As most of you know my wife, Judith, and I have been living part-time in the US. As have many people in the US, have we’ve been using a private neighbourhood messaging system to keep in touch with our neighbours without the privacy issues with Facebook or similar open messaging systems. It is now one of the fastest growing networks in US and Canada.

It lets you communicate with your neighbours, who may or may not be your “friends” in Facebook sense. I’ve now set up a Neighbourhood Wing site and sent an invite to anyone within the boundaries of Wing if you have ever sent me an email and still live in Wing.

If you have received an email from me inviting you to join just click on the big green button. If you haven’t received an email it’s just because we haven’t swapped emails in the last 16 years and you can click on the Neighbourhood Wing site anyway to join.

It’s yet another attempt at trying to recreate the village atmosphere that we had 16 years ago when I first moved here. As a member, you can use it to find help from your neighbours, buy and sell stuff, ask for advice etc. You can even set up groups for more privacy and I’ve set up SAMPLE groups for the Wing Neighbourhood Plan and the Wing Village Hall Committee.

There is a website at https://wingoakham.nextdoor.co.uk/ but if you are web-averse, as some of you very understandably are, the messages are available by good old steam email.

It fits between using the website, which used mainly as a noticeboard, and email, which is mainly 1:1 and can be totally private. It’s like an electronic version of meeting at the village shop but without the need to leave your fireside and go out in the rain to pick up the latest gossip.