A Quick Round Up

Hello folks, a quick round up of some of the events of local interest recently. As with my previous quick round up posts, there will be no mention of the “B” word that rhymes with “Exit”.

As already mentioned, there are plenty of places you can read about the “B” word. Not here…not on my watch.

Onto a quick round up of local news.

A Quick Round Up

The quick round up will also be free of any political opinions. What was it our parents used to tell us, there are two things to avoid talking about when out in a pub. Politics and religion.

You could throw football into that mix if you are in mixed teams company. Not so bad if you all support the same team. I suppose you could say the same about politics and religion. Anyway, politics and religion? Nope, I ain’t mentioning those topics.

Council Tax Increase

So, without any hint of political bias or comment, the first quick round up snippet is the announcement that Council Tax for Cheshire West and Chester (CWAC) residents is set to rise by 4.9% for 2019/20. This is the same percentage increase as last year.

The CWAC cabinet will meet again on Wednesday (6th February) to discuss, after which final proposals will be considered at the annual budget setting meeting on the 21st February.

Two increases on the bounce will no doubt hit some households hard. In simple mathematical terms, households will need to balance their own books by spending less on non essentials I would imagine. Or, alternatively earn an above inflation pay rise. That’s unlikely to happen for most people.

Again, doing the simple maths, where do you reckon residents will economise? An increase in Council Tax and the abolition of free car parking after 3pm – I know where my guess is going.

More Vinegar Please

Straight off the hot plate, a big congratulations to “Fish and Chips @ Weston Grove”

The Upton chippy has been voted as the best new fish and chip shop at the 2019 National Fish and Chip Awards.

Wow, the best new chippy in the whole country!! Well done folks. That is truly a great achievement.

Please note, I do like a lot of vinegar on my fish and chips.

Alfie Watts

As young Saltney resident Alfie, recovers from his serious injuries after the alleged hit and run incident he was a victim of, a 2,000 strong petition has been handed to Flintshire County Council demanding more road safety measures.

By the way, the fundraising page set up by his godmother, Mandy O’Brien, is still going strong. For more details take a look HERE.

Charities Round Up

You have to take your hat off to those that are actively involved in raising money for charity.

Here’s a quick round up of what is happening charity wise across the region.

Sue Flood

Award winning wildlife photographer, Sue Flood, is to talk about her incredible adventures at the Garret Theatre, Storyhouse on Monday, 4th March at 8pm.

The presentation will involve Sue providing insights into her time on the BBC’s “The Blue Planet” and “Planet Earth”. All proceeds raised will be donated to Cheshire Wildlife Trust. Great effort Sue.

Home Instead Senior Care

Home Instead Senior Care is looking to recruit 30 care workers to join their busy team. What is “Home Instead Senior Care” all about? Last year “Home Instead Senior Care” launched the “You Can Care” campaign. This campaign was aimed at reaching out to those that who may not have considered a career in care.

There has been a hashtag – #youcancare created to support the campaign. You can search for #youcancare on Social Media for more details. Or, you can visit www.HomeInstead.co.uk/Chester to see how you can get involved.

Well Done Poppy

In this day and age when so many youngsters are so preoccupied with “thumb twiddling” their way to success on the latest mobile phone games apps, or texting to their mates, or posting on Social Media, it is so refreshing to see a youngster getting involved in a local charity.

Take a bow six year old Poppy Muirhead. Poppy will be taking on the North West Tough Mudder Mini challenge on 7th September. She will be doing this in aid of the Countess of Chester Hospital’s neonatal unit.

Polly’s brother, Jasper, was born three months premature last year. He was given life saving care by staff at the neonatal unit. Jasper is now a fit, young, healthy 10 month old toddler.

Polly would like to raise money to help with the cost of equipment and furniture for the new Countess baby unit extension. It is her way of saying “thank you” for and from her brother, Jasper.

If would like to help Poppy, you can find more details HERE

More Babies

Could we really have a quick round up without mentioning our world famous Chester Zoo. You probably won’t be surprised to find out even more babies have been born recently.

“Extinct” Birds Hatched

Incredible stuff again from our superstars at Chester Zoo. Classified as extinct back in 1972, Chester Zoo oversaw the hatching of two Socorro doves. Undoubtedly this is yet another huge success for Chester Zoo in their quest of “Preventing Extinction”.

These incredibly rare birds can only be found in a few zoos around the world.

You can read more about these “extinct” babies HERE.

On the theme of rare animals…..

Scottish Wildcat Kitten

Chester Zoo recently celebrated the birth of a Scottish wildcat kitten. These cats are known to be the rarest mammal in Britain. It is estimated that the wild population of wildcats currently stands at only 100 individual cats. This is due to threats to their habitat, disease and cross-breeding with domestic cats.

The birth of this latest kitten is fantastic news for the conservation breeding programme.

You can find out more about the birth of this cute kitten HERE.

Well done again to Chester Zoo. Welcome to Chester Zoo and the world at large new babies. No doubt there will be more posts about new arrivals at Chester Zoo again soon.

Sport In Chester

Chester FC are currently suffering a slump in form and results. Their latest outing saw them slump to a 2-0 defeat at play-off rivals, Spennymoor. To footie fans of my generation it is strange to see teams like Spennymoor being rivals to the Chester’s, Stockport County’s, York City’s of the footballing world.

No disrespect meant to Spennymoor at all. In fact it is meant as a huge compliment and it is an indication of how the footballing world is changing.

It wasn’t that long ago we saw Wigan winning the FA Cup and them competing in the Premier League. This is the same Wigan by the way who regularly played against Chester Reserves in the Cheshire County League. Incredible isn’t it.

Next up for Chester are Kidderminster (another ex-football league club) away on Saturday, 9th February. “Kiddie” are also play-off hopefuls. Can Chester’s fortunes take a turn for the better? Let’s hope so.

Chester RUFC

Chester RUFC in contrast are going great guns in the National League Two North. A comfortable home win against Peterborough Lions (is Peterborough in the North?) by 24-5 saw Chester move within two points of the leaders.

League leaders, Hull Ionians suffered a rare defeat at Stourbridge. Can Chester bridge that two point gap? Watch this space!!

A quick round up of a few of the topics in our local news. Again, no doubt I’ve missed a fair few bits. If there’s anything in particular you would like mentioned, then drop me a line at admin@ChesterLifestyle.com

Chester Lifestyle

I hope you enjoy my Chester Lifestyle website. For more information about the website and about Chester generally, you can see more HERE.

Things To Do In Chester

What can you do in our beautiful city? Plenty of things to do in Chester of course. You can of course check out the new fur babies at Chester Zoo for instance. But there’s so much more. Take a look HERE for more ideas.