Mother's Day at Abbotts View Farm

Abbotts View Farm (off Moat Lane) are holding a special Mother's Day event, with a chance to see all of their animals and have afternoon tea. Find out more details and how to book on their website.

Jo tells us that they will also be taking bookings for afternoon tea on Thursdays during term time to give people the opportunity to come and meet their lambs, kids, piglets, ducklings and alpaca cria as they are born and enjoy some yummy cake and sandwiches.

The farm currently have two open days planned - on Good Friday 3rd April and Open Farm Sunday on 7th June.

Faster internet on the way

Faster Broadband internet  should be with us within a few months. Whilst we are not going to get the fibre connection direct to our homes (which gives the fastest possible internet) we should still see a speed increase.

The network upgrade will provide a very fast fibre connection to our local 'cabinet' at Wingrave crossroads. From there the internet will come to your house via the existing copper telephone wires (as it does now).

The downside to what is proposed is that whilst we should get faster download speeds, upload speed will still be quite slow. This means that streamed video will be faster, but things like two-way video Skype will not be so much improved.

Note that the email below suggests speeds of up to 24Mbps - currently Openreach suggest we get up to 16 Mbps, although few can achieve that. Hopefully the new ADSL2 network will perform better.

The email below from the county broadband manager explains the current position. Expect faster speed to be available probably as an upgrade from March or April. It is yet not known if there will be an increase in costs, but you may have to replace your router. The availability may also depend upon who supplies your internet service.

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... it is set to be a busy year with works progressing well and activity in the Wing exchange area imminent, or already underway.

The latest delivery data at my disposal suggests that the new fibre cabinets should be in place by the end of February/early March, incorporating the installation of the unit and connecting it to a power supply and fibre optics.  Thereafter, the commissioning process will ensure that the fibre cabinets are connected to necessary systems, meaning that Internet Service Providers can then recognise the cabinets as 'live' and begin offering services to customers.

In terms of Aston Abbotts and Rowsham, it appears that both are served by cabinet 7.  This is located near the Wingrave crossroads.

In relation to speeds achieved in the two villages; this will be determined by distance from the fibre cabinet.  Using Fibre to the Cabinet technology, Openreach suggests that superfast speeds (24 Mbps or greater) should be achievable at distances of 1.2 - 1.5km away from the cabinet, as this relies on the existing copper connection to homes and businesses.  For Aston Abbotts, the prospects look good, given the distance to cabinet 7.  For Rowsham, there is a bit more uncertainty as the village is on the extremity of the distance threshold, meaning lower speeds are possible.  For the latter, I will need to query our Openreach Network Manager as he will be able to make more accurate assumptions with his data and network tools.

In terms of nearby villages; Cublington (cabinet 6) and Wingrave (cabinet 5) should be well served by the fibre broadband upgrades.

The latest information continues to be published on the Connected Counties website, which I would encourage you to monitor for progress....

http://www.connectedcounties.org/news/2015/january/latest-fibre-broadband-cabinet-upgrades

Simon Guy's WW1 Research

In an online article published on the Leighton Buzzard Online website Simon Guy of Church Row tells of how he came to produce the booklet detailing the Aston Abbotts lads who lost their lives in the First World War. The booklet was distributed around the village in the autumn.

Click here to read the article.

Aston Abbotts Village Plan

The Aston Abbotts Village Plan can now be accessed from the Aston Abbotts website by clicking here or going to the Information section on the Links page. It requires Acrobat Reader.

The Plan was produced by a steering group made up of representatives living in the Village.
The group were as follows:

    Bob Carvey
    Kate Curry
    Dickie Dicken
    Peter Ellwood
    Marcus Hall
    Judy Hardcastle
    James Perkins
    Peter Shorrock

The Aston Abbotts Village Plan has been produced with guidance from Community Impact Bucks and the ACRE Community Led Planning Toolkit.

Aston Abbotts Fireworks 2014

Bernard Osborn 1927-2014

We were saddened to hear that Bernard Osborn passed away on September 18th 2014 at the age of 87.

Bernard Osborn was born and grew up Aston Abbotts. Although he 'emigrated' to Cublington when he married, he continued to run Osborn's shop in Aston Abbotts until it closed in 2005.

You can read an interview with Bernard that first appeared in the Aston Abbotts Chronicle in Autumn 2000 here. It gives an insight into how life used to be in Aston Abbotts when Osborn's shop was still open.

Affordable Housing

Do you have a strong connection to the parish of Aston Abbotts?  Do you require less expensive homes to be able to remain in the village? What do you think about providing homes for local people?

The Parish Council has asked the Rural Housing Enabler from Community Impact Bucks to conduct a Housing Needs Survey (HNS) in the village.  The Parish Council believes local people including families, grown up children and ageing residents may have difficulty finding a home they can afford in Aston Abbotts.

The survey will establish whether there is a need for a small development of affordable housing in the village and whether there is support for the Parish Council to pursue the project. Rural affordable housing schemes are built using the rural exception planning policy which provides homes, available for local people only who cannot afford to rent or buy on the open market.  The properties always remain affordable and are protected in perpetuity for local people.

We hope that you will take a few minutes to complete the housing needs form which will be delivered to every household in October 2014.

If you are in need of an affordable home in Aston Abbotts, or feel that you should support such a project please ensure that you complete section 2 of the survey.  Personal details are used for analysis purposes by CIB.  Name and address only will be passed to the partner housing association, local authority or Bucks Home Choice to enable them to contact you in the future and advise you where to register, if a scheme does go ahead.

Please return your form in the FREEPOST envelope by 24th^th October 2014.

For further information on affordable housing in rural areas please see Community Impact Bucks’ website: www.communityimpactbucks.org.uk