Volunteering in the Village
Getting involved in a Village activity is a great way of making friends and adding to everyone’s enjoyment of village life.
The strong, close community and the events we can run in the village depends on a committed number of volunteers who can offer a variety of skills to meet any need.
Whether you have an occasional hour to spare or are looking for a more regular contribution, there are a huge range of opportunities to volunteer and share your skills to support existing activities in the village or propose new ones.
Just make contact with any of the groups below to register interest.
Parish Council (PC)
The PC has monthly evening meetings. Parish Councillor volunteers have responsibility for setting and allocating the budget that the village receives from your Council Tax. The meetings usually last for a couple of hours and are open to the public. To participate fully, Councillors are expected to review and comment on a number of documents that are circulated before the meetings. The PC members review all planning applications and comment where appropriate and deal with village concerns such as drainage of the facilities on the rec. Being a Councillor is a specific volunteer role with Councillors taking responsibility for a particular section of work that they feel drawn to. The PC would also welcome volunteers to work with a Councillor on their work area to ensure that any issues are reported timely and dealt with e.g. you might be out walking the dog and see something that requires attention. clerk@froyleparishcouncil.org.uk
Village Hall (VH)
The VH committee meets monthly in the evening. Committee members work to maintain the village hall, market the venue and take hire bookings, organise and and run a variety of events for the community (including the locally renowned Bonfire Night!) and generally ensure that sufficient funds are raised to maintain it. Volunteers may participate as a Committee member usually with a specific role that matches their skills and expertise or just offer to help with running an event. David Robertson darinfroyle@aol.com
Meeting Place
The village hall is open every Friday from 10-12 serving hot drinks and home made cakes for our community. Help is required on a rota basis for setup and serving refreshments and adhoc for baking cakes which can be dropped off / frozen at your convenience. Susie sjrinfroyle@gmail.com
Gardening Club
The gardening club holds monthly talks in the village hall and 3 produce shows per year. Help needed either on a regular basis on the organising team for events/ shows or on an ad hoc basis setting up tables / chairs and serving refreshments at the meetings. They are also looking for a Chairperson. info@froylegardeningclub.co.uk
Wildlife Club
The wildlife club holds monthly talks in the village hall and also looks after wildflower habitats on the rec and holds pond dipping sessions at the wildlife pond on Gid Lane in Upper Froyle. They need volunteers to help run the meetings and to help mow paths and pull weeds a few times per year to keep the wildflower meadows and pond in tiptop condition for the wildlife. www.froylewildlife.co.uk/ Barry Clark 0142023520
St Mary’s Church
The church holds various events and would welcome help with organising and running these as well as being on the rota for flower arranging, cleaning etc. There is also a bell ringing group that practices on a Friday evening and a choir gets together for special services, See www.benbinfro.co.uk or the Village magazine and website www.froyleparishcouncil.org.uk for more info and contact points.
Magazine
The village produces and distributes to all residents a printed and online magazine 10 times a year. Help is required to produce the magazine as part of the Editorial Committee by editing articles and put the magazine together using a laptop. Additionally volunteers would be welcome to help with distribution of the finished article to a pre-allocated number of households or to assist with selling advertising which helps pay for the printing of the magazine. froylemageditor@gmail.com
Speedwatch
Speedwatch information is here. If you are interested in helping to control the speed of traffic through the village, then volunteers are required to maintain Froyle’s fixed speed cameras and moveable speed indicator boards and would welcome help verifying data obtained from them each week or undertaking data analysis on a more ad hoc basis. There is also the possibility of restarting kerbside groups to monitor traffic speeds using a speed gun provided by the police. champersg@hotmail.com
Fete
Every Summer the village organises a fete. Help needed on the organising committee for a few meetings in the Spring, website, and ad hoc on the day for setup and packing up as well as volunteers to run stalls. www.froylefete.org.uk info@froylefete.org.uk
Open Gardens
Every Summer the village opens some of its gardens for charity. You can open your garden, or help with marshalling cars, plant stalls or tea and cake. www.froyleopengardens.org.uk info@froyleopengardens.org.uk
Tree Warden
Sue Lelliot is our tree warden, she needs occasional help planting trees and hedge plants, mainly during Autumn and Winter months. tree.warden@froyleparishcouncil.org.uk
The Binsted, Bentley and Froyle Care Group
This group helps with transport to all types of medical appointments. Volunteers are needed to pick up clients and take them to appointments. No regular commitment necessary, just accept any drives that you are able to do. We also need volunteers to man the phone and coordinate clients and drivers.
Gillian Pickering gillianp556@gmail.com or Ellen Saunders ellen.saunders57@gmail.com
Litter Picking
There is no organised litter picking as such but if you take a bag with you while you are out walking so that you can collect any litter that you see then that would be fantastic! If you’re interested in regularly clearing any particular area, please reach out to Jenny Gove so that she’s aware govejenny@gmail.com