Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Best wishes from everyone on the Focus Team!

Please save your stamps for charity!

Most of our local charity shops collect used stamps - foreign, UK commemorative or just plain "ordinary" stamps - and sell them on to dealers to raise funds. Please keep all those stamps you get at Xmas or indeed any time of year and take them in.

Alternatively you can drop them off to Paul Hulbert at 35 Blaisdon, Yate (this year he's collecting them for the Children's Hospice) or leave them at Dodington Parish Council for him to collect.

Don't miss the big Abbotswood Christmas event on Saturday 30th November

Get your festive season off to a splendid start with the Abbotswood Christmas Fair and family event on Saturday 30th November from 4 pm until 6pm. This ever-popular event has lots to offer for all ages. Donkeys, live music... What's not to like? Santa will of course be there too, ready for the switch-on of the big Abbotswood Christmas tree.

Please save your stamps for charity!

Most of our local charity shops collect used stamps - foreign, UK commemorative or just plain "ordinary" stamps - and sell them on to dealers. Please keep all those stamps you get at Xmas or indeed any time of year and take them in.

Alternatively you can drop them off to Paul Hulbert at 35 Blaisdon (this year he's collecting them for the RNIB) or leave them at Dodington Parish Council for him to collect.

Westerleigh lights raise money for stroke charity

Once again the people of Mill Crescent, Westerleigh have put on a Christmas light display to raise money for charity. This year they've chosen Different Strokes, a charity run by younger stroke survivors for younger stroke survivors.

The Mill Crescent lights have become a local Christmas tradition. Why not pop along and see for yourself? You can find out more about the light display, including some of the special visitors they've had this year, on their Facebook page.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
from everyone in the Liberal Democrat Focus Team

Yate Shopping Centre Christmas closing times

There's a useful summary on the Gazette website

Yate Shopping Centre will close for the Christmas break at 4pm on Sunday, December 24. Remember that Christmas Eve is a Sunday, so even Tesco closes at 4pm. The Centre will re-open at 8am on Boxing Day, December 26.

Tesco will open at 9am Boxing Day and close at 6pm. It then goes back to normal trading hours closing again for New Year’s Eve at 4pm and will be open New Year’s Day from 9am until 6pm.

Cineworld cinema will be open as usual up to Sunday, December 24, and re-open again on Boxing Day. Full details on all screenings are available at www.cineworld.co.uk

Council Christmas and New Year closures

You can find the various council closure dates here:

• South Glos Council - Contact Centre, One Stop Shop, Libraries, Recycling
• Yate Town Council - Poole Court, Heritage Centre, Armadillo, Pop Inn
• Dodington Parish Council - Parish Office
• Sodbury Town Council - no details known - ring 01454 321336, use contact form or email enquiries @sodburytowncouncil.gov.uk

Christmas and New Year - Bin collection changes in South Glos

Collections will not take place on Monday 25, Tuesday 26 December or Monday 1 January. This means the collection crews will be working on Saturday 30 December, 6 and 13 January to catch up. Changes to collection days for Christmas and New Year are below.

If your collection is normally:	It will take place on:
Monday 25 December	Wednesday 27 December
Tuesday 26 December	Thursday 28 December
Wednesday 27 December	Friday 29 December
Thursday 28 December	Saturday 30 December
Friday 29 December	Tuesday 02 January
Monday 01 January	Wednesday 03 January
Tuesday 02 January	Thursday 04 January
Wednesday 03 January	Friday 05 January
Thursday 04 January	Saturday 06 January
Friday 05 January	Monday 08 January
Monday 08 January	Tuesday 09 January
Tuesday 09 January	Wednesday 10 January
Wednesday 10 January	Thursday 11 January
Thursday 11 January	Friday 12 January
Friday 12 January	Saturday 13 January

Collections will be back to normal from Monday 15 January 2018.

You can recycle wrapping paper and greetings cards without glitter or plastic embellishments. Put wrapping paper with the rest of your recyclable paper and greetings cards with cardboard. Paper or card with glitter or plastic should go into your black bin.

For more info, including how to recycle your real Christmas tree, click here

Christmas and New Year - Bus information

Bus services differ depending on who runs them but generally services run as normal up to the 23 December, have special timetables on 24 and from 26 until 31 Dec and then return completely to normal on 2 January.

Here are some useful links:
Stage Coach buses
First Group
Wessex Bus
Travel West (scroll to the bottom to see the information for South Gloucestershire)

Christmas and New Year - Train services

The Christmas and New Year bank holiday period (23 December 2017 to 2 January 2018) is traditionally the time when a considerable amount of improvement and engineering work is undertaken on Britain's rail network. 

Many train companies will also be making changes to their timetable to match service levels to the number of customers travelling. Please plan ahead and check if your journey is affected as some services will be added, some will be restricted, and some will not be running during this time period.

For more info click here

Christmas information - posting dates

These are the last posting dates if you want your UK post to arrive before Christmas:

Wednesday 20 December - 2nd Class and 2nd Class Signed For
Thursday 21 December - Special Delivery Guaranteed
Thursday 21 December - 1st Class and 1st Class Signed For
Friday 22 December - Special Delivery Guaranteed Saturday Delivery

You can find dates for other services on the Royal Mail's website

Chipping Sodbury Victorian Day this Saturday

Don't forget that it's Chipping Sodbury Victorian Day this Saturday (2nd December) from 1 pm to 8 pm.

Lots of fun for all the family - please see the Chipping Sodbury Victorian Day Facebook page for more details.

Shopping securely online

Action Fraud, the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, have issued the following advice on shopping securely online in the run up to Christmas:

How To Shop Online Safely

Check the web address
Always check you’re on the correct website. Criminals can set up fake websites that have a similar design and web address to the genuine site.
 
Is it a secure connection?
Web pages you enter personal or financial details into should display a locked padlock sign and have a web address that starts with https. This means your connection to the website is secure.

Phishing
Don't click on links or attachments within unsolicited emails. The number of online shopping related phishing emails increases significantly during the holiday period.

Bank transfers
65% of Action Fraud reports during the 2016 Christmas period were linked to online auction sites. Don’t pay for goods or services by bank transfer unless you know and trust the person. Payments via bank transfer offer you no protection if you become a victim of fraud.

Abbotswood Christmas event Sat 25 November - fun for everyone!

The 4th annual Abbotswood Christmas Event takes place on Saturday 25th November in the Abbotswood shopping centre starting at 4pm. The attractions include:

• Dodington parish brass band
• Christmas bazaar
• Father Christmas  
• Street magician 
• Face painting 
• Living nativity with live donkeys
• Local school choir 
•  Big Christmas Lights switch-on by the Mayor of Yate

Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all our readers from your Focus Team!
We hope you have an enjoyable festive season.
You can find useful information about local services over Christmas and the New Year in our recent blog post and information about South Glos Council services here. 

Santa's sleigh on practice runs Monday and Wednesday

This Monday (19 Dec) the International Space Station rises in the West (Bristol direction) at around 5.08 pm and goes down in the East at 5.14 pm. If there's no cloud it will definitely be visible - the pass is classed as "bright".

There's another chance to see "Santa's Sleigh" on Wednesday from 5.01 pm to 5.05 pm, but it will be much lower. Weather permitting, the Monday pass will be much easier to spot.

Details of other passes are available from:
http://www.meteorwatch.org/space-station-times-december-2016.html

Just the thing for families with small children. We can't promise that you'll see any reindeer, though some children have reported that they've seen Santa waving...

Please save your stamps for charity!

Most of our local charity shops collect used stamps - foreign, UK commemorative or just plain "ordinary" stamps - and sell them on to dealers. Please keep all those stamps you get at Xmas or indeed any time of year and take them in.

Alternatively you can drop them off to Paul Hulbert at 35 Blaisdon (he's collecting them for Cancer Research) or leave them at Dodington Parish Council for him to collect.

Useful information this Christmas

With the festive season getting underway, here is some information you might find useful over the Christmas and New Year period.

Christmas Last Posting Dates

Tuesday 20 December - 2nd Class and Royal Mail Signed For®
Wednesday 21 December - 1st Class and Royal Mail Signed For®
Thursday 22 December - Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed®
Friday 23 December - Special Delivery Saturday Guaranteed

Waste and Recycling

There are some changes to waste and recycling collection over the Christmas period.

If your collection should be on:	It will instead take place on:
Monday 26 December	Tuesday 27 December
Tuesday 27 December	Wednesday 28 December
Wednesday 28 December	Thursday 29 December
Thursday 29 December	Friday 30 December
Friday 30 December	Saturday 31 December

You can check your precise date and what will be collected on the South Glos website.

Your tree might not even be up yet, but once the festivities are over you can recycle real trees in a number of ways:

• If you have subscribed to the garden waste service, you can put your tree into or next to your green bin.
• You can buy a single use garden waste sack for £2 from your nearest library and attach it to the tree.
• You can take it to one of the Sort It recycling centres and put it in the garden waste (not wood waste) skip.

Whichever you do, don't forget to remove all the decorations, pots and stands first and if it's over 6ft tall you must cut it up into smaller sections if you're having it collected. 

Out of Hours Pharmacies Times

Over the Christmas and New Year period, many pharmacies are closed. You can find out which ones are open here.

Trains
As we posted earlier this month, from Saturday 24th December until Thursday 29th December London Paddington will be closed to all rail services.

This will mean that GWR rail services will start and finish at Ealing Broadway, from where you can take the underground or a bus. However, the station does not have step-free access. So if you are travelling with heavy luggage or find steps difficult for any reason you will need to change at Reading and use services from there to London Waterloo. Unfortunately that will mean a longer journey.

You can find out more on the GWR website.

Bus services
Over Christmas and the New Year some buses will be running to different timetables from normal. You can find out more on the TravelWest site.

Kingsgate Park Christmas Event Friday 16th Dec 6pm.

Kingsgate Park Christmas Event in Kingsgate Park on Friday 16th December 2016 at 6pm.

This is an event for all the family, so please come along for a sing along, mince pie and glass of mulled wine (soft drinks will also be served)