The past few months have been quite unsettling for the Marlpit committee. We have had the uncertainty of the future accommodation for the printer hanging over us and changes within the committee itself. Coupled with that have been quite substantial changes within the stapling and delivery teams and overall control of the distribution. I am pleased to be able to say that we are now hoping that this period of uncertainty is behind us. You will be glad to know that we have finally found a new home for the printer. Over recent weeks we had a number of offers of accommodation with which, for one reason or another, we were not able to proceed. We are however very grateful to those people who tried their best to accommodate us. Thank you so much. We have now received an offer which we feel sure will suit us all admirably and we are so grateful. I hope that this is a beginning of a new period of stability for us all again.

We recently had our Annual Production meeting where we go through the major business and elect officers for the coming year. You will see on the back page the new committee and also a new name appears. Andrea has offered her assistance and has been welcomed onto the committee with open arms. She will also be acting as our Secretary and will be in overall control of Distribution. Our two printers came to the meeting as well and we were most grateful for their input into how we should proceed with The Marlpit production.

I believe Ronnie has some news about Broadband so look out for his news from the Web Site which is growing in the number of visitors it receives on a monthly basis quite amazingly. For those of you who have not looked at the site may I suggest you look at

www.themarlpit.com. If you have any suggestion as to how we can develop this aspect of The Marlpit further then please contact us.

We have recently come across some copies of The Marlpit from over 20 years ago. We thought you might like to see the odd article from them from time to time so look out for the archive spot as well.

B G

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Within this month’s Marlpit we have published a letter from Gill Riley regarding the effort that is being made to establish a Youth Club for our area. We can all be quick to complain when we see young people sitting around the war memorial in Horstead or on the wall outside the garage in Coltishall, generally being noisy and making a nuisance of themselves. Perhaps if we put as much effort in doing something about it as we do in complaining, then we can achieve an improvement.

The youngsters who attended the ‘Youth Challenge’ meeting in April essentially wanted somewhere, protected from the weather, where they could meet, chat, play pool etc. It would be quite ridiculous if the meeting facilities that we already have in the village were unable to accommodate this requirement and we sincerely hope that the management of the venue proposed will be flexible enough to accommodate them.

As well as a venue, the need is for volunteers to give up some of their time to provide support on the youth club evenings. The more people who volunteer, the greater the responsibility is spread. Don’t just sit there complaining - offer to help!

A trained youth worker will be ‘on hand’, albeit at a cost, (for which it is hoped the Parish Councils will provide). Funding for activities and projects is apparently available via grants provided the young people establish their own ‘committee and constitution’ i.e. essentially run it themselves, with help and advice.

The opportunity is there now to get this Youth Club up and running. Do you leave it to somebody else or do you ask yourselves ‘how can I help’. For further information or to volunteer we repeat the contact numbers, which are also contained within the published letter:

Over to you!

M D