As the group were leaving the pub, they were attacked by a pair of men who pulled them from the taxi they’d just entered. The aftermath of the assault left one girl hurt and all three guys in the group unconscious, with Dan suffering a severe beating which has hospitalised him. This wasn’t just another pub brawl, but a particularly vicious and nasty premeditated attack by violent thugs.

If you were a witness to these events, especially in the street outside the Rampant Horse, by the TSB in Norwich Street, or in the alleyway next to Superdrug, please get in touch with the police. This was a cowardly and nasty violent assault which could easily have had even worse consequences than it did – these people need to be caught before they get the chance to do it to somebody else.

The result was bad enough. I’m told that Drew was unconscious until the police arrived and had a very weak pulse. Ben suffered a similar fate and injured his hand too. Dan’s jaw was broken in two places and he needs facial surgery – his head took a stamping, as did the other guys (as I said, this wasn’t just another fight).

Dan, in particular, will be out of action for a while. As self-employed tattoo artists, when the guys don’t work they don’t get paid. To that end, a collection box has been set up at 4skin so that concerned members of the public can show their support financially. Just drop into the shop and pop something into the box – it’ll show you care about the guys as well as our town and will display your solidarity with them in a practical way.

If you’re not near Fakenham, please use the Paypal Donate button below. Don’t worry – Clive, who’s the owner of 4Skin, will make sure it gets to the right people. Payments are secure and you don’t need a Paypal account to donate via card.

Thanks!

Edit:  This proposal is for a permit-holder only scheme costing £200 per year, I’m led to believe.

Fakenham Town Council will also be discussing the matter further at their main Council Meeting on Tuesday 14 February at 7.00pm at Fakenham Connect.

Letters of objection need to be received at NNDC by the 23rd February and should be sent to:-

For the attention of Jill Fisher
Assets Manager
Property Services
North Norfolk District Council
Council Offices
Holt Road
Cromer
Norfolk NR27 9JA

It’s tomorrow!!! Saturday 26th November

Santa & Guests will be leading a procession at 4.45pm, from the Community Centre to the lights switch-on ceremony at 5.00pm.

The event is organised with the help of Fakenham Area Partnership, the Kick Start Fakenham community group and Fakenham Lions.

There are lots of plans being hatched for the improvement of our town and as Hannibal Smith used to say, “I love it when a plan comes together”. That’s not to say that all the plans for Fakenham are as perfect in their execution as The A Team’s – that would be asking too much. However, it’s the cooperation I’m seeing which pleases me most, as it makes possible a greater level of achievement and success.

Having had an insider’s view of what’s being done via the community group Kick Start Fakenham, as well as The Chamber of Trade, I can see the cooperation between the various town organisations and businesses starting to pay dividends. Fakenham Fair week was a good example – expertise from The Fakenham Area Partnership, contributions by local businesses, organisation and manpower from Kick Start, The Lions, Ospreys Canoe Club atc and finally participation by the public – all combining to make for a successful project.

Although The Fakenham Pub & Club Festival (Plubfest) was a bit of a ‘curate’s egg’, all the landlords we spoke to after the event were positive about the aims of the scheme and said they’d definitely join in again next year. There’s even talk of getting them together on a slightly more formal basis so they can pool their own ideas for the next one.  That’s a spirit of cooperation that I like to see and it’ll definitely improve next year’s event.

Now that The Fakenham Community Centre has fully reopened after their repairs and refurbishment, it’s great to see new life being breathed into the facility. With enthusiastic and innovative management, bookings are on a bit of a high and there are plans afoot for further new facilities and events. Even more exciting is the scheme to develop the site into a ‘Community Campus’, with new buildings for youth facilities, an outdoor event space and more – including office space, a bar and cafe. As long as its (presumably subsidised) facilities are put to use for community purposes rather than competing with town businesses which are already struggling (meaning more cooperative spirit between Fakenham’s authorities and its business), I think it’ll be a really fantastic new addition to the town.

Kick Start raised £456, with prizes totalling £175 going to the first, second and third placed ‘duck owners’. Lovely weather, everybody smiling and joining in the spirit of the day and really good attendance. Result!

A local resident has set up a petition on the NNDC website to determine whether the full council should be obliged to discuss these buildings. In order for them to do that, it will require 1500 signatures within three months (I wonder if any previous petitions have actually met these seemingly high criteria?). If you think that this matter should be dealt with by the District Council, you should add your signature to the petition.

I recently created a couple of websites for those two ‘happenings’ - pop along to www.fakenhamfair.co.uk and www.plubfest.co.uk to keep up to speed with what’s being planned.

If you’re a trader who’d like a stall at Fakenham Fair, you’d better book up now – I’ve been reliably informed that the number of booked stalls has already reached last year’s total. The Carnival Procession is being planned as we speak and bookings are being taken for that too. Get in quick if you’re a business or local organization who wants to be in the procession. You’ll find the appropriate entry documents for download on the site.

As for Fakenham Plubfest, we’ve had a pretty good response from the town’s ‘boozers’ – there are just two or three pubs who haven’t quite made up their minds yet, and just one social club which is yet to respond – I’d class that as a bit of a success. We have the Prize Draw all but sorted – the ticksheets are on the website to download, the venues’ ink and stamps are ready to go and some nice prizes have already been donated. Almost good to go!

Fakenham has certainly ‘picked up’ recently as far as town events go. The recent ‘Royal Wedding  After Party’ in the town centre is a prime example. As I attend Kick Start Fakenham meetings, I can also see that there are more events being planned for later in the year and I’m sure it does add to the town’s community spirit (as was intended when Kick Start was formed).

There’s the Fakenham Fair in the Millenium Park on 27th August. That’ll be preceded by a carnival procession headed by the town’s ‘Local Hero’ and comprising both vehicles and walkers. Also during the week before the Fair, Fakenham’s pubs and clubs will be participating in ‘Fakenham Plubfest‘, where many of our local hostelries will be organising an event of their own on one or more days.  There’s also a community Tidy-up being mooted, a duck race, a photo competition and more besides.

There’s a lot going on and lots of planning to do, so if you or your organisation want to get involved, whether it’s being in the carnival procession,  voting for our Local Hero, having a stall at Fakenham Fair, or sorting out an event for your pub or club in the Festival, now’s the time to contact the people concerned to let them know.

Kick Start’s not the only entity arranging town events, of course. If you’re doing something for the community, please let me know so that it can be publicised on the town website. It doesn’t cost anything, it’s gratis and what’s more it’s utterly and totally free (plus, did I mention that there are no costs involved?).

I had the onerous task of visiting lots of the town’s hostelries last night (although not a drop of alcohol passed my lips) with Sean and Mark, the other two Kick Starters who are arranging the festival with me.  I must say, we had a really great response from the pub & club people we spoke to and it seems like all the ones we’ve contacted so far have been keen to get involved in some way or another. More than one reponse we got was, ‘It’s about time Fakenham did something like this’!

The idea is to get each establishment to arrange an evening event some time during that week. They can do anything they want – ‘do what you do best’  is the phrase we’ve been using. They’ve come up with some brilliant ideas too. So far we’ve heard they’d like to plan a karaoke, a quiz, a barbecue, a Tex-Mex night, a rock band gig, music acts and a Fakenham’s Got Talent evening. If those ideas come off, it sure looks like the town will be a fun place to go for a night out that week!

I’ll be posting more about the festival as plans progress. If you want to see the latest info, have a look at Fakenham Plubfest’s Facebook page.

Staff at the Henry IV (The Hungry Horse) in Greenway Lane are doing a 50 mile sponsored tandem bike ride dressed as Batman and Robin. They’re starting at the Greene King headquarters in Bury St. Edmunds and will hopefully arrive at the pub in plenty of time for tonoght’s karaoke (with a superhero theme) which starts at 9pm. Well done to Bill Vasey and Joseph Bane-Young – have a good trip and a great night tonight!