A question was raised with me this week concerning the lack of printed versions of the parish magazine during much of the lockdown period. In particular, why it “couldn’t be printed when advertising magazines were being delivered to households”.

My answer was that the issue is not the printing, but the distribution. David Bennett at The Print Room has been extremely helpful and could have printed the magazine without any problem. The issue is that our magazine is distributed to individual homes by a willing team of volunteers, many of whom are in shall we say, “advancing years”!

With the UK Government’s introduction of stricter rules governing people’s movements, and guidance advising us all to stay at home whenever possible, I felt that it would have been irresponsible to have potentially put our volunteer deliverers’ lives at risk, by expecting them to go out delivering magazines at the height of the pandemic.

I am hoping that, subject to a continuing fall in Covid infections, it may be possible for the Government to relax some of the restrictions which should allow us to resume the production of a printed magazine, beginning with the April edition.

Thank you for your understanding.

Alan Rickards