Hereford & Worcester Fire & Rescue Service are looking for on call firefighters (retained duty system) across the Herefordshire and Worcestershire counties.
The job requires you to live or work within five minutes of a call and all recruits must be 18 or over. Currently there are vacancies for on call firefighters in Herefordshire & Worcestershire, including at Hereford, Bewdley, Tenbury Wells, Leominster, Leintwardine, Kington, Eardisley, Ewyas Harold, Fownhope, Kingsland and Peterchurch.

Trainee firefighters receive an annual retainer of £2,090 plus extra pay for attending call outs, and when fully trained can earn up to £8,000 a year. The service is looking to recruit enthusiastic men and women from all walks of life, with common sense, compassion, sensitivity, discretion and diplomacy in the role of firefighter.

Rob Ball, Station Manager said “On call firefighters are in need throughout our two counties and these awareness sessions are a wonderful opportunity to find out more about the work of the on call firefighter and our service in general. The role of on call firefighter is challenging and extremely rewarding and they provide a vital service for the community.

To apply you will need to attend one of the awareness sessions at Hereford Fire Station on Monday February 8, at 7pm or on February 23, at 7pm, Bewdley Fire Station on February 10 at 7.00pm or Tenbury Fire Station on February 16 at 6.30pm.

A Community Owned Renewable
Energy Project for Leominster
Exciting plans are afoot to provide Leominster with its own community owned and operated power plant producing renewable energy.

‘Project LeAD’ (Leominster Anaerobic Digester) aims to create an Anaerobic Digester suitable for processing biomass from agriculture such as grass and grass silage, food processing waste, cider-making waste, and food waste from schools, hospitals, pubs and restaurants, thus producing biogas.

The biogas will be used to produce electricity and also heat (as hot water) through a Combined Heat and Power scheme (CHP), which could be piped to Leominster’s hospital, schools and leisure centre, reducing their heating bills and lowering the town’s carbon footprint. The biogas could also power a local bus service.

Electricity will be sold to the National Grid, especially valuable as it is from a renewable energy source.

The only by-products of the process are a liquid fertiliser and a soil improver which can be used by local farmers, gardeners and allotment holders.

Other benefits include: a community project that will encourage co-operative action within the local community, an ethical and local
opportunity for investment, a reduction of carbon emissions, and a community fund for local projects.

LeAD is being developed as a Towards Transition Leominster project and will be a community co-operative: local people will own and operate the plant. We are working closely with Energy4All who have set up 7 successful renewable energy co-ops around the country. Members of the co-op can invest in the plant and will receive interest on their investment: we aim to do better than a savings account over time. There are also significant tax incentives for some investors.

If we can bring 1,000 local people together, as stakeholders, we can negotiate a better tariff from one of the renewable energy suppliers. This would mean a 10 -15% reduction in members’ electricity bills.

We are holding a public meeting to explain more about this exciting project on Thursday, 28th January, 7.30pm at The Royal Oak, Leominster.
If you would like to become a shareholder, a feedstock supplier, or would like more information, please come to the meeting or contact one of the following:

Jay Abrahams This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it (technical)
Philippa Roberts This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it (Planning)
Felicity Norman This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it (Community)

Setting your Challenges for 2010
As we begin this month in 2010, have we kept to our new year’s resolutions and good intentions?
I have always had a desire to run in the London Marathon since watching it on TV some years ago.
Yes this is the year of setting Challenges; I am now training for the 2010 Virgin London Marathon.
I have chosen to raise money for Children in Crisis, established in 1993 in the UK to give children in some of the world’s poorest countries the education they need to help transform their lives.
With reading this Article I am hoping to stir up some enthusiasm for you to challenge yourselves and making a difference in your life and someone else.
As I have clearly set out my goal for this year, I would also hope that you could support me in my endeavour, I have set up an online email link to donate to this worthy Charity.
I wish you all the very best in your Challenges and goals this year.
Regards
Matthew Farrell

Links for online donations
www.justgiving.com In Sponsor a friend put in Matthew Farrell and you will arrive on my page.

Also Canon Pyon Post Office ask for Details for sponsor form.

My email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Matthew Farrell of Farrells Decor, Canon Pyon.

Local to Leominster wishes everyone a Happy and Prosperous New Year for 2010.

Whatever happened to the tea-time of my childhood? For my brothers and me, It was the greatest time of the day. In those civilised schooldays,dinner-time’ (no fancy ‘lunch’ for us working-class Northerners) lasted two hours, so school didn’t finish until 4-4.30, when we rushed home, ravenous, for tea. at 5. With seven children, a bus-driver’s wage didn’t allow for anything fancy for tea during the week, just lots of bread-and-butter and jam. My poor mother was hardly back to the bread-board before the first plateful had vanished and my greedy brothers were calling for more. And it was always butter – my mother would have no truck with margarine, ‘maggie-ann’ in the
Merseyside vernacular. We would have had no difficulty in telling Stork from butter!
Sunday tea-time was very different, the highlight of the week. Unusually for that era, my father did the baking on Sunday, producing buns, sandwich cake and our favourites, Cocoa Krispies, made with Rice Krispies, cocoa, sugar and butter. First though, we had tinned fruit and ‘evap.’ – called ‘cream’ by pretentious neighbours. I loved fruit and evap.(and still do) but for some strange disciplinary reason, bread-and-butter had to be eaten with it, spoiling the effect for me. and I have never combined them since.
Returning home very late one day, I explained to my distraught parents
that I’d had to take shelter from an escaped tiger near Tranmere Rovers
football ground (true, strange as it may seem) My younger brothers were totally unimpressed by this thrilling saga but their envy was loudly proclaimed by my account of the tea that I’d had earlier, at an affluent school-friend’s before my adventure.
“Cor, chocolate biscuits! And a whole glassful of milk! It’s not fair, our Nance gets all the treats,just because she’s the only girl!”
The most delicious tea-times I remember were at Castle Cliffe in Hereford, once the Bridewell. If Con, the owner, befriended you, tea-time was a standing invitation – and what a tea! That archetypal English delicacy, cucumber sandwiches, or perhaps thin bread-and-butter and home-made jam, followed by scones with jam and cream, gingerbread, Victoria sponge and the richest of chocolate cakes. The tea,of course, was Earl Grey in delicate china teacups. This, plus Con’s gentle conversation, against a view of the river through wide windows, glows in my memory as the perfect tea-time.
So what has happened to tea-time? For many children, it seems to be a
packet-snack or two, just a stop-gap between school and supper on a tray in front of the television. What a delight they are missing!

Throughout the year, I have always provided food for the birds that flock to my garden but was unaware until recently how vital this is owing to conditions which have affected natural food supplies. Apparently, at this time of year, with fledglings still needing to be fed, garden birds are having to work twice as hard to find food, and I am doing my best to provide it.
Somerfleld often have marked-down loaves and other suitable items and
Wholefoods of Leominster stock excellent food mixes in various amounts at very reasonable prices, so feeding the birds need not break the bank.
Three times a day, I put out bread and seeds at several location in my
garden and I’m rewarded immediately by the spectacle of many different kinds of birds descending upon them. Especially popular is a treat that my grandsons, when young, named ‘bird pudding’: discarded containers into which margarine, or other cheap spread, is melted and into which seeds are then been thoroughly mixed.
Believe me, the pleasure that the birds give me is well worth the
additions to my budget – perhaps later I can harvest the legacy of last year’s spilled seed: a ripening crop of wheat, barley and various other unidentified items near the hanging-feeder …

In last week’s leading letter, Brian Caldicutt expressed admirably and
comprehensively the reasons why so many of us feel frustrated at the way the Herefordshire county council is run.
I will not repeat in detail my earlier description of the way that council business was conducted before the infamous cabinet system was introduced. Sufficient to say that the system then allowed every councillor the right, in full Council, to question decisions made in the various committees and, with the support of fellow-councillors, to amend or even defeat them. Now, it appears, the Lords in Cabinet make all the decisions and hard-working members, including our own local representatives, appear powerless to change them. Indeed, one wonders if they are even made aware of these decisions before they are implemented.
This, as Mr. Caldicutt points out, is the very negation of democracy.
Many of the councillors whom we have elected to speak for us appear no longer to have a voice, which means that we,the voters of Herefordshire, no longer have any say in decisions which affect our finances, our environment and the education of our children. It is lunacy that in Herefordshire - arguably one of the least wealthy counties in the country – the council’s Chief Executive should rank in the list of the top ten highest paid, and not by any means at the bottom of that list.
Until Mr. Caldicutt revealed it, I am sure that many of us were unaware
that we do, in fact, have the power to curb the power of the ruling elite, the Cabinet members. If ten percent of us petition for the Cabinet system to be dissolved, the law allows for this – so let’s get that petition underway and bring democracy back to the county.

We have now introduced a photo album of images from around the County and neighbouring Counties.The photos show our stunning countryside, celebrations and our towns and villages.These will be updated often but we invite you to upload any images you may have for others to enjoy.It always helps visitors to see images of what we have to offer.
We are also looking for anyone who would like to contribute to the website especially on the gardening and food theme.
Maybe you have some favourite recipes you would like to share.

Some years ago, following advice on a Channel 4 programme, I reported certain symptoms to my doctor, the late Andrew Reed, who had the admirable quality of giving credence to his patients’ own knowledge. The result was a swift referral to a specialist, a twenty-minute operation, treatment at intervals over nine months – and problem sorted. Recently, I was again alerted by the media and I pass on this advice: if you have any small facial lesion, seemingly innocuous but which doesn’t not seem to heal, do tell your doctor about it. In my case, the problem was soon identified as potentially dangerous but early diagnosis and treatment will remove the threat.
Because of this and other stressful events, this week’s column will be a very personal paean of gratitude and a tribute several people who have helped and supported me over recent days. First of all, Dr. Andrew Senior who, as with Dr. Reed, gives the utmost respect to his patients’ concerns and acts swiftly if they prove valid.
Norfolk House and its staff have created a caring and supportive ambience and provide a corrective view to horror stories about care-homes that appear so often in the media. It would normally be invidious to single out one carer but during a crisis over the weekend, Madeleine went way beyond the call of duty in providing support and offering assistance at a very worrying time.
Lifestyles, too, provide a wonderful service of extra care to the vulnerable elderly and thanks to the vigilance of carer Alison Knott and her supervisor, a potentially serious problem has been identified.
Those readers who, like me, have become almost Internet addicts, will understand my dismay when my connection failed at the weekend and a call to my provider, AOL, failed to solve the problem. When I was passed on to the company who provide AOL’s routers, I baulked at the quoted charge of 50p a minute and, instead, made an urgent plea to Jon Rudge of Elm Computers (01568-614999). Without hesitation, Jon promised a speedy visit and, indeed, was here by 6 p.m. on Saturday evening and his magic touch promptly restored the Internet connection. Then, as I had been having numerous other problems with my computer, he worked on it again on Sunday, and hey presto! my sulky machine is now working swiftly and happily. Thank you, Jon.
We have all, I’m sure, suddenly realised that we have missed marking an important birthday, but when this happened to me last week, Posies of Leominster in the High street(01568-612132) provided an admirable solution. Ordered by ‘phone about 11 a.m., the delighted recipient rang me at 1 p.m., full of praise for the quality of the bouquet that had arrived on her actual birthday.
Small kindnesses by strangers are especially heart-warming and so my thanks to the very kind gentleman who, on Monday, carried two heavy bags of bird-seed to my car, some distance away in West Street. Thank you from me and the voracious army of birds that throng my garden feeding-station throughout the day.
And thank you, my editor and my tolerant readers for allowing me to convey my thanks in print to these well-deserved recipients.

Sent to Local to Leominster Wednesday 29th April 2009.

Hi Adrienne

Thought I should mention a scam that seems to have come to Leominster. A leaflet through the door this morning from SHC Collections is asking for unwanted clothing, bedding, shoes, handbags, belts, cosmetics, towels, underwear and perfumes, ‘to be sent to the third world’. They masquerade as a charity but aren’t, they are a limited company, and cursory searching on the net has revealed they are active all over the country and doubtless some people fall for it, although they should wonder what poor people in the third world need with handbags, cosmetics and perfume!

They are clearly selling what they get, and just perhaps, a tiny percentage is given to a charity [some leaflets apparently have cuddly kittens on the front!]. I don’t know if it’s actually illegal and the police can investigate, although where they are based seems a mystery, and when they will pick up from houses is just given as Friday 8am, for Leominster. An email address given on the leaflet apparently elicits no reply.

This is such blatant taking advantage of people’s good nature and desire to help the less fortunate, and is doubtless a money making venture. I shall take a walk round town on Friday with my camera in the hope I can spot them. They say to put stuff out before 8am, so clearly plan on collecting before most people are out and about.

It might help if you were to place a warning on your site to alert people to the true nature of this.

Best wishes

Peter

On searching the internet it appears that these leaflets are appearing all over the country. They are a limited company not a registered charity. Unless the leaflet shows the full details of the charity and gives a bona fide charity number then it should be assumed that the organisation is collecting the goods for profit.A very small ammount may go to charity.
If you wish to donate goods then there are many charity shops in Leominster who would be only too willing to take your items.