At its November meeting, the Council welcomed John Ioannou as the new Parish Clerk.
  Dent Car Park Residents' Permits
Residents' free parking permits, which will replace the Yorkshire Dales permits from 1^st January 2007, will be available from 9am to 12 noon on the following dates in the Reading Room (please use the side entrance next to John Cooke's studio):
Tuesday 5 December, Friday 8 December, Wednesday 3 January, Friday 5 January, Tuesday 9 January & Friday 12 January
  If you are a permanent resident of Dent Parish you will qualify for a permit for each private vehicle, as will employees of businesses and organisations based in Dent.  When you collect your permit, you will be asked for your address and the make and registration number of your vehicle(s).  Please note that YDNPA Car Parking permits and Sedbergh Car Parking permits will not be valid in Dent after January 1st.
  Annual permits for commercial vehicles for 2007 can be obtained from the Parish Clerk on payment of the £60 fee.
Grants
  Each year the Council gives out money in grants to local organisations, and this year there is £3,000 in the budget for this.  There have been notices in the village and elsewhere inviting applications, and we hope to allocate at least some grants at our next meeting on December 4th.  If you would like to apply for a grant but have not yet done so, please contact the Parish Clerk.
  In addition, Cumbria County Council has a small pot of money for projects locally and the Parish Clerk has more details of this as well.
Map of Local Businesses
  We are currently designing a map for the outside of the bus shelter to show visitors to Dentdale the location of local businesses and places of interest.  We have already spoken to most of the local businesses about this, but if you would like your business included and we haven't approached you please contact the Parish Clerk as soon as possible.
Dent Notice Board
  Now that the window of Mill Hill school is no longer available as a notice board for Dent, we are trying to find an alternative site.   This is not as easy as it might seem - most suitable sites are on private property and as well as requiring the owner's permission would also require planning permission.  We would welcome any ideas or suggestions about how we can provide a central place for advertising village events.
Budget, Precept and Car Park charges
  Councillors have spent some time lately considering the Council's financial position.  Excluding the car park, the cost of running the parish council this year will be about £10,400 and yet its income is only about £6,400.  The shortfall is being covered by drawing on reserves, but if this were to continue the Council would be running a deficit in a few years time.
  To deal with this situation, at its last meeting the Council agreed to increase the precept for 2007-08 by 5% from £5,500 to £5,775 and to raise the all-day charge for the car park at the beginning of April from £4.00 to £4.50.  The Council felt it was likely that similar increases in both precept and car park charges would be needed over the next few years.
Playing Field Committee
  The Playing Field Committee has been re-formed, with the express purpose of running the playing field for the benefit of the whole community.  It consists of two representatives each from the Parish Council, Dent Football Club and Dentdale Cricket Club, and is chaired by Jenny Pilgrim.  The Committee meets on the second Thursday of each month in the Reading Room.
Stonehouse Bridge
  After everyone's efforts to persuade Cumbria Highways to act, the bridge has finally been made safe.  We are still continuing to press the County Council for some permanent width restrictions on the bridge, and are also awaiting the outcome of the referral to the Local Government Ombudsman.

Jock Cairns,  Chair, Dent Parish Council

  I remember the carol singing in the Sportsman's Inn last year with the Slovene, Scottish and English singers making the cobwebs in the rafters shiver like ghosts.
  We were all pressed in together singing these lively folk carols at the top of our voices, our harmonies ringing out over Ron's bar, when someone passed me a five pound note. "What's this for?" I asked. "Do you see Jack over there?" came the reply (and there was Jack smiling and giving a little wave.) "He wants a pint of best."
  I handed the money to the singer next to me, and a while later the beer came back passed from singer to singer, along with the change.
  Well, it's that time of year again, and at the time of writing we're finishing off preparations for the arrival of 35 Slovene carol singers from our twin town in Zrece (pronounced "Zretch-eh.") They'll be giving a couple of concerts - one by seaside at high tide at Heysham which they specially requested due to their shortage of coast - and the other with our local West Gallery choir, The Gladly Solemn Sound, in Dent.
  And they'll also be meeting all our singers at the Folk and west gallery carols workshops in Sedbergh - and teaching a few of their own - before making their way up to Dent for the ceilidh on Saturday night.
  If you meet them you might want to give a cheery "Dober Dan" (pronounced Doh-ber dan - meaning "hello"or "good day,") or even a "Dober vecer" (doh-ber vetch-air - "Good evening.") As it may be pouring with rain you could be a bit more chatty and add: "Kako obrupno vreme" (kar-ko obrup-no vrem-eh - "What awful weather.") Or if we're lucky: "Kako cudovit dan" (kar-ko choo-doh-veet darn - "What a wonderful day.") But you'll certainly be wanting to say: "Bi kaj popilli?" (Bee kay pop-ee-lee - "Can I buy you a drink?")
  Several singers have joined us to practice Slovene songs ready for our outings - and on Saturday night the Cautley Carollers and Howgills Harmony will lead us through the best loved of the folk carols, as well as their Slovenian repertoire for our friends from Zrece to join in with. And some of the instrumentalists from these groups are preparing to play the music for the dances which the Slovene singers will be teaching - others are getting ready to join the west gallery singers on Saturday afternoon.
  It's a bit premature at the moment to thank everyone for their help, though the next Lookaround issue in February seems such a long way off. Anyway our heartfelt thanks must go to Richard and Susa Ellis for their generous offer to house the Slovenian Ambassador; Garth Steadman, George Handley, Susan Garnet, Elizabeth Germany and Frieda Meekin for inviting some of the singers for supper before the concert; Nigel Close for kind help with arranging accommodation; Earl Parker for offering to join me in driving the choir from Stansted and back; those of you who are at this very moment poised before your phones ready to offer help - and of course all of you who will be adding your voices and presence to this glorious celebration of song and harmony.
  I am sure I speak for all our singers when I wish you all a very merry Christmas and hope that January 1 is the start of the best year of your life.
David Burbidge,  Sedbergh 21166

Steadman's Win Best Butcher's Shop in the North of England!
  We always knew that we had a great quality butcher here in Sedbergh but knowing that 'our' butcher has been chosen from 10,000 candidates as the best butcher's shop in North of England, is something we can all be proud of.
  Guild of Q Butcher Steadman's of Sedbergh were voted Best Butchers Shop in the North of England at a prestigious awards ceremony held on 7^th of November at Claridge's Hotel in London, which owner Garth Steadman and his wife, Jean, attended.
  Steadman's fought of strong competition from three other butchers - two of whom were fellow Guild Butchers - who were also in line for the Regional Award.
  Garth Steadman: "We are absolutely delighted at the news. To get through to the final is an achievement in itself but to win Regional Champion is just fantastic."
  Ryan Moffat, manager at Steadman's adds: "Everybody has been working very hard for a long time to achieve the high standard required to become 'the best butcher's shop in the North'. We are not going to rest on our laurels, in some ways the hard work has just begun as we continue to keep the standard high and make sure we live up to the title."
  In a time when the debate is much about the distance our food travels, Steadman's is widely known for their quality meats and commitment to sourcing the very best local produce.
  "We source our meat only from carefully selected farms and a large amount of our beef is bred and reared at Buck Bank Farm just a mile down the road; meat doesn't come any more local than that", smiles Garth Steadman.
  Buck Bank is a family run beef and sheep farm, which Andrew Pratt and his wife, Dorthe, took over from his father in April 2005.
  "We are striving to produce the very best beef and working with our local independent butcher is the ideal scenario for us. We work in close partnership with both Garth and Ryan to ensure that we provide cattle of just the right type and finished to perfectly suit their requirements. We are very pleased for Steadman's that they have been given such a prestigious award and we are of course proud to be supplying the Best Butcher in the North", says Andrew Pratt of Buck Bank Farm.
  Garth Steadman concludes: "The award certificate now has pride of place on our shop wall amongst other awards we have earned this year. It is good for moral for the staff who contributed to the success of the business' achievement. It's also nice for our customers to see; it reinforces why they have chosen to shop at a high quality independent butcher."
  With Border Television rushing to Steadman's to secure an interview for the evening news, just half an hour after they got whiff of the story, and several local and national papers printing the news as well, this can only be good news for our local community. Let's hope that it will inspire people from further a field to visit Sedbergh to the benefit of all of our local shops and businesses.  Edward Atdenhorn

  I have been writing a column in the community news for the Westmorland Gazette for more than two years now. I would just like to let people know that I do submit something each week.
  However due to circumstances beyond my control my copy does not always make it into print. I apologise to those people who have given me information hoping that it would appear in the paper. All I can say is I do my best.
  I will not be able to do the column for a while between mid May and Mid July next year. If there is anyone who would like to take over for me I would be most grateful. Sandra Gold-Wood 015396 21808.     (Hope you don't mind but I won't apply. Spoke to the WG a few months ago and they had never heard of The Lookaround!  Ed)