10 The New Addington Magazine
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Winter Money Saving By Martin Lewis
Brrrr... The mercury has started to tumble, summer’s warmth seems a distant memory and the central heating is starting to kick into gear. As it’ll only get colder, now’s the time to ensure you’re set up for winter to keep the cost down and the heat up. Here’s my checklist… Find out where your stopcock is. Everyone should know where their mains water off switch is. Frozen pipe bursts create an average £7,000 of damage, made worse if you can’t find the off switch as your home floods. As Angie wrote on my Facebook page: “I know where mine is but only due to a burst pipe and collapsed floor a few years ago. Took us & the council 2hrs to find.” So find it now before you’ve problems. Mine is behind a kitchen cupboard, but you’ll also typically find yours in bathrooms, shared corridors in flats, boiler cupboards and more. To help locate yours there’s a nice Thames Water video at www.mse.me/stopcock.
Switch energy now and you could get £100s back. This is a great time to switch energy supplier if you pay by direct debit, as it’s likely you’re in credit after the low use summer months. Therefore switch now, and provided you ask for it – so ask - you’ll likely be given cash too (switch after winter and you may be in debt). Yet while the switch-over takes time, the work to compare and activate a switch doesn’t. For fun, I put a stopwatch on four new members of my team trying to compare and switch - the quickest took 202 seconds, the longest 376 seconds. The average was 310 seconds with a £226 saving. When comparing you may’ve heard of the recent scandal about ‘hiding top deals’ on some comparison sites. This is true – though my own www.cheapenergyclub.co.uk always shows all tariffs. Yet it means if you are using a different www.ofgem.gov.uk approved comparison site, when you get to the “Do you only want to see tariffs you can switch to today” question – say ‘no’ – that way all will display. 14 The New Addington Magazine
Switching isn’t a big deal, it’s the same pipes, gas, meter and safety scheme - the only difference is price and customer service. You can do it even if you’re on a prepayment meter/ electricity only/ Eco 7.
Paying energy by monthly direct debit is cheaper. It discounts your bill by up to 6%. Firms then estimate your annual usage and divide it by 12 so you’re likely to build up credit after summer and be a little in debt after winter. Always do regular meter readings for accuracy, as your bill is estimated. And if they try to push your direct debit up unfairly (eg, you’re heavily in credit) you’ve a right for it to be fair, just call and ask for it to be lowered.
Full service car breakdown cover £40. Breakdown is more likely at winter, and the consequences more severe. Yet policies can be very cheap. For breakdown, home start and onward travel www. autoaidbreakdown.co.uk is £40 a year, though it’s a ‘pay and claim’ policy so here it sends a local pick-up truck that you have to pay, then you can reclaim the cash later. Feedback and call out times are good, though you need to remember to claim. If you’ve got cover and are at renewal, then HAGGLE 90% of AA customers and 78% with the RAC lowered their rates by bartering. For more deals see www.mse.me/ breakdown.
Cut boiler costs by £100s - you don’t need your energy firm’s cover. Many energy firms use our fear of losing heating to charge hefty insurance costs. They also want us to think there’s some link between our energy provider and our boiler cover. There isn’t - you’re not locked in. In short…
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On Your Plot
Now is the time to go undercover It’s still pretty chilly during February but planting seedlings under glass (or plastic) can give you a great start for the season ahead. A bit of time and money invested now in a polytunnel or greenhouse will give you benefits for years to come. Can’t wait for Spring to come? There are plenty of vegetables that can be started off indoors now. Jobs for February • Erect a cold frame, polytunnel or greenhouse. • Plant out onion sets • Sow tomatoes indoors • Chit seed potatoes • Sow early beetroot and summer cabbages • Plant soft fruit bushes The days are getting a little longer, green shoots are starting to appear and we’re all just itching to get out in the garden now. Just one problem - it’s still likely to be blooming cold! Extremes in weather are typical for this month so even if we do have a warmer spell I wouldn’t be in too much of a hurry to start sowing seeds outdoors. It’s at this time of year that having some undercover growing space is a real boon - not least because it’s so much more of a pleasure working in a protected environment, basking in the glory of those few rays of sun, than it is feeling a gale force 16 The New Addington Magazine
wind that seems as it if’s come straight from the arctic! If you don’t have a greenhouse, polytunnel or cold frame then why not think about investing in one now? Get it built in February and you can get a head start on many plants for the season to come. Which is best? Consider the space available - if space is limited then a cold frame, may be a good option. Green houses can offer lots of benefits but are generally not a great idea if your garden is also the kids play area and they can be hugely expensive. On the plus side, they are not easy to get rid of so if you’re prepared for a bit of work you may be able to pick up a second-hand one very cheaply providing you are happy to dismantle and move it yourself (try free cycle). We opted for a polytunnel, which was very reasonable in price and gave us several weekends of entertainment building it. Follow the instructions carefully, don’t rush it and you’ll need at least 2 of you when it comes to putting the plastic on. With both greenhouses and polytunnels you need to remember that they can become very hot in the summer and ensure that adequate ventilation is available.
So, now that you have this great new space what can you plant in it? Early tomatoes can be started off in pots and if you plant some summer cabbages now you can get them established and benefit from a crop by late spring or early summer. Cucumbers, beetroot, leeks and lettuces can also be sown indoors and if you want to try something a little more exotic why not plant some peppers, aubergines and even a melon? This is also a good month to think about soft fruit. Most fruit bushes, trees and canes need time to get established before you start to get a good yield and it is easy to overlook them in favour of crops that give a quicker return. If you don’t have any fruit growing on your plot how about adding just one type of fruit each year? You could plant raspberry canes this month, or incorporate a gooseberry or blackcurrant bush into your border. If you have pot grown strawberries that have spent the winter indoors then place them outside as they will only flower after exposure to cold weather. Plants that have over wintered outside can be brought in now.
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Legal Eagle Column
Don’t be caught out by a fake website... More and more people are falling victim to ‘fake’ websites and as a result losing their hard earned cash. Upon the most popular online scams are websites that purport to be ‘official’ government sites or in some way linked to government. These sites look like they are providing a paid service, such as passport applications, when in fact they are simply fleecing those that use them. To help you stay safe and hang on to your cash, here’s my checklist for when you use a service online that you have never used before: Be cautious and follow your instincts If a website does not look right or feel right there is a good chance it is not genuine. If you’re dealing with a large corporation or government-backed agency they will have built their site properly. Think before you pay In many cases there is simply no need to part with cash. While you do have to pay for a passport or driving licence, you don’t have to pay an intermediary an extra fee – you’re just wasting your money if you do. Sites offering to process the information for you aren’t breaking the law but you can do it all yourself. Do your research If you’ve never used a particular website before and don’t know its credentials, google its name before parting with cash. If it’s a scam someone else will have been caught out and is likely to have reported it in an online forum. Make basic security checks too – on secure websites that ask for sensitive information or let you pay 18 The New Addington Magazine
online, the web address at the top should have a padlock symbol or the letters “https” instead of “http” before the “www”. That means it’s encrypted, has security in place to protect your details and is probably genuine. It’s not a guarantee but your information is definitely not secure on sites without that security, which are highly likely to be fake. Encryption takes time and money to set up and sites must be approved So fakes often do without it. Check the small print and call the numbers shown on the website A genuine site will have privacy policies, terms and conditions and contact details. Be wary of sites which offer no way of picking up the phone to ring someone, which you should do to make sure they are real. And if the phone numbers don’t look right, differing from the usual formats, they may not be genuine. Use a credit card to pay My No 1 tip for buying online is to use a credit card, not a debit card. Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act means that if anything goes wrong and you lose your money, your credit-card company
Dean Dunham
will repay you, even with fake websites. That law’s been around since 1974 but many people still don’t understand it. It was designed as an insurance policy so if you don’t get what you paid for or are a victim of fraud, your credit card company pays you back and they pursue the rogue operator. Check the web address It may look genuine at a glance but read it carefully. For instance there are many “Paypal” websites out there spelled with too many Ps. They are clearly not genuine but may appear so if you look too quickly. And although a website address ending in ‘“.gov” used to be a guarantee, these days there some out there that may not be what they claim. Website rankings Fake websites are so advanced these days that those behind them know how to get around many checks. But real sites generally score highly on Google search rankings because they have been around for a long time and have built up links from other genuine sources. So if you’re paying for a service that you have found way down on page six of the search results,that should serve as a warning. However, being near the top of the rankings is not a guarantee in itself because now there are ways of getting on to page one without being established and credible – so you still have to exercise caution.
For more information visit Dean’s website
www.consumeruk.co.uk twitter @DeanDunham
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Health the HARCOMBE WAY
The Truth about Cholesterol I was at a dinner party recently when the subject of cholesterol came up. Every (lay) person around the table turned out to be an expert: “Cholesterol is bad”, said one; “Well actually there’s good and bad cholesterol”, clarified another; “Our cholesterol shouldn’t be higher than five”, volunteered one sage. Five what? They had no idea. Why is cholesterol bad? Not a clue. If ever there were a substance vilified with the utmost ignorance – cholesterol is it. Here are the things that my fellow diners should have been saying about cholesterol: 1) Cholesterol is utterly life vital Every human being would die instantly without cholesterol. Every single cell in the human body depends upon it. We would have no digestion or hormone function without cholesterol. Cholesterol is vital for brain and memory functions – even though the brain is only 2% of the body’s weight, it contains approximately 25% of the body’s cholesterol. Cholesterol is essential for bones and all the roles performed by vitamin D. We could not reproduce without this life vital substance. Hence, not only would humans die without cholesterol, the human race would die out. 2) Cholesterol is so vital that our body makes it It cannot be left to chance that we would need to get cholesterol from an external source, such as food. One of the key reasons that we need to spend approximately one third of our lives sleeping is to give the body time to produce cholesterol, repair cells and perform other essential maintenance. 3) There is no such thing as good and bad cholesterol The formula for cholesterol is C27H46O. There is no good or bad version. Ignorant people call HDL ‘good’ cholesterol and LDL ‘bad’ cholesterol. Neither HDL nor LDL are even cholesterol – they are lipoproteins. 22 The New Addington Magazine
HDL is High Density Lipoprotein and LDL is Low Density Lipoprotein. HDL is smaller than LDL and is therefore higher in density. Lipoproteins carry cholesterol, protein, phospholipids and triglyceride around the blood stream to undertake vital roles. 4) The cholesterol blood test is a guess The standard blood test can only measure total cholesterol & HDL. So we have one equation, four unknowns, only two of which can be measured: Total cholesterol = LDL + HDL + Triglycerides (VLDL)/5 Any teenage maths student will tell you that this is insolvable. 5) There is no science behind the number “5” Even after years of artificial intervention, the average cholesterol level in the UK is 5.5mmol/l for men and 5.6mmol/l for women. The powers-that-be have decided that this should be 5mmol/l. This is like saying that the average height for a woman is 5’4” and we have decreed that it should be 5’1”. We could then stop the body from performing a natural function (growth) by administering drugs to stop growth hormones from doing their job. I trust that this analogy disturbs you. It is, however, frighteningly similar to what we are doing with attempts to lower average cholesterol levels. 6) “There’s no connection
whatsoever between cholesterol in food and cholesterol in blood. And we’ve known that all along.” Ancel Keys Cholesterol is only found in animal foods – meat, fish, eggs and dairy. Ancel Keys spent the 1950s feeding humans high levels of animal foods to see if this had any impact on blood cholesterol levels. He concluded that it did not. He never changed his view on this. While finding cholesterol ‘not guilty’, Keys also cleared animal foods at the same time – and any substance contained in them. Nothing in animal foods increases cholesterol levels. And not that cholesterol is bad in any way, remember, but just to reinforce the view that you should not worry about nutritious real food. 7) Low cholesterol is associated with higher mortality. High cholesterol is associated with lower mortality. I have analysed cholesterol levels and death rates for all 192 countries for which the World Health Organisation has data. You may need to read this carefully. The lower the cholesterol levels, the higher the death rate; the higher the cholesterol levels, the lower the death rate. This holds for men and women and for heart disease deaths and total deaths from any cause – for all the countries in the world. Knowing how utterly vital cholesterol is to human life, this makes complete sense.
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New Addington Salvation Army Community Church In 2015 The Salvation Army celebrates its 150th anniversary. From its roots in the East End of London The Salvation Army has grown to become one of the largest charitable organisations in the world, working in almost 130 countries worldwide. Whether it’s supporting communities affected by the Ebola virus in Africa, victims of flooding in Asia or providing shelter for homeless people in countries across the globe, The Salvation Army can be found living out its motto of “Heart To God, Hand To Man” From sunrise to sunset 365 days of the year. New Addington Salvation Army Community Church, or NASA as it’s affectionately known, meets for worship every Sunday at 10:30am at the old library. The worship is relaxed and interactive in order to engage the younger members of the congregation. On Sunday evenings from 7-8:30pm, except on the last Sunday of the month or during school holidays, the Salvation Army runs SingCR0nise, New Addington’s community choir. NASA Community Church serves the local community in a variety of ways. In 2014 it opened The Vine Food Bank, supported by other local churches, businesses and community groups. The Vine began in response to local churches experiencing an increase in demand for food parcels by local families and individuals, and in order to meet the growing need more effectively, the Food Bank was opened. Food donations can be delivered to The Vine Food Bank, next to The Crescent centre off Salcott Crescent on Tuesday and Friday evenings between 7-8pm or to the old library on Sunday mornings between 9:30-10:30am. New Addington Salvation Army also runs 2 toddler groups. Tuesday mornings’ Breakfast Club is always extremely well attended and parents and carers are advised to arrive as close to 9:15am. On Thursday mornings there is a languagefocussed toddler group run in collaboration with New Addington’s Children’s Centres. This group aims to support parents/carers in helping to develop children’s early language skills. The Salvation Army have been running 2 programmes at Addington High School. The Reading Club works with children who need a little extra support in reading, and once a week the 28 The New Addington Magazine
volunteers meet the children for a lunch provided by The Salvation Army, and they engage in reading activities together. Vocalise Choir is another weekly group run by Salvation Army volunteers in the school, and the choir had their debut performance at Addington High’s Christmas Carol Concert. Back at the old library, on Thursday afternoons from 2pm there is an informal get-together for the more mature members of the community, with activities such as quizzes, music and chat over a cup of tea. Perhaps the event that The Salvation Army has become most well-known for locally is the annual Pantomime. This past year’s offering, Aladdin, was the 5th annual show of what has become something of a local institution at Christmastime, and over 1200 tickets were booked in a little over 24 hours! Another seasonal programme is the Christmas Gift support which The Salvation Army provides to families in the community, aided by the generous giving of churches, schools and individuals from New Addington and farther afield. This programme has grown by about 50% year on year for the past 3 years, and this year 75 local families including almost 250 children were referred and supported through this programme, which provided presents and a beautifully presented food hamper. A huge thank you to all in the community who provided donations of food and gifts to this year’s appeal. For more information on any of the programmes mentioned above, please call 07855 645463 or pop into the old library on a Sunday morning. The Salvation Army is a Christian Church and Charity and is a member of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland.
Matt Spencer (Captain) Leader, New Addington Salvation Army Community Church Tutor, William Booth College
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If you have an old PC, would you consider donating it to CORE? • For local disadvantaged people to use at home • We wipe your information and reinstall Microsoft software • We give advice on disability access requirements • We are a member of the Microsoft Registered Refurbisher scheme
We can collect from you, or computers can be delivered to the old rent office, Central Parade, New Addington CR0 0JB
For more information call: 07976 912915 Email: info@corecroydon.org.uk To enquire about voluntary roles please contact: helen@corecroydon.org.uk CORE Croydon is a registered charity no. 1146409
Are you a young person aged between 10 to 25 or a family? Whatever the issues you are facing, Centre of Change Project are here to offer you confidential support. We provide Counselling, Mentoring, Tutoring, Drop in Services, Health & Sex Education Call us on 07758 702452 or email us on: centreofchangeproject@hotmail.co.uk
www.centreofchange.org.uk 30 The New Addington Magazine
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Mighty Men of Valour - A charity that improves the lives of children in our community! Mighty Men of Valour (MMOV) is a Croydon based charity which has been in operation for over twelve years, since 2002. The word valour means: bravery, courageous, and heroic. The main aims of the charity is to improve the lives of children, especially boys, so the become responisble young men, husbands and fathers. We believe that if children get the right start life, then when they get older, they will be able to provide for their children, their family and their community. MMOV encourages young people, particularly boys, to become community role models. We believe by doing this we can help to reduce crime, domestic violence, child abuse and
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child poverty through our Mentoring, Training, Advocacy and Employment service. Mighty Men of Valour is open to both men and women, and we have a Women of Valour and Valour Youth group as well. MMOV provides a free Drop-in service at Family Centre, Fieldway, New Addington every Tuesday 3pm - 5pm and Friday 12pm - 3pm (term-time only), where we give confidental advice for men and women who want information: • Child Support • Parental Responsibilty • Debt advice • Avoiding Domestic Violence issues • Business and Employment Support Mighty Men of Valour also run several free courses such as: Personal Budgeting and Managing Money Course and our Employability course which will start in January/February 2015. Finally, we have our Super Dads fun projects for dads and their children at the Family Centre, Fieldway, New Addington. For more information on all these services and more contact: The Family Centre: 07908 312 925 Mighty Men of Valour: 07958 770 779
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New Addington Children’s Centres We offer a whole range of FREE services for families with children 0-5 years of age. From family cooking to First Aid, Health clinics to adult qualifications, parenting courses to Jumping Beans, there is so much on offer. We deliver a programme of activities and support across the whole of New Addington with the main Centre at Fairchildes Children’s Centre and family hubs located at Castle Hill, Good Shepherd and Applegarth Schools. We also have services running in Wolsey Infants and Rowdown Schools. We work in partnership with local toddler groups, running activities and special events. We have a small Family Engagement Partnership Team that are able to provide individual support to families, working with them in their homes. You can find out more information from our website www.newaddingtonchildrenscentres.co.uk or our facebook group: New Addington Children’s Centres. Tel: 01689 847136 Email: childrenscentre@faichildes.croydon.sch.uk
INSPIRE CROYDON COMMUNITY HEALTH EVENT Looking to get fit, search for healthy recipes or find a local dentist?
Why not say yes to something useful, something essential, something digital? Find help and support to start something digital and discover what the internet could do for you. At Palmcroy House 387 London Road, Croydon, CR0 3PB - Every Monday 10am to 1pm
Call 020 8684 4414 or 020 8684 3719
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