East Leake
MOTHERS UNION. Despite lockdown and other Covid-19 restrictions, members of St. Mary’s Parish Church Mothers’ Union have remained in contact over the past few months.
Members have remained connected with each other through frequent telephone calls, weekly emails as all but one of the groups has an email address and in August through mini garden parties in several different gardens, with small groups of members gathering together.
Looking to the future, group leaders say it is difficult for them to know when they will be able to meet again as a branch.
But they say that they do know that they will continue to stay connected, to support and encourage each other and to pray.
SECURITY DOORS. Volunteers on the historic Great Central Railway are raising funds for high-security doors to protect a disused signal box at East Leake following two attacks by vandals.
So far, the funding campaign for extra security at the Hockley Hill signal box has raised £215.
Organisers say:” This is a significant sum for a small project, and we are very grateful to everyone who has contributed. Thank you!”
A further £185 is needed for a door on the locking room. Organisers commented on their Facebook page: “Security doors are expensive, but without them the signal box will be lost to vandals. Can you help us reach the target?”
As volunteers started a project to restore the signal box to its former glory, teenage vandals struck twice within a matter of weeks.
Police from Rushcliffe appealed for information about the “mindless destruction” of the heritage signal box .
A police spokesperson said: “At around 14.30 on Saturday, August 22 three white male teenagers aged 14 to 15 years, two with bicycles, were recorded on CCTV walking along the railway line from the station at Gotham Road to the railway signal box.”
A door was forced on the ground floor followed by “mindless destruction of items” in the ground floor room. The intruders then went up to the first floor and removed boards leaving “dangerous holes in the floor.”
The activity was recorded on CCTV at the British Gypsum factory which is adjacent to the site of the signal box.
In early September a second break-in occurred. A police spokesperson said: ”Heavy floorboards were unscrewed and removed leaving a very deep pit open.”
A screwdriver left at the scene by the offenders was examined for fingerprints and DNA and the police viewed CCTV of the incident.
Police said: “There is currently no electricity or lights at the signal box so the removal of the floorboards could easily have caused serious injury or death to one or more of the volunteers.”
Although officially classified as a heritage line, the Great Centra line is still used by the local British Gypsum factory. The police spokesperson said: “It is therefore, like all active railway lines, a very dangerous place for anyone to trespass on.”
Local residents in East Leake and the surrounding area were asked to help to identify the youths involved in these incidents.
The police asked local parents and carers to remind their children of the dangers of trespassing on railway property.
For the second attack, it is understood intruders used a rail chair from the lineside to help them force entry into the locking room where they caused chaos, including ripping up part of the operating floor above.
And later they returned again and attempted to lift the boards over the concrete pit at the front of the building.
The vandals’ motives are beyond those involved in dealing with the attacks. ”So far as we can tell, nothing much was stolen, and they could have caused more damage had they wanted to. Nonetheless, we cannot
possibly progress with our ambitions for the building without basic security.”
The first priority in the repair work was to re-attach the locking hasps for the gate, and to patch-up the locking room floor.
The Hotchley Hill team were joined by a member of the Rushcliffe Halt team, and between them have now returned the building to roughly the level of security it has had for the past year.
The spokesman for the Hotchley Hill team says the building is as secure as it has been for the past year but admits that is patently not good enough. “We need to move faster, and for that, we need to make the best possible use of resources.
To allow the Hotchley Hill project to proceed, its team is looking for more than £400 to purchase a high-security steel door, to fit to the entrance to the locking room, behind the present gate and £200 for a contractor to assemble and fit a fireproof steel-clad door to the old battery room.
The volunteers are now appealing for the remainder of the funding needed to up-date the security at the signal box.
PRIVATE PRAYER. St Mary’s Parish Church in East Leake is open for private prayer every Sunday afternoon between 1pm-4pm.
Hand sanitiser points have already been installed in church and a simplified layout adopted to enable social distancing.
To ensure that people sit in chairs that have not previously been used that day, the Church is using a ‘traffic light’ card system. Chairs with green cards are unused; visitors are then asked to turn the card over so others will know not to sit there.
The government guidance is very clear that the new rules are intended only to permit personal prayer in church, and any form of social gathering is still prohibited.
Please do ensure that we observe silence in the church and the area around the porch.
The government guidance permits people to come into church with members of their own household, but they are asked not to move the chairs as these have been spaced out in order to comply with the regulations.
Digital Worship takes place every Sunday on the church website, Facebook and YouTube, with a main service streaming at 10am and evening prayer at 6pm.
To help the church manage numbers they ask would-be attendees to ring 01509 559702 to ‘book in’ a place or use the form on the website.
St Mary’s is open daily for private prayer most days of the week - though the church will be shut on Wednesdays, after communion, to allow for cleaning between services.
Home Groups: Those who are not part of a group but would like to join one, or just find out more about them, please contact Michael Allen (curate@ourbenefice.org).
Every year, Anglican churches are required to hold an annual meeting of church members in order to review the past year’s activities/ finances and elect Churchwardens/PCC members.
The meeting for St Mary’s had been scheduled for earlier in the year but for obvious reasons, was not held. In order to fulfil their legal requirements, and to give the opportunity to hold elections for wardens/PCC, the meeting has been rescheduled for Monday evening next week, October 26.
POWER FAULT. Around 200 properties—private homes and businesses -- in East Leake were without power after a high voltage supply fault caused a problem.
Western Power said the areas of the village affected were in the post cod areas of LE12 6XD, LE12 6XP, LE12 6XH, LE12 6UZ, LE12 6XA, LE12 6UY, LE12 6XZ, LE12 6XJ, LE12 6XY, LE12 6YP, LE12 6AP, LE12 6XF, LE12 9TA, LE12 6SY, LE12 6PX, LE12 8UG, LE12 9SY, LE12 5HB, LE12 6XG .
The supplies were affected for around four hours.
HOUSING PROBLEMS. The housing increase that East Leake has suffered in recent years - and is still experiencing - has presented some problems, not the least being the pressures on school places and other aspects in the village such as the medical services, it has not been all bad news, and this was pointed out by new parish council chairman Coun. Kevin Shaw when he presented his Management Committee report earlier in the year.
In that report he said: “I know some people don’t like me saying this, but there is a benefit from the explosion of new buildings in the village in that there are now more rate payers to spread the burden. For your information the Tax Base in January 2014 was 2286 and in January 2020 it was 3180.”
The next figure due to be produced by Rushcliffe Borough Council is expected to show another slight increase.
The role of the Management Committee is to monitor Internal and External controls and procedures of the Parish Council, to review income and expenditure against budgets and to prepare a draft budget each year for approval by the council.
The Committee is made up of the Council Chairman and Vice-Chairman, the Chairman and Vice Chairman of Amenities and Planning Committees plus two members elected from the rest of the Council.
The Local Authority elections in May 2019 resulted in a dramatic change to the makeup of the Parish Council, with 7 new young Councillors being elected.
The new Council did, of course, have to work with the Budget set by the previous administration, but a brainstorming session early on in the term produced over 20 new schemes that the new Council felt would improve the village for young and old alike.
We could not adopt all these schemes immediately without a massive increase in the Council Tax, but they have been prioritised and will be introduced as and when funding permits.
PCC MEETING. Church activities and accounts will be reviewed at the annual Parochial Church Council meeting at St. Mary’s Parish Church in East Leake next Monday (October 26).
Church wardens, the Parochial Church Council and Deanery Synod members for the coming year will also be elected at the meeting.
The meeting is part of the Church’s legal obligations as a charitable body and so is exempt from the ‘rule of 6’. However, it will be conducted with strict social distancing protocols and kept as short as possible, probably less than 20 minutes.
In order to prepare for the meeting, the Church’s Electoral Roll - a list of church members - is being revised. If parishioners on the roll last year their names will still be included on the new year’s roll, but parishioners who are new to the church, or just want to confirm that their names are included are asked to email office@ourbenefice. org to confirm.
Nominations are invited, especially for those who wish to serve on the PCC, the main body which oversees the life and future direction of our church family.
Forms are available in church, and the clergy would love to talk more with anyone considering if this might be a way parishioners’ feel they are called to serve the church family and God’s mission in South Nottinghamshire
ADMISSION DETAILS. Notts County Council have given information to parents and carers in East Leake details of admission arrangements for community and voluntary controlled schools 2022-2023. The period of consultation began earlier this month and continues to November 29.
The County Council’s consultation available to those in the village affected invites them to give their views about the proposed admission arrangements for community and voluntary controlled schools in the county for 2022-2023. Background information Admission authorities.
There are different types of schools in Nottinghamshire. The County Council is the admission authority for community and voluntary controlled schools, meaning they are responsible for the admission arrangements for these schools.