June

Welcome to the June edition of Village Voice, in which we bring news on our front page that Melbourne is to set to be home to a new hot food takeaway after planning permission was granted on June 4. Many have been against the move, saying Melbourne already has plenty of such establishments, and it’s still not known what type of food is to be offered. Let’s hope the business in the former Bird’s shop will provide something new for Melbourne – and it will be good to see an empty shop occupied once again.

The Planning Committee at South Derbyshire has been busy hearing applications that affect the local area – with the new A50 junction just north of Barrow coming under discussion, and proposals for drainage at the Melbourne Sporting Partnership also having been granted on June 4.

There is anger, too, from Barrow resident Iain Davidson as to the way the proposals for a large business park next to his home were handled – you can read his comments on page 8.

At the Village Voice, we welcome letters from readers talking about aspects of local life – whether it’s positive or negative. In our May issue, one reader had much to say on the subject of long waiting times at the surgery, you might be interested to see what local GP Dr Wolverson – currently under a well-publicised inquiry by the GMC – has to say on the matter, on page seven. A culture of patient complaints and demands for medicine is taking a high toll on GPs, he says

Elsewhere in our pages, we have a great feature about local barber Phil Robey, who has celebrated 40 years cutting men’s locks, meeting some pretty famous footballing faces along the way – see pages 10 and 11 for his tales of the likes of Brian Clough and Peter Taylor. Our thanks to Ollie Wiles, who has been studying journalism at Derby University, for penning this for us. Ollie has also provided us with his report of the day down in Wembley when sadly Derby lost to Aston Villa in the play-offs – many local people popped down to London to see the action. Not the result they were hoping for, but a good day nonetheless.

Over in sport, and our congratulations to Melbourne Dynamo’s Saturday first team which took the MRA Challenge Cup – and to Melbourne Town Cricket Club which has started the season in fine style, unbeaten at the end of May.

We hope that readers will enjoy a couple of recently added features to the Village Voice: The Common Touch is a monthly column from Whistlewood, giving news and ideas on how to live a more environmentally friendly life, and our new What’s On section tells readers various events that are coming up in the next month or so. We hope people will find it useful.

Enjoy the issue. Let’s hope some great weather might be coming our way …