County Councillor for Gartree
Latest on Devolution for Leicestershire
Three proposals for the re-organisation of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland were submitted to the government minister on 21 March 2025. These will need working up in detail, with full public consultation, for final proposals due in late November 2025.
Leicester City Council proposal
Consists of an expansion of unitary City Council boundaries to include adjoining suburbs and built-up areas to include Great Glen, Newton Harcourt, Wistow, Countesthorpe, plus Oadby & Wigston, together with other suburbs all around the city. The new city boundary would start halfway along Great Glen A6 bypass –so half a kilometre from the Kibworth Harcourt parish boundary!
Then one new unitary council for the remaining county and Rutland area.
Leicestershire County Council proposal
One unitary council for current county area, excluding Rutland.
Retention of city unitary with no boundary change.
Projected to save £30m per year which would be fed into frontline services. The current number of district and county councillors (238) would be reduced to 110 – 2 per current division, like Gartree.
Districts’ and Rutland proposal
Two unitary councils across current Leicestershire County/Rutland area. Retention of city unitary with no boundary change.
North Leicestershire to include North-West, Charnwood, Melton and Rutland. South Leicestershire to include Hinckley & Bosworth, Blaby, Oadby & Wigston and Harborough. Projected to save some £17.5m per year.
However, Rutland is also included in the South Lincolnshire proposals with Stamford and South Kesteven.
Local Bus changes
New arrangements for the local subsidised bus services started on 17 March. The Centrebus 44 service route has been shortened and is now the Centrebus LC4 service from Fleckney to Foxton via the Kibworths and Market Harborough. This means it no longer covers the Langtons or calls at the Harborough railway station.
The Langtons are now served by On-Demand Responsive Transport (DRT), run by FoxConnect, so residents can telephone or use an App to arrange to be collected; the advice is to make the booking at least a day in advance. Journeys will be confirmed via email and a text message can be configured to send booking reminders and to notify when the driver is on their way, or at the pick-up point.
At the moment, the new service for the Langtons does not link into the Kibworths for people wanting to access the South Leicestershire Medical Group, Kibworth Community Library, Kibworth Mead Academy etc. so the County Councillor Champion and I met with some parish councillors from the Langtons on 12 March and agreed by contact LCC to request that this situation is reviewed as soon as possible.
My Swan Song
After 24 years as the county councillor for this area – started as East Gartree Division and, after a couple of boundary changes, is now Gartree Division with 22 parishes, I am not standing for re-election on 1 May, so this is my last County Councillor column. There will be a new Gartree county councillor from 2 May 2025.
It has been a massive privilege being county councillor for the Gartree Division and I am incredibly grateful to all those who voted for me at six elections over the 24 years!
Kevin Feltham
Editor’s Note
Thank you Kevin for your informative column which we have been pleased to print over the past 24 years. We wish you well in your new chapter.
Moving House….
