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CONTENTS 07 A View from the Church Revd Nick Rowan

08

Mark Francois

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Recipe

16

Rotary Club / Lions Club

20

Nature Notes

Essex's Lead Blind, Awning & Shutter Special over 100 Ye

Political Update

Peppermint Cream Sweets

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Organisations Around Town

EWT Volunteer Neil Sumner

Lifestyle r_Lifestyle1 1

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James Blower

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Around Town Sports Page

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The Savings Guru

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2017 Review

What’s On When and Where...

Useful Numbers

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

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Copyright 2017. 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.

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Revd Nick Rowan

That first Christmas the shepherds reacted to the angel’s announcement by rushing to Bethlehem to see Jesus for themselves. This Christmas I invite you to join us and come and see and hear for yourselves.

Please do join us at one of our special Christmas services as we celebrate the good news of Christmas: That God is with us.

As I write, at the church we are preparing to celebrate Christmas with a number of special services and events over the next couple of weeks.

May God Bless you and all you love this Christmas time Nick

The focus of our celebrations will be that at the first Christmas in Bethlehem, Jesus, God’s Son, came to be with us.

The first to hear this good news, over 2000 years ago, were some shepherds watching over their sheep outside Bethlehem. An angel appeared to them and announced ‘I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people. To you is born this day, a Saviour’.

This is still good news over 2000 years later. This is the reason that we take time to stop and remember and celebrate each Christmas. We celebrate because Jesus our Saviour is with us. We can know him. We can come to him with our needs, our burdens and our worries. He can save us from our past mistakes and past hurts. And he offers us hope for the future.

As we celebrate we believe that we meet with Jesus as we worship. We can look to him to show us God’s love for all people. And we can know his love, his peace and his joy at work in our lives.

Christmas Services at Holy Trinity Church, High Street, Rayleigh SS6 8BA Nine Lessons and Carols Saturday 16th December @ 4:00pm Sunday 17th December @ 6:30pm Nativity Service (all children are invited to dress up and join in) Sunday 17th December @ 10:30am Crib Services Sunday 24th December @ 2:00pm, 3:30pm and 5:00pm Midnight Communion Sunday 24th December @ 11:30pm Christmas Day Communion Services Monday 25th December @ 8:00am (Book of Common Prayer) Monday 25th December @ 10:30am (Family Communion Service) Parish Office 01268 742151 info@parishofrayleigh.org.uk

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7

community life in Rayleigh.

mark francois conservative Parliamentary mP for rayleigh & Wickford

The annual turning on of the Christmas lights, which took place in late November and which I was pleased to attend, has now become an established part of our

This event has grown in significance over the last few years and it now attracts a crowd of several thousand people, both from Rayleigh and the surrounding area. This year was no exception and on the main stage we were treated to a number of performances by both primary and secondary schools, as well as the local Mushroom Theatre Company. The players from Southend United helped perform the switch on ceremony at 6:30pm and the event was covered live by BBC Essex.

Strolling down the High Street whilst waiting for the lights to be switched on, I was struck by the large number of community organisations that were represented with stalls

of Rayleigh

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and stands of various kinds. We had everyone from the Rayleigh Lions, the Rotary Club of Rayleigh Mill, and the Rayleigh Royal British Legion through to the RNLI and the Rayleigh Town Museum. We are very fortunate to benefit from a strong sense of community spirit in our town and it was wonderful to see so many of these groups enthusiastically represented by volunteers on what proved to be such a very chilly evening.

As a rule of thumb in life, I generally believe that the glass is “half full” rather than “half empty” and this is certainly reaffirmed when Rayleigh celebrates its Christmas lights, as so many of the townsfolk and their families come together to celebrate the life of our town and what is always a popular festive event.

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Group Managing Director Marcus McGee believes that Which? have endorsed Cloudy2Clear’s long standing company

policy of delivering the highest standards possible at all times. ‘Our service is simple. If your double glazing has misted up we can replace the glass at a fraction of the cost of a new window, in any type of frame, and with a new 25 year guarantee. But it’s not just about saving people money, although that obviously helps. Whilst a number of tradespeople perhaps don’t focus on customer care as much as they should do, we make sure we turn up when we say we will, do the job the customer requires and leave their house as clean as a whistle.

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manager Chris Miller agrees that this approach is a major factor in his success. ‘The truth is that it’s not just the personal satisfaction that I get from doing a good job but also it makes good business sense. I get a huge amount of business from friends and family of people I’ve done work for, which just goes to show how much a little bit of effort is appreciated as both my customers and, obviously a body as nationally important as Which? now recognise.’

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9

RECIPE Peppermint Cream Sweets Ingredients: 1.5 Cups Coconut Oil

0.25 Cups Honey

3 Drops Peppermint Oil

1 Cup Dark or Semi-Sweet Chocolate (melted)

Method: 1. Whip the solid coconut oil, honey and peppermint essential oil together with a hand mixer. The whipped filling will be white and fluffy when it’s ready.

2. Put the whole bowl into the fridge for about 10 minutes.

Use a small teaspoon to take a portion of the mixture and pop them into a silicon mould.

Alternatively, just shape them with your hand as best as you can! If

you’re not using a mould then place the creams onto parchment paper and put them into the freezer.

3. In a small saucepan gently melt the chocolate over a low heat. Take the sweets out of the freezer.

4. Use a wooden skewer to dip each piece into the melted chocolate.

Place onto the parchment paper again and put them back into the freezer until hardened. Best served at room temperature.

If you would like your recipe to appear in Around Town Magazines then contact our sales team on: 01277 658444 or email: sales@aroundtownmagazines.co.uk

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ROTARY CLUB OF RAYLEIGH MILL November never seems to be a very busy month but we have managed to fit in a number of interesting activities and events this month.

We are happy to have inducted our second lady member of the club, Pat Bowlas, and additional Associate Member, Charles Culwick.

We have made a several donations to organizations in the area – to Rayleigh ATC, which does a sterling job by providing training and activities for the young people in the area, towards the cost of their new minibus, to Equal People, who provide a very special, and much needed, service to the community by bringing together both handicapped and able-bodied children in a creative dance and drama environment and to the Music Man Project, which provides a full-time music education service specifically for children and adults with learning disabilities.

The club has initiated a “Choose Your Own Charity” scheme whereby members are allocated £100 each which is donated to a charity of their own choosing. 21 charities have recently benefitted from these donations including, Music Man Project, the Children’s Hospital Charity, the Balmoral Centre, the Salvation Army, Macmillan Cancer Support, Alzheimers Society, Essex and Herts Air Ambulance, HARP, Great Ormond Street Hospital, the RNLI, Friends of Holy Trinity Church, Southend Talking Newspaper, the British Heart Foundation, the Danny Green Fund, the M S Society and Cruse Bereavement Care.

We have had stalls at the Christmas Lights celebrations in both Hockley and Rayleigh.

The members have also enjoyed an extremely enjoyable Social Evening at the Choi Yin Chinese Restaurant and a number of members attended the District Rotary and Inner Wheel Carol Concert at Chelmsford Cathedral.

We look forwards to more social activities in the run-up to Christmas.

If you have some time on your hands and would like to make new friends, take part in some social events and do some good in the community, take a look at our website at www.rotary-ribi.org/clubs/homepage.php?ClubID=1797

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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Nature Notes Written by Neil Sumner

Neilsumner123@aol.com twitter.com/neilsumner123 Most of us will have heard of the Magna Carta, but maybe not The Charter of the Forest. This was drawn up in 1217 and gave foraging and grazing rights within the forests to common people. This reversed years of forests being ring-fenced for exclusive use by royalty for hunting.

Roll forward 800 years to another charter, launched by the Woodland Trust, the ‘Charter for Trees’.

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Even in busy South Essex we are fortunate in that we have many ancient woodlands owned and managed by local councils and other organisations, such as EWT. Some private woods I have seen aren’t so well looked after and I hope that The Charter will result in all woodlands being protected and managed so that there is a balance between the economic benefits they bring, the recreational use and the needs of wildlife, as well as ensuring that the woodland is there for future generations.

24

HoUrS

1 HOUR RESPONSE

Trees are valuable to us everywhere, in the built environment as well as the countryside. Some of our towns have set up Tree Warden schemes where volunteers work with local councils to monitor threats to trees and try and ensure that Tree Preservation Orders are used to protect them.

It is at this time of year when the last of the rust-coloured leaves fall from the trees and birds become easier to see in the bare branches.

By standing quietly in the woods and listening, you might hear the contact calls of feeding parties as they move through the woods. Then you need to scan the trees for movement in the branches before zooming in with binoculars, if you have them. If you are lucky, the colours on one of those birds may be caught in low winter sunshine, you may be treated perhaps to the pink tinge of a Long-tailed Tit or the red white and black of a Great Spotted Woodpecker.

Of course, this month, there is one type of tree that is laden with colour, and foremost in our minds. Please enjoy both the Christmas trees and the natural trees at this special time of year, and have a Merry Christmas.

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Is it possible to get risk free savings

with high rewards?

One often quoted statistic in banking is that people living in the UK are more likely to get divorced than change their bank accounts. There are many people in the UK who have opened a bank account with their local branch, with the bank their parents were with, because they got a free railcard or overdraft for university and many other spurious reasons which have nothing to do with which is the best account for them! The reality is that large numbers of people have subsequently not changed that account since.

This inertia about switching also applied with savings with many simply depositing their savings with the bank that provides their current account, even though opening or switching a savings account can be done without changing your main bank/current account provider. In the current low interest rate environment, many say that rates are so low generally that they can’t see the point in moving because the amount they’d gain in interest isn’t worth the effort, with best buy instant savings accounts paying a top rate of just 1.31%.

Many of the alternatives to cash come with an element of risk to the amount invested or saved, which doesn’t appeal for many savers who choose to save in cash because their money is protected and their balance can’t go down.

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So, this month, I decided to look at some options that are risk free but give savers the chance to gain something substantially more than a few extra pounds.

Premium Bonds Premium Bonds are one of the nation’s favourite savings products and are operated by National Savings & Investments, who are backed by HM Treasury.

Instead of paying a guaranteed rate of interest to each individual holder, a rate of interest is set and paid on balances in to a prize fund which is then paid out in a monthly draw. These prizes are tax free and start with two £1m prizes, four £100,000 prizes then 156 prizes between £5,000 and £50,000 in value. There’s also another 2.85m prizes worth between £25 and £1,000 paid out each month.

The annual prize fund interest rate is 1.40% from this month, which is better than the best buy instant savings rate! Savers can invest between £100 and £50,000 and have a 1 in 24,5000 of winning a prize on each bond.

Someone with average luck should win at least one prize a year with £2,000 invested and once a month with £20,000 saved. Prizes are tax free and your money is fully secure so there’s a lot to like about Premium Bonds. The downside is, if you don’t win a prize then

you don’t get any return on your money. Many view Premium Bonds as an alternative to the National Lottery – the chance to win big prizes but without the risk of losing your money.

Windfall Bond The Windfall Bond, operated

by The Family Building Society, is an innovative account which offers an interest rate of 0.50%, which is the same as the Bank of England Base Rate, as well as chances to win cash prizes each month. The prizes are £50,000, two prizes of £10,000 and ten of £1,000.

Although the prizes aren’t as big as Premium Bonds, the odds are much better with each bond having odds of 64/1 of landing a windfall in the first year. The minimum investment is £10,000, which may put some people off, and there is no limit to how many £10,000 bonds can be bought, although your money is only protected within the FSCS limits of £85,000 per person.

The Windfall Bond will appeal to those who still want to get some return on their money but like the excitement of a chance of winning a much bigger pay out.

Personal 9 Month Lottery Bond This lottery bond is offered by OakNorth Bank, a new bank launched in 2015, and is a

unique combination of a savings account and being part of a lottery syndicate. The minimum deposit is £1,000 and your funds are tied up for 9 months. In return, you will earn 0.70% on your savings and go in to a syndicate which will buy lottery tickets – one per £4,000 invested by the lottery group.

So, if you invest £1,000 alongside others who have put in £4.5m, and the group wins a £5m lottery prize, you will get £1,111.11 of that prize plus your initial investment and interest of 0.70%. The more you invest the greater the proportion of your winnings e.g. £10,000 invested will win £11,111.11 of a £5m lottery win assuming the same pot.

The Lottery Bond pays out a reasonable rate of interest and therefore offers less upside so the chances of winning a big prize sum are limited. Your money is FSCS protected up to the scheme limits and this Bond may appeal to those who like to earn a return with the potential for a nice upside.

Savers Prize Draw The Savers Prize Draw, offered by Halifax (part of the Lloyds Banking Group) offers a chance to win one of three prizes of £100,000, 100 of £1,000 and 1,500 of £100. It is open to anyone who holds £5,000 or more of savings with Halifax and who registers for the draws – registration is a one off for all future draws.

The draws are at the beginning of each month and you must have held £5,000 for the full previous calendar month.

The Prize Draw is more flexible than other products in that you can choose which account to hold your funds in or a variety of different accounts. Accounts included range from the Everyday Saver (0.05%) to a 2 Year Bond (1.65%).

The downside of this product is that it is open to all Halifax savers who hold a qualifying balance and register. As Halifax is part of the largest savings group in the UK, this is likely to be a substantial number! Entry is limited to one per person so you can’t gain more chances by having a higher balance, unlike some of the other options.

James Blower Founder Savings Guru Ltd

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

Finally, last month’s competition winner was Sarah Shaw from Billericay, who won a £50 restaurant voucher to spend in Felix. Further details will be on our website by the time this goes to print!

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and will be back in January to look at money ideas for 2018. I will also be on Phoenix FM on Saturday 6th January from 10am – 12noon answering your money queries so tune in on 98.0FM!

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2017 REVIEW Once again my opinion is rearing its ugly head and please read on as I judge our sporting achievements of 2017.

not West Ham games. Mo Farrah was the pick of the bunch picking up two medals and calling time on his track career.

I will sum up our sporting performance by categorising them as...

Winning – Not bad – Fail – Epic Fail

Cricket – If it was a struggle last year, it has not got any better this year for English cricket fans. The Aussies are two up in the Ashes, West Indies run us close in the summer and apart from a victory against a waning South Africa team, the cricketing year has been fairly nondescript. The reliance on Cook and Root to pull us out of a hole is evident in the latest games against Australia. When those two don’t perform you worry about the rest. However, if England turn it around and win the Ashes, it will go down in history as one of the best performances we’ve seen. Time will tell.

Rugby – This year has been a storming year for Rugby. Saracens are the European champions and retained the trophy after winning last year as well.

England won the 6 nations again and the incredible Eddie Jones is in contention Coach of the year at the upcoming BBC Sports Personality of the Year Awards. The British Lions almost came home from New Zealand with a series win against the All Blacks, they drew the series and the All Blacks can count themselves very lucky. To top it off we very nearly had a Rugby League World Cup win.

Football – We have yawned through another qualifying campaign as England were once again unbeaten. The national team playing a friendly or a qualifying match has all the excitement of watching me cutting my toe nails, it’s an arduous task and not very nice to look at, but it is something I must do. For once our World Cup expectations are on the floor going into the tournament next year, here is hoping they surprise us all.

Formula 1 – Lewis Hamilton has made history, 4 times World Champion! For a while it was a great tussle between him and Vettel, but eventually Mercedes and Hamilton went ahead and stayed ahead! Could Hamilton have his sights Schumacher’s record?!

World Athletics Championships - Team GB once again took to the track, but this time struggled. I guess it was always going to be hard to eclipse the efforts of Rio. The pride of a nation though was at the spectacle, we host a great event! London once again was the place to be and Stratford is made for events like these,

Boxing – British boxers are still among the best.

Anthony Joshua has established himself as the best heavyweight on the planet and Tyson Fury even wants to get back into boxing and give us something that we haven’t seen before. Two peak Heavyweight fighters slugging it out for the Heavyweight World title.

However, we have seen Kell Brook and more recently James Degale lose their titles. Although George Groves claimed a Middleweight belt and will soon be tested by Chris Eubank Jr. We are pretty damn good at boxing!

Tennis – Well, you can’t have a good year in Tennis if Andy Murray doesn’t have a good year. Although that isn’t strictly true now as Johanna Konta has gone and put the weight of a nation on her shoulders every year from now on. She reached the Wimbledon Semi Finals and now we will want her to win it one day. A good year for her, but here is hoping Murray can rid himself of injury and come back to push an ageing Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer all the way.

Not an awful year, but not a great one. The greatest show on earth is next year and perhaps we will remember 2018 as well as 1966 going forward.

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

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