There were several things in our litter collection today to be curious about: a spectacles frame, an un-found Easter Egg (hidden next to a tree trunk alongside the playing field), quite a few cider cans, a broken (hatched?) blackbird’s egg and lots of little pieces of plastic and plastic bags. Thanks to the sunshine the litter pick turned into a nice walk the length of the village, from the pub down to the junction with the main road by Venn House. In just an hour we had the satisfaction of removing a bag full of rubbish from our lovely village combined with a nice, immersive walk in the blooming countryside. It’s a great way to reconnect with something we all care about and value.

The original print run is currently on the bookshelves and coffee tables of current and past residents of the Parish as well as their friends and relatives around the world.

A minimum production run of 400 for the updated book indicates a retail price of approx. £25 per copy; the project will only go ahead on the basis of sufficient interest and subsequent pledges (to avoid any risk of incurring losses).

If you are interested in buying an updated edition of the Book Of Lamerton, please email the Parish Clerk (‘clerk@lamertonparishcouncil.gov.uk‘) with the title “Book Of Lamerton – interested X no. of copies”.

We can then assess the level of interest and if sufficient, invite pledges based on a finalised cost per book.

or 

• SX445 766 in the location box 

If so, please email sam@lamertonparishcouncil.gov.uk in advance of the date so I can check numbers and make sure we have enough hi-vis vests, litter pickers and gloves. If you have your own, that’s great – please let me know.

The plan is to start at the sports field and play areas, then meander down through the village and on up into Chestnut Close & Terrace and another group along the avenue before meeting back at the School to finish up.

Weather permitting of course; I’ll still be doing it with a light drizzle – but anything more than that, please check the ‘Stop Press’ on the top left hand side of the homepage of this site for final decision before setting out.

Look forward to seeing you there – a great opportunity to spend time together and to set a great example for our children.

If you’re a business owner in Lamerton keep an eye out for this email inviting you to ‘renew the listing and confirm the company’s contact details are up-to-date’.

In case you were wondering what this ‘Business Listing’ was – what it costs and whether you want your details stored on it please consider the following:

• The operators set up a website called anyplace.parish.uk/business-directory for every town and village in the UK. They’re entitled to do this.

• They populate every location with the publicly-available information of businesses operating in that location (again nothing wrong with that although it is unsolicited)

• They then contact you to offer you to renew or update your listing at a price (from what I can see from going most of the way through their process for my own business, it’s about £20 a year)

Please bear in mind also the following:

– This ‘directory’ offer has no connection with the Parish Council, Borough Council or UK Government regardless of the appearance of its website and forms

– There will be little or no commercial value to you from having your business in their ‘directory’; it is highly unlikely to generate you new business in return for the fee of £20

Little icons on browser URL tabs…

– While this ‘Lamerton Parish Business Directory’ approach is likely to be legal and probably not a scam (there are however plenty of similar-looking real, dangerous local Business Directory scams around btw – I spent a decade busting them between 2005 – 2015) – it is definitely an unsolicited and somewhat risky proposition.

All in all, my recommendation as a local business person with a fair amount of experience in online business directory scams and as a Parish Councillor is to read the above information carefully before deciding whether or not you want to pay for a listing in this ‘directory’.

My recommendation to the operator of this directory is:

a) To certainly make a greater effort to distinguish your offering from the kind of online business directoryscams that have been running for more than 20 years.

b) To ideally demonstrate clearly the mechanism by which a paid listing in your directory will translate into tangible business results for a customer

c) To consider re-designing your material to avoid any possible mis-apprehension that your business is somehow affiliated with Government, Borough or Parish.

The GOOD news:

If you want some free, tangible and effective marketing for your business you would do far better to register your business on Google Business:
https://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/business/
When someone goes to Google and searches for (in my case) ‘Guitar repair near me’ or in your case ‘auto electrician / plumber / book-keeper Lamerton’ or ‘…near me’ then Google will return your business listing (complete with as much or as little business contact information as you want) AND a map showing exactly where you are, linking to your own website if you wish. There is no cost for doing this; it’s FREE and it actually works. I get real, paying local business now and then from having put my business on Google Business.

Councillor Sam Deeks 

The strangest thing we found was a squidgy black  rubber ‘ball’ object with a velcro strap – none of us could work out what it was for. It was in the hedge at the foot of a large telegraph pole so we wondered if it was something to do with comms. but there was no obvious electronic function to it. I’m sure someone will know what it is!

On the grass outside the school we found the first disposable vape we’ve found in the village. The number of children choosing to vape  – to take on a powerful addiction to nicotine – is a worrying recent development but it IS encouraging that we’ve only found this one so far.

The next litter pick is scheduled for Sat 3rd of August. Please email Cllr Sam Deeks – sam@lamertonparishcouncil.gov.uk if you would like to come along with or without your youngsters. We have litter picking equipment (hi viz vest, picker, gloves and bag hoops) for 4 adults and 4 children but if you’ve got your own kit, consider yourself invited.

Highest item of rubbish? A beer can in a hedge!

Most interesting / old item of plastic? The ancient-looking Safeways Christmas shopping bag shown on the ‘featured image’ on the upper left of this post.

On both weekends we had lovely weather.

Next event booked is a School-organised litter pick on the sports field and around the Sports and Community Centre and playground – this is currently scheduled for after school on April 22nd.

From here on we hope to organise at least one ‘youngster-friendly’ litter pick a month across the spring, summer and autumn (staying within the safer village roads) and possibly additional ‘grown-up’ picks to tackle further-flung and slightly riskier trouble spots. Keep an eye out on the village and school noticeboards for updates (and the regular Parish Newsletter) if you’d like to be involved.
– Cllr Sam

The Parish Council is organising two litter-picking walks through the village.

For each session there is equipment for 4 children each with an accompanying parent / guardian. Additional grownups very welcome (please bring hi-vis, gloves and litter picker).

We’re getting started on the two Sundays shown on the picture (to coincide with the Great British Spring Clean) and hope to continue with monthly walks throughout the rest of the year.

The School will be organising another, separate activity for children focused on the sports fields on a date TBC.

Please email Councillor Sam Deeks at sam@lamertonparishcouncil.gov.uk if you’d like to come on one of the picks with your child (equipment supplied) or without children (bring your own hi vis jacket, gloves and litter picker). Thank you, hope to see some of you there.

Note: due to file size, the link currently goes to ‘WeTransfer’, a reputable and safe file download service. Please select past the ‘cookies’ option and then click on the ‘DOWNLOAD’ button to access the PDF with the Consultation results.