Work on refurbishing Hale Youth Club/Centre, has now started. It's expected the refurbishment work will take about 12 weeks.

The refurbishment will include a new entrance, kitchen area, new heating, windows, toilets and an overall re-decoration of the building/site.

The building is currently home to the Hale Rainbows, Brownies, Ju Jitsu Classes and Youth Club Activites.

The refurbishment project of the Old School building, has been funded by grants from: WREN Waste Recycling Group, Biffaward, Garfield Weston Foundation, Halton Housing Trust and Halton Borough Council.

Below we have members of the Hale Youth Centre Committe, overlooking the refurbishment'

From left to right: Steve Turton, Ian Trimble and Mike Wharton.

© 2012 Mr V.G Phillips

Further flytipping is still going on around the village.

Wednesday 22nd February, saw numerous household items dumped up Carr Lane.

Our eagle-eyed website contributer, Mr Phillips spotted the above...

© 2012 Mr V.G Phillips

Hale Parish Council held their monthly parish meeting on Monday evening, 20th February, in Hale Village Hall - on the High Street at 7.30pm.

Below we have a breif account of the meeting.

The meeting was opened by the Chairperson Alison Jones, just on 7.30pm. The first 5 items of the agenda were swiftly completed: Members Present, Apologies, Declarations of Interest, Minutes of the previous meeting and the Clerks report.

The next items on the agenda were the Public Forum and Police report. The village now has a new PCSO, his name is Colin Marples and is now on Patrol around the village on a daily basis. As no Police were present, it was on to the Public Forum.

During the public forum, the following was discussed:

*Drinking and Drugs and Anti Social Behaviour are now being targeted in Hale Village Park.

*Halton Borough Council have issued a number of Fixed Penalty Fines on the spot in the park, to irresponsible dog owners, who do not clean up after their dog - or have been seen not to clear their dogs mess up.

*Dog fouling is still taking place,, on the football pitches.

*The Heskeths/Hale Park Estates/Smiths Gore are to be made aware, of continued public -misuse of their land around the parkland and the farmland...

*Visitors to the park are deficating and urinating in the bushes and around the base of the Lime trees.

*One visitor to the park was seen throwiwing a dispposable babies nappy from their car, into the small woodland by the gates. This has been reported to the necessary authority.

*Heather Charles the Hale Heritage Champion, reported that a clean up has been taking place in the park on the right hand side. Volunteers have been cutting and pruning the hedgerow on the boundry between the park and Home Farm, so that you will be able to see through it and to stop unwanted use.

*Alison Jones reported that a mini orchard will be planted on the greenspace infront of the shops-opposite the car park. A number of fruit trees are awaiting to be planted.

After the Public Forum, the meeting agenda resumed, with the Financial report, Planning Report, etc etc.

Other items included:

*A number of small grants were awarded to several village groups and individuals.

*Councillor Ambrose is in the process of establishing a Parish Council website, which will include the minutes of meetings etc.

*The next Parish Council meeting will take place on Monday 19th March at 7.30pm in the village hall.

This week, volunteers of the Hale Village Carnival Committee held one of their regular monthly meetings, upstairs, in the meetings room at the Childe Of Hale Public House. Below we have a breif account and the contents of the meeting.

The meeting was chaired by Mrs C Gallagher and Mr M Sutton, around 12 to 15 other volunteer members were present at the meeting.

Hale Village Carnival will take place in Hale Village Park, on Saturday 9th June 2012, from 12 noon.

There will also be the Carnival Coffee Shop in the village hall, during the afternoon.

Cheshire Police were in attendance at the meeting too, and discussed various requirments for public safety and the number of Police/PCSO's that may be required, or can be provided on the day of the carnival!

Further security will be onsite for 24 hours, this will be provided by a long established professional security company from Halton!

A Carnival Programme Cover and Poster design competition will take place for the two schools - Hale and Hale Bank.. The Freemen of Hale will provide the prizes for the schools competition.

Hale Village Carnival will be giving the children of Hale School a Special Edition Jubilee Mug each. Around 200 Jubilee mugs will be made!

Hale C E School will be taking part in the carnival, from singing to taking part in games in the main arena.

The Heskeths/Hale Park Estates/Smiths Gore, have been approached to possibly attend and/or to take part in this years Hale Village Carnival.

There will be the traditional parade/procession around the village.

The Rose Queen, Page Boy and Rose Buds nominations must be in by 31/03/12. There will be two Page Boys and three Rose Buds only - due to carraige weight and passenger numbers the horse drawn carraige can legally accept/pull. That means only 6 passengers will be able to travel in the main Rose Queen carraige, no late entries or additional passengers will be accepted!

The main theme of the carnival is Knights Templar. There will be a medieval re-enactment organisation present at the carnival. They will be performing in the main arena and they will also have a small en-campment with tents, displays and artifacts for visitors to interact with

The main carnival field will be on the right handside as normal, it will contain the fairground, stalls, food refreshments, donkey rides, horse and trap rides, childrens face painter/entertainer and much more.

This side of the field will also house the main showground - arena and stage for live demonstrations - performances. Seating will be provided around the arena along with the licensed Bar area again which will have a more varied selection of beverages this year, due to it's success last year.

The left handside of the park will house another vintage vehicle rally/display. Due to it's success last year, around 60 vintage vehicles are being sort to attend, including vintage buses.

This side of the park also, will be home to the Birds of Prey display.

Heather Charles, the Hale Heritage Champion has organised the making of several large Lancahsire Red Rose emblems, these will be on display either at the park gates/entrance or around the carnival field on the day. Due to it's success last year, she has also organised the Birds Of Prey display to attend - the same as last year. Depending with space on the field, this will also be on the left handside, infront of the vintage vehicles.

Applications for stall-holders and vendors will be going out or will be available soon, for those who wish to have a stall. There is a limit again, on the number of "Tombola" stalls, this is limited at two!

To enable the carnival to take part/function each year, there will be the usual tariff/admittance on the gate, and a raffle with prizes donated from local village and regional businesses. Along with various Grants and Good - Will Donations, this contributes to the year on year management of the carnival, to pay for rides, entertainers, H&S/Insurance, Security and other accessories.

Further attractions are being sort or are currently under negotiation to attend.

We envisage a further update of carnival news will happen, in the next couple of months.

TalkTalk have kindly donated £650, towards the ongoing refurbishment of the village hall.

Well done to Tony Collins and Thank You Talk Talk!

The 2012 Hale Village Carnival takes place on Saturday 9th June in the village's park. The Carnival Committee are now inviting applications for Rose Queen, Rose Buds and Page Boy's for this years event. Rose Queen applicants should be aged 9 to 13, Rose Buds and Page Boy applicants should be aged 4 and above. All applicants must reside in the Parishes of Hale Village and Hale Bank. Application forms are available from Hale and Hale Bank schools, Hale News and Hale Post Office. Applications must be submitted before Friday -March 2nd...

The wind has been very strong over the last two days,,, so mush so, the residents in Cocklade Lane had a surprise visitor last night (04/01/12), courtesy of the strength of the winds. About 10.30pm/22.30hrs a large bang was heard by the sharp corner/"S" bend of Cocklade Lane, when residents went outside to see what it was, they were surprised to see the sheep shelter/shed from Mr Webbs land, had been lifted up by the strong wind and blown over the hedge/fence, into the middle of the road.

Further reported damage, has been caused to property and fencing around the village, including several trees downed, in the Estate Woodland of Hale Hall.

Images © 2012 Mr V.G Phillips

There will be another 'Computing For Beginners' class starting in the village hall on Thursday 12th January, from 10.00am til 12 noon. If you or someone you know is interested in learning the basics of computing then please go along and join the class.

Also, there may be another 'Calligraphy Class' starting sometime in the new year, if enough people are interested.

For further details, contact Dorothy Brown on 0151 425 2823, or Tony Collins on 0151 425 2604.

Well, we had some early December snow in Hale, on Friday 16th December. Not much to cause any problems, if you drove carefull enough. No roads were blocked. and most villagers seemed to stick to their normal routines - of going to the shops etc.

Thanks to Vinny, for taking the above photograph by the War Memorial..

You can see more of Vinny's photographs, of the breif appearence of snow here,