⏩ The Gloucester Start: Monday December 9th
£3m mansion winner | Fresh food binned | Bishop saddened
Morning, I hope you all came through the weekend unscathed. It’s Monday December 9th and edition number 11 of The Gloucester Start - with more than 100 of you now signed up as subscribers 🤯 Please do give us a share to keep spreading the word, and thank you for following.
💨 Fallen trees and travel disruption are among the ongoing impact of Storm Darragh, which arrived over the weekend with 60mph winds. Flood alerts are active in places too. - Gloucestershire Live
🏡 ‘Gobsmacked’ Lauren Keene, 24, is the proud new owner of a £3million mansion after the Gloucester nanny was announced as the latest winner of the Omaze house prize draws. She’s the youngest ever winner of the competition, claiming a five-bed coastal home in The Wirral with a cinema room and heated outdoor pool, and celebrated with a McDonald’s. - Gloucestershire Live
🅿️ Small businesses in the city centre say a free Christmas parking initiative will bring a welcome trade boost. Council car parks will be free after 3pm on three successive days from December 18th, and on each Thursday in the run-up to Christmas. - BBC Gloucestershire
↪️ A new small business has opened in Gloucester Docks. Full Fire TCG is open in the evenings at Biddle & Shipton Warehouse and is for collectors of trading cards. - Gloucestershire Live
⛪ Bishop of Gloucester Rachel Treweek was ‘deeply saddened and perturbed’ by outgoing Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby’s farewell speech to the House of Lords. She is among many critics who felt he made light of serious safeguarding failures. He has since apologised. - Gloucester Cathedral and BBC News
🌬️ Today’s weather: The weekend’s weather warnings are behind us but it’s still blustery, with gusts of between 30 and 35mph. Temperatures around 8C most of the day with grey skies and potentially some showers.
🚉 Gloucester Railway Station’s remodelled pedestrian underpass still isn’t open, despite aims for it to be by autumn this year. It links Great Western Road to Bruton Way and is still awaiting CCTV, lighting and a mural. - Gloucestershire Live
🍅 Hundreds of boxes of fresh food were thrown away from delivery firm Yodel’s Quedgeley depot as it struggled to cope with record demand. The HelloFresh recipe boxes were picked up by a rubbish truck without making it to customers, to the disbelief of a watching member of the public. - Gloucestershire Live
↪️Yodel has told customers to use rival firms in the run-up to Christmas as it can’t commit to a 24-hour delivery service amid operational challenges. - Punchline Gloucester
↪️ Charities Gloucester Feed the Hungry and Gloucester Foodbank are in need of specific food and other donation items to help those most in need this Christmas. Check their shopping lists here and here.
🔴 A mocked-up alleyway is being used to teach teenagers to keep themselves safe from drugs gangs. The alley at SkillZone in Tuffley is part of a scenario that sees ‘suspicious packages’ being distributed to lure would-be couriers. - BBC Gloucestershire
🧗 Climbers have scaled the walls of Parliament Street’s Warehouse Climbing Centre for the final time. The venue has shut after 30 years in the city centre to relocate to the new 270 Climbing Centre at Bentham. - Gloucester News Centre
👴 Life expectancy in Gloucester is lower than anywhere else in the county, latest figures show. A baby boy born between 2021 and 2023 can expect to live to 77.9 years old, a girl to 81.8. Blackpool and Glasgow have the lowest life expectancies in the country, Hart in Hampshire and Kensington & Chelsea the best. - Gloucestershire Live
👪 Families were able to pick up free children’s shoes and stock up on low-cost gifts thanks to a special Christmas shopping event staged by the charity Barnardo’s. Almost 200 parents and children were invited to the event the Lighthouse Children’s Centre in Linden. - Forest and Wye Valley Review
🚨 A rotavator was stolen from an allotment shed in Brockworth after thieves took the door off to get in. Separately, a a vehicle was broken into in Longlevens and items stolen from inside. - Your Community Alerts