Brill Parish Council Newsletter

April 2023 (vol 3, issue 4)

Brill Community Market

There's always been a market in Brill. Formerly a bustling weekly event enjoying Medieval royal patronage, Brill Market is now a more modest event held every third Saturday morning on The Green - but the aims are probably much the same:

• To provide an outlet for local produce and handicrafts

• To offer a friendly, local, shopping experience for residents and visitors

• To support local groups, businesses and good causes

We believe all these things are important and that is why Brill Parish Council would like to give the market a boost. We don’t want to distract from the intimacy and friendliness of the event but we do need to attract new stalls (charity as well as commercial) and increase customer footfall to ensure its future.

We’re running a short survey to find out what people want from the market - click the button below to do it - but, better still, come along on Saturday May 20th (and every third Saturday hereafter) and give us a go!

Meet some of the the stallholders on the market page on the Brill Parish Council & Community website.

UK Emergency Alert Texts

The UK government’s new Emergency Alerts system is now live. The system will enable people to be contacted via their mobile phone when lives are in danger. An Emergency Alert is a loud, siren-like sound with a message on your screen.

Emergency Alerts are sent to compatible mobile phones within an area of risk. They don’t track your location, need your phone number, or collect personal data, and only the emergency services can send them.

There will be a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert system at 3pm on Sunday April 23rd. During this test, an alert will show on your mobile screen for 20 seconds, accompanied by a siren-like sound lasting 10 seconds. The appearance and sound of this alarm may be frightening to some residents; if you think that a family member or neighbour may be distressed, please find out how they can opt out of test alerts and help them to do this.

Watch a very short video to find out more or visit the Alert page on the Gov.UK website.

Scam Awareness

A scam is a fraudulent attempt to get money from someone after making uninvited contact by phone, email, letter or in person. Scams are an ever-present risk with even the most seemingly savvy amongst us at danger of being fooled.

Friends Against Scams is a National Trading Standards Scams Team initiative which aims to protect and prevent people from becoming victims of scams. The organisation offers in-person and short online Scam Awareness sessions to increase understanding about the different types of scams, how to report them - and how to support a victim of a scam. People who have completed the training are encouraged to share their knowledge with family and neighbours.

Buckinghamshire Council Community Safety Officers have been out and about raising awareness of scams across the county. This work is in partnership with Bucks Neighbourhood Policing Teams and Bucks & Surrey Trading Standards, Bucks & Surrey Trading Standards also offer free trueCall devices to those whose are vulnerable and are susceptible to scam calls. The device plugs into a landline phone socket and automatically blocks unwanted calls. Call Bucks & Surrey Trading Standards on 0300 123 2329 to see if you or a family member are eligible for a free trueCall device.

A Museum for Brill

It doesn’t look much at the moment, but work with us here, folks!

Thanks to the kindness of the URC in the High Street, The Brill Society now have a wonderful space to start setting up a small community museum. There’s a cabinet fully of fine artefacts in the Old Library, several boxes of bits and pieces in the Memorial Hall basement, LOTS of old photographs and other documents - and unknown qualities of wonderful stuff in people’s homes which they might be willing to loan or donate.

What we need next is storage/display furniture - shelves, screens and so on - and people to help bring it all together. Interested? Please email Andy Fisher or Paul Norman.

The only downside to the new museum space is access; up a steep and narrow staircase - but The Brill Society are working on this …

The senior ladies and gentlemen of Brill will hopefully be meeting again to share memories of growing up in this neck of the woods. If you were involved last time, you should receive an invitation. If you weren’t involved and would like to be, please speak to Mrs Sarah Frewin or email Paul Norman.

The War Memorial

The wet and windy weather has caused significant delays but now, at last, the war memorial has been stream-cleaned - and doesn’t it look fine?

The next step is to dig the ground over and pick out all the couch grass. Once we’re sure it’s all been removed, we’ll spread the mushroom compost kindly donated by Derek Turner. Then we’ll start planting.

Our vision is of a memorial garden that is dignified, simple and uncluttered; allowing unrestricted sight of the whole monument, and offering (once mature) year-round interest. The first stage is the planting of what will eventually be a beautiful circle of snowdrops - and for this we need your help. Snowdrops were particularly good this Spring, so if you have any large, congested clumps surplus to your requirements, please dig them up - leaves, roots and bulbs - wrap them in damp newspaper and leave near the memorial in the next two weeks for us to separate and plant out.

Transplanting snowdrops “in the green” is the very best way to get new plants established so they can spread (surprisingly quickly) in years to come.

Community CPR Training

The parish council have applied for funding from the Haddenham & Waddesdon Community Board to buy manikins to facilitate training in basic life support. We will use the British Heart Foundation’s community training materials to guide us through Call! Push! Rescue! so we all feel more confident in responding to medical emergencies and using the Brill Sports & Social Club’s new public-access defibrillator (or any other defib, for that matter!)

The training will only take an hour and will initially be open to all adults in Brill Parish. We anticipate facilitating it in groups of ten, in the comfort of the Club - although some groups may like to borrow the equipment and lead their own sessions. We plan to make the training pack available to neighbouring parishes; hence the application to the Community Board. Look out for posters in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, the BHF offer a neat little CPR training programme called RevivR for which you require only a smartphone and a pillow. It takes 15 minutes and will be nice preparation for the more in-depth training.

Diary Dates

Brill & the Coronation of King Charles 3

Brill Sports & Social Club will be open as a base for all-age gatherings, indoors with the big screen TVs or out on the playing fields, with table tennis on hand and the new playgrounds nearby. Look out for posters, and information on the BPC&C website and Club Facebook page.

And, finally…

Please tell others about this e-newsletter. Lots of people aren’t on Facebook or comfortable with social media, and we want to reach all parishioners equally. We also value the opportunity to give something extra to subscribers - longer explanations or different perspectives - than is possible on the website.

Tell friends, family or neighbours to email hello@brillparishcouncil.co.uk or fill in the newsletter form on the Brill Parish Council & Community website. Alternatively, if they’d like to read a paper copy, please tell them there are always copies of the newsletter in the pouch on the door of the Old Library in the Memorial Hall, on the welcome table at the back of All Saints Church, and (sometimes) in Brill Stores.

Remember you can read past issues of the newsletter on the Brill Parish Council & Community website.

All good wishes
Brill Parish Council