By popular demand after last year‟s very successful sell-out event, Attleborough Heritage Group is holding another Cyder Evening as part of the Attleborough Festival weekend. As so many people were disappointed not to obtain tickets last year we are moving to a larger venue. The event will be at The Connaught Hall, Attleborough on Saturday 18 September 2010 from 7.00 for 7.30 pm and will begin with an illustrated talk, followed by refreshments and the opportunity to get together to see cyder making techniques and other displays. There will be plenty of chances to reminisce about the past when Attleborough was a major national cyder- producing town. Tickets and further information are available from the Heritage Centre, Attleborough, Tel 01953 455877 or 455553 or from Roy Woods 01953 452750

In 1969, as a 16 year old Staff Cadet at 611 Gliding School, David Ladley had his first encounter with a Slingsby Prefect glider, which at the time was considered the ultimate flying experience for cadets. He continued to fly the

same machine until leaving the Air Training Corps in 1971. Mr Ladley‟s

flying continued unabated and when the RAF decided to sell the machine in 1979, David and fellow ex-cadet David Dunwell clubbed together to

They flew it from RAF Swanton Morley with the Norwich Soaring Group until that group disbanded in 1983, and it was flown for the last time on the 31st July 1983. The

Prefect was then put into a trailer and stored at the Ladley family home until, in 2005, Mr Ladley and his son Matthew determined to restore the machine to flying order. No small undertaking, given

A change in approach to the way Breckland Council considers planning applications for housing, may mean Councillors are, in effect, powerless to control the pattern of development in our towns and villages in the near future. The change has been forced upon Breckland Council by the Government‟s attempts to give more power to local communities to control the scale and shape of development and may lead to locally unpopular developments such as the recent application for 91 properties in Watton by Hopkins Homes being granted planning permission.

The site in question is outside the defined development boundary and has met with some considerable local

opposition. The one hope that affected residents had was that the site was not earmarked for development, but Breckland may yet find themselves forced to grant planning permission because of the current situation.

top-down (Government led) Regional Spatial Strategies (RSS) to a more local and sustainable development policy which allows local communities and councils more control over local plans.

Under the RSS, Local Planning Authorities are required to provide a supply of sites that are „available, suitable and achievable‟ for housing developments over the next five years

In 2009 he and his son, also a skilled glider pilot in his own right, began work in earnest, stripping the machine to its component parts under

the supervision of engineer Mike Simms, and with the valuable help of other members of Shipdham Flying Club.

before laboriously reassembling it to a condition that is as good as, if not better than, new.

And on the 11th July, just 15 days short of the 41st anniversary of his first flight in the glider, David Ladley piloted the machine back to the skies from Shipdham Airfield.

“I was probably more nervous than the first time I flew her” said Mr Ladley “but it was wonderful to just to sit in there in the open air. So many memories came flooding back.” “I am so grateful to everyone at the 8 Ball Gliding group at Shipdham airfield, but especially so to Mike Simms for his skills, knowledge and guidance, and also to Paul Baldwin and Jerry Berringer for all their help.” The great moment was watched by the entire Ladley family, David Dunwell and his son James, plus

club members. Reflecting the views of the family, Dave‟s wife Janet said “It was wonderful! As a family we have all lived and breathed the restoration these past years, it has occupied every spare minute of their time I have no idea what they will do next.”

The 8 Ball Gliding Group operates as a part of the Shipdham Flying Club and fly a wide selection of vintage and modern gliders in a friendly and comfortable environment. The flying club is privileged to operate from Shipdham Airfield, a former World War 2 base owned by Mrs E Paterson.

The airfield was home to the USAAF 44th Bomb Group, the “Flying 8 Balls”, which operated Liberator

bombing missions over Europe. Their first combat mission was flown on November 7, 1942 and was the first of 344 missions flown against the Axis powers in WW II. Over 8400 individual combat sorties were flown by the 44th during which 850 brave young men lost their lives. Their sacrifice is commemorated with a Memorial at the Club and also with a museum there dedicated to their memory.

If you would like to experience the thrill of gliding at Shipdham, or buy a voucher to give as a gift to someone you think would enjoy it,

then contact the Membership Secretary, on sfcmembership@btinternet.com

on 07713880689 or telephone the Club on 01362 820 709 at the weekends.

Len Raven was the guest speaker at the June meeting, his subject was Helicopter Operations in Malaya. This was based on his own experiences, and was very well illustrated with a wide variety of photographs

between Commonwealth armed forces and the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA), the military arm of the Malayan Communist Party, from 1948 to 1960. During the campaign RAF helicopters operated in support of the ground Forces, moving troops, ferrying supplies and carrying out medical evacuation. At the start of the Emergency, the British had a total of 13 infantry battalions in Malaya, including seven partly-formed Gurkha battalions, three British battalions, two battalions of the Royal Malay Regiment and a British Royal Artillery Regiment being utilised as infantry. This force was too small to effectively meet the threat of the "communist terrorists" or "bandits", and more infantry battalions were needed in Malaya. The British brought in soldiers from units such as the Royal Marines, Australian forces and King's African Rifles. Another effort was a re- formation of the Special Air Service in 1950 as a specialised reconnaissance, raiding and counter-insurgency unit

The society will next meet in September. Guests and new members welcomed, for more details, phone: 01842 879210 or 01953 882246

Saturdays 10am to 11.30- Come and have a
coffee, tea or maybe a scone and most
importantly a chat.

Following the amazing success of last year‟s charity event Orphanage supporters Ann and Terry Mahoney have decided to

put a Western slant on the proceedings by staging a “Texas Barbeque

the 4th September at Carbrooke Village Hall from 7pm until late, and will include Wild Bull Riding; Line Dancing; Wild West Trivia Quiz and Prize Raffle; Dancing the night away to . . . Country and Western

The £10 admission charge includes a Texas style Chilli and Jacket Potato served with Anne‟s special Barbequed Spare

executive director of the Humanitarian Concern Centre in Kathmandu Nepal, has with the continued support of friends, business colleagues and

comedian Frank Carson raised enough money to pay for rent and school uniforms for the 28 children at the orphanage and enough money to provide them with a healthy balanced diet for the year

Whilst in Nepal last October, Terry managed to negotiate a 5 year rental agreement with the Orphanage landlord. This will be the first time the children have been able to live anywhere longer than 12 months. The new home has solar water heating and 3 bathrooms. Rather different to the last one which had one bathroom between all 28 of them, no windows and an open 4 storey concrete staircase

Terry says “All these children need in their lives is some sort of stability, what has been achieved to date is living proof as to what a relatively small amount of money in our terms can do for those who literally have nothing”

All monies received will go directly to the Orphanage. Please come and help support these children…we are sure you‟ll all have a mighty fine time! For further information please feel free to contact Terry at

Pictured is Shristi Pariyar and some of the younger children at the orphanage. Shristi is 18 years old and has studied hard all the way through school. Her hard work was rewarded with a scholarship and she is now studying to become an accountant. As the oldest girl the other kids all look up to her,

(the five-year land supply) to meet their RSS quota. However the land supply is often bigger than the Local Planning Authority wished to allocate due to the need to meet central targets

Uncertainty remains after the recent announcement abolishing the Regional Strategies as it did not abolish the five- year supply requirement. This could mean that planning authorities aren‟t able to prevent developments on land that they were reluctant to put forward originally

the Government‟s commitment to foster more local support on developments.

Control Committee on the 2nd August, councillors are told that “Breckland is short of demonstrating a 5 year deliverable supply of housing. [. . .] To help remedy the situation Breckland will consider applications for housing favourably in line with the policies set out in Paragraphs 71 and 69 and the other policies in Planning Policy Statement 3.”

The report then goes on to say “In order to consider applications for housing favourably [as above] it may be necessary to make a departure from the current development plan . . .”

This change, in effect, removes the ability to ensure that development takes place in accordance with the current and future Local Development Framework, which has been the subject of so much work in the past few years. More worryingly for residents living near open land, the report goes on to suggest that if developers can show that their proposal is available, suitable and achievable within the next five years, and does not transgress any national policies then developments

settlement boundary may well be considered favourably.

This is the case with the proposed development in Watton and residents both there and near the remaining green areas of the old RAF Watton site and elsewhere in the town are deeply concerned that they may have unwelcome developments built, quite literally, up the their garden fences.

According to Breckland‟s own figures in the report, our area will be short of the five year target by 2,475 dwellings and this has prompted fears locally of a “developer‟s gold rush” as they seek to gain planning permission on land previously excluded, resulting in hundreds, possibly thousands, more homes in our towns and villages.

Mid Norfolk MP, George Freeman, has written to Eric Pickles, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, expressing his concern that if left unaddressed, this issue could allow some property developers to get around the Government‟s policy of empowering local communities, and push through unpopular and unwanted developments

local communities control over what is developed on their doorstep in very welcome. However I am concerned that without a clarification, the legislation may unwittingly create a Trojan horse. The top-down demands of the RSS may continue in ghost form unless there is clear guidance.”

“Wymondham and Attleborough are perfect examples of a problem we see across our region; whose character is threatened by unrealistic commitments to develop large housing estates. These estates are too often unpopular locally,

sufficient investment in local infrastructure and forced on local communities.”

“I share the concerns of many of our local councillors that this may be a loophole, and I‟ve asked the Secretary of State to clarify the position urgently”.

The Mid-Norfolk Times approached Breckland Council Leader, Mr William Nunn, for a comment on Mr Freeman‟s letter and the land situation in Watton in particular, but he was unavailable for comment on this matter. However a report by the Interim Chief Executive on this subject, to the same meeting says that the wards most likely to be affected

are Attleborough, Dereham, Swaffham, Thetford,

Harling, Narborough, Shipdham and Swanton Morley” and it goes on to say:

“In the financial year (2009-10) Breckland only delivered 528 new dwellings. Currently, Breckland only has a 1.93 year supply of land, making the District unable to demonstrate a five year supply of land. Breckland has a high housing delivery target,and it is likely that large,

Italics). In future years the adoption of the Site Specific Policies and Proposals Document, the Thetford Area Action Plan and the Attleborough and Snetterton Heath Area Action Plan, will mean that Breckland will be able to demonstrate a five year supply of land.

“Whilst the District does not have a five year supply of land, PPS3 states at paragraph 71, that they should look favourably upon planning applications for housing in areas within the Core Strategies Spatial Vision. In Breckland this refers to the five market towns and four Local Service Centres which received a positive housing allocation. Additionally, paragraph 69 of PPS3 sets out criteria controlling the quality and sustainability of housing development which is predicated in the five year supply case.”