Suspensions, Cancellations and Postponements

With regret, I'm advising that, given government advice about 'social distancing' and linked matters, we have decided that:

• The operation of the Terracycle recycling scheme for 'unrecyclable' plastic is being suspended forthwith, with boxes withdrawn from local shops etc., until such time it is judged appropriate to resume collections. When you consider all items will have been touched by others' hands, and sometimes their mouths, and that children at the primary school and adult helpers, some with underlying health conditions, separate these out for despatch, this is the only sensible thing to do in the current circumstances. But we hope the suspension will not last too long, and we, as ever, thank you for your support for this enterprise which diverts substantial sums of plastic from landfill and raises funds for the school. We'll advise when the service resumes;
• The Village Spring Clean and Litter Pick event, Saturday March 28th, is similarly postponed, for related reasons. This has usually benefitted from the voluntary involvement of dozens of supporters and other villagers and does great service in sprucing up the village, with a good part of the waste collected being separated out and diverted from landfill. Again, this is greatly regretted but the organisers considered we could not proceed with such an organised event, involving many hands, at this time. There is nothing, of course, to stop individuals actively recovering litter from your immediate locality and popping it in your bin, from which we'd all benefit.

These are strange and sober times. These notices will, for many of you, be very similar to messages you've received from elsewhere. It does feel, for many of us, our habitual pattern of activities is shrinking. All the more important, therefore, that at a very local level, we do things we can to sustain our local community life. Making, and keeping in, contact, with older, and 'self-isolating', neighbours and other villagers, assisting where we can with shopping etc., continuing to support local businesses and the like are the more important in these straitened times. In doing what we can, we - again - all benefit.

May you enjoy good times these coming weeks and more.