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Arlesey Neighbourhood Plan A referendum will be held on 30th November as to whether to accept the Arlesey Neighbourhood Plan as a consideration for planning applications within the Arlesey parish. As distinct from the Arlesey Cross Masterplan and the Draft Local Plan for Central Bedfordshire, the Neighbourhood Plan has been put together by a group of local residents and councillors following extensive consultation with the local community. The result is a set of policies that reflect the views of the people of Arlesey.
ATC urges all registered electors to vote on Thursday 30th November 2017; voting cards will be distributed by Central Bedfordshire Council.
A positive vote will mean that the Neighbourhood Plan will become a material consideration for all planning decisions in Arlesey going forward.
A negative vote will mean that planning decisions will continue to only consider policies set by Central Bedfordshire Council and central government.
A full copy of the plan can be viewed online at http:// bit. ly / 2yvUyMn or copies are available in the ATC office.
Christmas Lights One or two eagle-eyed residents may have noticed the Christmas Lights being tested during October ahead of the forthcoming festive season. Our engineers have completed their service and the lights are all set for the switch on which is scheduled for Saturday 25th November 2017. The event is being managed by the Arlesey Community Events Group and also coincides with a Christmas Fayre that is being held in the Village Hall.
Draft Local Plan for Central Bedfordshire CBC announced last month that they are planning to bring forward the timetable for the submission of their new Local Plan. Due to proposed changes to government policy on calculating required housing numbers, CBC are now planning to submit the Local Plan in March 2018 rather than June, which means that there will be a shortened second consultation period on a further draft now due to be published in January.
The draft plan includes proposals to allocate further land to the east of Arlesey as a potential site for another 2,000 homes, this is in addition to the 1,400 proposed by the Arlesey Cross Masterplan. ATC opposes this and has made representations and comments which can be found at http:// bit. ly / 2yxQrRY
MUGA Refurbishment We reported last month that our planning application for the refurbishment of the Multi-Use Games Area next to the Community Centre had been approved. At the time of writing, we are waiting for confirmation that our application for a grant from the Football Foundation has been approved.
Work on the project, which is a joint venture with Arlesey Town Youth Football Club, is due to start early in 2018.
Enter the Dragon – Fly
A SHORT STORY BY STEVE MADDOX FROM THE 1980’ S. THIS ACTUALLY HAPPENED TO ME
Back in the summer of 1983, my wife and I were looking forward to the arrival of our child. We had about a month until due date and the weather was very hot. After work one night I had gone to a golf lesson before arriving home. As I walked through the front door my wife called to me from the living room. Exhausted from stripping some wallpaper she said“ Steve. Quick come here and close the door!”
Thinking she had started labour, wanted a cup of tea or had some other emergency, I quickly opened the door and closed it behind me.“ I think there is a dragonfly in the hall. It buzzed around earlier and I came in here out of the way. Get rid of it please”
For the next hour I displayed an amazing show of ineptitude trying to catch or usher out the dragonfly that sounded like a mixture if a helicopter, moped and a masonry drill. I tried trapping it with a broom, throwing things at it as it rested on the polystyrene tiles on the ceiling and even tried sweeping it out the window with a towel. It was getting mad. I had woken the beast and it was going to retaliate. It flexed it’ s wings and took off. I had never seen such a large dragonfly. So I took off as well. Back to the sanctuary of the living room. My heart was thumping.“ Has it gone?” said Julie. Not wanting to sound pathetic I replied“ Not yet but I think I’ m wearing it out”. I put my ear to the door and could hear no buzzing. So I opened the door and went gingerly back to the battlefield. I looked around checking the walls and ceilings as I turned the corner at the bottom of the stairs. Suddenly there it was on the ceiling again at the top of the landing. Out of reach of
everything except for the broom. So I stalked up the stairs with the broom in front if me like a soldier in the field with his rifle and bayonet at the ready.
I pounced on the top step and pinned it to the ceiling with the head of the broom. It buzzed as it struggled.“ Oh No!” I thought to myself.“ what do I do now?” It flexed and struggled again. If I withdrew the broom it would attack. If I could just get it to stay on the broom and push it toward the open window it would be gone. But what if it got free? I was stuck. All I could do was twist the broom, drop it and hope I could pin it down on the stairs and then try and capture it. So in one swift movement I did it.“ Ha ha you’ re done for!” I had captured it. Eventually I got rid of the huge dark brown flying thing and we could sit down and get on with our evening. I was worn out but triumphant. We had dinner. Watched some television and then went off to bed.
As it was still hot and muggy we had the windows open. With the main road outside traffic went past all the time. My wife sat in bed reading. I lay dozing off in the heat. Just as I was drifting into a restful state of oblivion I heard it! It had come back!
I sat bolt upright in bed. Shouting and flailing about to bat away the huge dragonfly. Slapping my head all over in an effort to deflect the beast. It was getting louder! Neeeaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!
It was all around my head. As I opened my eyes wide another sound filtered through the mayhem. It was giggling. My wife said“ What’ s wrong?”“ It’ s back! The dragonfly’ s back!” She replied“ You prat! It was was a moped.” Through the increasing but stifled laughter I heard the small engined motorbike slowly disappear from earshot down the Stotfold Road.
6 on the button issue 63 November 2017 | 01462 834265 | onthebutton. online @ gmail. com | www. on-the-button. co. uk