The Parish Council is celebrating being in existence for 50 years this year. We have lots of exciting plans to mark this special occasion. We will be holding a celebration fun day jointly with Salfords Social Club on Saturday 29 June from midday until 5pm. There will be a live band, BBQ, Ice cream van, entertainment for all the family and several craft stalls. All our local community groups are joining in and will be showcasing what they have to offer or running a stall. All residents and families are welcome to attend this existing day. We will be hosting another event in Sidlow – more information to follow The Parish Council will be donating and planting trees as part of our 50th year. We will be burying a time capsule so will be asking our community groups and some residents if they would like to donate something to be included to mark where we are in 2024 for someone to find in the future. We have plans to build on improving our environment and hope to share more in the coming months on what we will have to offer our community. We plan to gift roads that have verges with bags of daffodil bulbs so residents can plant them in the Autumn. This would help brighten up our villages and help the local environment and biodiversity.

Wellbeing Walks

Community Garden

Spring Litter Pick Event

WE HELD A SUCCESSFUL CHRISTMAS EVENT ON FRIDAY 1 DECEMBER

Coffee mornings at Salfords village hall

The defibrillator was installed in Sidlow in early September 2023 and is located next to the Parish Council noticeboard near the Three Horseshoes Pub in Ironsbottom. The defibrillator needs to be kept at an ambient temperature all year round so we have purchased a locked solar cabinet to house the defibrillator. If you would like to know the code for access please contact the Clerk. Alternatively, if in an emergency you needed access, when you call the ambulance on 999 they would give you the code. The unit might appear to be a strange angle but this is so the solar panels reach maximum benefit from the sun! The procurement and installation costs were just under £4,000. We hope it will never have to be used but now have comfort that there is a unit near our residents in Sidlow. In July 2023 we held a well attended defibrillator/ CPR training session for our residents with some really good questions being asked. We thank Brendan, who runs First Aid training, and joined us to offer free CPR training to compliment the defib training.

The Parish Council held a successful litter pick event on Saturday 14 October collecting over 10 bags of rubbish. Thank you to all our wonderful residents who came and joined in to help and stayed for freshments afterwards.

The Parish Council has used Strategic CIL Infrastructure Funding Programme (SIP) 2023-2027, from Reigate and Banstead Borough Council (R&BBC) to completely refurbish the rear hall at Salfords village hall. The works were completed during Summer 2023, when less busy, and the rear hall was re-opened in late August 2023. The original proposed costs were set at £24,173. However, once the project started there were necessary additional works that had to be undertaken to move walls and pipework which was discovered at ground floor level. The Parish Council also agreed to have various improvement works such as making the WC area larger for access, lowering ceilings for thermal efficiency improvements, re-plastering various walls, completely re-decorating the whole of the rear area and replacing the flooring throughout. The final project costs came to £33,000. This was the first stage of a two part project for rear hall improvements. We will be using the remaining grant Strategic CIL funding to replace the patio at the rear area. These works will be completed in the October half term at a cost of £10,000.  We hope these improvements will provide easy access for our local community groups and residents. The Parish Council has plans for 2024 to procure some high and low level planters so we can look to start a community garden which residents can get involved with in the summer months. More to follow on this later this year or early next as we have developed our plans. If this is something you would be interested in getting involved with please let us know.