Around town magazine rayleigh edition february 2016

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CONTENTS 8 Mark Francois 10 Recipe 13 St. Luke’s Hospice 15 Nature Notes 16 A View from the Church 18 Martin Lewis 21 Around Town Sports 24 The Cook Report 25 Know Your Tradesmen 26 Rotary Club / Lions Club 27 Useful Numbers Political Update

WI Christmas Recipe

Good Neighbours Scheme

EWT Volunteer Neil Sumner

11

14

Rev. Mike Lodge

Money Saving Expert

Focuses on Basketball

Get Out and About Around Town

Sealing Technique

Organisations Around Town

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

23 Edition 27 To advertise contact our Sales Team today, details below. Booking deadline for our February edition is: Monday 15th February 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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in Rayleigh and the surrounding area.

The deficit is coming down, unemployment is continuing to fall, both inflation and mortgage rates are at or near record lows while the economy is continuing to grow at an annual rate in excess of two per cent.

MARK FRANCOIS ConservativeParliamentary MP for Rayleigh & Wickford

As we enter a New Year the economic recovery is continuing across the country, including

We have seen some of this growth in Rayleigh, with the arrival of the Marks and Spencer outlet at the new garage on London Road and the new arrival shortly of an M&S Food Hall on the old Co-op site on Eastwood Road, close to the town centre.

A new Pizza Express has

also opened in the High Street and in the first floor space above it Mike Davies and his team at the Friends of the Museum are making positive progress towards the opening of a new town museum in the spring of 2016. I believe this could be a real asset for Rayleigh, both in terms of education and tourism and I wish this exciting project every success.

Economically we are not out of the woods yet but it is pleasing to see so much progress being made in our town and I wish all the townsfolk and our local businesses a very Happy New Year.

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St. Luke’s Hospice Written By Hannah Futcher

Good Neighbours Scheme Launched

by St. Luke’s Hospice Deeply embedded in our community is our local hospice – St. Luke’s: It has been the active support and voluntary giving of time and money by local people that has developed St. Luke’s into the wonderful organisation we have today, available for us all to use.

The same ethos of “good old fashioned community spirit” – everyone helping everyone else as best we can - is now being generated again as the Hospice launches a new ‘Good Neighbours Scheme’ Hannah Futcher, from St. Luke’s explains “The Hospice has identified that there are people we are caring for who live in the local Billericay area, possibly one of your neighbours, who need some practical help. They may need someone to just pop round

for a chat, make them a cup of tea, maybe get some shopping or collect a prescription, or mow the grass.

We are starting a ‘Good Neighbours’ scheme, to help with these everyday practical tasks, and are asking if people who live in the Billericay area can give just one hour or more of time each week to volunteer with us and help. Our aim is that as well as giving people we care for quality clinical care we will also be able to support them in practical ways too”.

The ‘Good Neighbours Scheme’ is fully supported by St. Luke’s Hospice with training and mentoring available to anyone who volunteers. Hannah added “Volunteering can be a very rewarding experience and gifting time to your own community by doing something that will have a direct impact on people’s lives can make a positive difference to your own life too!”

For more information or an informal chat please contact: Hannah Futcher on 01268 524973 email: hannahfutcher@stlukeshospice.co.uk

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Nature Notes

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Written by Neil Sumner

• Tree Pruning • Shaping • Precision Felling • Thinning • Stump Grinding • Ground Maintenance • Dead Wooding

Neilsumner123@aol.com twitter.com/neilsumner123 On a road west of Chelmsford, the flora gives the landscape a look that is untypical of Essex. The verges are dominated by ferns, gorse and wispy birches, the trees behind them are sometimes old and gnarled. Then you come to an open area, where trees have been felled on dark soil. But this felling is not for housing or road widening – it is to recreate heathland, a rare habitat in Essex today. In the 18th century you could all travel through heath all the way from Colchester to Maldon. Now all that remains in that area is Tiptree Heath, just 25 hectares but a delightful site to visit. It is the only place in Essex where you can find Allseed and Chaffeed and all three heather species growing together.

Heathland needs constant care to control the scrub and remove secondary woodland to allow heather and fine heathland grasses to return. Scrub and woodland are good habitats too; it is the mix of habitats which gives us diversity. Heathland restoration is also ongoing at Birch, Galleywood and Laindon Common near Billericay.

I am in Backwarden, owned by the National Trust and managed by Essex Wildlife Trust. This is in a mosaic of nature reserves, Sites of Special Scientific interest and Local Wildlife Sites collectively known as Danbury Ridge and featuring ancient woodlands, wildflower meadows, heaths and watersides. A partnership of organisations has a vision for the area and EWT are today running a work party with volunteers to help with the heathland restoration.

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Barry, the volunteer warden, has been working painstakingly on the site for 20 years. He tells of the special species he wants to provide for: the Green Tiger Beetle, the Emperor Moth (he holds up a finger to illustrate the size of one of its caterpillars), the Adders; and the Willow Warblers which arrive in Spring when the site is full of bright Yellow Brimstone butterflies which relish the growths of Alder Buckthorn.

But Spring is a way off, so today we hear and see only birds, including a restless flock of wintering Redwings, a passing Buzzard being mobbed by a crow and in the woods the fluted ‘phu’ of a Bullfinch. The Reserve Manager explains how the habitats will develop, with corridors of heath and coppice between the woods. He shows us a large pond which has all 3 newt species. The rushes have to be controlled as, in time, birch seeds will take root and this area too will turn to scrub then woodland. In the purely natural world, these habitats form, disappear and re-form elsewhere but in the modern world where man has shaped the land and controls the waterways then it is only by management that we can provide the habitats for all to enjoy.

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Revd Canon Mike Lodge

A leap of faith…

We can often hear people say, ‘I wish I had more time…!’ Well, this year, we have all been given more time; an extra 24 hours or, if you really want to count them, 1440 minutes!! Yes, we are in a Leap Year, with the Leap Day added to our Calendars at the end of February, Monday 29th to be precise!

But what exactly is a Leap Year? Leap Days are needed to keep our calendar in alignment with the Earth’s revolutions around the Sun. It takes the Earth approximately 365.242199 days (a tropical year) to circle once around the Sun. If we didn’t add a day on 29th February nearly every 4 years, we would lose almost six hours every year. After only 100 years, our calendar would be off, or out of synchronisation, by approximately 24 days in relation to the seasons!The ancient Roman calendar added an extra month every few years to maintain the correct seasonal changes. Julius Caesar implemented a new calendar – the Julian calendar – in 45 BC, with an extra day added every 4 years. At that time, Leap Day was 24thFebruary, and February was the last month of the year.

Leap Day, as a concept, has existed for more than 2000 years, and is still associated with age-old traditions, folklore and superstition. A long time ago, Leap Day was known as Ladies’ Day, as it was the one day when women were free to propose to men. This still remains one of the most popular known traditions!

According to folklore, in a Leap Year, the weather always changes on Friday. I will leave you to research and record your findings to see if this folklore or urban myth remains intact! And did you

know, a person who is born on 29thFebruary may be called a ‘Leapling’ or a ‘Leap Year Baby’. In non-leap years, some ‘Leaplings’ celebrate their birthday either 28thFebruary or 1st March, while others only observe birthdays on the authentic ‘intercalary’ date of29th February…

Back to the subject of the additional time we have this year, how will we spend these minutes and hours at our disposal? We don’t necessarily have to do anything, but we could use the time to think about others, especially those who lead our country and others around the world; important issues that can affect us, but we don’t often have the time to consider such things. Scan the news to remind yourself which leaders are currently in the headlines and spend time thinking about the decisions they are making. I can’t help thinking how different the world might be if they were making godly, rather than worldly-wise or political, decisions, which is why I believe it’s important to pray for them, asking God to guide them in all the decisions they make;decisions leading to peace and justice in the world.

We don’t have to think only about the leaders of our nations, but closer to home consider our own lives, situations and the decisions that we make that may affect others around us and in our community. Perhaps a time to be courageous in gaining a deeper understanding about faith; to be open to what this might mean to us, especially the unconditional love that God has for each of us, individually and uniquely, through the message of good news that is brought to us in the life of Jesus?Do you remember the classic TV series ‘Yes, Minister’? Weak politician James Hacker could be steered away from any undesirable policy by the utterance of six simple words from his scheming senior civil servant Sir Humphrey, ‘That’s a very courageous decision, Minister.’What will you do courageously with your extra day this year?Astronaut Neil Armstrong’s words on first setting foot on the moon, on 20 July 1969,were ‘One small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind’. In responding to God will you take one small step, possibly leading to one giant leap of faith?

Yours in the love of Jesus.

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CHEAP TRAINS, DRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES Some folksdrive a lot for various reasons be it business or personal, here a few tip to help cut the cost of travel.

of carriage – the only rule is that the train must call at the stations you buy tickets for.

Free tank of fuel via extreme couponing trick.

If you’re planning a big spend at any one of 50+ retailers (including House of Fraser, Homebase and PC World), buy the gift card in Morrisons and you get 1p/litre off fuel per £10 spend. So £100 gets 10p off and £1,000ish gets a free tank.

For example, a single from Manchester to Cornwall costs £158, but the train stops at Cheltenham Spa. Buy a £52 ticket from Manchester to Cheltenham Spa, then a £58 one from there to Cornwall and the total’s £110. That’s the same train, the same time – possibly even the same seat.

The real trick isn’t to use them as gifts, but that if you’re planning a big purchase in that store anyway, first pop into Morrisons and buy the gift card.

Then a few days later, once it’s active, go and use it to buy your planned purchase, giving you a potentially whopping petrol discount. There’s a full list of retailers and more info at: www.morrisonsfuelsaver.co.uk.

Turn your heating down, but not off if you’re going away If it gets cold, no heating risks burst pipes. So much so that some insurers won’t cover you for damage if your home’s unoccupied for more than five days and you turned the heating off.

The rule of thumb is keep it to a minimum 14 degrees.

Buying two tickets for one train journey can save you £100s Split ticketing makes about as much sense as Chewbacca, but it works. It’s where you buy tickets for a journey’s constituent parts separately to slash the price. It’s allowed by the conditions

To help find if you can do this for your journey, use my free TicketySplit tool atmse.me/ticketysplit. As Justine tweeted me: “Genius - tickety split has just saved me £50, no effort, exact same journey.”

PETROL PRICES NOW UNDER £1/LITRE IN SOME PLACES Cheap boiler cover - you don’t need to stick with your energy firm Boiler cover is a free market, yet energy firms like you to think you need to stick with them. You don’t. While British Gas charges £12/month, you may be able to get similar cover for as little as £6. My quick tips: a) Renters usually don’t need it, as their landlord’s likely responsible. Check. b) Ensure you know what cover you need. Choose between boiler-only, the cheaper option that covers your boiler and its controls, or central heating cover, which includes full central heating cover on top (including radiators, pipes, etc).

c) To find the cheapest, compare prices viauSwitch.com and add inEnergyhelpline.com if you’ve time.

travel. A local delivery firm is sent out, and you pay then send in receipts to get the cost back.

Get a year’s breakdown cover for £17.

If your car has had trouble during the winter season, it can be costly to pay it back in the Spring. Thankfully, if you know what you’re doing you can get super cheap cover. There are four things you need to know:

Do you know where your stopcock is?

No nudge nudge wink wink needed.

Everyone should know where their stopcock – mains water tap – is. Frozen pipe bursts create an average £4,000 of damage, made worse if you can’t find the off switch as your home floods.

So be prepared.

- If you’re renewing, haggle. 84% of AA and 76% of RAC customer who tried reported success.

- If you’re new then for basic cover use a cashback site. A standard RAC policy is £28 online and an AA policy £35, but sites like Topcashback.co.uk and Quidco.com give around £10-£15 back so the effective cost to you is £18ish. This usually works, though do note the cashback isn’t 100% guaranteed.

- If you have Tesco clubcard points you can swap them in for RAC cover, so £16 of vouchers gives you basic breakdown.

- For full service, Autoaidbreakdown. co.uk is a pay and reclaim policy for £42/ year, which covers you and your spouse for home start, breakdown and onward

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Under the kitchen sink’s a very common place. To locate yours, Thames Water has a helpful video atthameswater.co.uk/ help-and-advice/13526.htm Can you find sub-£1/litre petrol?

Petrol prices are now under £1/ litre in some places, but the range is huge. UsePetrolprices.com to find your cheapest, nearest forecourt. The difference even within one post code is 10%. It’s an easy check to fill up on savings.

BASKETBALL The huge American sport sells out the O2 once a year when two teams play one of their conference games here in London. Much like when American football is town, we seem to swarm round the rare occurrence of an elite level American sport being on our shores.

Much like Netball, I would put a wager on Basketball being one of the most played sports in our schools.

I found that Football, Rugby and Basketball dominated. However, the English Basketball league has failed to find its place within our sporting schedules, whether it be tuning in on television or looking to play in a local league.

I have spoken to a local Basketball enthusiast who has been giving me his view on it.

Why do you think that Basketball doesn’t make the transition from schools to adult life here in the UK? I know there are places you can play, but surely we would expect more interest due to regular contact with it in school?

Yes I agree that is played regularly in schools, however it was not always coached to any sort of level. At most schools there will be a football coach and a rugby coach, maybe both, however Basketball was always just played with an idea of how to play. It is a very technical sport, with plays and formation and due to the teaching not being available it means that it is not taken up by the majority.

I also believe that it is not the most inclusive sport in this country. Whilst we have the sports halls and

facilities, there is rarely a place where spectators can go watch. We do not have the stadiums in our primary schools unlike America.

NBA is harder to watch on television is seems, NFL has taken over our Sky channels, is this affecting the popularity?

Yes, absolutely! The NBA in my opinion produces the most entertainment in any sport, fast paced and exciting, however access to any games is becoming harder. Also when the Olympics is on, as Britain do not have a team of note, it isn’t shown.

Lack of exposure here, means less people will play.

Where can I play locally?

There are certainly places to play, but very few leagues are still going. The Essex Leopards play regularly in Brentwood and Harlow. If you are looking to play at a higher level or just want to follow a local team then I recommend you visit their website. However, those amateurs wanting to play would need to book time slots at local sports halls.

Basketball is a global sport; however it has a long way to go here in the UK. It seems strange to think something like the NFL where the cost of playing is substantial and compared to Basketball where all we would need is a ball, trainers, shorts, a top and a hoop.

Check out the below website if interested in seeing your local team. http://www.leopardsbasketball.co.uk

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

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23

The

Cook Report Written By Jo Cook

Escaping winter Around Town for the crazy motorbike filled streets of Vietnam and the tragic and beautiful Cambodia As Basildon man Adrian Besly returns home to a cup of tea after an epic seven-month around the world trip by bicycle, your Around Town journalist has been having some overseas adventures of her own, spending three weeks touring Vietnam and Cambodia.

My friend and I left for Vietnam on 26 December. What an experience it was, seeing cultures and learning about histories so far apart from our own lives back in Essex. When we arrived in Hanoi, our senses were amazed; roads filled twenty deep with motorcyclists, carrying whole families (babies and children), tropical fruit and even furniture! Locals drinking beers and cooking dinner on the pavement, sitting on tiny tables and chairs, and filling the air with an enticing and exotic aroma, which for us would become synonymous with Vietnam. After spending a couple of nights in Hanoi and visiting beautiful Halong Bay, we headed down the coast, visiting the old capital Hue, then Hoi An with its magical night lanterns and charming markets, before arriving in Vietnam’s present capital, Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon.

Ho Chi Minh City gave us the opportunity to learn about Vietnam’s rich and

24

complex history, with visits to the War Remnants Museum and the Cu Chi Tunnels. There we met our Cambodian guide to head across the border to Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital, a little, but not quite fully prepared for the shocking things we would learn about the country’s tragic past when we arrived there.

One of the most striking things about Cambodia when you visit, outside of the poverty, is the warmth, honesty and strength of the local people.

Here is a society, which having been through war and dictatorship, and seen an entire generation wiped out by genocide, is determined to share their story to warn future generations. At the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, my friend and I were lucky enough to meet Mr Chum Mey, survivor of the Tuol Sleng prison. Imprisoned in Tuol Sleng for two years, enduring daily torture, Mr Chum Mey now sits outside the prison almost every day to meet tourists and visitors to educate them about the awful suffering he and thousands of other Cambodians experienced at the hands of Khmer Rouge. With a visit to The Choeung Ek Genocidal Centre (The Killing Fields) to follow, it was safe to say, we were overwhelmed.

From Phnom Penh we travelled on to Siem Reap, gateway to the famous Angkor Wat, with a couple of pit stops (deep fried tarantulas and a floating village!) to enjoy along the way. Late nights on Pub Street and early mornings visiting temples (including Angkor Wat at sunrise) followed, before our final stop at our guide’s hometown, Battambang.

We visited a local killing field, which is the spot where our guide and his family have chosen to remember his late father, also executed by Khmer Rouge, before riding a bamboo train and watching the beautiful sunset over the Cambodian countryside. We were most definitely captivated.

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Using the best materials available throughout the whole of Europe has also helped Lionel build up a trustworthy reputation with his loyal customer base.

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Lionel Coulson, 58, is the proud director of ‘Sealing Technique’, a company that specialises in the cleaning and sealing of driveways and patios. After starting the business 6 years ago, Lionel is dedicated to providing excellent customer satisfaction and completing a professional and quality job.

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25

RAYLEIGH LIONS CLUB Annual Charity Quiz Night At the Hullbridge Community Centre, Pooles Lane, Hullbridge, Essex SS5 6PA (Free car park adjacent - entrance in Ferry Road) Friday 26th February 2015 7:30pm for 8pm start.

First Prize of £300 to go the winning teams nominated charity with £200 for 2nd and £100 for 3rd £5 per player Maximum of six in a team There is a bar - you can bring your own nibbles For more information/application forms visit www.rayleighlions.org.ukor contact 01268 778299 Lion Irene to register your team

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.

26

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USED FURNITURE collected & sold

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27

INTRODUCING THE NEW

FORD MONDEO VIGNALE The Ford Mondeo Vignale is more than a car. It’s a lifestyle. A wealth of options are available for your consideration and every element is designed to maximise your precious time.

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Official fuel consumption figures in mpg (l/100km) for the Ford Mondeo Vignale Range: urban 2.8-10.4 (100.9-27.2), extra urban 4.1-5.9 (68.9-47.9), combined 4.2-7.6 (67.3-37.2). Official CO2 emission 117-179g/ km. The mpg figures quoted are sourced from official EU-regulated test results (EU Directive and Regulation 692/2008), are provided for comparability purposes and may not reflect your actual driving experience.