News in Maldon

THREE Maldon district charities have received a boost from a government pandemic fund to help them keep going through the current crisis.

Action For Family Carers, based in Brickhouse Farm, Maldon, supports both children and adults who are family carers across the county – work that has been especially critical in the pandemic.

Everyone will have lasting memories of the turbulence of 2020 but for many it will be the year that they discovered their natural surroundings. In Maldon we are fortunate that we have a variety of places to walk and explore and if you visit the outdoors enough you will soon find what you are naturally drawn to. Where you feel most uplifted or restored.

Some people discover they like the tranquillity of the ancient woodlands that cover much of Danbury whilst others feel most at home with the huge expanse of skies along the sea wall.

The A12 has been closed between junctions 17 and 16, near Chelmsford, due to flooding.

The closure alert was received from Highways England at 9am this morning (Sunday, 15 November).

THE charity behind the restoration of Vanguard, the beautiful oyster dredger that helped rescue hundreds from the beaches of Dunkirk, is launching an appeal to find the soldiers – or the families of the soldiers - she helped to save. It is also launching an appeal to secure the necessary funding to rebuild Vanguard at a training college in Lowestoft.

Vanguard Restoration Foundation spokesperson, Nick Skeens, says: "Teaming up with Lowestoft's International Boatbuilding Training College means we will now be able to restore Vanguard to the condition she was in when she joined two other boats from Burnham-on-Crouch in Essex to rescue soldiers from the Dunkirk beaches. We are appealing to the public to help us secure the necessary money."

A flood warning for the Essex coast - including Hythe Quay and the Prom, Maldon - has been issued.

The warning message has been issued because there is a possibility of some minor flooding to coastal roads and footpaths between 8.30am and 12.30pm tomorrow (Saturday, 14 November).

Former Maldon District Council leader Elaine Bamford has quit her role as a councillor.

The shock resignation of the leader of the Conservative group at the council, who was replaced in the council leader role on Thursday, 5 November, when Independent Councillor Wendy Stamp was voted in, was announced today (Friday, 13 November).

A bereaved Maldon mum has spoken of her mixed feelings after an Essex mental health trust pleaded guilty in a prosecution over safety.

Just days before the eighth anniversary of Matthew Leahy's death at The Linden Centre, Chelmsford, Melanie Leahy, who lives in Maldon, stood outside Chelmsford Magistrates Court yesterday (Thursday, 12 November) with other bereaved families who are campaigning for a full statutory public inquiry into the circumstances surrounding their loved ones' deaths. Matthew was aged 21 when he died.

Despite a second national lockdown, slimmers in the Maldon area are refusing to let the 2020 stop them from sticking to their weight-loss goals – and a Southminster man has proved it by losing more than four stones.

Eddie Walsh, 55, from Southminster, who lost the weight during the first lockdown with Kay's Burnham-on-Crouch Slimming World group, said: "I wouldn't miss my group for the world. I was furloughed in March and was determined not to let it stop my weight loss journey so I combined my daily activity of cycling with good food choice with the support of my wife, Sandra, who is the cook in our house. It made sure I got to my target.

THERE has been a further small drop in the seven-day Covid-19 infection rate for Maldon district in the latest figures released by Essex County Council.

The county council currently releases a new county summary of the statistics every Thursday afternoon, comparing the seven days up until the previous Thursday with the seven days before that. The reporting gap of one week is to help ensure accuracy of the figures.

Essex County Council is asking businesses to donate any laptops no longer used to help provide college students with equipment to help them study during the pandemic.

The authority has already given 160 laptops to colleges across the county with an additional 200 soon to be distributed.