Your letters & email July/Aug 2013
Visit to HMS Collingwood
The H.M.S. Collingwood Association is looking for those who either loved or loathed the ‘warship’ to join us on our next visit to that massive Shore Training Establishment at Fareham Hampshire. Association visits of the past have included a parade, a buffet lunch in the wardroom, visits to the training sections and simulators.
If any reader would like to meet up with their old shipmates from any time, yes we have members in their nineties who were at H.M.S. Collingwood at the start in 1940 and who knows, your old shipmate might live just round the corner to you and reading this letter could re-unite you!
Were you a cook, Wren, steward, writer, in the stores or a stoker for example? Do you have a story to tell about your time at H.M.S. Collingwood which other members may recognise when printed in the Association Magazine? Send it to Peter Lacey, Heathfield, Lapford, Crediton, Devon. EX17 6PZ or email him placey58@btinternet.com with your application form.
The Association is growing, don’t get left behind. I look forward to meeting you at the next visit into H.M.S. Collingwood or weekend reunion and reliving those days!! Bring this letter with you and I will buy you a tot!
Mike Crowe. Chairman
7, Heath Road, Lake Sandown, Isle of Wight. PO36 8PG
Sporting facilities are a disgrace
My name is Barry Paton and I currently run one of the two remaining junior football teams based in Amble. We are trying to provide a facility for youngsters in the area which embraces exercise and a healthy pastime.
Unfortunately this is becoming increasingly difficult due to both economic pressure for using facilities and also the poor upkeep of the existing ones. The majority of youngsters who play for the diminishing number of teams attend the James Calvert Spence College, yet the costs are extortionate.
We pay a fee of £800 to use the football pitches during term time only throughout the season and only for matches, not for training. We can use the indoor gymnasium for £28 an hour or £200 for a 10 session block booking. Last season our club had three teams. We paid the school approximately £1600 for use of the pitch and to train indoors during the winter months. We are only a small club and could end up having to fold due to lack of funds.
This leaves the issue of a facility for training through the summer. The only area we had available was Amble Welfare which is of a very poor quality so can’t be used next season. The income generated from the two teams that used this pitch paid to get the grass cut. Now there is no income so the pitch will be unusable. This means that the youngsters in our teams will have nowhere to train as the only options available are to train on an overgrown health and safety hazard or face bankruptcy by being held to ransom by our members’ school.
I have once again seen the proposals for new facilities at Alnwick and feel my blood boil as the existing facilities are 10 times better than ours. Villages such as Longhoughton have fantastic facilities so I must ask the question:why, as a much bigger place, do we in Amble have nothing? If anyone knows of a patch of land approximately 60yds x 40yds that is maintained to an acceptable standard would they please let me know via email at the address provided as times are now desperate with the season coming around again . The area does not need to be marked as we would cone it off but just a patch of short grass which we can use free of charge would be appreciated.
Barry Paton Barry-paton@sky.com
Heartwarming thanks
Hello. I just wanted to say thank you to all the lovely Amble people who responded to my request for information as to how to contact my old school friend Julie Cowan. It’s heartwarming that people would take the time to help, and I just wanted to say thank you.
Pauline Lisle,
Stockton-on-Tees
Would you like to take part in the Parade?
I am writing on behalf of Amble Action Group committee to invite you to take part in Amble Town Christmas Parade and lighting up ceremony taking place on Sunday 17th November 2013 at 5pm.
It will commence with the switching on of the lights. The parade will progress from The Wellwood on High Str. and down Queen Str. to finish in the town square, where there will be community stalls, children’s entertainment and festive singing.
We would welcome any offers of help from businesses, community groups, either before or on the day of the event to make this as successful an event as last year.
We need people to take part in the parade, to advertise your business or other community events; to produce or create an interesting float for the parade; to produce or make some costumes for the parade; to donate or hold e.g. a raffle to increase our funds for these events; or take part in the parade in an unusual or interesting vehicle.
Email me (by 1 Sept please) kate_morrison@btinternet.com or tel. 01665711191 with your ideas and to lodge your interest in volunteering some of your time in the preparations or on the day.
Kate Morrison, Secretary,
Amble Action Group
Christmas Lights tombola
Amble Christmas Lights committee will be running a tombola stall at the market on the quayside, on Sunday 18th August 2013, starting at 9.30pm. This has been made possible by Peter Stewart, who helps run the markets. We are looking for the offer of prizes to enable us to run the stall. If you happen to have a bottle, or anything appropriate, that we could use as a prize, then your donation would be very welcome. Amble Christmas Lights committee are very much aware of the generosity of the local folk and we sincerely hope that you will give your support yet again.
The staff at the Development Trust have kindly agreed to accept any donations on our behalf, so if you have something to donate please drop it off there.
In anticipation of your generosity, I thank you all and hope to see you on the day.
Trevor Colbourne, Chairman,
on behalf of the Amble Christmas Lights committee.
No dropped kerbs
Hello there, I am an Amble resident who is disabled. I use a wheelchair and also my mobility scooter. I tried to visit my parents’ home recently and couldn’t believe what I saw. Coming from my home on Gloster Park, new kerbs have been fitted. Brilliant you may think. No, these are now higher than the originals and no dropped kerb in sight. I am appalled at the council for not thinking of the disabled once again. If any councillors read this please e mail me to see if this major problem can be resolved.
Regards
Sue Albutt Suealbutt@googlemail.com
