Food waste recycling will be here soon.

On 2 May 2013 a new county councillor for Helmdon will be elected.

The candidates are Scott Collins (Lib Dem), who lives in Helmdon, Peter Conquest (UKIP), who lives in Towcester, Lucy Mills (Lab), who lives in Silverstone and Ian Morris (Con), who lives in Upper Boddington.

Helmdon will be in the Silverstone Division, which extends from Greens Norton in the east to the Boddingtons in the north. It is a far bigger area than Helmdon was previously in meaning that the new county councillor will have more than twenty villages to cover, rather than the present three. The move is a result of the county council shrinking from 73 councillors to 53.

Our present representative, Cllr Andrew Grant, is standing for election in the Towcester & Roade Division.

Full details of the election are available on the Northamptonshire County Council web site.

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The Blackpits Recycle Centre on the Welsh Lane is having a site open day for National Compost Week on Saturday 11 May 2013.

This will give local people a chance to see around the site and to take away samples of the compost produced.

And once again the Centre is making compost available to residents and will even deliver to the allotments by prior arrangement.

The Blackpits Monitoring Group works with the owners of the site, the Environment Agency, and SNC to minimise any impact the centre has on both the environment, and the villagers of Helmdon and Falcutt.

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Potential volunteers are shown the kit.

The news that Brackley Ambulance station will be retained, despite many others in Northamptonshire and the East Midlands being closed, is very good news for Helmdon.

The East Midlands Ambulance Service announced the closures at the end of March, but the Brackley station escaped the axe.

But Helmdon residents are not resting on their laurels because even if an ambulance was dispatched immediately from Brackley it would still take 12 minutes (according to Google Maps) to get to Helmdon - and that's assuming it doesn't have to wait at the red lights at the bridge! So that's where the Community First Responders could come in.

A small group of potential volunteers met with the South Northants coordinator of the Community First Responders scheme to find out what would be involved in setting up a group for Helmdon.

There was considerable interest and it looks like a group might get off the ground in the summer.

Community First Responders can choose whether to attend an incident or not, and their goal is simply to buy time until the ambulance arrives. They are equipped with emergency medical equipment, including an automatic defibrillator.

Even if the scheme saves one life in Helmdon it will have been worthwhile. If and when the scheme is established there will be full details on the web site. In the meantime, if you are interested in finding out about being a volunteer please contact Liz Hart, Parish Clerk, at parishcouncil@helmdon.com.

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