Knighton bingo, Sunday services, seed swap, jumble sale, whist, funding cut, cake sale, market manager and more (From Hereford Times)

Knighton bingo, Sunday services, seed swap, jumble sale, whist, funding cut, cake sale, market manager and more

1:43pm Thursday 2nd February 2012 in K - L

BINGO - A session of bingo will take place in the church hall, Knighton on Saturday. Doors open 6.30pm for 7pm start.

SERVICES FOR SUNDAY - Knighton Methodist Church, 11am led by Pam Pitwood. Knighton Baptist Church, 11am led by Rev Maggie Rich. Knighton Catholic Church, 11am Holy Mass. St Edward’s, Knighton, 9.30am morning worship led by Linda Watson. St David’s, Whitton, 9.30am Holy Communion led by Rev John Hanna. St Andrew’s, Norton, 11am Holy Communion led by Rev John Hanna. St Michael’s, Cascob, 3pm Holy Communion led by Canon John Greaves.

SEED SWAP - It’s nearly time for the Teme Valley Environment Group annual seed swap.

This will take place at the Knighton food and craft market on February 25. If you have any seeds to spare you are invited to come along and swap them or if you don’t have any seeds you can give a donation and choose from the wide variety available including heritage seeds from Garden Organic or try something different this year and help to preserve traditional varieties. The next seed swap will be in May.

JUMBLE SALE - Teme Valley Environment Group (TVEG) will be holding a traditional jumble sale in the St Edward’s Church Hall on February 11, from 3pm to 5pm. There will be tea and cakes available. Money raised will be for Edible Knighton, a TVEG project planting fruit and nut trees on unproductive land around the town to provide free food for the whole community once the trees mature.

Anyone wishing to donate clothes, bric-abrac or other interesting objects is asked to bring them to the church hall at 2pm on February 11, or ring 07904 971866 for details of collection.

WHIST - At the latest whist drive of the Knighton women bowlers, winners were Phil Ammonds, Janice Davies, Connie Bright, Bryn Thomas, Ivor Jones and Reg Bowen.

Prizes were presented by Sue Price and MC for the evening was Shirley Moorhouse.

Raffle winners were Ivor Wozencraft, Lilian Bennett, June Williams, Olive Myval, Olwen Bowen and Allan Brick. A vote of thanks was given by Linda Parker MBE. The next whist drive is on Thursday February 9, in the bowling club.

FUNDING CUT - Community transport providers across Powys heard this week that core funding for their services from the Welsh Assembly Government was to be reduced by almost 30 per cent. This comes as a second blow, following the total loss of the concessionary fares funding due to hit in April. This allowed people in Powys with disabilities and significant mobility problems to get free transport to medical appointments and to access day to day services essential to independent living. Concessionary fares have been around for six years and in that time it has created a reliance on community transport for these vulnerable residents and the over-75s in particular. Providers of community transport, most of them independent charities, will be hard pushed to meet an established demand on significantly reduced funding and it is predicted some will be forced to close, reducing services and resulting in job losses. Some believe that this loss of funding has the potential to destabilise the whole Powys community transport network.

Those charities who partially fund their transport schemes through local fund-raising may be better placed to weather these losses but even here, reductions in staff hours and a new cost burden for users on low income and fixed budgets, will be inevitable.

In Knighton the Community Support Project runs a charity shop and furniture barn, where sales of second hand donated goods raise the funds to underpin the community transport scheme. Elaine Evans, the transport administrator at Knighton said: “It is a shocking double blow and I am worried about how we will meet demand. I am having a lot of trouble trying to explain to our elderly clients what these changes will mean, without upsetting them too much.”

A petition calling on the Welsh Assembly Government to continue funding for the concessionary fares to be continued has been initiated by the community transport association UK. If you would like to add your name contact your local transport provider, kerry@ctauk.org or 01792 844290.

CAKE SALE - £181 was raised from a cake sale held on Brookside Square, Knighton last weekend. The money be used to support Tref-y-Clawdd under-10s junior rugby team.

A cake sale last year raised enough to buy them a new kit. There was a vast variety of cakes made by players parents family and friends. Suzanne Beech, one of the main organisers, thanked everyone who supported them by either making cakes or buying them on the day.

MARKET MANAGER - After 18 months and a lot of work building up the Knighton Food and Craft market, Mark Fenton has stepped down as manager so that he can concentrate more on his main business and his family.

The new manager is Chris Plant. Chris has been a strong supporter of Knighton Community Centre and the market, held in the centre for several years. One of the first things he plans to do is put all the information about the market on the Knighton Community Centre website to integrate them more. Chris said: “At the moment the market is running perfectly so I will not be looking to change things although I do have a few small ideas I’m considering.”

ACTION PROTEST - There was a peaceful protest on Brookside Square, Knighton, last weekend by the Knighton Action for Peace and Justice to highlight the planned western intervention in countries including Iran and Syria and to say “no more wars”. The event went on for two hours and over the period quiet a few people either joined the group or talked to group members about what they were doing.

POLICE AND COMMUNITY TOGETHER - The next Knighton PACT meeting, giving residents the opportunity to raise concerns with local police, will be held at St Edward’s Church Hall at 7pm on March 15.