A Harold Hill delivery company is to play a key role in providing households across the UK with a special Millennium gift candle to commemorate the birth of Christianity.

Business Express, which is based in Spilsby Road, has won the contract to deliver the candles from the producers to churches across north London and Essex, from where they will be distributed to individual households.

The initiative, known as New Start 2000, is the brainchild of Churches Together, a group representing Christians of all denominations.

The candles will be accompanied by a text which reads: "Let there be respect for the Earth; peace for its people; love in our lives; delight in the good; forgiveness for past wrongs, and from now on a new start."

Organisers hope that people across the country will light the candle at midnight on the eve of the new Millennium, to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.

Allan Gutteridge, general manager at the Business Express Romford depot, said: "We are very pleased to win this contract, and I am very happy that we in Harold Hill will be doing our bit.

"It is a big order, but we currently deliver between seven-and-a-half and eight thousand parcels a day across Essex and north London, so I'm sure it will be no problem for us."

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