SNADS Pantomime for 2022 is the classic tale of The Little Mermaid. It is brought to life in an action packed, animated show.
A young mermaid (Sirena) enters into a deal with a wicked sea octopus (Iphelia) and swaps her voice for a pair of legs in order to find her handsome Prince. This pantomime is filled with lots of laughs, fantastic colourful costumes and larger than life characters. Excitingly new to SNADS, we will be using animation to make things come to life. Directed by Paula Skinner.
Shows are on from the 16th – 19th February 7.30pm at the Exchange in Sturminster Newton.
There will be a Matinee performance on Saturday 19th Feb at 2.30pm
Plus a ‘Relaxed’ performance (see details below) on Wednesday 16th Feb at 6pm
We will be do a “RELAXED” performance on Wednesday 16th Feb with low level auditorium lights, no loud bangs or flashing lights, it will be particularly suitable for those with Autism, Special Needs and Learning Difficulties who would not normally be able to access live theatre. There will be open access to the Hall during this performance for those needing ‘time out’ and most importantly nobody will mind if your guest makes noises, calls out or chatters! Tickets for this performance only will be at the reduced rate of £5.00. Please phone or call in at The Exchange to book your tickets and to talk to a member of staff – it will be helpful for them to understand your requirements (i.e. raked seating or open area), especially if you will be bringing a wheelchair or push chair/buggy.
Tickets from the Exchange Sturminster Newton – Call the Box office on 01258 475137
For this month’s property column Brad and Susie from Meyers are considering the myth that mid-winter is a bad time to list your property:
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As we move towards the Festive Season, most people are focussed on what to buy their loved ones for Christmas rather than buying a new home. Majority of people assume that the housing market will go quiet during December. It’s what happens immediately after the Christmas lunch has been packed away however, that makes for a good house selling market.
December listing
History and the data crunchers, show that the month of December can be a great time to start to market your home (as long as you take photos without your decorations!). Rightmove, the biggest online housing portal, claims that there will be something in the region of 41m visits to their site between Boxing Day and the New Year; known as the ‘Boxing Day Boom’. Potential buyers are at home, the festivities are largely over and they take this quiet time in the family calendar to see what is out there on the market. This could therefore be one of the best times to be advertising your house for sale. In addition to that, the housing market continues to see record numbers of potential buyers for each house that comes to market and with the market continuing to be this competitive, having your house on the market, or better still, Under Offer, is a prerequisite for a happy ongoing house hunt. Some Agents won’t allow buyers even to view a house if they are not proceedable, and whilst getting your house on the market now might seem like an odd time to do it, actually it could be absolutely the right time to do so if you are considering a move in the first part of next year. You need to get ahead of the game and put yourself in a good position to be able to ‘offer’ on that dream house you fall in love with.
We are always here to help and answer any questions you might have so feel free to get in touch. And in the meantime, if we don’t meet you beforehand, we hope you have a wonderful Christmas everyone – and an even better new year.
Brad at Shaftesbury – 01747 352077 Susie at Blandford – 01258 690553
Top December tips
Don’t miss out on your dream home because you are not proceedable when you spot it
sellers will only take you seriously if you are ‘under offer’ and ready to go; you then make them ‘proceedable’ too
Don’t look at a new potential house, offer on it, then retrospectively rush to get your own house on the market and sold. Post-Covid, it is essential to plan ahead, prepare your house for sale, get on the market and secure your own buyer before you start looking
Take photos of your house without Christmas decorations
You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by getting your house on the market now; 41m visits to Rightmove could have your perfect buyer right there!
As we reflect on the year gone by, the importance of positive mental health has really been put on the agenda, reflects Dorset Chamber’s CEO Ian Girling.
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Mental Health is an issue we take seriously, and one which we need to consider in the workplace. The statistics around mental health are worrying:
1 in 4 adults will experience some form of mental illness in any given year
40% of new or longstanding work-related illnesses are caused by stress, depression and anxiety
we lose over 12 million working days per year to this
300,000 people with a long- term mental health problem lose their jobs each year. Studies also show that an investment of £1 on training in this area should provide a benefit to the value of £10 to a business.
What about the boss?
In business, management will often focus on the mental health and wellbeing of our teams. A question I am asking businesses is who’s taking care of the boss? Business owners and leaders are often isolated and carry huge responsibility. The stresses and strains of running a business are significant, and we should not overlook the welfare of the boss. It’s rare we ask how the boss is.
Got Your Six
To support the mental health and wellbeing of bosses across Dorset, we’ve developed a project called Got Your Six (GU6) (named after a term used by WW2 fighter pilots where they protected the ‘backs’ of fellow pilots in formation, at the vulnerable rear ‘six o’clock’ position). Essentially we are building a bank of GU6 Champions who are qualified mental health ‘first aiders’ and there for businesses owners and leaders to reach out to at any time. We’ve had a huge response and the project has been met with great support.
Sharing the load
Within GU6 and through our events, we are building a neutral, non-commercially driven, non- judgmental confidential hub where we can talk and discuss our challenges with other empathetic business leaders in order to gain clarity, respite, and control over issues that may be affecting us. Our first event, the first of its kind by any Chamber, was a huge success, with many business leaders coming together and sharing experiences and feelings we can all relate to and, importantly, strategies for managing these pressures.
It’s ok to not be ok
It was an inspiring, incredibly human and levelling event. We were all surprisingly open, and it was great to find that sometimes it’s ok not to feel ok. I’m so very proud of this initiative, and the fact that it has received huge support from the business community. If you’d like to find out more or reach out to us, please contact Xanthe on [email protected] And of course thanks to our sponsors and partners Lester Aldridge, Dorset Mind and Ouch Training. You can see more information at dorsetchamber.co.uk/gu6-dorset
Finally I’d like to wish you and your families and very happy and peaceful Christmas and a wonderful New Year. Here’s to a much better year to us all. Ian
Is filling out a form online a good alternative to the traditional way of drafting a Will? We asked Lucy Mignot, Senior Associate and specialist in probate and trust disputes for her views.
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The use of online Wills has surged in the last year, but online Wills rarely cover all situations, leaving individuals and estates vulnerable to future claims, says Lucy Mignot: “DIY Wills are a false economy; testators may save money initially, but their estate could be eaten up after death by litigation, or an unnecessary tax bill. With DIY Wills it is very easy to get the formalities wrong and end up with an invalid Will. This means the estate passes according to the previous Will, or the intestacy rules, potentially passing to different beneficiaries to those intended, or even to the state. Errors in a Will cannot be easily rectified – if at all.
Another issue with DIY Wills is that, often, testators don’t consider what they want to happen if their intended beneficiaries predecease them. Again, this can lead to a result contrary to that intended. Ambiguity in a Will is a real problem in a DIY Will. Where a term is ambiguous, this may have to be resolved by an expensive court application.
Doing the work
As someone who handles disputed Wills, I cannot stress enough the benefit of a file of papers relating to the preparation of a Will. These can provide evidence needed to avoid claims based on lack of capacity, undue influence etc. They often also record the reasoning behind a testator’s decisions. That can be enough to prevent a dispute.
In many cases involving homemade Wills, testators have thought about what it is they want to achieve but sadly lacked the technical legal knowledge to put their wishes into place effectively. This can result in significant costs being paid from the estate and a lot of stress for the family, even where there is no dispute between the family members.”
For contentious matters relating to Wills, Lucy Mignot can be contacted on [email protected] or 01305 217303.
