WHISPERING SMITH: Pondering over a pig, pyrotechnics and a poll

The organisers are all volunteers and, with the help of other organisations, support from the town council, local sponsorship and your generosity it will provide an estimated 40,000 spectators with a great evening’s entertainment.

All the money raised by the street collection – the record is more than £9.000 – will go to good causes and not a penny to the society itself.

And, when the last rocket has burst, the last spark is out and the last torch extinguished, the members will be embarking on next year’s event and setting about raising the £25,000 needed, including the £6,000 for the actual fireworks. That means bookings, fund-raising through market stalls, boot sales and the hand-making of over 2,000 torches.

I tip my Stetson to them all.

CURIOUSLY named, but eye-catching, The Contented Pig has opened in High Street and is as attractive and welcoming inside as it is out.

It’s a restaurant, take-away, coffee shop and wine bar all in one. Many hats to wear, but it has a feeling of success about it, due, in no small way, to the care taken in the design and the adaptation of the Home and Colonial logo.

The menu is tempting and I will sample it shortly. In the meantime, I have used it as a coffee bar several times and it is comfortable and quiet – you can hear a whisper, no blasting music to drown out conversation, an opportunity to sit and chat over coffee and cake. I wish it well.

THE referendum was a success, the turnout was marginal and larger would have been better – 3,317 votes in total, with 2,838 votes going to the ayes (around 85 per cent) and 467 (14 per cent) going to the naysayers.

Whether or not the views of those interested in the future of our town will be heeded is another matter and only time will tell.

Twelve ballot papers were spoiled and you have to ask yourself, why on earth would someone go to the trouble of registering, exercising the democratic right to vote and then going to the polling station, only to spoil their ballot paper?