A message from Phillip White, Garvald and Morham Community Council:

The Community Council is endeavouring to set up a Neighbourhood Watch in Garvald to include Garvald Grange, Garvald Mains, Nunraw Barns and Tanderlane Cottages.

In the next few days you should receive a leaflet through your letterbox inviting you to join the scheme. We would be pleased if you would complete and return the form to us.

We are at the early stages of deciding the best way to proceed with this project and how the scheme would be run, so we need your feedback. A Neighbourhood Watch should meet the needs of the community it serves. Our aim is to have a fully functioning Neighbourhood Watch for the area, coordinated in a way that best suits the community. We already have a community that cares and what we want to do is to make sure our village and its residents are looked after.

A local resident has suggested we explore the possibility of having a First Responders unit in Garvald/Morham, with portable defibrillators and trained medical emergency volunteers. This topic will be discussed at the next Community Council meeting in December.

There are First Responder teams in Dunbar and Stenton. Here’s a link with information about the project: http://www.scottishambulance.com/YourCommunity/responders.aspx.

We need your opinion:

• Please tell us if you think this would be a good idea.
• Also, let us know if you would be interested in receiving training to become a medical emergency volunteer.

To send your feedback, click here for the Contact Us form, or talk to Rufus Bellamy. Thank you!

House break-ins – Request for information

Over the past three months Police Scotland has recorded a number of break-ins to private houses in the East Lothian and Scottish Borders area, in particular in Berwickshire and also around Garvald and Stenton.

The houses typically targeted by the thieves are in quiet rural locations and the break-ins are taking place during the hours of daylight normally between 9am and 5pm on a weekday when the occupants are out at work. However, we can’t discount thieves also visiting these villages during the hours of darkness to commit these crimes.

Police Scotland are seeking your help asking our communities to please remain vigilant and report any suspicious activity to the Police on 101.

It is hard to define what is suspicious but often people will know when something is not quite right. It may be a vehicle parked in an unusual location or someone who doesn’t quite seem to fit or is not local, or someone seen walking or running in an area you would not expect them to be.

If you see anything that you think may help us in catching those responsible then we would encourage you to report your suspicions to the Police on 101.

Information Required:

Please note down the time, date and location you observed the vehicle/person(s), the make, model or car registration and a brief description of the person.

Don’t worry, you won’t be wasting our time. Your call may be the one that makes the difference. If in doubt call 101. If you require more information about crime prevention, please contact your local community beat officer, Ian Mackay (Community Inspector, Haddington/Dunbar/North Berwick).

For meeting to be held on Monday, 7th October
At 7pm, Garvald Village Hall

1. Attendance and Apologies
2. Minutes of Last Meeting
3. Matters Arising from Minutes
4. Councillors’ Report
5. Update from Kirstie Shearer, Council Liaison Rep
6. Update from Ian Smith, Broadband Rep
7. Update from Phillip White, Funding Rep
8. Update from Ian Middlemass, Treasurer
9. Local Planning Applications
10. Garvald and Morham Updates
11. Garvald Woodland Project
12. A.O.C.B.

Everyone Welcome

Scottish Woodlands’ fencing contractor was on site yesterday and has dismantled the section of fence required for to access the area to be felled. The stakes, net and wires etc. are stacked on site ready to be re-erected once work is complete.

Scottish Power will be on-site Monday/Tuesday next week and harvesting works will commence on Wednesday. It will take approximately 6-8 weeks to complete the work. The timber will not be extracted to roadside until almost the end of the harvesting. Please note that this wood will be sold to partially recover the cost of the operation and therefore should not be removed by members of the public.

The minutes for the August Meeting of the Garvald and Morham Community Council have now been approved and you can download them from the GMCC page. Among the issues discussed were the Crystal Rig funding allocations and the start date of the Garvald Woodland project.

A comment about the broken playpark gate was posted on the website last week. This was forwarded to the GMCC and Penny Short has contacted East Lothian Council (Landscape and Countryside department). They have ordered a new spring to replace the broken one and will install it as soon as it is delivered. In the meantime, please take extra care if you are supervising young children at the park.