Beckley & Area Community Benefit society Limited (BACBS)

aNNUAL MEMBERS’ MEETING

This year’s Beckley & Area Community Benefit Society Annual Members’ Meeting will be held virtually, by Zoom, on the evening of Wednesday 11th November. Please note the date. The time of the meeting and agenda will be confirmed in due course.

Call for new management committee members:

Three members of the BACBS Management Committee are standing down at the end of their elected terms in the autumn, and we are looking for new committee members. The committee number is not fixed but, in order to ensure a democratic society, we do not want to let numbers fall. The last few years have been busy with first of all the purchase of the pub, the recruiting of the first and then second tenants, establishment of the More than a Pub programme, the commissioning of the accessible toilet block, and latterly the Covid crisis. We are hoping that things will quieten down from now on! However, we do need to maintain our responsibilities as property owners and landlords, and our engagement with BACBS members and our wider community, so would benefit from recruiting someone with property management experience and someone with IT skills - although these are definitely not absolute requirements for anyone interested in joining the committee. In addition, we want to extend the diversity of the committee, to include more women and residents of other villages.

Please do consider standing for election to the committee. If you would like to find out more about its workings then please feel free to contact any of the current committee members. Contact can be made through personal approaches or info@bacbs.org. We hope to hear from you.

The three committee members coming to the end of their elected terms are the three current officers of the Society – Adrian Hampshire (Secretary), Gabriel Brodetsky (Treasurer) and Mike Hobbs (Chair). The new committee will appoint officers after the Annual Members’ Meeting. Gabriel has indicated that he will stand again for election to the committee. Adrian and Mike have confirmed that they will not stand in the forthcoming election.

Adrian writes …. “Having served the Society as Secretary through a very active phase of its development, I will complete my term of office in November and will hand over my responsibilities to other member(s) of the Committee. Whilst I leave the Committee, I will be happy to continue to help the Society and, through it, the community with the maintenance and development of the BACBS website, the production and distribution of the BACBS Newsletter, and the publication of the walking routes around our neighbourhood.”

Mike writes… “It’s five years since the initial moves were made to purchase The Abingdon Arms for the community by Georgina Mathews, Suzanne Aigrain, Tom Smith and me. BACBS was established in 2016 and I have served as Chair since then, formally elected to the Committee by members in 2017. These have been busy but productive and highly fulfilling years for me, the committee and the Society. It has been a privilege to be part of our vibrant community and this success. It is time now for someone else to take over as Chair and, with the committee and others, to lead the Society in their own way. Although I will step down from the Committee, I will continue to contribute actively to the Society and the wider community.”

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tHE aBINGDON aRMS

The Abingdon Arms is very much open again, serving meals and drinks every day with necessary distancing and hygiene measures in place. Alex has reintroduced his set-price menu, which offers great value at weekday lunchtimes and early evenings. Takeaways are also available lunchtimes and evenings. See opening times and menus at https://www.theabingdonarms.co.uk/menus.

In response to customer feedback, Alex has explained that he can create vegan and vegetarian dishes in addition to those on the menu if given an hour or more notice. He also confirmed that he will switch to eco-friendly takeaway containers when the present polystyrene supply (all that he could source at the beginning of lockdown) is finished.

As evidence of their commitment to our community and their business’s future, Alex, Suzy and Vicky are installing a pizza oven at The Abingdon Arms. All being well, pizzas will be available to eat at the pub and to take away from mid-September. An exciting and varied pizza menu is anticipated…….

Suzy, Alex and Vicky are working very hard to make up for the lean lockdown period, though they kept turnover ticking with their takeaway business. The Abingdon Arms benefits from the extensive outdoor area of terraces and garden, but (as we all know) outdoor eating is weather dependent. So Suzy, Alex and Vicky are looking at options for a covered area on the top terrace with the intention of accommodating customers who would prefer to eat ‘outside’, or who want a drink when all indoor tables are taken by diners.

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gRANTS TO bacbs

BACBS successfully applied for two grants which support community enterprises during the Covid crisis. The first is a small grant of approximately £1400 awarded by the Plunkett Foundation’s 'More than a Pub' programme to help community pubs during the crisis. The grant, passed to our tenants, was used for equipment and consumables such as take-away containers to support their swift and welcome transition to a takeaway business during lockdown.

The second grant was awarded to BACBS by Power to Change, the provider of a major grant which part-funded our construction of the accessible toilets. This Trading Income Support Scheme grant of approximately £6,250 enables us (1) to progress projects to support the community which were put on hold when we gave our tenants a rent holiday during lockdown, e.g. installation of a notice board and walking routes display board; and (2) to fund our innovative ‘even More than a Pub’ programme, e.g. with a Zoom subscription.

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gOOD nEIGHBOUR sCHEME

The BACBS Good Neighbour Scheme (GNS) is still up and running!

Now that the Covid lockdown is easing and people are able to get about a bit more, it is likely that lifts will be needed again to Islip Surgery, Headington roundabout etc, but please note that it will be up to the passenger to accept the risks inherent in travelling in close proximity to someone outside the passenger’s “bubble”. To request a lift either ring 07514 791910 (if there is no reply, please leave a message with your number and one of the drivers will call you back), or email BACBSgoodneighbour@gmail.com. Passengers are asked to pay a mileage charge (45p per mile, rounded to nearest 50p) to cover fuel expenses. The driver will wear a mask and car windows will be opened; and, unless there are medical reasons not to, passengers must wear masks too. Please do not ask for a lift if you have any symptoms suggestive of Covid infection, especially a new persistent cough, sore throat, loss of smell or taste, high temperature. We will check beforehand that both driver and passenger accept these conditions.

In addition, including for people who are quarantined, still shielding or without their own transport, we can deliver take-aways from The Abingdon Arms, prescriptions from Islip surgery, and items from the Stanton St John shop if required. The BACBS GNS serves residents of Beckley, Elsfield, Stanton St John and Forest Hill. Horton cum Studley, Noke and Woodeaton have their own car schemes.

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Even More than a Pub programme

Our innovative and successful programme of ‘virtual’ talks and poetry readings continues, and this month we resume our walks – with suitable precautions. Do join us!

Sunday 13th September, 6.30-7.30pm. Talk: Does sleep really "knit up the raveled sleave of care"? - Sleep and its disorders - John Stradling, Emeritus Professor of Respiratory Medicine, University of Oxford

Sunday 20th September, 2.30pm. A walk to inspire… - A 2 mile walk around Beckley, taking in points of historical, literary and social significance to inspire conversation and, perhaps, poetry.

Sunday 27th September, 6.30-7.30pm. Poetry reading: ”Going wonderways” - In the steps of John Keats: poems about walking - Next Step poetry group, Oxford. Participants are invited to read their own poem or a favourite poem by another poet on the broad theme of ‘walking’ or movement.

Future sessions include the following talks and poetry:

• How changes in oxygen levels led to a Nobel Prize in 2019 – Christopher Pugh (11th October)

• The ‘Inklings’ and Beckley: Barfield, C S Lewis, Tolkien – Owen Barfield (8th November)

• The Secret World of Codes and Ciphers – Roger Heath-Brown (13th December)

• A Dorset Year: the poetry and prose of William Barnes and Thomas Hardy – members of the William Barnes and Thomas Hardy Societies (10th January 2021)

• Poetry in the age of Coronavirus – Tara Stubbs (7th February)

For more information, access details, and the future Even More than a Pub programme, please see the BACBS website at https://bacbs.org/events.

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Local Walk Routes

To complement our highly successful small folding map, BACBS has produced a booklet of walks in the area which combines outline maps, route notes and points of interest. This handy booklet and the map can be carried on your walk, and are on sale at The Abingdon Arms and Stanton St John, Rectory Farm, Field View Farm and Islip shops. It’s time to get walking!

The walk routes are also available on the BACBS website at https://bacbs.org/local-information.

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