News in Maldon

The new Chairman of Maldon District Council, Independent Councillor Mark Heard, will be writing regular column pieces. Here we have the very first of these.

So, with just over a week in as the new Chairman of Maldon District Council, a position I hold with great pride, I have just completed my first official outside engagement which was a coffee morning with Mayors and Chairs of many of our neighbouring districts and towns. It was of course a virtual coffee morning but still an opportunity to meet, network and exchange ideas about how our year may unfold.

The first homes at a new development in Hatfield Peverel have gone on sale to meet growing demand from buyers in the local area.

Bellway has released the first homes at Hatfield Grove online – ahead of the launch on site in October – to cater to the rising interest in moving from people in the wake of the stamp duty holiday announcement by the Government.

IN her first regular contribution to Maldon Nub News, nature writer Jo Phillips talks about the importance of nature and our beautiful surroundings in the town to everyday life, wellbeing - and even business.

How can being connected to nature be good for business?

In the days leading up to and including the Christmas and New Year holidays, Maldon Nub News will bring you messages from some key local figures. Some of these will be from politicians and so the views expressed are entirely their own.

Some will be long and others brief, but the thing they will have in common is their message to the people of Maldon as this most difficult of years draws to a close.

News this week that the pandemic has had such a terrible cost to the Maldon community in terms of livelihoods and prospects was terrible both to write and to read. The stark revelations by Maldon Citizens Advice on the levels of unemployment, housing difficulties and hardship anticipated - especially in the younger population - give us all cause to wonder what the future holds.

Of course, we cannot know. We cannot be sure when this nightmare of a crisis will end and how well the community will recover. It seems the 'unprecedented' year that has been 2020 is leading to an uncertain 2021.

If there was a theme to the news this week, it was surely the remembrance of things past – and maybe not just the remembrance, but the keeping alive of our history for those who live in the present day.

This thought struck me most as I watched the brief ceremony at Maldon's war memorial at 11am on the eleventh day of the eleventh month, exactly 101 years on from the original Armistice Day.

This roller coaster year for the world, for the country and for Maldon, our little part of it, just seems to – well, keep rolling.

True, it could be argued there have been a lot more downs than ups and some definite causes to yell with fright. Yet, for all that, there's always new light in dark situations and sometimes, it seems, the brightest of all comes from the least expected places.