KEEPING LOWICK AND DISTRICT CONNECTED
LOWICK CONNECT is an initiative started before Christmas which now has members from Lowick, Bowsden and Fenwick. Here Jane Pannell describes its aims and how it intends to go forward,
The plan is to increase the sense of community withinour villages and between them, reducing the isolation and loneliness and making ours a friendly and welcoming place to visit and stay.
To do this, we’re planning
1. A directory that can be hand-delivered by a friendly face to newcomers to the area and which will be available in hard copy at key places within the area – church, shop, pubs, village halls. Accommodation providers might use the directory as part of their bedroom browser packs.
2. We‘re collecting information to support and offer help to people in our settlements who need it – on discharge from hospital, when unwell etc
3. And a current and potentially acute issue is that of weather.
As well as two visits to Lowick Parish Council meetings, we’ve been to Bowsden Parish Council and we’ll be visiting Kyloe Parish Council shortly. Its important that we cover the whole of the area as far as we can – all the outlying steadings and hamlets etc.
We need a phased approach – gathering and collating of information is no mean task! And new things keep coming up. And without the input of villagers and others, we’re sure to get something wrong! So, we’ll welcome ideas and suggestions from anyone from any of the three villages.
On the 16th January, we held an open meeting about the Snow Plan and a big thank you to Philip and Wendy Hanson who took fliers to every household in the three villages. Mark Mather explained the arrangements that are in place to clear snow and spread grit and where the priority routes are. He also explained the County Council’s offer of support for snow wardens who are registered with them – gloves, hats with torches, shovels and grit, hi-vis jackets etc. And Mark suggested approaches if there’s an emergency and someone needs an ambulance.
We’ve listings of people who can
a. Collect prescriptions from surgeries and the village shop
b. Cook a soup or stew for someone stuck without ability or resources for hot food
c. Visiting to make sure people are ok – clearly its best if neighbours can do this, but we do have people with DBS checks who are willing
d. Dog walking
e. Going shopping for people etc, using 4×4 vehicles
Please let us know if you’d like to be added to one of these lists.
Our next step is to hold a further meeting in February focussing on using the defibrillator and CPR – after all, how many of us know or can remember how to use these methods and kit? And we’ll make this another opportunity to gather information. Look out for posters in all the usual places.
And beyond that, we’ll be working on the directory and it’ll eventually be on each village’s web site and hard copies in obvious places.
We hope that in all this work, we continue to have your support?
Contact: Jane Pannell – jane.pannell51@btinternet.com
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