Leicestershire Matters

This ‘partnership of partnerships’ brings together numerous groups from around the County who all want to improve services for the people of Leicestershire.

David Parsons, Leader of the County Council and Chairman of Leicestershire Together explained the partnership’s mission. He said: “Together we will do things differently to deliver improved public services so that we make Leicestershire the best possible place to live and work for everyone.”

Its members are committed to developing:

For more details on this unique partnership please visit: Leicestershire Together e-mail: LT@leics.gov.uk or call 0116 305 8117.

If the answer is yes, then our Community Forums are just the place to voice your views.

At forum meetings you can discuss local services with your County, district and parish councillors and representatives from other agencies such as health and the police.

David Parsons, Leader of the County Council and Chair of Leicestershire Together, said: “It is very important that people have the opportunity to influence the public services they receive.

“We have been working with district councils, the police, the NHS and other partners to give everyone in the area the chance to meet their Councillors and to have their say about how local services can be improved. Please go along and tell us how we can help you and your community.”

In Charnwood, the meetings are called Area Forums and in Harborough they are Have Your Say meetings.

For more information, visit the Forums page of this website or call Derk van der Wardt on 0116 305 7581, e-mail: dvanderwardt@leics.gov.uk

We are asking you to reduce your carbon footprint. By doing so, you could win one of four energy-efficient Eco Kettles. There are also 200 Saver Flush bags on offer. These reduce the amount of water flushed when you use the toilet and work best in older, larger cisterns.

The County Council has signed the ‘Nottingham Declaration’ which commits us to cutting our carbon dioxide emissions by 60% by 2050. A group of councillors are looking into how to achieve this.

Already, the County Council:

Environmental Action for a Better Leicestershire (ENABLE), the County-wide environmental partnership is asking you to reduce your carbon footprint by 20%.

You could sign up to the climate change pledge which asks you to do a number of quick and easy actions. Everyone who signs will be entered into our competition.

You can either fill in the form or visit the Climate Change pages of this website.   You can calculate your own carbon footprint by visiting the Direct Gov website Alternatively, for more details call 0116 305 7068 or e-mail: hapatel@leics.gov.uk

If so, volunteers from our home library service could deliver books, large print books and books on tape and CD – to your home.

Or could you help by becoming a volunteer? Your library needs people like you to choose and/or deliver books to housebound customers in the area.

Anyone can volunteer – even two hours a month can help. Volunteering can be fun and rewarding; you could meet new people and pass on your valuable life skills.

For more details please contact your local library, or call 0116 305 6988 or e-mail: libraries@leics.gov.uk

Scouts were nearly sunk when their old boats had to be scrapped – but 14-year-old Matthew Watson applied for a grant which funded two new carbon fibre boats, equipment and lessons.

Matthew is a member of the Leicestershire Scouts Sailing Team at the John Merrick Lake at Watermead Country Park. This helps 600 Scouts and also young people with disabilities every year. He applied to our youth bank capital and opportunities funds for £13,000, as part of his Duke of Edinburgh Scheme.

These funds aim to provide new activities and facilities for young people. This could include improving buildings and buying minibuses and youth shelters for young people, in their own areas.

Young people helped to set up the application process. They also receive applications and recommend which projects should receive funds.

For more details on the funds, call 0116 305 8017, e-mail: youthservice@leics.gov.uk or visit The Jitty website

Hundreds of you have given your views on what is important to you – through our survey in the last issue of Leicestershire Matters.

Views from the 535 people who responded, along with responses through other methods, will be used to help develop a vision for the future of Leicestershire. This will help us to improve the quality of life for everyone through our Sustainable Community Strategy.

The strategy will set out what is most important to Leicestershire people and what needs to be improved. We will identify how we are going to tackle these areas in our 2nd local area agreement. Both will be published in June 2008.

The results of the survey will be available on the Leicestershire Together website.

As a County, we recycle and compost more than 42.5% of our rubbish – and we want to increase this further, to 50% by 2010.

This has been achieved by working closely with the district and borough councils to further develop and introduce schemes which you support and find easy to use.

Projects include:

The aim of the trial in Kirby Muxloe was to change the behaviour of the families who took part. On average they reduced the amount of waste going to landfill by 43.6% - about 16.6kg of waste per family per month.

The green cone food digester was successful in reducing waste in the trial. These are partially dug into the soil and accept all food waste, including cooked items, which break down and are absorbed into the soil.

Families also tried waste-free packed lunches (pictured). These involve using plastic boxes rather than sandwich bags, or foil that can eventually be recycled. Packing fresh fruit rather than crisps and biscuits was also popular.

For more details on recycling please call 0116 305 8280 e-mail: wastemgt@leics.gov.uk or visit: the Waste Management pages of this website.

One lucky reader will win a green cone, and a gardener to install it correctly. Simply e-mail Penny Marshall at pmarshall@leics.gov. uk with the answer to the question below for a chance to win.

All entries must be submitted by an adult over 16 years of age. Enter your contact details and send in by Monday, 11^th February, 2008. The decision of Leicestershire County Council (LCC) is final and no correspondence will be entered into.

We must make sure that all children have an education and safeguard their welfare. We have rigorous methods for identifying and keeping in contact with children who are missing, or are at risk of missing, education.

However, it is also vital that you let us know if you know of a child who does not appear to be receiving an education.

Please call Joanne Rees on 0116 305 8162 – or e-mail cme@leics.gov.uk (please do not name children in an e-mail, just give your details and we will contact you as soon as possible.)