Chair's Introduction
Well it certainly has been an action packed summer in Sway. The Parish Council hosted a Platinum Jubilee Big Lunch at Stanford Rise Green in June which was enjoyed by over 200 people. I was very proud to give out the parish awards to people who really do such a lot to make Sway what it is.
If you are new to Sway, or even if you are not, there is such a choice of groups and clubs in the village to get involved with; you can read about the Gardening Club, the Flower Arranging Club, Craft Sessions and Knit N Natter, the Womens Institute (WI), the Luncheon Club and Sway Drama Club in this newletter to get you started.
In July we had the Sway Carnival with the return of the famous procession led by the Carnival Princess and Prince and lots of well attended events ranging from a Casino evening to bat walks and beetle drives. The Parish Council was really pleased to host the fete and the carnival party at Jubilee Field and is grateful to the football and cricket clubs for working with us to make both events open to dogs.
Throughout the summer the Church Lane Development Working Group, which is made up of parish councillors and members of the public, has been responding to the flurry of updates from the developer and organising a public drop in session to see the plans. The development has been given permission and you can read about this in this newletter and what happens next.
The EcoSway group (which includes parish councillors, the St Luke's EcoChurch group and members of the public) has been busy over the summer, getting involved in mapping the public green spaces around the village and planning more public engagement opportunities in the autumn. Details are in the newsletter.
So it has been a busy time for the Parish Council and the village and it has been a privilege to be the Chair during the past year – even having wet sponges thrown at me for the St Luke's Family Fun Day in August!
I am standing down from being Chair of the Parish Council in September so that I can start training for ordination as a priest in the Church of England. Thank you to everyone who has supported me during the past year and made it an interesting, challenging, fun year.
Best wishes,
Cllr Lisa Thomas
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Many of you will have received either through email or hard copy that in 2023 there will be a change to the ward boundaries, which will impact on us as Sway residents. The ward boundary will change from Boldre and Sway, to Sway only; there will be one councillor representing Sway, where we currently have two. You will also need photo ID in order to vote and the polling stations may differ from those we have used in the past due to the boundary changes. And dont forget May 2023 is also election time for Sway Parish Council.  
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Leisure and Activities
A round up of the non-sporting fun to be had around the village. If you run a club in Sway which is not listed here, please send details to the Clerk for inclusion on our Residents' web page and a future newsletter. |
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Sway Gardening Club
is a thriving, friendly club that welcomes all residents of Sway and the surrounding towns and villages to attend our monthly meetings.
If you like plants and gardening, you might be interested in the talks which are held in Sway Village Hall at 7.30pm on the third Thursday of each month (except August and December). Visitors pay £3.50 a time, or for £18 you can join the Club and come to as many meetings as you wish. The club also arranges trips to gardens in the summer. Meetings have a plant sale table and a seasonal flower vase as well as refreshments.
We hold two shows per year - in Spring (March) and Summer (August) where club members and non-members can compete in a friendly atmosphere with their own flowers, vegetables and home made cakes and preserves. The biennial Sway Open Gardens is also organised by The Sway Gardening Club.
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Sway Flower Arranging Club
has been meeting in the Church Rooms at Swat on the last Wednesday of the month since 1988 (covid excepted of course) and it continues to flourish. An enjoyable Garden Party was held in July when a competition for the arrangement with the most votes was won by Lin Haley who was presented with the annual silver Rose Bowl.
Our next meeting on Wednesday 28th September will be an Imposed Session when all the materials (flowers, foliage, containers etc) will be provided for £5. All that needs to be brought is a pair of scissors.
There will be a demonstration on 26th October by Caroline Vanstone from Southampton and the AGM and Christmas Party will also include a Sugarcraft workshop.
We are a small friendly club and welcome visitors. More information from Juliet on 01590 682864
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NEWE Friends
The Knit N Natter group has been going since 2010 and has contributed to the village poppy display, Sway Carnival and last year also participated in the Christmas Tree Festival at St. Luke's Church.
MONDAY CRAFT NIGHTS:
In the Church Rooms 7 – 10pm every Monday except Bank Holidays. Cost £5 per night.
All sorts of craft are undertaken, knitting, crochet, spinning, weaving, tapestry weaving, embroidery, etc.
KNIT N NATTER:
Every 4th Thursday of the month 10-12. Cost £2 per session.
All handheld crafts welcome besides knitting!
Jennie Gribble jenniegribble@gmail.com
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Sway WI has been in existence since 1918 and still flourishes despite WW2 and Covid. We are a friendly group, meeting on the 2nd Thursday evening of the month at Sway Village Hall. Future speakers include a Forest Ranger, a member of the St. Barbe Museum team, a floristry demonstration and a magician at the Christmas Party. Sub-groups offer darts, walking, poetry appreciation, scrabble and crafts. Recent photos taken during Carnival Week show our fun side! For more information, see our notice board outside the Village Hall or email: swaytreas@hampshirewi.org.uk |
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Sway Luncheon Club
For over 50 years Sway Luncheon Club has been very active in our village, serving a tasty home cooked lunch, dessert and tea/coffee to those over 65 who live alone.
The venue is the Church Rooms where the meals are served on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of each month with the exception of December when we celebrate on just the 1st Wednesday, with a full Christmas meal and plenty of extra treats as well. Clients arrive from 11.50am and lunch is usually over by 1.30pm. Christmas lunch is a much longer session.
We do our best to cater for all dietary needs and visit all new members in their homes firstly to welcome them and then to discuss any problems of allergies, mobility etc.
Sway Welfare Aid Group provides us with drivers if any of our clients are unable to make their own way to the venue as well as paying for the hire of the Church Rooms. Because of this we are able to keep our costs so low and only charge £4 for a full two course lunch.
The meals are all cooked by volunteers and their food costs are paid for from the fee charged for the lunch. Any surplus money is then used to supplement our Christmas party.
We feel that there must be many in our village who would benefit from this sociable luncheon as no-one enjoys eating a meal alone and so if you, a neighbour, friend etc feels that they may be interested in joining those already enjoying delicious home cooked food then please do let us know.
Without the team of volunteers the lunches wouldn’t happen and so if you would like to join the team as a cook or helper, then also please get in touch. We welcome both women and men.
We have a rota which runs for a full year and we ask how many sessions you are happy to help at, what your preferred dates and job would be, (main cook who provides the meat/fish) potato or vegetable cook or dessert. Some of our helpers do maybe two sessions a year where others do many more but each time we have a team of four in the kitchen: main, potato, vegetables and dessert, plus help with welcoming, setting up and serving.
So as you see we do need a large team to keep the lunch club functioning. It’s a wonderful atmosphere both with the kitchen team and with the members chatting away enjoying their lunch.
Does this sound like something you may be interested in joining? Whether as a client or helper then please do contact us and we’ll look forward to meeting you and explaining more about this wonderful facility that Sway village provides and hopes to continue for many more years to come.
Deborah Walker 01590 681014 Justdeborah44@yahoo.co.uk
Jane Pitts 01590 682742 Clive.pitts1@btinternet.com
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 EcoSway is a working group of Sway PC and going from strength to strength. In September there will be a collaboration with SpudWorks offering a week of talks, walks, exhibitions and workshops inspired by climate action, art, nature and wellbeing. Please take time to visit SpudWorks on Station Road, between 24-30 September.
In June, EcoSway spent 5 hours with Craig Whitelock from Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust cycling around Sway Village. They mapped many of the green open spaces and you can read the report of Craig's recommendations
On Sunday 16th October from 10am till 4:30pm, EcoSway will hold their Energy For Efficient and Greener Homes Day, at Sway Village Hall, Middle Road. In the main hall will be energy-related contributors and upstairs we will have timetabled talks by experts. The easier changes we can make at home to make our energy use more efficient, the slightly bigger changes, and then the renewable energy additions we can make, will all be explored. Outside in the car park will be EVs and E-bikes. Refreshments will be available throughout the day.
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Church Lane Development gets the go-ahead
Enormous thanks are due to members of Sway Parish Council, Sway Planning & Trees Committee, and the Church Lane Development Working Group for their work over the years to make this as good a development as we could get. See https://www.sway-pc.gov.uk/church-lane for the summary from January 2020 onwards. This work included several public residents’ meetings, drop-ins and consultations, six major reports and responses, and many Working Group meetings. Previously Sway had made major contributions to the NFNPA Local Plan over a number of years, and in which the NFNPA established the original policy for the site.
The fuller details of the recent application are available from the NFNPA Planning portal.
At 23 Aug 2022 there were 227 documents – comprising 1,246 A4 pages, plus 61 large plans (typically A1); and totalling over 270MB of files. Dealing with all of those has been a mammoth task.
Thanks for the total of 93 responses sent to the NFNPA from Sway neighbours and residents – see for instance Appendix A, part 2 of Sway's 14 Dec 2021 response where those comments on the initial application received up to that date are summarised.
Sway Parish Council also commissioned two independent expert reports, one specifically on transport, roads, traffic and parking; and another on the general planning and design aspects. EcoSway also produced an excellent document which we submitted - covering ecological, energy and biodiversity matters.
With little notice the application came before the NFNPA Planning Committee on 16 Aug 2022. Sway was extremely well represented by residents Ted Watts and John Curley, and the Parish Clerk Katie Walding – special thanks to them.
The contrast between the initial application and what has been granted is impressive, and much of that improvement was driven and encouraged by the people above. The granted permission is also subject to a vast range of conditions. Some of those improvements are detailed in the NFNPA Planning Officer’s Report, and some were even added in the NFNPA Planning Committee meeting itself.
The most recent Parish Council received a report covering the improvements to the application and you can read this appended to the minutes of the meeting of 25th August. Cllr Stephen Tarling
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Sway Social Club - Proposal for a community room at Jubilee Field Pavilion
The August meeting of the Parish Council discussed the report from the Clerk on the legalities of the proposal, which had been actioned following the last meeting with the Social Club representatives.
As the legal officer of the Council, the Clerk is accountable in law for ensuring that the Council undertakes due diligence in both entering legal agreements and taking responsibility for a very large sum of money on behalf of Sway taxpayers. Having received legal advice which presents no major problems, next steps are for all parties (Social Club, Council, Football Club) to get together and agree the detailed points to get the project under way.
Read the details of the discussion and the report from the Clerk in the minutes of the meeting of 25th August.
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The Council entered into new contracts for its utilities in 2021 and early 2022, which means we are paying fixed rates for 3 years. We will be looking at usage across the site, and making savings where we can. We will also need to consider the impact in future years of the dramatic increase in our costs, and this will be discussed as we turn our attention to next year's budget, in the autumn.
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The Precept is the proportion of your Council Tax which NFDC collects on our behalf. In 2021-22 the Band D equivalent was £49.91 for the year. In addition to that we raised nearly 20% more income from a combination of hall bookings, club rents, bank interest, grants and donations.
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Forthcoming meetings:
- Planning & Trees Committee - next meeting Thursday 8th September from 7pm at Jubilee Field Pavilion
- Full Parish Council - next meeting Thursday 22nd September from 7pm at Jubilee Field Pavilion.
Meetings are normally held on 2nd Thursday (Planning & Trees Committee) and 4th Thursday (full Council) monthly.
We are pleased to be live streaming our meetings once again, having invested in technology to make this possible. If you wish to address the Council you will still need to attend in person as it is not legal for us to hold hybrid meetings at this time.
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Contacting the Parish Council
If you have any comments, compliments or criticisms to make about the work of the Parish Council or you would like clarification on what we do, then please contact us in one of the following ways: TELEPHONE, POST / IN PERSON or EMAIL.
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You are welcome to attend any Parish Council or Planning & Trees Committee meeting at the Jubilee Field Pavilion. See our website or noticeboard for meeting dates.
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Parish Office: Jubilee Field Pavilion, Station Road, Sway SO41 6BE
Katie Walding (Parish Clerk / RFO) clerk@sway-pc.gov.uk 01590 718116 / Emergency 07899 804083
Lisa Thomas (Chairman) cllrlisathomas@sway-pc.gov.uk 07814 139518
Simon Barnes cllrbarnes@sway-pc.gov.uk 07812 338527
Nicky Bowler cllrbowler@sway-pc.gov.uk 07968 864508
Mike Butler cllrbutler@sway-pc.gov.uk 07491 142839
Peter Dance cllrdance@sway-pc.gov.uk 01590 683517
Chris Davis cllrdavis@sway-pc.gov.uk 07764 5476560
Howard Millett cllrmillett@sway-pc.gov.uk 07846 557588
Emma Monk cllrmonk@sway-pc.gov.uk 07967 114063
Alex Pepper cllrpepper@sway-pc.gov.uk 07752 388227
Vicky Ryce cllrryce@sway-pc.gov.uk 07715 698599
Stephen Tarling cllrtarling@sway-pc.gov.uk 01590 683707
James Willis cllrwillis@sway-pc.gov.uk 07974 253926
Other useful contacts:
Sway Welfare Aid Group 01590 681500
SWAG Medical Transport 01590 681500 option 1
Age UK 0800 678 1602
The Silver Line (offering regular phone contact) 0800 4 70 80 90
Samaritans 116 123
New Forest Medical Group - Sway Surgery 01590 682617
Cango Booking Service (7.00 to 9.00 Mon to Fri) 07891 658769
Day Lewis Pharmacy 01590 682225
St Luke’s Church 01590 682358
Food Bank - NF Basics Bank (get referred by agency such as Citizens Advice) 0808 278 78 60
Sway Family Network - extra support for local families swayfamilyneedhelp@gmail.com
Step up, Safe space - support to vulnerable individuals and families sharon.stepupsafespace@gmail.com
Hampshire County Council Covid Helpline - 0333 370 4000
Signup
To receive this quarterly newsletter by email please sign up via our website at www.sway-pc.gov.uk/newsletter All newsletters are also available to view on our website.
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