Around Town Magazine Billericay Rayleigh Edition 2018

H L E I G R AY N T I O E D I 6 1

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P m U w re to a

CONTENTS 08

James Blower

11

Mark Francois

12

Nature Notes

14

Its OK Campaign

18

Rotary Club / Lions Club

20

A View from the Church

23

What’s On

23

The Savings Guru

Political Update

From everyone at Around Town Magazines have a

Merry Christmas and a

Happy New Year!

of the Mill Meadows Society

Its ok not to be ok

Organisations Around Town

Rev’d David Oxtoby

When and Where...

Useful Numbers

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

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Copyright 2018. 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

Home Helps 63 x 92mm 2.qxp_Layout 1 21/06/2018 07:35 Page 1

Home Help Service If you're over 50 and need a little help around the house, let the Age UK Essex Home Help Service lighten the load.

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All our staff are insured, police checked via the Disclosure and Barring Service and always follow our unique ‘Never Walk Away’ safety policy.

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6

Charity No. 1091058

  GAS●PLUMBING●HEATING  GAS●PLUMBING●HEATING GAS●PLUMBING●HEATING GAS●PLUMBING●HEATING   Allmakes&modelsofboilersserviced Allmakes&modelsofboilersserviced Allmakes&modelsofboilersserviced andrepaired

Allmakes&modelsofboilersserviced andrepaired Allmakes&modelsofboilersserviced andrepaired CondensingBoilersandWarmAirUnits andrepaired CondensingBoilersandWarmAirUnits andrepaired CondensingBoilersandWarmAirUnits AllworkundertakenLeaksUpgrades CondensingBoilersandWarmAirUnits AllworkundertakenLeaksUpgrades CondensingBoilersandWarmAirUnits AllworkundertakenLeaksUpgrades Installations AllworkundertakenLeaksUpgrades AllworkundertakenLeaksUpgrades Installations Installations NoCallOutCharge Installations NoCallOutCharge Installations NoCallOutCharge OAPdiscountsavailable NoCallOutCharge OAPdiscountsavailable NoCallOutCharge OAPdiscountsavailable Fullpublicliabilityinsurance OAPdiscountsavailable Fullpublicliabilityinsurance OAPdiscountsavailable Fullpublicliabilityinsurance  FullyQualifiedEngineers  Fullpublicliabilityinsurance  FullyQualifiedEngineers Fullpublicliabilityinsurance FullyQualifiedEngineers   FullyQualifiedEngineers   FullyQualifiedEngineers Aprofessionalfamilyrunbusiness Aprofessionalfamilyrunbusiness 

Aprofessionalfamilyrunbusiness Honestandreliablewithover20yearsexperience Aprofessionalfamilyrunbusiness Honestandreliablewithover20yearsexperience Aprofessionalfamilyrunbusiness Honestandreliablewithover20yearsexperience ..fromatapwashertoafullheatingsystemcall.. Honestandreliablewithover20yearsexperience ..fromatapwashertoafullheatingsystemcall.. Honestandreliablewithover20yearsexperience ..fromatapwashertoafullheatingsystemcall.. ..fromatapwashertoafullheatingsystemcall.. ..fromatapwashertoafullheatingsystemcall..

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7

Savings Roundup Marcus drives easy access savings rates higher In October, I wrote about the launch of Marcus, part of Goldman Sachs. Prior to their launch, the best easy access accounts were paying 1.35%, so it was a surprise when such a big name entered the market with a headline rate of 1.50%. Although 0.15% of this is a bonus for twelve months, the revert rate of 1.35% after a year comfortably sat in our best buys anyway. Unsurprisingly, the bank announced they had attracted 50,000 savers within ten days of launching!

Early in November, Marcus announced that figure had doubled to 100,000 with more than £2.3bn saved with them.

There haven’t been any updates since which may be due to their growth slowing. This is because their arrival to the market has forced other providers to respond.

Last month, we featured Nottingham Building Society’s eSaver paying 1.55%, which briefly topped Marcus. Savers needed to be faster than Usain Bolt to take advantage though, with the account being withdrawn within 48 hours of launch due to the overwhelming demand.

However, other banks have responded too with Kent Reliance and Virgin Money joining Marcus

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in paying 1.50% on their account.

The Kent Reliance account is particularly attractive as it can be opened and managed by internet, post and in branch – with the former building society (now part of FTSE listed One Savings Bank plc) having nine branches across Kent and the South East – and having no restrictions on the account.

Virgin Money’s Double Take eSaver comes with a lower £1 opening account balance than Kent Reliance’s, but savers can only with draw money twice a year from the account. There’s also a clutch of banks paying 1.40%, including Charter Savings Bank, Essex based Shawbrook and Sainsbury’s Bank as well as NS&I’s Premium Bonds paying a prize pool of 1.40%. This is all good news for savers and a 20% increase on where easy access rates were at the start of 2018!

Children’s savings for Christmas With Christmas looming, I often get asked which are the best savings accounts for children, from parents and relatives who want to gift money – either instead of a present or in addition to. The good news is there are some great options for children as banks are keen to attract them. Banks know that statistically we are more likely to leave our partners than our bank! Therefore, they are keen

to attract children in, knowing there’s a good chance many will stay with them when they are adults. Consequently, they offer some very attractive rates.

Children’s savings typically come in two options. Regular savings style accounts which look for a minimum monthly commitment and ordinary instant savings accounts which can be accessed without any notice being required.

The regular savings versions offer the best rates with Halifax paying 4.5% on their ‘Kids Monthly Saver’ which can be opened online or in their network of branches. A minimum monthly commitment of £10 is required.

Saffron Building Society, which has a network of branches across Essex, pays 4% on their Children’s Regular Saver, which has a lower monthly minimum commitment of £5 per month – a rate that they have paid since 2015 – and can also be opened and managed by post.

For parents looking for an account that doesn’t need a regular commitment, Nationwide pay 2.50% on their Future Saver account. If the parent also has a Nationwide account then that rate is boosted to 3.50%.

However, the rate is reduced by 0.50% if you make more than

one withdrawal a year.

Relatives looking for an account with no restrictions should look at Virgin Money’s Young Saver which pays 2.25% and can be opened in their stores or by post. Accounts can be opened with just £1 too. Halifax’s Kid’s saver pays 2% and can be accessed via their branches and managed online, once opened (in a branch).

What are the best rates currently?

The savings market can and does move quickly, so we always recommend that you check our website for the latest rates. At time of going to print, our best personal savings rates are:

Terms

Interest Rate

Provider

Instant Savings

1.50%

Kent Reliance and Virgin Money

Notice

1.87%

Gatehouse Bank

1 Year

2.05%

Atom Bank, Tandem and Bank of London & Middle East

18 Month

2.25%

Metro Bank and Bank of London & Middle East

2 Year

2.35%

Investec Bank

3 Year

2.42%

Al Rayan Bank

4 Year

2.45%

Bank of London & Middle East and Ikano Bank

5 Year

2.70%

Atom Bank and Bank of London & Middle East

James Blower Founder Savings Guru Ltd

www.thesavings.guru hello@thesavings.guru @SavingsGuruUK

That’s all for December. As always, this article is reproduced on our website www.thesavings.guru, with links to all the accounts and providers mentioned.

I hope you all have a fantastic Christmas and see you in 2019!

11

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agreement, which is 585 pages long, is based on originally on the Chequers Agreement. Having read the entire agreement, which is in fact a draft international treaty with the European Union, I strongly believe that this would be a truly awful deal for Britain and would not represent a true Brexit that my constituents voted for, by 67% to 33%.

MARK FRANCOIS Conservative Parliamentary MP for Rayleigh & Wickford

This month MPs will be debating the Prime Minister’s Withdrawal Agreement in the House of Commons before voting on its terms in the so-called “Meaningful Vote”. The

Amongst other things, the agreement would commit us to paying £39 billion to the EU, for absolutely nothing guaranteed in return. Moreover, it would still leave us subservient to the judgements of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and because of something called the “backstop”, it could drag us into a Customs Union, which would prevent us doing international trade deals of our own and which we could then never leave, without the prior agreement of the EU. Taken together this would represent a

massive surrender of sovereignty from Parliament to the EU – which I could never accept.

Since the Chequers agreement, I and other senior members of the European Research Group (ERG), led by my colleague Jacob Rees-Mogg MP, have been attempting to persuade the Prime Minister that a Chequers style deal would not pass in the House of Commons. I strongly believe that a free trade agreement known as “Super Canada”, would represent a far better alternative, as we would be out of the Single Market, out of the Customs Union and, crucially, no longer subject to the jurisdiction of the ECJ. By time this article has been printed, the Meaningful Vote will have already taken place and events may well have moved on quite a bit. However, I will have voted against the Agreement and I hope this article will explain why.

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

24 HR EMERGENCY

Nature Notes

SERVICE

Written by Neil Sumner

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Neilsumner123@aol.com twitter.com/neilsumner123 Parakeets will be familiar to many of us who have visited Hyde Park or areas south and west of London.

They are now coming into Essex, still sporadically distributed, but becoming regular at some sites such as Thorndon Park and many people report Parakeets using their garden bird feeders.

Most of these birds are Ring-Necked, also known as Rose-Ringed, Parakeets.

They are native to Africa and Asia as far north as the Himalayas but now found in 35 countries including many European cities. The origin of the UK population has been attributed to escapes by birds used in the filming of The African Queen, the release of a pair by Jimi Hendrix and damage to aviaries in the great storm of 1987. More likely it is just through general escapes by, or deliberate release of, this popular cage bird.

The UK population is estimated now at around 60000 and growing rapidly. Although they are preyed on by some raptors, their long breeding season and versatile diet of nuts, seeds, fruit and vegetables and their endurance to all weathers, makes them successful. They are a pest in some countries, in Israel and India for example, they decimate crops. In our country they have sometimes hit wine production by gorging on grapes and also have damaged some buildings when enlarging ventilation holes or ripping into timbers inside roofs.

Ring-necked Parakeets certainly out-compete many of our native garden birds by bullying them and monopolising the feeders, although our Starlings sometimes will stand up to them. They are known to prise apart the frames of squirrel proof feeders.

Although we could expect them to compete with some of our wildlife for natural nest holes there is little evidence yet of effects on our native populations.

Bats, tits and sparrows use holes with apertures too small for Parakeets and the Nuthatch, which typically uses an old woodpecker hole, has been itself increasing in recent years.

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In the cities many people feel that the Parakeets, with their noise, colour and antics are a pleasant addition and enhance our well-being. They have adapted to man’s environment and it seems they will be growing more rapidly than the human population in our increasing urbanised country. https://www. kent.ac.uk/parrotnet/

12

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ITS OK CAMPAIGN

T

Its ok not to be ok

he Its OK Campaign started just a month ago because of an idea Myself and Sarah Flynn had. I have personally been diagnosed with Military PTSD from my time in the Royal Air Force and also Bipolar. Sarah Suffers with Anxiety and Depression.

So with our own personal battles with Mental Health and how hard we have found it to get help, we wanted to raise awareness by starting our own campaign.

to help us and in turn help others when it comes to mental health.

We

are currently interviewing Paralympian Hannah Stodel, Footballer Jamie O’Hara, Olympic Gold Medallist Amy Williams and Celebrity Calum Best. These interviews will make up an instrumental part of our Project to go into schools and colleges to speak to students about mental health. Telling the stories of great sports people and their experiences with mental health will show that it can affect anyone.

In addition to this, we have recently announced Nicola McLean as our first Campaign Ambassador.

...IT CAN AFFECT ANYONE.

We started by holding Instagram Live Chats every Wednesday evening at 8pm. After the first one we noticed our follows drastically grew. On that basis I had the idea that maybe if people heard celebrities talk about their battles with mental health, other people would think it was such a taboo subject.

We have now been in touch with a number of celebrities and sports personalities that all want

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If anyone would like to contact us or even keep track of our progress and stories then just follow us on instagram and Twitter - @itsok_campaign

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17

ROTARY CLUB OF RAYLEIGH MILL Apart from our normal Committee Meeting and Business Meeting evenings on the first two weeks of the month we have had a varied agenda for the rest of the month.

Our third Monday meeting saw the members visit the Rayleigh Town Museum where, after drinks and a buffet, we were entertained by two video shows, one on the history of Rayleigh and one on the history of Rayleigh’s cinema, the Regal.

Both the Rayleigh natives and the “in-commers” among the members found both shows to be enlightening and entertaining. Jackie Wellman, on behalf of the members, thanked the Rayleigh Town Museum Volunteers for their efforts in putting together both the video show and the excellent buffet.

On the fourth meeting of the month, prior to our customary meal, the members and their guest were entertained by The Music Man Project which was set up by David Stanley in Southend in 2001 with the express purpose of providing children with learning difficulties or special needs with the equipment and guidance to be able to express and enjoy themselves through the medium of music.

The Project was the main beneficiary of the club’s Charity Golf Day and Senior-Vice president, Jackie Wellman was happy to be able to present David Stanley and the members of the Project with a cheque for £3000.

Our final activity of the month was to take part in the Rayleigh Christmas Lights Ceremony where the club had a Tombola stall with children’s cuddly toys. The stall was an unqualified success in finding homes for a large number of cuddly toys, raising £247 for club funds and making lots of children very happy.

If you are interested in getting involved in the community and increasing your social circle, please see our website at www.rayleighmillrotary.org.uk to find out more about us and what we do.

RAYLEIGH LIONS CLUB The Lions Club of Rayleigh is part of the International Association of Lions Clubs, and our primary aim is to raise and distribute funds within out local area.

The Lions Club Of Rayleigh was chartered in 1974 and serves the Rayleigh, Hockley, Hullbridge and Rochford areas. Our club is a Voluntary Service Organisation and a registered charity, we are always looking for people willing to help make their community a better place to live.

By visiting our website, you will be able to find out about the work of the international organisation of Lions and the Lions Club of Rayleigh in particular, including our activities and also details of forthcoming events, and who to contact for further information.

Our club meets on the 1st (business) & 3rd (social) Tuesdays in every month in Rayleigh.

Guests are always welcome. http://www.rayleighlions.org.uk

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Rev’d David Oxtoby

In the last few weeks as you’d expect, I’ve being doing Christmas Assemblies and short talks with different children groups around the theme of Christmas.

One of the simple ways I’ve done this is to have on 12 posters, 12 things we think are vitally important around Christmas, and have the children hold them up, the list included Turkey, Presents, Family, Christmas Tree, Decorations, Wrapping paper, Tinsel, Snow, Jesus, Brussel Sprouts, Christmas Crackers and Santa.

The idea in the talk being we vote of those things that we don’t view as important, and vote to keep those things which are. What was fascinating is seeing how different groups voted, and what made it to number one. Hardly any adults voted for Wrapping paper, because they of course are the ones typically who have to do all the wrapping, Turkey didn’t do very well with the children, and Brussel Sprouts didn’t last long at all (not a huge surprise). What was voted number one each time? Family, and then in around 3rd place we had Jesus.

We can of course understand why Family got the vote for the most important thing, and it was interesting that the children voted Presents as only being the 5th or

6th most important thing at Christmas.

Spending time with one another in family, is far more valuable than spending money on one another, a wonderful lesson I think straight from the mouths of babes.

My other interesting observation, which of course saddens me, is that Jesus isn’t viewed as the most important thing at Christmas, since without Him we wouldn’t even have a Christmas to celebrate. Yet it’s little wonder this is the case, since we often see “Christ” removed from the word Christmas, so we’re only left with Xmas; it’s then little wonder that Jesus is slowly being removed from the biggest festival and celebration of the year. Not that I don’t agree family is important at Christmas, I mean the first Christmas was about family, with Mary, Joseph and Christ; with God coming into the World as a babe, (Emmanuel, God with us) this was all about God restoring each one of us into His family; so yes Christmas is about family, but family with the inclusion of Jesus.

God doesn’t need our gifts, presents or offerings, but he like the children, simply long for us to spend time with Him, being in presence, and marveling at the gift of His Son Jesus Christ to the whole World, to each one of us.

May our Christmas celebrations be full of joy and cheer, and in the midst of the busyness may we find time to simply dwell with God. Every blessing this Christmas Rev’d David.

Parish Office 01268 742151 info@parishofrayleigh.org.uk

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Marjie’s Theatre & Social Club Getting to know you friendship club West End shows at half price, boat trips, balls, lunches and lots more. Meetings at Rayleigh Golf Club Lords last Monday of the month.

The Rayleigh Lodge pub 1st Thursday of the month.

Please Speak to Marjie on 01268 78335. Please leave a message and we will call you back.

Belvedere Jazz & Music Club 9th January Derek Nash’s Picante Latin 8pm -10:30pm.

Admission £15 8pm -10:30pm.

23rd January The Harlem Meer Cats Sextet 8pm -10:30pm.

30th January Salud! ‘Tom’ Jobim – Georgia Mancio + Mark Crooks Quintet 8pm -10:30pm Admission £12.50 ~ Meals Available www.belvederejazz.co.uk Tel: 07850 607075 or email: belvederejazz@gmail.com The Chichester Hotel, Old London Road, Rawreth, SS11 8UE

16th January Matthew Ford + John Horler Quartet

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CHEMISTS Boots the Chemist, Rayleigh 01268 771883 Audley Mills, Rayleigh

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