We seem to have a lot of fundraising events going on this month, and one of the first articles in Community News is a story about the Somerset Flood Relief Fund, a small but effective arm of the Somerset Community Foundation. You can make a donation, or volunteer to help – see page 17.
More volunteers are wanted to help with Diocesan concerns – the online newsletter Connect gives details. See page 21 for how to access it. The team would be delighted to hear from anyone with a little spare time and a sympathetic ear.

Advance notice of the Batcombe Festival in May is on page 27, and groups such as Bruton Choral Society and the revived Bruton Players are starting rehearsal for performances later in the year. A few encouraging signs of spring? How we all hope so!
I frequently walk to Bruton High Street from the Frome Road/Brewham Road end of town, and I am often quite shocked and angry at the speed with which many drivers whizz along Quaperlake Street. I find myself shouting ineffectually at them, ‘Didn’t you notice the speed limit sign?’ It’s just the same down Coombe Street, and I don’t doubt there’s a similar story along other routes into and out of town. I wish I could invent a device rather like an old-fashioned railway signal, with a button to press which would make it instantly spring up and out. I could carry it with me and wave in front of speeding motorists the two little words SLOW DOWN! The meeting on 5 March convened by Gordon Fry raised a lot of points about how to deal with this and other problems in our little town, and there was a very encouraging response. It will take time for the results to be analysed, but with luck we should be able to give you a report in next month’s Dove. Elisabeth Balfour