Delivering the best in news to you (From Gazette Series)

Delivering the best in news to you

THE Gazette is THE local newspaper for the Cam and Dursley, Thornbury and Yate and Chipping Sodbury areas.

The paper has established enviable links with its communities during its 128-year history. Since 1878, the Gazette has had many faces and changed numerous times to evolve with the times.

Today, the three-edition weekly paper boasts a wide range of news, sport, features and information about what is going on in your local area. We strive to mix the week's most important news stories with heart-rending and insightful features on the people behind the news.

And the paper is keen to publicise the work of local charities and individuals fundraising for all sorts of difference causes.

Just on Saturday, three Gazette reporters took to their bikes to cycle to success and raise money for Yate and District Rotary Club's appeal to help for Hearing Dogs for Deaf People in its annual static bike race.

Every week we keep you abreast of church services in all our towns and villages and welcome reports on groups and organisations' meetings. Readers are also encouraged to share their views on a news story or event through our letters pages.

The Gazette has campaigned on your behalf on local issues affecting you and your community.

We helped Rednock School in Dursley win a £20million Government grant, saved Dursley car park from closure and most recently helped keep Dursley Community Centre open by calling on the people of the town to take up posts on the centre's management committee.

In Thornbury, the Gazette started a campaign to save the town's beloved pump from becoming desolate after it was announced there was no money left to keep it blossoming with flowers. We have also been fervent supporters of the town's Arts Festival and the successful community venture Thornbury FM, publishing its listings ahead of each week it broadcasts.

The Gazette was first with news on the future of Yate and Chipping Sodbury's three secondary schools during a long and difficult consultation period last year.

This week sees your chance to vote for your favourite pet in the region, which will soon be crowned the Gazette's own Pet Idol. Each and every year parents are given the chance to enter their child in the Gazette's Baby of the Year competition, which last year saw hundreds of entrants and even more votes!

The paper was redesigned last year, making it easier to find the articles that interest you, and keeping the Gazette up-to-date. Our websites - www.thisisthesouthcotswolds.co.uk for the Dursley area and www.thisissouthglocuestershire.co.uk for Thornbury and Yate and Sodbury - have also recently been relaunched and are now more accessible than ever. Photographs, taken by our own snapper, are now available to buy online whether they appear in the paper or not. And readers can now choose their favourite picture - whether it be the might Concorde making its last flight or your child in his or her first school photograph featured in our Reception Class pictures - and have it reprinted on a mouse mat, mug or puzzle.

The Gazette is here for you - but don't forget we rely on our readers to tell us what is happening so get in touch today: For Dursley call reporters Liza-Jane Gillespie or Jamie Dunkley on 01453 544000 or e-mail reporters@dursleygazette.co.uk For Thornbury call Jeff Weaver on 01454 411459 or e-mail thornbury@dursleygazette.co.uk For Yate and Chipping Sodbury call Hannah Swingler on 01454 416598 or Alex Ross on 01454 416049 or e-mail sodbury@dursleygazette.co.uk ends