Tina’s the tops when it comes to
childminding
TOP childminder Tina
Clark makes looking after youngsters seem like child’s play.
Tina, of
Rosebery Way, Tring, was one of only 14 childminders to achieve the
‘outstanding’ rating from Ofsted inspectors, who carried out almost 1,000
inspections across the country since April.
Pictured above with her own son,
six-year-old Kieran and two of her charges - three-year-old George
Wilkinson-Hoare and his little brother one-year-old Charlie - Tina said: “I’m
very much a children person. It is lovely to see the excitement in a child’s
eyes when they do something for the first time, even if it is just going down
the slide when you take them to the park. It is great fun. I get to spend my day
playing!”
The 43-year-old spent 18 years working in an office before training
as a childminder in 2001.
She said: “I enjoy working for myself and the best
thing is I can be there when my son needs me and I can be there for the other
children when their mums can’t. I really enjoy it.”
As well as looking after
children Tina is halfway through a two-year early years NVQ3 course at West
Herts College and she is a support childminder for newly-registered
childminders.
Tina said of her accolade: “I thought nothing of it until
people said there were only 14 of us. I'm just doing a
job.”
Farmers welcome launch of new
market
MARKET farmers are
backing Tring Market Place, which is set to boost business and transform the
town.
Traders are eagerly preparing for the big launch of the refurbished
site in Brook Street and hope it will encourage visitors to the town.
Tring
Together and Tring Town Council are holding market opening celebrations on
Friday, September 9 and Saturday, September 10.
One Farmers’ Market
stallholder thinks the new market place will transform the town drawing in
crowds of people who want to sample the local produce on offer.
Barry Love,
of Redbourn Road, hopes the project will be as successful as the new Farmers’
Market in Harpenden. He said: “The market in Harpenden has transformed the
place. There are large crowds going through there. People make a beeline for the
market. It has drawn in business.”
Harpenden held its first Farmers’ Market
in May this year and now have more than 50 stallholders.
Barry’s wife,
Zdenka, bakes homemade
pastries to sell at Tring’s Farmers’ Market. She said
of the new site: “It will be great because business will be much
better.”
Tring’s Farmers’ Market moved to The Forge car park off the High
Street earlier this year to allow workmen to upgrade the Brook Street
site.
Jackie Cornthwaite, from Bridens Camp in Great Gaddesden, Hemel
Hempstead, sells homegrown plants and seasonal vegetables at the market. She
said: “We are hoping it will boost business. We have a hard core of regular
customers but we need the passing trade as well.
“It has been quite difficult
in the car park. It will be nice to have a permanent site and raise our profile.
What we have got to offer is good. It is just a case of getting people through
the door.”
She hopes people who come along for the weekend launch will be so
impressed they will keep on coming back.
Janet Stupples, one of the directors
of the County Market Company –which runs the Farmers’ Market said: “We are very
pleased to have a site that is level, which isn’t full of potholes, which has
running water and electricity.”
The regular Friday Charter Market will take
place on the new site for the first time on Friday, September 9, with a variety
of new stallholders and special deals on offer.
The Farmers’ Market is on
Saturday, September 10 when locals and visitors will be able to sample and buy
local produce from about 25 farmer stalls. There will be special cookery
demonstrations, a hog roast and children’s entertainment including local farm
animals.
Participating retailers in the town will also be running their own
special offers over the two days.
On Saturday Tring Mayor Councillor Mike
James will officially declare the market site open at 10am.
During the
day local schools will provide entertainment and youngsters can enjoy
face-painting, puppet shows and the Walter Rothschild Zoological Museum which is
putting on a special mask-making season.
Plans for a local museum in the town
will be on display and the public is invited to bring along items of historical
interest, so that members of the Tring and District Local History and Museum
Society can comment on them.
Tring Market Auctions, also based in Brook
Street, is the main sponsor of the event and will be trading on the
day.
Canal algae warning baits fishy
mystery
CANAL bosses are
still unsure what caused oxygen levels to plummet in the Grand Union Canal at
Tring last month killing an estimated 700 fish.
Special machinery had to be
used to pump oxygen back into the Wendover Arm of the canal after fish were seen
gasping for air.
Water samples were sent for tests to discover what caused
the dramatic drop in oxygen, but the results have been inconclusive, so more
tests are being carried out.
Officers deployed aerators to pump oxygen from
the air back into the canal between New Mill and New Mill Bridge on Thursday,
August 18 and took seven days to bring the oxygen in the canal back up to a safe
level.
Hydrogen peroxide balls, which react with the water to release oxygen,
were also dropped into the canal.
Most of the fish that died were young
roach, but dead perch and gudgeon were also seen by officers working to clear
the fish.
Environment Agency and British Waterways officers suspect that
toxic blue-green algae, which uses up oxygen when decomposing, may be the cause
of the deaths.
Warning signs have been put up around the canal and Tring’s
reservoirs, which are also infected, telling visitors to stay away from the
algae
as it can cause vomiting and
diarrhoea if people and pets come
into contact with it.
Barry Russell, environment manager for the Environment
Agency said: “The public do need to be aware that blue-green algae can be toxic
and may cause illness.
“Parents and pet owners should keep children
and
animals away from the water’s edge, and avoid contact with any scum in
the water or on the shore.”
Environment Agency spokesman Chris Mitchell
said oxygen levels in the canal had improved and some fish had started to
return to the infected area of the canal.
The oxygen levels in Tring’s
Reservoirs are being monitored daily to ensure the same problem does not
occur.
Top marks for GP
surgeries
FAMILY doctors in
Dacorum have scored an average of more than 91 per cent in new performance
figures for surgeries.
For the first time the ratings allow comparison
between practices in terms of clinical performance and management.
Surgeries
score points on a range of indicators to measure clinical performance including
heart disease, asthma, mental health and diabetes.
Among the other indicators
used are education and training, length of consultation and medicine
management.
It is optional for surgeries to take part in the new system,
called the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF), but success is linked to
increased funding.
An average-sized practice which gets an average score will
get an extra £74,000 a year.
Results in the individual categories are tallied
up to give an overall percentage score of the total available points.
A total
of 19 practices in Dacorum have signed up to the system and between them scored
an average of 91.6 per cent, slightly higher than the national average of 91 per
cent.
One of the benefits of the system is that it allows information on
various illnesses and conditions to be compiled in a central database.
Dr Joe
Kearney, director of public health at Dacorum Primary Care Trust (PCT), said:
“Many GPs are investing this extra money into better services to benefit their
patients, for example by employing extra staff who are skilled in chronic
disease management.
“The PCT will be working with its partners in primary
care to continue to improve the QOF points to practices and achieve high quality
patient care for all the people of Dacorum.”
The highest scoring practice in
the borough is the Manor Street Surgery in Berkhamsted, which scored 99.4 per
cent.
Practice manager Tom Kerr said the good score was down to the
commitment of staff.
“Anything that improves patient care has got to be
looked upon favourably,” he said of the ratings.
“The commitment of the whole
team to providing primary care is the thing.
“We are quite proud of our
result but I believe all the practices in Dacorum have worked hard this
year.”
How did they
score?
1. Manor Street
Surgery, Annandale House, Berkhamsted.
Senior partner, C E Ponsonby. 99.4%
2. Fernville Surgery, Midland Road, Hemel Hempstead.
R S Bhamra.
99.1%
3. Parkwood Drive Surgery, Hemel Hempstead. R J Gallow. 98.8%
4. Everest House Surgery, Everest Way, Hemel Hempstead.
M Royston. 98.5%
5. Kings Langley Surgery, The Nap, Kings Langley. S
J Cohen. 98.5%
6. Bennetts End Surgery, Hemel Hempstead. M J Drake.
97.5%
7. Grovehill Medical Centre, Hemel Hempstead. F M
Hirji. 97.2%
8. Coleridge Crescent, Hemel Hempstead. S K Bhatt.
96.7%
9. Highfield Surgery, Hemel Hempstead. K M Mishra. 96.6%
10.
Haverfield Surgery, High Street, Kings Langley. S A Kanani. 96.4%
11. Archway
Surgery, High Street, Bovingdon. G V Bulger. 95.5%
12. Boxwell Road, Surgery,
Berkhamsted. A J Pride. 93.2%
13. L Dyson, Lincoln House Surgery, Hemel
Hempstead. 93.2%
14. Rothschild House Surgery, Tring. D J Ogden. 92.4%
15.
Milton House Surgery, Doctor’s Commons Road, Berkhamsted.
E I Aitchison.
89.3%
16. Woodhall Farm Medical Centre, Hemel Hempstead.
M A K Khattak.
84.6%
17. The New Surgery, St Peter’s House, Church Yard, Tring.
A H
Hall-Jones. 74.7%
18. The Surgery, Hicks Road, Markyate. T M Sepai.
70.4%
19. Red & White House, High Street, Berkhamsted.
O
Ojo-Aromokudu. 69.2%
Residents object – 36 signatures in support of
Tring Town
Council set to veto BT phone box
closure
TRING Town Council
plans to use special powers to ban BT from
scrapping one of the town’s
payphones.
BT wants to get rid of the public phone in Manor Road but
councillors plan to veto its removal because there isn’t another payphone
nearby.
Councillors have the backing of 36 signatures representing 16 local
homes against the phone’s removal.
The future of the phone kiosk, which was
installed in 1987, has been called into question because phone giant BT claims
it is not being used enough. Across the UK the number of calls made from BT
payphones has more than halved in the last four years due to the increase in
mobile phone use.
At a Tring Town Council planning committee last week Cllr
Lloyd Harris revealed details of the ‘veto’ power which says a local authority
can veto proposals that apply to phone boxes more than 100 metres apart.
Cllr
Harris said: “If no-one wanted the phone box retained I would happily see it
removed, but as there is a need I think we should use this power and object.”
Councillors said if the Manor Road phone were removed the nearest public phone
box would be in the town centre. In total there are eight street-based payphones
in the Tring Town Council area.
Ofcom, the independent regulator for UK
communications industries, is reviewing the veto power because BT says it
is unfair. Public consultation over BT’s proposals ends on September 28.
Comments can be emailed to: alan.pridmore@ofcom.org.uk marking
any message: Universal service obligation consultation. Or you can contact BT at
btp.authorisation. team@bt.com or write to BT Payphones, PP 06A21,
Delta Point, 35 Wellesley Road, Croydon, CR9 2YZ quoting the telephone number of
the phone box 01442 822179.
Saying it with flower
power
FLOWERS in the
vibrant colours of autumn will be on display at St Peter and St Paul Church in
Tring during its Festival of Flowers and Crafts.
There will be dozens of
flower arrangements for visitors to see along with displays of local crafts
including cake decorating, quilt and card making and wooden toys.
The church
in the High Street will be open to visitors from 10am to 5pm on Friday, October
7 and Saturday, October 8. A Harvest Festival service will take place on Sunday,
October 9 in the morning and there will be a Choral Evensong at
6.30pm.
Churches have teamed up to put on the festival to raise cash for a
new floor and heating system needed at St Cross Church in Wilstone.
For more
information call organiser Elizabeth Sims on 01442 822669.
Waterways roadshow
THE WATERWAYS
Roadshow is coming to one of Tring’s reservoirs.
The event aims to show
people how to escape the hustle and bustle of life and discover all the benefits
of the local waterways from the excitement of gliding through locks on a boat to
taking a healthy hike.
The roadshow will be offering fun activities,
competitions, goodie bags and lots of information at Startops Reservoir car park
on Thursday, September 8.
For more information about the Waterways Roadshow
contact South East Waterways on 01908 302500 or email southeast.
enquiries@britishwaterways.co.uk.
