On this week in Clenchwarton, Downham Market, Fakenham, Gaywood, King’s Lynn, Hunstanton, St Germans and Swaffham: September 24-30, 2010
On this week: September 24 – 30, 2010
Residents at St Germans are celebrating after their post office reopened 20 months after it was forced to close due to lack of a postmaster. The village post office is now back in business at its new location, the Memorial Hall on School Road, from 9am-1pm, Monday to Saturday. When the previous business failed to sell as a going concern, it seemed to signal the end of a post office in the village. But determined residents formed the St Germans Post Office action group and persuaded the Post Office to open a new branch at the Memorial Hall. Even then there were delays as two prospective postmasters withdrew at the last minute before Christine Underwood came forward to take up the vacant position.
Hunstanton’s Princess Theatre has been saved for the community by a magic wand waved by the owners of Lynn’s Majestic Cinema, C and R Cinemas. If all goes well, the new regime will be in place in January, promising continuance of live theatre as well as cutting-edge digital and 3D cinema at the 474-seat venue. The future of the theatre had been in doubt since February when West Norfolk Council started looking at cost-cutting measures following a massive drop in government funding of between 25 and 40 per cent.
Police are stepping up patrols in parts of Gaywood where local residents have reported increased anti-social behaviour. Officers will be paying extra attention to areas including the Dutton Pavilion at River Lane, Gaywood Community Hall and outside Tesco’s in St Faith’s Drive. There have been reports of under-age drinking, littering and youths causing criminal damage.
Seven-year-old Brandon Shirley, from Clenchwarton, spent a day busking in Hunstanton and raised £90.68p for the Bridge for Heroes charity. He took his child-sized piano, complete with his own sign asking for donations, and sat outside a chip shop and started playing. Brandon became passionate about the cause last year when he was making poppies at school, going home to make even more poppies which he sold to neighbours to raise money for the charity.
Cracks in the structure have forced the imminent closure of Fakenham Community Centre. The building in Oak Street is owned by Norfolk County Council, but leased to North Norfolk District Council which allows the centre’s community association to rent it. Structural engineers report that the supporting walls are failing to hold the roof securely and advise that remedial work starts immediately.
KL.FM has welcomed Adam Newstead and Hannah Griffiths to the airwaves, with Adam taking up the role of presenter for the new breakfast show and Hannah as the news reporter. “Adam and Hannah at Breakfast” will start on October 4, when Simon Rowe will switch from his usual breakfast slot to cover the Drive Time show from 3pm-7pm. The radio station has also announced it will be sponsoring the West Norfolk Sports Awards, with a glittering ceremony to be held at Lynn Town Hall next February.
A meeting of West Norfolk Council’s cabinet scrutiny committee was attended by 60 people, some wearing black in protest against a proposal to move art galleries at Lynn Arts Centre into the town hall complex. The plan is for art exhibitions currently housed in the Fermoy Gallery, the Shakespeare Barn and the Red Barn to be displayed at the town hall in a bid to save £100,000. The spaces would then be let on a commercial basis.
A ceremony in Swaffham last week saw the official opening of two state-of-the-art toilets which have been installed in the parish church rooms in a £15,000 project. A grant of £9,000 from the Big Lottery Fund’s Awards for All scheme and an expected grant of £500 from Breckland Council have met most of the costs of the improvements. One of the toilets is accessible for a pushchair or a wheelchair and carer.
A new club has been launched in Downham for youngsters aged between 10 and 16. Downham Countrysiders meets fortnightly on a Tuesday evening from 7pm-8.30pm at the community centre on Howdale Road. Countrysiders is a junior branch of Downham Young Farmers, but you don’t have to be connected to farming to join.
