AFTER 70 years of happy marriage, a couple have revealed the secret to their success - never go to bed without resolving an argument. Jim, 93, and Flo Sherwin, 91, celebrated their platinum anniversary on July 4. The couple, who live in Leigh, moved
A DORMICE group has received a funding boost from Barclays Bank to buy a hand-held global positioning system. The system will be used to record the position of nest boxes at Belfairs Nature Reserve, Leigh. Early last year, 28 nest boxes were installed
SOUTHEND United boss Ron Martin paid a special visit to a primary school to praise the children for their sporting achievements. The Blues chairman attended the sports awards ceremony for St Michael's School, Leigh, to see how the pupils had fared
DETECTIVES want to speak to two armed robbers who escaped with a briefcase stuffed with hundreds of pounds. The robbers, believed to be from Southend, burst into a business in Station Road, Burnham on Crouch and grabbed the briefcase. As they ran off
A SUMMER club for the over 65s will be held at St Margaret's Church hall, in Lime Avenue, Leigh. There will be activities, guest speakers and an opportunity to take part in a day trip to Maldon. The cost for the three days, from Monday, July 23, until
A 64-year-old cleaner found unconscious in a locked Southend bar was attacked, police have revealed. He is in a coma at Romford's Queens Hospital and his condition is described as stable but critical. He was found with severe head injuries last Thursday
A FORMER Southend police inspector has been suspended following allegations he sold police uniform items on Ebay. John Meggison, 50, from Rayleigh is now a civilian projects manager for the force, working at police headquarters in Chelmsford. He was
A TEENAGER was involved in a collision with a bus as she crossed the road near a controversial bus lane. Chantelle Gay, 17, of Guildford Road, Southend, suffered cuts and bruises after the accident, at about 12.30pm yesterday. Chantelle was crossing
STRAIGHT after their own club championships, younger members of Southend AC were back in their spikes to contest the Eastern Young Athletes League at Basildon. The younger age-groups covered the usual shortfall in the under-17 women's squad by turning
TORY MP James Duddridge plans to meet protesters opposed to Renaissance Southend's plans for the town centre. Herbert Grove Action Group was set up after the proposals - which threaten the demolition of large numbers of properties in the area - were
A YOUNG woman who has survived a double lung transplant is breathing life into a Cystic Fibrosis campaign. Claire Ward, 23, is backing the Live Life Then Give Life campaign as part of this week's National Transplant Week. A shortage of organ donors means
IF you're counting down the days to the release of the seventh and final Harry Potter book later this month, we want to hear from you. We want to know how fans in the Basildon area plan to celebrate the release and their thoughts on how the story will
STUDENTS can leave ecological footprints all over their stunning new £2.8million teaching block - which is both pleasing on the eye and the environment. Pupils and teachers at Bromfords School, in Wickford, will be able to enjoy lessons in the ozone-friendly
200 skipping pupils at St Anne Line Infants School, Basildon, raised £800 for the British Heart Foundation. PE teacher Suzanne Dashfield said: "The day was brilliant."
THERE was excellent support by the younger age groups for the 2007 Southend AC Championships and open meeting, despite the very soggy conditions. There were some very hard-fought races, especially in the under-15 girls' sprints where the medal order
IT is not just in the world of athletics that the sporting girls of Southend High School are making a name for themselves. They're also excelling at netball. On the track and field front, the Southchurch Boulevard School captured victory in the juniors
AN angling club has been charging people to fish in Canvey Lake despite its licence expiring two years ago, it has been revealed. The Canvey Island Coarse Anglers' Club has continued to charge adults £3 and children £1.50 to fish in Canvey Lake. The
POLICE hope a mobile phone left in a Landrover will lead them to the gang of thugs who beat up a man. A forensic examination is underway into the green jeep dumped in Oak Lane, Crays Hill, as checks are carried out on the phone. Essex Police spokesman
SEVEN years ago, Paul Grayson was on the verge of giving up cricket to work in a Romford brewery. Then, out of the blue, came the call to represent England in a One-Day International tournament in Kenya. A year later, in 2001, the amiable Yorkshireman
ALL is not what it seems about the smooth, toned young man with the smouldering Italian good looks now setting female pulses racing in ads for cosmetics firm Dolce & Gabbana. The man in question isn't quite the Italian stallion he might appear... he's
THE Italian in the Dolce & Gabbana ads turns out not to be a Mediterranean hunk, but a down-to-earth Billericay boy, David Gandy. We're all glad to see a new Essex star hit the modelling firmament. Yet the illusion is also unsettling. Where does that
SHOEBURYNESS High put forward some outstanding performances in the annual senior schools' Borough Sports, held at Gloucester Park, Basildon. They provided four gold medal winners including Olivia Law, 12, in the year seven girls 100 metres where she
SOMETIMES governments do get things right, and the smoking ban is a case in point. With the ban on smoking in public places firmly under way, the Echo has surveyed the impact. The response indicates widespread approval. There is even a large degree of
MP James Duddridge is teaming up with a group of cross-party MPs to urge caution over plans to invite Robert Mugabe to Europe in December. Plans are in place to invite the Zimbabwean govern-ment to the EU-Africa summit in Portugal later this year, but
WORRIED residents have told of their fears at plans to build flats and houses for homeless youths in their quiet street. A two-storey block of 17 flats for homeless and unemployed youngsters, aged 16 to 24, will be developed in Southview Road, Vange,
HUNDREDS of friends and colleagues of a graffiti tagger killed when he was hit by a Tube train joined his family for a football fundraising event. Daniel Elgar, 19, of Boscombe Road, South-end, died in January when he was struck by a train at Barking
A WICKFORD social club is on the lookout for more members. The hall which houses Barn Hall Social Club and Community Association lies behind a parade of shops near the junction of Alderney Gardens and Swan Lane. Spokesman Aiden Doyle said: "We've got
THREE stars of stage, screen and TV are sharing the limelight in the latest production at the Palace Theatre, Westcliff. The national tour of pyschological thriller, Deadlock, reached the London Road theatre last night and runs until Saturday, July 14
MARK Pettini may have been born in Sussex and educated in Wales, but he is under no illusion about which county he now considers to be his own. Essex's new captain was brought up in Brighton and gone to university in Cardiff, but Essex is now his workplace
PUPILS from two Canvey Schools have set off on an oriental adventure taking them to a summer school in China. Eighteen youngsters from Furtherwick Park and Castle View Schools are attending the school in the city of Changzhou in Jiangsu Province. The
AN angling club has been charging people to fish in Canvey Lake despite its licence expiring two years ago, it has been revealed. The Canvey Island Coarse Anglers' Club has continued to charge adults £3 and children £1.50 to fish in Canvey Lake. The
VANDALS have caused £4,500 to damage to Basildon's belltower. A glass panel was shattered after yobs hurled a stone at the building, in St Martin's Square. The landmark glass tower is barely yards away from the St Martin's Church, which will have to
BASILDON'S council leader has hit back at claims it has "gone soft" on travellers. Malcolm Buckley has come under fire after a High Court agreement not to boot 11 families from the Dale Farm traveller site was made last week. The families were earlier
A SHOP worker was bitten on the arm during the latest till snatch. Seven such crimes have happened in shops across Stanford-le-Hope, Wickford, Pitsea and Vange in the last two weeks. The Co-op in High Street, Stanford-le-Hope, has been targeted twice
HADLEIGH and Thundersley's cricketers are the County winners of the of the National Portman Building Society Under-15 cup after beating Wanstead in the final. Once again it was their tremendous outfield cricket that saw them through. Bowling tight
REMEMBER your schooldays and the excitement you always felt about an impending trip? Visits to a museum, zoo or sports event have helped children's studies come alive for decades. But the potential risks of school trips were thrown into sharp focus
PUPILS at a Billericay school were determined to get to the top when their school held a careers day. Mayflower High School abandoned the normal timetable and bought in organisations to give pupils a taste of the skills they will need in the world of
WEST Ham have smashed their transfer record to sign Liverpool forward Craig Bellamy. The Wales captain, 27, has signed a five-year contract with the Irons after the two clubs agreed a £7.5million deal. The fee for the former Blackburn Rovers player
RAMRAIDERS smashed through the wall of a fishing tackle shop, causing thousands of pounds of damage - before escaping without a thing. The attack on Angling Direct, in Claydons Lane, Rayleigh, is the third one on the premises in five weeks as crooks
A RECYCLING team has been promoting its message to the community. The Rochford-based team of volunteers was promoting recycling at the Great Wakering fete, which was held at Great Wakering Primary School on Saturday. The team was set up a few weeks
IT WAS bonanza time for batsmen at Chelmsford yesterday, where 487 runs were scored for the loss of only six wickets on the second day of the County Championship match. Essex finally declared their first innings on 700 for 9 before Nottinghamshire
CARLOS Tevez will soon be a Manchester United player, according to Red Devils boss Sir Alex Ferguson. Ferguson is convinced the West Ham forward - currently starring for Argentina at the Copa America - will join his star-studded squad, but only after
A MAN was beaten in the street by a gang who are believed to have fled to the Oak Lane traveller site following the attack. The 36-year-old, from Billericay, received cuts and bruises after he was set upon by four to five thugs at midday yesterday in
A TEENAGER has been knocked down in a bus-only lane in the second accident in two days. The boy was struck by a bus in the lane in Chichester Road, opposite Victoria Plaza, this morning. The ambulance service was called to the scene at 8.07 am and arrived
WIGAN Athletic are leading the chase for £3million West Ham striker Marlon Harewood. The 27-year-old forward, who scored just three goals last season, had been linked with moves to Birmingham City and Portsmouth, but his agent has now revealed that
SOUTHEND United striker Billy Paynter is aiming to prove a point with the Shrimpers this season. The tall target man suffered a torrid first campaign at Roots Hall last year following his £200,000 switch from Hull City. But he is now determined
FIRE crews fought to release a man who was left badly burned after getting an electric shock at a sub station in Great Wakering last night. The 38-year-old man suffered 25 per cent burns to his body after the shock left parts of his skin and clothing
CROOKS caused £15,000 damage at a gym and golf shop during two botched break-ins. The bungling thieves struck first at the Pro Golf Shop, at Basildon Golf Club, in Clay Hill Lane, where they forced open a side door to get in. Once inside, they smashed
MASKED robbers held up catering warehouse staff at gunpoint and ordered them to empty their firm's safe. The raiders burst into catering supply company Metrow Foods, in Airborne Close, Eastwood, armed with what police believe was a handgun. The two
A TORY MP has led calls for tougher deportation procedures to fight terrorism, during a fiery debate in the House of Commons. New Home Secretary Jacqui Smith faced questions from MPs, after the head of Interpol accused the Government of putting citizens
TRADERS have praised firefighters for stopping the spread of a potentially disastrous blaze on a busy industrial estate. Arsonists are believed to have poured petrol over seven cars in the courtyard of a unit on the Charfleets industrial estate, Canvey
DO we really need house insurance? We live about 200 metres from the estuary, on a slope, but one with no history of subsidence. Realistically, we're never going to get flooded. Insurance is a gamble. If you don't have it, you can afford to pay for
Developer Ray Dove is wrong to say his scheme is already included in Castle Point Council's local development framework. His scheme is merely mentioned in the core strategy issues and options report, along with several other development proposals, upon
Thanks to Geoff Conner for his letter on the problems, past and present, for passenger ships calling at Southend Pier. Anyone can see our pier train is probably the most expensive rail journey, mile for mile, in the country. However, I did not know
We would like to thank your readers and those of the Basildon Recorder for the fabulous response to the recent article about the 85 kittens we need to re-home. However, we wish to clarify why we suggest a donation in the region of £50 from those giving
A MAN gunned down on his doorstep in a gangland-style hit was the victim of mistaken identity. Businessman Douglas Turner, 52, was at his home, Kings Head Farm, in Stock Road, Stock, when three men called. Mr Turner went down to his front gates to speak
JUST over a week after it was introduced, the ban on smoking in public places is slowly winning over traders - and even smokers themselves. Although some pub landlords are unimpressed with the fall in their trade as a result of the ban, others have seen
