{"id":2865,"date":"2021-10-10T11:55:08","date_gmt":"2021-10-10T10:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marksmith.org.uk\/?p=2865"},"modified":"2021-10-10T12:03:33","modified_gmt":"2021-10-10T11:03:33","slug":"around-the-pump-october-2021-mayors-article","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/marksmith.org.uk\/index.php\/2021\/10\/10\/around-the-pump-october-2021-mayors-article\/","title":{"rendered":"Around the Pump &#8211; October 2021 &#8211; Mayor&#8217;s Article"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"2865\" class=\"elementor elementor-2865\" data-elementor-settings=\"[]\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-section-wrap\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-4f59c32 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"4f59c32\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-be0913a\" data-id=\"be0913a\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-193e61d elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"193e61d\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>The \u2018Neighbours\u2019 theme song begins \u2018Everybody needs good neighbours.\u2019 That was never truer than during the COVID-19 Pandemic. The crisis undoubtedly brought our community closer together as never before as neighbour helped neighbour, with streets forming their own WhatsApp groups and other networks to ensure all of our community survived those dark days of lockdown.<\/p><p>Ampthill Town Council played their part in leafletting the Town highlighting the help available from Ampthill &amp; Flitwick Good Neighbours, Ampthill Baptist Church and St. Andrew\u2019s Church, who so ably assisted the most vulnerable with their shopping and prescriptions collection when they were unable to get out.<\/p><p>With this debt of gratitude in mind Ampthill\u2019s Civic Service on Sunday 17<sup>th<\/sup> October will have the theme of \u2018Good Neighbours\u2019 where we will give thanks to the volunteers of Ampthill &amp; Flitwick Good Neighbours, the Town\u2019s Churches and to those good neighbours in the streets of our community.<\/p><p>As one of those instrumental in the setting up Ampthill Good Neighbours, when I was Mayor back in 2006, I am thankful that their 40+ volunteers have provided such a vital lifeline during the various lockdowns that we have endured during the past 18 months.<\/p><p>If you feel inspired to volunteer with Ampthill &amp; Flitwick Good Neighbours contact me at <a href=\"mailto:mark.andrew.smith@hotmail.co.uk\">mark.andrew.smith@hotmail.co.uk<\/a> or call me on 07896124933. Alternatively, visit the Good Neighbours website at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.afgn.org.uk\">www.afgn.org.uk<\/a> for more information.<\/p><p>As you may know, I work for the charity Community Voluntary Service, that hosts the Volunteer Centre for the area. I always feel that volunteering is the glue that binds our community and others together, so should you wish to explore further volunteering opportunities visit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cvsbeds.org.uk\/volunteer\">https:\/\/www.cvsbeds.org.uk\/volunteer<\/a>.<\/p><p>Please continue to the support the charities, sports clubs, societies and good causes that make Ampthill such a fantastic place to live.<\/p><p>Around the Pump can be downloaded from:<\/p><p>https:\/\/www.ampthilltowncouncil.org.uk\/contentfiles\/661.pdf\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The \u2018Neighbours\u2019 theme song begins \u2018Everybody needs good neighbours.\u2019 That was never truer than during the COVID-19 Pandemic. The crisis undoubtedly brought our community closer together as never before as neighbour helped neighbour, with streets forming their own WhatsApp groups and other networks to ensure all of our community survived those dark days of lockdown. &#8230; <a title=\"Around the Pump &#8211; October 2021 &#8211; Mayor&#8217;s Article\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/marksmith.org.uk\/index.php\/2021\/10\/10\/around-the-pump-october-2021-mayors-article\/\" aria-label=\"More on Around the Pump &#8211; October 2021 &#8211; Mayor&#8217;s Article\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2867,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_generate-full-width-content":"","spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mayor-of-ampthill"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/marksmith.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/20211001091630358_0001.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/marksmith.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/marksmith.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/marksmith.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marksmith.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marksmith.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2865"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/marksmith.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2871,"href":"http:\/\/marksmith.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2865\/revisions\/2871"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marksmith.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/marksmith.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marksmith.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marksmith.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}