The Refectory at Milford
On the 19th March, 21 members had a very enjoyable lunch at the Refectory in Milford. This has become one of our favourite venues and we were not disappointed this time. Even the sun was shining and there
was warm and a touch of spring in the air that made the drive over to Milford lovely. It is however a real shame that there are not equivalent venues nearer to Ash, so if any member can recommend a good
lunch venue for a group of around 20 please let Ali or me know and one of us will check it out. Many of you will know that in an attempt to comply with insurance related requirements of u3a nationally we are undertaking risk assessments for all venues that we meet under the u3a banner. It took me just a couple of minutes to do a risk assessment on arrival at the Refectory. There were no issues and this reflects on the care that Ali and I take when selecting suitable venues. We have recently rejected a venue because we considered that there were risks associated with accessibility.
For those members itching to join the Organising Team when (or even before) I step down in August, don’t let the matter of risk assessments put you off. All the hard work has been done and a simple form produced to make life easy on the day. The Organising Team will retain copies of the completed assessments for a minimum of three years. If any member would be interested in seeing the risk assessment forms, please let me know.
In preparedness for 2026/27, I have updated our procedure for selecting and booking venues. If any member considering joining the Organising Team would like a copy, let me know.
Long-standing members may recall that we started going to the Curzon in Ash for lunch as an additional “non-English cuisine” venue. It proved to be so popular that we included it in our regular Thursday lunch programme. Unfortunately on our last visit, the service was not very good, largely as a result of the restaurant not being able to cope adequately with the numbers attending. As a result we have taken the Curzon off our list of regular lunch venues. However, I have arranged an additional lunch on Thursday 2nd April for a group of 14 of us. Rather than the special “meal deal” we have had in the past, members attending will chose from the standard menu on arrival at the restaurant. I am limiting numbers in an attempt to ensure better service, so if you haven’t already told me that you would like to attend, sorry all places have been taken.