The Homefield area of Congresbury was unfortunately the victim of a number of thieves in the early morning of Wednesday 24th April 2024. Police were called to the area at 3.40am and did attend, but were unable to locate anyone. A number of vehicles were involved and police have been back in the area today to gather more information. Residents are being advised to ensure that vehicles are locked and gates etc are secured. If you have any information please contact 101 using the police incident number AS-20240424-0092.

Join the Congresbury Scouts in celebrating 60 years of continuous scouting in the village with a church parade, games and a tea party on Sunday 21st April at St Andrew’s Church and Glebe Field.

All Scout families, past and present, are welcome to join! There will be a small exhibition of their history, in the church, including that of the pre-war Scout group that operated from 1922. Do come and see if you can see a photograph of someone that you know, and tell them the history; they have a huge unlabeled archive!

Parade from 2pm, church from 2.15pm and the party will last until about 4.30pm!

Congresbury Scout Group will be celebrating 60 years of continuous scouting in the village with a Parade and Party on Sunday 21st April.  All ex members of the Scout group are invited to join us.  The Parade will start in Mill Leg at shortly after 14.00, arrive at St Andrew’s Church at 14.30, for a short traditional St George’s Day service, followed by games and a celebration tea party.  There will be a small exhibition of memorabilia in the Church or the Refectory, open most of the day.  For further information, or if you have memories to contribute, speak to Alex Ballard on 07894338995, or email cidercot.alex@gmail.com.

In the latest Congresbury Life edition there is a misprint re the opening times of the Community Café. The correct times are 9 am to 1 pm on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday mornings.

The fourth edition of Congresbury Life is has now been delivered. Anyone living at the fringes of the village who does not get one through the door, can subscribe to a PDF version by email. Contact congresburylife@gmail.com or pick one up from Congar’s Cafe in Broad Street.

Those who have kept a keen eye on the roadworks via OneNetwork will no doubt be aware that the Wood Hill junction is due for closure from 25th March. Signs up on Wood Hill show that this closure will be longer than is currently being shown on OneNetwork – indicating that it will be closed until 23rd August. The closure is part of North Somerset’s Bus Service Improvement Plan. This is just a warning to those who may not pass by that way every day!

The community café is raising money throughout March and April, to support St Andrew’s school’s Year 6 camp in May. It will be donating a minimum of £750.

On Friday 5 April the Police PCSOs will be at the cafe from 11am till 1pm if you want to have a chat or have your bike security marked.

Congresbury Singers “A Celebration of Classical Music” concert, Sat April 13 @ 7.30 @ St Andrews Church Congresbury – tickets £12 (inc refreshments) 

Tickets available from PO, Re-Store or on the door.

The Environment Agency drop in event in the Old School Rooms on 23^rd February brought good news for the village. The plans for the Green have been abandoned. No trees will be removed, the Green will stay its present size and construction will take just a month, not 18 as originally planned.  The Environment Agency will do some minor work along the rhyne and lower the river embankment in the field beyond the Green to improve drainage. They also promise to reinstate/repair the path from the car park to the Green after the work has been done this summer.

Congresbury Youth Partnership’s Code Club for young people aged 8 to 16 restarts after the half-term break on Monday 26th February.

The club runs every term-time Monday from 3.30 to 6pm at Congresbury Youth Club in the Riverside Car Park.   Please drop in at any time to any session to find out more, or to get one off help with coding or basic electronics projects.  First session is always free, after that we charge £1.50 per week to cover electricity costs.   Contact Alex@congsyp.org.uk for more details.

To mark Random Act of Kindness Week (11^th to 17^th February) and Congresbury’s legacy of once being crowned the kindest village in the UK, a house-builder is pledging to help the local community.

Bovis Homes, which is building homes locally at St Congar’s Place, enables staff to take two annual volunteering days and a team will be donating their time this year to serve the village.

Natasha Palmer, head of sales, said: “Congresbury was once dubbed the kindest village in the UK – after the community showed many acts of kindness – and we’d love to pledge our support to the village too.

“We will provide a team of volunteers to work in Congresbury for a day and members of the community can apply for their help, which could be anything from painting sheds, gardening, litter picking, cleaning etc.”

If you have a club, organisation, community building, school or charity that requires an extra pair of hands then you can apply for support by emailing kindcongresbury@bovishomes.co.uk before 8^th March with the following information:

• Contact details: your name, email address, telephone number
• Name of the community project and its address
• Details on what work is involved
• Any photos to support your application

Natasha added: “The volunteering day will take place this spring, once the applications have been assessed and we’ve ascertained which projects we are able to help with. Congresbury is a fantastic place to live with a thriving community and we’re pleased to honour its kindest village status and celebrate Random Act of Kindness Week. We’re looking forward to rolling up our sleeves and getting involved!”

A van was broken into whilst parked on Venus Street, Congresbury, at some point between the 31st January and the 4th of February. Returning to the Ford Transit in silver, it became apparent that the suspect had drilled a hole through the side door to gain entry, where inside it does not appear anything was stolen.

Any information, CCTV images, please contact the Police on 101 quoting reference number: 5224030242 stating NHW. Or call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Thank you for your support.

A garden shed was broken into between the 2nd and the 5th February in Bristol Road, Congresbury. The method of entry has not been disclosed, however once inside a purple tandem bicycle, lawn mower and strimmer were stolen from within.

Any information, CCTV images, please contact the Police on 101 quoting reference number: 5224030950 stating NHW. Or call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Thank you for your support.

Please see this previous post for advice on how to secure your sheds / garages.

A shed was broken into overnight on the 3rd February in Wood Hill, Congresbury. The suspect levered off the lock securing the shed door, where inside several chainsaws were stolen together with a hedge trimmer.

Any information, CCTV images, please contact the Police on 101 quoting reference number: 5224030117 stating NHW. Or call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Thank you for your support.

The Police has informed us that recently a resident in Somerset took a phone call from a man pretending to be a Detective Constable who falsely claimed their debit card was being used by someone else. He said they would hear a bleep and then should dial 999 – in reality the fraudster would hold open the phone line and would not be connected to police but instead would still be talking again with the fraudster or one of their accomplices.

Fortunately, they realised it was a scam and told the fraudster they would hang up and go to a local police station to report it – which we are grateful they did.

However, we are aware of other incidents recently in which people have received similar calls including from fraudsters claiming to work for the ‘Fraud Department’.

Earlier this month another Somerset resident was encouraged to check the legitimacy of an officer by calling 999 – again the phone line was held open, so they remained on the call with the fraudster and did not come through to our control room like they thought.

The victim was encouraged to withdraw thousands of pounds in cash from the bank to supposedly assist with a criminal investigation and was later asked to hand it to a courier who would take the bank notes away for analysis, after giving a pre-agreed password.

The courier attended the residents address in an estate car promising the money back within a few days, but when that date passed it became clear it had been a scam and reported what had happened.

What you should know:

“No police officer will ever ask you to hand over money, sensitive banking information or valuables to help with any criminal investigation.”

That is the message we want people to share with friends and family following several reports recently of fraudsters pretending to be police officers phoning potential victims.

Attachments:

• courier-fraud-information.pdf

Congresbury Youth Partnership’s Code Club for young people aged 8 to 16 starts the new term on Monday 8th Jan, and has spaces for a few new members.  The club runs every term-time Monday from 3.30 to 6pm at Congresbury Youth Club in the Riverside Car Park.   Please drop in at any time to any session to find out more, or to get one off help with coding or basic electronics projects.  First session is always free, after that we charge £1.50 per week to cover electricity costs.   Contact Alex@congsyp.org.uk for more details.