Last updated 10:30, Friday, 22 August 2008

THE football season is back – but the school field is still out of bounds for our two local teams, and looks likely to be staying that way for a long while yet.

Treat money: Kerry Morris and her daughter Anya Potter are pictured receiving a cheque for £1,000 from David Hodgson and Terry Wilson, members of the Adult Training Centre’s Core Furniture Recycling business. The Anya Potter Appeal, which is raising money to pay for special treats for the little girl, who suffers from a degenerative, life-limiting disease, recently topped £20,000.

Despite the £150,000 drainage work which has taken place over the last 18 months, the field was ankle deep in water when an attempt was made to cut the grass last week.
The contract is officially completed, and the field has been handed back to the school, but the situation is filling the football fraternity with dismay.
They are hoping that the height of the river, swollen by weeks of heavy rain, was preventing the water getting away, but time alone will tell.
The Saturday team have arranged to play all their matches away from home until October, in the hope the field will settle down, while the Rose and Crown have reluctantly marked out a new pitch at Blakelaw.

IT'S looking a bit nip and tuck for the show a week tomorrow.
At the time of writing, the rain is still pouring down, and the showfield is still knee-deep in hay, which has to be cut, dried and led before the marquees can even go up!
Knowing the resourcefulness of the organisers, however, I’m sure all will be resolved by show day.

ANOTHER damning indictment of the village has appeared on the Bellingham community website, in a letter from a tourist.
The three-page letter included the following points, amongst others:
“My sister lives at the coast and was looking forward in seeing some pretty countryside, but this is what we saw:
“Just before the garage, a house/shop dropping to pieces with broken windows and rotting woodwork, with piles of rubbish inside.
“Turning left at the police station, we saw a large stretch of land overgrown with weeds/bricks/wood/metal, and to the right of this, a huge corrugated rusted shed, with weeds growing inside and out, filled with rubbish.
“We proceeded along the riverside up a little lane beside the Rose and Crown;this looked more like a bomb site or a junk yard. There were piles of old wood lying against every wall, a large heap of logs, empty oil drums, to name but a few.
“We could not go up the steps; it was too dangerous.”
The letter ended: “All the points I have mentioned have not just happened overnight, and if something isn’t done in the near future, I don't know what will happen
“It’s about time Bellingham had a large helping of tender loving care.”

THE tender loving care process seems to have started with the issue last week of the first edition of the new Bellingham newsletter, produced by the community trust.
It is fairly bursting with information about what a splendid place Bellingham is, with numerous organisations just waiting to entertain and inform.
One was supposed to be pushed through every door, so if you haven’t had yours yet, contact Lesley Allen at the Station Yard.