Hemyock

An 18-year-old student from Hemyock wowed judges at an annual beauty therapy contest in London a fortnight ago.  Amy Grimshaw won the Sterex Student of the Year Competition 2007 at the Roof Gardens Hotel in Kensington on June 13.

An artist from Hemyock has been selected from around 13,000 applicants to contribute to a prestigious art exhibition.  Mary Carter is displaying a traditional painting in the small Western Room at the Royal Academy of Arts 239th Summer Exhibition.

The Domesday Project 1986 was made to coincide with the 900th year anniversary of the original Domesday Book.  Many familiar local names occur in it.  Unfortunately Domesday 1986 was done on rapidly obsolete computer technology and was nearly lost forever.  It has now been put on the web here.  You will have to navigate within it to Hemyock yourself.

Having received the formal Planning Application for the proposed development of the Churchills Farm site, the Parish Council arranged and held an open meeting to discuss it. 

Hemyock Parish Council has given a grant of £300 to the Common Players a touring theatre company who will visit the village in October with their new production of Cider With Roadies. The Centre-piece of this project is a specially commissioned apple press from Sculptor Jon Rodney-Jones. The press is called Pomona and the group are taking it around Devon and Somerset this autumn giving communities an opportunity to press their spare apples. At the same time they will be entertained by live theatre.

Following a non-contested election at Hemyock when only 9 of the 10 seats were contested, the Parish Council asked for volunteers for co-option and was very pleased to receive 5 excellent written applications from villagers. All of these attended the recent meeting of the Parish Council and were invited to introduce themselves, following which a secret ballot was held. Local business woman and mother of two Leisha Clist came top and was invited to join the Council.

Controversy continues to surround planning application for a development in Hemyock which villagers believe will cause further sewage leaks and potential health issues. Frustrated residents of the Longmead estate, where sewage leaks have become a very real issue, attended the Parish Council Meeting and voiced their concerns that they are not being heard by the planning department or South West Water regarding the Churchills Farm plans. “The new development will significantly add to an existing problem which has yet to be addressed by the authorities” said resident Alec Smith.

Firefighters spent most of Tuesday at a timber company in Hemyock following a fire in the early morning.

Recorded crime in Hemyock has fallen by 31 per cent in the past year, councillors heard at the annual meeting of Hemyock Parish Council.  Reporting to the meeting, PC Purkiss congratulated the council on being the most community-focused in the Cullompton district.