News in Maldon

A ruthless invader equipped with armoured war machines pursues a beaten army and thousands of civilian refugees to a small coastal town. A motley collection of civilian boats of all shapes and sizes – "fishing smacks… steam launches from the Thames, yachts" - comes to their rescue. The Royal Navy fights a heroic battle to gain them time as they flee.

This sounds like Dunkirk in 1940, in which Maldon's "little ships" played no small part, but it's actually a description written in 1897 of an alien invasion, and the evacuation of civilians from Maldon and the Blackwater.

IT'S been another seven days of big news stories in Maldon, from news of the closure of the car park at popular Heybridge Basin in a bid to stop hundreds of visitors descending on the village to unexpected floods causing mayhem across the district and beyond.

Here at Nub News we like to make your life easier so if you've missed any of the local news this week, don't worry.

Maldon Nub News aims to be supportive to EVERY element of the community from business and shops to people and charities and clubs and sports organisations.

Everyone is finding it tough at the moment and wants life to get back to normal.

The NHS trust in charge of the Linden Centre mental health facility at Broomfield has been served warning notices over patient safety by the health regulator.

The news comes just before an independent inquiry into historic deaths at the centre is due to start in February. Maldon mother Melanie Leahy, whose 20-year-old son Matthew Leahy died at the centre in 2012, has said that she believes the proposed inquiry will be "a whitewash". She is campaigning for a full statutory public inquiry, which could compel witnesses to give evidence under oath.

Families in Maldon district receiving free school meals will next benefit from the scheme the county council ran over Christmas during the February half term.

Over the two-week Christmas school holiday, Essex County County (ECC) provided free school meal vouchers worth £30 each for 34,412 eligible children and young people at schools and colleges in the county council's area.

The director of Maldon Festival has slammed the Government over its handling of post-Brexit visa arrangements for musicians after it emerged that a Swedish singer-songwriter and organist will not now appear at this year's event.

It is hoped the annual Maldon Festival will once again go ahead this summer, but director Colin Baldy has spoken out after learning the EU performer will not now appear due to the complications posed by Brexit.

The Covid-19 infection rate in Maldon is now dropping after reaching a peak of more than 1,000 cases per 100,000 people.

The latest complete figures for the seven days up to 6 January show that there were 573 new cases in Maldon district, equal to 882.1 cases per 100,000 population.

A favourite walk I take with the dog is the path along the trackbed of the old Witham to Maldon branch line.

Thanks to the Friends of the Flitch Way, the old platform is nicely preserved, and you can stand at the viewing point from which quite a few photographs were taken of trains stopping at the halt.

IT'S been seven days of big news stories in Maldon, from all the latest local information on the current pandemic crisis to a controversy over a tree and the end to a tragic tale that shook the town.

Here at Maldon Nub News we like to make your life easier so if you've missed any of the local news this week, don't worry.

Leylandii trees often prove a controversial topic - and now Maldon district councillors will vote on whether to save a huge specimen that officers believe "plays a significant role within the street scene".

The Tree Preservation Order (TPO) on the conifer in the front garden of a house it appears to dwarf called The Pines, in Franklin Road, North Fambridge, was served by Maldon District Council (MDC) officers last July (2020) after the authority received an enquiry form from someone wanting to have the tree felled (the person is not named).