Your guide to everything that’s going on in your area

LECKHAMPTON AND CHARLTON KINGS

» As the Covid-19 pandemic continues and the impacts are deeply felt in communities, Cheltenham Borough Council welcomes an additional £50,000 provided by Gloucestershire County Council to launch the 2021 Community Resilience Fund. This revived grant pot will be distributed to local voluntary and community organisations to support their continued efforts in supporting people and communities made vulnerable due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The fund will also support recovery efforts within communities, particularly projects that build on what we’ve valued most during the crisis, whilst working to ensure that post-crisis Cheltenham is a place where everyone thrives. Cheltenham borough council aims to make decisions about funding within a few days and in this way the council hopes to get much needed small grants out to community groups. More information, application guidelines and forms can be downloaded online from cheltenham. gov.uk/community-resilience-fund

» Charlton Kings Senior Citizens Welfare Committee is a registered charity (1045377) supporting elderly people in Charlton Kings. Amongst other things they run shopping trips in their minibus for those who find it difficult to get out and about and are in desperate need of more drivers to help out as we all emerge from lockdown. Experience is not necessary as full training is available. The only qualification required is a clean driving licence and a genuine desire to help. If you feel you can spare a few hours on a weekly, fortnightly or even monthly basis you could join as a volunteer driver. Please get in touch by writing to the secretary@ckscwc.org.uk or visiting their website WWW.CKSCWC. org.uk

Services at St Mary’s Church over Easter are: Thursday April 1 at 11am for communion in church and later at 7.30pm Communion followed by the traditional stripping of the alters.

On Good Friday either in church or online at 7.30pm a traditional Tenebrae Service of light and dark focussing on candles and the cross as they are slowly extinguished.

On Easter Sunday at 5.30am a Dawn Service in the Church Yard for a special service to celebrate the coming of Christ as the sun rises. Later at 10am a Communion Service. You can join in church or online to celebrate this special day » Rose Ashton 01242 262042 ashton.r@btinternet.com that fellowship with them remains strong through the Churches Together group (Anglicans, Methodists, Woodmancote church and Roman Catholics). Churches Together organises a variety of joint initiatives (in normal times) so that people come together as one worshipping community in Christ. If you’d like to find out more about Churches Together please visit facebook.com/groups/ stmichaelsbishopscleeve or stmichaelsbishopscleeve.co.uk

» Bishop’s Cleeve Library is offering the following services during this present lockdown: Monday to Saturday, not Tuesday, 10am-1pm, and Monday to Thursday, 2pm to 5pm, for click and collect services; Wednesday to Saturday, 10am to 1pm, and Monday to Wednesday, 2pm to 5pm, for public computer use.

Click and collect services must be arranged in advance and computer use must be booked.

For both, please contact the library, either by email at bishopscleevelibrary@gloucestershire. gov.uk or by phone on 01242 672217.

» Badham Pharmacy has a special collection point to tackle hygiene poverty. Required donations are toiletries, female sanitary products, baby wipes, nappies and laundry products.

» The Co-op on the Green is also taking donations for the food bank and is now operating a system whereby you can donate monies to the food bank charity.

Lidl also has a food bank collection point in store.

WOODMANCOTE

» Your village hall needs you! Woodmancote Village Hall is managed by a charity under a lease and trust deed with Woodmancote Parish Council, the hall’s owner. As a registered charity, the volunteer committee members are trustees of the hall. The current trustee committee is now putting out an urgent public appeal for volunteers from Woodmancote and the surrounding area to step forward and become trustees. New trustees are urgently needed as our current committee is unable to continue.

If we are able to recruit new trustees, it will then ensure that the work of the charity can continue and the hall will remain open – a wonderful village asset.

If we are unable to find volunteers to meet the minimum requirement, the following steps may be necessary:

» The village hall’s trustees would have to surrender the lease and trust deed with the parish council.

» Trustees would have to wind up the registered charity.

If the charity is wound up, the village hall funds may end up being transferred to another like charity outside Woodmancote parish.

We have set a deadline of Wednesday March 31. If insufficient new volunteer trustees step forward, we will have to consider the possibility that the hall and its activities will cease to operate. If you can help in any way, please contact Nick Ebdon (tel. 674686; email nicholas.ebdon@yahoo.co.uk) or Keith Woodman (tel. 679301; email kpwoodman@tiscali.co.uk). We very much look forward to hearing from you.

» Woodmancote Cricket Club has secured Sport England ‘Covid Recovery’ funding in a crowdfunding window throughout March. For every pound that is donated or raised by the club in the month, Sport England will match this amount.

If you would like to help and donate just the smallest amount in the knowledge that the club will receive double, then please email mikejrobinson55@gmail.com or call 07946 378244 for further details and a link to the site (or a good old-fashioned cheque will do)

The site contains club video appeals from our juniors, women and men seniors, photographs and community benefits.

For more information about Woodmancote Cricket Club junior team in the current situation contact 0794 809 4905 or e-mail woodmancotecricketclub@outlook. com.

» Woodmancote Probus Club: all meetings cancelled until further notice.

» Woodmancote WI meetings: cancelled due to coronavirus until further notice.

» Dog training classes, Woodmancote village hall: for information regarding this group in the present situation contact 07830 247691. » Ann Lewis maggieann1949@hotmail.com