Northants Telegraph Sunday Extra - free garden equipment, planning issues and an art competition

We've got so much news these days that we can't always squeeze everything into the working week. So every Sunday we'll bring you updates on recent stories, some news-in-brief and other things you need to know from across Corby, Wellingborough, East Northamptonshire and Kettering.

A supermarket chain that has branches in Corby, Kettering and Wellingborough has urged customers to donate points that they have earned from shopping to green-fingered school pupils.

Morrisons set up a scheme to enable students to access gardening equipment paid for using tokens earnt by shoppers each time they spent over £10 in store. Schools across the area have registered with the store and shopper can nominate their favourite school to receive their tokens.

Stacey Gordon, community champion for Morrisons Corby said: "In September Morrisons set up a new scheme - Grow - to help local schools with gardening equipment for the students.

"We would like all schools, children and parents in the area to get involved. The more Grow tokens the school receives the more equipment they will be entitled to.

"When customers shop with us they will receive two tokens for every £10 spent in store by using their Morrisons card until October 24. Customers can then nominate their chosen school on our My Morrisons app."

From November 1, schools will be able to redeem their Grow tokens against a wide variety of gardening equipment. Schools will start to receive their orders between the end of January and the end of March.

Kettering Operatic Society (KOS) Musical Theatre Company will host a fundraising day at the Cornmarket Hall in Kettering, on Saturday November 6.

KOS was formed in 1919, and had brought productions to the Kettering public every year since 1947, following the end of the war, until the Covid pandemic.

Returning with the Stephen Sondheim's musical Company in 2022, the craft and gift fair will raise money for the production. The fair with crafts, tombola and refreshments will be open from 10am to 4pm. Admission is £1 and children under 10 get in for free.

Corby Town Shopping and Willow Place are inviting entries for a poetry and art competition to mark this year’s 100th anniversary of The Royal British Legion’s Poppy Appeal.

The competition is open to all secondary school age children, who are invited to submit a poem or picture on the theme of ‘Remembrance’. Entries should be submitted on a single sheet of A4, one side only and students should write their name, age (11-18 eligible) and school clearly in block capitals on the back. Entries need to be sent to the Town Centre Management Office, Allied House, 1 Spencer Court, Corby NN17 1NU by the closing date of 25 October 2021.

There will be a first, second and third prize of £75, £50 and £25 in each category to spend in the shopping centre, plus ten runners-up prizes of The Lost Generation: The Young Person’s Guide to World War I. A selection of the best entries will be displayed in the town centre in November.

Wellingborough’s Swansgate Shopping Centre partnered with local mental health charity Mind Wellingborough in an aid to spread positivity with the local Wellingborough community on Mental Health Awareness Day (Sunday 10th October), by offering free coffees in exchange for uplifting messages!

More than 75 local shoppers joined the initiative to write and display a positive message in the centre for the whole community to read. In return, they were gifted with a free coffee from Costa, Greggs, Subway or Don Millers as a thank you for getting involved with the heart warming campaign and making a difference. The positive post-it note messages were displayed in the centre over Mental Health Awareness Day to spread positivity and awareness.

Northamptonshire Mind fundraising and communications lead Nick Tite said: “The awareness around our mental well-being has been heightened as the effects of the pandemic on our lives intensified. This World Mental Health Day was so important in ensuring our communities are aware that we are there for them - that they are not alone. It was an opportunity to speak out, spread the word and offer help and we are delighted the Swansgate Centre has offered its support on this important day.”

An extension to a home in Corby looks set to be given the go-ahead by planners. The home in Pen Green Lane had been due to become an HMO but had been met with fierce objections by local residents who are fed up with the proliferation of HMOs in Corby.

Now the homeowner has withdrawn that application and instead asked the council for permission to build an extension to the house. That will go before the area planning committee on Thursday (October 21) and is recommended for approval.

It is now known what long-term plans the landlord has for the house.