Derry Hill School Ranked Top in Wiltshire

Derry Hill School has been rated joint top in Wiltshire in the latest governement league tables, published today. The league sees Derry Hill tied for first with Ramsbury Primary School and Kington St Michael Primary School, with a Value Added Score of 102.6. According to the BBC:

"Schools are ranked on their "value added" measures, which give some guide to how their pupils' attainments have improved.
Scores above 100 show pupils made more progress than similar pupils nationally; scores below 100 indicate less progress. Nationally the range was 106 to 94.9 and the average was 100.2."

The school also achieved a 100% pass rate in Science, and 94% in both English and Maths.

After 10 years of fundraising a playground for preschool children has become a reality. The Project was started by former resident of Derry Hill David Ash, who returned to the Village to open the newly built playarea.



Ash started the scheme in 1994 by running the Boston Marathon and getting villagers to sponsor him. Throughout the building of the Lansdowne hall a plot of land was reserved for the playground, and following a final fundraising drive this year, the project has become a reality.

Bowood Estates makes a planning bid

On Saturday 27th November Bowood Estates held an exhibition of their plans for developing 'Redhill Phase V'- the area of land between the Lansdowne Hall and the A4.
The residents of the villages had been previously leafleted with the proposals and the exhibition showed large artist's impressions of the proposed development.



Attendance was brisk and one or two raised voices were heard during the day!

A lot of people were heard to remark about the Studley Cross Roads re-configuration. Most seemed to think it wouldn't work and could be even more dangerous than the existing setup. Some expressed the desire to see traffic lights at this dangerous part of the A4.

One point of contention was the style of the houses proposed. Some seemed to think that the houses looked out of character with others recently built - certainly in Petty Lane.
Another point raised was there were alley ways and cul-de-sacs which looked as though they could be ideal places for folk to get mugged!

It was also pointed out to me that the housing density is considerably higher than that of Petty Lane. The area of land is the same, Petty Lane has about 30 houses, the proposal 50.

On the other hand many people were favourably impressed by the proposed road calming measures in Church Road and the offers of help to various organisations in the Villages.

Lord Lansdowne and many others have been heard to say Redhill Phase V is inevitable, its only a question of time.

The planning application is thought to go in in January 2005. It will then be looked at at Parish Council and then by District Council. As it is on a 'Green field' site it goes against the District Council's planning policy so will be refused automatically by the council's officers. However the District Council's members could overturn this. Letters of support, or objection, can be lodged by you and me once the application is published.

Santa comes to town

A merry chuckling Santa talked to children at Derry Hill school at the Christmas Fete on Saturday. Some say that Santa had an Irish twang this year; maybe he had his summer holiday in the Emerald Isle!

A somewhat breathless Santa said that he had met and given gifts to over sixty children in the afternoon. By all accounts he was the most popular feature of the show. "Lovely to see you in Derry Hill" said a red-faced mum as she bustled away with her charges.



It's lovely to keep the old traditions going!

Derry Hill lads score

After months of campaigning local lads have achieved their aim of getting some 'proper' goal posts on Petty Acre.
About nine months ago the lads approached a local parish councillor for help to get the goal posts erected. They said that they we're being getting blamed for damaged fencing along the side of Petty Acre and if they could have posts in the middle of the area this was less likely to happen.
After talking to local residents, the local councillor brought the matter up at a Parish council meeting, with cerebral of the boys in attendance. The council agreed that the idea was a good one and to seek the views of the North Wilts District Council and Bowood Estates, both of whom have interests in Petty Acre. A favourable response was received and a licence drawn up. In the meantime the lads had not been idle! They went out and collected money by doing jobs such as washing cars. This money was to help pay for the gravel and cement for the goal post feet.
In due course, with the lads in attendance, the council voted to fund the posts.
There was a long wait for the posts to arrive, and eventually they did. The next bit was to measure out where the posts had to go according to the licence, then concrete the posts in.
Both posts are now erected and in use.



A testimony to the lads persistence and energy!

Studley Cross Roads Headline Talk

Civil engineer and Sustrans officer, Dr. Kim Littlewood, is briefing Calne Area Transport at their AGM on possible solutions to the dangerous Studley Cross Roads junction.
Kim spent some time observing the traffic and the cross roads this week and was horrified at a number of its aspects. In particular she was dismayed at the time motorists turning out of Derry Hill sometimes have to wait. She was suprised that the road is still rated as National Speed limit. Another aspect Kim picked up on was the barrier that the A4, with its fast moving traffic, has created to walkers and cyclists trying to access the cycle path

This and other transportation issues will be addressed by Kim at the AGM on Wednesday 27th October at Marden House. The meeting starts at 6.30pm with refreshments and the meeting proper starts at 7pm. Members of the public are welcome.

Highway robbery?

Plans put forward by the WCC to make the A4 safer between Chippenham and Derry Hill have been aired in the local press this week.
The 50MPH limit coming out of Pewsham is to be extended to roughly where the Saab garage is. The limit is then changed to 40MPH and is continued to just after the A4 junction with the A342 Devizes road, but also up the latter road beyond the Lansdowne Arms in Derry Hill as far as Loxwell Farm.

Below: A map showing the proposed changes, click on the image for a full sized version.

Testing of the New Derry Hill and Studley News System

This is the New Derry Hill and Studley News System, which will allow us to post news whenever it becomes avaliable in the villlages rather than the old, rather cumbersome system, which relied on us writing everything in HTML. The old system prevented frequent updated due to its time consuming nature, and also could only be edited by one person.

Under the new system, we can post messages onto an oline 'weblog', known as a 'blog', usually used as an online diary. This means increased flexibility, time saving and the ability for multiple users to post Village news.

Hopefully the new system will come online sometime in the next few days!!