Coronavirus update
- There’s been a slight fall in the number of new coronavirus cases in the immediate vicinity. In the week ending last Saturday night (14 November) there were five new cases in the Penn, Knotty Green, Holmer Green area compared with 14 the week before. In Tylers Green there were seven new cases compared to six the previous week and in Hazlemere six new cases compared to eight. In Buckinghamshire four people have died from the virus in the week ending Wednesday, compared to three the week before.
- Penn and Tylers Green Scouts are planning to deliver Christmas post in the immediate area as usual next month but, in order to cut the risk of spreading coronavirus, they will not be selling stamps. Instead there will be donation boxes alongside the post boxes in village shops.
- The Bucks Clinical Commissioning Group, which includes local GP surgeries, has been shortlisted for a national award for supporting people during the pandemic. The winners will be chosen by the charity Self Care Forum.
- The telecoms company 3 is closing its head office in Maidenhead having re-evaluated ways of working in the wake of Covid. It anticipates all of its office based staff will work out of another office building in Reading by next year.
- The Roald Dahl Museum in Great Missenden has received an unspecified grant from the Art Fund to help its much depleted finances this year. The fund has launched a £1m crowdfunding campaign to help smaller museums.
- The Potters Arms at Winchmore Hill has arranged two comedy nights in the first week after lockdown in an attempt to support stand up comics who have been hit hard this year.
Local news
Space boost – A major development in space technology, outlined in the Government’s increased defence spending plans yesterday, will mean a “Space Command” at the UK Space Operations Centre, based at RAF High Wycombe in Naphill. It will be staffed by all three military services, civil servants and commercial representatives looking at future space operations and capabilities and will involve the creation of hundreds of jobs.
Local flytipper caught -Serial flytipper Mohammed Afzal is in jail awaiting sentence after admitting taking cash to dump other people’s waste, from builders rubble to mattresses, in various streets, including The Greenway, Tylers Green. Afzal, 65, of Slough was remanded in custody at Reading Crown Court after prosecutors said they wanted him disqualified from driving and his vehicles confiscated. He’ll be sentenced next month.
Roads salted – Council gritters were out salting local main roads for the first time this autumn last night in anticipation of an overnight frost.