The New Year has brought Weather with a capital W – and we have been luckier here than people on the Levels, who were awash in January. We didn’t escape lightly, though. The spectacular hailstorm that struck on 3 January, with stones the size of gobstoppers (see picture on page 18), did a great deal of damage, and I understand that loss adjusters have been run off their feet. The plastic roof of my conservatory was punched through as if by machine-gun fire, and the boggy area at the bottom of my garden is now a swiftly flowing stream!



Thank heaven for the Bruton Dam, which has been tested to the limit and proved itself. However, as Alex Rubbo says in his Council News (page 63), more could be done to protect property on the east side of the town. If you think you might suffer damage in future, contact the Council (813 014) to see if there is any help on offer.
We have a month or more of disruption coming up from 24 February, when part of Quaperlake Street is closed for drainage replacement (see page 17). If you can think of any bright ideas for minimising the inconvenience, do let me know and I’ll include them in the next issue. This does NOT of course mean leaving your car in the High Street for days!
Please, drivers with a little time to spare, volunteer to help the Winibus survive. It’s a most worthwhile service for the elderly and frail (see page 25).
In the National Parish Magazine Awards for 2013, announced in December, we won the Best Design category, thanks to our terrific designers Lucy and Robert Carter. The magazine came fourth this time – I suppose we couldn’t expect to be the overall winner two years running, but I hope you’ll feel that fourth place out of 710 entries is quite respectable.
Elisabeth Balfour