All the Volunteers of our magazine – We wish all our advertisers and readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. The team has very good news in that Brian Weeks and Louis Botha have joined our hard working Print Team. If all goes well I shall drop out. The Trustees’ Challenge for 2010 is to make our magazine profitable again using some colour or we shall have to revert back to a monochrome only magazine. In rough terms we shall have to increase our revenue from £3,000 per month to something approaching double that figure to balance the books. The new Advertising charges including colour were issued to our advertisers in mid October by Debbie Biggs. We hope they will feed through in the coming editions. The reason we bought a colour printer was that at the high end of the printer market the difference between colour and monochrome is marginal when we were purchasing replacement equipment. Only the colour consumables and maintenance for the printing equipment are more expensive.

The Editors - apologise for making a mess of the November diary. We don’t always get everything right.

Age Concern - are starting a Pedicure (Toe Nail Cutting) Service to be held in the surgery starting in November. The service is available to all residents (not just our patients) over the age of 50.  Residents have to ring 01454 858750 to register and they will then be given an appointment. There will be a charge annual of a registration fee of £4.00 and each treatment will cost £10.00. Well done Age Concern.

Pylon Exhibition – There will be a public exhibition in Aust Village Hall on the 1^st December from 2 – 4.00 pm & 6 – 8.00 pm. This will show the proposed new super grid electric link (400kv) from Seabank to the Aust substation. This will be needed for Hinkley Point C nuclear power station to link the Wales – London super grid link.

Fairtrade – Good news for the festive season, Fairtrade goods purchased in the UK last year amounted to £700 million, that’s £200 million than the year before. The government gave £12 million to the organisation as a token to commemorate 15 years of trading. With this increase in Fairtrade purchases it is hoped to double the number of third world farmers it has lifted above the poverty line.

Retirement Pension – The Basic State Pension will increase by £2.40 per week at the beginning of the new Financial Year in April.

Postal Codes – Archimedes may have shouted ‘Eureka’ in the bath when he made his discoveries. The humble Postal Code has celebrated 50 years of use and has blossomed from a Post Office code to a Sav Nat input to guide motorists to their destination and are the route finder’s reference points.

Tesco Home Delivery – If you are a Tesco shopper and want the home delivery service, Tesco can provide you with a list of items you have ordered in the past year. Obviously their computer systems work. More older shoppers are using this popular service.

Beach Cleanups – These proceed on the first dry Friday of each month (normally meeting at the Burger Bar at 10.00) and we seem to be making inroads into the overall cleanliness of the foreshore. This has been aided by someone spraying weedkiller on the seawall to help keep nature in check.

Retail Trade – Market commentators have predicted that with VAT returning back to 17.5% on 1^st January and if the Christmas Trade is not a bumper year, 15 shop chains could cease trading.

Network Rail – has been given government support to electrify 300 track miles from London to the Bristol and Cardiff areas. It will be completed in 2018 if there are no monetary or political obstacles. The price tag is £1.1 billion and it will only shorten the Bristol to London journey time by 12 minutes.

He’s done it again – Dyson have a bladeless fan on the stocks. It’s not been unveiled yet. It must work at electron and neutron level. It has great safety potential with no moving parts.

Electric Solar Power – Sharp have developed a solar chip which is 38.5% efficient. That’s a great increase.

Teletext – There is discussion about removing the analogue teletext at the turn of the year to have more time to activate the new channel changes including digital teletext in March.

Thank You

 I would like to take this opportunity to thank all family and friends for their kind thoughts and deeds after my recent fall.  I am on the mend now and will be back to normal, hopefully by Christmas. Once again, thank you all. 

                                                   Mary Hallett, Severn Beach

'The members of the Youth Club running at Severn Beach Village Hall on Monday nights, 6.00pm to 8.30pm, wish to thank everyone the many offers of televisions etc., some of which are being put to good use already. 

If you telephoned me with offers I passed them on immediately to Reehana Sayeed who is running the Youth Club, and whilst she has telephoned back, if you have been out, you might have missed her.  Please make any further offers of equipment or expertise to her on 07774 112168 or pop in and see the club working on Monday nights.

 It has been so nice that Villagers from Easter Compton, Pilning and Severn Beach have offered help to this Club which has been badly needed for the youth

Waste and Recycling in Pilning & Severn Beach.

 

Did you know that every year in the UK we throw away around £4 billion worth of food because we cook or prepare too much, amounting to over 6 million tonnes - most of which we could have eaten.  We could save up to £600 a year by not wasting food!!

Every day we throw away

• 5 million potatoes
• 7 million slices of bread
• 1.3 million yoghurts and yoghurt drinks
• 2 million tomatoes

When we waste food, we also waste the energy, water and packaging involved in producing, transporting and storing it.  What is even worse is that the food that is sent to landfill contributes to climate change as it creates methane gas when it rots down.

The good news is that with a bit of thought we can stop most of this waste from going to landfill and save ourselves money by:

• Cooking the right amount of food
• Planning our meals
• Using leftovers
• Storing food correctly.

Recycling

The village hall at Severn Beach has a plastic bottle bank which covers the area. There are now 26 such banks in South Gloucestershire.

Yellow Pages

We are now able to take your yellow pages and phone directories at the Kerbside.  Please remove the plastic wrappers and place in your green bag.

Are you recycling all that you can?   Did you know?

• The average household produces over a tonne of rubbish every year, but half of it can be recycled.  This is better for the environment and means that less of your waste ends up buried in landfill sites.

• We can now take aerosol cans.  Place with food and drinks cans in green box
• We take all battery sizes, including mobile phone.  Put them in your battery bag, or any clear bag in green box
• Car batteries can be left next to your green box.
• Office and printer paper but not shredded.  You can put this in a cardboard box in your green bin.

Lost your box or bag or bin?  Call 01454 868000 for a new one.

You can put as many boxes and bags of cans, paper, glass bottles and jars and textiles as you like, just make sure that glass bottles and jars are kept in a sturdy box please.

Time to DO Something About the Future?

 

This month world leaders are coming together in Copenhagen to try to get agreement about how we can work together to stave off devastating climate change. They need to know that the hard decisions that are needed will be supported by us. We can do this by taking action ourselves through the 10:10 Campaign. Sustainable Thornbury invites you to sign up to do your bit by agreeing to reduce your own, your organisation’s or your business’ emissions by 10% during 2010. This is a New Year resolution to change the world!  We could say more but in the spirit of 10:10, we’ve cut this article by 10%!  Go to www.1010uk.org to sign up.   Let’s make this a Happy New Year for our world.    

There is now a new Sure Start Children’s Centre in Severn Beach and sessions no longer take place in Pilning. Our new Children’s Centre is at Severn Beach School, Ableton Lane. 

We have Stay & Play sessions on Tuesday from 1.15pm to 3.15pm, Wednesday from 9.30am to 11.30am and we have a Baby Club on Fridays from 9.30am to 11am.

 

St Peter’s Primary School                                

 

On Thursday 22^nd October at 9.00 am the entire school with teaching staff and an escort of two PCSOs walked in an orderly fashion of twos from the school to St. Peter’s Church for Harvest Festival Service. At this point the church was at bursting point and the additional chairs at the back were used. The service consisted of each year group portraying the Harvest message to the others. This was interspersed with children’s modern hymns; all known by heart by all the pupils and some with a West Indian beat which resulted in some pupils swaying to the music. The service was conducted by the Head, Keith Purvis, who, as he said, ‘was justly proud of the pupils who behaved very well’.

The Harvest Festival Gifts were taken to the Methodist Centre in Midland Road where those of any religion, race or creed who have fallen on hard times are given sustenance.

I've had a look at your article about SITA's proposed ERP at Severnside. I offer my comments as an ex Waste Regulation Officer at the Agency, but having retired in 2005, I am not privy to the latest regulations and therefore cannot be responsible for any information being correct.

From what I have gathered, it is SITA's proposal to burn only commercial and industrial wastes.  If this is so, and is what they will eventually be licensed for, then the furnace temperature of 1000 degrees C will be adequate.

            The regulatory body, i.e. The Environment Agency, will ensure all aspects of the plant are safe and within their strict parameters and according to the conditions of SITA's licence.  Once their licence has been granted, which is subject to very strict operating conditions, the Agency will maintain a regular and random inspection routine.

            The agency professionals are well versed in the operation of ERP and incinerators and are most particular in the licensing and operating conditions. The screening processes of any gaseous emissions, vehicle movements and landscaping of the site are rigidly applied and as per their licence conditions.  Heavy financial penalties and court proceedings are incurred for licence infringements----

            The Environment Agency at their Bridgwater area office or their regional office at Exeter will be able to provide interested parties with up to date information.

Their telephone number (customer services) is 0870-8506506.

 

Name withheld for Professional reasons.