Hello Village Society, here are some December notes:

Next local events: Please support the Friends of Roberts Park Carols and Mince Pies event at the Half-Moon in the park on Saturday 16th December, noon until 3pm. And on the Monday following, 18th December, there is the Saltaire Festival Christmas Party, 7.30 till late at the Bossa Nova, Shipley, admission £10, tickets from Helen Kemp.

On Thursday 30th November over 100 people (mainly from outside the village) attended the Special Neighbourhood Forum regarding traffic, in Victoria Hall.  Minutes will be posted when they arrive, but to sum up, various proposals are under consideration, mainly involving regulating traffic at the Roundabout through traffic-lights, but also road closures including the possible closure to through traffic of Dallam and Carlton Avenue, with consequent positive results for Caroline and Titus St., and hence the whole village.  But there was no time-scale evident, and we urge you to keep on at the council to head off the possibility of serious accident through rat-running.  Your Committee will do that, but individual pressure is also of assistance.

After years of dowdiness, Victoria Hall is looking more like itself, thanks to recent refurbishment.  There have been some alterations inside, with a bar now serving directly into the Hall.  Go and have a gander. There were a few raised eyebrows at the use of concrete slabs rather than stone to the front of the Hall, but we are assured that this is replacing like with like, the management cannot afford stone to replace the  slabs which were there.

The Bradford group of CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, which runs the Bradford Beer Festival in Vic Hall as well as a bar at the Saltaire Festival, has kindly donated £1,000 to the Village Society to be spent on something useful in the refurbished Vic Hall.  We are consulting the management of the Hall.  A glass-washing machine may be the result, but any other suggestions are welcome.

Saltaire Festival is already in planning for 2007 and the website www.saltairefestival.co.uk  has been updated.  Please contact Helen Kemp in the shop (this month before she closes) or phone her on 584557 if you wish to be involved.

John Baker of Shipley College and some of his students have kindly tidied up the greenery on Caroline St square (Washhouse Square, Silver Square…..).  There is one large bushy plant which requires scaffolding to complete pruning.  In the New Year, the College will decide whether to undertake this, or to replace the plant with something more manageable.

We hope to look at the Constitution of SVS and present a revised version at the May 07 AGM, which will allow non-residents to become members.

If you wish to contact me as Acting Secretary of SVS, email evl2@tutor.open.ac.uk (That's my initials plus a 2, not ev plus a 12)

Best wishes to all from Eddie Lawler