Your Hertfordshire Rural Affairs and Community News Bulletin
Welcome to our April 2022 eBulletin
Please click the Help Ukraine picture
If you have trouble viewing the whole eBulletin Click Hereto view
on our CDA Herts website where you can also find previous issues.
Please wait 30 minutes after receipt before clicking, thank you.
Any problems with this please contact tim.hayward-smith@cdaherts.org.uk
Hertfordshire County Council - Live Life Safely With COVID-19
As we step into spring, Hertfordshire’s healthcare partners are encouraging residents to be kind and stay healthy by following simple steps to live life safely with COVID-19, stop the spread and protect others.
It comes after a recent survey of over 3,700 Hertfordshire residents found a significant number felt ‘cautious’ (39%) about all remaining government restrictions being lifted last month, 21% angry and 11% worried. And, while 20% were excited, only 15% had no concerns at all. An overwhelming majority (75%) said their health and wellbeing had been impacted by the pandemic.
HAWA Hertfordshire's Asian Women's Association Receive High Sheriff's Award
HAWA received the Award for all their work but particularly for building resilience and wellbeing for young people especially with their Thai Kick Boxing lessons and giving them a space to come and enjoy the activities.
Pictured is HAWA's Rushna Miah (also CDA Herts' Covid Recovery Team member) receiving the High Sheriff's Award from Lionel Wallace
CDA Herts are providing drop in sessions in three areas of East Herts to help residents, daunted by the use of digital technologies, to increase their skills and build their confidence. Topics covered will include, but not limited to: help accessing the NHS app and getting registered online; searching the internet and navigating websites; using camera and video functions; installing and uninstalling apps; password settings and recovery; and setting up email accounts.
Weekly drop-in sessions are as follows:
Datchworth (Village Hall) Tuesday 1.00pm-3.00pm
The Hadhams and Ash Valley (Little Hadham Village Hall) Wednesday 2.00pm-3.30pm
Benington (Village Hall) Thursday 10.00am-11.30am
We are very grateful to Clarion Futures and East Herts Council for their support.
CDA Herts works in Partnership with Utility Aid to bring affordable Energy to Charities and Community Groups in Herts.
In these days of monumental energy price rises it pays to look around and Utility Aid can do that for you at no cost. Apply for Your Free Energy Audit Now! There are also energy saving and green energy tips on our website.
Affordable homes at Farm View Holwell North Herts English Rural Webinar - How Affordable Rural Homes Can Change Lives And Communities in North Hertfordshire
In conjunction with CDA Herts, English Rural is running a free, short, online webinar focused on how small-scale, affordable rural housing changes lives and communities in North Hertfordshire. This event is aimed at Parish Councils and Landowners from North Hertfordshire who would like to know more about working with Rural Housing Associations such as English Rural. The 45-minute sessions (with questions) will be delivered in an online ‘webinar’ format via Microsoft Teams.
We know caring for a loved one can be demanding. That’s why it’s important to us that all carers in Hertfordshire feel supported and have the opportunity to live happy, healthy and fulfilling lives. The Carers Strategy for Hertfordshire 2022-25, developed in partnership with our local health colleagues, will see us bringing together services and support for both young and adult carers for the first time. This in turn will allow us to better support residents experiencing this transition. We are then working to increase the capacity of the Carers in Hertfordshire call support service, and we will continue to fund other important support services such as carer hubs, wellbeing sessions and training workshops.
It’s vital carers also look after themselves and we have lots of support to help.
Herts Valleys CCG News Providers Sought for St Albans Urgent Care Service
Work to appoint a provider to run a new urgent care service at St Albans City Hospital is getting underway after the Herts Valleys Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) board supported plans for an integrated urgent care hub, providing a minor illness and injuries service. Interested providers will now be invited to submit bids to run the service, and patient representatives will be involved in the selection process alongside local NHS clinicians and managers. The successful provider will be announced in the summer, and they would then work to get the new service fully up and running from September. Click Here to read more
Shaping emergency care - so you get home quicker
Join the hospital trust on Zoom this Wednesday 6 April, 6-7.15pm to find out how emergency care is evolving to make sure everyone is treated with the highest quality care whilst returning home as quickly and safely as possible - and not admitted to hospital unnecessarily. Also find out about the trauma network and why emergency patients are not always ambulanced to their nearest emergency department. This is also your chance to share your experiences of emergency care, make suggestions and help shape future care.
Hertfordshire's Heritage and Archive - Search Names Online and the Online Catalogue
Descriptions of images in the Local Studies Library are now searchable via our online index, Hertfordshire Names Online. (Under document type, select Photographs). We would like to clarify that it is the descriptions that are searchable and that the index does not feature digital images. You can however search our online archive catalogue for digital images, which are viewable on screen, by entering your search term, clicking search and then selecting Results With: Images Only on the left hand side.
As spring arrives and the weather finally begins to warm it feels like our environment awakens. Throughout Hertfordshire wildlife is on the move, amphibians make their way doggedly to their ancestral breeding sites and our arable fields abound with iconic Brown Hare. It’s a great time to get out and about in the countryside and take time to reconnect with the outdoors. It’s also a great time to look back at what’s been achieved over the winter including:
Forestry at Broxbourne Woods NNR
Forestry in Three Rivers District
Volunteer update
RoW improvements along the River Chess
Standon in East Herts is our featured Rural Support Network, still providing support to the elderly, isolated and vulnerable in rural Hertfordshire.
A Coffee Morning with Sandwiches and Cakes was held in Standon Village Hall for local senior residents thanks to a Festive Funding Grant from CDA Herts.
This was their social event for 2 years and people were delighted to be invited, by a personal phone call. 35 attended and a good time was had by all by those confident to leave home and socialise which is not the case some still. They are hoping that word of mouth will encourage more out for the next event. Local cooks gave readily of their time and ingredients despite offering payment, meaning the Festive Funding went further and everyone received a going home parcel with the spare ones being taken to some of the non attendees. David Ranford, a local gentleman who runs a Dementia Singing group, helped the participants to use some of the excess sugar at the end of the party. Thank goodness there were 8 servers to share the load and chat with people but all the helpers were tired that night however, the tables of smiling faces made all the hard work worthwhile!
The Queens Green Canopy - "Plant a Tree for the Jubilee" Support for Parish and Town Councils
The Queen’s Green Canopy (QGC) is a unique and exciting UK-wide tree planting initiative created to mark Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022. In Hertfordshire, everyone from individuals to scout and guide groups, villages, town and parish councils, schools, charities and corporations are encouraged to get involved by planting trees, woodlands, hedges and avenues to create a legacy in honour of The Queen’s leadership of the Nation, for the benefit of its residents and future generations. Hertfordshire County Council’s Sustainability Team are delighted to be supporting Hertfordshire’s Lord Lieutenant, Robert Voss, in delivering this project. We are pleased to announce that, to help Queens Green Canopy planting activities, funding of £350.00 is now available to all Town and Parish Councils.
There will be fun in Hertfordshire libraries this Easter for children, you can find details on the link below on our events pages and on local libraries Facebook pages.
Easter Fun is coming to Libraries in Watford, Hatfield, Hoddesdon, Tring, Bushey, Harpenden and Woodhall.
From today (1 April) people all over the UK will see a huge increase in their energy bills. The impact will be nothing short of catastrophic for many, and more people than ever are turning to us for support. Our new analysis reveals the true cost of the rising energy price cap including why standing charges are up by almost 80% and how this is particularly unfair for people on prepayment meters and low incomes. We're calling for a national insulation programme, a separate price cap for prepayment meters, reform of the iniquitous standing charges and more funding for advice services to help people through this crisis.
BBC reports that the Department for Transport (DfT) has pledged that the number of charge points by the end of the decade will be the equivalent to almost five times the number of fuel pumps on UK roads today. However motoring groups have expressed concern that the roll out is not happening fast enough. The RAC said the chargepoint target "might sound impressive", but it is concerned the number is "not going to be sufficient" for growing demand. The AA added that action was needed on the lack of charging points in rural areas. The UK currently has 30,000 public electric vehicle charging points and according to Melanie Shufflebotham, chief operations officer of Zap-Map, an EV charging app, 80% of electric vehicle owners have off-street parking. The Government’s £500m scheme would include £450m to boost public charging stations and on-street charging for people without driveways.
Overarching Rural Lens review of Levelling Up White Paper published
Is the Levelling Up White Paper fit for purpose in the rural context? That’s the question being explored by the Rural Services Network in its overarching Rural Lens critique of the Levelling Up White Paper.
We have published specific analysis of each chapter of the White Paper, but this critique considers the overall Levelling Up document and a strategic view of the implications for rural communities.
100K RURAL BUSINESSES PENALISED BY GOVERNMENT’S DECARBONISATION PLANS
Boutique Hotelier reports it has been claimed that over 100,000 off-grid businesses will be unfairly penalised if government decarbonisation proposals to enforce electric heat technologies in rural areas go ahead.In a move to decarbonise rural heating, the Government’s heat and buildings strategy plans to phase out fossil fuel heating systems in thousands of off-grid businesses and two million homes in England, from 2026 – nine years earlier than for those on England’s main gas grid. Instead, pubs, hotels and holiday properties that rely on traditional fuels such as heating oil and LPG, will be required to install electrified technologies which can have expensive up-front install costs, such as heat pumps, if their current system breaks down.Trade association Liquid Gas UK, which represents companies in the liquified petroleum gas industry, say a blanket approach to the decarbonisation of rural heat fails to consider the complex needs of rural businesses.
Replenish And Reuse in Buntingford aims to offer an alternative way of shopping that will help you, the customer, reduce the amount of waste, especially plastic waste, that is being sent to landfill and may inadvertently end up polluting our oceans and countryside. Replenish and Reuse sells a wide variety of dry foods, toiletries and cleaning products. Bring your own containers and buy as much or as little as you require. Our products are not all organic, although some are – our focus has been on affordability and primarily helping our customers cut out waste, however, we will adapt our product range where necessary to meet demand.
Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust have commissioned a set of eight wildlife murals to be painted at King’s Meads Nature Reserve in Ware, Hertfordshire, to celebrate the wonderful wild species living on the reserve.
King’s Meads is an extensive nature reserve lying between Ware and Hertford, filled with wildlife and enjoyed by the local community. The wildlife murals have been painted on the pillars of the Kingsmead Viaduct which carries the A10 over the nature reserve. Each mural displays one wild species which can be found within the reserve across the seasons.
April is Parkinson's Awareness Month Future of PD - Help us create a future where no one lives with Parkinson’s disease
April is Parkinson’s Awareness Month. This year, we want everyone to take actions to impact the future of Parkinson’s disease (PD). Whether that means learning how to navigate your own future with Parkinson’s or helping us create a world without PD, together we can make a difference.
Your participation in research can help us provide improved treatments and care for all people with Parkinson’s today and create a future where no one lives with Parkinson’s.
Getting the right care at the right time can make a difference. Make sure you or your loved one has an expert care team to help live better with Parkinson’s.
Community Garden Week 2022 celebrates the amazing community and school gardens across the UK and will take place from 04 April – 10th April this year.
Community gardens and school gardens come in a myriad of shapes, sizes and styles. They all have a different heart and a unique mission. What each one of them has in common though, is the ability to bring people together using the power of nature to inspire, heal and make people happy.
We need your support to raise enough funds to get our Mobile Hub on the road
enabling us & other partners to bring information and support to rural areas on
numerous helpful services.
Click Here to Support our Mobile Hub Project by buying
East Herts Lottery Tickets.
Join us on Facebook and Twitter and we can share your information, stories and events.
We have a new Facebook Page Click on the icon to follow our page where we share information from our partners, other organisations and charities all over Hertfordshire.
We also are back on Twitter, all our old friends are still there, why not join them? Just click the icon. andInstagramis a work in progress
CDA Herts Services available to communities in Hertfordshire
Community Garden St Albans - Plots available
Village Halls Advisory Service - part of the ACRE network
Rural Support Networks
Rural Issues Network
Rural Loneliness Forum
Digital Inclusion Project
Farmers' Cafes
Rural Affordable Housing Needs Assessments and Surveys
Village Connectors Project
HMP The Mount Play Area
Jobs Pathway
BAME Covid Recovery Project
Health Equalities Partnership Programme (HEPP)
Reconnecting Hertford
Community Energy Network
Management Health Checks
Health & Safety Training, Audit and Risk Assessment
Health & Wellbeing advocacy
Send us your news, bulletin or newsletter and we will feature you.
email tim.hayward-smith@cdaherts.org.uk
Don't forget to click below to follow us on Facebook and Twitter
CDA Herts does not endorse nor recommend any services or products featured in the eBulletin and accepts no liability for any unforeseen circumstances arising.
