Update: allotments, abseiling grannies and Cabinet

Cabinet meeting last night - anyhow more of Cabinet in a minute - also Woodcraft Folk this week - numbers were down due to older kids moving up but we are already up to 15 children so only spaces for a couple more (see here my blog on the Citizen website this week). Also this week the Parish Allotment Working Group meeting in The Star pub - looks like the pub has got interested parties to take it over - and things moving forward with a private landowner re a site for allotments - we covered alot of ground and now need to produce draft tenancy stuff and costs to take back to Parish council for consideration.

Photo: taken from Citizen website - see article below about why these two are looking down - one of them from Whiteshill - good luck to them raising some dosh

Cabinet meeting at Ebley Mill - well I got there late after the Woodies evening of singing and games - there was a large agenda - see webcast here - I wont repeat that stuff as it will all be in minutes soon - suffice to say some good green measures being put forward but at the same time nothing like what we need. I was really too tired to absorb all but will have to return to discuss at a later date as a friend from Holland has just arrived....

HAVE-A-GO grannies

Lesley Hadden and Rita Cook have set themselves a lofty challenge in tribute to their sons. The pair will abseil down Cheltenham's Eagle Star Tower to raise money for charity. Thoughts of their late sons will be at the forefront of their minds when they take the plunge off the 168ft building on April 19.

Mrs Hadden's son Fraser died suddenly of a heart attack in January, aged 43, and Mrs Cook's son Gary Cook died five years ago, aged 35. Mrs Hadden, 69, said: "Both our sons died young and both lived good lives. My son had two little boys so it's pretty horrendous, but we thought we had to bring out the good."

Mrs Hadden, who has a fear of heights, says she challenges herself to do something every year.

She said: "Every year I do something and every decade it has to be absolutely mad. I learned to swim when I was 50 and went trekking to Nepal when I was 60."

Mrs Hadden and Mrs Cook met when they worked at Sue Ryder Care in the 90s. Mrs Cook, who was a massage therapist at the hospice, came up with the idea of an abseil, which the pair will be doing to raise money for Riding for the Disabled and the Gloucestershire Multiple Sclerosis Information and Therapy Centre.

Mrs Cook, 63, from Whiteshill, Stroud, said: "I hate flying and I don't like heights but you have to push yourself."

Mrs Hadden, who was a nursing auxiliary at Sue Ryder Care, is hoping to raise £500 for the chosen charities. Anyone who would like to sponsor the pair can contact Mrs Hadden on 01242 513 982.