Ovenden Initiative

St. Michael and All Angels Junior Wardens conduct speed tests in Shelf

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Heather Stout from the North & East Halifax Neighbourhoods team and Calderdale Council Community Warden, Ced Oakley arranged for the St. Michael and All Angels Primary School Junior Wardens to conduct speed tests on Halifax Road to see if drivers are sticking to the 30mph speed limit in the village.

Accompanied by Mrs Nalton from the school, 12 pupils took turns holding the speed gun to find out the travelling speeds of passing vehicles and although the group were at the roadside for 30 minutes, a total of 88 drivers had passed in that time.

The majority of those drivers were travelling either at or below the 30mph speed limit with an average speed of 27mph overall, but astonishingly, 25 drivers were above the 30mph speed limit with one driver recorded at a speed of 39mph.

20170123_134830The junior wardens were in plain sight of all drivers and gave a thumbs up to those who drove within the speed limit and a thumbs down to those who didn’t and with the majority being residents of shelf, the Junior Wardens were shocked to find drivers breaking the speed limit in their village.

All the Junior Wardens said they were going to go home and tell their parents and grandparents about the results and hope that drivers passing through Shelf will be more careful in future as a result of their speed tests.

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Clean up produces 10 bags of rubbish at Beechwood Park

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beechwood-park-clean-upA clean up of Beechwood Park  took place on the morning of Wednesday 12 October as partners from West Yorkshire Police, Calderdale Council and Ovenden Initiative were joined by local residents to tackle the issue.

Just one hour walking around the park with litter picks and bags at hand was enough time to produce a shocking 10 bags full of discarded litter & waste.

We would like to thank local residents who came along to help and took part in the much needed clean up.

Moorside Junior Wardens set to tackle issues for second year!

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junior-wardens-badgeThe Junior Warden scheme at Moorside Primary School is now into its second year and is once again set to tackle issues within the Ovenden community after the young people each received a badge to wear as they go about their duties within the community.

A question and answer session attended by MP Holly Lynch and Moorside Junior Wardens was held with Safer Cleaner Greener partners at Moorside School on Wednesday 21 September to look at the role of the officer and how they can/will work in partnership with the Junior Wardens. who also received a Badge.

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Karen Scanlon from the Ovenden Initiative said

“The Junior wardens are a team of children and young people dedicated to helping clean their environment and assist in trying to improve their communities.

The Wardens are very proud of the area they live in and it’s fantastic to see them wanting to make a difference for the benefit of their community at such a young age.”

The scheme began with an interview process as the new wardens were interviewed by Community Warden Ced Oakley, Karen Scanlon Ovenden Initiative and Police Community Support Officer Katie Leeman.

The wardens were asked questions such as why they wanted to become wardens and how they could help make a difference to the Ovenden Community.

A cheque for £500 from the Ward Forum Grant Scheme was also presented to the Friends of Moorside School Group to go towards the cost of a new play area for the school in 2018.

The Junior Wardens will attend and help facilitate tonight’s Ovenden Ward Forum at Moorside School so be sure to come along for your chance to look at the development of the new school for Moorside or to raise any issues or concerns you have to Ward Councillors, Police and other Partners.

Trinity Academy students get involved with Beechwood clean up

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Students and teachers from Trinity Academy joined local services for a clean up at Beechwood Park and its surrounding area’s on Wednesday 13 July 2016.

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After meeting for a quick briefing and team photo the students and teachers were split into groups and each was assigned a group leader from the services involved including Calderdale Council’s Safer Cleaner Greener Team, Calderdale Council Community Warden, West Yorkshire Police and staff from Ovenden Initiative.

20160713_110460Each group were given their own areas to cover before setting off with rubbish bags and litter picks to hand ready to tackle any litter along the way.

The clean up saw various items collected from crisp packets to cables and covered Beechwood Park, Beechwood Road, Grange Avenue, Brickfield Lane and Beechwood Avenue.

Although the rain started to fall at one point, it wasn’t enough to slow down the efforts of everyone who had collected a combined total of 26 bags of rubbish.

Thank you to all services for coming along to get involved and also the teachers and students from Trinity Academy who took time out to help out at the clean up.

Men United make memories to cherish at the Royal Armouries

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March the 4th was the day Calderdale was hit by snow and daily routines were disrupted, but for the Men United Group at Ovenden Park it meant disappointment that their planned trip to the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds had to be cancelled at the last minute.

Group on minibusThe trip finally went ahead on Wednesday 13 April after re planning and saw 11 regular group members get together at Halifax RUFC’s Ovenden Park Ground where they boarded a minibus provided by Community Transport Calderdale.

With laughter ringing out and the sun brightly shining, the group set off on their travels singing some of their favourite songs from the past including a Men United rendition of My Bonnie lies over the ocean led by Graham Smith which set the tone for a fantastic day out, marked with the groups ease of each other and their ready humour.

Group outside ArmouriesOn arrival the men gathered together in front of the Armouries for a group photograph before splitting from each other and venturing on inside.

Phil Marrion and Chriss FreemanWith an array of armour and weapons from various generations on display and the military backgrounds of some of the group members it was quite clear to see why the Royal Armouries was the place of choice for a day trip.

Graham Smith, Chair of HXRUFC and volunteer said:

“The venue was very impressive, packed with exhibits too great in numbers to be seen and considered in the allotted time but the armoury from the days of Henry VIII, the Civil War, the battles of Agincourt and Waterloo were very fascinating and a return is vital”

 

Ray and Tiger Hunt ExhibitRoy Hulme, Member of the Men United group, speaking of his experience said:

“The Hunting Gallery was absolutely brilliant with some unbelievably lifelike exhibits. My personal favourite was the ‘Tiger Hunt’ which captured all the action of a close encounter with my favourite animal and you can only imagine what kind of feelings you would have in that situation”

Bill Stafford, also a member of the Men United Group, described the day as “Intriguing” and pointed out that he specifically enjoyed the ‘wearing of armour and its full purpose’ demonstration.

The group gave off the overall impression that the trip was a real success considering the time spent there and with memories brought back for some or the learning of new things for others it is certainly a day that added one more memory to be cherished.

To end the day the group got back on the minibus and headed to Heeds Hall Hotel where they all sat down together and enjoyed an astounding meal, talked over the day’s events, shared stories, laughs and fond memories in great company… Simply perfect!

Meal at Heeds Hall Hotel

Moorside Junior Wardens clean up Beechwood Park

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Junior Wardens and Collected LitterThe first national anti-litter campaign took place in 1953, the year of the Queen’s coronation and ahead of the Queen’s 90th birthday on Thursday 21 April, the ‘Clean for the Queen’ campaign aims to inspire people to take action and enjoy a few hours together whilst litter picking to improve the state of the communities we live in.

Wednesday 13 April saw 9 Junior Wardens from Moorside Community School get out in the community once again and together with the Calderdale SCG Partnership with the weather on their side they helped clean up Beechwood Park which saw a lot of litter collected.

PCSO's Alice Cordingley and Katie LeemanSince the start of the campaign approximately 800 bags of litter have been collected, with the biggest successes coming from removing overhanging vegetation within terraced housing areas, and removing fly-tipping which approached 17 tonnes and was made up of mattresses, settees and builders’ rubble.

Services involved were Sam Ward and Paul Calvert from the Calderdale Safer Cleaner Greener Team, West Yorkshire Police PCSO’s  Alice Cordingley and Katie Leeman, Community Warden’s Ced Oakley and David Pickard as well as Karen Scanlon and Matthew Scott Thompson from Ovenden Initiative.

We need to talk about Beechwood Park…

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On a mild Saturday morning back in February 40 people came along to St Andrews Church on Beechwood Road to talk about current issues in their area. From the conversation a number of issues were raised about Beechwood Park and the surrounding streets, including:

  • Speeding traffic on Shay Lane, Beechwood Road, Watkinson Road
  • Parking around Moorside school
  • Litter and rubbish being dumped in the in the area, and people using the compost site at the park for general rubbish
  • Damaged footbridges in the park
  • A lack of dog poo bins
  • Poor street lighting on Beechwood Drive/Park car park
  • Suspected drug dealing in the Beechwood Drive car park

Fortunately it’s not all bad news because on Tuesday 29 March, 20 local residents attended a meeting to discuss forming a Friends of Beechwood Park group and taking matters into their own hands to keep Beechwood Park one of the nicest parks in Calderdale.

And Calderdale Council’s Safer Cleaner Greener Team have been out and removed the reported rubbish, PC Dave Illingworth has conducted a speed check on Beechwood Road and Tony King from the Ovenden Initiative spoke to Trinity Academy about their pupils dropping litter on the way to school.

As a result there are a number of events coming up over the next 6 months that you too can get involved in:

  • Wednesday 13 April, 10am – Park Clean-Up with Moorside School Junior Wardens
  • Saturday 23 April at 10am – Park Walkabout with the Friends of Beechwood Park
  • Tuesday 31 May at 6.30pm – Friends of Beechwood Park Meeting at St Andrews Church, Beechwood Road
  • Wednesday 13 July at 10am  – Park Clean-Up with Trinity Academy students
  • Wednesday 12 October at 10am – Park Clean-Up with Trinity Academy students

Anyone is welcome to join in these events. For clean-ups – litter pickers and bags will be provided but please remember to wear strong shoes and bring protective gloves.

In the meantime, please continue to report dumped rubbish, litter and dog fouling to Calderdale Council. You can do this online here, or ring the Customer First Contact Centre on 01422 288002

For suspected drug dealing please try to record any times/descriptions of vehicles/persons and ring the information through to West Yorkshire Police on 101.