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TRING County goes green at centre’s success
EVEN the occasional dreary weather we’re having cannot dampen the recycling efforts of people in Tring and nearby villages, with green thinking residents flocking to the town’s Household Waste Recycling Centre.
The Gazette visited the centre in Tringford Road, which has the best recycling rates in the county, to find out what makes people recycle.
Site manager Ken Powell, from Hemel Hempstead, joined the centre in April last year. He said: “All it is down to really is educating the people. The locals here are brilliant. If it wasn’t for the local people recycling, we wouldn’t have such good recycling rates.
“I can’t praise the locals enough.”
During the winter the busy centre gets up to 200 people popping in each weekday to drop off their waste and at the weekend the number of visitors rockets to 2,000.
When the weather warms up it gets even busier and Ken along with his son Paul Houghton, are always on hand, ready to help visitors with heavier items.
Ken said: “There are no landfill sites because they are all filling up. Everything that is recycled here goes back into the system.
“If I didn’t know it was being recycled I wouldn’t have the heart to do it.”
The average recycling rate at Household Waste Recycling Centres in Hertfordshire is about 50 per cent, but the Tring centre has recycled more than 63 per cent of its rubbish so far this year and Ken hopes to increase it to 70 per cent.
As well as the usual recyclable products like paper, cardboard, tin cans, glass bottles and jars, the centre accepts a whole host of household rubbish that many people may not realise can be recycled, these include inkjet toners and cartridges, green garden waste, wood, mobile phones, scrap metal, car batteries, televisions and monitors.
The Gazette spoke to a few green-thinking residents who told us why they think it is crucial to recycle n Clare Webb from Wilstone said: “I have been coming here for years because it is just down the road. I bring my recycling over here because I think it is better to recycle it than just chuck it away. It is better for the environment to get rid of your waste this way.
“The people here are helpful as well. They always say hello and help with any heavy stuff.” n Paul McCree, from Weston Turville, near Tring said: “I have been coming here for 18 years. In the summer-time I come once or twice a week, other than that about once a fortnight.
“We can’t afford to keep using landfill sites. There just isn’t enough space to keep on filling with landfills. I would like to see more recycling facilities, especially on our doorsteps.
“I recycle everything I can.” n David Astley, of Dancers End Lane,
Drayton Beauchamp said: “I come here once a week on Fridays. The people here are very helpful and the depot couldn’t be better. I started recycling as soon as the depot came here. I think it is an important thing that everybody should be doing.” n Keith Russell, of Brook End, Ivinghoe said: “I come here at least once a week to recycle bottles, cardboard and garden waste.
“I have been coming here for about 10 years.
“It is important to recycle because of the green house effect, for future generations and because of the risk of things running out.
“I think it is something everybody should be doing. I get cross when they don’t.”
Crash mechanic back in the saddle Bike fanatic plans more touring but starts with trip to hospital
ALDBURY mechanic Neil Gosling will be heading to Germany next month to return special equipment used to help rebuild his shattered wrist after a freak motorcycle smash last year.
Neil, the owner of Aldbury Garage in Trooper Road is lucky to be alive after suffering bleeding in the skull, a broken pelvis and a shattered wrist, when his motorcycle collided head on with a car last October.
The motorbike fanatic had joined friends on a touring weekend in Germany when he was involved in the smash, which threw him 25 yards from the impact. Neil said: “It was a freak accident that should never have happened. It was pretty horrific.
“I had some very good protective clothing on and I think that is what saved me, also I think someone was looking out for me that day.
“Doctors did say I was lucky to be alive. That has been said several times.”
Neil, 46, first started riding motorbikes when he was seven-years-old and has travelled all over Europe.
He had to be heavily sedated for five days after the crash and has no recollection of what happened. Witnesses have told him he collided with a car travelling in the opposite direction as it emerged from under a road bridge.
German surgeons had to rebuild his wrist, using metal plates and a titanium frame to hold his bones in place while they healed.
Neil said: “I’m going back to Germany at the end of next month to return the frame to the hospital and also to plan more trips while I’m there. I have got lots of people who are interested in going again.”
Neil is looking to buy a new bike to replace his four-month-old Aprilia 1,000 cc, which was written off in the smash and is already looking forward to a trip in May.
He spent eight days in the German hospital before being airlifted to Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Bucks.
Neil was discharged eight days later and spent months recovering at home with wife Beki, who gave up her job to look after him. Neil returned to work at his garage at the end of December.
So far the father of three, has had two operations on his wrist to ensure he regains full use of his hand, which is vital for his job as a car mechanic.
During the last operation, about three weeks ago, doctors used bone from Neil’s hip to lengthen his arm bone.
Neil said: “I have a very good surgeon working on it. He said it was in the worse mess he had ever seen.”
Despite the accident Neil still has a passion for motorbikes. He said: “It was a freak accident and the chances of it happening again are very remote.
“I’m mature and sensible about it and I don’t go charging around like a lunatic.”
‘New blood needed to keep fiesta’
THE man behind Tring’s first ever Victorian Fiesta has called for new blood to come forward to ensure the survival of the popular event.
Mike Sherring-Lucas, 78, who helped organised the first fiesta in Tring 14-years-ago, said it will be a tragedy if the Christmas celebration dies out.
He said: “A lot of these things are done by the older generation when they are coming up to retirement. What we need is new blood in Tring to come forward. Organising the event gives you tremendous satisfaction because you achieve something that is very worthwhile.”
The fiesta draws massive crowds, which have topped 18,000. It has come under threat following the decision by town traders Martin Cheshire, Carol Lawrence and Ben Cartwright - members of Tring and District Chamber of Commerce - to resign from organising the festivities.
They had been trying to find new volunteers for the event for the last three years without any success.
Mr Sherring-Lucas, who now lives in Shipton-under-Wychwood, handed the organisation of the fiesta to Mr Cheshire, owner of Almar Printing Services, about 10-years-ago, when he moved away.
He said: “It is a deplorable situation. The chamber is made up of a very small number of individuals and their means of making money are very small.”
Members of Tring and District Chamber of Commerce are due to meet this week to discuss plans for the future of the Victorian Fiesta.
Council agrees concept for development of urban site
PLANNING bosses at Dacorum Borough Council have drawn up detailed plans to ensure land off Western Road in Tring is developed to the highest standards.
The move comes following the refusal of several planning applications for The Paddocks and The Builders Yard, to the rear of Elliman Court and Pope Court.
Ownership of the land is divided among several private landowners making comprehensive development difficult.
The report drawn up by Dacorum Borough Council states that land at the rear of Elliman Court and Pope Court should be developed as one package and industrial land next to the Post Office Depot should ideally be developed as a package, but layout options could allow development to be phased from Miswell Lane.
Access routes are also addressed in the concept.
Tring Town Council decided to support the Western Road Concept Statement at a planning meeting on Monday, February 6, after years of calling for detailed planning guidelines to be drawn up for the site.
St Martha’s to host opera
A SPECIAL opera concert will be held at St Martha’s Church in Tring on Saturday, February 18.
A recital will be given by local musicians, Kate Semmens, (soprano) and David Berdinner, (piano) and will include songs and piano solos written by Mozart and his contemporaries.
The concert will start at 7.30pm at the church, which is at the junction of Park Road and Chapel Street.
Tickets will be sold on the door and cost £8 for adults and £2 for students.
To reserve your ticket in advance call Rosemary or David Berdinner on 01442 822305.
Flogging it on the
Auctioneer Stephen Hearn | TV TRING Market Auctions will take centre stage for the filming of a BBC daytime show this weekend.
The auction house in Brook Street has been picked for an episode of Flog It! which has hopefuls auctioning their household treasures.
Owner of the auction rooms, Stephen Hearn, will be filmed auctioning the antiques, which were selected during a valuation day in Watford last month (January).
During the auction day on Saturday, February 18, Mr Hearn will discuss the items up for auction with the programme presenter Paul Martin and will give his expert opinion on how much he thinks they will fetch.
Mr Hearn said: “The TV programme requested to come here. We are probably one of the biggest auction houses of this type in the South East outside of London and we include the sort of items they would expect to see, so they came to us hoping we will do a good job for them.”
During the day there will be more than 2,000 lots auctioned and The Flog It! entries will be sold in the main room starting at noon.
This is not a debut television appearance for Tring Market Auctions, but it is the first time the auction house will take centre stage.
Despite the looming glare of the limelight Mr Hearn is keeping cool about the big day.
He said: “I don’t think I will be nervous on the day. If I can cope with all the local dealers here, I can cope with anything!”
Staff are expecting a full-house as usual on the special auction day. Mr Hearn said: “We nearly always have a very full house here and I suspect it will be a full house again. This is a place where people come and enjoy themselves and do business at the same time.”
A catalogue of items for the event can be seen at www.tringmarketauctions . co.uk from Thursday, February 16 and the sale will be open to the public for viewing on Friday, February 17 from 9.30am to 6pm. On Saturday the doors will open at 8.30am.
Mr Hearn picked out a few of the lots that will be auctioned on the day. A Poole Delphis vase, circa 1969, which is estimated to be worth between £150 and £200. A Victorian parian figure group worth from £300 to £500 and a Victorian centre piece, which would have been a table decoration and a discussion piece for guests, is estimated to be worth £250 to £300.
Julia Trueman | Popular principal will leave on a high note
After a decade of hard work, head says she will miss the ‘buzz’
TRING School head teacher Julia Trueman is looking forward to a slower pace of life, when she leaves this summer after a decade at the school.
She will be finishing on a high note, following a glowing Ofsted report last month (January) and a whole host of other achievements during the last 10 years.
Miss Trueman, 54, said: “I will miss the buzz and I will miss the people. It is such a full and varied role. I never know what is going to happen day in, day out.
“We have achieved a lot. I feel the school has reached a point where I feel quite safe in saying, ‘right someone else can pick it up from here and take the school on to the next stage of its development’.
“I’m looking forward to flexibility with my time. This is a very demanding job. Having done it for 10 years I think the time is right for me to move on and right for the school to have a change of leadership.”
Miss Trueman, who lives in Ivinghoe, still plans to work within education, but will not be tied down to a full-time job. She said: “It seems very much like I am going into semi-retirement and I suppose I am, but I still want to use my skills working with schools.”
Ofsted inspector Dr Alan Clamp visited the school on Wednesday, January 11 and Thursday, January 12. He particularly praised the enthusiasm that the students show for their learning.
Miss Trueman, who joined the school as head teacher in December 1996, said: “The Ofsted inspection has had a very successful outcome, a very positive report, which is very satisfying for me.”
Dr Clamp’s report highlighted that in 2005, 71 per cent of Year 11 students achieved grades A* to C, with more than 90 per cent of these students gaining A* to C in English and Mathematics.
Miss Trueman is looking forward to having a break after 10 years of 50 to 60 hour weeks. She said: “It will be nice just to do things with my own home and to feel I have got the time and energy to do things with the house and garden and a little bit more entertaining of friends. You find with the demands of this job these are the things you don’t do.”
Interviews to select Miss Trueman’s successor will start later this month (February).
Miss Trueman said: “Tring is a very special place.
“It is something to do with the quality of relationships, which seem to be very much a part of this school.
“It is the relationships between staff and students and between the students themselves. I think it has got something to do with the fact that we are the only school in the town so there is a real community feel to the school and that gives it real strength.”
Getting ready for the babes
VILLAGERS in Long Marston and Wilstone have clubbed together for their yearly pantomime.
Robin Hood and the Babes in the Wood has been especially written by Neil Gurney from Wingrave, who writes a different pantomime every year for the special event.
There are about 20 residents from Long Marston and Wilstone taking part in the performance plus lots of backstage staff.
The village pantomime has become a yearly local tradition since the first performance in 1989.
Robin Hood and the Babes in the Wood will be staged at Long Marston Village Hall on Thursday, February 16 and Friday, February 17 at 8pm and on Saturday, February 18 at 2.30pm and 8pm.
Tickets cost £6 for adults, £4 for senior citizens and £3 for children and are available from The Boot Pub in Long Marston and Wilstone Post Office Stores.
Teaming up for web show
A SPECIAL preview of the ‘Your Tring’ website
designed by young people from Tring School will be on show at a fundraising charity event this month.
The DCVS has teamed up with Tring School and Tring Market Town Tourism Partnership for a Chilterns exhibition and charity fair at the Desborough Hall, Tring School, Mortimer Hill on
Saturday, February 25.
The Chilterns Conservation Board, Tring Cycling Campaign, Tring and District Local History and Museum Society and the Community Development Agency for Hertfordshire will have displays alongside charity stalls supporting local groups.
There will be books, bric-a-brac, toys, handicrafts,
Fair Trade goods, pottery painting and a chocolate tombola.
Volunteers will be running stalls for the Hospice of St Francis, Hope for Children, the Chiltern Dog Rescue Society and many more.
The event is an ideal opportunity to find out what is happening in the town and will run from 9.30am to 12.30pm.
Funeral for Charlotte
THE FUNERAL of a popular Marsworth woman, who was found dead in the Grand Union Canal, will be held this Friday (17 February).
Charlotte Louise Corney, aged 26, was pulled from the canal at Marsworth by police divers on Monday, February 6. She had been living nearby on a narrow boat, with her husband Marcus, for about four years.
Her funeral will be held at Bedford Crematorium, close to where Charlotte’s family live in the village of Wilstead in Bedfordshire.
Thames Valley Police are not treating Charlotte’s death as suspicious.
Axe set to fall on hostel at the end of the Ridgeway
The doomed youth hostel | AN OUTDATED youth hostel in Ivinghoe, used by walkers exploring the nearby historic Ridgeway Trail and the Chilterns, has been condemned to closure.
Set in a Georgian mansion the High Street hostel owned by the Youth Hostel Association will close to save thousands of pounds in upgrading costs.
It could be shut down as early as October this year as part of the charity’s plans to close 32 of its least popular sites. The move will enable £18m to be invested in upgrading facilities at 200 other hostels across the UK.
Spokesman for the YHA, Paul Fearn, said: “Ivinghoe is in need of a fair amount of investment. On any given night, on average more than two thirds of beds at Ivinghoe Hostel are empty. We don’t feel we can justify the amount of investment.
“In general the reason behind the closure is the need to revitalise our network, focusing on young people and families with young children, to provide great hostels in great locations.”
It is estimated that £250,000 would have to be ploughed into the one-star village hostel to upgrade it to three-star status with private rooms and bathrooms.
Mr Fearn said: “A great location is one that pulls in guests from a variety of markets - young people, families, schools, organised groups and walkers. One of the problems with Ivinghoe is it tends to serve just one of those markets (walkers).”
The hostel - close to Ivinghoe Beacon - the finishing point of the 85 mile Ridgeway Path National Trail - has 50 beds spread across seven large dormitories, with prices starting at £12.50 a night for adults and £9 a night for under 18s.
Mr Fearn said: “We are trying to move towards smaller dormitories and more private facilities.”
No specific date has been set for closing the hostels, but closures will begin from October 31 and will be spread over the next three years.
YHA deputy regional manager for the South East and London, Craig Thomas said: “It is very sad because I’m not in the job of closing hostels but we have to occasionally make some sacrifices for the good of the organisation.
“We need to make sure the buildings are paying their way for the charity. Unfortunately there will be some people who may lose out because the accommodation isn’t there, but relatively speaking that is quite a small number, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t important to us.”
A spokesman from The Ramblers’ Association said: “It is disappointing news, but we sympathise with difficult position the YHA is in.
“We have 140,000 members, so walking is still a very popular British past time. In general people do tend to stay in Bed and Breakfasts and hotels more.”
The closest alternative to Ivinghoe Youth Hostel is Jordans, 19 miles from Ivinghoe in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire. It is set for a total overhaul and is expected to become the main Chilterns centre for the YHA.
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