Category: News

The village house to house collection for ‘Action for Children’ (formerly called National Children’s Home) has raised £699.91. Thanks are given to the collectors for their hard work and to all those who contributed.

To find out more about the charity click the logo.

St Mary’s Church, New Church Road is seeking volunteers to help clean up the churchyard on Saturday 29 November starting at 9.30am.

Please bring what hand tools you will be able to use.

There will be a Christmas Coffee Morning held in the Methodist Church Hall, Chapel Lane, on Saturday 29th November from 10am to 12noon.

Contributions to the gift stall would be most welcome.

No, we are not asking you to re-use last year’s Christmas but we are asking you to continue to be aware of recycling throughout the period. The Borough Council has offered the following guidance about changes to collections over the period:

To enable everyone to recycle all their glass, cans, foil, paper and cardboard and textiles over the festive season plastic and garden waste collections will be replaced over the Christmas holiday period by three consecutive blue recycling weeks.

The three consecutive BLUE recycling weeks over the seasonal period will run from 15 December until 3 January, instead of alternating between BLUE and GREEN weeks as usual.

This means that the GREEN week that would normally fall on Christmas week will be replaced with a BLUE week, as shown on your recycling calendar 2008/09.

Plastic and garden waste collections will recommence the week beginning 5 January 2009. Residents are encouraged to save their plastics in the clear recycling sacks provided and not to send them to the landfill in their black sacks.

You can kick start the New Year with the resolution to recycle more because you can leave out for collection as many clear sacks as you have!

Don’t forget that if you run out of clear sacks, you can pick up extra ones from the Council’s Customer Service Centre, High Street free of charge.

For information on other pick-up locations just visit www.colchester.gov.uk/recycling or phone 01206 282700.

The next meeting of the Gardeners Association takes place in the Orpen Hall on Monday 17 November at 7.30pm. Matthew Tanton Brown will be talking about Companion Planting.

New members most welcome.

The vice-president welcomed members. An arrangement of flowers is being sent to the president with grateful thanks from the committee and members for her time in office.

Bea Girkin gave an excellent report on the half-yearly council meeting.

The competition joint winners for 2008 were Pat Moran and Joyce Hollock.

WI Adviser Val Stone led the AGM. Pat Moran was elected president and 2 members welcomed to the committee for 2009. Grateful thanks were given to Marie-Louise Fuell who was resigning having been secretary and treasurer. The play-reading ladies then entertained.

Next month is the Christmas party beginning at the earlier time of 7pm. Donations for raffle would be welcomed and members are asked to bring their own cutlery and glass.

A craft fair will take place on Saturday 15 November in the Orpen Memorial Hall from 11am to 3.30pm. Admission is free with refreshments available.

A joint service of remembrance will be held on Sunday in the Orpen Memorial Hall Lexden Road at 10.45am. There will be no morning service in the Methodist or St. Mary’s church.

On Tuesday 11 November at 11am a combined communion service with St. Mary’s will be held in the Methodist church.

St Mary’s church is open every Thursday afternoon from 2.30 to 4pm for a cup of tea and a friendly chat with friends. New faces would be most welcome.

The Colne Valley Flower Club is holding an Open Christmas meeting on Wednesday 19 November in the Orpen Memorial Hall 7pm for 7.30pm. Flower arranger Penny Stone will base her demonstration around the title Autumn Glow to Christmas Snow.
Tickets including refreshments are available by calling 01206 240581 and are priced £5.50 for members and £8 for visitors.

Last night the First Responders received a warm welcome from the Youth Group in the village. Two members spent an hour telling the Group about what the First Responders do and let them have a go on the training kit.

“The kids were really keen to have a go on our training defibrillator,” commented First Responder Jenni Pizzuto. “Even the smallest girl there could work the kit and deliver CPR, it just goes to show how easy it is.”

Anyone interested in joining First responders should contact the Group Organiser, Annie Neish, on 01206 240469 or visit their website here.