Around town magazine rayleigh edition march 2016

G H L E I R A Y 6 2 0 1 0 3 .

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CONTENTS 11 15

8 Mark Francois Political Update

12 Around Town Sports Focuses on Dodgeball

14 Know Your Tradesmen Tree King

18 Nature Notes

EWT Volunteer Neil Sumner

20 22

Rotary Club / Lions Club

WI Recipe

28

info@essex-bathrooms.co.uk www.essex-bathrooms.co.uk

Recipe

07712 674877 | 01702 232979

Organisations Around Town

25 A View from the Church Rev. Mike Lodge

26 Martin Lewis

Money Saving Expert

30 Colchester Zoo Competition

31 Useful Numbers Around Town Magazines Graphic House, Radford Way, Billericay CM12 0DX

Edition 28 To advertise contact our Sales Team today, details below. Booking deadline for our April edition is: Monday 14th March Copyright 2016. Around Town Rayleigh is an independent magazine and does not endorse the products or services that appear in the magazine.

Opinions expressed in Around Town do not necessarily represent those of the editors of Around Town Magazines. Around Town Magazines are published by Black Square Print Media Ltd produced by Black Square Litho Ltd.

01277 658444 www.aroundtownmagazines.co.uk sales@aroundtownmagazine.co.uk

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Visit our showroom: 1741 London Road, Leigh on Sea, Essex SS9 2SW

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advertorial

Cloudy2Clear Announce Trusted Trader Partnership Consumer champions Which? have now joined the thousands of customers who recognise that Cloudy2Clear Windows really are a business that you can TRUST. The company which specialises in repairing windows which are steamed up, broken or damaged by replacing the panes – not the frames has received the coveted ‘Which Trusted Trader’ status after going through a rigorous accreditation process entirely focussed on customer service.

Group Managing Director Marcus McGee believes that Which? have endorsed Cloudy2Clear’s long standing company

policy of delivering the highest standards possible at all times. ‘Our service is simple. If your double glazing has misted up we can replace the glass at a fraction of the cost of a new window, in any type of frame, and with a new 5 year guarantee. But it’s not just about saving people money, although that obviously helps. Whilst a number of tradespeople perhaps don’t focus on customer care as much as they should do, we make sure we turn up when we say we will, do the job the customer requires and leave their house as clean as a whistle.

Locally Cloudy2Clear service the Rayleigh & Eastwood areas and

manager Chris Miller agrees that this approach is a major factor in his success. ‘The truth is that it’s not just the personal satisfaction that I get from doing a good job but also it makes good business sense. I get a huge amount of business from friends and family of people I’ve done work for, which just goes to show how much a little bit of effort is appreciated as both my customers and, obviously a body as nationally important as Which? now recognise.’

So, if your windows are steamed up, broken or damaged give Chris a call for a free quotation on 0800 61 21 118 and he’ll be happy to help!

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7

that employment in Britain has reached a total of 31.4 million people, the highest since records began. The unemployment rate of only 5.1 per cent is also the lowest for over a decade.

mark francois conservativeParliamentary mP for rayleigh & Wickford

The Department of Work and Pensions recently released some very welcome figures showing

Locally, the number of people unemployed across the Rayleigh and Wickford constituency has fallen to just over 500, and while that is still too many it represents one of the lowest totals for years and just a few per cent of the economically active workforce in the area.

The new Pizza Express in the high street has

provided new jobs and more will follow when the new Marks and Spencer food hall opens, hopefully in the spring. The health of the local property market is also attested to by the opening of several more estate agents in Rayleigh over the past few months!

While we should not be complacent, at present Rayleigh is going through quite a positive patch economically.

Hopefully this will continue and we can get that remaining unemployment figure down even more in the future.

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01277 633971 07949 266321 mark@nokesandco.co.uk www.nokesandco.co.uk Nokes & Co, Squire House, 81-87 High Street, Billericay, Essex CM12 9AS

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11

DODGEBALL

Dodgeball is more of a playground game rather than a sport, however you would be surprised at the growing popularity.

Essex has a league and many more are sprouting up and down the country.

Other than popular movie with Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughan, I know very little about the sport.

If you have sporty kids they are going to love it. Throwing a ball at some friends, what isn’t there to like. However, the sport seems to require a great deal of stamina and will get the pulse racing like so many indoor sports. Fast and furious, and above all, fun is how I would describe Dodgeball.

The rules...

- Get hit by a ball and you are out - Catch a ball and you allow one of your expelled team mates back in the game.

- Throw and hit people until you win.

- There are others, but that is pretty much it.

The craze started in America and like so many other things it is starting to creep into our schools and after school activity

clubs. I will not be surprised for it to sneak onto our sports channels soon, let’s face it, if Poker is on Sky Sports, then I think it has a place.

It will need to make more headlines, however, I think if kept light hearted (by that I mean, the uniforms, team names and players themselves be entertaining rather than ultimate professionals) Dodgeball could pack out several venues throughout the country.

Those not looking to compete in matches may be interested to know that there are companies that can conduct Dodgeball parties amongst other pastimes. Now this is something to think about. Kids from 10 – 15 would love to do this for their birthday and to think the hire of a sports hall for 2 hours would be very cheap, chuck them some balls and let them go crazy.

See the websites below or simply Google “Dodgeball in Essex” for local access to the sport. www.essexdodgeballassociation.co.uk www.dodgeballuk.com

Put the spotlight on your local sports team, contact Zaki Hasan, via email, zaki@aroundtownmagazines.co.uk

Project2_Layout 1 01/12/2015 12:14 Page 1

24 HR EMERGENCY

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Mitchell said, ‘No matter what the job we are always at the end of the phone to help. We are fully qualified, insured and responsible

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Project2_Layout 1 01/12/2015 12:14 Page 1

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07

EASTER HOLIDAYS

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Come along and entertain your creativity!

Bubble Splat in Rayleigh is a place of inspiration that encourages all ages to walk-in and experiment with ceramics, candles (soon), bath bombs and soap making.

The staff at Bubble Splat are here to assist you in your experience, encourage you to get messy and inspire your creative energy. Come on your own or with family and friends, plan a party, a girl’s night out or a company outing for some needed team building.

Whether you’re a kid or a kid at heart, boy or girl, this place is the DIY craft space that has something for everyone.

We also have party packages: Ceramic painting party £14.99 Bath bomb making party £16.50 01268 772174

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Nature Notes Written by Neil Sumner

Neilsumner123@aol.com twitter.com/neilsumner123 “.. one of those days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.� This is how Charles Dickens described a day in March - and how typical it is.

Weather patterns decide whether we are cold or warm but what is certain is the lengthening days, the warming of the soil, the changing of the landscape and the response of the wildlife to this first chapter of Spring.

In the hedgerows through fields and along roadsides, hawthorns produce leaves of a fresh lime green.

In this mild winter, some hawthorn came into leaf early, especially in the microclimates around our arterial roads. But most leaves will emerge in early March. Blackthorn, another prolific hedgerow plant, produces flowers before the leaves, also in early Spring. Along country lanes or on the boundaries of pastures and in country parks you may find great swathes of these ivory-coloured bushes. On sunny days, a few large bumble bees are busy around those flowers.

Newts and frogs return to the ponds, eager to mate and spawn. It seems strange that they return when the water is icy cold but they do so now so that many of their tadpoles have time to grow into adults and can move on before the ponds dry out in the summer.

Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps return to the woods this month, adding their songs to those of the resident birds. If you walk through ancient woodlands, enjoy the birdsong and look on the ground for early Wild Primroses or Wood Anemones (pictured).

Long- tailed tits build their nests, domed structures of lichen, grass and moss woven into thick scrub such as bramble. You can find these early nests under construction if you are patient and watch where the birds fly in with the material, but watch from a distance. The leaves will grow around the nest and give it more cover but often not well enough as many nests are destroyed by predatory Jays. But Longtailed Tits are doing well, despite this predation, and the birds that lose these early nests will build again.

18

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LOWER BARN

LANDSCAPING & BUILDING

RECIPE Easter Cup Cakes

Ingredients: Cake Makes 12 Cup cakes or 24 fairy cakes 100g Butter 100g Caster Sugar 2 Eggs 100g SR Flour

To Decorate Buttercream tinted green for grass Small Candy chocolate eggs

Method:

Tips:

1. Set oven Gas Mark 5 180C; and place 12 paper cup cases in the bun tray.

2. Cream the butter and sugar until light.

Beat in the eggs a little at a time.

3. Fold in the flour.

4. Spoon into the paper cases.

5. Bake for 15-20 mins.

6. Allow to cool.

7. When completely cool the cakes may be decorated with cuttercream, tinted green and easter decorations

1. Buttercream can be made from 50g softened butter, beaten with 100g sieved icing sugar. The icing can then be tinted with a few drops of green colouring to get the desired grass colour.

2. The cakes can be flavoured with 25g coca or chocolate chips or dried fruit may be added.

3. Any left over cake can be stored in an airtight container for another day. These cakes should keep for about a week.

See more at: www.thewi.org.uk If you would like your recipe to appear in Around Town Magazines then contact our sales team on: 01277 658444 or email: sales@aroundtownmagazines.co.uk

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21

RAYLEIGH LIONS CLUB At this time of year our thoughts and planning turn to some of the more major opportunities for fund raising.

Our annual charity Golf Day at Rochford Hundred has always been a popular and oversubscribed event that we will be repeated again this year.

We are also at the early stages of planning a charity 10K Fun Run in the autumn around the area of Hockley Woods and Cherry Orchard Lake. If you are a member of a local running club or just run to keep fit, look out for details in the near future.

Last month we had our annual Founders Night meeting, an opportunity to dust off our DJ’s and meet with members of other local Rotary Clubs.

We also included our partners at our last meeting in February which was an opportunity to present a donation to the Amy May Trust. Amy May Shead is the local young lady who suffered a catastrophic anaphylaxis reaction in Budapest in April 2014 resulting in major brain damage. She is currently in rehabilitation in Brentwood after hospitalisation in Budapest, St Thomas’s, London and Putney. £1000 from St James Place and £250 from our Rotary Club was donated to the Trust.

To obtain more details of our club, look up ‘Rotary Club of Rayleigh Mill’ on Google or Facebook or give Carl Watson a call on 01268 778376.

ROTARY CLUB OF RAYLEIGH MILL For most weeks in the year, we meet on Mondays as a club, with our members enjoying a meal at The Rayleigh Club near Hullbridge, Essex.

It is followed by a particular kind of meeting such as ‘committee’, ‘business’ and ‘speaker’ - the latter gives us an opportunity to invite a well-known personality or charity organisation to keep us informed about their work or life.

We have a members’ raffle at the end of the evening and our Sergeant-At-Arms is an appointed member of the club who manages to extract small amounts of money from us in friendly fun from personal observations of us which goes to our charity box.

The evening is run by our President who sits at the top table with his Secretary and we welcome our visiting guests too. Toasts are made to the Queen and our Rotary organisation.

We have a Treasurer to manage our accounts and appointed officers to involve us in the more gentle sports, a press officer to publicise our events, an IT specialist to handle our information, a webmaster to run this website and particular members who take on responsibility for an event eg. our Charity Golf Day and our social trips and dinner dances. Our Foundation officer looks to promote the work of Rotary eg. Purple Pinkie support to End Polio Campaign.

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A Cross of Forgiveness and Easter Restoration…

By midday on that first Good Friday, the trial was finished, the sentence passed, Jesus whipped and crowned with thorns. The cross itself appears to have been too much for Jesus and Simon of Cyrene has been made to carry it for him.

Apart from a word to the women among the crowd following the execution squad, Jesus appears to have said nothing until the Cross had been erected.It’s then, that Jesus says, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” It is the first great word of all, but sums up the reality of Jesus’ whole ministry; words of reconciliation and forgiveness.These are words for the soldiers, words for the disciples and words for us.

Words for the soldiers; for those who did not know that they were doing. After all, they were simply carrying out their duty. This was not the first time that they had crucified condemned men, and it wouldn’t be the last.

It’s impossible for us to decide how much we can blame the soldiers. As regards Jesus his attitude to them is one of strong, realistic compassion, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”…

Secondly, words for all the

disciples, and especially for Peter.Words, for the other disciples, who had run away and hidden. They were frightened of the consequences of knowing Jesus, of being associated with him. But, after the resurrection, Jesus appeared to the disciples - Jesus stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’

And words for Peter, who disowned Jesus, not once, but three times. But this wasn’t the end of the line for Peter, because later on Jesus reinstates him, when three times Jesus asks Peter if he loves him. Of course Peter loves him, and says so. But what does Jesus say? ‘Follow me!’ He restores Peter and gives him an important job to do. He is forgiven…

Finally, these are words for us. Today, each of us is able to come to Jesus just as we are. Whatever we may have done wrong we are able to ask for and we will receive his compassion, his love, and his forgiveness.

He will take that pain from us when we ask him to, and he will take that pain upon himself. And all because of what Jesus did on that first Good Friday…

But it doesn’t end there, as we recall the words of Jesus, “I am the resurrection and the life.” Easter brings alive the relevance of the life and death of Jesus, and accordingly brings relevance to our own lives. Jesus came to repair a broken relationship between God and us.As we try to make sense of the cross we find that it spells healing, forgiveness, freedom and new life.

In the midst of a world of death and suffering stands a symbol of hope, and a symbol of a God who is standing with us, and alongside us, now and forever.

May I take this moment to wish you all a very Happy Easter and the new life that it brings, including forgiveness and restoration…

Yours in the love of Jesus.

Parish Office 01268 742151 info@parishofrayleigh.org.uk

www.parishofrayleigh.org.uk

AFTER THE NEW YEAR At the beginning of the New Year we’re all supposed to create resolutions to become better people, better citizens, better eaters and better with cash.

And, let’s be honest, most aren’t likely to last as long as the December Christmas turkey.

Yet when it comes to finance there’s an advantage. There are a raft of resolutions that you can do now even if the ‘I WANT TO BE A BETTER ME’ fervour has died down, and the impact lasts all year.

Finally ditch your rubbish bank account and earn up to £150.

More people complain to me about their bank than anything else, but only 2% of people switched last year. So stop moaning and start switching. So many banks want your business that they’re willing to pay you to switch – either straight cash such as £100 to move to them, or up to 5% interest on your savings. Plus, these tend to be the banks with the top customer service too. There’s a full rundown of best-buys atwww.mse.me/topbanks.

Earn cashback every time you spend and get £100s a year back.

Why not get paid every time you spend?

You can do this with a cashback credit card. Yet, set up a direct debit to repay the card IN FULL every month, so there’s no interest cost – or it’s pointless.

Theamericanexpress.co.uk Platinum Everyday card is the top fee-free payer, giving 5% back for three months (max £100), then up to1.25% after. If you

don’t fully pay it each month, it’s 22.9% representative APR. Sort out a power of attorney One in three over-65s die with dementia.

Younger people can get it too, or lose faculties due to strokes, accidents and more. If you do lose your faculties, don’t assume relatives can walk into the bank and access your money – even to pay for your care. They’d need to apply to take over via the Court of Protection – this can drag on for months with fees of over £1000. The solution is getting a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) while you have mental capacity, where you nominate a trusted friend or relative to take over your affairs. It only comes into effect if and when you’re no longer capable. I’m 43 and have done this myself purely as a precaution. You can choose the DIY route or pay a solicitor for advice – the Alzheimer’s Society’s has a useful fact sheet athttp://tinyurl.com/jyrs8g2.

EARN CASHBACK EVERY TIME YOU SPEND AND GET £100’S A YEAR BACK! Check my iPhone to prevent huge data use.

If you’ve upgraded your iPhone to iOS 9, beware. It automatically turns on ‘Wi-Fi Assist’ which means if your WiFi connection’s weak it supplements it with pricey mobile data. If you think you’ve

started using data more quickly, this is likely why. To turn it off, go into Mobile Data in settings, then scroll down to turn ‘Wi-Fi Assist’ off.

couples to transfer a proportion of their personal allowance (the amount you can earn tax-free each tax year) between them. You’ll be eligible if:

Urgently check if you’re owed £100s after being mis-sold AI (Sentinel) protection.

Are you one of 2 million people who got a letter from the “The AI Scheme”? If so, it means you were mis-sold one of its Sentinal card protection plan policies via your bank. All you need to do is fill in the form to get a refund (free template to help atwww.mse.me/AI). Yet, unfortunately, many people thought the letters looked like spam and chucked them.

- You’re married or in a civil partnership - One of you earns £10,600 or less - The other is a basic 20% rate taxpayer - You were both born after 6 April 1935

Like Patrick who tweeted me nearly did: “Just got £313 from AI reclaim. If it wasn’t for your email I probably would have binned it.” If you think you got one, then call 0800 678 1930 to get another sent.

Check if you’re due up to £212/year with the marriage tax allowance.

If you’re married or in a civil partnership, you may be able to get up to £212 a year more in your pocket with the new marriage allowance. It’s a way for

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If so, you can shift £1,060 of their allowance to the other which means you don’t pay tax on it, a gain of £212.

Register atgov.uk/marriage-allowance.

Haggle every time you renew a contract.

Whether it’s broadband, or breakdown cover, you can hack down the price with a bit of haggling. The trick is to threaten to leave so you get put through to disconnections – actually known internally as ‘customer retentions’. Full tips to slash costs in www.mse.me/callcentrehaggle

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USEFUL NUMBERS

BIRTH, DEATH MARRIAGES REGISTRATION

01268 361350 POLICE Rayleigh Police Station HOSPITALS Brentwood Hospital Basildon Hospital Broomfield Hospital Essex Nuffield Hospital Queen’s Romford Southend Hospital Spire Hartswood Hospital HELPLINES Alcoholics Anonymous Childline DIAL Disability Helpline Drugline Essex In Focus (family disabilities support)

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BLOOD TEST 01245 256147 0800 11 11 11 01268 294400/1 01708 749151 01245 353575 0300 9991212 111 0808 8002222 08457 909090 01375 380609 0845 4565995 01268 541140

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ROAD & TRAVEL UPDATES Essex Travel www.bbc.co.uk/travelnews/essex COUNCILS Rochford District Council

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Rayleigh Town Council

01268 741880

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0870 6082608

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UTILITIES Anglian Water 0345 145145 Electricity – Power Supply Problems 0800 7838838 Gas – Urgent Calls / Gas Escapes 0800 111999 Minicom – Transco 0800 371787 Thames Water (Supply or Wastewater Services) 0845 9200800 Three Valleys Water 0345 823333 Water – Essex & Suffolk Water 01245 491234 VETS YourVets Vets4Pets Rochford Veterinary Surgery Downes Vets Medivet LIBRARIES Rayleigh

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