Author: Emma Darbyshire

The Parish Council has received a complaint from a resident living close to the childrens playground regarding the noise level of the musical equipment and has requested that the equipment be removed. Before any such undertaking, the Parish Council must seek the views of other residents and users of this equipment. We would welcome your comments, in writing, on the removal or the retention of the musical equipment. Please contact the Clerk, Ben Stoehr, clerk@tpc.toft.org.uk before 28^th  June and/or make your views known at the following Parish Council meeting on 7th July. All are welcome to attend and join the discussion.

I am sorry to report that our 2024 bid to make Toft a village wide 20mph zone was unsuccessful. Cambridgeshire County Council Highways and Transportation Committee met in October to review 91 applications. From this, 8 schemes were successful in receiving the funding. Toft came 46^th in the ranking table. The Parish Council is now discussing options for a plan ‘B’, but we will at least resubmit the 20mph request in the current application window for Local Highways Improvement schemes, which closes on 10^th January 2025. Other ways of helping to reduce the average speed of vehicles travelling through Toft will be considered and discussed over forthcoming PC meetings. We very much welcome your ideas and opinions, so please do come to the meetings to have your say. If you are unavailable to come to a meeting in person, please email your views to the PC. Thank you.

In late Summer 2024 a fabulous new climbing frame was installed on the playground, which was funded by Toft Parish Council. This replaced an old and somewhat dilapidated climbing frame, which was no longer considered fit for purpose. We hope you like the new climbing frame and enjoy using it. Have fun!

The Parish Council recently purchased three new outdoor musical instruments for the playground, which have now been installed and are ready to be enjoyed. We invite you to go along to the playground and try these out! You will find a set of rainbow Samba drums of different sizes, a lovely shiny Babel drum that has eight notes in G major, and Harmony, an outdoor Xylophone based on a traditional Vietnamese folk-musical instrument called a T’rung. There are two mallets so you can play with both hands or with a friend. These are all easy and fun to play and sound amazing. Let’s make music!

We are pleased to now have a lovely new bench situated outside St Andrew’s Parish Church. This was purchased with a donation from a kind Toft resident. So, take time out of your walk, take a seat, and enjoy a moment watching the world go by.