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Author: The Editor

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Pyke Quarry – Wednesday Openings

Open on Wednesday!

The Household Recycling Centre at Pyke Quarry will be temporarily opened on Wednesdays from 19th August to make more booking slots available.

news

To limit the number of people on-site pre-booking was introduced earlier this year at all five of the county’s Household Recycling Centres (HRCs) to enable social distancing, with measures in place to help keep visitors and staff safe.

Booking

The booking system has a limited number of timed slots available each day and visitors can book up to 21 days in advance. Bookings can be made online at www.gloucestershirerecycles.com

Waiting times for a visit to Hempsted, Wingmoor Farm, Oak Quarry and Fosse Cross HRCs are currently less than a week, with next day availability on occasions at some sites. However, due to its popularity, the delay before a visit can be made to Pyke Quarry, Horsley is significantly longer.

To help reduce this wait, Pyke Quarry HRC will be opening on its normal Wednesday closure day from 19th August, as a temporary measure, until further notice.

Visitors to all sites are reminded that vehicles should only have drivers wherever possible. Site staff must socially distance and are unable to help with unloading so one passenger is permitted to assist. Crucially, anyone with covid-19 symptoms and those in self-isolating households MUST NOT visit.

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Stilton Cheese

Laugh or Cry?

Trade Deal feels the cheese squeeze

It has emerged that Liz Truss, the international trade secretary, backed away from signing a historic post-Brexit trade deal with Japan last week in support of a British cheese worth 0.007 per cent of total UK exports to the country.

Ms Truss, 45, had been hoping to announce the deal to protect £14.8 billion of UK exports to Japan after two days of negotiations with the foreign minister, Toshimitsu Motegi.

Mr Motegi flew back to Tokyo on Friday with no deal in place after Ms Truss demanded better terms for the UK’s stilton producers than the deal the UK has as part of its membership of the European Union, the Financial Times reported.

The talks will continue at an official level in an attempt to resolve the differences and have an agreement ratified before the transition period ends in December.

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Charity Choir Competition Conservation COVID-19 Dursley Rugby Club Dursley Rugby Football Club Elections Footpaths Friends of St Cyr friends of st cyrs Fun Fundraising Hidden Gardens History House Histories Information Local History Open 2 All Our Environment Parish Council Parish Council News Post Box Ride&Stride Ride and Stride RNLI Roads Road Safety Rugby Club Scams Speeding Speedwatch st Cyr St Cyrs Stinchcombe Playground Stinchcombe Social Stroud District Council Testing TGIF Tyndale Arts Village Hall Virtual Village What's on Wildflowers WWT

COVID Test Kit and App on Phone

Test and Trace

6000 workers

I read yesterday that the Government is shedding 6,000 workers from the test-and-trace operations. 6000 is a large percentage of the 25,000 (24%) of the total number employees. So has the system reached Baroness Dido Hardings “Gold Standard” ?

Tweet from Sir Chris Ham

As Sir Chris Ham said

“Contact tracing has to be led locally by people who work in the communities that are affected and understand them,They’re part-detectives, part-anthropologists: they work with leaders in faith groups, in community organisations, and public services, to understand why there are more cases in a particular area, and how to work with everyone to contain and reduce the challenges. You can’t do that sitting in a remote call centre.”

Sir Chris Ham

New Local Test and Trace

Now local councils are starting their OWN local test-and-trace operations in Blackburn, Leicester, Manchester, Calderdale and Liverpool. The Government has been forced to share the current and up to date information with the local health workers. If only to enable the test-and-trace effort to be better coordinated.

According to the Guardian Newspaper the central call-centre workers only manager to trace 56% of people’s contacts, whereas the figure for local health teams was 98%.

Hopefully, what will emerge will finally be a Test and Trace system that actually works.

Latest Posts

Roadworks

Road Works Started

Taits Hill Road Works

The Road Works have started on Taits Hill Road. Opposite Yew Tree Pub to Lay new Gas service from 5th Aug until 11th Aug. https://one.network/?117557563

From the 14th to 26th it’s for the Carriageway Resurfacing on the hill https://one.network/?115027377 with the road closed 7pm until 7am.

Other Road Works

Also from the 14th until 26th, there is resurfacing of the B4066 Berkeley Road. https://one.network/?115027373

Coronavirus Image

Coronavirus my personal thoughts

Covid Total World Cases 5th August

In the last newsletter I promised you an update, so these are my PERSONAL thoughts.

Worldwide.

Today, on the 5th August, the worldwide number of cases reached 18.5M and looking at the logarithmic page in worldometer it doesn’t take rocket science to predict that if nothing changes, by the end of the year there will be 100m cases worldwide. There is also a great deal of under-reporting in many countries, (for political reasons and non-political reasons) This means that the possible number by year end may be much, much higher. 100m is around 1.25% of the world’s population.

Whatever the figure is at the end of the year, I am trying to say that this virus is still VERY active worldwide and will NOT go away until the Vaccine arrives, and the vaccine will arrive, but don’t go looking for your dose until WINTER 2021.

UK

I have been critical of the Government’s response from the start and unfortunately still remain critical.

  • The “World Beating App” which was given to NHS developers who unfortunately saw it as a chance to collect data, store it centrally, and allow for great data analysis. This is the same NHS where one hospital can’t send patients details electronically to another. E.G. Gloucester to Oxford. (No I don’t know why) to
  • “Track and Trace” which was again given over to be centralised. All very well, but can someone on a computer in their house talk to someone in Leicester who doesn’t even speak English? “Track and Trace” should always have been regionalised. Something now starting to happen in places like Manchester as they set up their own “Track and Trace” .
  • Likewise the “Testing” fiasco, no, don’t start me on the “Testing”
UK Testing 5th August

The UK government routinely talks about Testing CAPACITY, but surely the ONLY number that really matters and of any importance is the number of tests PROCESSED! The question the government should ask is “Why weren’t the other 178,747 tests done yesterday?”

However, in all this, I think the response of the British People has been remarkable, with one or two exceptions, where I despair, all in all the Great British Public has shown great sense, and remarkable politeness and kindness to each other. Something that I thought that would wear quickly off has remained as the months progress.

The Next Few Months

A lot depends on how well people continue to adhere to the rules about “Washing Hands”, “Distancing”, “Masks” and “Socialising”. All of us need to keep these newfound habits and not let them slip.

Unfortunately, because each part of the UK has different rules, which change frequently, (what happened to Boris’s red lights, or was it defcon 1-5) no-one really knows what rules still apply! So the common man is left doing what seems right…

Number of local Coronavirus cases 5th September

So to the good news….although nationally the UK cases has slowly been rising over the last month from 550 (7D avg) it’s still only 800 (7D avg) even with all the loosening of the rules and does not show any rapid acceleration in numbers. (Cross Fingers!!)

In fact Stinchcombe sits in a large area of less than 2 cases per week. I see no reason why this will not remain the case except where cases are brought into the area from outside by mixing on holiday, or mixing of younger people. (18+)

However, I do see life as it is now continuing until the end of next year. We cannot stop hotspots occuring nationwide, but I do feel positive that the “second wave” can be avoided.

If you are interested, I do suggest you visit the government website for all the latest.

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Scam Phone Calls – A NEW Warning

The Amazon Scam

I had a phone call yesterday from a distressed reader who thought that she had received a phone call from “AMAZON PRIME”. She has an Amazon Alexa on her son’s account and they wanted money for using it. (untrue) She had also on their instructions, used her tablet to visit a “website” and was just about to leave the house to get £4000 from the bank. At this point she did a double take, remembered a recent e-news about scams, and thought to ring me on her mobile……..(just in time)..

I cannot stress how import it is to:

  • DON’T INTERACT IN ANY WAY with any Scam caller on the phone
  • DON’T PRESS 1
  • DON’T TALK TO THEM
  • DON’T LISTEN TO THEM
  • just PUT THE PHONE DOWN.

Once you start to talk to these people they have you….they are cold, vicious, cruel, immoral B***ARDS!

Once you start to talk to them or INTERACT IN ANY WAY….they have you caught like a fish on the line.

Remember

You will NEVER RECEIVE A PHONE CALL FROM AMAZON!

I can’t stress that too much so I’ll say it again, You will NEVER RECEIVE A PHONE CALL FROM AMAZON!

Luckily,

  • The tablet was switched off until it can be checked for spyware
  • The Police (tel 101) were informed and an incident number given.
  • The BANK was advised who cancelled her cards and re-issued new ones.

Last year a person in my company was scammed so I have a deep hatred of them. These people pray on peoples goodwill, trust, and honesty. The good values that people have.

More Information

For further reading, I suggest this page, and read all about the latest scams especially those related to TRACK and TRACE, and COVID-19

Russell Holloway leaps high to secure possession in Dursley's match with Old Centralians (1965)

55 Years in Stinchcombe

Memories of our 55 years living in Stinchcombe

The 60’s

When we moved to Stinchcombe in the 1960’s the Village school was still open (it closed in 1966), the motorway was being built, the Stinchcombe Band and the WI were flourishing. The Stinchcombe Stragglers Cricket Club was well known and attracted  regular star appearances. Fundraising was mainly in aid of the Church.  Events in the Village Hall under the eagle eye of Miss Chew Hooper were relatively low key.

The 70’s

During the 70’s the Church bells rang out again. Dursley Rugby Club relocated and combined with the Cricket Club to form the Stinchcombe Sports Club. Junior cricket and rugby teams catered for the youngsters of the surrounding area. We celebrated the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in style. New people moved into the village and started to join in.

The 80’s

This trend accelerated in the 1980’s as new faces appeared on the Parish Council the PCC and other groups.   A Village Cook Book was produced and we had a Flower Festival in the Church and newcomers became involved in various schemes.

The 90’s

And so into the 90’s. The Village Hall widened its scope and was gradually refurbished and improved. There were barbecues, fun sports , November 5th bonfires and fireworks, open gardens, barn dances, treasure trails , checking of footpaths  and much more.

The Millennium and beyond

The 21st Century was ushered in with the lighting of a beacon on Stinchcombe Hill ( albeit in the fog!) The work of the Village Hall Committee has given us a superb venue for  more and bigger events : Summer Balls, craft fairs, concerts , plant sales, village shows, jubilee celebrations etc. The Friends of St Cyr’s Church was formed in 2005 and has seen completion of several ambitious projects, with more to come. The Village Plan published in 2008 and subsequently refreshed  has led to several  initiatives. We have seen Last Nights of The Proms, Open Gardens, concerts, exhibitions and a safari supper in the Church and have enjoyed the use of Church Farm Barn for barn dances, art exhibitions, garden parties, antiques road shows, wine-tastings and more. A History Society and book club have been formed and a village newsletter and e-news published. There is a set of Village Walks covering much of the parish. We have a theatre club and TGI Fridays.  In 2011 the Village came together in a big way with the Save Berkeley Vale Campaign to fight the erection of 4 giant wind turbines at the edge of the conservation area.

The Future?

So now in 2020 how do we go on?  Lockdown has highlighted the wonderful sense of belonging and caring that we all share. I have been very proud to be a part of the activities through the years but some of us are ageing (reluctantly) and are slowing down. New young heads are needed so that we can move forward. We do have something very special in this village and now we require new faces on our committees with fresh ideas to carry on the work which has evolved through the decades. .

Charity Choir Competition Conservation COVID-19 Dursley Rugby Club Dursley Rugby Football Club Elections Footpaths Friends of St Cyr friends of st cyrs Fun Fundraising Hidden Gardens History House Histories Information Local History Open 2 All Our Environment Parish Council Parish Council News Post Box Ride&Stride Ride and Stride RNLI Roads Road Safety Rugby Club Scams Speeding Speedwatch st Cyr St Cyrs Stinchcombe Playground Stinchcombe Social Stroud District Council Testing TGIF Tyndale Arts Village Hall Virtual Village What's on Wildflowers WWT

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