As you will know three large generators were delivered to the village on Sunday and are currently powering all our properties. There was a short outage as the power was cut from the grid and transferred to the generators which was unavoidable.

Every property in the village should have received a letter from Scottish and Southern saying they would be carrying out essential work over five days from 10^th July and ending at 4.30 on Friday 14^th July (note that when they disconnect on Friday the power will again go off temporarily).

The Parish Council was not made aware of this in advance and personally, I never received a letter. Having made further enquiries it would appear that many other people were also unaware of this work, although the company say that every house was supposed to have received advanced notice.

Scottish and Southern are now verifying with the contractor who carried out the door distribution of their letter to establish exactly which properties were notified and I have asked them to supply the list to me.

If you have been affected by this situation and did not receive prior notification via letter then my advice is to phone 105 or 08000 727282 to register a complaint. If they can’t prove that your property was ticked-off as delivered, you will be eligible for compensation of £30 as set by the industry regulator, OFGEM, which you will receive in due course.

The work is essential to improve the reliability of the power supply to the area and involves upgrading equipment and putting in new poles to carry additional power lines and result in us being less isolated.

In conclusion,  it is good news if it helps to limit future power outages because previously we have been warned to expect an increasing number.

John Honsinger

Chairman, Stratton Audley Parish Council

See work in progress below.

 Regrettably we have taken the decision to cancel the Village Event this coming Sunday as there are not enough people to make it viable. Apologies to those of you who did respond. Perhaps an impromptu informal get together with your children in the playground could be an alternative. If you have ideas you wish to discuss or would like to organise another event please contact strattonclp@gmail.com

That is the Telephone line in Stratton Audley!

As part of their streamlining operation throughout the country BT have removed the old telephone box in Cherry Street as it had not been used in some time.

Open Gardens with Scarecrows Weekend 10 & 11 June was a great success, attracting hundreds of visitors who appreciated the lovely gardens on display and had some fun identifying the characters depicted by the scarecrows dotted around the village.

10 gardens were open to the public on both days and positive feed-back was received with many visitors enjoying the wide range of small and large gardens and commenting on the very high standard of gardening seen.

The Scarecrow Competition attracted 23 entrants and 83 visitors acted as judges who returned their competition forms identifying their top three scarecrows which added to the occasion. Teas and cakes were served all afternoon in the church thanks to great support from many in the community and this considerably boosted the money taken over the weekend.

As a result almost £2,000 was raised which will be shared between the Church for on-going fabric work and the Parish Council in helping to fund a portable Vehicle Activated Speed sign to help reduce vehicle speeds leading into the village. Furthermore, £200 is to be donated to the Red Play Bus that visits the village each week as it is no longer receiving any municipal funding.

Thank you to all those who opened their gardens, the 23 scarecrows entrants, the people who made cakes and who helped serve teas during the afternoons and generally supported the weekend.

The winners of the scarecrow competition as judged by members of the public were:

1^st (£25) -Rapunzel in the Tower by Jermey & Becky Adams

2^nd (£15) –Percy the Park Keeper by Paddy Hall & here son

3^rd  (£10) – Witch on a Bromstick by Nicky Smith c/o 17 Cavendish Place

4^th  (£10) – Shoemaker Elves by the Nash twins

And although not a prize winner, highly commended is The Famous Five Catching a Bus created by the Marsh Gibbon Brownies as it was made collectively by the children and the idea and execution were excellent.

There was also a prize for a member of the public who had selected the top three in the correct order. No person managed to match the top three precisely but the closest selected the correct first, second and fourth places. So the winners of the stainless steel gardening set are Phoebe and Brian Davies who live in the district.

Shown below are photos mainly of the scarecrows, in the the order determined by votes from the public.

Our very popular ‘Open Gardens’ event returns once again and this year in combination with the equally popular Scarecrow Competition. Something for all ages. From 12am to 6pm each day.

We will have up to 12 delightful gardens on show and separately a similar number of scarecrows dotted around the village. The theme for the Scarecrows is characters from children’s books.. The public entry price for the gardens is a one-off charge of £6 per adults (children under 16 free). The Scarecrows are free for all to see around the village and children will be given a form to rank the best ones and if they place them in the same order as chosen by the judges they will get a small prize.

Tickets for the Open Gardens will be available from the Church each day where a map and guide to each garden will be given out showing the location of each garden and a brief description, along with a Scarecrow ranking form.  Refreshments and cakes will also be on sale in the church during the afternoon.

All gardens are open to the public on a voluntary basis by kind permission of the owners. Please respect their wishes as you view their delightful gardens. Please keep children under control and note that regrettably no dogs are allowed in the gardens.

There is no charge to enter the Scarecrow competition but participants will need to register to be included in the competition.