Local Living July 2020

July 2020 Issue 39

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Homes!

Welcome to the July issue of Local Living Hello July! I hope you’re all doing ok in these strange times. It’s fantastic to see lots of our local businesses opening back up. Please go and support them. It makes a huge difference to our local community.

As you will see on page 5 Local Living is up for sale. I feel, as I have another jewellery business, that I’d like to hand the reins over to someone new. If this could be you please get in touch.

Below are the latest updates from Wigan Council.

Please check the website for all the most up to date details. If you have any community stories or information for the next issue please send them over to contact@localliving.online.

Until next month please take care and stay safe.

Tracy x

A huge congratulations to Michelle Codling the winner of 5 passes to Toni Marie Yoga. In our June issue we asked you to nominate someone you felt deserved a treat.

This was the winning nomination we received from Aileen Pinna about Michelle “I would like to nominate my neice Michelle Codling. Michelle not only raises a lot of funds for the charities including Alzheimers and SANDS for families of babies born sleeping, she is always thinking of others before herself. She has cared for all her grandparents and her husbands family right up to them passing away. She continually is trying to raise awareness and funds for the home in which her only living grandparent resides. Michelle lost her own child baby Emma and had organised the biggest event so far at the sports Village but sadly due to Covid her event is postponed. She is always baking cakes and delivers birthday cakes to family members during lockdown to brighten someone's day”.

Congratulations Michelle We hope you enjoy your yoga sessions!

Covid 19 Updates from Wigan Borough Council If home isn’t a happy place for you, please know that you aren’t alone and there is help and support available. We’ve launched a new hub of resources which cover everything from money worries to mental health www.nwbh.nhs.uk

As thousands of people across Greater Manchester are returning to work as many businesses, shops and services reopen. It might be the first time in a while you have had to travel any distance and it’s important that you feel confident and safe when you do.

To make sure you can protect yourself and others around you, we want to give you the information and options you need to make smart travel choices - so our transport network is as safe as possible for those who people who rely on it. If you do have to travel by public transport, you must wear a face covering. It will be your responsibility to provide this.

Extension for discretionary business grant scheme We have extended the deadline so more businesses can apply for a government funded grant scheme.

More than £50m has been distributed to 5,000 firms across the borough since the start of the pandemic.

The extension pushes the deadline for the latest tranche of funding back until the end of June, as the original window only gave businesses two weeks in which to apply. https://www.wigan.gov.uk/Business/Business-Support/COVID-19Discretionary-Business-Grant.aspx

Alert level The Covid-19 alert level for the UK has been lowered from Level 4 (epidemic is in general circulation; transmission is high or rising exponentially) to Level 3 (epidemic is in general circulation).

The chief medical officers for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland say the move reflects the steady decrease in cases but have urged caution in that it does not mean the pandemic is over.

“The virus is still in general circulation, and localised outbreaks are likely to occur,” the CMOs said.

“We have made progress against the virus thanks to the efforts of the public and we need the public to continue to follow the guidelines carefully to ensure this progress continues.”

Treatment for coronavirus patients approved for NHS use Following clinical trials, an anti-inflammatory drug – dexamethasone – has been approved for use in UK hospitals for COVID-19 patients who require oxygen, including those on ventilators.

The trial showed the drug significantly reduced the risk of death for patients who required oxygen as a result of COVID-19.

Funded by the UK government, via the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the Oxford University UK RECOVERY trial is the first clinical trial anywhere in the world to show a treatment provides significant impact in reducing patient mortality.

Sick pay for care workers Local care workers who test positive with COVID-19 will receive full sick pay while they self-isolate.

As part of the initiative from the council, care workers will also receive backdated sick pay for COVID-19 related sickness absences.

Previously, carers were only entitled to the government statutory sick pay, but thanks to careful financial planning and utilising the government’s infection control fund, the council has developed a scheme to ensure this funding shortfall is met.

Free school meals The Government has announced a new £120 million voucher scheme- the ‘Covid summer food fund’- so children eligible for free school meals in term-time in England will now get a six-week voucher to support them during the summer holidays.

The decision follows a campaign from Manchester United player Marcus Rashford, who had called on the government to extend the scheme through the summer holidays.

A study by the British Trust for Ornithology had demonstrated that, since gardeners have been providing a good supply of food for their garden birds over the past 40 years, their populations have grown tremendously. The feeder tubes can be topped up with sunflower hearts, scatter dried mealworms on the lawn, and put mixed grain feed on the bird table. The result? The garden is alive with families of goldfinches, greenfinches, house sparrows and even starlings, a once abundant species whose population has crashed since the 1960s. Locally there are families of chaffinches and beautiful bullfinches (the pink, blue and black male is striking, and look for its white rump as if flies away, while his mate is also beautiful with a less gaudy, subtle coloration). Blue tits nest in the bird box, blackbirds and dunnocks (better known as the hedge sparrow) in hedges, robins and wrens in a compost heaps, and pairs of longtailed tits nested in a big Vibernum bodnantense with eight young leaving the nest. Highly recommended!

Vibernum bodnantense? Named after the National Trust Bodnant Garden in the Conwy Valley, this shrub has highly scented pink flowers in the winter and recommended for planting near the front or back door or by an oft-used path.

The only drawbacks of gardening in summer are plants running out of water in long dry and hot weather and the speed at which weeds grow. These are especially a pain if you go away for a week or two. .

Watering is especially crucial with plants grown in pots, hanging baskets and other containers. Most of us use peat-based composts and if you let them dry out they take time to get them well soaked. You can pour some water onto the compost, and it seems wet enough, for some starts flowing out of the drainage hole at the bottom. But scratch away the top inch, and the compost may be bone dry and the water that flowed out has run between container and the compost, none through the compost So if you have any container with peat compost that seems pretty dry, stand it in a bowl half full of water and over half an hour pour water into the top and keep on adding water every five minutes until the entire container has damp compost.

Even better: don’t use peat but instead use a soil-based compost and add water-retaining gel to the compost as you fill the pot (gel packet gives instructions).

As for weeding? Try to smother out the weeds by planting what you want to grow densely, and on open soil, hit the weeds before they flower and set seed.

If the weather is hot and dry, simply hoe and then let the weeds die on the surface. Let them grow and set seed once, and you have weeds for seven years, is an old saying.

Many summer flowering plants will flower through until the first frosts: things like roses, dahlias and other summer bedding. If you want the best, long show, it is important to dead-head these and to give them a little feed after the first lot of flowers is finished. You can buy rose fertiliser, ideal for all flowers: a handful scattered on the soil and shallowly hoed in after deadheading is ideal. When it comes to roses, don’t just take off the old flower, but cut back to a nice bud lower on the stem, and if you are dealing with a rose that produces several blooms at the end of a branch, wait till the last flower has faded. That bud will then quickly produce another flower or group of flowers.

MLSgardenservices

QUALITY LANDSCAPING, GARDEN MAINTENANCE, LAWN CARE AND JET WASHING, FENCE AND DECK SPRAYING

01942 731302 / 07927960281 MLSgardenservices

LOWTON Tuesdays 5:15pm & 7:15pm Tel Claire: 07725 039399 GOLBORNE Wednesday 9:30am; 11:30am; 3:00pm; 4:45pm & 7:00pm Tel Julie: 07584 037483 LOWTON Thursday 5 & 7pm Friday 9:15 & 11:15am Saturday 8:00am; 9:45am & 11:30am Tel Vicki 07941 482466

Contact us for individual details of all of our online sessions

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contact@localliving.online

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WITH A BIT OF ADULT HELP: Visit our facebook page to print off a set of time capsule sheets /locallivingonline

CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR GRADUATION FROM EVERYONE AT CHEEKY MONKEYS PLAYGROUP!

Historic Leigh business launches local centenary project

A Leigh business, which is celebrating its 100th birthday in 2020, is appealing to the people of Leigh to share local photos, footage and personal memories for a special centenary video.

George Moss & Sons Ltd has had a significant impact on the local area over the century, employing hundreds of workers and building many important properties and local landmarks, including Leigh Library, Leigh Market, Tyldesley Swimming Baths, and Leigh Grammar School.

It now owns Moss Industrial Estate on St. Helens Road.

The centenary video, to be released later this year, will capture how the local area has changed over the past 100 years, as well as the story of George Moss & Sons Ltd and the local people who have shaped it.

Today, the business is managed by the fifth generation of the family, Sebastian Moss. Earlier this year, Sebastian and his father, Philip Moss, worked with local school children to bury two time capsules; marking the start of its centenary.

When the business was first incorporated, in 1920, by Sebastian’s

Great Great Grandfather, George Moss, it was a joinery business serving the local area. The business continued to flourish despite the huge challenges it faced, such as mass unemployment and economic uncertainty from the Great Depression and World War II.

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During the War, then owner, William Moss, struck a deal with the War Department to acquire land on St. Helen’s Road in Leigh, in exchange for land it owned in Risley. George Moss & Sons Ltd then became an industrial property developer and building contractor.

Today, the site is known as Moss Industrial Estate and it has grown significantly over the years. The business now owns and manages over 620,000 sq. ft. of prime industrial property and is a thriving hub for local industry with over 100 business on site trading regionally, nationally and even globally.

Sebastian Moss, managing director at George Moss & Sons, said: “To mark our centenary, we want to show how much our area has changed over the last 100 years and reach out to local people to share their photos, stories and any footage they may have.

“If you have a story to tell or photos to share of Leigh and Lowton over the last 100 years, please send us an email to 100 years@georgemoss.co.uk. Also, if you have any videos or large files to share, we will send you instructions for how you can send these to us digitally. “Alternatively, if you have memories or anecdotes, please email them to the same address, along with your contact details and the name, age and job of the person who’s account it is.

“We can’t wait to bring this important slice of local history to life in a special video to celebrate 100 years of George Moss & Sons in Leigh. It will be a very special keepsake and an important local resource which we look forward to sharing later this year.”

Garden Maintenance and landscape services GARDENING WITH PRIDE Highly experienced landscaping team and Offering a lovely selection of healthy, beautiful plants to get your garden Bloomin' Call the Bloomin' Nursery. If you are isolated and need help with essential shopping or any day to day support during the corona outbreak

www.thebloominnursery.co.uk www.facebook.com/Bloomgolborne Call 07305062629 Mark

The Bloomin Nursery are pleased to announce they are now proud sponsors of Newton Le Willows FC women's and men's teams They have also donated hanging baskets that are hanging up along Golborne High Street

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ARCHITECT SERVICES Lowton based architect for your property conversion designs including submission to local authorities for planning and building regulation consideration. Excellent service with quality drawings at competitive prices. Ring Gavin Pinion at Goldcrest Design Services Ltd on 01942 729832 or 07958102874 www.carpetcleanerswarrington.com ELECTRICAL SAFETY CERTIFICATES City and guilds qualified electrician with over 20 years experience in testing and inspection. Landlord safety certificates, buying/selling houses, insurance compliance. Excellent service at very competitive prices. Call Neil 07563302290 or email njtelectrical@sky.com ELITE WINDOW CLEANING SERVICES Hot pure water, pole system window cleaning. Internal, external, soffits, facias, gutters, conservatories, garage doors, solar panels, pvc cladding, dormers. For a free quote Call 07395559000 ROOFING Time served roofer. (25 yrs exp). All roofing and gutter repairs from a broken tile to a full re roof. Insurance work undertaken, special rates for OAP’s. Call Alan on 01942 576183 or 07930 110031 for free estimate

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Specialist in the re-upholstery of Settees, Easy Chairs, Dining Chairs etc. Headboards recovered and made to order. Spring repairs etc. Do you need new foam cushion? Pubs, Clubs, Caravans recovered etc. 40 years In the trade. Workmanship guaranteed. Free Estimates. Call David on 01942729978 www.atlasupholstery.co.uk JROOFING Slating/Tiling/Leadwork/Fascias/ Extensions/Guttering/Cladding/Pointing/ Chimney Removals. FREE ESTIMATES*FULLY INSURED. Mobile; 07467 578561 or 07539 884817. Follow us on facebook /JROOFING

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