Rushden Town CouncilRushden Hall

Hall ParkRushdenNorthantsNN10 9NG

Telephone: 01933 316 216Fax: 01933 315 869

Email:clerk@rushdentowncouncil.gov.ukwww.rushdentowncouncil.gov.uk

Opening hoursMonday-Thursday 9 am to 5 pm

Friday - 9 am to 4.30 pmTOWN CLERK

Vivienne Prodger

STAFFPaul Wilcox

Amenities & Contracts SupervisorKerrie Bignell

Finance Officer Jemma ButlerNicola Gibson

AdministrationSean O’HaganSite Supervisor

Neil HartParks, Open Spaces & Buildings Officer

Michelle LewisCommunications & Economic Dev. Officer

Julie ThorneycroftTown Manager

Volume 13 Issue 2Produced by Rushden Town Council SUMMER 2020

RUSHDEN ‘matters’

@RushdenCouncil

For more information contact Rushden Town Council 01933 316 216www.rushdentowncouncil.gov.uk @RushdenCouncil

Summer finally arrived in Rushden and with businessesnow open, the annual floral displays have given thetown an added vibrancy and a spring ineveryone’s step, even more so when thesun is shining.

You may have spotted a fewnew residents dotted aroundthe town which is inrecognition of RushdenGarden Competitioncourtesy of the creativityof councillors and staff.

With the good weatherand time in lock down, weimagined that many wouldhave taken the opportunity toget a garden project of somekind on the go and have askedfor photos be be taken of ‘beforeand after’ and various otherclasses involving children as well.The competition runs until 1stSeptember and entries will be shortlisted by a panel of judges. The top ten photos in each class will go to a publicvote on Facebook @rushdencouncil. The winners of each class will receive a£50 voucher to be spent at West End DIY or Seasons Garden Centre,Burton Latimer so look out for the ten chosen photos to cast your vote.

Did you spot Worzel Gummidge and Aunt Sally in the HighStreet? The Mayor and his Deputy donned fancy dressto advertise the competition.

Flower Pot People, Scarecrows

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STOP PRESS

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Garden Competition

Front cover

New Emergency Community Fund

Page 2

The Importance of Exercise

Page 3

Pet Competition Winners

Page 4

SUPPORT LOCAL BUSINESSES. SHOP LOCAL.Check the website

for details and results

and Garden Competition

Town Manager’s Report Julie Thorneycroft

Update on Council ProjectsCllr. Sarah Peacock

Chairman of Policy & Resources Committee Throughout the COVID-19 lock-down period RushdenTown Council has endeavoured to support its localbusinesses – we are pleased we’ve been able to offersupport & guidance in the following ways:

� A dedicated COVID-19 Community Advice pageon the Rushden Town Council website signpostingthe community to local/national help and advice.

� Promotion of shops/services that were fortunate tobe able to remain open throughout lock-down plusgiving assistance to help other shops re-open.

� Assistance in understanding new advice/guidanceand offering business support where needed.

� Hand delivery of business guidance packs andmarketing material to help local shop keepersopen safely.Installation of hand sanitising stations throughoutthe town.

Communication with Rushden Lakes has been maintainedthroughout this difficult period and whilst I’m sorry to sayour Heritage Family Fun Day can no longer take place inits current format in September we plan to adapt the FunDay into a digital festival, more details available soon.

During these terrible times of the Covid-19 pandemic,Rushden Town Council has still managed to deliver itsstrategic obligations and more.

Terms of reference have been updated to acknowledgethe new Covid 19 legislation.

Since mid-March, Council business has beenconducted via Zoom and members have learned many newskills. Technology is amazing when it works.. It also poseschallenges to the Chairmen and Town Clerk to make surethe meetings are all conducted correctly and everyone hastheir say. Planning was one of the first virtual meetings held,and this was an interesting exercise for members who wereable to look at applications before the meeting as well asofficers projecting them on the night when queries arose.Since then all the Committees have met and in May theAnnual Town Meeting was held to receive reports on theCouncil’s Committees for the year 2019/2020. The AnnualAccounts for the year 2019/2020 have been finalised andpresented to Full Council.

The Council has been working with various partners tosupport the businesses and community with Covidinformation and support. We are still giving out shop frontgrants up to £750 and are about to launch a new CovidCommunity grant to help the smaller groups for up to £500.For details please visit the web site or Facebook page orcontact the office.

We are pleased to say that all 48 play areas and thepublic toilets are now open again with some restrictions withsupport from the community regarding hand sanitizing etc.All areas had to be checked and social distancing measuresapplied.

Litter is always an issue, but the message is, pleasetake it home when you can and help us to keep our publicareas clean and safe, especially used face masks etc.

Unfortunately, many of our projects have been put onhold but hopefully over the coming months we will be ableto start them up again and deliver our promises. The ManorPark and New Sports/ Community Hub are nearly ready tore-present for planning permission. This is a very excitingproject for the town.The disabled toilets however are the exception. The groundworks have progressed well whilst the area was quiet andbuilders will be appointed soon.During this period all the staff have been working either fromthe office or at home to keep continuity and delivery ofservices. Virtual contact has been organized andinformation posted out. I thank them for all their efforts atthis difficult time.

The beautiful flower displays are all around the townnow and I hope they give you some comfort as we allventure out once again into a strange environment.Take care and stay safe, your support is much appreciated

Sarah.

Rushden Town Council annually allocates a sum of moneyto help local organisations to support the local communityby way of Community Grants. However, because of Covid-19, we understand that many local charities andorganisations are now struggling to meet their day-to-dayrunning costs. In response to this, we are offeringemergency 'battle fund' grants to help local groups continuetheir invaluable work through these very difficult times.The one-off grants will be up to £500 per good cause. Theyare for bona fide charities and constituted organisations*Not for individuals*There is a simple application form and grants will bereleased as quickly as possible to ensure effective supportfor the applicants. Grants will be awarded on a 1st come,1st served basis.Note: Council grants are for Rushden basedgroups that operate for the benefit ofRushden residents.Please contact us on :info@rushdentowncouncil.gov.uk or call on01933 316216

Community GrantsCommunity grants awarded in 2020 :

(May) Rushden Historical Transport Society - £6,300(July) East Northants Child Contact Service - £1,000

New emergency Community Fund

Hi everybody,

My time as the Mayor of Rushden is sadly coming toan end. It has been a great honour and I have met a greatvariety of people on my travels. The last few months havebeen upsetting for us all, but this was something we couldnever have predicted. It has been amazing to see somany of you supporting our fantastic local businesses.

I still have my sky dive to look forward to inSeptember and I am in disbelief at the amount of money Ihave managed to raise for my charities, the TeenageCancer Trust and Rushden Mind.

We have a fantastic new Mayor in Cllr MelanieColeman, who will take over from me in September and Iwish her all the best in the future as I look forward tocontinuing as a local councillor supporting Rushden .

Please stay safe everyone and continue to supportlocal for our great town.

Best wishes from Cesare

News From the MayorCllr Cesare Marinaro

Many residents of the town took to their gardens anddoorsteps to commemorate and celebrate the end of warin Europe and mark 75 years since VE Day amid the currentlock-down.Rushden homes, shops and historic buildings were beautifully decorated in red, white and blue bunting,residents enjoyed cakes and scones and sang along toVera Lynn's - We'll Meet Again. Rushden Town Councildecorated the Cenotaph with bunting, the infamousRushden bikes were adorned with British flags, andLightning Lloyd created a very touching light displayprojecting onto the Cenotaph, St Mary's Church andRushden Station.

We are aware that many fitness and dance groups arenow using our parks, Spencer Park and Hall Park especially.Rushden Town Council fully understand the importancethat exercise brings to our physical and mental health andwe’d like to try and accommodate these groups/businessesthe best we can. However, if you are the organiser/businessowner of a fitness group or dance group and use or intendto use one of our parks, we must make you aware that it isa legal requirement that you gain our permission first. Wewould need to know what activities you intend on organisingwith details of the number of attendees you expect, thetimes and dates you would like to use the park, your riskassessment, Covid 19 compliance and copies of yourinsurance documents. We can then discuss the best optionssuited to your group that won’t clash with other groups, andwe can also advise you on our guidelines for specifics suchas noise control due to the parks being located in aresidential area.

‘Stay At Home’ VE Day Celebrations

The Importance of Exercise

Cllr Melanie Coleman made these comments about herown street's VE day experience: "Balham Close certainlydid their best to Celebrate VE Day, decorating houses,baking cakes and scones . The younger members doingchalk drawings, all whilst maintaining social distancing.We've even planned a street 'bake-off' when restrictions arelifted. A day to remember with new friendships made."

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COMMUNITY NEWS

Celebrating YOUR Big Occasion

Special Edition Newsletter - March 2020A special edition newsletter was produced and delivered in March covering 20 years in existence of Rushden TownCouncil and the many occasions documented. It has been brought to our notice that some residents did not receivetheirs. It can be viewed online at www.rushdentowncouncil.gov.uk

Do you know someone that'ssoon to be celebrating a 100thBirthday or even a Golden,Diamond or Platinum WeddingAnniversary? If so, Rushden TownCouncil would love to hear fromyou so that we can send ourcongratulations too.

Please email : info@rushdentowncouncil.gov.ukwith the following details of theperson/couple you wish to nominate;

• Type of Celebration (100th Birthday/ 50th, 60th, 65thor 70th Wedding Anniversary)

• Date of Birthday or Anniversary• Name/s of nominee/s• Address of nominee/s• A Contact Number

Bark in the Park

CONGRATULATIONS toeveryone at Osborne Sports &Toys - one of Rushden’s mostenduring and best loved localbusinesses - on achieving thislandmark anniversary.

In 2018 Osborne Sports &Toys shop in the High Street waschosen by Lego as the only placein the UK to commemorate its 60th

Anniversary (how could we forget that!). The whole of theshop front was decked in Lego. This came about becausefounder, Jim Osborne, was the first person in this countryto place an order to stock Lego.

Sadly Jim was not alive to see this, but his wife Pam,and son Will, have continued the business and it stilldelights children and adults.

To commemorate their anniversary, Osborne’s Sportsand Toy Shop produced two special jigsaw puzzles whichwent on sale from 31 July 2020, the start of their Celebrationweek. A donation from each jigsaw sold goes to RushdenMuseum.

“Best wishes to Osborne Sports & Toys. May youcontinue to bring joy to us all for many more years tocome.”

Thank you to everybody who entered our first onlinecompetition. We had 100’s of entries and it made our jobextremely difficult to pick the finalists.We would also like to say a massive thank you to everyonewho took the time out to vote/share their favourites.14 photos made it through to the final and in our eyes eachand every one of them was a winner.

But there can of course only be one overall winner andwith a staggering 1300+ votes that winner is Rolo (thoseeyes     ).

Our runner up was Coco the Rabbit with 897 votes,what a fabulous cutie she is, who could not love that face.Well done to the two of you.

Our second runner up was Charlie with 267 votes whoclearly was having a wonderful time at the beach. Well doneCharlie.

Once again thank you to everyone who took part in thecompetition. Please continue to follow our face book pagefor future online competitions.

Congratulations

Lock-down Memories with your Pets - Competition

Rolo

Coco

Charlie

Events Dates for 20215-13 June Celebrate Rushden

6 June Soap Box Derby13 June ‘Swing’s the Thing’

Big Band entertainment in the WalledGarden celebrating 21st Anniversary of

Rushden Town Council.10 July Party in the Park

8 Aug Music in the Walled Garden4 Sept Proms in the Park

5 Sept ‘Bark in the Park’ Dog Show27 Nov Lights’ Switch-On

The Christmas Lights’ Switch-On 2020 scheduled forSaturday 28 November sees the return of ‘Titan the Robot’subject to Covid restrictions.