Bruce Grainger

This poem found by Brenda Emmett—one of St. Marys’ long suffering organists may be sung to the tune AURALIA 76 76 D (The Church’s one foundation)

Discussions have also been held with Highway officers to push for solutions to traffic problems, such as Denholme Road, which have yet to

be dealt with following the Oxenhope Traffic Strategy. Some measures have been welcomed this year, such as the disabled parking space for the school, the change of priority at Moorhouse Lane/Mill Lane/Cross Lane, and the improved white lining at the mini roundabout.

A meeting with Parks and Cleansing officers led to agreement for the installation of dog litter bins in the Recreation Ground and Lowertown.The bins were bought by the Parish Council following their successful use on the Oxenhope Millennium Green. Discussions are taking place with the Cleansing Department about the future of public toilets in the village.

Legislation. The Parish Council have had to deal with a number of Government generated legislation items over the past few months:-

1.The adoption of a Model Code of Conduct. All councillors have to sign up to this, and have

to register any interest that would be likely to influence their decisions.

2. Financial Regulations. These set out stricter rules for the running of Parish Council finance.

3. Freedom of Information Act. This allows greater public access to the affairs of parish

councils.

Haworth Contact Point. This was opened in May to provide access to police and many other organisations for the benefit of Haworth and Oxenhope, and is run by volunteers from both villages. It has the support of both Parish Councils.

Oxenhope Village Hall and Recreation Ground Steering Committee. This was set up as a result of an initiative by the Parish Council to try and improve facilities for the various user groups. An independent committee was set up under the chairmanship of Dr. Shaun Brown to

set the ball rolling. Improvements have been made to the lower football pitch drainage from funding obtained through the Environmental Budget. A questionnaire about the future of these facilities was distributed in the Septembert Outreach and results have been evaluated, prior to calling a public meeting for the next stage.

Gullies. As a result of numerous complaints, and reluctance on the part of Bradford Council to deal with blocked gullies, parish councillors carried out a comprehensive survey of gullies once again. This identified blocked gullies and potential flooding / icing problems. The information is with Bradford Council for urgent action.

Changes on the Parish Council. We were sorry to receive resignations from Clifford Coates, John Hoggard, and Teresa Bolger earlier this year, but pleased to welcome Pauline Bedford, Matthew Waddington, and Beryl Willmott as replacements. These new councillors were co-opted, as no by-election was requested by the village.

Our Clerk, Lesley Airey, resigned in June to take the post of acting Town Clerk for the new Town Council of Keighley. We were pleased to welcome Elaine Pearson as our new Parish Clerk.

Contacting the Parish Council. Do please contact any of the councillors if you have matters which you would like to raise affecting the village. Names, addresses, telephone numbers or e-mail addresses of councillors are displayed on the Parish Council noticeboard near the Post Office.

Nikolaev is a ship building city standing on the river Ingul (once known as the Bug) near the Black Sea. It was still working, I was assured, although I neither saw nor heard any sign of heavy industry-even when we went down to the riverside and saw the yard gates. The city centre has wide streets lined with shops selling just about everything, although I never saw aluminium foil or clingfilm. It is very westernised, but we were warned not to touch anything in the shops, otherwise it would be assumed we were thieves. Capitalism has been embraced with enthusiasm, but paperwork is still communist. Bureaucracy reigns supreme!

Larysa’s apartment was in a red brick block in a shady street. Across the way was an area for drying washing and next to it a children’s playground with swings. A short walk away was a park where children could play and people walked after work. There were little kiosks where drinks could be brought.

At the bottom of the steps outside the entrance to each apartment was a seat where residents congregated to take the sun and gossip. The doors into the building were of steel. Inside, up a few more stone steps were steel doors to each of three apartments. Behind each of these, which were kept locked at all times, was an ordinary wooden door with the apartment number on it. All ground floor windows had ornamental iron bars for protection against thieves.

Inside, the largest room was a sitting/dining room which doubled as a bedroom when the table was moved and the settee converted. Off this room was another small room with a bed and a settee in it as well as cupboards and display units. Again the settee doubled as a bed. A third room had two single beds and a bed settee in it. (I was told that this was a large apartment and one of the neighbours had only one room for husband and wife and one child) There was also a tiny kitchen, bathroom and separate lavatory Water was heated by an ancient boiler which was lit when necessary. The water pressure was so poor that it took an hour and a half to barely fill the bath. When this was in operation, we were warned not to touch any other tap, as this could cause the boiler to blow. For cooking, the gas was turned on and off from the mains as required. I didn’t dare to ask why!

This seemed to be the norm for the average citizen. They expected nothing different and quietly got on with their lives as best they could.

Changing money could be a bit of a problem. The Ukrainian currency is the grivna further divided into 100 kapeks, and cannot be bought outside the country. There are about eight grivna to the pound. Banks are privately owned and not all banks change travellers’ cheques, so this can involve a considerable amount of walking until an obliging bank is found. The first one we used had one cashier attending to a customer, while two other employees sat at desks, one with a computer and the other writing in a large book, both surrounded by piles of paper. Eventually it was our turn and we went through the usual business of handing over passports and form filling, then we were led to another room and told to wait while the cashier disappeared through a door into an inner office. After a short time she reappeared and returned to her own office. A grim faced lady then beckoned us to the glass window, handed us our passports, receipts and money and demanded the next customer. On another occasion at a different bank, the one window was closed for lunch. At one bank when my son wanted to exchange travellers’ cheques, the cashier would not exchange the amount he wanted. She said it was too much paperwork.

As happens elsewhere, living is cheaper then in the capital, which is cheaper than in Britain, although electrical goods are about the same price as here.

Cafes abound with most of the seating outdoors, tables being shaded with large umbrellas if they are not under a tree. Service was almost always very pleasant, obliging and with a smile. The food was good and plentiful. Little street stalls abound and the large uncovered market was very like markets here, selling clothes, toys, foodstuffs etc. One kilo of potatoes, tomatoes, and cucumbers came to about 40p in total. On another occasion, party food for about 15 people came to £8. Without the freshly cooked chicken and the vodka the cost would have been halved. One lunch time we had between us a ham and cheese sandwich, a crab salad, ravioli, one tea, one Pepsi and two orange juices which came to £1.85.

At the party, as with any social occasion, there were lots of toasts. There is a strict order, starting with the guest of honour but, of course, after a little while this order gets forgotten. It is bad manners to lift your glass for filling, and after each drink you must drink water or fruit juice and take a little something to eat such as a piece of tomato or cucumber. Although quite a bit of alcohol was consumed—wine and beer as well as vodka—nobody got drunk. Anyone caught driving after even the tiniest drop of alcohol loses his licence.

People came, not just because they wanted to renew their friendships with Larysa, but to meet ‘the English’. One guest, Genady, was very interested in Britain, wanting to know all about the composition of the United Kingdom, the differences between England and Scotland, about the succession of the English monarchy, about the makeup of the Church of England eg churches, cathedrals, parishes, bishops and clergy. Although he had no English and the only Russian I had was one or two words I’d managed to pick up, we were able to converse with the aid of sign language and paper and pens for drawing diagrams. Genady’s wife, Leona, was appalled because our nine month old baby was still in nappies. She thought Jennifer should have been potty trained.

As in Kiev, the soil was very parched, one day in the city centre we watched a water bowser being driven around the flower beds, The driver was leaning out to the window while directing a hosepipe, which seemed to have little effect as the ground didn’t look any better after a very short time. The roses struggled against the odds to survive.

There was little for a visitor to do, other than look at the shops, walk down to the river and watch the boats, some of them private. So we decided to have a few days at the Black Sea for a bit of sea and sand, and booked to have five days there, with an optional sixth, in Kobleva, a town where the Soviet trade unions used to send their workers for summer holidays. Now these resorts are open to anyone but no one seems to have told them that attitudes have changed and the outside world has modernised.