Charnwood Borough Council

I am pleased to report that progress on The Eastern Gateway Regeneration Site is progressing albeit not as fast as we would all like . Network Rail is a a very large organisation to deal with and a final deal to get the development we all hope for is still being negotiated.
Funding for initial work on The Windmill Road site in Hastings ward is now in place and we can look forward to some work commencing there in 2008.
Like you I am waiting anxiously for the government's decision as to whether to allow the student blocks to be built on the former hospital site.Councillors turned down the developers' ideas and had my full support. However we are not the final arbiters and as is their right the developers have appealed to the men in grey suits. Let's just hope they show some common sense and come down in favour of the people whose town it is and whose forefathers once owned the site in question.
On a more positive note I was pleased to support Loughborough University's Sports Park Development which is a planned complex to support Organising Boards of Major Sporting Bodies wanting to locate in Loughborough.
The month's highlight within my brief has been the success of all the Christmas Activities organised. First the Christmas Lights switch on which was an enormous success witnessed by several thousand of you and then the constant stream of activities in the market place since. I can't take much of the credit for all this work from enthusiastic staff but on behalf of you all I would like to thank those involved particularly Karlie Thompson and Sylvia Price our Communications and Arts gurus respectively.The new displays cost a fraction to run as a strict "green" brief was given in their acquisition.
I am pleased that my own town council put on a proportionally significant display demonstrating that anything Loughborough can do Syston can do proportionately just as well!
I have unusually been involved in ward planning issues which so far have resulted in some success for the residents involved which makes a nice change.
Other than that it's been the budget time of year and as always I have questioned every pound of your money being spent and am confident that our plans will gain your approval, such a pity though that the government does not give us more latitude in spending on your behalf rather than us having to invest in some of their more quirky schemes that they have decided you need!
I'll sign off for 2007 wishing you all a "Merry Christmas" or if I really must: "Festive Greetings" to you all and I hope you, like me are looking forward to 2008 and all it will bring.