The NHS Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) has announced that there will be no beds at the Ellen Badger hospital in Shipston.

Following a decision made at an ICB Board meeting on 19th March, the 35 community rehabilitation beds in South Warwickshire will be permanently located at two sites, Leamington Spa Hospital and Stratford Hospital – a continuation of current arrangements, which have been in place since works began at the Ellen Badger in January 2022.

This went against the very clear preference of the town and surrounding area. Responses to the six-week consultation process showed 82% in favour of having beds in three hospitals including Shipston’s Ellen Badger.

The ICB has recognised the need for a wider consideration of health services for rural communities and will now adopt a “whole system approach to engagement with communities, prioritising rural communities initially.”

The Beds for Badger organising committee has responded by saying: “We must now use this opportunity to get the focus on patient-centred care in our rural community.”

The ICB Board and NHS provider SWFT will now work in partnership to develop a full implementation plan. Read more about the Beds for Badger Campaign’s reaction on page 5 of the Shipston Forum.

Consultation is now ongoing on the emerging Local Plan for South Warwickshire that is being prepared jointly by Stratford-on-Avon and Warwick District Councils. The Local Plan sets out the strategic vision, objectives and spatial strategy for the South Warwickshire area as well as the planning policies that will determine the future location, scale, type and design of new development up to 2050.

It will, according to the online consultation document, ‘set out the overall strategy for the pattern, scale and design quality of places within South Warwickshire, and make sufficient provision for housing, employment, retail, leisure and other commercial development, along with infrastructure, community facilities, conservation and enhancement of the natural, built and historic environment and planning measures to address climate change mitigation and adaptation.’

A group called SOS! Save Our Shipston! has been set up and is encouraging as many people as possible to take part in the consultation. The group has set out more details, including the five main policies underpinning the plan, and how to respond, on page 8 of the March Forum. The deadline for responses is Friday 7th March.

Many years of development, habitat loss and persecution has resulted in the UK being one of the most nature-depleted countries on Earth. One in six species are threatened with extinction in Britain. Insects of all kinds, especially those which pollinate important food supplies such as bees, are in decline.

Changes in farming methods and recent climate change are the biggest causes of wildlife decline. So, what can we do about it in Shipston? How can you help?

Gardeners can help in several ways: by leaving a patch of garden to be a bit wild; letting grass grow a bit longer by mowing less often and allowing lawn weeds to flower (the much-abused dandelion and clover provide pollen for our bees and other insects). Try planting garden flowers that provide forage for a wide variety of pollinating insects eg foxglove, aster, nasturtium, and putting a shallow dish of water out for garden visitors such as birds, hedgehogs and many more. Please avoid using deadly chemical sprays!

Even if you don’t have a garden, tubs, hanging baskets and window boxes can still create homes for wildlife. Many flowering herbs are loved by pollinators – chives, sage, lavender; even cherry tomatoes will grow in a small container so you can have some home-grown food from a tub!

For more ideas have a look at the websites of organisations such as Buglife, RHS and the Wildlife Trusts.

Richard Emms, who has led the Stour Singers for half a century, has announced he will be retiring in May.

Starting with a small band of madrigal singers, he has grown the choir until it now performs with professional soloists and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire orchestra.

Here, Richard reflects on his decades leading this ‘unusually disciplined and expressive’ choir:

Where’s the choir? That was one of my first thoughts about Shipston when I settled here with my family 50 years ago. Shipston had – still has! – an excellent band, but there was no equivalent choir.

As Head of Music at Shipston Community School, as the High School was known then, I thought it right that I should address this lack, and so ran an evening class on madrigal singing. Great fortune: we had a perfectly - balanced mixed choir of 15 singers. The year after, I decided to work without fee; the choir snowballed and acquired its name, Stour Singers. During the first five years the choir was already attracting some very able singers and we reached the point where I thought: ‘We can tackle the big stuff.’ So after testing the ground with Vivaldi’s Gloria, we embarked on a performance of Haydn’s Creation, with orchestra and our own soloists....and the choir has never looked back. It had become, in effect, Shipston’s Choral Society.

Now, of course, we have professional soloists, most of whom appear on concert platforms and in opera houses across Europe, and we have a lively collaboration with the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire which provides our orchestra. The 40-odd years between have been something of an adventure with huge highs and the inevitable lows. Barry Draycott and Richard Jenkinson at different times rescued the choir when I was ill. And then there was the dreaded Covid: we had 83 members before, and 30 after! But I notice the choir recovers all the stronger after setbacks, and it now has about 50 very committed members and a really business-like committee who run it. The choir’s performance last Christmas was unusually disciplined and expressive for an amateur choir – you wouldn’t guess they had not been auditioned.

And: there have been for me unexpected discoveries. Yes, I have set in motion a group who come together to make music. But it’s not just the music, it’s the people. Of course, it’s the individual skills and personalities they bring to the choir, but singing in choirs lifts the spirits, fires the imagination, promotes health (for some it has been a life-saver), and brings people together to make new friends. When I look at the choir from the rostrum, I see a complicated knot of groups of friends. That, and their enthusiasm, is what makes them such a joy to work with.

My dream was that the choir should become an established part of Shipston’s music culture. It clearly can stand on its own feet. We have found my very promising successor, Alex Silverman: a man, young, and of considerable musical gifts and charisma. This year in May is a good time to retire and hand over the choir in good heart. Perhaps my dream may have come true?