I hope you all had a happy Christmas day. We enjoyed a traditional family Christmas made all the better with blue skies and picturesque snow on the ground.

Lymm’s Christmas includes two of the biggest community events of the year, Dickensian and Carols around the Cross. Both of these bring us together and remind us that one of Lymm’s great strengths as a place to live is the large number of community organisations which rely on the work of many volunteers. Those who simply see the village as a place to live are left well alone. But, those who want to get involved, either passively, by just attending events, or, more actively, by helping to organise them, get the opportunity to do so.

Over the last year Oughtrington Community Centre has renewed its committee and the new members are tackling the work necessary to take advantage of the completion of the first phase West End project. The youth club building is being brought back into use by a very practically oriented set of volunteers and the Lymm Traders group continues to look after the interests of the Village Centre.

These are just three examples of the dozens of organizations that make life in Lymm so much better than in many anonymous suburbs or dormitory towns.

I would like to wish all of you a very happy New Year and thank personally all of those who have volunteered and worked for the community to make Lymm the place it is.