Thursday 22 March 2012

Brookside - hundreds of items need homes!

We are shortly leaving the village and are clearing out our house.

We are placing things in front of the house (Croft House on Brookside near the village hall) which need homes so please help yourself. However, there is too much to fit out at the front of the house, and we would prefer not to support the newly saved recycling centre too much if others can make use!

There are currently demi johns, computer desks and chairs, an IKEA cupboard, wooden and metal shelving units, inspection lights, sheets of ply, a rocking chair, Wii and balance board, plant pots galore, bamboo canes, everything on http://buymythingsplease.tumblr.com/ , a piano, wheels and tyres, futon - the list is endless, or so it seems!

Most is free, some we are asking a small amount for to help Kizzy on her way. Please drop round if you want to help reuse, reduce, recycle. Thanks.

And a huge thank you to everyone who has made Warcop a fantastic place for the girls to grow up. We wish the new family who are moving into Croft House all the very best for the future.

P.S. Someone needs to help take on the village website now. Please contact myself or Julie. It is very, very simple and it would be great if someone could dedicate more time to it than we have been able to between day jobs, family and community work.

Thank you all.

Thursday 15 March 2012

Missing: black cat from Brookside

Has anyone seen Mrs Mog? She has gone walkabout this week. She's an all black rescue cat with a few white hairs on her chest, very friendly and not to be confused with Pepper who is equally black, bigger, fatter and not friendly! If you see her, please let me know at Croft House or bring her round. Thanks, Lindsey

Wednesday 22 February 2012

Insulating your home

Libby Bateman  & UECP have been encouraging everyone to insulate their homes and also as part of the Eden Insulate project in Warcop and the surrounding area in the last week or so, carrying out in depth surveys of properties.

So saw this on a Money saving website & thought it might be of interest  to everyone -


Big energy providers have 'Carbon Emission Reduction Targets'. They must pump money into making homes more efficient, especially for 'tough to reach' groups. If they miss targets, they get big fines. So they're desperately pushing cash out there. Why not take advantage?
  • free insulationEveryone's eligible for up to £300 of free installation. Cavity wall and loft insulation can slice £100s off annual energy bills. Right now, up to £300-worth is being doled out to anyone by energy companies - even if you're not their customer. Anyone can apply, but you do need a suitable property. See the Free Insulation guide for a full list.
  • Recommend someone elderly / on benefits - get £50 EACH. British Gas's now offering £50 if you refer an elderly person on pension credit, or anyone else on qualifying benefits, to get free insulation. Neither of you need to be British Gas customers, and you'll both get £50. See British Gas £50 referral info.
  • Free insulation PLUS 10,000 Tesco points if on certain benefits. Tesco's giving 10,000 (5,000 for loft + 5,000 for cavity wall) points to anyone getting insulation if they're on qualifying benefits. While 10,000 is worth £100 redeemed in store, it can be worth up to £400 on Tesco Rewards. Alternatively, Eon's offering anyone on qualifying benefits £100 cash for getting free insulation. Full details in Get paid for free insulation

Tuesday 14 February 2012

Warcop & Drybeck Oil Club



Warcop & Drybeck Heating Oil Club

Delivering within a 10 mile radius of CA16. 6

Want to make savings on your annual oil bills?  Then join Warcop & Drybeck Oil Club.

Find us on www.oil-club.co.uk  this website is free to use and there are no annual fees or lock-ins.

Want to register? Have any questions or queries? – contact:
www.oil-club.co.uk

‘together we can all save more’

Wednesday 1 February 2012

We could raise £9000 by end of March.....find out how

Cyberbarn needs just 30 minutes of your time. Whether you have ever used a computer or not, you can help us to make the most of a one-off opportunity to access a considerable sum of grant funding for Warcop and Sandford projects. But you MUST visit Cyberbarn before the end of March, and the sooner the better so we will know how many more people we need to persuade to come and enjoy our coffee and broadband before the deadline.

This is a funding pot that will NOT be repeated and if we miss the chance to access this money, it will be more fool us. All of us. All it needs is for as many residents of this parish as possible to drop in for a mere 30 minutes. Bring your own laptop if you would like, or your iPad or Kindle, and check your emails, download a few ebooks, or update your software whilst you are here.  

The catch? We are asking everyone to complete a simple Online Basics course, which takes around half an hour. That's all you need to do, and the courses are useful to anyone wanting to use the Internet more effectively. If you are an experienced computer user, please come and do the course anyway - you never know what you might learn, and bring a newbie so you can share your experience.

 We do ask for a small donation of at least £2/hour to cover the heat, light and keep the coffee machine topped up, but considering what your visit could release for this Parish, it is a small price to pay to help other projects in Warcop and Sandford get under way.

All ages and abilities welcome, as well as people from outside Warcop, Eden, Cumbria or even UK! We recently had a visitor from the Brecon Beacons who had driven all the way from Wales to visit Cyberbarn, and have also had visitors from as far afield as Texas, North Carolina, Italy and Bosnia in the last month alone due to our online publicity and widespread interest in the project.

We are happy to answer and hopefully solve any IT questions or problems you may have.

Please help as this is a considerable sum of money which could be used to very good effect in this Parish. It is almost equivalent to 2 year's parish precept and we have only 2 months to reach the target by getting as many people through the door as possible. Please tell others who may not read the blog and let's start Spring with a fab sum of money in the village coffers.

Tuesday 31 January 2012

Reports from meetings, events etc

Please do use this website to share reports from meetings, dates for upcoming events, news about village activities and committees, fund raising efforts and any other interesting snippets about Warcop life.

We would like to create a calendar of events so that the many people who are giving freely of their time and energy to make Warcop a thriving village are fully supported.  Please let us know of any dates, times, venue for any event during 2012 so this calendar can become a useful resource. Thanks.

Grants for Warcop

As we enter the new year, and despite the economic environment and cuts, there are many new grants available to this area and for projects which could be run here. However, in order to access these grants in a manner most likely to assist Warcop and Upper Eden projects, it is essential that the many committees and organisations are aware of who else in the area is applying so as not to jeopardise other applications. (We had a little communication problem with this for Village SOS when two Warcop projects applied but only one application could be accepted ....)

So, perhaps those looking to do projects in Warcop and the surrounding area could use this website to post intentions of grant applications or ideas about possible projects? This will prevent duplication, give an opportunity for projects to join up and/or work together, as well as having the additional benefit that more people will know and understand what is going on and may like to get involved in some of the projects in this village and Parish, as well as in the wider Upper Eden area.

To start the ball rolling, Cyberbarn is actively seeking further grant funding to cover revenue costs (wages), for crime prevention and CCTV equipment to sell to farms and properties in the area, for young people's activities including smartphone app development, digital entrepreneurship and start-ups, and for the 5-11 age group (currently being trialled with Appleby Nursery). We are also considering a possible relocation of  the Cyberbarn into the village to encourage more people to use it - open currently at Cote House Farm, Bleatarn, Monday, Wednesday and Friday 1-7pm (weather and volunteer availability permitting).

On this last proposal, Cyberbarn would welcome thoughts from the village about moving the Portakabin into the village - where? It would be ideal if the Cyberbarn could act as the home for the Village IT Suite until the new village hall is built, when the equipment could be transferred to the village hall to kickstart the cybercafe.  All thoughts on the pros and cons would be appreciated.

(If you are having problems leaving a comment on the blog, just open a Google account, which will also allow you to use Google docs, Gmail, Picasa, Google +, Google search, Youtube and the rest of Google's multiple services - all under one username and password.)