Ross will shortly have two new faces helping police the streets, as a new Sergeant and Constable join the Local Policing Team.

PC Mark Murphy will take over as Local Police Officer for Ross Town next month, replacing Jerry Coyd who has already taken up a new post as a Sergeant in Hereford. Mark is not completely new to the area, however - after spending seven years as a Hereford based officer, he was posted to the south section in October last year, where he joined colleagues providing 24-hour a day response policing to Ross and Ledbury areas. He will soon become a familiar face at PACT Meetings (Partners And Communities Together) and is excited to be settling into his new role.

He said, 'I’m looking forward to getting to know the local community over the coming weeks, building on the contacts I have already made in the past five months. Local Policing is all about being visible in the community and helping people tackle the issues that affect their quality of life. I hope that people will take the opportunity to stop and have a chat in the street, contact me at the police station or take an active part in the PACT process so that we can work together to make Ross an even better place.'

Another new face on the Local Policing Team is Sergeant Alex Warner, although like Mark, he is not completely new to the area. Alex joined Herefordshire Division from neighbouring South Worcestershire Division last year, and again like Mark was part of the response team covering South Herefordshire.

Now though he manages the teams of PCs and CSOs covering both the Ross Town and Ross Rural areas and is enjoying the experience.

'We have a fantastic team here at Ross Police Station and it has been great to see some of the progress we have been making already towards tackling some of the issues raised through the PACT process,' he said. 'Recently this has included mounting additional patrols where antisocial behaviour has been reported and actively challenging those individuals who cause problems. In turn, this has resulted in a number of arrests and a general reduction in calls about such nuisance behaviour. I hope this does encourage more people to play a part in PACT - we do listen to what people tell us and take action to solve the problems.'

Regular PACT surgeries are held by the Ross Town Local Policing Team. Representatives from the team hold a joint surgery with Ross Town Councillors at Ross Library in Cantilupe Road every Thursday from 11am to 12 noon. There is also another chance to meet with the Local Policing Team on the last Friday of each month at the New Age Concern office, accessed via Broad Street. The surgery runs from 12 noon to 1pm and all are welcome with no appointment needed. The next such surgery takes place on Friday, 28th March. So why not make a date to make a PACT to make a difference!

TORN are a talented band from around Leominster who asked Tina if she could find them some gigs locally. Their first gig in Ross was at the Prince of Wales on 9th February, where they went down extremely well. The band play a great range of covers as well as some of their own material and on Saturday, they played at The Barrel Inn, Brookend Street, where they were also well received. As well as being able to play well, the band gel together, giving an all round, great performance. If you missed them at the Barrel, TORN will be paying a return visit to the Prince of Wales this Saturday.

Thank you to Malcolm and Jean Reeves for writing in to solve the identity riddle posed by Dennis Morgan's photo. 'The bird on the river, a drake, appears to be a domestic waterfowl cross between the Magpie Duck and the Silver Appleyard'.

Thanks both. When I next have the time to take my boat out, I shall try to film the bird for my local wildlife collection.

Now in its second year, the hugely popular Ross Lions Walk will take place on Sunday, 13th April in the stunning location of Ross-on-Wye.

Organized by the Ross-on-Wye Lions, walkers of all ability are encouraged to put their best feet forward and enjoy the wonderful scenery on the walk in aid of Acorns Children's Hospice.

The Ross Round Walk helps to raise important funds to support Acorns Children's Hospice in the Three Counties, a vital hospice and community support service to hundreds of life-limited children and their families living in Worcestershire, Gloucestershire and Herefordshire.

The sponsored walk follows the River Wye, local valleys and hills, with plenty of wildlife to see and the occasional pub for all important refreshments. The walk starts at the side of the River Wye, meeting at the Ross Bandstand, and has different routes to choose from depending on ability. Distances of 4, 7, 11 and 18 miles are on offer. A second starting point for the shorter walks is the Moody Cow Pub at Upton Bishop.

Walkers should register in advance to secure their place, although registrations can be offered on the day. A fee of £5 is required to cover an individual or a group. This covers the cost of a detailed pack and a copy of the booklet ‘The Ross Round’. The Lions will provide transport to and from the second starting point and from the various finishing points. There is adequate free parking for cars at the Wilton Road car park. For all information contact the Ross Lions at www.rossonwyelions.org or call Lion Keith Wilding on 01989 562145. For additional help contact the Acorns Three Counties office by telephoning: 01905 761220.

Quakers in Ross-on-Wye would like to make themselves better know. The group, based in the Friends Meeting House at Fiveways, is running a series of open evenings under the title of 'Quaker Quest.' The dates for the open evenings are on Wednesdays, 2nd, 9th, 16th and 23rd April at 6:30pm for 7pm at The Friends Meeting House.

There has been a Quaker group in Ross-on-Wye since the 1660s and many local people will be familiar with the historic building in which they meet. Individual members have played their part in the life of the town in many ways and their present meeting house is available for use by other organizations.

Members of the group feel that the distinctive Quaker style of worship, based largely on silence, is something that many other people might value. They are also glad to share their practical concerns for equality, peace, the environment and social justice which come from their belief in 'that of God in everyone.'

Isabel Pebody, one of the group said, 'We are always glad when new people come to join or visit us and hope that these meetings are going to make it easy for anyone interested to find out more. We believe that our spiritual style and social values are as relevant today as they have ever been. We will be interested in how those coming to the meetings feel about them.'

The Quaker Quest programme is a national one that is being held in many towns. It aims to share the spiritual path that Quakers have found more widely. There is a Quaker Quest website at www.quakerquest.org.

At each of the open evenings, there will be informal presentations and discussions with opportunities to meet local members, experience Quaker worship and look at a range of informative resources. Everybody is welcome and the sessions are free. Refreshments will be available before the evening begins.

Topics for the evenings are as follows:

Wednesday, 2nd April - Quaker Worship
Wednesday, 9th April - Quaker Faith in Action
Wednesday, 16th April - Quakers, God and Christianity
Wednesday, 23rd April - Peace, Truth and Equality.

The local contacts for the Quaker Quest evenings are Julia Richardson on 01989 768819 or Isabel Pebody on 01989 565804. You can learn a little of what the Quakers are all about in this week's WNTV News programme.

On Friday evening we went along to Jacqueline's Night Club to see how the Rodeo Bull event was going. It was a little quiet when we got there, but after a pint of lager and watching a couple of guys try out their rodeo skills, Tina decided she just had to have a go. She lasted a whole 22 seconds before being thrown off, but said it was good fun.

Ross-on-Wye [Aztec] Cub pack made a visit to the Ross Ambulance Station on Tuesday. The Cubs have been working towards the emergency aid badges recently and learnt a lot about first aid so they then went to find out about ambulances first hand. They had a talk with Dennis Moore from the West Mercia Ambulance service and then a look round one of the ambulances.

One important thing they learnt was that once you have called for an ambulance, make sure the phone is not used before the ambulance gets to you, in case they need to call you back for further directions.

At the end of the evening, many of the Cubs were presented with the Emergency Aid badge stage 2, they also received a badge for their 5KM hike the previous week.

Ross-on-Wye Weather Station is located by the tennis courts and bowling green at 'Crossfields' and is one of the important stations around the country which regularly sends data to the Meteorological Office. This is why Ross-on-Wye is sometimes mentioned on the BBC weather reports. It is currently still a manually monitored station and readings are taken twice per day by husband and wife team, June and Rex Swallow.

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