Handyperson Services, mainly for people aged 60 plus

Handyperson Services complete ‘odd jobs’ around the home, mainly for people aged 60 plus.

The County Council, Cambridge City Council, district councils and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), are working together to develop a countywide Handyperson Service. To help develop this service a survey has been produced for people over 60 or with a disability, carers, professionals and organisations and groups to say what sort of handyperson service they would like to be provided. The survey is now ‘open’ and closing date for responses is 5.00pm on Monday 23rd June 2014. Below are links to the survey should these be of interest for inclusion on your website for local people to be able to share their views.

Individuals over 60 or with a disability and/or Carers: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/3KF8GTB
Professionals answering as an individual or on behalf of an organisation/group: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/3TRHRPQ

Information provided by:
Amanda Davies, Communications Officer, ASC Personalisation, Cambridgeshire County Council

Subscribe to Huntingdonshire Online quarterly e-newsletter

By The Giddings Admin on May 27, 2014 / Home page latest news, News stories and reports / Leave a comment

Tags: Huntingdonshire

The district council now produces a quarterly e-newsletter called Huntingdonshire Online.

The e-newsletter aims to keep residents up to date with news & events taking place in Huntingdonshire. To receive Huntingdonshire Online, people need to subscribe at www.huntingdonshire.gov.uk/subscribe providing us with a name & e-mail address.

The next issues will be sent out during the third week in June 2014. Read more about the newsletter on the Huntingdonshire District Council website.

Watch out, watch out… there’s a Neighbourhood Watch about!

By The Giddings Admin on May 1, 2014 / Home page latest news, News stories and reports / 1 Comment

Tags: Great Gidding, Neighbourhood Watch

Some good news for residents in the Giddings – Neighbourhood Watch is coming to town! Great Gidding’s Kim Wells is taking on the role of organiser and will be dropping leaflets through your door very shortly.

If you’d like to know about the scheme or get more ‘hands on’ then visit:
www.ourwatch.org.uk/your_local_area/neighbourhood_watch_schemes

Put in your postcode and all the Neighbourhood Watch groups in this area will come up. You will see ‘the Giddings’ and if you click on this it sends an email to Kim. Or you can email Kim at kimmol@.me.com and she will go through it with you.

United we stand.

Neighbourhood Watch logo

Spring walking

By MichaelT on April 27, 2014 / Great Gidding, Home page latest news, News stories and reports / 1 Comment

Tags: Bridleways, footpath, Great Gidding, spring, summer, weather

Spring is certainly here!

We’re even having a few dare I say it much needed April showers. But don’t let these put you off heading out for a walk, cycle or ride.

It’s amazing how pleasurable a walk in the rain can be. The whole walk can be transformed into a glorious experience, as long as you’re dressed for it & you don’t get cold.

Firstly the smell of rain on spring flowers, hedges & grasses is a delight, not to mention the sensation of it landing on your face & hands.

I was out in the rain this week & a kind lady in a car pulled up beside me & asked me if I needed a lift. She was surprised when I said I was enjoying a leg stretch in the rain!

Don’t get into the habit that you only do things when the weather is fine & sunny & to dismiss the rain or dull chilly weather as bad! This is very easily slipped into & the problem is we miss out on so much that is going on around us in our lovely countryside.

So go on, get out there & experience all weathers. It’s so exhilarating & really makes you feel alive & brings you into the present moment.

Things to look out for : Birds building nests & looking for worms, swallows newly returned from far away & dancing in our skies. Skylarks above your head singing. Cowslips, May blossom,bees working the blossoms. Cows turned out to summer grazing. Horses enjoying the spring grass, perhaps without their winter rugs & lots & lots more.

Enjoy!

Rachel

Great Gidding Figure Skater is Special Olympics Champion

By The Giddings Admin on April 23, 2014 / Home page latest news, News stories and reports / Leave a comment

Tags: Great Gidding

Great Gidding Figure Skater is Special Olympics Champion

Calum Titmus (20) from Great Gidding has just come back to the UK having competed last weekend in the Austrian Special Olympics Figure Skating Championships. He competed alongside competitors from Germany, Russia, Finland, Great Britain and Austria. After two days of intensive competition, he successfully defended his title as Austrian National Special Olympics Figure Skating champion.   This is all the more remarkable when you realise that Calum is Autistic with severe learning difficulties.   Figure Skating as a Special Olympics sport was brought to Britain for the first time in 2012, and this year Speed Skating was added to the event. Calum entered the Speed Skating event at three distances, winning Gold in each race, and is now the first British Special Olympics Speed Skating Champion.

Calum Titmus

Inclusive Skating Charity
Calum is also heavily involved with Inclusive Skating. This is a charity that is trying to set up a family orientated group at each ice rink in the UK. This group will be for anyone with any visual, hearing, bio-mechanical or learning difficulty, along with family and carers who want to learn to skate. Please look out for local fundraising events for Calum and Inclusive Skating.

Heading off to Iceland
Calum will also be one of the senior British Inclusive skaters, that is any figure skater with an impairment, heading to Reykjavik, Iceland at the end of May 2014. He will also be competing as a Special Olympian.

Calum attends Huntingdon Regional College and trains twice a week at Planet Ice in Peterborough. He also trains at the gyms in the One Leisure group and with the Piranhas Swimming Club in Huntingdon as well as the Peterborough Special Olympics Swimming Club. He represented the Eastern Region region in the National Special Olympics Games in Bath last August as a swimmer, winning a gold and silver medal.

Pop up Picnic

By MichaelT on April 11, 2014 / Community, Home page latest news, Jubilee Wood news / 5 Comments

Tags: Environment, Great Gidding, Jubilee Wood, Mid summer picnic

Social media Pop up Picnic

For 10 solid years we have held a midsummer picnic in the Jubilee Wood come rain or shine and the abiding memory is rain and not much shine.

This year, 2014 rather than a fixed calendar date for the “Summer Picnic” we take a view on the weather and when it looks settled for a few days ahead everybody twitters, texts, emails or facebooks (not sure how to pluralise facebooking) for a particular day or evening.

Yes not everybody will be able to come, but that happens anyway. All you need is a picnic hamper ready to roll.

We will still aim for June but the exact day will have to be determined by http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/weather/forecast/sawtry-cambridgeshire#?tab=regionalForecast&fcTime=1390089600 .

Comments please.

Great Gidding ice skater leads British Team to Vienna

By The Giddings Admin on April 8, 2014 / Home page latest news, News stories and reports / Leave a comment

Great Gidding skater Calum Titmus has been selected to represent Great Britain and to lead the British Special Olympics Figure Skating team to Vienna to compete in the Austrian Winter Games at the beginning of April. He will be looking to win back the title that he won as the first British Special Olympics figure skater two years ago.

Calum, age 20, will also be one of the senior British Inclusive skaters, that is any figure skater with an impairment, heading to Reykjavik, Iceland at the end of May 2014.

Gold and silver medal success
Calum, who is autistic with severe learning difficulties, has been the British Special Olympics Figure Skating Champion since 2012 and in 2013 became the first British Special Olympics Speed Skating Champion. He has also represented the East of England at swimming at the Bath 2013 British Special Olympics Summer Games, from which he brought home a gold and silver medal.

Calum is also heavily involved with Inclusive Skating. This is a charity that is trying to set up a family orientated group at each ice rink in the UK. This group will be for anyone with any visual, hearing, bio-mechanical or learning difficulty, along with family and carers who want to learn to skate. Please look out for local fundraising events for Calum and Inclusive Skating.

A young man of many talents
His most recent successes are learning to dive, jumping off the 7.5 metre board and coming 1st in the Huntingdon Flipathon!

Well done Calum!

Terry Neal

By The Giddings Admin on February 7, 2014 / Home page latest news, News stories and reports / Leave a comment

Tags: Great Gidding

Terry passed away peacefully at home on Wednesday 5th February after a long illness.

His funeral ceremony will be held on Tuesday, 18th February at Peterborough Crematorium from 3.30pm. All are welcome to attend in order to commemorate and to celebrate Terry’s life.

Our thoughts are with Pat, Terry’s son, Andrew and all his wider family at this sad and difficult time.

Directions to Peterborough Crematorium.

Swing Night is a huge success

By The Giddings Admin on January 26, 2014 / Home page latest news, News stories and reports, Village Hall / Leave a comment

Tags: Great Gidding Events, village hall

Giddings teamwork is a marvellous thing and on Saturday night the ‘swing team’ had risen to the not undaunting challenge of transforming GG Village Hall into a spectacular night club redolent of the popular and vibrant era of big band swingtime. What a success! The room was transformed with swathes of translucent fabric delicately lit from behind with hundreds of tiny bulbs, with large circular tables adding to the nightclub feel.

Fortissimo played ‘BIG BAND’

But what’s a nightclub without music? And wowee – the 16 piece Fortissimo played ‘BIG BAND’ with such exhuberence that most folks took to the floor at some point during the evening. The beautiful voice of singer Lyn Jones – known to some of us through her GG pantomime days – took us through all of our swing favourites until sadly the evening was over far too quickly.

A big thanks to the organisers

So many people helped with decorating the hall, preparing a lovely meal and manning the bar but special thanks must go to the core organisers Mary Read, Sue Shepherd, Jane Edwards and Anthea Keck for helping to raise funds for St Michael’s Church. You all did a great job!

Photos of the ‘swingers’!

Footpaths and Bridleways

By MichaelT on January 24, 2014 / Home page latest news, News stories and reports, The Environment / Leave a comment

Tags: Bridleways, footpath's, motoring

Taking care on foot, horse or in the car

Well, we’re into a very wet start to the year. So most footpaths, Bridleways & verges are sodden. Think ahead before you choose to walk, cycle or ride. It may save you some difficulty & save these surfaces from becoming completely poached up. Choose routes that are less likely to cut up. This is particularly important for riders as tracks & Bridleways take a while to recover. It also saves your horse losing shoes & walkers boots from becoming blocks of clay!

A little more care from drivers would also help our verges & gateways from becoming ruined. Narrower roads need drivers to slow down & wait as other drivers approach, rather than simply maintaining the same speed & mounting the verges. You are also less likely to get stuck & your vehicle less likely to get so dirty & your brakes to collect so much grit & dirt.

Anyway there are still plenty of lovely walks & rides to enjoy & of course places to cycle.

Last words. . . Don’t forget hi vis jackets if it’s dull or misty & of course lights. . .& you drivers!

Have Fun,
Rachel