Hello and Good bye ………….

After 14 years this is my last issue I do hope you have enjoyed my efforts and even more so the articles by a great band of contributors, some of them writing for more years than I have been present .

Well the winter started well with heavy frosts at the beginning of November but I had already decided to fit solar panels to offset the awful energy increases and the threat of power cuts. I didn’t enjoy the power cuts  when I was young (miners strikes) and now at 3 score years +10 & +10 (in February) I am hoping that with the panels  and battery back up we shall be cocooned for the years to come. I did politely decline (at my age) the 25 year warranty. Get in touch with HEAT hungerford I am told they have Solar Panel connections!

Still on the subject of heat the DAILY MAIL printed on 3rd November that pensioners already use more gas & electricity at 6% of monthly budget against under 30’s at 3%, but energy price cap in October rose by  12% and tipped to rise by 30% in the spring.

From what I read the following years will still show many increases.

So please all of you pensioners check out if you can get Pension Credit, there currently is £2.2 billion going unclaimed , and the Council tax is going up by a larger amount than usual.

So they are nagging us oldies to downsize if they would pay all of the moving expenses, taxes, legal and probably new carpets we might consider it, but I wouldn’t because my neighbourhood and the view to the countryside cannot be compensated for.

As always we appeal for volunteers if you type  chainhungerford.co.uk  into Google or any search engine you get to our website  there is a tremendous amount about us and volunteering, check it out.

Have you done your will yet, do you remember about my relative who died in May and we still haven’t started probate, waiting for the Title Research people to confirm surviving relatives.

So my last paragraph after all these years says a big thank you to all our article contributors the Advertisers  and the small army of people who “pop” it through your letterbox  some of whom have been doing it for years that have made CHAIN MAIL freely available.

Thank you and Goodbye

& best wishes from   David Piper      (Retiring Editor)

From now on please contact Keith Knight the new Editor on

07913819027      chaineditor@gmail.com

Letters, articles and adverts should be sent to Keith by the 7th of the month preceding publication, i.e.7th February for the next issue on March 1st 2022.

If you send something he will try to acknowledge within 3 days.  

No reply from Keith then he has not got it, so please re-send.