Margaret Jones

Edingale Parish Council would like to ask that now that the weather is (slightly!) improving and daylight lasting a little longer, would householders with hedges and bushes please take a few minutes to trim off any briars or growths that are spreading over the footpaths?
It is becoming a problem for some older villagers and those with young children to walk along past some of the overgrowing hedges in several areas of the village and we’d really appreciate your help with this.
We’d also be grateful if you can continue to keep them tidy as it will be judging time for Best Kept Village before too long!

There has been a lot of dog poo left on the footpaths by inconsiderate owners recently. We know that most dog owners are responsible and pick up after their pets but a few are spoiling the village paths by not clearing up after their dog! Please take a bag when you walk your pet and use it.

Did you know that Lichfield District Council will fine offenders? They take a hard line in relation to dog fouling and believe people should clear up after their dog.

Here is a link to their report form where you can report any ‘hotspots’.

Welcome to another year of Edingale Village Hall events, we are a registered Charity run by a volunteer Management group. We have organised lots of events, catering for young and old and would like to thank everyone for their support last year. Attached is a list of planned events for 2024. We are always open to new ideas, so if you can suggest any fundraising and/community events, do get in touch. We would particularly highlight these events:

Edingale Village Hall AGM – Saturday 23rd March at 10.00am.

What better way to get closer to your community than by supporting the village hall? You can hear more and get involved by coming along to the Edingale Village Hall Annual General Meeting. The Committee is made up of a dedicated group of volunteers and we’re always looking for more people to join the team. Please contact us if you are interested in joining the Committee, could help at an event or have ideas about fundraising. Call Louise Maskery on 07790 349143 or email info@edingalevillagehall.co.uk

Community Clean Up – If you’re not able to join us for the meeting but would like to help to get the hall, park and village communal areas ready for judging in the ‘Best Kept Village’ competition, arrive from 11.00am Saturday 23rd March. Please bring sensible footwear, gloves and litter pickers and “gilet jaunes” if you have them (they can be provided). Refreshments supplied to all volunteers. If you can’t make it, please have a look in the road/frontage of your home at some point and make sure everything is shipshape.

Open Gardens 22nd / 23rd June (provisional)

We’re gauging interest for a possible Open Gardens event this summer; provisionally on the weekend of 22nd/23rd June. You don’t need to be a green fingered expert and there are lots of different and exciting ways that gardens can be presented. To learn more, to offer your garden, or to volunteer, please contact anthony.mason@zoho.com

Don’t forget we won the Community Award in last year’s Best Kept Village competition, so if you want to keep the excitement going by helping or supporting in 2024, please contact info@edingalevillagehall.co.uk

Click here to read our Feb 2024 Newsletter

Every year the Parish Council must set a budget and request the precept amount it needs from Lichfield District Council. For many years there has been a very modest rise in the precept. For 2024 it has been decided to increase the precept from £15,500 to £16,500. This has been done due to increased costs and to ensure the Parish Council has enough funds to contribute to repairs to the playground equipment and to pay for maintenance around the village as well as run its affairs lawfully. This increase will be just over £3 a year per household.

Around 20 residents attended the meeting to give their views on the recent decision by Lichfield District Council to refuse the nomination of the Black Horse as an Asset of Community Value. It was agreed that although everyone would like to see a pub in Edingale the ACV would not be achievable due to lack of a plan for community ownership. Residents could still form a group to investigate purchasing the property on the open market and to look into fund raising.

Information below:

The former Black Horse Public House, Edingale

For perhaps two decades, the former Black Horse Pub struggled as a business, with a number of different owners and yet more tenants and licensees seeking to make it sustainable. The last time the pub was open to the public was towards the end of 2020.
In 2013, Edingale Parish Council applied for and obtained an Asset of Community Value (ACV) Notice on the property from Lichfield District Council (LDC). A property can be an ACV if:
• The use of the building or land currently, or in the recent past, furthers the social well-being or cultural, recreational, or sporting interests of the local community.
• The use of the building will continue to further the social well-being of the local community.
The purpose of the ACV is to enable a community to make a bid for the property if the owner intends to sell it. The Register of ACV keeps a listing live for five years, and in 2018, the Parish Council was successful in reapplying for a further ACV which has expired this year. The Parish Council therefore asked again for the ACV entry for the Black Horse to be renewed. LDC has refused the request suggesting that the community wellbeing element of the pub is now ancillary to its main use. Our District Councillor is currently querying the refusal of the notice by LDC.
At broadly the same time, the current owner has placed the pub on the commercial market. The particulars state that “This site is ideal for continued use as either a pub or restaurant with potential for residential conversion.”
The Parish Council’s initial view is that the suggested market price of the building, when added to the costs of building repair and the refitting of the pub, is likely to make the business model of a reopened pub very hard to work successfully. However, they wished to to hear the views of parishioners about this before deciding how to handle the refusal of the Asset of Community Value determination.

Community Asset – Decision Notice – Black Horse Inn 2023