Hello, and welcome to the March/April edition of the Heron.

Firstly, we would like to offer our condolences to Julie Buckley’s family and friends at what must be an extremely difficult time for them.

This is also a reminder to please look out for your neighbours – this is a small community and the feeling of caring for others in the village is one of the attractions of living here. I am sure that more details will come out in time, and I would like to thank the admins of the local Facebook group for keeping on top of postings (and membership requests) to keep speculation and misinformation to a minimum.

With regards to the hare coursing that took place a few weeks back – the opinion of most, at the meeting I attended in Manea the following Monday, was that the hare coursing was simply an excuse to terrorise those villages concerned. The last account I saw was that 23 individuals had been arrested, from quite a widespread area, so the police have thankfully been hard at work investigating this incident.

I attended the Golden Age event in Friday Bridge, and was amazed by how busy this was and the number of organisations that were represented there that can really make a difference, including AgeUK, Independent Age, Citizens Advice, Ramblers, NHS and Cambridgeshire Council. If you can attend these fairs, I would highly recommend it, the next event is Friday, June 20, 10am to 1pm, at Manor Leisure Centre, Station Road, Whittlesey, PE7 1UA, more details on here: https://www.fenland.gov.uk/goldenage Following on from this, Tracy and I volunteered for a research project for Dementia, and had a brilliant 2 or 3 hours at Fulbourn Hospital – more on this to follow as they would like more volunteers.

It’s coming up to that time of year again and we are pleased to announce our annual plant sale fundraiser on Sunday 11th May. This year we are planning to have it on the old Bowling Green at the Community Centre. We are keeping everything crossed for a nice, warm and sunny day (see page 3 for more details)!

Clive Benjamin