Pencaitland Community’s annual Litter Pick is set for this coming Sunday. Come and spend an hour or two making your area beautiful.
A stray Snickers wrapper caught in the wire fencing in Wester Pencaitland. Come along on Sunday and help make your village a little more litter free. LOCATION: Trevelyan Hall TIME: 2pm + Refreshments & prize draw. Click the photo for more information.As with past years the action kicks off from 2pm in Pencaitland’s Trevelyan Hall. Groups or families turning up will be given litter pickers and bags before heading off to various parts of, not only Pencaitland, but hopefully some of the other areas covered by the Community Council. We’re particularly keen to have groups or families who want to cover Glenkinchie or New Winton this year.
Then, once your area has been covered, pop on back to Trevelyan Hall with your haul of flotsam and jetsam where there will be refreshments and the opportunity for anyone under 16 to participate in our free Prize Draw for a fabulous compact Digital Camera. This year it’s a Nikon L25 and it comes with a memory card and case too.
Bring your Camera
If you have a camera please grab some photos during your Litter Pick and email them to us at website@pencaitland.org where we will then feature them on the website.
Pencaitland Primary School’s PTA held its annual Fun Run just as the clouds broke and the Sun shone briefly on those taking part.
Runners at the start of the 10km race which began and ended back in the grounds of Pencaitland Primary School. Click the photo above for more pictures.The PTA’s Fun Run has become a regular fixture in recent years with both committed and occasional runners participating. In addition the three distances — 10km, 5km & 3.5km — also offer the option to cycle the circuit.
All participants made it back safely and were rewarded with refreshments and the opportunity to enjoy one of the warmest days we have seen in months; rising to 12C in the afternoon. Fortunately it was still cool enough to make the running bearable.
Below we have a selection of snaps taken on the day. If you want an original copy of any picture featuring you or your family just drop an email to website@pencaitland.org.
We will report on the winners and times achieved shortly.
As part of Winton House’s annual Spring Family Open Day, this year Pencaitland Scouts were out in force to help set up and participate in an assault course within the walled garden.
One of the many kids (and a few grown ups) who leapt into action at this year’s Family Open Day in Winton House.Winton House threw its doors open for the annual Family Spring Open Day, with funds being raised for Maggie’s Centres, the Scottish cancer care charity, and Scotland’s Gardens. As well as the scout activities there was plenty of entertainment for families and children — from face painting and a bouncy castle to the Winton Combat Challenge, miniature hovercraft and more. There was also delicious homemade soup, sandwiches and cakes at Cafe Winton with the funds going to the supported causes.
All those taking part in the Scouts’ Assault Course were asked to make a voluntary contribution to raise funds for Pencaitland’s new scout troupe which was only recently revived late last year after a seven year hiatus.
Below we’ve got a selection of photos from the day…
Following the most recent Pencaitland Community Council meeting in Trevelyan Hall, it was agreed to give financial support to a number of local groups.
Pencaitland’s new Scouts is just one of the local groups benefiting from Community Council support this year.Amongst those receiving funds this year are Pencaitland’s new Scouts, Rainbows, Brownies, Playgroup, the Day Centre, the Bowling Club and the Boggs Association. Additionally, this year the Community Council gave support to the Moyra McNeil Fund which hopes to raise sufficient cash to develop a large soft play for young kids in the Loch Centre, Tranent.
The funds will help to partially pay for the use of buildings, buy much needed new equipment and contribute towards repairs and other running costs many groups must meet in order to operate.
Many local community groups struggle to make ends meet financially and rely heavily on the goodwill and generosity of those who give up their time to keep things going, or to help fundraise. In a small way it’s hoped that this year’s modest contributions from your Community Council, will ensure that the good work carried out by local groups will continue… for many years to come.
Pencaitland’s regular community Litter Pick is set to take place on Sunday the 21st of April from 2pm.
Click the photo to see snaps from last year’s event. As with past years the action kicks off from 2pm in Pencaitland’s Trevelyan Hall. Groups or families turning up will be given litter pickers and bags before heading off to various parts of, not only Pencaitland, but hopefully some of the other areas covered by the Community Council. We’re particularly keen to have groups or families who want to cover Glenkinchie or New Winton this year.
Then, once your area has been covered, pop on back to Trevelyan Hall with your haul of flotsam and jetsam where there will be refreshments and the opportunity for anyone under 16 to participate in our free Prize Draw for a fabulous compact Digital Camera. This year it’s a Nikon L25 and it comes with a memory card and case too.
For 2013’s Litter Pick we are working with Clean Up Scotland, part of the charity Keep Scotland Beautiful. With the nearest Greggs’ support, Clean Up Scotland will be providing goodies for all those taking part. We’ll also be handing out bright yellow tabards to make everyone stand out as they seek out the strangest item of rubbish.
This year’s free prize draw, open to all under-16s taking part in the Litter Pick, is a Nikon L25 with memory card and case. Last year we had a great selection including a rugby ball, a car bonnet and the Spar’s old shop sign blown away in a storm. Let’s see if we can find even more unusual stuff this time round.
At the 2012 event more than 50 people came along and helped make the Litter Pick a great success. This year we want to beat 2012’s numbers, so make a date in your diary and come make your community a place you can be proud of…
Bring your Camera
If you have a camera please grab some photos during your Litter Pick and email them to us at website@pencaitland.org where we will then feature them on the website.
Following consultation last year, East Lothian Council’s transport team have begun making some improvements to signage coming in and going out of Pencaitland.
A car approaches Pencaitland with 30mph signs now placed outside the village entrance, to encourage drivers to slow before arriving at houses.
This is part of wider plans, still under discussion, to improve road safety throughout the village. However, it is unlikely that any major changes will take place until after the main road through Pencaitland is resurfaced, most likely later this year.
Minutes for Pencaitland Community Council’s January 2013 meeting can now be found online.
Since moving pencaitland.org to its new home on Ourlocality.org all recent and future Community Council minutes can be found on the web thanks to Google Drive.
To view all minutes for 2013 or earlier just click this link. To save a copy of any minutes, view the document in your browser and select the option FILE >> DOWNLOAD.
Pencaitland Community Council is looking into the pros and cons of having a local car that anyone can use. What do you think?
Car Clubs are becoming an increasingly important part of the personal transport mix. They offer a way to have access to private transport without the added hassles of insurance, maintenance, road tax and car recovery memberships.
SpareWheels in Dunbar was one of the first East Lothian community Car Clubs, ploughing profits back into the service for the benefit of all. If you’d like to see a similar set-up in our area click the picture to take the short survey.For subscribing members it also gets around the often thorny topic of poor, or no, public transport between local villages and reduces the need for owning a car or second car that sits idle the majority of the time.
Basically it’s all the benefits of private transport without the downsides of owning a car. That’s why your Community Council is asking you to give your views in a short survey.
In recent years private companies have sprung up offering Car Clubs around the UK. One such is the Edinburgh Car Club which has one vehicle in Musselburgh. However, the economics of running a commercially-based Car Club in rural areas makes it unattractive to for-profit shareholder businesses.
This is where community based car club schemes can make all the difference, providing local villages with the same benefits enjoyed by large urban areas, but with all the proceeds going into developing the service rather than paying shareholders.
Dunbar already enjoys the benefits of its car club scheme SpareWheels, launched in 2011 and now with three available vehicles. It operates as a not-for-profit, using any surplus to provide a better service to its members and keep member costs as low as possible. Shortly Haddington will do likewise with the launch of Easywheels later this month.
In Pencaitland, working with Carplus, your community council wants to assess the level of interest in having a car based in the village and accessible to any members for use for as little as half an hour up to several days at a time.
Carplus was established back in 2000 to support the development of car clubs across the UK, in response to growing environmental concerns around private car use.
Do the Survey
Please take a few minutes to take part in the short survey and help us assess the level of interest in this community becoming part of the wider network of community-backed car clubs developing in the county. Please also pass on the word to others — especially those who may not be online but would benefit from access to a private car.
Background: How do Car Clubs Work?
Car clubs typically provide members with access to pay-as-you-drive vehicles which are parked in reserved spaces and available for hire on an hourly or daily basis, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The club covers all the costs of owning and operating the vehicles, such as insurance, tax, fuel, cleaning and servicing. Members usually pay an annual membership fee to be part of a car club and then pay an hourly charge (typically between £3 and £5) to hire a vehicle and a mileage charge (typically around 21p per mile) that covers fuel and vehicle wear and tear and are usually billed for their use monthly in arrears. Members book vehicles online or over the phone for as little as 30 minutes up to several days at a time and can access car club vehicles via a smart card or by a key, accessible via a key safe.
The final tally on last Saturday’s fundraiser for kid’s bereavement charity Richmond’s Hope came to £4,794.50
Update
A letter from Emma Hack from Monday 4th March 2013
“Dear everyone
I can’t begin to tell you how touched I am by everyone’s support and generosity. I hope (and think!) that those of you who were there last Saturday night had a really enjoyable evening, I certainly haven’t laughed as much in a long time! There were a lot of very special people who all worked very hard to make the event happen, so Jim and Lynn Fraser, Scott and Lydia MacDonald, Stella and Derek Birrell, Caroline Wolfe Murray, Shirley Hamilton, Christine Galvin, Natasha Ingram-Phoenix, Amy Baillie, The Domestics, Ray & Charlie and everyone who donated food and homebaking – a HUGE thank you for being so generous with your time, skills and support x.
So the part that everyone has been waiting for, we have managed to raise an absolutely amazing £5395.00 for Richmond’s Hope. That will enable Aimée and another 8 children from East Lothian to receive the help they really need following a bereavement, as well as having a bit left over to help towards the cost of the activities they do.
Can I also put a shout out on Richmond’s Hope behalf – they are looking for pasta bake type jars to use for the children to make memory jars out of. If you have any you were going to put into recycling I can pick up and take into Richmond’s Hope.”
You can see more photos of the event by clicking on the image below.
The charity Richmond’s Hope specialises in helping kids cope with the loss of a parent. Money raised will help kids from East Lothian receive counselling.
Minutes for Pencaitland Community Council’s January 2013 meeting can now be found online.
