August 2009 Archives

Students and staff are celebrating a best ever GCSE performance at Stockley Academy.

Students at the Academy in Park View Road, Yiewsley, achieved 25 per cent five A*- C grades including English and Maths.

THE family of a much loved great great grandmother who last week passed away have discovered she has 100 descendants.

Margaret Anne Atkins, who was affectionately known as Peg, spent most of her adult life in the area, living in various houses in Uxbridge, Yiewsley and West Drayton.

A DRIVER returned to her car to find it vandalised with spray paint.

The attack happened while the vehicle was parked in the Tesco car park, in Fairfield Road on Friday between 5.10pm and 10.30pm.

The blue Vauxhall Corsa's bonnet and driver's door were sprayed with silver coloured paint.

THE debate on how to improve an ailing high street is rumbling on, after the Gazette revealed last week how it had been named the worst in London.

Yiewsley's high street was labelled the worst hit by the recession of any other, and many residents are keen to have their say on how the town can be improved.

A FURTHER £80,000 has been allocated as part of the council's ward budget initiative. Spending has been approved for several new projects, although there is still £384,500 available until the end of December. The new projects are shown by ward, which each have £25,000 to spend.

A NEW caribbean restaurant has now opened, hoping to bring tasty food and extravagant cocktails to the town.

Tasties Cocktail Wine Bar, in High Street, Yiewsley, was opened by single mother Manette Hunte, 37, on Monday.

A man convicted drink driving on five occasions has escaped jail.

Anil Jnagal, 26, of Falling Lane, Yiewsley, was given a suspended prison sentence when he appeared at Uxbridge Magistate's Court on Friday.

A NEW report shows that Yiewsley's High Street has been hardest hit of any town anywhere in London by the recession.

Figures reflect a sharp jump in the number of closing shops in the area, in June 2008 the vacancy rate was just 3.8 per cent, but one year on, the vacancy rate is 29 per cent.

These figures show nearly one in three shops have closed down over the last 12 months.

Liz Peace, British Property Federation chief executive, said: "Smaller centres have to reinvent themselves in terms of convenience and we need to properly work out what smaller towns are for, as they've just accumulated problems over the years. Second-rate retailers have been found out by the recession.

"The problem is many shops won't come back, because there isn't the demand. It's a travesty that so many towns have cut their own throats in terms of planning charges and traffic restrictions."

What do you think?

A CHILDREN'S centre is busy planning a Fun Day which will take place next month.

The Yiewsley Cornerstone Children's Centre, based in Colham Avenue, Yiewsley, are to hold their Fun Day on Monday September 14.

It will be held from 12pm until 3pm with activities for all, including craft time, games, story time, and music.

For more information call 01895 435805 or e-mail info@yiewsleycornerstone.co.uk

CAGE fighting is undisputedly one of the fastest growing sports on the planet. A club in Cowley is now ready to take on the challenge of training the up and coming fighters with their new cage - the first one in the whole of Middlesex. Charlene Mitchell talks to instructor Ian Morgan ahead of the opening of the club this weekend.

WITH mixed martial artist (MMA ) Michael Bisping leading the way for UK fighters in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) many dream of following in his footsteps.

To help these dreams come true, two well accomplished fighters, Ian Morgan and Andy Jardine, have set up their own club, Ronin MMA, at Panthers Gym, in Packet Boat Lane, Cowley.

As well as teaching MMA, the club is also very keen to train men, women and children in whichever martial art they are interested in - and they even do boxing too.

Mr Morgan, who lives in Phelps Way, Hayes, has a long history of fighting in judo and kickboxing championships all over the world, and he has even tried his hand at jiu-jitsu.

The 38-year-old said: "We don't want people to think it's all about cage fighting and getting your face smashed in. We want them to know they can come here safely and learn a sport and if they want to go into the cage they can do but not until we get them to a level where we feel they are ready for it.

"Including myself we have got seven high level instructors who all have dan grades in various martial arts. We are also affiliated with the World Association of Kickboxing Organisations (WAKO), the British Judo Association and the Amateur Boxing Association. The other guys who do grappling have also got other affiliations.

"We cover all the main sports so people can learn to become the ultimate MMA fighter.

"MMA is only for the men because we don't want to promote women into that sport but if a woman really wanted to do it then we would."

Mr Morgan runs the club with his business partner Andy Jardine, from Hounslow, who has also been running a company called Extreme Brawl for 10 years.

Mr Morgan said: "He has trained a lot of our fighters himself and now all those guys have got somewhere to train.

"We have all come together to run this one club as a team. It's quite an exceptional room now.

"There's nowhere else like this in the area for people to go. We have got a proper training cage. It's 15ft wide and we will hopefully at some point go for the much bigger training cage, but you can't do everything in the first hit when you're doing something of this magnitude. We're just going to see how well it goes first.

"We have got quite a large following already and if it does go well, which we hope it will, we will look to expand it.

"At the moment we're going to be open five days a week and there will be some weekend sessions too."

The club will be open for men and women and children from the age of five to 16.

"We want to get kids into a well grounded sport where they are going to learn something and get enjoyment out of it," explains Mr Morgan.

"A lot of children go to clubs because their parents tell them to and then they get bored, but here they can move on to another sport once they get bored of what they're doing."

The club is holding an open day on Saturday (8) and Sunday (9) from 10am to 3pm and their website www.roninmma.co.uk should be up and running by September.