OTLEY S annual parish meeting has been postponed because of mourning for Prince Philip. A spokesperson for the town council said: “The Annual Parish Meeting of the Parish and Town of Otley which was arranged for the 19th April 2021 has been postponed due to the official period of national mourning for His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh. The meeting will now be held on Thursday 29th April 2021 at 7pm on Zoom. Details of the joining instructions will be published shortly. Members of the public are invited to attend and can raise any public business relative to the parish and the town.
LITTLE did Otley Sewing Collective know when they put out the call for volunteers to help sew scrubs for the NHS, that a year on they would have a group of 50 women and men who have worked tirelessly in support of the community. Last week for the first time in many months the group had no orders for scrubs so they took a breath and wondered if this time they could dare to hope that the end may be in sight? Andi Petch, chair of the collective said: “I wanted us to take the time to pause and reflect on our achievements in the last year. Since beginning our journey as part of the Maker Space to the fledgling group we are now we have used 1838 metres of fabric; made 612 sets of scrubs and 700 face masks, and given 6311 hours of volunteer time. Otley has been fortunate enough to have one of the lowest infection rates and I would like to think we played a small part in this.”
SIX hundred Christingle packs will be given out by Otley Parish Church next week. The packs - which also include a free copy of the Christmas Story, as retold by Bob Hartman in the Rhyming Bible - will be distributed from Kirkgate between 6pm and 8pm on Tuesday, December 22 and 10am and noon on Wednesday, December 23. The church is encouraging people to watch the How to make a Christingle video on its YouTube channel, which can be accessed from its website, otleyparishchurch.org/, where there is also a link to make a donation to the Children’s Society. This year’s Christingle service will be streamed live from the church, with a small, invited congregation present, at 4pm on Christmas Eve. The other festive services taking place at All Saints’ will include a Carol Service at 4pm on Sunday, December 20 and two all-age Communion services on Christmas Day at 9am and 11am. Numbers are limited and booking is essential by sending an e-mail to info@otleyparishchurch.org.