other assets have been transferred to the Village Hall for safekeeping.
Financially the Hall is in a healthy position (click here for the accounts), to some extent a result of Covid with a number of potential projects/ enhancements delayed. Of immediate concern, for example, is the playing field triple mower which, even second hand, is likely to cost £15,000. External bookings have now recovered to pre Covid levels. Gerald expressed thanks to many, detailed in his full report (click here), as well as a resume on how much the Hall owed to Mervyn Beecroft, as without his vision and drive it's unlikely we'd be in the position we are now.
Gerald, as Chairman and Lesley as Secretary and Booking Secretary, have been in place for 12 years now and in that time the Hall has continued to expand in its use, range of activities, financial stability and its overall contribution to village life. However, they now feel the time is right to hand over the reigns to somebody new, though they both are willing to stay on into the year until replacements are found. The meeting, of about 20, then expressed their very considerable thanks to what they both have done over these years, with so much enthusiasm, professionalism and warmth. They will be hard to replace.
-----------------------
Help us plan The Coronation Walk
The route of the proposed walk.
At last year's Annual Village Meeting villager John Smith suggested that the Parish Council should examine the idea of creating a Coronation Walk round the village harnessing existing footpaths. The Council responded enthusiastically and has now set up a working party to take the proposal forward. More volunteers are being sought to join a Project team.
The aim is to create something that will benefit the village of Bishop Monkton and attract visitors to our beautiful village for years to come. Commemoration of the coronation of King Charles III is the perfect trigger to launch such a project.
It is proposed to create a circular walk using existing public rights of way which will start and finish in the village. The route will be well signed with “Coronation Circular Walk” and a small crown as an emblem. The total distance is 3.5 miles and will take approximately 1½ hours to walk.
The Parish Council has set up a working group to investigate how to accomplish this and this group is looking for more enthusiastic members to join them. Current members are John Smith, Tony Garnett and Dean Culshaw. More members are sought. Those with relevant knowledge of this sort of project would be particularly welcomed as well as others with an enthusiasm for the idea, or just a love of the countryside and walking! Anyone interested in helping should contact Dean Culshaw at deanculshaw@hotmail.com or on 07483235393.
For more details of what is being planned click here
---------------
The last word
'Private Eye' wades into our sewage woes
Bishop Monkton has made it into the pages of the satirical magazine, Private Eye. An article, under the headline ‘S… Happens’, reports the revelation at the recent Council planning meeting that Yorkshire Water hadn’t objected to a planned housing developments in the village (Kebbell Church Farm) despite knowing that the sewerage infrastructure here was already inadequate.
The article also mentions that YW’s records show that last year Bishop Monkton sewage works made 338 hours of ‘discharges prior to processing’ in Bishop Monkton resulting in sewage being tipped untreated into the River Ure. The inadequacies of the sewerage system also led to discharges on the streets.
A decision on the planning application by Kebbell Homes for new homes at Church Farm is currently on hold until Yorkshire Water provide North Yorkshire Council with more information on planned upgrades to drainage
systems. Avant Homes’ plan for 88 houses near the crossroads on Knaresborough Road has been withdrawn.
To read full Private Eye article click here
--------------------
Breaking new reports about Bishop Monkton added most mornings. Log on each day to keep up with the latest village news.
-----------