Parish Council Tues 5th at 7.30pm Village Hall Mobile Library Friday 8th at 2.40pm Phone Box Coffee Morning Sat 9th at 11am Village Hall Village Fête Sat 30th at 1pm-5pm Playground Village Barbecue Sat 30th 7pm Village Hall Tai Chi Wednesdays at 7pm Village Hall
Tuesday 5th August at 7.30pm in the Village Hall.
The present exceptional warm spell continues, although many plants in our gardens may need constant watering. Insects seem to have greatly Increased after the bleak cold summer of 2024. Butterflies, in particular, have been far more visible. The large Buddleia bush, left of the gate to the meadow, has been a good indicator. It has been laden with Peacocks, Red Admirals and even a few now-scarcer Small Tortoiseshells on some days.
The meadow's native grass area also has Gatekeepers, Meadow Browns, Ringlets and even Marbled Whites; I even have Speckled woods and Holly Blues established in my own garden. Many of us will have also seen The Humming-bird Hawk moths around clumps of Valerian; and by contrast the weak flight of many Scarlet Tigers - such an exotic and spectacular Moth with vivid colouration to warn birds that they are poisonous. Reports of Grass snakes and Slow worms too.
The birds to focus on around Gaydon are the highly acrobatic darting Swifts which often fill the upper altitudes in the evening with high-pitched screaming calls and will soon be nesting. There are also some House Martins but sadly no sign of Swallows this year. The Woodpigeons are building a nest in my Spindle tree with great diligence and I think my local Robins and wrens are doing the same, perhaps earlier, because they mob my cat - which had little interest in them - with loud alarm calls and aggressive swooping. Water in a shallow dish would be much apprecited by all species of birds, for puddles are few and far between at present!
Climate change is taking place without doubt, faster than anticipated. Crops are ripening much earlier and soil surfaces are hard with settlement cracks. We can expect some good crops of fruit this autumn: changing times indeed...
One pleasing aspect has been the return of large groups of our native Ladybird beetles, both 2-spot and 6-spot, and a lot of Hover flies. These are excellent pollinators and all mimic bees and wasps with banded abdomens. They are very numerous this year but Wasps and Hornets are still quite scarce. I think it may well be time to stop persecuting these beneficial insects and there us no need for these 'Vermin' controllers who may be the cause of their demise. Bernard Price
Your reminder that the Sundowner Fête is on Saturday 30th August!
All afternoon there will be Food by Bloon & Co. (Lisa) and a bar provided by The Malt Shovel. Circus Workshops for the children with games, stalls, ice creams, face painting, henna artist and a raffle with some great prizes!
And competitions!
1. Make a creature or ugly bug out of vegetables
2. Most impressive vegetable
3. Most peculiar/wonkiest vegetable
4. Best sponge cake
Keep an eye on the Gaydon Facebook group for more details.
Entry forms will be in the shop.
In the evening there will be a BBQ and Dance with a bar and live music in the Village Hall. Tickets for the evening are £7.50 which includes your first drink and are on sale in the pub and shop. Numbers are limited so get your tickets early! NB The Fête will be mostly cash only, particularly the afternoon.
Schedule:
In Gaydon Meadow: 13:00 Fête Opens 13:15 Live Music 14:00 Regency Dancers 14:45 Competition Results 15:00 to 15:45 Clarinet Quintet 16:15 More music 16:50 Raffle Results 17:00 Fête closes Later in the Village Hall: 19:00 Doors open 19:15 to 20:15 Live background music with "Echo and the Plush" 20:15 Live dance music with "Fire and Velvet" 23:00 Close
Volunteers
We still need some volunteers who can give an hour or so of their time for things such as setting up, manning stalls, clearing up etc. Please email gaydoneventscommittee@gmail.com if you can spare some time and please keep an eye on Facebook for calls for help.
Our August coffee morning will be on Saturday 9th at 11am with the usual attractions of Raffle, Books, Bric-à-brac and Refreshments. Coffee and tea and biscuits only 50p! Proceeds for Church funds.
The Mobile Library will call at the Telephone Box at 2.25pm for half an hour on Friday 8th August.
Sunday 3rd Young Driver Lessons Monday 4th Mellow Mondays Sunday 10th The Ultimate Gerrman Car Meet Tuesday 12th Gaydon Gathering Thursday 14th Summer Access Day Sunday 17th Aston Martin Celebrating Vantage Monday18th Mini Motorists Mondays Saturday 30th Rustival Information and tickets at www.britishmotormuseum.co.uk
The Tai Chi group meets every Monday and Wednesday evening at 7 o'clock in the Village Hall. Please text 07514 011406 so that we can look out for you. After a month, please donate a coin for the hire of the hall.
*Carers4Carers* - a peer support group for local family carers.
There is no August meeting at Kineton Village Hall. Please look out for details of our informal August get-together in our newsletter or get in touch. For more details or assistance with transport, contact Gillian or Lisa on 07947 893504, email kcarers4carers@gmail.com, or visit www.carers4carersonthefosse.org.uk.
Regular service or one-off. Collection and delivery. Non-smoking household. Please call Julia on 07543497171.
Gaydon Village Hall Committee need a cleaner for the Village Hall for 1 hour each week. The wage is £15 per hour. If you are interested in the job please contact Julie Rickman at the Old Bakehouse or on 640349.
“Location. Location. Location…?”
Last month the ‘Update’ generally focused on the re-submitted plans attempt to polish the unpolishable. Their latest - and hopefully last - version of what they want to do with our locality, certainly didn’t lack for visuals. Albeit with questionable accuracy. The mocked-up, ‘before and after’, photographs which exaggerate the horizontal perspective over the vertical suggests a landscape as least as level as an American prairie. It’s obviously intended to show how the development, ‘naturally’, blends in with its location as if it were some blossoming plant growing out of - and complementing - the natural environment. ‘Natural’ it is not.
Just as we were jolted out of what we assume to be ‘natural’ on the 14th July when the UK Met Office declared that from now on we are living with a ‘new normal’ regarding extremes of weather that includes the prospect of torrential downfalls. If the development happens, all we have to do is hope the extra rainfall disobeys gravity and doesn’t stream down our roads in increased volume (as calculated by Gaydon resident David Whiteley) owing to the higher ground being, effectively, sealed!
At the time of writing, during the past month, over 40+ people and organisations have added to the original 240+ objections submitted in 2023. Space constraints prevent a comprehensive summary of residents’ comments, so I’m listing just a few of the phrases which match the enormity of concern felt by Gaydon villagers:
“…irreversible damage to local wildlife and biodiversity…”
“…this development not in alignment with the Core Strategy CS22...”
“…no mention of air quality on top of existing pollution from the various, numerous sources (M.40, JLR/AML, Motor Heritage Centre and exponential growth in traffic owing to huge housing development.”
“…a diversionary and desperate attempt to ‘greenwash’ the development by tricking it out with cycle paths, footpaths, ponds and electrical chargers…”
“…material damage to the very nature of the village and removes a clear, green demarcation between it and the multiple commercial developments and motorway and dual carriageway roads in the immediate area…”
Other contributors pointed out that the land the other side of the dual- carriageway between Swallowfields and Castle Farm has been earmarked for possible development. Also, why hasn’t the land on the other side of M.40, from the village, been considered when it is pretty clear from its topography it poses no flooding, air pollution and 24/7 noise and light pollution threat to precisely no dwellings? (If we keep our present cordon sanitaire ‘green lung’!) The other major feature of CEG(Malta) Ltd’s re-submission is the suggestion that Aston Martin Lagonda (AML) are going to take up part – if not all – of the available buildings that would be created. CEG evidently believes that this is the ‘clincher’ to secure the development. It is not. Not if we consider the uncomfortable context to AML’s fortunes at the moment. It gives me no pleasure in shining what seems to be a less than positive light on our near-neighbour, but CEG are using them as a seemingly decisive bargaining chip so it’s difficult to avoid forensic scrutiny.
CEG are very bullish about their link with AML and they include a supporting letter from AML which outlines possibilities about their use of the site. A number of things stand out, but one of the most prominent is the idea that AML would want a more substantial degree of manufacturing taking place along with storage, distribution and office facilities. (n.b. We were told, originally, that the site would have little, if any manufacturing. More manufacturing would produce a qualitative leap in pollution of all kinds…) The question, though, which has to be asked: ‘Is AML in a position to take on the costs and service the debts which such a development would require?’ The investment advisors Hargreaves Lansdown (HL) do have some pretty sobering figures when it comes to the viability of the company – particularly in the current uncertain, world trading conditions.
To start with, to give credit where it’s due, AML have come a long way since ‘Astongate’ (No, not the main entrance to Villa Park…) when 5 or 6 years ago AML appeared to be the source of dubious information about the viability and future of electric vehicles. They are now fully committed to an electric future for their cars. However, some stark financial facts will act as a brake on future plans and investments. Investment-wise, £10,000 invested in 2023 is now worth £3,100. The company had a post-tax loss of £323.5 million in 2024 compared with £226.8 million in 2023. They have a debt-to-income ratio of 5.1 (i.e Their debt is 5 times greater than the yearly income to service it – a 2.1 ratio is regarded as risky (Yahoo Finance Reporter)).
While no one doubts the quality and reputation of their cars and their aspiration to be amongst the best in the luxury car market, world-wide sales have fallen back with current uncertainties. This year, sales to America, Europe and the Middle East are 9% down, Africa and the Pacific area sales are flat. Most telling of all, sales to China are 27% down. This is particularly significant because it’s believed that Trump’s ‘hokey-cokey’ economics with the massive uncertainty generated (tariffs ‘in’? tariffs ‘out’? shake it all about etc.) means that there is instability in markets in which China is the most dominant.
To accommodate to some of these sales challenges, AML have cut back on their original target of 10,000 cars per year to closer to 6,000, this year. If Trump were to be less fickle than he is; if there was peace in the Middle East; if China could have a coherent and steady trading relation with its largest customer (USA), then AML would be one of the indirect beneficiaries with sales for their - what is, after all - a niche, luxury product. But there’s the problem: there are too many ‘ifs’, ‘coulds’ and ‘maybes’ about the possibility of heavily-indebted AML obtaining the finance for what would be a big capital outlay while it is wrestling with its financial health.
Against this backdrop, the bullish presentation by CEG, promoting AML as the saviour of the development seems thin and insubstantial when measured against those cold, uncomfortable facts. (It’s worth noting, by the way, that the principal meeting between CEG and AML took place in the Spring of 2024. A lot has happened in the world since then.) Yes, as a respected local employer we want AML to survive and prosper, but a consolidation of its existing base with some extension into the adjacent, current JLR/AML land (Swallowfields?) looks to be a more pragmatic choice in the foreseeable future, while finances are so stretched.
Finally, Gaydon residents value this location. We have invested our lives here and have co-existed with enormous changes over the past 40 years. We are not asking a lot to be free from being hemmed in, unnecessarily, by this development. Perhaps it’s a different kind of ‘value’ and ‘investment’ that companies like CEG (Malta) Ltd are familiar with in their corporate life? Maybe that’s what the writer had in mind when he spoke about those who ‘Know the price of everything and the value of nothing’? Tony Hughes
The Committee would like to set up an on-line Bookings System for hiring the Village Hall. We are looking for a volunteer who could help us. Please email Julie on jr@riscos.org if you are interested.
Many people who need social care support take a direct payment so that they can employ their own personal assistant. There are direct payment support services available to help manage direct payment and Penderels Trust is a leading provider. A direct payment is a cash payment made directly to you so you can buy your own support rather than having it delivered to you by your local authority. The payment must be enough for you to buy services that meet your care needs and the money must be spent on services that meet those needs. Find out more: https://www.penderelstrust.org.uk/directpaymentsupport.php
3rd 9.30am Morning Prayer Gaydon 10.00am Holy Communion Burton Dassett 10th 9.30am Holy Communion Gaydon 10.00am Morning Service Northend 6.00pm Evening Worship Farnborough 17th 9.30am Morning Service Gaydon 10.00am Morning Prayer Northend 24th 9.30am Morning Service Gaydon 10.00am Morning Worship Northend 31st 10.30am Benefice Holy Communion at Burton Dassett
2003 3rd Sheila Carter Wolford 2002 6th Francis Whattham 2004 15th John Heath 1987 17th Annette Miles 1996 29th Stewart Kerr
If there is a special entry that you would like to see, let me know and I will try to make sure that the Book is open on that day. Julie Rickman
On Sunday 7 September at 10.30am at All Saints' Church, Burton Dassett, there will be a service of baptism and confirmation conducted by the Bishop, Sophie Jelley. If you would like to be confirmed or baptised, please email the Reverend Matthew Arnold for more information at mtr.arnold@googlemail.com
15th - Birthday of HRH Princess Anne, the Princess Royal.
If you have something to celebrate or commemorate, ring Siobhan on 07780 689582, and she will raise the flag for you, in return for a £5 contribution to Church funds.
Hello from your Village Shop! The summer months have been very hot with temperatures reaching above 30 degrees; this has somewhat increased our ice cream sales - so Thank You to those of you have supported us. Sadly, we see a fall in sales in the shop week on week. Please remember that we are a non-profit volunteer establishment and our prices are very much in line with local supermarkets - and you don't have to drive to us!
Our prices are often lower than other local shops, like the Garage, Kineton and Bishops Itchington.
If each household in Gaydon spent just £5 a week in the Village Shop, that would ensure its future.
The shop's 15th birthday in May was celebrated with a Volunteers' Lunch at the Malt Shovel. We thank those volunteers for all their support over the years in the past and in many years to come! SD