Exhibitions have been arranged within the District of Blaby to give residents more detail on the Strategic Growth Plan.
Three separate events have been arranged, with information and officers available to answer questions about the draft plan, which has been developed by a partnership formed by Leicester City and Leicestershire County councils, the seven local borough and district authorities and the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership (LLEP).
Events will be hosted on the following days and locations:
Tuesday 27th February,
2pm-9pm, Council Chamber, Blaby District Council,
Desford Road, Narborough, LE19 2EP
The Strategic Growth Plan puts forward proposals for the new housing and transport improvements that would be needed to attract jobs and investment to Leicester and Leicestershire from now until 2050.
The final version of the plan will provide strategic direction and help shape the Local Plans that the city, borough and district councils are or will be preparing or reviewing.
It will also be used to support bids for Government funding to deliver the infrastructure needed to support growth.
At the end of the consultation period, responses on the Draft Plan will be considered and a final version of the Plan will be prepared during 2018.
The final version of the Plan will be used as a framework for preparing Local Plans.
Together with the Strategic Transport Plan and Local Industrial Strategy, the Strategic Growth Plan will be used as a bidding document to secure funding for essential infrastructure and services in the area
The family of a teenage boy who died after a non-stop collision in Leicester have made a heartfelt plea urging the public to help find the driver of the car.
Samuel Garner, 17, of Hamilton, Leicester was crossing Welford Road, outside HMP Leicester, with a group of friends when a black BMW 5 Series collided with him.
Samuel sustained serious injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene. A teenage girl sustained minor injuries.
The collision occurred just after 11pm on Sunday (1 May), the vehicle failed to stop at the scene and was last seen driving off towards Almond Road.
The BMW had been stolen from the Blaby area on Friday 29 April, it was subsequently found burnt-out in College Road, Whetstone around 3.45am yesterday morning (Monday 2 May).
Samuel’s parents Scott and Tracie Garner, urge the public to help find those responsible for the death of their son.
They said:
“Samuel was the perfect son, grandson and friend. He was thoughtful, loving and had a great sense of humour.
“He was due to turn 18 tomorrow and we were going to fly out to Prague this morning to celebrate.
“He loved watching wrestling and had achieved his second degree black belt in Taekwondo. He spent Sunday afternoon with his family watching the Leicester City match before heading into the city centre, wearing his white LCFC football shirt, with some friends to celebrate a friend’s birthday.
“He was looking forward to going to a nightclub for the first time and was a typical teenager who loved all sorts of music. His paternal grandparents, Glenn and Paula, had bought him tickets to see Kasabian at the King Power Stadium for his 18th birthday and he was due to start an apprenticeship next week.
“He was our world and will always be in our hearts. Help the police find who was responsible. If you’ve heard any rumours about who the driver was please come forward.”
Detective Sergeant Mark Partridge from East Midlands Serious Collision Investigation Unit, said:
“We are in the process of gathering as much information as possible about the collision and the events leading up to it.
“We would like to speak to anyone who may have seen the BMW prior to the collision.
“Did you see it driving around the city centre or have you heard any rumours about who the driver or the occupants are?
“Any information, no matter how insignificant it may seem, could help us find those responsible.”
If you can help please contact DC 1288 Paul Bingham on 101, quoting incident 727 of 1 May.
Leicestershire Police has unveiled Blueprint 2020 – a five year programme which will decide how to make significant savings and take the force into a new era of policing.
The force is facing unprecedented financial challenge.
The government has indicated that public sector organisations need to expect cuts of between 25% and 40%. For Leicestershire Police, this means further savings of between £17m and £28m.
The exact figure will not be known until the government’s Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) on 25 November. This is on top of savings of £36.1 million which the force made between 2010 and 2015.
Blueprint 2020 has been set up to look at how our future savings can be made and how the force will look, feel and operate in the coming years. Deputy Chief Constable Roger Bannister said;
“Leicestershire Police has a strong tradition of innovation and good performance. Crime is low, it is currently 26% lower than it was five years ago. We want to continue to perform well and give a good service but that has to be done with a much smaller budget and that does mean that things will have to change. We will have to become smaller, more efficient and smarter in how we operate if the force is to be more cost effective.
“As with any significant transformational programme there will inevitably be some difficult decisions to be made, but change is not necessarily bad. This is also about doing things differently and improving the way we do things to offer a different service that is still responsive to the needs of local communities.
“We know how important neighbourhood policing is to people in our communities and we are determined to keep officers at the heart of their communities by sharing buildings with other organisations.
Deputy Chief Constable Roger Bannister: Exploring “agile working”
“We are exploring ‘agile working’ – how our staff can be based in a range of buildings but still have access to police systems. This might mean that we close those police buildings which are too big and expensive to run. We are also looking to develop our online presence to increase the ways in which people can contact the police. We have to operate in a modern way and be accessible in a way that people expect today.
“No decisions have yet been made. We will continue to talk with the Police and Crime Commissioner; our staff; the trade unions and staff associations; our partners and our communities to gather their thoughts, ideas and suggestions as that will help influence and shape our decision making.”
The Blueprint 2020 team is looking at a wide range of ways to save money including the equipment we use, the vehicles we drive and the buildings we are based in. However, with 83% of our budget spent on salaries the force will inevitably need to operate with fewer officers and staff.
The team is also looking at how the force can take advantage of technology which can be used by the public, such as encouraging victims and witnesses to report and track crime on line and contact officers through online services.
Sir Clive Loader
Police and Crime Commissioner Sir Clive Loader said
“While I fully support the aims and ambitions of this programme, it’s the Chief Constable’s responsibility to design a force that will deliver my Police and Crime Plan notwithstanding the challenges posed by the budgetary situation.
“I am pleased to have been involved throughout the programme’s development and I feel certain that the force will inform and involve our partners throughout the future development and implementation phases.”
Five key themes
‘Blueprint’ has five key themes;
Investing in people – getting the right people with the right skills, developing the right culture and defining the shape and size of the force for the future.
Enabling the workforce – building a strong foundation for change. This work stream will look at agile working, police buildings, fleet and IT.
Understanding demand – helping us understand and reduce our demand, provide alternative ways to interact with the force, enable victims and witnesses to use technology to ‘self-serve’ by giving them a choice on how to report and track crime.
Partnerships and collaboration – working with partners to reduce demand in key areas, delivering more coherent shared services and better use shared data.
Services, functions and processes – redesigning how we work to be faster, more informed, more efficient and use technology to reduce costs.
For the latest updates on Blueprint 2020 please see the leics. police website at www.leics.police.uk
We did it! A true Underdog story as The Leicester City Ligers were crowned UKDBA National Dodgeball Champions for the first time in our History, writes Simon Moody.
The Leicester City Ligers Dodgeball team from The Enderby Dodgeball Academy ventured up to Sheffield for the UK Dodgeball National Championships, the biggest prize in UK Club Dodgeball.
The Ligers faced a group with the reigning champions The Meteors from Lutterworth, Northern Dodgeball League (NDL) rivals The Leeds Snipers and Irish team Kapow!
16 of the best teams from across the UK took part in this event. The Ligers were a wildcard entry after missing out on original qualification at the Midlands Qualifying event.
First up for the team was the reigning Champions The Meteors. The team were in full control from the start, accurate strong throws and exceptional catching from the Ligers lead to the team securing a very impressive 7-3 victory. A very big win and a great start to what was to be a memorable day.
The Ligers then followed up this win with 8-2 wins over Leeds and Kapow! The team were in control and confidence was high as we moved in to the Quarter finals against NDL rivals the Manchester Killer Bees.
A tight quarter final
This quarter final was exceptionally tight – the two teams had fought for the League title all season with the Ligers always getting the edge over their Manchester rivals. The match was tied at 4-4 and going in to the 5th and deciding game the Ligers were down to 1 player against 5 with 30 seconds to go.
Like something from Dodgeball The Movie, Jake Hurman took 2 stunning catches with Scotty Whitelaw hitting a player out which gave the Ligers victory! Jubilation followed as the team made it to their second National Semi final the last one being in 2008.
Next up for the team was Warwick University – 3 time Nationals Champions – who had recently been relegated to the NDL after years of being in the Dodgeball Premier League (DPL).
The confidence in the team was high and we felt unbeatable. The team took apart Warwick piece by piece with stunning catches, unbelievable Dodging and hits that were just devastating. The team were in full control and got in to their first Major Nationals Final after an 8-2 victory.
The final…
The final was against Leicester rivals The Minotaurs who also were in their first Nationals final and knocked out last years finalists The Bedford Eagles in the Semi finals and knocking out last years Champions The Meteors in the Quarters. The Minotaurs were overwhelming favourites for the match.
The Minotaurs took the first game with the Ligers winning the next 3 games to be 6-2 up in games. The Ligers were in control and the team were 1 game away from being crowned the National Champions when they had a minor setback with the Minotaurs taking the 5th game it was 6-4 to the Ligers.
The 6th and final game saw a changing moment. Richie Gray took two unbelievable catches and the team were 2 v 2 on players when Richie and Jake took down their last two players with accurate and strong throwing and won the National Championships!
(l-r) Top Row. Ben Lowen, Simon Moody, Richard Moody, Tom Mason, Shaun Scott, Bottom Row, Jake Hurman, Scotty Whitelaw, Robert Lee, Richard Gray
Celebrations
The scenes that followed were utter joy and celebrations! The team that qualified via the Wildcard Playoffs became the first team to win The Nationals as a wildcard entrant and a complete outsider to take the National Trophy home.
This season the team have won the North Division League 1 Title, The Wildcard Tournament, The East Midlands Christmas Trophy and The UK National Championships!
Quote from the Captain Simon Moody:
“ The Nationals title win caps off an incredible season after winning the League Title.
“A dream come true and so proud of how well the team has played all year.
“We felt after the Meteors win at the group stage anything was possible. Its taken 9 years of hard work, but we finally did it! A true Underdog story.
“We overcame the reigning National Champions, the Meteors, in our group – along with Kapow and Leeds Snipers.
“We then progressed to the quarter finals where we faced Manchester Bees in a very close match where we won in the last dying seconds.
“We then overcame a semi final match against Warwick University followed by a great final against fellow Leicester Rivals the Leicester Minotaurs.
“The team are delighted to add this silverware to our Christmas Open, NDL 1 North League Title and Wild Card Playoff.”
Leicester’s Hospitals will celebrate World Kidney Day on Thursday 13 March 2014, by encouraging people to decorate trees at Leicester General Hospital with messages from kidney patients, kidney donors, family members and staff.
The ‘wishing trees’ will be the centrepiece at the event which hopes to raise awareness of kidney disease, its treatment and the organ donor register.
The event is being organised by Leicester Hospitals Charity, Kidney Care Appeal.
Speakers at the event will include senior renal medical staff and renal patients.
Mercury Carer of the Year, Avril Patel [Photo: Leicester Mercury]A special World Kidney Day cake will be cut by the Leicester Mercury’s Carer of the Year, Avril Patel.
In the UK, 3000 transplants were carried out in 2012-2013. Over 6000 people are currently waiting on the organ donor register for kidneys. In Leicester, 510 people are currently waiting for a kidney.
“This year we want to highlight the number of people waiting for a kidney transplant. We hope that the wishing trees will provide a visual reminder of the benefits kidney transplantation brings to peoples lives.”
Volunteers will also cycle 100 metres for every Leicester’s Hospitals patient who has had a transplant or is currently waiting for one.
Ms Reeves added:
“We want to encourage more people to learn about kidney disease and its implications, motivating them to join the national Organ Donor Register. This will mean that more transplants can go ahead.”
A donor information and registration stand will be in the hospital’s main restaurant on the day. Live entertainment will be provided by musician, Neil Segrott and friends.
The event takes place from 12pm until 3.30pm on the lawn at the rear of Leicester General Hospital.
