The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) has announced two further strikes in the on-going dispute with central government over pensions.

Members of the FBU will hold strike action on December 13 and 14, from 6pm until 10pm.

During the strike periods West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service will still be responding to 999 calls and providing an emergency response across the county, but will have fewer resources available.

An additional ballot of FBU members on taking action short of a strike closed on Wednesday (December 4) and resulted in a yes vote. No announcement has been made yet on how and when action will be taken under that ballot.

Chief fire officer for West Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, Sean Ruth, said: “Once again we have been working hard to ensure we are prepared for any possible strike action and have robust contingency plans in place to minimise any impact on the public. In an emergency people should still call 999 but we are urging everyone to take extra care and help to reduce the risk by following our fire and road safety advice.

“This action is taking place when many people may be enjoying festive celebrations - having a working smoke alarm is the single most important step people can take to ensure that and their loved ones are safe from fire during the festive season.”

A CHICHESTER centenarian has celebrated her 106th birthday.

Vivienn Rolfe, of Westgate, celebrated on November 26, with friends and family at her flat.

Born in Southsea in 1907 into a naval family, she lived in Africa 
for 17 years with her husband, before moving to Chichester from Aldingbourne in 1986.

“I don’t really need any help,” she said. “I’m really lucky. I can still walk around with a walker.

“I can cook if it’s left for me all prepared.

“I read a lot and I do crosswords. I do the Telegraph every weekend – I manage to do that.”

She said she liked listening to orchestral music, especially piano concertos by Chopin.

Her husband Gordon passed away in 1997.

The couple married in 1941 after meeting four years previously and had one daughter, named Sally Wraight, who was born in Nigeria in 1947.

Vivienn worked at Charterhouse for four years in the 1960s.

“I had to get a job,” she said. “We had a daughter at boarding school and so to pay for fees I got a job at Charterhouse.

“I loved it. I made lots of friends and I really liked it.”

She said she had a ‘lovely’ 106th birthday and received 30 cards and lots of flowers, as well as two telephone calls from New Zealand and one from Italy.

PLANS for a community centre in Whyke will be unveiled at a meeting on Monday (December 9).

The new centre will provide a community hub where people can access services including advice, social and physical activities, but also a meeting place, including a community cafe.

Whyke Estate Community Association set up a steering group which has been making plans for the centre for the past two years

Steering group chairman Steve Taylor said: “With more and more services being withdrawn by local councils, the local community has a greater need than ever to have a place to develop a better support network for residents, and to have a community hub where people can get together and develop a greater sense of community spirit.”

The association raised more than £6,000 for research into where to site the centre. Residents can hear its conclusions at the meeting at 7pm in Kingsham Primary School’s main hall.

IN September, Chichester High School for Boys and Chichester High School for Girls joined The Academy in Selsey under the banner of The Kemnal Academies Trust (TKAT).

There were plans to link-up the three schools, sharing ideas, the joint sixth form at the Chichester schools, and working together ‘for the common good’.

Now The Academy Selsey had a new headteacher, The Observer asked the three teachers what their visions were for the schools in their joint venture.

New headteacher at the The Academy Ann Marie Latham said: “I think it is really exciting when you collaborate with people and you have real partnership.

“We have regular meetings. It’s an opportunity to work together to share ideas, supporting eachother and driving the quality across the board.

“I am a great believer of making partnerships.”

Gavin Salvesen-Sawh, headteacher of Chichester High School for Boys, said, “Congratulations to Ann Marie Latham on her appointment as headteacher of the Academy, Selsey. We are looking forward to working closely with Miss Latham, especially with teaching and learning and the development of the sixth form.

“Having worked at Manhood Community College in the past as head of English, I have an affiliation and affection for what is now The Academy, Selsey and I am looking forward to making a return visit soon to see the work of the school, following their encouraging Ofsted inspection and to explore ways where all local TKAT schools can benefit.

“The three schools, CHSB, CHSG and TAS are already working together on the collective marketing of our schools in the local area.

Each school has significantly increased their results this year, so this bodes well for the future of all three schools in the Selsey/Chichester area.”

Yasmin Maskatiya, headteacher of Chichester High School for Girls, said: “We have got not just the three schools, we have also got Portfield, The Seal and Tangmere, which are our primaries and part of the vision that we as academies in the area will be able to work together more and more collectively to bring about school improvement in all our schools.

“We will share our expertise so that each school benefits from that.

“I am very pleased to see Miss Latham joining the school, she has done a very, very good job at the start of the term.

“The school is set to make big improvements this year.”.

Miss Latham is also keen to keep links strong with the primary schools – especially in Selsey.

“I also think that the primary schools are open to working in partnership,” said Miss Latham.

“Seal primary is a TKAT school, we have a great relationship with them, we also have a great relationship with Medmerry.”

She said having a link with primary schools is important so the children ‘feel comfortable’,

“We need to create opportunities for them to come here so there is no surprises,” said Miss Latham.

ANYONE who knows Russells Garden Centre in Birdham will agree that it’s a constantly evolving showroom of all things amazing for the home

and garden.

The dedicated owners of 17 years, Lesley and Richard, really know their stuff and Lesley tells me: “By listening to customer’s needs over the years, we have expanded and improved with many highs including the creation of the busy restaurant and our boutique deli, and lows which are usually weather-related. It is heartbreaking to arrive at work to find all your beautiful things ruined by floodwater!

“Bringing up three children while juggling multiple departments hasn’t always been easy, but being able to rely on such a fantastic team really does ease the pressure.

“I am able to leave the busy centre to pick up my seven-year-old daughter from school, knowing they will look after everything for me, then I tackle the paperwork after she is tucked up in bed.

“I firmly believe in supporting local business and especially women in business who produce tasty food for the deli who live within a couple of miles of Russells.

“My biggest challenge? Stopping myself chatting all day with our lovely regular customers instead of getting on with my

to-do list!”

The embroidered kneeler in Stoughton church reminded me of Bubbly, the French-cum-Chukor partridge we kept as a pet years ago.

I found him out in the wilds, somewhere by Gumber Farm near Madehurst. He was a day old and quite lost.

He was cheeping away in the corn stubble, hoping that mother would hear his distress call, but she had lost track of the family.

I scanned the wide field with my bins for any sign of her and the others, but it was hopeless. So I put him in my pocket and carried on.

Three hours later he was home and being fed by my wife on boiled egg and breadcrumbs.

She had recently reared exotic breeds of pheasants for landowner/art collector/poet Edward James at his house at Monkton on West Dean Estate and had been successful with the blue-eared, Lady Amherst, and silver pheasants among all the others.

They are all fussy birds and have to have things just right before breeding and rearing their chicks, so Bubbly was no mystery.

Having fed, his tiny head would droop and he would be asleep. He wasn’t much bigger than a bumblebee.

He grew apace and would come for walks in the woods.

He would find food all the while, that we hardly noticed: a tiny toadstool here, a clover leaf there, a creeping fly or a caterpillar no larger than a thread.

In the house he knew his place: by the stove.

When very tired, he would lie on the warm marble slab like a baby, legs and head stretched out flat, one wing tucked around himself, the other open wide underneath, like a mattress.

Then we had to visit the family in Norfolk.

There were walks there as well, down the water meadows, with thistle seeds and buttercup leaves, and little pecks from mushrooms.

He found Devon pretty good too, and refreshing after a five-hour journey in his box in the back of the car with the children. Woolacombe beach had dry sand where he could dust bathe.

But he wanted to run into the waves with us too, so my wife had to hold him until we returned. She would take him for strolls in the dunes where he gobbled up tiny spiders and the leaves of bird’sfoot trefoil.

In the autumn we had a party in the house with a special bottle of champagne for a birthday. The cork hit the ceiling and flew around in all directions, but didn’t hit any living creature thank goodness. I got told off for that. Bubbly flew up onto the top of the china cabinet and would not come down again until the next morning.

At Christmas we had our party outside with fireworks. He was joining in the fun, but did not like the rockets and flew off into the pitch dark.

I found him 100 yards away, sheltering in the woodmens’ hut.

By the new year, he was perching outside in the cherry tree at night.

One morning in early March, he flew up to our open bedroom window, called long and loud for several minutes until we woke up and flew off in a straight line towards the rising sun.

We never saw him again.

In wet muddy weather, one can always walk along deserted country lanes and keep dry.

This walk is about six miles (13kms) on roads through beautiful farm and downland with visits to three Saxon-cum-Norman churches that have been left in peace to a large extent by the fussy Victorian rebuilders who destroyed much of our ecclesiastical history.

Park off-road in Forestry Commission land between East Marden and Stoughton, SU815126. Southwest to Stoughton through farmland with the old yew woods of Bow Hill on the left that contrast so well in autumn with the 1940s beech plantations.

St Mary’s is up a short lane above the farmyard, looking pale and acerbic outside, but rich inside.

I liked the cockerel weathervane and the new gold leaf Millenium sundial with blue ears of wheat.

The graves have been cleared of headstones that now make a paved yard.

There are two oldish female and one male yew trees. Inside I liked also the dozens of kneelers, many with wildlife subjects such as the pair of partridges (see Nature Trails) and also the heron, the huntsman, the hares, and butterflies.

The building is on the cusp of Saxon-Norman overlap. So we see a very high interior and fairly thin walls with massive corner stones.

Now on southwest for half a mile, then right turn to Up Marden, two miles ahead.

This winding valley is bordered by very tall hedges and the fields with old oaks, all making a landscape of almost Georgian proportions. You almost expect haywains and tumbrils drawn by carthorses either side.

However in the hamlet, down a muddy lane to the left, you will come upon a 1780-ish sheep-cum-implement barn presently being fully renovated by the County Council, Open Air Museum and South Downs Park Authority.

I am so glad this wreck is at last seeing expert repair. It is to become a sort of medieval Coldharbour, or travellers’ rest for walkers and cyclists. It could be completed by the new year, weather permitting.

St Michael is next door, and is also anciently remote in time, having the resonance of a Proustian madeleine of times past.

All-cream interior like the fine wool of a flock of sheep and one can almost sense the presence of shepherds in their smocks. There are also paintings on the walls that look like the watermarks of another millennium.

Continue north with Apple Down to left through a lovely avenue of old oaks, beech and yews.

Turn right down Long Lane, or short cut across meadows to East Marden below to the right on footpaths marked with dotted lines on my map. St Peter is on the crossroads next to the thatched well-head. It was rebuilt in the 13th century. This is another pride of the village and like the others, well cared for.

Note the small organ with its shining sun head, the instrument brought here from St James Palace and once played by Prince Albert. As with the other three churches, there is a seat outside to rest your weary feet after all this tarmac tramping so now it is time to wend home to the car through the deep, steep wooded valley between the beech trees and in summer, the songs of blackcap warblers and chaffinches. England at its best, Constable would have recognised it even in this 21st century.

STAFF from the past and present celebrated 40 years of Witterings Library on Friday, inviting volunteers and customers for coffee and cake.

Residents went along to the party on Friday, November 29, to reminisce with staff, and a board of photos and memories of the library over the last 40 years was on display.

East Wittering resident Laurie Crisp spoke of his experience using the library over the years.

“One of the things I like about it is the staff are so friendly,” he said.

Mr Crisp uses the library regularly to research historical projects.

“When I wanted to do some research on Thomas Huxley, quite an important scientist, I went into the library but they didn’t have a copy of a book written on him some years ago.”

But he said the staff looked tirelessly to see if they could get a copy of the book and they were successful.

“It had come all the way from Lincoln,” he said. “It’s fantastic service.”

The library in Oakfield Avenue, East Wittering, was recently refurbished, and had self-service machines installed, but still retains a front counter.

Area librarian Karen Wallace said: “I think that it has been the centre of this community for the entire time it has been open.

“It is still really busy, people love it and the changes that have been made recently have been received very well.

“Everyone is delighted it is still open.”

These thoughts were echoed by library manager Gareth Edmunds, who said: “I am pleased it is still going.

“It is a successful library and I really like it now it has been refurbished.”

County councillor for The Witterings Pieter Montyn turned up at the event to support the service, and said: “It is great to see what an important part the library plays in people’s lives locally, and will continue to play.”

A POT of £200,000 has been set aside for projects in Sussex which tackle police issues.

Sussex police and crime commissioner, Katy Bourne, has established a new fund to support groups which tackle crime in the community.

Grants up to £5,000 will be considered for groups which tackle crime, reduce reoffending and address community priorities such as alcohol, drugs, anti-social behaviour, domestic abuse and road safety can apply.

“I am delighted to launch the Safer in Sussex Community Fund, which is a new initiative that will provide financial support to innovative local projects that aim to make our communities safer,” said Mrs Bourne.

“I want to help communities work together to come up with ways of tackling crime and disorder and I am keen to support projects that demonstrate strong partnership working. I will be working with local partners and agencies to ensure this support complements existing activity.

“I welcome applications from all local groups and organisations that can demonstrate how they are tackling the issues in their area that support the priorities set out in my Police & Crime Plan. These include commissioning initiatives that tackle crime, reduce reoffending and address community priorities such as alcohol, drugs, anti-social behaviour, domestic abuse and road safety.

“Bids will be considered by my office on a quarterly basis with the first round of funding allocated after 31st March 2014. I look forward to receiving the applications.”

For more information on applying visit {http://www.sussex-pcc.gov.uk|www.sussex-pcc.gov.uk}

PENSIONERS are invited to try a new sport for free as part of a new district council scheme.

Chichester Get Active is a new activity scheme for people over 65 from Chichester Wellbeing. It provides support to help people find their ideal activity and includes a voucher to try that activity once for free.

Madge Lambert from Selsey is 90 and still makes sure she makes time for her regular circuit class at Westgate Leisure Chichester.

“I really enjoy coming to the classes,” said Mrs Lambert.

“We do cycling, trampolining, rowing, step ups, weights and walking. I do feel it is doing me good. I also enjoy the social side of coming here as we do have a good laugh in the class.

“I am sure it has kept me going and my daughters encourage me to keep up the classes.”

Dozens of local sport and activity providers across the Chichester area, from bowls to swimming, are offering people their first session free for an activity of their choice.

To register call free on 0808 172 9472. For more information about Chichester Wellbeing please contact Elaine Thomas 01243 534588

REGISTRATION has now opened for the 2014 Festival of Chichester.

The festival was created for the summer of 2013, following the demise of the old Chichester Festivities.

And organisers were delighted at the way the whole community got behind the new month-long summer extravaganza.

Festival of Chichester chairman Phil Hewitt said: “In our very first year of existence, we had an amazing array of events, around 200 in all.

“We had all kinds of things and a huge emphasis on community participation.

“A huge part of our success was the way we put centre-stage the kinds of things which were relegated to the fringe in the old festivities.

“That’s why we ended up with a festival which genuinely reflected both the breadth of local talents and also the strength of our community.

“We also had a number of big names coming in from the outside, and in the end it proved the perfect mix for a bright, new festival which hit the ground running.

“Now our challenge is to do even better next year.”

For details of registration for next year’s festival (June 14-July 13), email {mailto:festivalchichester@gmail.com|festivalchichester@gmail.com}

The deadline is the end of January.

Festival co-ordinator Barry Smith said: “I hope we can build on the bridgehead established in those hectic days last summer.

“There have been many inquiries from people keen to be a part of the distinctive Chichester festival experience.

“The grassroots organisations have seen the opportunity to showcase their wares right across the arts spectrum – and even beyond, with ideas for food festivals and unusual marketing opportunities.

“It all adds up to a vibrant picture of arts and crafts across the region.”

Tickets are still available for the Festival of Chichester fund-raiser, a Jazz Café event on Wednesday, December 11 at 7.30pm in St John’s Chapel.

“The much-loved Jazz Smugglers seven-piece band with vocalist Maria Ball will be entertaining with the swinging sounds of all those Gershwin tunes plus everyone’s favourite jazz standards.

“West End musical and acting star Mark Wynter (Phantom of the Opera, Cats, Robert and Elizabeth) will be bringing his dramatic expertise to a selection of seasonal readings, from Shakespeare to Dickens and taking in Robert Frost and Thomas Hardy on the way.”

Tickets £11: 01243 813595 or {http://www.chichestertickets.co.uk|www.chichestertickets.co.uk}.

SPEED campaigners are battling to keep their village’s road safe.

East Ashling has been the scene of numerous accidents in recent months and years, with the B2178 passing through the centre of the village.

The East Ashling Traffic Action Group (EATAG) has previously called for more stringent control of the speed limit through the village, with many cars breaking the 30mph limit.

“The residents are simply fearful for their lives,” said EATAG member Josephine Laird, adding speeding was a ‘constant concern’.

“It’s really awful the way people go.

“We’ve had overturned cars, we’ve had cars into brick walls.

“People do just drive through at an immense speed. It’s quite frightening.”

She said there had been numerous accidents in the village that were due to speeding and careless driving.

These also included drivers mounting the pavement when entering the village at high speeds and crashing into garden walls.

Now, EATAG has taken matters into its own hands and residents spent three weeks in November manning the police’s speed indicator device (SID), in the hope of encouraging drivers to slow down.

They said even with campaigners standing by the road monitoring, drivers still sped past.

Residents have undergone special training in order to be able to use the device and set it up.

Anyone they catch speeding through the village can be reported to Sussex Police, as part of the force’s Operation Crackdown.

The police launched a dedicated website to stopping antisocial driving at {http://www.operationcrackdown.org|www.operationcrackdown.org} where people enter the details of people they have caught speeding or driving antisocially.

Police need a vehicle registration number; make, model and colour of the vehicle; and details of where and when the incident happened.

Campaigners said a number of people broke the limit through the village while they were there and they would be out again soon to continue noting drivers who did not slow down.

A TANGMERE parish councillor has created a ‘shopping list’ of facilities for the village – which he said could boost its future infrastructure.

Roy Anscombe, 76, of Tangmere Road, a parish councillor since 1985, said he had come up with a list of facilities the village could benefit from – in order to cope with the number of homes that are being proposed for the immediate area.

“I built it up as I knew what was going to happen,” he said.

The plan he has created, along the lines of a neighbourhood plan, incorporates a number of drastic changes to the village.

As well as services off the A27, the plan also includes a railway station, a university, county hall and a multi-religious centre.

In the past, Cllr Anscombe has commented that Tangmere has been left to fend for itself by the district council.

He said he took note of a radical suggestion by a Chichester City councillor to relocate the county hall headquarters of West Sussex County Council to Tangmere.

“I just put things in as they came up,” he said.

“It’s just a talking point really. Tangmere’s got no infrastructure.” He said Tangmere was the same size as Midhurst, yet did not have the infrastructure to support the large number of houses being proposed as part of the district council’s local plan.

“I started it the other way. Let’s get the infrastructure in first,” he said. “They think 50 days ahead, I think 50 years ahead.”

He said the two most important things for Tangmere would be a railway station and a service station to prepare it for the future development.

A NEW soft play group for toddlers has struggled to take off in Chichester, and has been left empty for several weeks.

Sue and Tom Mortimor set up Jumping 4 Joy, which hold soft play sessions in Selsey, Bognor and Chichester.

Although the two seaside town sessions took off, the city group at the Swanfield Centre has been abandoned.

“We are struggling to get anybody to come to our soft play session at Swanfield Community Centre,” said Sue.

“We did not have anybody last week. We would be most upset to see this service stopped.”

She said it would be a ‘shame’ if the toys were to go to waste.

“For the mums it is lovely way to meet other mums,” she said. “It gives them a chance to get out.”

Sue set up the sessions after retiring from running a nursery.

The Chichester session is every Tuesday between 10.45am and 12.15pm.

The Selsey session is at the Selsey Centre, every Friday at 10.30am until midday.
Families.

The sessions are £3 per child, with discounts for big families.

POLICE are appealing for witnesses after a man was assaulted in Chichester’s city centre.

Sussex Police revealed today that a man working at the River Island store in East Street was attacked by a young man outside the store at about 3.30pm last Wednesday (December 4).

The 18-year-old victim received minor injuries and did not require medical treatment.

PC Jill Peacock said; “It was a busy shopping day and several people are believed to have witnessed this.”

Contact police on 101 with information, with the reference 0342 of 5/12.

WITNESSES to a car crash on the A27 near Arundel are sought by police.

Sussex Police has said just before 5pm on Saturday (December 7), on the westbound carriageway of the A27 at Crossbush, a silver VW Polo and a black Vauxhall Astra were in collision.

The driver of the Astra, a 21-year-old woman, and her 17-year-old male passenger, were treated at Worthing Hospital for slight injuries.

A black car which was also travelling west when the collision happened, did not stop and police are keen to speak to the driver.

PC Ben Henwood of the Sussex Road Policing Unit at Arundel said; “If you are at that driver, or know who it may be or if you saw what happened please contact us via 101 or email collision.appeal@sussex.pnn.police.uk quoting serial 1112 of 7/12.”

A MEAT supplier in Eastergate is the first in Sussex to get on board with a dementia awareness campaign.

Kim Monery from Chichester got involved with the Purple Angel campaign, which aims to make people more aware of dementia, and how to recognise the signs of it.

She’s started by working with businesses in the area, so their staff are aware of the signs of dementia, and know how to help customers who may be sufferers.

Carol Parker from Premier Meats in Eastergate was happy to get on board, and it is the first business in the area to be awarded a Purple Angel, which is displayed on the firm’s seven vans.

“We were very happy to take part in this as we have several members of staff whose families have been effected by dementia,” said Mrs Parker.

She said her firm supplies meat to restaurants hotels and nursing homes, so her staff are regularly in contact with dementia sufferers.

The Purple Angel scheme gives the staff information on the condition and how to help people who are showing signs of dementia.

“It is quite important I think, because people with dementia should be able to live life to the full,” said Mrs Parker.

The campaign was set up by a dementia sufferer in Torbay, and it has spread worldwide, with 50 ambassadors – Mrs Monery being one.

She hopes to spread the word throughout Sussex, and will be presenting Tesco Express in St James Road, Chichester, with a Purple Angel this week.

“I work with people with dementia, so I wanted to get involved,” she said.

Her job is to take bundles of information to businesses, so they can get clued-up on dementia. When the staff have read the information and are more informed, the business gets its Purple Angel.

Any business wanting to get involved should contact Mrs Monery on {mailto:kimpurpleangel@yahoo.co.uk|kimpurpleangel@yahoo.co.uk}

A ‘LOVELY and warm’ teaching assistant has been honoured for her sterling work in the classroom.

A ‘LOVELY and warm’ teaching assistant has been honoured for her sterling work in the classroom.

Rosie Beecheno, a teaching assistant from Sidlesham Primary School, was one of 15 people in the country to be recognised as some of the national teaching assistants of the year.

The past academic year was quite a busy one for the school, with a new head teacher and the reception class’ teacher being ill for most of the year.

Head teacher Alison Bardsley said: “Although we managed to get a supply teacher, Rosie was a constant throughout the year for the children in that class. She took on a lot of extra work.”

She just basically held the whole of the class together for the year.

“She was the main contact 
for the parents as well.

“She just worked truly well and above what was expected of her role.”

The head teacher kept it a secret from everyone that she had nominated Rosie for the award, so it came as a shock when someone turned up at the school to present her with an award as one of the most outstanding teaching assistants in the country.

The shortlist of 15, of which Rosie was one, was whittled down from around 300 teaching assistants who were put forward, according to Mrs Bardsley.

“She didn’t know anything about it.

“None of the staff knew until the day and the man came to present her with a reward. It was a surprise for her and everybody else.”

“The children started applauding and they went on clapping for what seemed like forever.

“They were just so happy for her.”

She said Rosie’s help had been invaluable throughout the whole year.

“It was quite a turbulent year and she was just committed.

“She gave more than anyone would expect.”

Asked why it was that she had decided to nominate Rosie for the national teaching assistant award, Mrs Bardsley said: “The fact that it was a very stressful time for everybody and she was just committed throughout and she’s always listened and is a lovely, warm personality who gives a lot to the whole school team.”

DEVELOPERS have submitted an appeal for a site off of Cleveland Road in Chichester, after it was rejected by Chichester District Council.

The plan was to demolish garages and redevelop the site to provide three houses and two flats.

But residents of surrounding roads objected, and said the access road was too small and it would be over-development of the road.

For more information on the appeal visit the district council’s planning portal at www.chichester.gov.uk with the reference CC/13/02061/FUL.

AN INDEPENDENT market will be held in Chichester on Sunday, December 15.

The market is hosted by the city’s branch of Slug and Lettuce, in Southgate.

Sean Geoghegan, from the Slug and Lettuce, said: “The team has invited local businesses to set up stalls at the Slug and Lettuce and sell Christmas goods.

“With a total of ten stalls booked up already, guests will get the chance to pick up a gift or two just in time for the holiday season.”

The market will be open from 10am to 4pm.

The event will include face-painting and gifts for small children.

Three charity events will also be held by the restaurant from 5pm-8pm on three consecutive Thursdays, December 5, 12 and 19.

It has teamed up with neighbours Creations hair salon to offer a glass of winter Pimm’s and a mini manicure, alongside other tips and complimentary styling.

To book an appointment at the beauty bar, call 01243 792012, or turn up on the night.