Well, it’s the school summer holidays and of course the weather has turned damp! This makes entertaining and stimulating youngsters more challenging, but always good fun. I always encourage my children to write a ‘holiday list’ of the activities they want to do over the holidays. I encourage the ones that are free or cost very little. Featured on their lists are activities such as paddling in the beautiful River Wyre or Brock Bottoms, using the great cycle paths that are around Lancashire and exploring our fabulous county using public transport. The children love riding on the top deck of a double decker bus, gaining great views into people’s colourful gardens and the countryside beyond.

However, we don’t need to travel too far to find colourful gardens. The damp weather has obviously been of great benefit to our green fingered Parishioners, with Kirkland looking beautiful. Well done to everyone who cares for their glorious gardens, for Tim Hoyles our hard working lengthsman for tending to our public areas and congratulations to the winners of our garden competitions. It is heart warming to see the amount of Council sunflowers towering above garden walls and turning their faces to nod at passers by. Judging will take place next month so keep up the good work!

Using our own legs to transport us, either by walking or cycling, for short journeys or using public transport for longer ones were features of our past, having been overtaken by cars (excuse the pun)! Transport needs to revert back to more sustainable methods and you can use the information provided on the following page to help you learn more about public transport from Kirkland. Read on to ride on!

As Parish Councillors, we work towards providing local services that local residents need and want. Please could you spend a few minutes completing the short questionnaire about the needs and wants of our young people, so that we can spend your precept in the way that you want it to be spent?

Many thanks

With kind regards

Catherine Towers

Chairman

There are plenty of ways you can easily access timetable information for bus and train services in Lancashire and beyond.

You can call Traveline on 0871 200 22 33 to receive personal journey planning from our Lancashire based call centre 8am-8pm 7 days a week (calls cost 10p a minute plus network extras).

If you prefer to plan your own journey online, visit www.traveline.info and use the online journey planner.

Copies of local bus timetables can be downloaded from the transport website www.transportforlancashire.com.

Lots of other useful information about bus services can be found on www.lancashire.gov.uk, A-Z,

B for buses.

With our bustxt service you can get the next bus times from any stop in Lancashire direct to your phone.

Simply text the bus stop code you want to leave from to 84268 – see the webpage for more details www.transportforlancashire.com/Bustxt

On the go? If you have mobile internet on your phone, you can also view the next bus times on your web browser, simply visit www.mytraveline.mobi from your mobile phone and follow the instructions.

For a longer journey outside the county, you can plan your journey at www.transportdirect.info or visit

www.nationalrail.co.uk for up to date rail timetable information and to buy train tickets.

It's never been easier to get public transport timetable information, and you can also pick up free copies of bus timetables or local bus maps from your local County Information Centre, library or interchange.

If you are interested in cutting your carbon footprint and would like to find out more about public transport, walking, cycling and car sharing visit Lancashire County Council's TravelWise website

The judging for this year's garden competition took place on the afternoon of Thursday 23rd July by Mr Eddie Topping, Chairman of Barton Grange Garden Centre.

Prizes were awarded in the following categories:

*  Best front garden...........WINNER...........Derek & Anita Southworth, 8 Vicarage Lane.

  ("The lawn was excellent and the planting of trees and various shrubs was very tastefully done") 

*  Best frontage  ............WINNER............  Brian Timlin & David Cardwell, 12 Church Street.

  ("Many containers well displayed with a good range of plants and a seat that adds to the scenery. An interesting sign as well! )

*  Best container display  ........WINNER...........The Punchbowl, Church Street.

  ("They are excellent containers with a good variety of plants and tastefully

planted " ) 

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