The second biennial Fakenham Contemporary Art exhibition runs from 8-18 Sep 2011 in Fakenham Parish Church. Open to all Norfolk-based emerging and established artists working in a full range of media.

http://fakenhamarts.org.uk/

The Crown Hotel, Fakenham

Remember when this was a thriving pub? Remember when it was a positive focal point in the town centre?

The Crown has been closed for a long time now. It’s arguably the best recognised building in the Market Square and it’s got to be the prime location for a pub in Fakenham, yet it remains empty. The Crown continues to project an appallingly negative image on a town whose residents and representatives are fighting to improve and promote it. For an important building like this to remain closed just looks bad and if it could be reopened might start to paint a more positive picture of the town. Maybe that would in turn start to attract more and better shops – nothing breeds success like success, as they say.

What can be done?

I was talking  the other day to a Wells resident about a similar situation in his town. There’s a prominent building – now an eyesore – on the Quay which has been empty for a long time due to a fire. The community there have called on the council to investigate issuing a compulsory purchase order. It makes sense. They’ve spent shedloads of money in the area and want to promote Wells, as we want to for Fakenham, but the eyesore is a blot on the landscape which is holding them back. ‘Spoiling the ship for a ha’porth of tar’ is the old saying.

I wonder if something like that’s a possibility for The Crown? The owners don’t seem to be doing anything to actively sell the place or get new tenants in. I have a client who tells me he produced an outline business plan for joint ownership of the place as a pub/restaurant/hotel but despite contacting the owners with it he was completely ignored.

What do you think? Do you have any ideas? Please leave a comment.

Community Volunteer Award 2011
FAKENHAM TOWN COUNCIL

If you know of anyone who gives their services voluntarily to assist others would you like to nominate them for the Community Volunteer Award. This is given every year to an individual who has helped in youth club, local church, residential or nursing home, personal home help to an elderly or sick person, a local club or aid group or any other similar organisation within the Town. The volunteer gives their services with no thought of reward but with the intention of helping others in the community.
The nominee must live in Fakenham and provide their voluntary work in Fakenham.

Please write to Fakenham Town Council at the address below and nominate a person by the 31st March 2011

FAKENHAM TOWN COUNCIL
Fakenham Connect, Oak Street, Fakenham 
Telephone: 01328 853653
email: info@fakenhamtowncouncil.co.uk

Part of the new ‘central hub’ website I’m creating for Fakenham has a page selling promotional merchandise (well, I’ve got to maximise my ROI as they say in Dragons’ Den – the site’s taking ages to create!).

If you fancy a quick preview, click on the picture on the right. It should take you to the new Fakenham shop at Spreadshirt, where you can browse through the selection of tees, hoodies and other Fakenham-branded stuff.

It’s all very tongue-in-cheek and I think it’ll strike a chord with Fakenham folk. Let me know what you think so far.

Happy New Year, everybody.

I speak to local people from time to time who tell me they read this blog regularly to keep up with things which are happening in our town. Ideally, that shouldn’t really be the case – there should be a dedicated site where local info is published and my blog should be more personal, less promotional. Hopefully that’s about to change in 2011, with the launch of a new Fakenham website. I’ve been working on it over the Christmas break and it should be set to go live in the not-too-distant future.

It’s designed to be the hub of Fakenham’s websites – a route through to them all and a place where important info is available centrally – something I’ve been banging on about for a while!

As I’m in the process of finalising the new site’s initial content, I thought I’d ask you what you’d like to see on it (although I can’t promise it’ll be included, of course). I’ve already got links to local news stories, cinema listings, latest news from the new Town Council and Kick Start websites, listings from the Fakenham Business Directory and an event calendar – speaking of which…..

I’ve used Google Calendars to display events organized by the Town Council, Kick Start group and market/farmers’ market dates. If you’re involved with a community group or another organization which would like to be included in the dates on the calendar, please get in touch. I’ll tell you how to get an online calendar which you can publish on your own website, include all Fakenham’s events on it if you want and how to get your dates amalgamated with the composite ‘official’ Fakenham calendar of events.

That’s all about the subject for now, but I shall return to it soon. In the meantime, please add your thoughts and ideas as a comment on this post, buttonhole me on Facebook, or drop me an email via ‘steve at wensum dot net’.

Did you know there’s a new social club in Fakenham? One has just been started at the Community Centre and the first night is this week. Here’s a message I got via Facebook from Lisa Smerdon, who’s organizing it…

“First night of our Thursday night social club. Everyone welcome to come along, have a drink in nice, warm comfortable surroundings at affordable prices. Come and support us and give us suggestions as to what you want from YOUR community centre.”

Here’s a story in the motoring press about Howes of Fakenham going into administration. Let’s hope the Peugeot dealership can be sold as a going concern and the employees are kept on.  It’s a car sales business that’s been established in the area for 50 years.

An impressive turnout for the Armistice Day ceremony at the Fakenham War memorial this morning - especially considering the absolutely foul weather! Lovely to see so many braving the elements to pay their respects.

This is interesting. I just got a press release from Fakenham Area Partnership, who have introduced a new car scheme designed to provide transport support for people in need, to attend local medical appointments.

Volunteer drivers will use their own vehicles to carry clients to pre-booked destinations, in exchange for a modest mileage charge covering basic car running costs.

Passengers book a journey in advance, the scheme co-ordinator arranges with an available volunteer driver who collects the client from their home, takes them to their appointment, waits for them and then returns them back home.

In the early stages the scheme will only cover appointments to the Fakenham or Walsingham surgeries. In order to expand the service the team needs to recruit more drivers and would welcome support from anyone with a couple of hours spare each week.

Anyone wishing to book a journey should call 07799 274 995 between 9am and 5pm on weekdays only, giving as much notice as possible. Further enquiries about the service or becoming a volunteer can be made through the partnership desk on 01328 851555 or e-mail details to admin@fakenhamareapartnership.co.uk