A new newsletter celebrating local events, support, community news and more has been published in St Denys.

 

 

The first issue of 'The Itchen Sink' (one of a number of names suggested by locals) has been distributed door-to-door by volunteers to houses 'riverside' of Thomas Lewis Way.

"A group of us wanted to celebrate all that happens in St Denys – it just seems there's so much going on," explained Clare Diaper, right, who was involved with setting it up.

"We just wanted to put it together in a publication that everybody can have access to. Because a lot of groups are on Facebook, and it was really just making it accessible to everybody.

"There's a really good Facebook group in St Denys – St Denys Rocks – and it was just to try and reach out to everybody outside of that."

The Daily Echo recently reported that one in nine Southampton adults did not use the internet in the months running up to the pandemic, according to the Office for National Statistics, meaning an estimated 23,000 people in the city weren't regular net users. But it added that "the number of older people regularly using the internet is rising rapidly".

Clare said so far newsletter feedback had been positive, with a team of about 12 volunteers delivering about 1200 copies almost as soon as it came back from the printer.

Will there be further issues?

"Everybody's been asking 'when's the next one out' and 'is it going to be monthly' and 'can I do an article' so I think we have to!" she said.

The Itchen Sink was funded by Transition Southampton Growing Places from the National Lottery Community Fund, with other funding from The Southampton Collective.