Following the death of 14 year old Matthew Beddard earlier this year, Kim Lloyd has teamed up with Matthew's mum, Melanie Beddard, kindly offering the services of the beautiful garden of her home as the location for a Strawberry Tea to raise money for brain tumour research. The event will take place between 2 and 4 pm on Saturday, 9th July at Number One, Royal Parade, Palace Pound.

The event is open to all, so if you would like to support this worthy cause by attending, please contact Kim on 01989 566106.

Pictured below are Kim (left) and Melanie in Kim's beautiful garden, which overlooks the horseshoe bend in the River Wye. The photo was taken under a tree last Friday because it was pouring with rain at the time. Let's hope for beautiful sunshine at the time of the actual event.

Ross-on-Wye Sea Cadets have recently taken delivery of a minibus and are heading to Portsmouth in it this evening to take part tomorrow in the International Fleet Review.

On its return, the minibus will operate in and around the Ross-on-Wye district but will also be used to attend training weekends throughout Wales and the South of England.

The minibus was purchased with grants from the Herefordshire Rural Transport Partnership, Herefordshire Council's Small Fund and the Ross Lions Club. Herefordshire Councillor, Mark Cunningham, who is also a sign writer donated his services by painting the Sea Cadets' name on the vehicle.

Unit Management Chairman, David Ravenscroft said, 'This minibus will open opportunities for Staff and Cadets to participate in a much wider range of Sea Cadet activities. The Management Committee are very grateful to the three main funders who made the initial purchase possible and are now trying to secure some regular income for running expenses by selling advertising space on the vehicle.'

Herefordshire Councillor, Phil Edwards was joined at Ross Market by mother, and Herefordshire Midwife, Arwen Nixon and toddlers, Eluned Nixon and Harriet Barber at Ross Market to launch Real Nappy Week 20th to 26th June 2005. The event was staged to draw attention to the mountainous waste created by the use of disposables compared with the use of real nappies.

The mountain of black bin bags represented a year's worth of disposable nappies used by one child in a year and was one of a number of nappy waste mountains to be sited in prominent locations around the UK during the week. In the photograph, Councillor Edwards is holding the equivalent amount of real nappies which would do the same job.

If you would like to cut down on nappy waste and require information on the local 'Green Nappy' Service, please telephone 01989 760919 and ask for Martin.

Children at Bridstow Primary School embarked upon a journey of discovery during 'Big Arts Week', when artist, Jenny Leigh visited the school on Wednesday last, encouraging them to think creatively and become engaged with the arts.

Big Arts Week is a 'TimeBank' initiative which aims to promote art in schools by inviting professional artists to volunteer their time and share their skills with local school children.

Under supervision of Jenny and teachers, the children of Bridstow Primary set to work, building and decorating totem poles and extending murals on the external school walls. Inside, under the supervision of head teacher, Paul Sockett, other pupils designed a large frieze, each child painting 'something from modern day living which interests them' onto the artwork.