Thank you for all the ‘Best wishes for 2011’ I have received from you and for taking the time to tell me how Inview has helped publicise your events. 

Well the February edition is upon us and 2011 seems to be going as quickly for me as 2010.  I can’t say that February is one of my favourite months, it always seems a bit flat after the celebrations at Christmas and New Year, but apparently we get ten hours of daylight, about two hours more than in December. I am hoping to get out in the garden a bit this month as it could certainly do with some work doing to it before the Spring.

News snippets

Families in England are to be offered £250m in vouchers in a bid to encourage them to eat healthily and exercise.  Food vouchers, nutritional advice and discounted activities are all part of Change4Life's "Great Swapathon".  There is more information on the website (www.swapathon.co.uk), including recipes and ideas for how to get more exercise.

Fuel Poverty - In a recent survey, conducted for Age UK of more than 1,300 people aged 60 or over:

·         Nearly a third were likely to resort to extreme measures to keep warm, including wearing a coat and scarf inside

·         Fourteen percent lived in one room. With nearly 14 million over-60s in the UK, that is around 1.5m choosing to live in one room to contain heat

·         Four percent said they would stay in bed all day to try to keep warm, while 9% percent said they could not get warm at home last winter

·         Age UK is concerned that many more older people are stuck in fuel poverty - well over three million of them spending more than a tenth of their income on their energy bills

The government has a long-standing vow to end fuel poverty in England by 2016 but the problem has apparently increased largely because of big increases in domestic fuel bills and the onset of the economic recession.