RECENTLY Barbara Prosser retired after 12 years of voluntary service to the Victoria Centre, Lydney. She is not alone in giving up her time so generously to what is a well-known local cause. Hazel Gifford, for example, has given up one day a week for the past 20 years and Annette Stewart has been a daily coordinator for eight.

These ladies are typical of the many unnamed volunteers who keep the Centre going, providing not only lunches but a warm welcome and an occasion for meeting and making friends. Lunch, freshly cooked on the premises, is still incidentally offered at the modest price of £4 to include two courses, wine and coffee.

However, these same premises have to be maintained, furnished and improved. Fundraising remains vital and so the trustees are once again engaged in renovation work aimed at creating a more healthy and safe environment. And this is where the endless generosity of local businesses, organisations, trust bodies and local individuals is so evident. Whenever we need help, help is given without delay or demur.

May I, therefore, on behalf of the members and trustees, thank most sincerely the following for the financial aid they have given us so spontaneously this past year:

Greggs Bakery, McCarthy and Stone, Jeremy Williams and Griffiths and Marshall, St Joseph's Catholic church, Aylburton Parish Council, messrs Geoffrey Hyde, Steve Barnes, Bill Parker, Gloucestershire Freemasons Fund, Forest of Dean Local Action Group (LAGS), Esmée Fairbairn Trust, The Iris Watts Trust, Royal Forest of Dean Chapter, The Midcounties Cooperative Team.

The Centre is now, amazingly, in its 35th year and in that time has been open for 49 weeks a year; Tuesday and Thursday for lunch, Wednesday for lunch and entertainment, Friday for exercise and lunch (thanks for the sponsorship of Ginger Gym and Coop Funeralcare, Lydney). (Booking essential Tel 843418).

A small band of volunteers with big hearts, a small centre with big ambitions, a small town making up the 'Big Society'.

– Peart Biddle, secretary.