Web Log

The Borough Council is encouraging everyone to recycle as much as they can at the kerbside this Christmas and to take a few simple steps to reduce, reuse or recycle the extra material that Christmas brings with it.

Christmas cards

* Send e-cards to colleagues
* Reuse Christmas cards as gift tags for next Christmas
* Support the Woodland Trust by recycling Christmas cards at WH Smith, Tesco or TK Maxx
* Remember – Christmas cards and wrapping paper cannot be recycled at the kerbside

Christmas trees

* Buy a UK grown real tree with roots, that can be planted in your garden or kept in a pot to use again next year;
* If you need to dispose of your real tree after Christmas, you can take it to one of the County Council recycling centres where it will be chipped and made into mulch.

Alternatively, real trees can be taken to:

* Hunstanton Recreation Ground on Saturday 6 January 2007, from 9am until 12 noon
* Downham Market Memorial Playing Field on Saturday 6 January 2007, from 1pm until 4pm
* Gayton Road Nursery in King's Lynn on Sunday 7 January 2007, from 9am until 1pm

Trees will be chipped for mulch, which people can take back with them for their own gardens, otherwise it will be retained for use by the Council's parks and gardens staff for community project landscaping schemes supporting the Anglia in Bloom initiatives. This service is free of charge.

Artificial trees can be used again, but eventually they need to be disposed of, and because they are made of so many different materials they cannot be recycled.

Christmas food and drinks

* Buy drinks in large containers, rather than lots of small ones – this creates much less waste;
* Plan your meals and buy only the food you need;
* Avoid using cling-film or aluminium foil to store food leftovers – place them in a reusable tub with a lid;
* Remember to compost all kitchen waste such as fruit and vegetable peelings.

For more top recycling tips, visit www.recyclenow.com.

Refuse and recycling arrangements

Stickers detailing refuse and recycling collections have been placed on individual wheeled bins and leaflets delivered to those households on a black sack collection. All households should receive a refuse collection between Christmas and New Year, unless severe weather causes a disruption to the service. To sign up for refuse and recycling text alerts, register online at www.west-norfolk.gov.uk.

Additional waste will only be collected if a Red Tag, available for £1 each from Council offices, is attached. Alternatively, additional waste can be taken to the nearest Norfolk County Council Household Waste Recycling Centre. These are open daily until 4pm between Christmas and New Year (closed on Christmas Day).

There will be no recycling collections from 23 December to 1 January inclusive. Recycling collections will commence from 2 January. New collection dates are detailed on individual bin stickers.

The refuse and recycling helpline is 01553 776676. To find out where the nearest Household Waste Recycling Centre is, call 0844 800 8004.

The popular BBC2 antiques programme, Flog It, presented by Paul Martin, is coming to King's Lynn in January.

The Corn Exchange will be hosting the Flog It! Valuation Day. Rather like a treasure hunt, members of the public are invited to bring along the antiques and collectables they might be interested in selling. Once valued, the owner and team of experts decide whether it should go forward for auction. If the item is chosen it is sold a few weeks later - often with the owner making a tidy sum.

Everyone who goes along to the Valuation on Sunday 21st January will receive a valuation - even if their antiques are not chosen to go forward for auction. Opening time is 9.30am till 4.00pm.

We've heard from Gina in Florida, who would like to get in touch with anyone who might remember her. She went to Gaywood Park High School and left to go to America in 1984. Her family's name is Montesanto. Click here to see her entry in the guestbook.

As a follow up to our item "Hunt out your old specs" 28/9/06. Over 1,000 pairs of specs were dispatched to the Lions central collection point, most of which were in excellent condition.

John Husband, of the King's Lynn Lions Club, has asked us to thank everybody who contributed their old specs, with special thanks to those who kindly provided collection points at their premises, including Sainsbury's, Morrisons, Tescos Gaywood, Boots Opticians and Gayton Road Health Centre.

For nearly 70 years, individual Lions Clubs have collected used eyeglasses for distribution to the needy in developing nations. The Lions now recycle 5 million pairs of spectacles each year.

King's Lynn FC 0 Oldham Athletic 2

Lynn's brave FA Cup adventure ended in heroic defeat at The Walks on Friday, after battling with League One highfliers Oldham Athletic.

The full timers were more skillful and fitter than Lynn, and certainly deserved their victory, in a match that was captured by Sky TV cameras, and shown live all over the world .

The Linnets, who remain managerless since the departure of former Leyton Orient boss Tommy Taylor to become first-team coach at Peterborough last month, kept battling in front of their biggest crowd since 1951.

It was only when Hall rose to meet a corner and powered a header into the net via a post that the Latics were home and dry.

Goals: Porter 10, Hall 82. Attendance: 5,444

The Linnets website can be found at: www.thelinnets.co.uk

Downham Market Town Council has set up a small pilot scheme for a Park and Ride facility in the run up to Christmas.

The pilot scheme will run on Friday 15th and Friday 22nd December 2006. Pick up points will be the Memorial Playing Field car park with a secondary pick up at the Howdale car park. Passengers will be dropped off and picked up for the return journey at the bus park outside the Tesco store in Priory Road. Park and Ride will begin at 9am and finish at 4pm; it is anticipated that there will be three round trips in an hour and passengers will be charged 20p per journey.

The recent visit to King's Lynn by two of Santa's favourite reindeer brought in record numbers of visitors to the town for a Christmas lights switch-on. As a result, some children did not get the chance to the see the reindeer they had traveled specially to see. Devastated, that some children may feel disappointed, Santa has arranged for his reindeer to return to the town on Thursday 14 December at 3pm.

To try to ensure that everyone gets a chance to see the reindeer, they will be in a special pen, outside TK Maxx in Broad Street. The special pen means that they will be able to stay longer this time. They will leave the town at around 7pm.

'The arrangements for the switch on of the lights this year were based on the level of visitors we have had to the event in the past. The popularity of the reindeer took us by surprise. The last thing we want is disappointed children. We hope this second visit will give those that missed out last week an opportunity to see these beautiful creatures,' said Cllr Nick Daubney, Deputy Leader of the Council.

An innovative website which captures local heritage has brought a top IT award home to King's Lynn and the West Norfolk Fens.

The Community Heritage Stores project (CHS), which is funded by a government grant, has won the prestigious e-Gov 'Best in Category' award seeing off stiff competition from 14 other projects from throughout England for 'Bridging the Digital Divide'.

The Community Heritage Stores project was launched in September 2004 with a series of workshops using people's concern to preserve local heritage as a means of sparking their interest in the internet.

Chief Executive of the Borough Council of King's Lynn & West Norfolk, Ray Harding, said: "We have been astounded by the success of the project which is due, in no small part, to the dedication, commitment and enthusiasm of everyone involved.

"Our main aim was to encourage people to use the internet and develop their web skills. In rural areas, the internet is a fantastic way of improving people's access to services, but research shows that many people, particularly the over 55s, do not feel confident in using it.

"By using local heritage as a hook, it has been possible, for those taking part, to see how they could build a community archive and store forever stories, photos, anecdotes, local information and memorabilia that could otherwise be lost."

For more information about the site go to www.localCHS.co.uk