News - September 2009

September 2009

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COUNCIL ABANDONS REFERENDUM PLAN
Caldicot Town Council abandoned its plan to hold a local referendum over plans for a new supermarket on the school playing field after they discovered that they could not gain full access to the full electoral role. At least 2500 of the 7400 electorate who chose not to allow their details to be made public would therefore have been disenfranchised. As a result the project remained suspended.

BANQUET FIRM CEASES TRADING
Jamesons Events Catering, the company which ran banquets and wedding receptions at Caldicot Castle, ceased trading on 31 August, owing Monmouthshire County Council, the owners of the castle, thousands of pounds. Some residents expressed anger that this had happened after the catering contract had been taken away from the long-established and locally based Caldicot Castle Entertainments and awarded to the Bristol-based company by MCC. Mike Rice of Caldicot Chamber of Trade called for a public enquiry but this was ejected by MCC. In the meantime MCC promised to underwrite events that had already been booked and began to search for a replacement provider.

CALDICOT FIRM WOUND UP
Newport Networks, the Caldicot-based company founded by Sir Terry Matthews, was wound up. It had ceased trading a month before. Liquidators stated that this was a normal procedure once a company had reached the end of its “natural life”. Most of its Caldicot staff had been made redundant in August 2008.

PROTESTING COUNCILLOR IS BAILED
Town Councillor Anthony Perrett, well known locally as a green campaigner, was bailed until February 2010 by magistrates following a court hearing relating to his arrest in February 2009 for allegedly chaining himself to railings at Southampton Airport.

PROF SHOWS STAYING POWER
Professor Mary Bryden of Church Road Caldicot completed the 13 mile Great North Run and raised £600 for the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign.

FIRST JUMP
Saskia Scott, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, made her first parachute jump and raised £500 for the MS Trust.

HOUSE PRICE WATCH
The cheapest property advertised in the local press for sale in Caldicot at the end of September 2009 was a two bedroom first floor flat in Longfellow Road at £94,950. The cheapest house was a three bedroom terrace in Newport Road at £136,950. The most expensive was a four bedroom detached property in Clos Alwen at £244,950.