Sedgefield News

A new Facebook group has been started, with the aim of helping people to reduce, reuse and recycle - and to share ideas on how to replace everyday items with sustainable ones. If that sounds like you, please come and join us.

Plastics are unavoidable and in some surprising places. Teabags, chewing gum and most clothes contain plastic fibres. Plastic is cheap, quick to produce yet it takes centuries to decompose and a disappointing percentage is recycled.

There's a handy A - Z on the council's website of what they can take kerbside, but that doesn't mean everything else should be committed to landfill. Carrier and bread bags are taken by Sainsbury's. Asda and Tesco also take other soft plastics in their carpark recycling bins. Some stores, like Lush, will take plastic lids, and charities including Ellie's Fund, a brain tumour charity, raise money by collecting various plastics.

We hope in each month’s issue to discuss a sustainability problem and a potential solution, and in the meantime if you want more information, see the Greener Sedgefield Facebook page.

A work in progress, by Tony Magee
Shortly after The Hardwick Arms closed for refurbishment I met with Andy Popple, the managing director of EMA Group Holdings, the building’s current owner, to hear details of the proposed changes. There was a busy feel in the ground floor area which had been taken back to the basics; walls to the brickwork, flooring to the boards etc. Andy is a proud north easterner who feels that heritage and aesthetics are very important in a place.

He considers that Sedgefield is strong on both these points and that it is a growing community on the cusp of development. He is also impressed with how many local groups are involved in creating what he terms “a good social infrastructure”. The new development aims to retain “the very busy front bar” that locals have used since EMA acquired the property but also to create a new ‘Herd and Herb’ Restaurant and Lounge in the main body of the building to the right of the archway. The new bar area will be situated in the rooms to the left of the archway. On the same side, more towards the rear of the space will be a new Summer Café where patrons can eat both indoors and in the newly renovated outdoor area in the courtyard. The public bar will be completely dog friendly. All other areas will be open to guide dogs and buddy dogs.

Andy is confident (95%) that with his own experience of project management, an accomplished subcontractor on board and an excellent team of craftsmen and women the projected completion dates can be achieved. Having seen the progress made in the twelve days since the closure it is hard to argue that Andy’s confidence is misplaced.

Enjoying a well-earned rest in this beautiful garden (left) are Sedgefield Trefoil Guild members Janice Burnip and Liz Garner, caught on camera during a visit to Amsterdam. The trip was organised by NE England Trefoil Guild, (guiding for adults).

Along with another 194 members, Janice and Liz toured the canals and visited both a living museum and the Keukenhof bulb fields. Sedgefield Trefoil Guild meet monthly on a Wednesday afternoon, our get-togethers often centred around enjoying a bite to eat. To join us please get in touch with Jackie Postgate. Email mjackiep@ aol.com

DIDO members held their Easter Bring and Buy in the Parish Hall in April and raised £130. There was an Easter Egg Hunt and a raffle, and members took part in the Easter Bonnet Competition. Look at our group of beautiful ladies, wearing their own creations!

A cool wind may have been blowing outside but the Revd. Eileen Tarren was given a warm welcome inside St Mary’s Magdalene’s Church, Trimdon Village, when she was formally commissioned as an ordained member of the ministry team in the parish of the Upper Skerne.

Eileen moved to Sedgefield on her recent ‘retirement’ as a full-time minister and has now received the Bishop’s permission to officiate in the diocese. She will serve on a parttime, voluntary basis in the parish of the Upper Skerne, which includes the Trimdons, Fishburn, Sedgefield and Bishop Middleham.

The Revd. Geoff Short, Team Rector (third left), who formally welcomed Eileen (second left) to the parish, was assisted at Sunday’s service by the Team Vicar, the Revd Elizabeth Bland (right) and chalice assistant Suzanne Hopper (left) “Eileen brings with her a wealth of experience and strong pastoral gifts.

She will be a most useful addition to our team,” said the Rector. The offertory was donated to the Save the Children fund to assist with the emergency work in three southern African countries recently devastated by Cyclone Idai.

Sunday 7th April was a Red Letter day for one local family and also for the congregation at St Edmund’s Church. It saw the celebration of a triple baptism of a mother and her two children in what the Team Rector, the Revd. Geoff Short, described as ‘a very special and rare occasion’.

Mum, Laura Lucas-Hartley, son Joshua and daughter Jessica were baptised by the Rector, watched by husband and father Steve who was christened when he was just a few days old. Both Laura and Steve served in the armed forces until recently and are now looking forward to civilian life. They have worshipped regularly at St Edmund’s since moving to the area.

Due to a reduction in the number of GPs working in our practice, we are currently experiencing great pressure on appointment availability.

To help us ensure we use our time effectively, we need to ask patients to PLEASE: INDICATE to our trained Receptionists the reason you are requesting an appointment, so we can book you a face to face or perhaps a telephone appointment with the most appropriate person in the shortest possible time.

ATTEND YOUR BOOKED APPOINTMENT OR CANCEL IT and give us as much notice as you can so we can offer the appointment to someone else. In February this year, a total of 362 patients failed to attend a booked appointment, which equates to over 200 hrs of wasted clinical time.

YOUR MOBILE NUMBER. We have a text messaging service, which enables us to send messages and appointment reminders to patients, so if you have a mobile phone, please provide us with the number.

REPEAT PRESCRIPTIONS. Like many other surgeries we need two working days to process repeat prescription requests, so we can perform checks and maintain safety. We are receiving increasing numbers of requests for repeat medication to be issued urgently. This delays other patients’ prescriptions and increases the risk of errors. If you do not currently order medication online please speak to our Receptionists about this convenient method.

CERVICAL SCREENING, also known as the “smear test”, is a routine health check that identifies potentially harmful cells and changes on the cervix. It can reduce your risk of developing cervical cancer, which kills 2 women every day. It is important to make an appointment for screening when invited. We have arranged a WALK IN SCREENING CLINIC at Harbinson House, Sedgefield on Saturday 11 May between 9am and 11:30am. Please come along if you know you are due a screening test or if you would like to ask any questions. No appointment is necessary.

Three great-grandmothers were among the congregation treated to posies of daffodils during the Mothers’ Day service at St Edmund’s Church, Sedgefield.

Mrs Doreen Richards, Mrs Yvonne Houston and Mrs Anne Eyley were presented with the flowers by youngsters who volunteered to help the Team Rector, the Revd. Geoff Short, during the service. Everyone else in church on the morning also received daffodils donated by Sainsbury’s supermarket. Lessons were read by mother and daughter Susan and Laura Wallace. Pictured above with the young helpers are Mrs Houston (centre), the Rector, Mrs Richards (seated) and Mrs Eyley (right).