Brill Parish Council Newsletter

May 2023 (vol 3, issue 5)

Brill Community Market

We’re expecting some new stalls at May’s Community Market! Do come along and help us give them a big Brill welcome. Here’s a taster:

• homemade sewn goods

• organic soaps

• greeting cards and gift wraps

• handcrafted jewellery

• locally-grown cut flowers

• preserves, cakes and treats

• personalised fancy goods

• wellbeing and beauty service

• retro and vintage handicrafts

Plus, of course, Maddison’s fresh coffee, All Saints Church and Brill Parish Council (come and tell us what you think of us!)

Celebrating Brill Common

We seem to have been talking about this event for MONTHS and now it’s actually happening; a gentle - or strenuous* - walk along the boundaries of Brill Common (which includes The Square) and our two village greens (The Walks and The Green) in gorgeous Spring sunshine, enjoying each other’s company, sharing stories and celebrating the beauty of our open spaces. See this map of the main areas of common land (shown in pink; zoom in!).

Behind this benign rambling there is, of course, a serious intent; to protect our common from encroachment - which we define as “any structure or action that implies individual ownership” of common land. If you live anywhere near common land - and most people in Brill do! - you really do need to understand this issue. Please, if you’ve not already done so, read our 2023 Encroachment Policy and help us keep Brill Common intact for future generations.

*Don’t forget that Brill Common extends down the “spider’s legs” of Span Green (off Touchbridge) and Hector’s Lane (off the Oakley Road). This circuit is 5k in length and will take a good hour. There are also strips of common land up Muswell Hill Lane and along the Wotton Road. Take a look at these Land Registry maps on the BPC&C website.

Celebrating Brill’s playgrounds and MUGA

“Moo-gah” or “Mugger”?! It doesn’t really matter; we’re just so proud of our new leisure facilities: the Multi-Use Games Area and TWO new children’s playgrounds. Both came about through the efforts of tenacious volunteers and committed parish councillors, supported financially by big players such as the FCC Communities Foundation and National Lottery Fund supplemented by the Haddenham & Waddesdon Community Fund, local bequests, Brill businesses of all shapes and sizes - and anyone who has bought a ticket, baked a cake, or browsed in a yard sale in the last two years. And now’s the time to celebrate at our joint event on Sunday May 21st! See you at 11am.

Celebrating Brill Community

The Annual Parish Meeting is not to be confused with the Brill Parish Council Annual General Meeting. The latter is a short, rather dry formality incorporated into the May monthly meeting; the former is an informal celebration of the clubs, groups and gathering that make up the vibrant community of Brill.

As last year, we’ll meet in the Brill Sports & Social Club on Tuesday May 23rd at 7pm. The bar will be open and there’ll be free hot drinks and nibbles. If you represent a community group, you will have already been asked for a brief report of your achievements and challenges in the last 12 months and these reports will be available to read. We’ll also have a guest speaker: Alex Cruickshank who will elaborate on last year’s topic, putting a local spin on the management of common land. There will be plenty of time to ask him and the parish councillors questions on this and any other subject.

New chair for BPC

When we were elected in 2021, we voted to change the councils’s Standing Orders in favour of a rotating Chair person. We feel there are several advantages:

• a new person at the helm brings fresh energy, priorities, and style to the role

• more opportunities to serve as Chair means more opportunities for individuals to develop relevant skills and, last but not least:

• ex-Chairs finally have more time to get involved in interesting projects

Our new Chair is Cllr Liz Springs; with red hair in the picture above (it’s now shades of pastel).

Liz’s background is in primary education, administration and management. She has been part of the Brill community off and on for the last 26 years and her daughter attends Brill school. They have two spoilt pooches they enjoy walking in the village.

I love talking to people out and about and at the Community Market. I'm especially fond of the Memory Lane Cafe; the company, the conversation - the CAKE!

Liz is very keen on environmental issues and wants to help Brill develop strategies to enhance bio-diversity. Her professional and personal background have also given her a desire to make parish council business “inclusive, accessible, clear and fair”, demonstrated by her involvement in the thankless task of writing several BPC policies.

Liz would like to point out that May is Joint Hypermobility & Ehlers Danlos Syndrome Month - which is a great opportunity to remind us that not all disabilities are visible:

I hope my own health issues give me a greater awareness of the basic access needs of the lesser-able amongst us. I am always interested in hearing any ideas on improving accessibility within Brill.

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