Village news
East Leake Mike Elliott 0115 937 6506 elliottnews@btconnect.com
HARD TO CHALLENGE
HOUSING PLANS. Following strong concerns expressed by many residents on the outcome of a planning appeal concerning housing on a site at Rempstone Road in their parish, East Leake Parish Council has investigated options for challenging the outcome of that decision but initial advice to them is that it will not be successful.
The council say they had a meeting with officers of Rushcliffe Borough Council and pressed them hard to challenge the outcome.
Their response was, say the parish council, that after seeking legal advice, and as they don’t have a 5-year housing land supply, the matter becomes a matter of balance and judgment, and they do not think it likely that that a judicial review -- i.e. legal challenge -- would be successful.
The Borough Council has previously been slammed by the Parish Council for its failure to provide the five-year housing land supply required by the government.
The criticism from the parish comes at a time when housing development is the leading topic of conversation in East Leake as more and more houses are appearing on the scene.
Rushcliffe has not, say the parish council, allocated sites at the urban edge of Nottingham that can be progressed in the required timescale, so policies for supply of housing in their Local Plan are considered “out of date”. East Leake’s Neighbourhood Plan, only adopted 2 years ago, is part of the local plan and so its housing policies are also deemed to be out of date.
The Borough Council initially refused planning permission for 235 houses on a site off Rempstone Road on the edge of the parish, but this decision was overturned at appeal by a Planning Inspector earlier this month, meaning that the houses can be built.
In a statement from the parish council given to the Echo, they said much of Rushcliffe was protected by Green Belt legislation, including most of the other larger villages and towns, so while the bulldozers are running riot in East Leake, very little new housing is happening in Keyworth, Radcliffe on Trent, and Ruddington. Cotgrave has some but nothing like as much as East Leake.
The Inspector who took the Inquiry remarked in his report that Rushcliffe “did not update its housing land supply position for the appeal and there is, therefore, no firm evidence before me of any progress in relation to the housing land supply since the last appeal. Nor is it demonstrated how the trajectory set out in Policy 3 will be achieved over the coming years”.
He also criticized a recently published report produced by Rushcliffe which assesses the impact on the landscape of building on various potential sites, finding the evidence supplied by the developer more reliable.
Chairman of the Parish Council, Conrad Oatey, said he was furious with Rushcliffe’s planning department, saying, “Rushcliffe are hanging East Leake out to dry with their incompetence. The inspector has highlighted several failures to produce adequate evidence for the appeal. Rushcliffe are dithering endlessly about part 2 of their Local Plan, which can only be described as ‘ Too Little, Too Late’. “Who is being held to account there for all this ineptitude? The effect on our village is devastating. “
CHANGE OF TIME FOR HISTORY SOCIETY. There is a changed starting time for the next meeting of East Leake and District Local History Society.
It takes place at St Mary’s Hall on Wednesday next week, January 17, and will start at 2pm.
Chris Weir will give a talk on ‘Nottinghamshire in the time of Jane Austen’.
THE BEST GIFT. “Live Explored - What’s the best gift God could give you?” is the title of as series of meetings organised by St Mary’s parish church at East Leake and which start tomorrow, Thursday January 11.
The Rector, the Rev Tim Parker explains that ‘Life Explored’ is an informal and relaxed course for anyone who wants to find true contentment in life.
It starts tomorrow at 7.15pm and will run for seven consecutive weeks and will be staged at the Rectory, 3 Bateman Road. Says the Rev Tim: “The evening begins with cheese and wine. The course is a mix of videos and live input. You don’t need to know anything about the Bible, you won’t be asked to pray or sing. You can ask any question you like, or you can just sit and listen.
To sign up or for more information, text or call Revd. Tim on 07963 550964 or the Curate the Rev Michael Allen on 07928 630557or click on the link www.eastleakefaith. org
RESPECT FOR SCHOOL UNIFORM. Pupils attending East Leake’s Lantern Lane school have been reminded by head teacher Mrs Jane Butler of some of the key expectations they have, with one being in respect of school uniform which the head says should be worn every day they attend.
In message top pupils and their parents, Mrs Butler says: “If this is not possible for any reason, please feel free to come and discuss this with me,” adding that the children are reminded on a regular basis of the school uniform expectations.
“The children should arrive ready to go into school at 8.40 am. Children who are here on time are much readier to learn than those who are repeatedly late. If your child is late we will expect to be give a good reason as to why this is happening.”
Mrs Butler says they expect all children in school every day, but if a child is ill, parents are asked to please let the office know each day they are absent. In the message to parents, Mrs Butler says: “Attendance is tracked, and you will be informed if your child falls below the expected 95% attendance figure and relevant actions will be taken. Children should come to school each day with their book bag, partnership book and their drinks bottle. The bottle should only contain water unless there is a medical reason why this is not possible. Unless it is asked for specifically, nothing else is needed for school. This will hopefully reduce upset when ‘precious’ items get lost.”
Mrs Butler has praised everyone at the school -- staff and pupils – for being positive.
COMMUNITY CINEMA. Community Cinema films continued to be shown at East Leake St Mary’s Church on the second Saturdays of a month and continue until March.
The dates for the coming ones in the series are 13th January, and 10th March. Doors open at 6.30pm with refreshments available, and the films start at 7.00pm.
On 10th February, there will again be a Family Special. Doors open at 5.30pm and the PG certificate film starts at 6.00pm.
Copyright restrictions for free-entry Community Cinemas prevent the listing of the titles in other than the place where the films are to be shown, posters are inside church and in the porch showing details of this season’s films.
Round up your family and friends and come along to enjoy the features in full HD on the big screen with surround sound is the message from the church.
ELAP MEETING. The annual meeting of the highly rated East Leake Amateur Players’ group, ELAPs for short, will be held on Thursday this week, January11. It will take place in the village hall and start at 7-30pm.
The next production of the group will be the play ‘ The Rise and Fall of Little Voice’ by Jim Cartwright from May 17 to 19.
SEWING MACHINE SKILLS. Being taught Sewing Machine skills will be on offer from a practical crafts course being organised in East Leake by the local Workers’ Educational Association and to be held in St Mary’s Parish Church.
Five meeting sessions will be held on Thursdays from January 18 to February 15, with the two-hour sessions starting each afternoon at 1-45pm.
The course will teach basic sewing machine skills but there will also be a welcome to anyone who is a more experienced sewer and can be given help with their own projects. The tutor will be Rebecca Spear.
Further information can be obtained from 01509 268636.
HOW THE GERMANS DO IT. Pupils at East Leake Brookside School had a different slant on part of their festive activities as they saw how German schoolchildren would be marking the day.
And a letter sent to parents to explain what was happening had its own German flavour. beginning Liebe Eltern and explaining that this was translated to being Dear Parents, and were approved as circulated and signed by the chairman told that pupils in Key Stage 2 – years three to six - learn German within the curriculum and in line with the teaching of German, this year they are celebrating three German cultural days during the year.
The first was Nikolaustag (St Nicholas’ Day) at the start of December, with the youngsters being told in many areas of Germany, on the 5th of December and in keeping with the tradition of St Nikolaus, children leave clean shoes or boots by their windows or outside their doors. The next day they awake to find they have been filled with gifts and goodies – so long as the children have been well behaved! The tradition shows St Nikolaus, and the children’s parents, that a clean pair of shoes means the children have indeed been well behaved.
The pupils were given an explanation about this Nikolaustag tradition and encouraged to go to school on Wednesday 6th with clean shoes— so that they too could share some St Nicholas’ Day treats, such as Lebkuchen and Spekulatius biscuits. The children in KS1 had also been practising ‘O Tannenbaum (O Christmas Tree)’, while the older children had been practising ‘Stille Nacht (Silent Night)’ to sing to one another. During the week the children were approved as circulated and signed by the chairman also doing some follow up work in class in relation to St Nikolaus and German Weihnachten (Christmas) customs.
FIRE STATION PROPOSALS. Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service chief officer John Buckley has put forward proposals for how fire stations – and for those staffed by Retained firefighters such as East Leake – should operate.
In his message, Mr Buckley says that the recruitment and retention of their retained, on-call firefighters is a priority for them.
“The diminishing numbers of these personnel available to us during the day, means that, where a retained appliance has less than four crew members available, it is unable to respond to any type of incident, regardless of proximity or scale, or in support of other appliances.”
He says that the Fire Authority is now proposing to enable retained crews of less than four to be available to attend smaller, lower risk incidents “We believe this will enable us to maximise our on-call resources, improve retention and present a more sustainable future for our retained firefighters,” says Mr Buckley.
The Chief Officer says the proposal to introduce Alternative Crewing would apply to all retained duty system stations.
Mr Buckley says he is convinced the move will create faster response times and says as an example, if alternative crewing had been available during 2016, they would have attended 75 incidents faster, resulting in a more efficient use their resources.
WOMEN’S GROUP. The new season of meetings for East Leake St Mary’s Women’s Group begin on Monday next week, 15th January when Mike Lister will be talking to them about ‘ The History of Playing Cards’. Subscriptions will be collected for 2018 at the meeting.
Visitors are always welcome to attend the meetings at £2.50, including coffee and biscuits.
The January lunch is on Wednesday next week, January 17, at the Rancliffe Arms, Bunny. Anyone wanting to go must give their name to Bernice on 01509 853223.
Further information about meetings can be obtained from Sue on 01509 820386 or Margaret on 01509 853619.
SANTA FLOAT TOTAL. The Rotary Santa Float completed it’s tour of the villages before Christmas and thanks to the generosity of local people, more than £4,000 was raised which will be distributed to local and international charities and worthy causes. Look out for more news.
POLICE CONTACT POINT. A SMALL group of residents met at the Police Contact Point at the end of October to celebrate 20 years of the East Leake Police Volunteer Support group and to mark the end of the service.
Opening in early 1998 with the support of local officers the group had two linked objectives, giving residents regular access to a Police enquiry point while enabling officers to spend more time patrolling.
While, over the period the volunteers involved have changed the longest serving member in October had provided 15 years of continuous service. Records show that the facility provided by the group has been staffed consistently and the facility well used. Although the nature of the help and assistance provided to fellow residents remains confidential, it has ranged across a full spectrum of Police and related areas. Probably the most appreciated by local residence will have been the ability of the group to provide a location where found items can be reported and very regularly reunited with their owners.
The facilities available in the Fire Station preclude the group from continuing a public “walk-in” form of service and consequently the group have disbanded. Police and Crime Commissioner Tipping at a meeting in December reflecting on the transfer to the Fire Station said that the savings accrued to the closing of the Contact Point at Parkside Works would be modest, but that every little helped as police funding decreased. Such savings would enable the force to maintain Police numbers and invest in new technology.
Sileby
SILEBY METHODIST CHURCH. We had a lovely Christingle Service at 2pm on Sunday, December 24, with Rev Jonathan Gichaara encouraging us to make our Christingles, then telling the story behind them. We sang lots of carols and we enjoyed the fellowship surrounding this time of the year.
On Sunday, December 31, John Pipet was our preacher and he went to a lot of trouble explaining and showing us how the Temple was set out and operated during the time when Jesus was presented there and an offering made as He was dedicated to God. Terry Lock very kindly played the piano for us and, altogether, it was a lovely service. Thank you both.
This last week saw Cafe@ Chapel open as us usual from 9.30am -11am on Thursday, January 4. We closed a little earlier than usual as it was rather slow.
The ladies opened again on Saturday, 6th and we wish all our friends who support us all best wishes for the New Year. Thank you all so much for coming along so faithfully each week.
Sunday, 7th, saw Margaret Williams visiting to bring the Word of God to the congregation at the 10.45am service. As it was such a bitterly cold day, we held the service in the hall at the rear of the building which gets lovely and warm and some of us were able to take out outer clothing off! We think we will continue using this hall for Sunday services during the winter, so much more practical, and we can hear God’s word without shivering.
Margaret spoke about journeys and how the Jewish nation had been scattered throughout the known world and was brought back to Palestine as God had promised after they had repented of their sins. She continued with the journey the Wise Men made to worship our Saviour, Jesus Christ.
It would have taken possibly years to organise and carry out and then caused consternation in the Court of King Herod and Jerusalem. We did not have a pianist but managed to enjoy the lovely hymns, singing unaccompanied.
Next week, January 14, will see Rev Michael Lees preaching and we look forward to welcoming him at the 10.45am service.
Mountsorrel
ST PETER’S PARISH CHURCH. All are warmly invited on the morning of Sunday, January 14 ( The Second Sunday after The Epiphany) to the Parish Church of St Peter (Market Place) Mountsorrel for a traditional celebration of Parish Communion (with Epiphany Hymns) at 10am.
The celebrant will be the Parish Priest and the Eucharist will be followed by coffee/tea in the Antill Vestry.
Gotham
MYTH OR REALITY. The next meeting of the Gotham & District Local History Society will be held on Thursday, January 18, in the Cheese Rollers Room of the Memorial Hall at 7.30pm. Mr. John Whitfield will be giving a talk: Invasion 194 - Myth or Reality.