Giving gift
of life this Christmas
PEOPLE in Tring are being called on to help save lives by donating blood on Saturday, December 31.
The demand for blood never stops especially at Christmas time and the National Blood Service needs to collect 9,000 voluntary donations every day throughout December in England and North Wales to help meet hospital demand.
Rhian Walters from the NBS said: “Donating blood, or signing up to become a blood donor, really is the best Christmas present you can give this year - the gift of life.
“It only takes around an hour or so to go along and give blood, but that hour really could mean a lifetime for someone else.”
A donor session will be held at the Red Cross Centre in Eight Acres, Tring, from 9.30am to 2.30pm.
Donors can make an appointment for the session by calling the NBS Helpline on 0845 7711 711. For more information about blood donation and local donor sessions this winter visit www.blood.co.uk

Man, 24, dies in car crash

A 24-YEAR-OLD man has died after being involved in a road accident in Aston Clinton on Friday, December 12.
Nicholas Joseph Daniuk, of High Street, Wendover, died after his VW Golf came into collision with a BMW at about 8.45pm on London Road.
Mr Daniuk was turning right out of Upper Icknield Way onto London Road and collided with the BMW travelling from Tring towards Aston Clinton.
PC Andy Martin, investigating, said: “I am keen to hear from anyone who may have seen this crash or who may have seen either of these two vehicles travelling on the road prior to the collision.”
Witnesses and anyone with information who could help the police investigation should call PC Martin, at Amersham Road Policing department, on 0845 8505 505, or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Christmas hours Tring

Town Council Information Centre will close at 1pm on Friday, December 23 and reopen at 9.30am on Wednesday, December 28. It will close again at 3pm on Friday, December 30 and reopen at 9.30am on Tuesday, January 3.
Council offices will close at 1pm on Friday, December 23 until 9am on Wednesday, December 28. For New Year the offices will close at 1pm on Friday, December 30 and reopen at 9am on Tuesday, January 3.

New year brings hope for youth projects and facilities

THOUSANDS of pounds will be ploughed into a special youth project in Tring next year.
Tring Town Council has earmarked £10,000 of their 2006 budget to help fund a fun facility for youngsters in the town.
Chairman of the town council’s finance and policy committee, John Allan, said: “We have identified that there is a need for something to help the youth in the town, but we are not exactly sure at this stage what it will be.
“We really want to make it a project that could get match funding.
“We thought the right thing to do was to make sure the money was there before we allocated a project,” he explained.
Youth projects in the town that could be considered for the cash boost include Streets Café and plans for a ball park.
Streets Café had to move out of its High Street home in the summer because of funding problems.
Organisers are hoping to negotiate with Herts County Council to move into the Temperance Hall in Christchurch Road.
The café was founded in 1996 and offered a place where teenagers could meet their friends to play pool, surf the internet, play on the Playstation and watch Sky TV.
Tring Youth Town Council has been looking into the possibility of a ball park in Miswell Lane.
Earlier this year teenagers consulted with local residents on the plans and have been working with Watford-based company Monster Play Systems.
Mr Allan said: “We certainly will be consulting with members of the youth council to see what their ideas are.
“The money is probably going to go on one particular project. It will be something worthwhile.
“We feel the youth of Tring lack facilities to do everything they want to do. I hope it will make Tring a place where the youth will find there are more interesting things to do than at present.
“I just feel there is a lack of facilities in Tring. There are plenty of things for people who want to play sport, but there are gaps elsewhere.”
More details about where the funding will be allocated will be announced by Tring Town Council in the New Year.

Museum now showing best from wildlife photographer of year
Animal collection in spectacular exhibition

Amazing photos  are on display at this year’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition in Tring.
Organised by the Natural History Museum and BBC Wildlife Magazine, the annual photography competition is the most prestigious and successful event of its kind in the world.
The exhibition at the Walter Rothschild Zoological Museum shows the winners, runners-up and highly commended entries to the competition.
Paul Kitching, museum
manager, said: “These are some of the most impressive photos of nature you will ever see.
“They celebrate the richness and diversity of the natural world and will be enjoyed by lovers of wildlife, photography, travel and adventure.”
The competition was open to amateur and professional photographers and this year’s panel of experts judged nearly 17,000 entries from more than 55 countries.
Every picture tells a story and each image displayed in the exhibition is captioned to reveal the tale of how and why it was taken.
The competition showcases the very best photographic images of nature and aims to encourage a new generation of photographers to produce
visionary and evocative interpretations of nature.
The exhibition will be on display at the Walter Rothschild Zoological Museum in Akeman Street, from Saturday, December 17 to Sunday, January 22.
Admission is free and the exhibition will be open from 10am to 5pm Monday to Saturday and 2pm to 5pm on Sundays. The museum will be closed on December 24, 25 and 26.

Hotel may be a family home

PROPOSALS to transform Stocks Hotel into a family home for famous jockey Walter Swinburn and his wife will be considered by councillors later this week.
Plans for a total overhaul of the historic Georgian mansion in Aldbury have been recommended for approval by planning officers at Dacorum Borough Council.
If works are given the green light by councillors at the Development Control Committee on Thursday, December 22, unsympathetic extensions and run-down outhouses, that have been added over the years will be demolished.
The large car park at the front of the hotel would also be removed and landscaped to be in keeping with its status as a country home.
Mr Swinburn’s father-in-law, horse trainer Peter Harris, bought the hotel in March last year for an undisclosed sum.
Earlier this year hundreds of golfers who had hoped to buy Stocks Golf Club from Mr Harris were outraged when it was closed in July, following claims by Mr Harris that the golf club was losing more than £20,000 a month.
A planning application to convert the golf club and build a new clubhouse was withdrawn in June this year.

Harry Potter boosts Xmas haul

THIS was the perfect game for sweet-toothed visitors to this year’s Brookmead Primary School Christmas fair.
Young and old were invited to select lollipops by school pupils Sophie Darby and Nicola Wilson (below) and during the festive fun in Ivinghoe on Saturday, December 3, Santa Claus made an appearance and a Harry Potter photo signed by the cast was auctioned for £20.
More than £1,000 was raised at the event for outdoor play equipment.

Football club gets go-ahead to level pitch

CHRISTMAS came early for Long Marston Football Club when they were granted funding to level their notoriously uneven football pitch.
After years of waiting work on the village recreation ground is finally set to go ahead in 2006, following a grant from the Football Foundation.
The foundation, which is dedicated to revitalising the grass roots of football, has given £9,418 to Tring Rural Parish Council for the work, which is due to start at the end of the summer.
The cash will be spent on levelling the pitch, which is believed to have Saxon remains underneath it and Tring Rural Parish Council has pledged to add an extra £5,000 towards the project..
Long Marston Football Club secretary and treasurer Daphne Bateman has been working for three years to get the pitch improved.
Chairman of Tring Rural Parish Council, Mike Tomlinson, said: “It means the football club will have a much better facility to play on. This is now a requirement most football clubs have to abide by.
“It means they can move forward, progress and develop.”
Long Marston Football Club has two senior teams, both playing in the Aylesbury and District League - the first team are currently second in the Premier Division and the reserves play in the First Division.
One of the benefits of the improvements is that the club will be able to form junior teams. In its present state the pitch is considered unsuitable for young players.
Peter Lee, Chief Executive of the Football Foundation said: “We warmly congratulate the club for their hard work and dedication in securing this award. Grass roots football is the lifeblood of the game in this country which is why it is vital that projects such as this now have the benefit of foundation cash.”

Speak out on ward changes

A REVIEW is recommending the number of local politicians in Dacorum be cut by one.
The recommendation is one of many controversial proposals in a report on the ward boundaries in the borough.
One suggestion likely to raise eyebrows is the combining of Piccotts End and Grovehill in the same electoral ward.
The report has been produced by The Boundary Committee for England, which seeks to ensure ward councillors represent similar numbers of electors.
Berkhamsted Castle contains 19 per cent more electors than the borough average while Highfield and St Paul's contains 14 per cent fewer and Leverstock Green 11 per cent fewer.
However, the explosion in housebuilding in Apsley means the ward now has 46 per cent more electors than average.
In response the committee is recommending a reshuffling of ward boundaries to level things up.
But the committee's proposals have caused a storm of protest in Tring, where it is recommended that Aldbury and Wigginton is combined with Tring East to form one two-member ward.
The Liberal Democrat group put forward the change but the Tories are vehemently opposed.
The borough currently has 52 councillors covering 27 wards with a total of 106,238 electors.
Under the Boundary Committee proposals this will change to 51 councillors and 25 wards.
A report says: “A council size of 51 produces a better allocation of councillors between the areas and therefore a better overall level of electoral equality in Hemel Hempstead rather than a council size of 52.”
A public consultation is now under way on the proposals and it will run until March next year.
A final recommendation will then be passed to the Electoral Commission, which has the power to make the changes.
Comments should be made in writing to Review Manager, Dacorum Review, The Boundary Committee for England, Trevelyan House, Great Peter Street, London SW1P 2HW.

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