East Leake
ATTACK. Police are investigating a serious incident involving an attack by a group of youths on others in the centre of East Leake on Friday night. A number of those involved received injuries.
In confirming the incident, police said of a group of friends were left injured after being attacked on their way home from their local pub.
The group had reportedly been catching up with friends, when at around 10.50pm they were met by a large group of teenagers on Main Street, East Leake.
A police officer said it was understood that after speaking to one of the teenage gang, one of the men is said to have been approached from behind by another member of the group and punched in the face.
Two men and a woman are said to have then escorted him home, and not long after it is believed that a large group of teenagers approached them as they were walking along Gotham Road.
It is alleged the teenagers then knocked them to the ground, stamped on one victim’s head, another’s chest and the leg of the third victim before running off.
The injured received treatment after the attack on them, with one of those injured have a swollen face, and the other bruised ribs and cuts. The injuries were not life threatening an d those involved are said to be now recovering.
Officers are now appealing for information and for anyone who saw the incident as they continue their investigation to contact them.
Detective Sergeant Julian Eminson-Ferry, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: “This is a report of an attack on a small group who were simply heading home from an evening catching up.
“Assaults are unacceptable and can ultimately cause serious and even lifechanging harm to those who are subjected to it.
COMMUNITY TESTING SITE. Residents in East Leake were given only one days notice by Rushcliffe Borough Council this week of a Rapid community testing site being available the village.
A community COVID-19 mobile testing unit was being sited on the Gotham Road car park from yesterday ( Tuesday) August 10 until tomorrow ( Thursday) from 9am to 3pm each day to provide residents with access to on the spot tests or lateral flow tests to complete at home.
No appointments are necessary at the testing sites and visitors will simply be asked to register to get their results whilst the lateral flow tests can be collected quickly and easily.
Around one in three people infected with COVID-19 show no symptoms at all and could potentially spread the disease without knowing it.
The tests on site only take a few seconds and results are delivered within 60 minutes directly to a smartphone. The test is designed to identify anyone who may have the virus and who may be, unwittingly, putting their colleagues or households at risk.
A reminder also that those who within three months of their 18th birthday can now receive a vaccination by walking into any vaccination site in Nottinghamshire for a COVID-19 jab.
Those 18 and over, can also get a vaccine without an appointment and those who have had their first dose 56 days ago (eight weeks) can walk in for their second dose.
You do not need to be registered with a GP or bring any ID but it will help to bring your NHS number, if you know it.
BOOST FOR SPORT PAVLION BID. Fund raising efforts for the proposed new sports pavilion on Costock Road sports field at East Leake was given a £1100plus boost thanks to the success of the revived Open Gardens and Scarecrow display.
The event, first held in 2019 but then not able to be on the village events calendar in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic, was back for this year, and brought lots of people to the streets of the village as well as visitors from the neighbouring area.
There were over 25 gardens open to welcome visitors, on Main Steet, Meeting House Close, Cornflower Way, Cowslip Close, Stonebridge Drive, Taftleys Road, Carlton Crescent, Angrave Road, Roulstone Crescent, Northfields Way, Manor Farm Meadow, Southwell Close, Bateman Road, West Leake Road, Sycamore Road, Pine Close, Yew Close, Sheepwash Way, Brookside Avenue and Burton Walk.
The many different types of gardens created a wonderful and very varied and interesting afternoons walk, ranging from the traditional to an old garden with wild meadow flowers and even a small wood, wildflower friendly gardens, a herb and veg garden, an Italian courtyard style with fountain, one with a pond, wormery and hedgehogs, one where a garden makeover with an artistic finish had produced an interesting result and one with tropical plants and perennials.
And to help make the tour even more interesting there were some superb very lifelike scarecrows to take ones interest. Refreshments were available at a number of the addresses
Local parish councillor and well known events leader in the village Mel Roper said she had visited the gardens and was amazed at the different varieties the village has to offer. And hardworking Jacquie Owen who had dealt with the arrangements and the entries, was understandably delighted with the support given to the event.
A stall offering maps showing all the addresses to visit was available at the Gotham Road Car Park where a team of volunteers were selling the programmes. .
And a new innovation for 2021 was a bus service which took passengers around the village to near most of the gardens that were open for visitors and about 50 people had made use of it.
In the two years the event has now made over £3000 for the pavilion rebuild fund.
CHRISTIAN AID WEEK. Despite many difficulties brought about by the Covid-19 situation, support for the annual Christian Aid Week in East Leake was still superb.
The village Christian Aid Committee says they would like to let everyone know that due to the huge effort made by hard working supporters this year, the total of £4,726.91 was raised for Christian Aid Week.
The figure topped the 2019 total by £2,145.54 which aid officials of the group was absolutely amazing, given that they were in the middle of the Pandemic!
The message from the committee is: “Well done to all of you who were involved in whatever way you chose to do. Your support is valued.”
FAREWELL TO CURATE. Parishioners at St. Mary’s Parish Church in East Leake have said “good-bye” to curate the Rev. Michael Allen and his wife Beth and family, who are moving to a new parish in Liverpool
The Rev. Allen is starting a new ministry at St. Philemon’s Church in Toxteth in Liverpool and as a leaving gift his East Leake friends bought him a family dining table.
The gift was bought “as a way to express our thanks for Michael’s invaluable ministry among us and to wish him and his family well for the future.”
LIBRARIES CASH SHORTFALL. The organisation which operates Nottinghamshire’s libraries was hit by more than £1.6 million in losses related to the pandemic in 2020-2021 but held on in part thanks to Government grants.
Inspire, the independent charity responsible for managing the service on behalf of Nottinghamshire County Council, estimates the financial implications from Covid-19 were around £1,636,000. Of the overall loss figure, £15,793 was the deficit in the running costs of East Leake library.
The overall loss figure for Nottinghamshire includes a slump in income of around £780,000, with the charity saying it could take until the end of the current financial year to completely recover.
The income losses come from services including libraries and archives, music teaching, education library services and adult learning fees, all of which were halted by the first lockdown in March 2020.
The charity estimates it has incurred a further £334,000 in additional costs, including making buildings Covidsecure and deploying ICT to enable staff and students to work from home.
In the remaining part of the financial year, additional income losses of £236,000 and further fees of £286,000 amount to an expected £522,000 hit before April 2022.
However, the organisation has revealed it managed to maintain its finances by applying for Government Covid grants to bring in lost income.
Since the start of the pandemic, the charity has received £506,000 from the job retention (furlough) scheme, helping to ensure none of its 688 staff faced redundancy.
It also received more than £1 million in Government business grants spread across its libraries and community arts centres, supporting with implementing Covid safety measures.
This includes £702,340 from the retail, hospitality and leisure grant, £168,900 in business rates relief and a further £163,342 from the restart grant.
It means, overall, thanks to the Government support, the organisation has only been hit with losses of around £95,000 since March last year.
Speaking on the financial pressures experienced by Inspire, the charity’s chief executive Peter Gaw described the pandemic as a “perfect storm” of lost income and extra costings.
He said: “We have quickly remodelled our budget to look at what the impact of Covid is on our finances.
“Our aspiration was to mitigate the potential of having to make staff redundancies or a reduction in services, and so we took advantage of Government retail and leisure grants, the business rates holidays and the job retention scheme.
“What we’ve been really careful to do is to make sure we only drew on funding that would meet our financial pressures, pressure caused by lack of income, the additional costs of making our sites Covidsecure, buying hand gel, PPE, screens and extra cleaning.
“It’s a perfect storm of income reduction and extra costs. We were careful and our board have been focused on balancing out.”
Libraries across Nottinghamshire began reopening their doors in July 2020 following the first lockdown, operating at reduced capacity and opening hours.
However, the organisation made adjustments to offer altered services – including moving its archives online and using technology to reduce face-to-face contact.
Mr Gaw confirmed many services are expected to begin operating at full capacity from September.
He said: “Our ambition is very much starting to return our opening hours and delivery services back,” adding that their, ambition is that by September we will be fully operational, but most of our libraries have got increasing levels of opening hours.
ST MARY’S CHURCH. Sing to God introduces new songs of worship at St Mary’s Church at East Leake.
For the past two months, a small choir has been singing hymns in the 9.15am Communion service at St Mary’s, as permitted under Covid regulations. The volunteer singers have managed two-part harmony and feedback from the congregation has been positive.
Says Richard Babington, Organist and Choirmaster, says he is very grateful to them for their efforts and attending a practice before each service.
“Looking forward to the resumption of communal singing in churches, both the Rector, Rev. Tim Parker and I are keen to re-establish a choir to lead the singing and to assist in widening the scope of music within the service, as well as being available for other church occasions”.
Mr Babington says if anyone is interested, both past and prospective members, please will they contact him in the first instance.
“An ability to sight read music would be an asset but is not essential. At this stage, applications will be welcome from anyone who has an interest in church music and likes singing. Eventually, we hope to develop a four-part harmony choir. Being part of a church choir is a wonderful way to develop your own faith through the medium of music as well as assisting the congregation towards the same objective”.
Mr Babington can be contacted on his mobile phone on 07970206606 or my Email: holmwoodrb@btinternet.com
MARKET SUCCESS. The successful move to bring a Village Market back into the East Leake list of its activities programme looks better month by month and if the present support for the event is maintained it has a steady future.
The parish council are giving their support to the by allowing their Gotham Road car park and playing field to be used, after the initial effort took place on the field.
The news of what seems certain for a continuing appearance of the market has been welcomed by the many local residents who supported the event when it was introduced last year when the initial efforts were made to bring a regular monthly market to the village.
A small group of East Leake residents joined forces with East Leake Traders and the Parish Council to get the project of the ground.
Volunteers were to run the market as a not-for-profit organisation, with any proceeds being used to improve the market and any excess funds donated to local charities.
The original opening event had to be postponed due to the pandemic lockdown, but the supporters did not give up and continued with their plans to bring a local artisan market for villagers on to the events map.
The first of what the organisers hoped would become a regular attraction took place last September being held as a twilight market from 3pm until 8pm with the aim of it becoming regularly held in 2021. Organisers successfully obtained support for their event from local artisan food and product traders.
Special thanks were at the time offered to local Rushcliffe Borough Councillor and parish council chairman Kevin Shaw for allocating funding to get the project off the ground and to the many people behind the scenes who had already donated so much of their time and professional expertise to the project.
The Market was trialled at the Gotham Road playing fields and in line with the then current Government guidance, the site featured stalls that aid social distancing and provide visitors with opportunities to browse a wide range of goods and produce in a Covid-19 secure environment.
Hayley Masom of photography studio Captcha in East Leake was at the forefront of initial efforts to coordinate the market for local people, serving on both the market committee and as a member of the Trader’s Association.
She said at the time it was exciting to be hosting this trial of East Leake Market, and we were anxious to find out what local residents thought of the concept and were looking to consider whether they could launch a more regular market in the village next year in the future. And they have.
The first attempt to hold the market was a great success, and residents were immediately calling for it to become a permanent feature of village activities. Several hundred visitors were at the first event and by the end of that day a number of stalls had posted ’Sold out’ notices. The layout of the market area, carefully produced because of the coronavirus pandemic situation, looked impressively attractive and dozens of the visitors were quick to complement the organisers.
The Market was given a five-hour trial on its first day and there was a constant stream of changing visitors who were able to visit a wide array of stalls offering local, fresh and homemade products. The event itself made its debut on to the village calendar after a four month delay due to the COVID-19 situation.
In line with current Government guidance, the site featured stalls that aided social distancing and provided visitors with opportunities to browse a wide range of goods and produce in a COVID secure environment. The next market is being held on September 10.
PLANS. Rushcliffe Borough Council have been asked for planning permission for the demolition of an existing conservatory, a single storey rear extension, and a replacement flat roof, at the property at 31 Bley Avenue East Leake
SUMMER TESTING. Parents in East Leake have been given a message from Notts County Council School’s saying that although schools are out for summer testing still remains an essential part of stopping the spread of coronavirus.
Say the County: “We should all keep up the good practice of continuing to take a rapid lateral flow test twice a week, if you don’t have symptoms. If you have symptoms of coronavirus you should take a PCR test.
“Parents and guardians should make sure that secondary school aged children continue with the twice weekly testing as they have done during term time. Tests can be collected from pharmacies, community collection points and ordered online for delivery to your home.
Don’t forget to report your results whether they’re negative, positive or void.”