Bright Hour: Members of Bright Hour met at the Methodist Church. The president led the devotions and the speaker was Christine Wightman whose talk was entitled ‘Clouds which God sends to bring us testing, comfort and help’. The next meeting is on Tuesday when the speaker is Martha Bainbridge Age Concern: Members met at the Masonic Hall on Friday when they enjoyed a lunch served by Betty Lund and Sue Park. In the afternoon members enjoyed a session of Show and Tell when members brought an article of their own which they discussed with the group. The raffle winner was May Burton.

Coffee morning: A coffee morning was held in the town hall on Saturday in aid of the PTFA of High Bentham Primary School. It raised £315, which included £48 from a jumble stall. The highlight of the morning was entertainment from the singing club. The committee would like to thank everyone for their support.

Historical Society: Dr Guy Woolmough gave a lecture, Sunday Afternoon Policing, to Ewecross Historical Society. He brought to life Kendal in the 1880s as he spoke of the opposing faction in the town and the case of a drunken man accused of murdering a policemen. The man’s sentence was a year in prison for manslaughter. The next meeting is Historical Architecture of Windermere with Ian Jones.

Town council: Sgt Hill said there had been 75 reported incidents in Bentham between December 1 and 31. Of these, 17 were crimes and the detection rate had been good. There had been an arrest for cannabis production and two arrests following burglaries from four residential and three commercial premises. Sgt Hill volunteered to produce a summary for 2013 and agreed to discuss the spate of vandalism and graffiti at the train station with the Friends of Bentham Station. Members had no objections to a proposed rear conservatory at Mewith Head, Mewith, but asked for clarification on proposed replacement machinery and an equipment store and covered practice area at Bentham Golf Club. The meeting was told Network Rail did not own the potholed area of the station approach. The council considered the possibility that this piece of land may not actually be owned by anyone and it was agreed the clerk should do a search of the Land Registry. Once ownership is known, steps can be taken to get the land up to highways standards and adopted.