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Eastenders' 'slur' on town
BBC soap EastEnders has caused a storm after portraying Tring as a hick town populated by snobs.
Locals leapt to the defence of their home after the latest character to join Albert Square painted the town in a less than flattering light.
Charlie Clements plays veteran character Jim Branning’s grandson, Bradley, who has left his mollycoddling mum in Tring to start a new life in the square as an office bank junior.
Bradley, 18, who has a ‘slight dairy intolerance’ and introduces Jim’s wife Dot to soya milk, is greeted by puzzled locals who ask him ‘where is Tring?’.
He arrives in the square equipped with golf clubs and is instantly thought of as ‘stuck-up’ by his peers. His grandad Jim thinks he is a bit soppy, when he spots Bradley buying magazines and moisturiser.
Since last week’s episodes of the popular soap, Tring Mayor Mike James has been flooded with comments from locals defending the town.
So why did EastEnders scriptwriters choose Tring?
An spokesman for the soap said: “The scriptwriters just really wanted to use somewhere outside of London.
“There was no real reason why they chose Tring.”
The storyline goes that Bradley was 12 when he first moved to Tring with his mum, Rachel where she took over a nursing home. Bradley will return to Tring to visit his mum occasionally, but film crews will not be filming in the town.
Cllr James said: “They basically said we are a lot of soya drinking, golf-playing snobs who have never been out of the town.”
Bradley made his first appearance in the hit BBC soap last Tuesday. It attracts around 14m viewers an episode.
Cllr James said: “I have had a lot of people coming up to me and phoning me saying that Tring is a really good place to live and how dare they be rude about it. A lot of people were really quite offended by it. It is amazing the amount of comment I have had from people.”
Cllr James could not get away from the subject, even while on business in Ireland last Friday when somebody mentioned the soap’s new links to Tring.
A proud Tring resident, Cllr James, who has East End roots, points out that many people who were evacuated from London to Tring during the Second World War have stayed in the town.
He said: “I thought it was quite amusing to be honest.”
Well said!
YOUNG speech-makers from Berkhamsted and Tring had a chance to show off their skills recently.
The local round of the Youth Speaks competition, hosted by the Collegiate school, took place with four teams progressing to the district semi-finals in Luton this month, including two from Bridgewater School in Berkhamsted.
The competition, sponsored by Rotary International, allows teams of budding orators aged between 11-13 to present a speech on a subject of their choice.
Rachel Swaffield, headteacher of Bridgewater School said: “I was very proud of all the young people who took part. Public speaking is a very skilled and nerve-wracking experience and all the teams did remarkably well.”
A team from Tring School and another from the Arts Educational School in Tring also progressed to the next round.
Among the subjects covered last week were ‘the value of good sportsmanship’ and ‘are teenagers growing up too fast?’.
Bridgewater’s winning entries posed the question ‘ASBOs; are they worth the hassle?” and proved the assertion ‘Blondes: Definitely not stupid!’
Mrs Swaffield added: “It was wonderful that two of our three teams were chosen and a testament to the hard work and commitment of all involved.
“There are a few Members of Parliament who could learn from the professionalism and clarity of these young people!”
Beer to help milk farm?
THE ONLY milk farmer in Tring is being forced to abandon dairy farming and turn to local businesses to ensure his survival.
Phil Marks hopes to move two Tring companies into his Dunsley Farm in London Road, in a bid to generate some extra income.
If given the green light by planning bosses, Phil will scrap his milk production and stick to selling beef, chicken and eggs.
Phil, aged 54, said: “Profits from farming have just gone down the drain.
“They have been plummeting during the last three or four years.
“I’m going to stop milking. I need these changes to survive.”
Phil has already downsized his milking herd from 140 cows to just 60.
If proposals go ahead some cows, which are too old to be sold, will have to be destroyed, some will be kept for suckling calves, bred for meat and the rest will be sold on.
The Tring Brewery Company is hoping to move in and set up a microbrewery at the farm and Fencrete Products, a Marsworth company that makes paving slabs, also has plans to move in.
The changes mean that the astonishing sight of cows being led along London Road from the farm to a nearby field for grazing, (inset main picture, above right), will be a thing of the past.
As part of the overhaul the run-down family farm will also get a facelift, with dilapidated buildings being demolished and replaced with landscaping.
Phil said: “What you see as you go past at the moment is a farm in decline.
“When you’re in decline you can’t spend money on tidying up and making it pretty, but hopefully with this we will be able to improve the entrance into Tring.
“All round it is going to be better than it is at the moment.”
Phil blamed the government for importing milk from Europe and supermarket price wars for the plummeting price UK farmers receive for their milk.
He said: “We are not getting a fair return on our produce.
“This is a lot to do with imports from other countries and supermarket wars on products.
“They are dictating what we get for our produce and we can’t survive on what we are getting.
“If I don’t do this, I won’t survive,” he stated.
Phil also said he feared for the future of farming in the UK that could eventually die out.
He said: “It is a very sad situation. It is a big national issue and it seems to get swept under the carpet.
“We are only a small minority now. We don’t have a voice and we are dwindling.”
* An application to convert one farm building into a microbrewery and another to use one of the farm buildings for general industrial use are being considered by planning officers at Dacorum Borough Council.
Property consultants and surveyors, Faulkners in Kings Langley are dealing with the applications on behalf of Mr Marks.
Waste not want not
GREEN-thinking residents in Tring are the best at recycling in Herts, according to the latest figures from Herts County Council.
Tring Household Waste Recycling Centre in Tringford Road has recycled 63 per cent of its rubbish so far this year - a record rate for the county.
The man behind the impressive recycling figures is site manager Ken Powell, who has seen recycling rates go up since joining the centre in April last year.
He said: “I’m really pleased with the progress we’ve made. It has been a joint effort between the staff on site and the local community, who I would especially like to thank for their hard work and dedication.
“We hope to increase this rate to 70 per cent next year.”
Herts County Council Cllr Stuart Pile, the executive member of environment and transportation said: “The average recycling rate at Household Recycling Centres is around 50 per cent across the county, so this a remarkable achievement.”
The recycling centre took 3,174 tonnes of waste from April 2005 to December 2005 and recycled 1,995 tonnes during that time.
The total amount expected to be recycled from April 2005 to March 2006 is 4,000 tonnes and 2,500 of this should be recycled. The main items recycled in Tring from April 2005 to December 2005 were,
- Green waste – 970.1 tonnes
- Oil - 2.8 tonnes
- Glass – 121.9 tonnes
- Paper – 80.4 tonnes
- Metal – 353 tonnes
- Fridges – 23.7 tonnes
- Cardboard – 113.5 tonnes
- Wood – 252.9 tonnes
- Textiles – 9.8 tonnes
- Plastic – 3.6 tonnes
- Batteries 21.1 tonnes
- Cans - 1.4 tonnes
- Tyres – 7.6 tonnes
- TVs - 15.2 tonnes
Fiesta stalwarts get bill
THE ORGANISERS of the Victorian Fiesta have been slapped with a clean up bill for the event by Dacorum Council.
Tring and District Chamber of Commerce has been given a £1,100 bill from council cleaning bosses, even though previously the council has cleaned up for free.
Martin Cheshire, who has said he will not be helping to arrange the celebrations next year, said: “All of the years we have been running it Dacorum Borough Council cleaned up afterwards for us. We don’t make any money out of the event. Dacorum has cut our grants and then we get landed with another bill. We are obviously going to fight it.”
He said that street cleaners usually do the job for free, as part of their other clean up duties in the town. Mr Cheshire said: “It is that sort of thing that really is one of the reasons why I’m keen to get out of it.
“£1,100 is quite a lot. At the end of the day if the chamber has got to pay it they will have to find the money.”
Head of street care from Dacorum Council, Brian Scott said: “We encourage anyone who holds an event to clear up afterwards. If there is any rubbish remaining afterwards then the street cleaning team will do any final cleaning. This may incur additional costs in overtime hours etc. We are always willing to discuss with organisers how these costs are going to be met.”
Mr Cheshire, Carol Lawrence and Ben Cartwright from Tring and District Chamber of Commerce have stepped down from heading the organisation of the event. Other groups and individuals are being invited to volunteer to take on the task.
Name the puppy
YOUNGSTERS in Tring are being invited to name a guide dog puppy in celebration of Specsavers Opticians across the country raising more than £170,000 for charity.
The cash raised so far has helped rear 17 puppies for the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association and they are now ready to go to their new owners.
Specsavers is giving children the honour of naming the puppies to say thank-you for the generous donations given by customers.
Store director at Specsavers Opticians in Tring, Bindi Shah, said: “We are delighted to have been able to support such an important and worthwhile charity and are thrilled with what we have all achieved so far.
“As a local opticians we feel it is our responsibility to give something back to guide dogs in honour of the work they do for the blind and partially-sighted.”
Specsavers Opticians initially aimed to raise £100,000 for the charity, but have extended their target to £200,000.
To be in with a chance of naming one of the puppies, draw a picture of a guide dog with your chosen name written on it and take it to the Tring store.
The competition is only open to children under 12.
The name must be gender neutral and non-specific to any breed of dog.
All entries will be passed onto staff at the guide dog charity, who will chose the regional winners.
Regional winners will be invited to their local Specsavers store to meet the newly-named puppy.
The overall winner will also be presented with a framed picture of the dog and there will be runners-up prizes and stores will be putting the best pictures on display.
The closing date for entries is Tuesday, February 28.
THE Greyhound pub in Wigginton has reopened under new management.
The village pub closed down for three weeks over the new year, after the landlords left, less than seven months after taking on the pub.
Lulu Jackson, who runs the Cow Roast Inn in Tring has been called in by Punch Taverns to revamp The Greyhound and get business booming. She has taken over the pub on a three month trial.
Mrs Jackson said: “I’m happy to take it over. It depends if I can make money so that is why I’m trying it for three months.”
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