Christmas Party
A Children's Christmas Party will be held in the Village Hall on Saturday, 21st December from 5.30 to 7.30 pm. Children will shortly be receiving their invitation from Santa who will be there in person. Remember to post your reply in Santa's Post Box in the village shop before 15th December. There will be a completion for the best Christmas tree decoration and children bring your entry to help decorate the tree. Party games and festive snacks are included. There will be no charge. Mums and Dads are welcome as well as Grans and Grandpas!
Hall
Bottle Bingo
This popular event will take place in the Memorial Hall on Friday, 27th December 2002, 7:00 for eyes down at 7:30.
Live Entertainment in the Village Hall
Following the very successful production from The NTC Touring Theatre Company of TARTUFFE by Moliére in the Memorial Hall in October the Hall committee is proud to announce the latest production. You youngsters give your parents a treat and persuade them to take you along to this entertaining production.
Rumpelstiltskin
By Mike Kenny
...the story of a boast that becomes a lie!
The royal vaults, once full of gold, are now stuffed with straw! The rain won't stop, the harvest is flattened and people are getting really cheesed off. Forced to do something about his miserable position, the King hears a rumour of a beautiful miller's daughter with magical powers. Will she be able to achieve his impossible tasks? If she is to be helped, what will she have to give in return?
Here's a story that's old as old
Of how a girl turned straw to gold
Of what it cost
What she nearly lost
Watch and see the tale unfold.
Come and enjoy this fun production and at the same time support the village hall. Tuesday, 7th January 2003 is the date and 6:30 pm the time. The Hall Committee would like to see you there. Tickets are still available from members of the Committee or from the Village Shop, Adults £5, Children £3.
First Responder Lifesavers - Whittingham, Glanton and Powburn
I am pleased to say that we have nearly raised the £4,000 needed to purchase a defibrillator and other equipment.
We are still short of volunteers to train as First Responders and to do some non-time-consuming clerical work. Remember the more volunteers we have the better cover we can offer for possible heart attack victims in our area. In Newsletter 16 I told you that, "I had a heart attack and as we live in a relatively remote rural community it took some time for the ambulance to arrive. Fortunately my attack was not as serious as it could have been. You will never hear me complain about the NHS, but they have only a limited amount of resources and that is why the Royal Life Saving Society has set up First Responder.
"First Responders are teams of volunteers, from any walk of life, trained to administer life saving treatment to victims of heart attacks. As groups are based in the community they are able to reach the victim and administer treatment before the emergency ambulance service arrives."
Training is due to start early in the New Year. The area covered is Glanton, Whittingham and Powburn. Anyone interested should contact me on 01665 578221.
Mike Mason
Air Ambulance Talk
Unfortunately the talk about the Air Ambulance had to be postponed because of the sudden illness of the presenter. The WI hopes to rearrange the event next year. Despite the lack of a speaker the event raised £182.
In the meantime Sybil Thomas wants to remind everyone that they can support the Air Ambulance, which is self-financing, by entering The Great North Air Ambulance Lottery.
You enter by purchasing a number of weeks at 50p per week, you are then entered into the appropriate numbers of weeks. The weekly cash prizes are one prize of £200, two at £100, two at £50, two at £25 and 25 prizes of £10. You can obtain tickets from the Village Post Office or telephone 01325 487263 for further information. Weekly prize draw results appear in our regional newspapers.
Parish Council
Freedom of Information Act
All Parish Councils have been asked to publicise the information they hold and make it available to those interested. As a small Parish we hold little information but we will post a list of the information and how it can be viewed on the village notice board. The Parish Council will continue to highlight important events and issues in this newsletter.
Christmas Tree
We are pleased to announce we will again have a village Christmas Tree.
Glanton Cyber Café
Gayle and Robert are still waiting for the computer to be delivered. The latest news is that it has arrived in the County and is being prepared in Morpeth.
It should be here shortly.
United Reformed Church
After our harvest Thanksgiving we were able to send £255 to Christian Aid for our Bangladesh project. Many thanks to everyone who gave.
Saturday, 7th December - Christmas Coffee Morning in the Church Hall at 10:30. Stalls and raffle. Everyone welcome.
Sunday, 22nd December Village Carol Service at 6:00 pm. All Churches will join together for this night. Come and enjoy singing favourite carols. All money from the collection will go to the Great North Air Ambulance Service.
Marion Guiry
Glanton 'A Village Chronicle'
Remember your ideal Christmas Gift. Copies of our village book are still available from The Village Shop, Post Office and hairdressers.
The book has been sold only in the village, with some mail order sales. The Glanton Millennium Fund are selling the book in shops throughout Northumberland so stocks are dwindling. Now might be a good time to buy those extra copies for posterity as the book will most probably not be reprinted.
Sad News
It is reported with sadness that Rob Allen passed away in since our last Newsletter. His family and friends will sadly miss him.
Great North Run
John Ainley managed to finish the Great North Run in the first 6000 raising much-needed donations for MENCAP.
WI Concerns
There follows an edited extract from a letter received by Glanton WI about changes to the way benefits are paid. The WI felt the issue was so important they wished to bring it to the attention of everyone.
PENSIONS & BENEFITS PAYMENT CHANGES:
YOU HAVE A CHOICE!
An update from National Federation of Women's Institute's (NFWI) Public Affairs Department, October 2002
From April 2003, the Government will phase out the payment of pensions and state benefits by order book and giro cheque at the Post Office. From April 2005, order books and giro cheques will cease to exist. Recipients will have a choice of three types of account into which they can have their money paid:
- bank or building society current account
- bank or building society basic or `starter' account
- a new Post Office Card Account
NFWI has been campaigning actively urging upon HM Government the importance of allowing people to continue to collect their pensions and benefits in cash at the Post Office beyond 2002. Technically, people will be able to continue collecting their payments in cash at post offices after order books and giro cheques are phased out, provided they opt to be paid into an account that can be accessed at the post office. Currently, six banks in England and Wales have contracts with the Post Office to make their current accounts accessible through post offices (Alliance & Leicester, Barclays, Co-operative Bank, Lloyds TSB, cahoot, and smile), while some fourteen banks will be making their basic bank accounts accessible through post offices from April 2003.
However, there is a danger that the loss of income to sub-post offices from this change in payment method may contribute to further post office closures, thus in effect denying many people the option of collecting their money over a post office counter.
NFWI's View
Given the uncertainty facing sub-post offices, NFWI feels that the Post Office Card Account is the best option for ensuring that people still go to post offices to collect their pensions and benefits. The Post Office Card Account is also the nearest equivalent to continuing with the current order book. There are no eligibility criteria and there is no possibility of getting overdrawn.
If people want to help keep their post offices open but decide they want to be paid via a bank or building society account, they should make sure that they choose to be paid into an account that can be accessed through post offices and then try whenever possible to use post offices for their banking transactions.
In order for benefit, pension and tax credit recipients to opt to be paid via a Post Office Card Account, they must not fill in the form they receive from their benefit agency requesting bank account details, but must instead phone the relevant government department on the number provided with their 'invitation letter' and "discuss their banking options". If they then decide to open a Card Account, they will be sent a "Personal Invitation Document" which can be used from 14th January 2003 to apply for their card at a post office.
NFWI is concerned that the Government is trying to 'actively manage' people away from the Post Office Card Account by placing a number of hurdles in the way of people opting for this method of payment.
What can you do?
- Advise people to think carefully before responding to any letters from their benefits agencies, and tell them they can opt to be paid via a Post Office Card Account if they would prefer that.
- If people decide they want to be paid via bank account, urge them to choose an account that is accessible at post offices and to use that account at the post office as much as possible.
- Test the Government's stated commitment to free choice by phoning the number given to request payment by Card Account - note the date & time and name of the person at the other end of the phone, and let NFWI know if anything is said to discourage people from opening Card Accounts.
- You could also protest at the complicated arrangements for opening a Card Account, for example by returning forms without giving bank account details and with the words,"Post Office Card Account please!" in big bold letters.
- Support campaigns organised by sub-postmasters and postmistresses
- Contact your MP to voice your concerns at the situation.
Glanton WI
Contributions for the next newsletter If you have anything to include in the next newsletter please pass the information to Norman Dunn, 5 Front Street, Glanton by 29th January 2002, please.