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PCA Newsletter 31 - July 2008 |
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Another
Grand Day Out
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“One of the best yet” was the general verdict of
organisers and party-goers as the sun shone (but not
too much) on Pitshanger’s big summer event.
Non-arrival of the toilets proved to be a minor
inconvenience as an estimated 8,000 people enjoyed
the entertainments and food on offer. TV news
personality John Sergeant set the tone with a
light-hearted opening speech, and the efforts of
unsung events team heroes Doug Winter (volunteer
co-ordinator), Mike Watkinson (Craft Village), John
Waters (planning and co-ordination) and Tom |
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Lafferty (site set up) were recognised
with a bottle of champagne apiece. As always
the Pitshanger Popstar
competition was hugely popular, yielding a worthy
winner in Jade Wellman. In the Arena, Fit For
Sport’s ‘Family Fitness Challenge’ produced joint
winners, the Bloods and the Hardcastles, whilst the
competition for canines was even whackier than
usual, boring old Crufts-style
walking-around-on-a-lead replaced by best tricks,
doggie lookalikes (won by a pug that could double
for John Prescott if its English wasn’t so good) |
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and waggiest tails, giving rise to the
judge’s breathless remark that he’d given it to the
terrier with the stumpy tail because of its
“fantastic full-bottom motion”. Overall ‘Best
In Show’ was Teddy, Vicki Shepherd’s Polish Lowland
Sheepdog. New main sponsor Richard Palfreeman of
Northfields expressed delight with the day, which
finished in the beer tent with music and dancing to
the sound of the Copycats. Your committee
would like to congratulate event director Martin
Kelly and his team on a great day and thank them for
all their efforts over the last few months. |
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Pitshanger Proms
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You Knew
This, Didn’t You?
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Your committee has donated £600
towards the costs of the inaugural ‘Pitshanger
Proms’. These are now underway in St Barnabas
Church, with evening concerts on Mondays, Wednesdays
and Fridays at 7.30 p.m., culminating in a ‘Last
Night’ on Friday, 8th August which features
‘Jerusalem’ and other favourites more usually
associated with that shed in South Kensington.
Admission is £10, payable on the door (there are no
advance tickets), but there are also a couple of
free lunchtime concerts as well. Full details
here or contact Dr Hugh Mather on 8997 7691 or
hmather@btopenworld.com.
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We’ve warned you about the CCTV
vigilantes around Haven Green before, but now member
Tony Purton writes to say that it’s not illegal to
stop and pick up or drop off passengers on both
single and double yellow lines, whether or not there
are loading restrictions, which applies as much to
the area around Ealing Broadway station and Haven
Green as anywhere else. Full details are in the
Highway Code, but Councillor Phil Taylor, holder of
the Council’s Customer and Community Services
portfolio, has confirmed the basic facts in an email
to Tony.
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Bumpy
Ride
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Member John Chase has been monitoring the
deteriorating condition of the road surface in Queen’s Gardens,
describing it as being “like a switchback, perhaps second only
in the borough to The Avenue”. A sizeable pothole appeared a few
months ago; a complaint to ward Councillor John Popham soon had
it filled in but Mr Chase says the repair is leaking water and
he’s confident that the hole will soon reappear. However,
Councillor Popham has some good news – Queen’s Gardens is due to
be resurfaced during this financial year. |
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Temple
Pharmacy
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After three years of argument with the antipodean
back-packers who seem to make up the Council’s
planning department, Danny Patel has finally been
able to open his new ‘pharmacy of the future’, next
door to Wine Rack. He’s spent a small fortune, and
it’s worth going in just to look at the design
concept. Apart from the aesthetics, it’s in tune
with current Government plans for health, able to
provide treatments and therapies complementary to
those on offer through GPs and the like. Three
treatment rooms and a group education area are
available for such things as heart and cholesterol
monitoring and ‘stop smoking’ classes.
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There’s also a discreet consulting
room for private discussions with the pharmacist.
Temple will collect prescriptions from your GP free
of charge, keep an up-to-date record of your
medications, and advise if a product you’re buying
over the counter conflicts with something prescribed
by your doctor. When we’re all worried about the
survival of independent shops in the face of
supermarket competition, Danny’s ‘dream’ is a
powerful statement that in many ways small is not
only beautiful, but better. |
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And The
Winners Are – Ros Det And The Co-ops!
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No, they’re not this year’s Pitshanger Popstars –
they’re our first five star establishments under the
Food Standards Agency’s ‘Scores On The Doors’ scheme
for publicising the results of food safety
inspections. Ros Det and both Co-ops have been
declared “Excellent: very high standards of food
safety management - fully compliant with food safety
legislation”. Among the latest batch of star
ratings, Pizza Organic joins a number of other
Pitshanger food outlets already on four stars (“very
good”), but on the Naughty Step is Blue Ocean which
must make “much
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more effort”, gaining just a single
star. Star ratings for food outlets across the whole
of London, and further information about the Scores
On The Doors scheme, can be found at
www.yourlondon.gov.uk/foodscores. |
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Rotary
Recycling
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Use It
Or Lose It
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We’re still running the recycling
scheme with our friends in the Hanwell and
Northfields Rotary Club. Drop your unwanted
spectacles, toner cartridges, postage stamps and
mobile phones into the recycling bins in the
Pitshanger Bookshop, Brendons or the Brentham Club.
Meanwhile, Rotary have been busy making money for
the RNIB Talking Books Service, raising £200 from
their recent coffee morning at the Brentham Club.
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Our campaign to save our local
independent shops gets a further boost from a member
who tells of meeting Mr Patel of Mirage Opticians
while walking along the Lane. An impromptu
consultation took place that concluded with Mr Patel
saying by all means pop into the shop, but accept
the out-patient appointment if the doctor offers
one. You don’t get that kind of service at
Specsavers!
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Looking
Further Afield
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Former chairman of the PCA, Ron Bloomfield, brings
yet another bright idea to our attention. “Next year, the PCA
will have its tenth anniversary. Since 1999 when we started
Party In The Park with £15 in the bank and a barrel load of
hope, the association has gone far. Now we run Light Up The
Lane, help organise the Fun Run, and have introduced the people
of Pitshanger to ferret racing and many other things. But as we
near our tenth anniversary perhaps it’s time to ask, what next?
Is it time to share our good fortune with others?
“Recently I’ve been working in my church to support an orphanage
in Zimbabwe; when we first contacted them the kids had not eaten
for three days. Our church cannot generate enough to support
them completely, so how about the PCA joining in? We have a
secure line of communication that ensures money is not stolen en
route. Among all the suffering in Zimbabwe we can at least
ensure the 80 or so kids survive the conflict and have a chance
of a decent life when the political turmoil is over. That would
be a wonderful way of ensuring our community cohesion in the
future as we all work together for a very worthwhile aim.”
Your editor for one thinks this is a very exciting and
worthwhile thing to be involved in: do you agree? Let us have
your thoughts. |
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Butterfly Day
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Pitshanger traders are celebrating the 21st
anniversary of Meadow House hospice, and supporting their
efforts to raise £250,000, by holding a “Butterfly Day” on
Saturday, 20th September. Organised by Walter Wyeth of the
Pitshanger Bookshop (a long-time supporter of Meadow House) the
day will comprise a variety of events and activities, including
a treasure hunt for children that involves finding butterflies
in shop windows along the Lane. |
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Accident
In The Lane
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A 16 year-old girl suffered a broken ankle after
being hit by a car in Pitshanger Lane on Sunday 13th
July. She had apparently stepped out from between
parked cars to cross the road outside the Co-op
towards Harrow View Road. Whether or not the
proposed improvements to the Lane under the Streets
for People scheme would have made any difference is
debatable, but one observer noted that a raised
table and “informal crossing” is planned at that
point in the road. Furthermore, the narrowness of
the Lane as it is at the moment meant that a bus had
to be steered into Harrow View Road to enable an
ambulance to pass.
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Return
Of The Double Decker
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Pride of
Pitshanger
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London Buses are proposing to
re-introduce double deck buses on the E2 route from
May next year. This will coincide with a ‘slightly
reduced’ service on the route although commuters
will undoubtedly appreciate the opportunity to
actually get on a bus in the morning rather than
watch them trundle past with a full load. You can
comment on this proposal by letter to London Buses
Customer Services, 84 Eccleston Square, SW1V 1PX, or
email
customerservices@tfl-buses.co.uk.
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Our second annual award to a local
resident or trader nominated for having made a
difference to our quality of life in Pitshanger goes
to Sue Kelly. Sue gets a certificate, a cheque for
£100, and the thanks of many local parents whose
children she guides and encourages through her work
with the Pitshanger Popstar competition and the
Methodist Church Beaver colony. (Deserves it for
being married to Martin – Ed.)
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