Sutton Bonington
CAMPUS. Sutton Bonington’s campus of Nottingham University continues to operate during the present coronavirus pandemic, but on a greatly reduced scale and in very different ways to normal.
There are still some on-site students, all being those unable to leave to go home usually because they are from overseas.
The University of Nottingham free hopper bus services continues to operate on a reduced service, running between the main University Park Campus and Jubilee, Sutton Bonington and King’s Meadow campuses, and the Royal Derby Hospital Centre.
The hopper buses now use a ‘tap-on’ system, so if you have your University card with you, passengers are asked tap the card reader machine next to the driver. If they don’t have a card, the driver will manually record the journey.
Staff and students travelling to Nottingham City Hospital are also able to travel free of charge on the Medilink and L12 services - simply show your University card.
The 901 service from University Park to Sutton Bonington is operating under a new timetable including connectivity to Kegworth, where there are large numbers of students using based.
At Sutton Bonington the Restaurant and laundry are still open for students unable to go home during the pandemic.
Most of the on-site buildings are closed although some do remain open for authorised members of staff. Critical staff who remain on campus must observe strict social distancing measures.
Specific accommodation sites are also open to students who are unable to return home.
NO PLAYSCHEME. The annual and very popular summer holiday playscheme at Sutton Bonington should have been taking place for the period ending on Friday this week.
Organisers apologised for not gong ahead with the annual activity, but were forced into their decision because of the coronavirus pandemic. Scores of youngsters normally attend the scheme each year at the Sutton Bonington Playing Fields and have been promised it will be back again next year.
WATER DEMAND. Residents in Sutton Bonington – as everywhere else – have been told by Severn Trent Water that they, like the whole of the UK, have found othemselves in unprecedented times with COVID-19 over the last few months.
In a statement they say that many are at still at home more and looking for ways to keep busy.
“Everyone’s cleaning the car or the patio more, and making their gardens look lovely, all of which uses a lot of water.
“It’s been quite rainy recently so the demand for water hasn’t been as high, but we were seeing water consumption increase by as much as 40% a few weeks ago when the weather was hotter.
“It meant that we were creating and pumping more treated water than ever before in our 30 year history to your taps.”
The company have launched a new high water use alert system for those hotter periods throughout the rest of the summer, aimed at saving water.
Say Severn Trent: “Our new alert system will text you to let you know when we see those high demand spikes again in your local community. We’ll turn up our treatment works to full capacity again but it takes us 12 hours to treat and pump water to your home.
“We’ll therefore also ask you to pull together as a community and temporarily stop using high usage water devices for short periods, which will help us make sure there are no low pressure problems for anyone.”
Residents are to be told they will be contacted by text to activate the alert and they will be sent a message to trigger the alert and it will ask you to temporarily stop using things like hoses, sprinklers, jet washers and paddling pools.
“Hoses and sprinklers use around 1,000 litres an hour Paddling pools hold 400 litres, roughly the same as three people’s average daily use Jet washers use over 2,000 litres per hour We hope not to have to put out alerts very often, but if everyone pulls together for just a few short days, we’ll to be able to prevent any issues throughout this unique summer.”
Everyone is being asked to update their contact details to get alerts If they already have an online account with us, you should log in and update your contact details to make sure we have the correct mobile number for you. If you haven’t previously registered, you can sign-up for an account and add your current contact details when you register, to help us make sure we’re able to send you the alert system text message.
GALLOPING GOURMET. A new date has been arranged for the popular Sutton Bonington Galloping Gourmet event, being September 19. Anyone wishing to sign up to be a host for the event or have any questions are invited to contact lizbudgen@gmail. com or richardshore6@gmail. com.
The event, in aid of Christian Aid, was originally planned for May this year but postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic
SCHOOL. Children from Sutton Bonington Primary School Year Six were invited back into school for the final week before the summer closing.
Said headmaster Lee Shilton ” The children who have been in school have impressed their bubble teachers with how they have adapted to the new approached that have been enforced upon us. We have been equally impressed with those children who have been working hard consistently to complete work at home that has been set by their teachers and parents.”
Over the final two weeks the Year R and Year 1 bubble teachers presented transition activities to help prepare children for the academic year ahead and Mr Shilton said it had been really useful for Miss Denly, Mrs Macklin and Mrs Armstrong to have an opportunity to get to know some of their children that they will be teaching next year and the fact they know their new teachers well already will, no doubt, give them confidence ahead of next year.
Plans for the final week of term saw Year 6 children come back into school from July 21 to July 2 where they split into two bubbles.
The headmaster said he was pleased that the vast majority of Year 6 children signed up for the sessions with staff having been busy preparing a fun three days for them. Some of the activities included discussions around transitioning to secondary school, a party including food prepared by the kitchen, a socially distanced leavers’ assembly where the achievement of each and every child was celebrated by their teachers, a talent show where the different bubbles will be able to watch each other, Assembly led by John Hebblethwaite, further visit by the Year 7 tutors from East Leake Academy , a bubble sports’ day, working on completing their year books, Bubble impossible jigsaw challenge!, chat and chill sessions with your bubble, Craft activities including ‘pebble art’ and sports and games.
The headmaster said that although there were be limitations in terms of what they could do as a whole group, the pupils did receive the send-off they deserved.
“They have been a brilliant year 6 group and they have made their teachers very proud throughout their time here,” adding he knew they had all been working on the pages to go in the school yearbooks - which were again produced and printed for the children to take home with them at the end of term.
“If you have photographs – and permission from anyone featured in them – which you are happy for us to keep please send them to me electronically at jan.eastair@ gmail.com or drop them through my door at 27, Moor Lane. It would be helpful if you would include details of where and who so they can be indexed for future reference.”
DEFIBRILLATOR. Currently without a defibrillator at all, a campaign by the Bunny Defibrillator Fund group has been so successful there are thoughts now of not one, or two but three being provided.
Former parish councillor Mrs Cath Brown and one of the fund organisers says excellent and exciting news from the Defibrillator Team is that they have now got sufficient funds to purchase
two defibrillators for the village and are going for more funds for a third.
“We would like to thank all those who have generously given and supported us but first we must say a special ‘ Thank You’ to the Bunny Men’s Institute who have donated enough money from a grant they have received for us to be able to purchase a second defibrillator
Mr Brown says they also want to make a mention Notts County Council Councillor Reg Adair ,who gave us a generous donation from his available funds.
In a message to the village, Mrs Brown says “This means we need your help to raise sufficient funds for a third defibrillator so that the whole village can have access to one of these valuable life saving machines.”
The Fund group says they started their cash raising efforts because they feel it is important for the village to have a defibrillator because they can and do save lives. She says national figures show that one in 1000 o the population suffers sudden cardiac arrests each year and 80 per cent of the out-of-hospital ones occur at home.