The next Have Your Say meeting will be held at the Pavilion, Coventry Road recreation ground, Lutterworth on Wednesday 10 September 2008 at 7pm. Come along and have your say on matters of local interest.
Car parking facilities on Coventry Road recreation ground.

Residents in Lutterworth are invited to attend a Councillors Surgery on Saturday 30 August 2008 from 11am - 12 noon.

The surgery will be held at the Town Estate Office on 12a Market Street, Lutterworth. No appointment is necessary.

Councillors will be available to talk to residents. If concerns cannot be dealt with at the time, they will be passed on to the Town Clerk or the district councillors for further action.

Are you interested in cycling and enjoy getting out on your bike for a leisurely cycle ride ? Then Harborough District Council’s Leisure Rides programme could be just for you. The Physical Activity Team based at the Council have put together a series of cycle rides that take place throughout the summer and all rides are free!

Councillor Rosita Page, portfolio holder for Rural Affairs said “The guided cycle programme from Harborough District Council is a fantastic idea and I hope that people decide to get on their bike and take part. There really is a ride to suit everyone as the shortest ride is only 4 miles and the longest is 16 miles”

The first cycle ride takes place on Sunday 8th June at 10.30am and will be starting from Welland Park Café in Market Harborough. Other rides will take place in Broughton Astley, Lutterworth, Kibworth and Little Bowden.

The cycle programme has been organised as part of the Active Together scheme which is a county initiative to encourage adults to take part in more physical activity.

For the full list of cycle rides please call 01858 821284 or email f.gibson@harborough.gov.uk

Forthcoming Beat Surgeries
S15 Lutterworth South Neighbourhood

During the coming weeks and months the Lutterworth South (S15) Neighbourhood Policing team will be conducting beat surgeries using the Rural Beat Bus in some of the villages in the Lutterworth area. Beat surgeries are the preferred method of reaching out to our rural communities to gain their views on local policing and to take on board their fears and concerns. By actually going out into local communities and speaking to local people we are likely to engage with more people in a few days than would visit the police station in a year. Listening to local residents and agreeing how to tackle their concerns is key to neighbourhood policing and to providing a highly visible police presence in our most inaccessible areas.

The beat surgeries will take place at the following locations and times:-

28th April ULLESTHORPE 16.00 to 20.00

29th April SWINFORD 16.00 to 20.00

8th May HUSBANDS BOSWORTH 16.00 to 20.00

31st May MOWSLEY 14.00 to 17.00

23rd June ULLESTHORPE 16.00 to 20.00

26th July KILWORTHS 14.00 to 17.00

The S15 team would welcome a visit from anyone with concerns over such issues as crime, the fear of crime, speeding vehicles and anti-social behaviour. Or you could just drop in for a chat.

If anyone would like to know more they can contact a member of the team by phoning 0116 222 2222 and leaving them a message using the officers ID number when prompted.

The officers in the S15 neighbourhood team are:-

• PC 500 Andy Smalley
• PC 1959 Dave Venables
• PCSO 6126 Tim Harwood
• PCSO 6636 Ray Wells

Rural transport specially at weekends and the evening has always been an issue in market towns and rural areas.

County Councillor Rosita Page is happy to announce that the County Council will be launching a new innovative transport scheme for young people who are registered to pay for school transport.

They will receive a £50 voucher to spend on taxis or buses anytime, anywhere over this summer.

Councillor Page is pleased to have negotiated for Lutterworth youngsters to be included in this pilot scheme and sincerely hopes that this new way of trying to provide tailor-made, more cost effective transport will be successful so a wider scheme can be rolled out in the very near future.

A new website has been set up to help community groups team up and take an active role in sport across the Harborough district.
The Harborough District Sport and Activity Alliance, made up of partners including sport and activity club volunteers, Harborough District Council, the County Youth Service and Police, launched the website earlier this month to develop and extend sporting opportunities for the community.
The site, which can be found at www.harboroughsport.co.uk, provides news and information about the alliance such as details of forthcoming events, local facilities, clubs, funding, school sport and the Active Together project.
Andrew Watson, Sports Development Officer at the council, said: “The website looks very professional and will give people the opportunity to find out about sport and physical activities in their area.”
For more information please contact Andrew on 01858 828282 or email a.watson@harborough.gov.uk.
For more information please contact Kerry Wood, Media and Public Relations Officer, on 01858 821217, 07909876449 or email k.wood@harborough.gov.uk

Upgrading CCTV across the district, introducing civil parking and setting up a reporting procedure for hate crimes are among a council’s targets for the coming year.

The extensive list was discussed at a meeting of the full council on February 22 where the Environment, Housing and Community Involvement and Participation were approved as Harborough District Council’s priorities for 2007/08.

The council will be working hard over the next 12 months to achieve the targets in these priority areas which include delivering 80 affordable homes, achieving green flag status for Welland Park, improving 30 non-decent private homes, increasing the number of recycling bring sites from 41 to 48 and carrying out 50 environmental enforcement operations.

To view the priorities and targets, which will form the Business Plan, visit www.harborough.gov.uk or contact the council on 01858 828282.

Teams of wardens will take to the streets this summer to help improve parking and reduce congestion.

Parking offences such as parking on double-yellow lines and flouting time-restricted bays used to be enforced by the police.

However from the summer responsibility will hand over to the County, District and Borough councils in the area with Harborough District Council acting as the lead authority for Melton Mowbray, Oadby and Wigston, Blaby and Hinckley and Bosworth.

As lead the council will employ and manage all 28 parking attendants for these councils with wardens being sent out to patrol in their individual areas.

Across the county there will be 49 parking attendants tackling motorists who park without consideration for others or incorrectly, which can cause congestion delaying other vehicles and public transport.

Motorists found breaching traffic regulations will receive a Penalty Charge Notice of £60 reduced to £30 if paid within 14 days.

All money collected will pay to run the enforcement service with any extra being used for parking improvements.

For further information on parking enforcement visit :

www.leics.gov.uk/parkingmatters.

Notes To Editors

• Wardens for the five authorities will be employed and managed by Harborough District Council.
• A joint team of 28 wardens will cover the five districts. The number of wardens covering each district will be flexible to ensure an efficient service but the approximate split is below:

Blaby – 3 wardens
Harborough – 9 wardens
Hinckley – 7 wardens
Melton – 4 wardens
Oadby and Wigston – 5 wardens

• Wardens will enforce on-street parking restrictions including loading/unloading bans, double yellow lines, single yellow lines, limited waiting bays, disabled bays, taxi bays, bus stop clearways etc. They will not enforce obstruction of drives/footpaths or pedestrian crossing zig-zags as these will still be enforced by the police. The wardens will also enforce off-street parking such as overstaying in car parks.
• The countywide scheme will cost £1.6 million to implement.

Motorists illegally dumping their cars will be hit with fines of £200 in a bid to remove the eyesore of abandoned vehicles from the district.

For the first time enforcement officers at Harborough District Council will have the power to hand out the fines to owners who abandon their cars, motorbikes and caravans.

Coming into force next month the new power is a part of the Cleaner Neighbourhoods Act 2005 which makes it a criminal offence to abandon a motor vehicle.

Once an abandoned vehicle has been reported to the team its details are checked and a 24 hour notice is put on it. If, after this time, it has still not been moved, it is removed and destroyed.

Armed with the new power the team can issue the fine of £200 to the registered owner who will also have to pay the cost of the removal and destruction.

Any failure to pay the fine within 14 days could result in a maximum fine of £2,500 or imprisonment.

Under the Cleaner Neighbourhoods Act the enforcement team also has the power to issue fines of up to £75 for people caught littering and dog fouling.