East Leake
HOUSING APPROVED. Despite an objection from East Leake Parish Council, the building of 51 houses on Rempstone Road in the village has been approved by Rushcliffe Parish Council.
While the Parish Council objected to the development, they requested that if the housing went ahead “the on-site play provision on the larger site caters by design for younger children and does not have much space to be extended to include facilities for older children, nor would it be appropriate to do so in this location.”
The Parish Council also said that East Leake’s central Neighbourhood Play Area for older children is on Gotham Road, providing a range of more challenging equipment. They requested that funds should be made available to the Parish Council to provide additional items of play equipment aimed at older children to be located on the Gotham Road Play area.
GCR BOOST. Volunteers on the Great Central Railway have been fighting back after vandals twice attacked an historic signal box on the northern section of the heritage railway at Hotchley Hill in East Leake.
Fund raising and public appeals have raised funds that have enabled the volunteers to carry out a number of vandal-resistant repairs and restorations to the signal box since the criminal damage last year.
Generous public donations enabled volunteers to install anti-vandal security doors at a signal box that was attacked twice in three weeks by teenagers.
The currently-disused signal box is in the process of being restored by volunteers on the heritage railway.
The signal box which is Art Deco in style replaced the original Great Central signal box when nearby sidings were extended in the late 1940s.
COUNCIL CO-OPTED. Four new members have been co-opted onto East Leake Parish Council following a wide-ranging advertising campaign.
The four new co-opted councillors are Richard Miller, Terry Rountree, Nich McGowan and Wendy Thompson.
HEALTH HUB. Residents of East Leake are being urged to support a bid to provide a new state of the art health and community hub in the village.
Leader of Rushcliffe Borough Council Simon Robinson has urged residents to support a Rushcliffe and NHS Clinical Commissioning Group bid to central government to provide the hub.
Mr. Robinson said: ”Bringing services together such as the local GPS, the pharmacy and the library will have huge benefits to the village and all the users of these services.”
Rushcliffe MP Ruth Edwards is also backing the bid and is urging residents to register their support by going to her website.
‘Back the bid’ flyers are also be delivered in the village so that residents can sign up to support it by post as well as on-line.
PLAY PARK. East Leake’s ‘super’ new play park on the Oldershaw Trust land on Costock Road side of the village is being very well used and has been so well received by youngsters making use of it.
The parish council undertook ambitious plans to develop the field left many years ago for the benefit of the youth of the village.
The Oldershaw Trust field on Costock Road had been “somewhat neglected” for several years but now that has been dealt with.
The Parish Council has responsibility for the land and it completed a survey in 2016, asking the local community to comment on ideas for the future of the field.
The Parish Council said they intended to create “a natural play area” for children aged between two and six years and have succeeded so well. The play equipment that the Council has provided followed a consultation with would-be users and was “designed especially for East Leake.”
And at the rear of the site which houses the modern play equipment trees are being grown which will eventually be used as a woodland walk for the children.
Two years ago East Leake Guides planted more than 200 trees in the rear half of the field and when the trees become more mature it is hoped that they will become “a fabulous area” where wildlife and insects thrive.
The Government set a target of 30,000 hectares of new woodland to be planted in England by 2025 and this tree planting is part of East Leake’s contribution to the initiative.
The parish council have told residents that if they witness any misuse of the area at any time they should make a report to the police by calling 101.
In the past the trees planted in the park had to be fenced off after some damage was caused by users of the area.
The Oldershaw Trust was set up in 1911 to provide “a recreation ground for the benefit of the inhabitants of the parish of East Leake in the interests of social welfare, with the object of improving the conditions of life of the said inhabitants.” The Parish Council is the Trustee of the land.
CHARITY TARGET. Youngsters from St. Mary’s Parish Church in East Leake exceeded their target by raising £2,400 for a local charity that supports homeless people
The Key Stage Three and Four Growing Deeper group spent six weeks walking, running, swimming, paddling, and cycling to clock up 2,000 miles to raise money for the Friary charity in West Bridgeford.
The 10 teenagers, plus two adults, aimed to raise a pound for every mile covered. All of them needed to cover 28 miles a week for each of the six weeks to meet their ambitious target of 2000 miles and £2,000
The youth group at St Mary’s were working together on “a Social action” project to raise the profile of the Friary in East Leake and the surrounding villages.
They wanted to inform and encourage people to pray for their work, raising funds to keep the Friary’s services going and collect urgently needed items of clothing and footwear for the many who access the services.
Founded in 1988, the Friary was created to meet the needs of the homeless in Nottingham. Open in those early days just once a week and run by volunteers, the Friary is now a UK registered charity maintaining its distinctly Christian ethos to serve the poor and opens its doors on the Musters Road, West Bridgford, 6 days a week.
Responding to the ever-changing complex needs of the homeless, the Friary has tailored its services into the extensive provision today. The ministry serves people who are hungry, in crippling debt, homeless, struggling with mental and physical ill-health, substance misuse and addiction, unemployment, illiteracy, domestic abuse and social exclusion.
Please help them attain (or exceed!) their goal of £2000 and support the Friary continue its valuable work.
Local people supported the youth group’s work by praying for the success of the youngsters adventure and the work of the Priory, by making donations to the St. Mary’s Youth Group and by donating items of clothing, such as trainers, track suit bottoms and men’s t-shirts for the work of the charity.
The giving page is still open for donations at www. justgiving.com/fund raising/ the-friary.
All those involved in the social action project – the youngsters themselves and the helpers – wish to thank everyone who has supported them “in prayer, financially and practically.”
NO OBJECTIONS. No objections have been raised by East Leake Parish Council Planning Committee members to an application to erect a single storey rear extension at 3 Redgate Place in the village.
MINISTER MAKES IMPACT. New Children’s and Families Minister at St. Mary’s Parish Church in East Leake is Jan Pate and she is already making an impact on the work of the church.
She only started work officially at the start of September but she has already re-started “kids’ church” in the Sunday services and has formed contact with a number of families in the village.
Jan has told parishioners in this month’s church magazine that she “grew up in Liverpool and started work there as a French and German teacher.”
She later retrained and worked with a Christian charity in several different countries in Africa.
Jan, who has three adult children and five grandchildren met her husband Dudley in Zimbabwe.
Jan says she is looking forward to re-starting a baby and toddler’s group and she has a longer term aim of visiting local schools.
HISTORY SOCIETY. Local history raises lots of questions and East Leake and District Local History Society have been busy trying to find answers during lockdown.
Interesting talks about Bradgate House and the Gray Family, Victorian Nottingham, the findings of archaeological dig at the Clifton Tram terminus, crime in medieval East Leake, and a Derbyshire Railway Outing using a 1920s timetable were the subjects of talks given by guest speakers via Zoom.
SKATEPARK ARTISTS. Artists have been encouraged to enter a competition to decorate the concrete skatepark in East Leake.
The skatepark is located on the Gotham Road Recreation Ground and East Leake Parish Council are looking for applications from local artists, organisations or groups to decorate the concrete skatepark.
There is no fixed theme for the decoration as the Council want to enable artists “to put their own stamp on it.”
The Parish Council said:” There is no fixed theme, to enable artists to put their own stamp on it. We would certainly welcome designs that incorporate some link to the site of the skatepark, be it to East Leake itself (this could be historical or incorporate features of the current village centre) or link to the natural environment of Meadow Park.”