Press Release - 30 September 2005

The annual invasion of Ken McDonald's Stansted home began this week as 8000 copies of the 2006 Community Calendar produced in aid of Stop Stansted Expansion arrived for distribution to a team of 85 volunteer sellers throughout Herts and Essex.

Now an annual fixture, the calendars serve not only as a valuable means of raising money for the Stop Stansted Expansion campaign to which all profits are donated (around £20,000 last year), but also as a powerful daily reminder of the communities, countryside and heritage threatened by expansion plans for the airport.

With BAA shortly due to announce its preferred siting for a second runway, awareness of the threat will be heightened this year and greater interest than ever is expected.

The Community Calendar has become an established part of life for many people in the parts of Essex and Hertfordshire that surround Stansted Airport. It features photos of this attractive area, selected from work submitted by over 20 photographers. 

There is always keen interest in which towns and villages have been chosen to appear. This time they range from Ware in the west to Felsted in the east, and from Saffron Walden in the north to Harlow in the south.  Other places featured are Thaxted, Bishop's Stortford, Great Hallingbury, Great Dunmow, Sawbridgeworth, Widdington, Pleshey, Stansted Mountfitchet and Great Sampford.

The Calendars are on sale at just £5, the same price as the first one which appeared in 2002 when just 3000 copies were produced.  The price is kept low because everyone involved with the production and sale gives their services free of charge.  Since then the print run has steadily grown as demand for the 'must have' calendar has rocketed and the volunteer sales team has reached 50 people and 35 shops, garden centres, pubs and information centres.

Copies of the Calendar can also be ordered for UK and overseas mailing at a small extra charge.  For further information and details of sales points visit this website or call the Campaign Office on 01279 870558 for details.

ENDS

FURTHER INFORMATION/COMMENT:
Ken McDonald, Leader of the Calendar Team, 01279 813226
Carol Barbone, Campaign Director, Stop Stansted Expansion M 0777 552 3091 and cbarbone@mxc.co.uk
Photographs showing Ken McDonald and his wife Janice amidst the thousands of calendars and also of the front cover of the calendar (featuring Thaxted Church) are available on request.  For jpeg copies, contact Carol Barbone M 0777 552 3091 and cbarbone@mxc.co.uk or Peter Riding on sse@webserve.co.uk