SOUTH Essex runners continue to dominate this year's Essex Cross-Country League, claiming six victories out of the eight races in the latest fixture at Great Notley. Millie Smith George Elliott, Sophie Riches, Jessica Judd and Jack Fitsall remain unbeaten
A NURSE has been suspended for 12 months after giving 13 children the wrong vaccines. Agency nurse Susan Jane Goddard, of Westbourne Grove, Westcliff, was originally suspended for 18 months by a panel of the Nursing and Midwifery Council, in July last
GRAHAM Napier insists he will be fit for the start of the 2011 county cricket season. In fact, the 30-year-old Essex all-rounder from Colchester, feels his rehabilitation from the double stress fracture in his back, that cut his 2010 season short, is
RISING star Maurice Chambers has set his sights on joining Alastair Cook to form a match-winning Essex double act on England’s next Ashes tour of Australia in four years time. Jamaican-born Chambers, currently a key member of England’s Performance Programme
A CARE home will welcome lonely dementia sufferers on Christmas Day. For the past four years, Braemar Lodge, in Victoria Avenue, Southend, has offered to pick up residents and take them home, on the 25th. Owner Sima Raja, 34, said: “We first started
THE spirit of the non-league was on show at Concord Rangers this week as all 18 first-teamers grabbed shovels and gave up their time to help clear the pitch of snow. The Beachboys’ squad arrived at the Thames Road ground shortly after 6pm on Tuesday
FAMILY-of-five living in a caravan at One Tree Hill in Corringham have been left homeless for Christmas following a devastating fire. Fire crews from Corringham and Basildon rushed to the beauty spot after the large caravan and storage shed became
IT has been a long wait but Rayleigh Tennis Club has finally seen the light. The club in Watchfield Road has been trying to get courts floodlit for the past 45 years. And now they have been switched on after club chiefs finally won their battle to win
Two contrasting reports in the Echo neatly summed up the inequity in this county of ours. While Connexions youth services is to be axed, the number of Southend Council staff receiving over £50,000 a year increases by a fifth. I have worked for
Freedom is such a precious privilege. We have been in two world wars to protect that freedom and still our young men are fighting to help others share in that way of life. This means where there is injustice, we must use the tools at our disposal
I am fed up with reading about all these people who are against Southend Airport expanding. I live right next to the airport, so will be no doubt be affected quite a lot if the airport does indeed expand. I am, however, 100 per cent behind the
I agree with Tony Ball’s premise (Dec 14) that the Basildon town centre Masterplan will be good for the centre of Basildon. However, it has an intrinsic beauty all of its own, is representative of a particular post-war era and was designed by
In 1945, British servicemen and women returning from the war demanded the better Britain that they had fought for. They remembered the deprivation of the 1930s and did not want a return to the poverty, squalor, ignorance and unemployment that
A SOUTH Essex golf club has been named as one of the most environmentally friendly in the country. The South Essex Golf Centre, in Herongate, was short-listed in two categories at the Golf Environment Awards 2010 — nature conservation and turfgrass management
SOUTHEND United have beaten off interest from Premier League clubs to keep hold of the promising Lyle Della-Verde. The 15-year-old attacker has signed a youth scholarship to remain at Roots Hall. And a professional contract will follow when he turns
THE weather has made things tough for us again in the past few days but we’ve learned from the mistakes we made during the week leading up to the Burton game. We were unprepared for that match after allowing players to do their own work in local gyms
SOUTHEND United are confident that their Boxing Day match against Barnet will go ahead as planned this Sunday. Work has been underway all week to ensure that the pitch is playable and the surrounding areas of the stadium are safe for spectators. Since
A HEARTBROKEN daughter is pleading for thieves to return her mobile phone which contained the last pictures of her late dad. Tina Waters, 41, was targeted while being served at the busy Renown post office in The Renown, Shoebury. She placed her Blackberry
IT IS nine crashes and counting at a notorious accident blackspot which has left a resident with damage to his own car and bungalow. Allan Taylor, 69, is calling for action to be taken following the spate of crashes in just three days.
TENANTS have been warned to be on their guard after an elderly man was targeted by bogus workers claiming to be from St Georges Community Housing. The victim answered the door to the two callers who claimed to be from St Georges, the company responsible
A CABBIE who killed a pensioner when he ploughed into the man’s broken-down car has had his driving ban halved by appeal judges. Lino Borg, 41, of Sullivan Way, Langdon Hills, was jailed for 16 months and banned from driving for five years at Basildon
THE c2c train line will stay in the hands of operators National Express for a further two years. The Department for Transport this morning announced it has awarded National Express the Shoeburyness to Fenchurch Street franchise until May 2013, two years
LIGHTS put up in Castle Point have been criticised by residents for not having enough Christmas sparkle. Earlier this month Castle Point Council said it was going to change around the Christmas lights in Benfleet after people in the town complained
The 7.43am train from Thorpe Bay to London Fenchurch Street has been cancelled. Operator c2c said the train, which was due to arrive in the capital at 8.46am, has suffered a fault.
“CHRISTMAS is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.” This quote by former US president Calvin Coolidge sums up what the festive spirit
SMALL businesses are calling for more action to help them survive a tough winter. The Essex Federation of Small Businesses has called for emergency measures to be put in place to help traders cope with bad weather hitting profits, and tough trading conditions
A FAMILY headed for Tenerife ended up in Leicester after three days of travel hell. Joleen Holmes, husband Simon and their two sons Bailey, six, and Ollie, four, had booked a week-long sunshine break in the Canary Islands. The family
FUNDING has been confirmed to keep police community support officers on the streets of Essex for the next two years. Robert Chambers, chairman of the Essex Police Authority, reassured Essex County Council after concerns were raised that cuts
A ST JOHN Ambulance volunteer who stabbed her ex-fiance four times at the wheel, during an “outburst of aggression”, has avoided jail. Vicky Caskey, 29, plunged her Swiss Army knife into Paul Lawrence’s arm and hand after he rebuffed her pleas
TWENTY-FIVE feline friends are hoping for a purrfect Christmas after they were abandoned in an empty home. Officers from the RSPCA and Cats’ Protection were stunned when they were called to a repossessed house in Great Wakering and discovered
