Christmas spirit will be alive and well in Cluny Square, Southend, when residents and community groups gather together for a carol concert on Wednesday, December 17. The festive evening is the brainchild of several neighbouring residents’ associations
SINGING stars of tomorrow have made their voices heard for charity, with the aim of becoming the Voice of St Luke’s Hospice 2008. The group sought out talented under-18s interested in becoming the official voice for the hospice, in Nethermayne, Basildon
ABBA Forever lead a host of new acts booked in for appearances at Westcliff’s Cliffs Pavilion and Palace Theatre next year. One of the UK’s leading tributes to the enduring Swedish quartet, most famous for anthems like Dancing Queen and Mamma Mia, the
SOUTHEND AC’s Peter Binns may have retired from his post as PE teacher at Shoeburyness Hitgh School, but he is still very much a force to be reckoned with in the world of athletics. In the Essex Veterans’ Cross-County Champs at Claybury, Binns was the
FIORENTINA boss Cesare Prandelli has admitted he would allow Giampaolo Pazzini to join West ham if the striker wanted to move. The 24-year-old has been linked with a move to West Ham and while Prandelli would love to see the striker stay, he admits he
BURGLARS stole a haul of powerful prescription drugs and two packets of crisps. The crooks broke into the house, in Rosebay Avenue on Billericay’s Queens Park estate, while the homeowner was in. The 23-year-old woman heard a noise in her kitchen and
A NOTORIOUS neighbour from hell has admitted breaching his ten-year Asbo again, by shouting abuse at people in his street. Dominic McGrath has repeatedly breached an order banning him from wearing a balaclava helmet and singing abusive songs
THE FAMILY of a psychiatric patient who died while under the care of Runwell Hospital have won a landmark victory in their battle for compensation. The House of Lords decreed the South Essex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the mental health
A PLANNING chief who faced calls to quit after objections to his vision for the borough has insisted he has the interests of the community at heart. Ian Burchill, Castle Point Council’s director of environment and community services, was instrumental
A MOTHER is furious after her 11-year-old son was left stranded after a school bus driver refused to let him on board because he was too muddy. King Edmund High School pupil Stefan Westgate rushed to board the bus at 3.30pm on Tuesday after a football
MORE than 100 angry passengers turned out in force to a meeting with a bus company to voice their opposition at proposed service cuts. People living in Hawkwell and Hockley feel they will be most affected by changes to routes 7 and 8 planned to come
LANDMARK proposals to build 121 new homes, including a controversial nine-storey tower block, on wasteland have been given the go-ahead. Councillors approved the plans for two blocks of flats, which will form an L-shape on a fenced off site between Tesco
LUCY Hodges has been shortlisted for the Paralympic power squad in preparation for the 2012 London Games. A member of the Borough of Southend Swimming Club (BOSS), Hodges is due to travel to Loughborough University for the next round of trials. This
ESSEX Police will be the first force in the country to use a cutting-edge 3D computer system to recreate the scenes of crimes. The CrimeSceneNet software can create a three-dimensional image of a crime scene to help officers work out what happened.
BASILDON snooker professional Stuart Bingham is hoping to get a TV tonic when the Maplin UK Championships gets underway in Telford this weekend. For the tournament is, as usual, being fully covered by BBC Television. It is regarded by the pros as second
TWO of Southend Wheelers Cycling Club’s young riders took to the track in the first races of a winter league being held at the new Redbridge Cycling Centre at Hogg Hill. This brand new facility already has a reputation among experienced riders as probably
BELFAIRS Golf club members got into the Christmas spirit with their annual Turkey Trot. With the course still being wet, the greenkeeper posted no less than five temporary greens on the back nine and the course was some 400 yards shorter than normal
MATTHEW Upson believes West Ham’s luck will change soon after his team’s frustrating 2-0 derby defeat against Tottenham Hotspur. Spurs’ luck has significantly changed since former West Ham boss Harry Rednapp took charge of the North London team, while
MORE affordable homes could be built in Basildon and Castle Point. Swan Housing Group has been given £140million in a deal led by the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), with Lloyds TSB and Allied Irish Banks. Some of the money will be spent on new affordable
CHRISTMAS carols were kicked out of festive celebrations, disappointing a school choir who had been rehearsing for weeks. The 60 pupils from Arthur Bugler Junior School in Stanford-le-Hope had finished their rehearsals for the Corringham Winter Festival
A CAFE is the first restaurant to sign up to a campaign aiming to make Leigh a more attractive place to shop, eat out, live and visit. Leigh Town Council chairman, Hilary Davison, dropped in to meet Oasis Coffee House’s manager Rosemary Jones and present
THOUSANDS of shoppers are expected to flock to Southend High Street on Saturday evening for the town’s first ever late-night festive extravaganza. The event will see street entertainers, a Bavarian market and people in fancy dress out in force from 7pm
A TROLLEY dash at a supermarket raised £2,000 for Essex Air Ambulance and the Special Care Baby Unit at Southend Hospital. Charlie Loeber, from Shoebury, was the winner of a charity raffle organised by Thorpe Bay Rotary club, and raced round
AN ADVENTURE playground for children with disabilities has been redeveloped and renamed thanks to support from the community. To celebrate a £15,000 makeover, the Fryerns Adventure Playground for children with special needs has been renamed
TRAVELLERS have been told they are not welcome at a village residents’ association. People living at the unauthorised Dale Farm site, in Crays Hill, approached Ramsden Crays Residents’ Association about joining in July. They said it was an attempt to
A MAN-EATING plant took centre stage at the opening night of a school’s Christmas show last night. Youngsters from King John School, Thundersley, put on the comedy musical, Little Shop of Horrors in a packed school hall. The show, about a lovesick florist
BURGLARS are targeting garden sheds and summerhouses and stealing bicycles, power tools, and in one case, a games console. Two sheds, in Church Corner, Benfleet, were targeted on Monday. The first shed was unlocked and burglars stole a grey Daws mountain
ALMOST 900 children have been identified as at risk in Southend in the past 18 months, new figures have shown. The figure is more than three times the combined figure of Basildon, Castle Point and Rochford. In total, 1,168 of children in the four districts
PLANS to replace two bungalows with a two-storey block of 14 flats are being recommended for approval, in the face of more than 100 objections from neighbours. Developer Sandhurst New Homes wants to build 11 two-bedroomed and three single-bedroomed flats
AN ATTEMPTED armed robbery was carried out at KFC, in High Street, Canvey. A man entered the shop and demanded money at about 2.40pm yesterday. [Wednesday Decemeber 10]. He became nervous and fled the store without any cash
BASILDON Council has slashed hundreds of thousands of pounds off the cost of running its revenues and benefits service. The authority has saved more than £350,000 a year following a shake-up in the way it hands out council and housing tax benefits.
IF YOU think you’ve got it rough this Christmas, spare a thought for this poor dog who has spent the past three years in kennels. Scooby has been receiving loving care at Gemini Kennels in Wickford, but has had no luck in finding a new home. Kennel
A WOMAN involved in a robbery which led to the death of a man in a Southend night spot has had her jail sentence reduced. Ashleigh Wellman had been jailed for two years nine months for her part in a plan to rob a man, who later died.
CANVEY’S top policeman has been giving the island’s worst teenage offenders a dressing-down in his office. Chief Insp Paul Eveleigh said there was a gang of half a dozen 16 year-old boys behind most of the antisocial behaviour problems in the
A WOMAN suffered minor injuries after a car crash in Leigh. The 30-year-old was taken to Southend hospital after the smash in Eastwood Road. Paramedics and police were called just after 8am this morning. The crash was between
As anticipated and in spite of opposition from Shoebury residents as well as the unwillingness of NHS GPs to move from Shoebury Health Centre, South East Essex Primary Care Trust board voted in favour of building a superclinic on the Garrison site.
BASILDON Council is being forced to spend about £1million revamping flats in a sheltered housing complex, which are riddled with damp. Angry residents called in the Local Government Ombudsman after the council failed to tackle problems on the
ROTARIANS have donated funds to buy festive parcels for people in need in Southend. Every Christmas for the past 33 years, the Rotary Club of Southend has organised grocery parcels to make a difference to hard-up families and individuals across the borough
A GRATEFUL family has donated more than £1,300 to the critical care unit at Southend Hospital. The donation was made in memory of David Rayner, 68, of The Broadway, Southend, who was treated at the unit before he died. His wife, Louise Rayner, presented
DUE to the recent results we’ve had there hasn’t been much banter around the place this week. We’ve only lost three of our last 17 games but not many of them have been wins lately and we know we have to turn that around. We want that to start against
DOUGIE Freedman could finally return for Southend United this Saturday. The striker has not featured for the Shrimpers since suffering a thigh injury against Leyton Orient in late September. But he featured in a practice match at the club’s training
CHILDREN at Basildon University Hospital were all smiles when kind-hearted teenagers from the Prince’s Trust visited them with sacks full of presents. The teenagers, aged 16 to 19, first spent hours packing people’s shopping at Tesco in Pitsea to raise
THE Gig promotions have saddled up for a horse welfare fundraiser at Bar Lambs, Westcliff, next week. Dedicated animal lover and band promoter Samantha Lawrence has put together the concert to boost the Brooke – the UK’s leading charity supporting working
ANDY Fairweather Low performs a very special unplugged show at Riga Music Bar, Westcliff, on Sunday night. Chances are you’ll know his hits – Wide Eyed and Legless, Reggae Tune, Bend Me Shape Me, Hello Susie, (If Paradise Is) Half As Nice, Gin House
MIDWICH Records is raising funds for the annual Leigh Folk Festival with a mid-winter celebration in the town. The Leigh-based record label has brought together a host of bands for a Solstice Night event at the Ship, in New Road, on Sunday, December
COCKLE rockers Grand Reunion invite you to jump out of your shell and stuff your face in tandem at Bar Lambs, Westcliff, on Saturday night. This annual Christmas portion of folk-rock fun has been a thickly red encircled date on the festive music calendar
MILD-mannered electricity company office manager by day, fully charged-up rock superstar by night. That’s the Clark Kent existence of Baddies’ drummer Jim Webster. Baddies, made up of four Southend lads, is being touted as one of the hottest unsigned
THE Railway Hotel stages a free all-day live garage, mod and R‘n’B festival on Sunday. Bands playing at the Southend venue, in Clifftown Road, are Cobwebs, Bif Bam Pow!, Captain Blood Blood and the Sea Dogs, plus other special guests. There will also
EGYPT are the latest act to make a stop at Billericay’s very own blues oasis on Saturday afternoon. The band play Blues at the Farm, at Barleylands Social Club, with a heavy brand of blues and rock certain to shake the sand out of anybody’s ears. Egypt
MOBO Award-winning dynamite trio N-Dubz explode on to the Cliffs Pavilion stage as part of their first UK tour. Now signed to the All Around the World label, Tulisa, Dappy and Fazer arrive in Westcliff on Friday, April 17, next year. The tour will showcase
