Editor’s Notes

The Gazette team enjoyed dragging the gazebo out for one last time this year at the Withernsea Christmas lights event. Boy, it was cold – but largely dry, and it great to see some larger crowds this time, as last year’s event was pretty much a washout. Every year, though, it sparks the same debate… Read more: Work in progress

If you’ve been down the far end of Queen Street in the past week, you’ll notice we have our new signage up. I’d like to extend my thanks to our window cleaner, Steve Spruce, for helping us apply the decals and not in any way grumbling about doing it. Steve has also been known to… Read more: The impact of local sport

Well, this is it – the last editorial I’ll be writing from number 1, Seaside Road. Next week we’ll be producing the paper from 2, Hubert Street, otherwise known as Owthorne Manor, the former home of Southgates Accountants. As we’ve said before, this is a temporary move, just for a few months, while we find… Read more: Frightening news

I said I wasn’t here this week, and I’m not… but by the magic of modern technology I’m still able to write and send this column from sunny Menorca, where I’ve been enjoying a much-needed break for the past few days. It’s not exactly been “Hull Fair weather” back home, has it? Sounds like it’s… Read more: Moving times

We don’t usually have really negative stories on the front page. As a community newspaper we try to highlight the good things that local people are doing and that others can get involved with, such as local events and attractions and the many fundraising initiatives that are increasingly necessary these days. We don’t ignore crime,… Read more: Devoid of values

I must admit that some of the “NO TO THE POLES” signs in the recent protest in Hedon caused a bit of amusement in our office – as well on social media. I think it was the use of capital letters that made it all the more funny, but I would like to make clear… Read more: This could be a blight on town

We’ve all finally managed to catch up on a bit of much-needed sleep after the Blue Light Weekend! As you can read on the facing page, they have already set the dates for next year, so get them in your diary and don’t forget to keep reading the Gazette for news in the coming months… Read more: The fun keeps on coming!

The pictures in this week’s paper say it all. What an absolutely incredible couple of days in Withernsea! The town has not seen the like in years, and the organisers of the Blue Light Weekend deserve to be hugely congratulated for their sterling efforts in the past few months that more than paid off. Any… Read more: What an incredible legacy this event will leave

One of the things that makes our job working on the Gazette is the people we encounter day to day. There was one chap who gave me a bit of a fright, and then even more of a laugh, the other day. He’d come in with his little digital camera on which he had some… Read more: Just another day in the office…

For this week’s feature on the forthcoming Blue Light Weekend, I headed to both Withernsea Police Station and Withernsea Fire Station, where it was great to meet local representatives of both services who will be playing a part in the event. There are so many strands to the weekend (August 12-13) that I must have… Read more: Caring about our community

I have a bit of a phobia about being the wrong way up. I mean, that’s not entirely irrational, is it? Unlike my phobia of spiders, which I realise isn’t rational at all, and which I fully believe I “inherited” from my dad, having witnessed him from an early age screaming at the eight-legged beasts… Read more: A rational phobia

If there is a definition of optimism, it might be coming to work in Withernsea wearing flip-flops. It didn’t take long before I realised I’d made a disastrous footwear error, for my ters were most certainly cerld, as we say in these parts. So, as you do, I headed down Queen Street on my lunch… Read more: Flip-flopping between hot and cold…

I enjoyed two local events on the same day last week – one I was part of, and the other I was happy to sit back and listen to. The latter was the return to his home town of author Adam Farrer (pictured), who was giving a talk at Withernsea Library about his book, Cold… Read more: A Great weekend

It’s been nice to see the sun at last, hasn’t it? I’ve finally been able to get out into the garden and start clearing the weeds that went absolutely crazy in May. It seemed like I turned my back for five minutes and then everything was 6ft high. I must have taken to the tip… Read more: Weeding woes

This week, we announce the winner of our Andrea Burn Short Story Prize – which used to be the Thousand Words competition, but we relaunched it this year in honour of our much- missed columnist and Seaside FM broadcaster, who died a few months ago. I’d like to thank everyone who entered for taking the… Read more: The write stuff…

I’ve been on my musical travels again. Last Sunday I headed down to east London for a performance of the 12 Silk Handkerchiefs production at Walthamstow folk club. Regular readers (hello, both of you!) will know that I’ve been involved with this for some years now, and it’s always great to bring the story of… Read more: Tunes and tipples

Allow me if you will to write a little tribute to my Nan, whom I’ve mentioned before in this column, and who left us on Monday, a few days shy of her 95th birthday. She was nothing short of a legend in our family, a one-off – once met, never forgotten. Helga was Austrian originally,… Read more: Farewell, Nan

The news of the end of the road for Withernsea’s long-running pier project broke late last Friday afternoon. It was perhaps a strange time to release the news, but, because it was a big deal for Withernsea, to say the least, we put it out pretty much there and then. Other outlets such as Radio… Read more: End of the pier show

When we returned to the office on Tuesday after the bank holiday weekend, a message popped up on my colleague Zoe’s computer. “A break point has been reached,” it said. “We know how you feel,” we replied. Bank holidays are great at the time, but they don’t half cause havoc with the production of the… Read more: Manic Tuesdays

So, will you be watching the Coronation? I ask because it seems fair to say that Royal fever hasn’t quite gripped the nation in the same way as the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in June 2022, or the funeral for her late Majesty last autumn. The mood does seem to have changed, as many predicted on… Read more: Has Coronation fever gripped the nation?

I think I’ll need a lie-down after this paper goes to press. It’s been an especially tough one to produce as, for the past 10 days, we’ve been trying to pull together an election preview to give readers as much information as possible ahead of the council polls on Thursday, May 4. We have focused… Read more: Why we must fight for local democracy

Of late, I have been sticking to my plan to go for regular walks. Some might think I’ve taken a bang to the head as I’ve been getting up super-early to go on a three-mile route before work – and those who know me know that mornings have never really been my thing. However, whisper… Read more: A walk on the wild side…

I hope you had a good Easter! I’m really sorry to bang on about football again, but seeing as my long weekend was bookended by two Hull City matches – the first being one of the most bonkers away days I’ve ever been on – I feel duty-bound to recount the experience. I set off… Read more: Four-four crew!

It was fun to visit Withernsea Golf Club last week for the Q&A session with Hull City stars Lewie Coyle and Jacob Greaves. The event was impressively well-attended – especially by local youngsters, many of whom were wearing the black-and-amber. There’s no doubt that Withernsea is City through and through! At the end, I respectfully… Read more: We’re all City!

I usually try to at least walk around the block when I pop out for a sandwich, as I am making a concerted effort to be a bit healthier. The other day – a sunny, breezy afternoon – I was walking down Pier Road towards Withernsea’s prom and spotted the Gazette’s erstwhile columnist, Bill Jardine,… Read more: My seafront stroll

I went to my first Hull City away match since August 2021 last Saturday. Having decided I was sorely missing the terrace experience (I’m in the press box at home matches), I just bought a ticket on a whim and went on my own little adventure, driving to Coventry and back on my own. On… Read more: Sent to Coventry

I’m relatively short of space again this week but I just wanted to write a brief tribute to one of my greatest friends, who died last week. Mick McGarry was a living legend – and that was official, as the Hull Daily Mail once included him on its list of local icons – and I’m… Read more: Farewell, Mick

TODAY (Thursday, February 23) marks the official launch of Withernsea’s Blue Light Weekend, which will take place this August. I’ve mentioned it in this column before, as it was Steve Medcalf who came up with the name last year and, after his death in December, the event organisers decided to press ahead with it in… Read more: Let’s get behind the Blue Light Weekend

I took my mum to see the special Valentine’s edition of Deanworld in Hull the other night. I texted a friend when I was there, saying, “I’m out watching Dean Wilson,” and she replied, “What do you mean? Are you stalking him or something?” I had to explain to her that I was at the… Read more: It’s Dean’s world… and we just live in it

Our lead Withernsea story is an attempt to counter the recent doomladen stories that made the national press recently. We too have reported in the past about the increasing need for the town’s food bank as the cost of living and energy bills continue to spiral, but I like to think we’ve been more constructive… Read more: Singling out town is unfair and damaging

There was more sadness last week when we learned of the death of our columnist and Seaside FM presenter Andrea Burn at the age of just 62. Late last year she had been told that the kidney cancer she had suff ered 15 years ago had returned, and she died, with her husband Richard by… Read more: Your creativity will be the greatest tribute

I didn’t mention this last week but today, Thursday, January 26, I’ll be visiting Withernsea Methodist Church as my folky alter-ego to sing a few songs and play a tune or two. If you’re reading this before 1pm, there’s still time to tip up there if you so wish, but if not, then you have… Read more: Stories of our social history need to be told

Last week’s funeral procession for Steve Medcalf in Withernsea was like nothing else the town had ever seen before. It was an incredibly moving and fitting send- off for one of the town’s much-loved characters and someone who, for the past 25 years, had selflessly given up his time to help others. I think we… Read more: Now we must ensure Steve’s legacy lives on