News in Maldon

The Heybridge Community Christmas Wish Tree event planned for Sunday (20 December) has been cancelled due to the new Tier 3 restrictions – but the parish council that organised it still has plenty of festive cheer in the bag.

There was great excitement when the large tree arrived at Plantation Hall, Heybridge, ready for the event where local children would have helped decorate the tree before Santa arrived.

Maldon High Street will continue with late-evening opening today (Thursday, 17 December) - and now it's more important than ever to support the town's businesses with safe shopping.

Although hospitality venues will be closed to diners and offering take-away services only, due to the new Tier 3 restrictions, other retail will continue as usual and are bursting with Christmas gifts and goodies to see shoppers through the festive season.

The families of 35,000 children and young people across the county will have £30 per child to spend on food over the two-week Christmas holiday after Essex County Council launched a free school meals scheme.

Vouchers are being sent out to parents of eligible children throughout the county area - including the Maldon district - and to qualifying young people this week.

A woman was injured at Bicknacre this afternoon after her car was involved in a crash with a tractor.

Firefighters were called to the accident on Main Road, Bicknacre shortly after 2pm.

A Government Planning Inspector visited the proposed site for the Bradwell B new nuclear power station this morning (Wednesday, 16 December) at 10am.

Protest artwork highlighting the memory of the airmen who died after flying from the former World War Two airfield at the site was set up at the nearby war memorial yesterday afternoon, ahead of the inspector's visit.

Essex's crime chief has said the force requires hundreds more officers to do the job he wants it to.

Crime commissioner Roger Hirst was speaking in light of the announcement that Essex will receive central funding for another 127 officers for 2021/22 – well short of the 235 officers Essex Police says it needs to do everything it wants.

The leader of Maldon District Council has spoken of her disappointment at the "great blow" to local businesses that comes with the district's move to Tier 3.

Councillor Wendy Stamp, Leader of Maldon District Council, said: "I am extremely disappointed that the District has now been placed into Tier 3, but we have to follow the advice we have been given by the Government as the numbers are still increasing.

A new regional testing site for Maldon district and the surrounding areas will be opened at Sandon Park and Ride over the coming days.

The site will a drive-through testing site and will offer both assisted and self-administered tests.

The latest Covid infection rates across Essex show a continued rise in most areas with Maldon district recording 238.7 cases per 100,000 in the seven days to Saturday, 12 December.

It is important to note that the figure for this period could still rise as not all results for tests taken up to and including that date may yet be in. However, the figure remains one of the lower ones for the Essex County Council area, with Basildon the highest at 697 cases per 100,000 population up to 12 December.

The decision to place most of Essex in Tier 3 is a huge disappointment but sadly was unavoidable. All of us had hoped that when our Tier 2 status was due to be reviewed on 16th December, it would be possible to relax the restrictions.

However, the figures that I saw at an emergency meeting on Sunday showed clearly that the existing measures already in place have failed to stop the spread of the virus. It was also obvious that action needed to be taken swiftly and that we could not wait for the review.