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Grand 70s & 80s music quiz - from Tony & Jim

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On April 6th, 52 villagers and friends gathered in the Village Hall for an evening of quizzing and nostalgia on music from the 70s and 80s.

We raised a total of £772 which will go towards the upkeep of the hall, ensuring that we have an improving asset for the community.

If I may, a big “thank you” to everybody who came along and supported this event and, judging by feedback, had a fun evening into the bargain.

Jim Trott and Tony Dixon

Saturday 9th March 2019 -  Downe Village Ball - West Kent Golf Club

A great evening dining and dancing to live band.   Well done all the members of the Village Club for a fantastic event, raising funds for the Christmas lights, Village Hall and Freddie Farmer Foundation
 

Waterloo 200th Anniversary Celebration

 

Was held on Saturday 27 June 2015

 

Pictured below - the Duke of Wellington with his chief adviser and guest at Apsley House (or Village Hall ?) where he entertained 46 guests to a dinner and dancing!.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Downe streetlights (Jul 2015)

 

The current financial position is:

 

A huge thanks to all those who have donated money for the installation of “heritage” posts so far.  To date we have raised £8,267 towards the total of  £13,878.   This means we still need to raise £5,611 to completely fund the work.   The village has paid what it owes Bromley Council, and to get the project rolling, a villager fronted the money and we are endeavouring to pay it back.

 

The current implementation position is:

Bromley Council have now started on the programme of replacing the old concrete street lights.  They have issued us with the following schedule – which is rather later that we were originally told.  Note that the heritage post replacement work seems to have been left till last.

1.    STANDARD ROAD, BELLEVUE ROAD, SNODLANDS CLOSE, STALISFIELD PLACE, MILL LANE, HIGH ELMS ROAD – Installation of new columns started on site and main service plus removal of columns programmed for approx. start date W/E 20 July 2015

2.    NORTH END LANE, HIGH ELMS ROAD – Approx. programme date W/E 26 July 2015

3.    GREEN HILL WEST – Approx. programme date W/E 9 August 2015

4.    ROOKERY ROAD – Approx. programme date W/E 23 August 2015

5.    LUXTED ROAD – Approx. programme date W/E 6 September 2015

 

Items 2, 3, 4 and 5 dates may be changed due to Road Closures and Traffic Management.  Road Closures will be for North End Road, Green Hill/West Hill, Rookery Road and Luxted Road as these roads are too narrow for other vehicles to pass by while carrying out the installation / connection works.

 

If you want to see the full plan, go to the Residents' Association page .

 

(below replacement work starts in Standard Rd and Stalisfield Place)

 

 

Superfast broadband campaign in rural Bromley  -  July 2015

 

One of the two companies involved – Gigaclear – have now started posting invitations to residents and businesses to register their interest.  

 

However, it is not necessary to receive anything through the post for you to register interest.  Can I therefore urge everyone to carry out this registration on the Gigaclear website.  Just go to:

 

www.gigaclear.com/registerme

 

then enter your postcode, then follow the subsequent registration instructions.   Don’t worry that the registration subsequently refers to “Cudham” – the area covered is Downe and Cudham.

 

Can I just stress this company needs a significant interest from us, in order for them to move to the next stage, so it is in all our interests to get as many registrations completed as we can.  Please urge your friends and neighbours to register -  even if they are unsure – this is not a commitment at this stage.   This is a great chance to get better broadband in our area and it seems when you take into account you may no longer need a BT phone line and thus no BT monthly line rental and no slow BT broadband (or other supplier) monthly cost, its looks like it might save everyone money.   Additionally, the London School of Economics say that fast internet availability can have a positive effect on house prices now (I've seen a figure of a 3% premium over black spot areas)

 

For information, Gigaclear would lay fibre optic cables underground in our area (under roads and fields etc).  Every property should be passed, and a junction in the road outside each property installed.  Service could then be supplied once the property is connected up to this junction.  Gigaclear also plan to hold public events in Downe and Cudham in the near future.

 


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Two potential solutions to bring superfast broadband into the area are now under consideration.    However, there is still a way to go to actually get something going.

"Gigaclear" – this broadband company have fibre-enabled a number of areas in the UK.  They have provided me with a street plan for providing a fibre-optic broadband service – via digging up the fields and roads to lay cables.   In order for this to be economically viable for them, they say that they would need to get 40% of households signed up to the service.  Their costs would likely be:

  • Connection charge - £100 for residential customers, £200 for business customers plus approx. £100 installation cost

  • Monthly fee - £38.80/m (for 50mb download speed)

  • Contract – 15 months plus 3 months rolling notice period

 

“Crockham Hill Community Broadband” -  this start-up company provides “wireless” fast broadband to North Downs area near Westerham, and are willing to do the same here.  We have discussed the possibilities with Virgin Media, and could start a pilot system in Downe initially, by intercepting an existing fibre optic cable at the primary school and “beam” the broadband signal around the village.  Initially, a 15 metre aerial mast would need to be erected, and receiving properties would mount a small receiver on the roof/chimney.  Costs would be:

 

  • Connection fee - £299 inc VAT (residential),

  • Monthly fee £29.99 per month (for 24mb download speed)

 

Each option has it’s “pros and cons”.  

 

Option 1 - has the benefit of hidden fibre cables laid to outside every property, but would be a large undertaking, and requires the community to commit to the 40% takeup figure.   Gigaclear plan to leaflet our areas soon to establish interest.

 

Option 2 - has the advantage of getting started quickly, and Bromley Council (Cllr Peter Morgan) has offered start-up funding from the “Community Fund” to help start the service.  It also has the benefit of being a “not-for-profit organisation”, with any profits raised used to expand the network or potentially to be returned to the community.  However, asthetics and planning permission issues may intrude. 

 

Bromley Council are being included in the discussions on both

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(June 2015) Disney to make a film about Charles Darwin ?

 

He is generally remembered as a bearded, balding, rather grandfatherly figure. But Charles Darwin looks set to be given the Indiana Jones treatment after Disney bought the rights to an adventure film based on his life.

The Hollywood production is expected to shine a new light on the Father of Evolution, telling the story of his formative travels before he wrote On the Origin of Species.

 

Commissioner's Roadshow in Bromley - Weds 24th June

 

The Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis will be coming to Bromley on Wednesday 24th June at 6:30pm to hold a roadshow in Bromley Central Library.

Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe will be answering questions and setting out the challenges facing the Metropolitan Police Services to communities from both Bromley and Bexley Boroughs.

Senior Officers from both Boroughs will also be at the event to meet local stakeholders and residents before and after the Commissioner speaks.

This event will be chaired by Gareth Bacon, on behalf of James Cleverly. Gareth is a London-wide GLA member and Chairman of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority.

This event is an open invitation to all and an advertisement will be in the News Shopper in due course. Please feel free to forward the details of this event to any groups or individuals whom you think may be interested in attending.

 

BIGGIN HILL

 

Most people will have heard of the plans for the extension to the permitted hours at the start and end of the day at the airport.  Bromley Council have given "approval in principle" to the plans.  A group of residents' associations and other organisations opposed to such extension have got together under the "Flightpath Watch" name to organise opposition, get resident's views (those who live under or near the flightpath) on the plans and lobby the Council.  The views for all the areas under the flightpath will be fed back to various local councillors.   Our councillor (Richard Scoates) has already opposed the plans.

Current hours are Monday to Friday 07:30-21:00; Saturday and Sunday 09:00-20:00.   New hours would be Monday to Saturday 06:30-23:00; Sunday 08:00-23:00.

 

The Downe Residents' Association is helping carry out a survey (as part of a joint residents' "Flightpathwatch" action to assess the views of those under the flightpath affected).

 

www.FlightpathWatch.co.uk

 

Defibrillators

 

Oliver Mercer at Holwood Farm shop says "As the area surrounding our farm shop can be quite isolated, we felt it was important to try and get a defibrillator into the community so that potentially lifesaving treatment could be that little bit nearer. Thanks to generous donations from our customers, we have now raised the funds for the defibrillator, and are liaising with the London Ambulance Service to have the unit fitted and our staff trained in order to help if such a situation arose. 

 

We’ve been working closely with Dave Witherspoon as well as the ambulance service to look at possibly arranging for more defibrillators to be located in and around the village. A meeting was held last month in the village and everyone present agreed that it is a worthwhile investment for the community. Due to our customers' great generosity we will shortly be able to make a donation to the village to help with the costs for the next unit and help to train as many Downe residents as possible with the potentially life saving skills. 

 

The detail: 

When someone suffers a cardiac arrest, blood is no longer being pumped around their body, and the longer they go without emergency life support the harder it is to restart their heart. 

 

A defibrillator* is a machine used to deliver an electric shock to the patient’s heart during cardiac arrest to normalise the heart rhythm and along with CPR** can be the difference between life and death. 

 

** cardiopulmonary resuscitation 

 

For further information contact Oliver Mercer - 07985 700311 at

Holwood Farm Shop

 

The annual Downe Cricket club vs Queen's Head cricket match

took place on Weds 3 August....The final result was a win for Downe Cricket Club (on 120 for 2 after the guests made 77 for 6 in their alloted overs)

Orchard day in Downe -  22 October 2016  -  Subsequently, a band of volunteers returned to pick most of the remaining apples, which were then taken away to be made into cider

Downe duck race video - July 2016
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