County Councillor for Gartree – September 2020
Kibworth Get Active Day
I attended the very successful Warwick Park activities for most of the day on Sunday 6 September.
The whole event was planned at very short notice, once approved by Kibworth Beauchamp PC and the Joint Recreation meetings in mid August, and then further financial support agreed by Kibworth Harcourt Parish Council on 27 August.
Kibworth Beauchamp Parish Council approved some indoor sports events for young people to be held by Fiesta Sports Coaching in the Grammar School Hall earlier in the year, but that was all postponed due to lockdown.
The opportunity to change the venue to outdoors, to compress the coaching activities into one day, and make many of them for all ages, came only a couple of weeks before the actual event day.
Clearly the event couldn’t have taken place if the weather had not been kind, and also without the incredible energy and enthusiasm from the Fiesta staff who led the various activities.
The input by the parish clerk and deputy clerk, both in making arrangements with the local 1st Kibworth Scouts, and on the day was fantastic.
Lots of photos were taken on the day and are on various Facebook pages.
See also:
Annual event?
There have been a number of requests for this to become an annual event. The funding for this year came from the already agreed budget for the indoor sessions which were postponed, and some other grant money obtained to help with coronavirus issues and actions, as well as a little from the two parish councils’ reserves.
So thoughts for making this an annual event will need some careful discussion, consideration of where specific funding could be found, seeing if other local sports groups and the schools want to be involved, and then finding a day or two with good weather, of course.
Kibworth RHWS
I hope residents are managing to sort out the online registration and booking appointment system www.leicestershire.gov.uk/popular-now/book-a-waste-site-appointment for taking their waste to the Kibworth tip.
I’ve used it once and am planning on another visit soon. Apparently over 150,000 visits have been made in total by residents to all of the county’s sites.
The appointment system will stay in place for all 14 sites for some time yet as the county council want to avoid queuing, especially for Kibworth on the A6 if people were able to just turn up as it was before the coronavirus lockdown.
Two visits in every two weeks are now available and this should rise to three visits every two weeks shortly.
‘Fred’
Stephen Robert Lewis Winter (aka ‘Fred’) has been a recognisable village character in his hi-vis jacket for many years in the Kibworths and Fleckney.
I was very sad to hear of his passing on Sunday 6 September in one of his favoured haunts – the Smeeton Road Recreation ground.
I’ve passed the time of day with him many times usually on the bench near the Co-op on High Street.
A great many tributes have been circulating on social media and the crowd funding bid surpassed the original target within 24 hours.
I was pleased to hear that his family have now been contacted and will be involved in the distribution of the crowd funds.
If the parish council is approached about any way to remember him, then I’m sure any request will be discussed and decisions made in concert with his family.
Local coronavirus cases
This last few days have seen an increase in the cases of coronavirus across the UK but also in the county. Although Oadby & Wigston and Melton boroughs have both had increases, the cases in these districts have fallen again. Blaby and Charnwood, and to a lesser extent Harborough, districts have however seen unexpected increases in cases.
I’ve spoken with the county’s Director of Public Health, Mike Sandys, about the Harborough increase in numbers. He says there is no specific outbreak or single cause, but a more general increase because of several factors that are still being assessed.
kevin.feltham@leics.gov.uk
Kibworth Village Hall
