May

Welcome to our May issue, in which we bring you news that South Derbyshire remains ‘blue’ after the Conservatives held on to power at the recent district council elections, bucking the national trend which saw severe losses for the party. The Village Voice was at the count in Swadlincote to capture the action: our full report and pictures of some new faces representing our local area is on page 10.

Keeping on a blue theme, our photographer Tina Baker has been out and about taking shots of beautiful bluebells in the local area (tenuous link … ed) – the carpets of the blue stuff at Calke are always a wonderful spring-like sight.

Sometimes news stories are a sign of the times, and there are two good examples in this month’s edition: the demolition of the old Melbourne youth centre brought back nostalgic memories from many local people, who remembered a wonderful haven for teenagers which, at a very small cost, brought sociability and good times five times a week in its heyday. Times change.

Also, the Saturday Notts & Derby bus service taking passengers in Aston and Weston has recently stopped operating, with the manager saying Internet shopping habits are in a large part to blame for the fall in passengers. “We’re all guilty” he says. Food for thought.

On a more positive note, the Village Voice was delighted to be present at the first ever Ticknall May Day fete, which was, by any standards, a spectacular success with nigh-on a thousand people turning up to enjoy lots of stalls, food, glitter tattoos, games from the cadets, and all finished off with a fun dog show. It was a tribute to the hard work of everyone who organised the day that it was such a success. What a shame that Dame Catherine’s School whose parents and staff put together the inaugural event was targeted with a break-in the following night … but we’re glad to report that the takings from the day weren’t taken.

And … huge congratulations to Andrew Jackson, Margaret Sharp and Jane Carroll, who have been awarded Melbourne’s first ever freemen and women of the parish for their long, long service to the local community. Between them, Jane, Andrew and Margaret have given nearly 100 years of service to Melbourne and Kings Newton, including serving on the district council (Jane) helping found Melbourne Town Band (Andrew) and being involved with local brownies and guides’ groups (Margaret), along with many, many other things. Jane, Andrew and Margaret – we salute you.

In sport, things have been very busy for Melbourne Tennis Club with some strong wins under their belt, and congratulations to young judo practitioners who are doing very well in their early steps in the martial art at the Ivanhoe Judo Club. Also, huge congratulations to Rachel Hill, of Melbourne, who completed her first London Marathon, so far raising £4,000 for two very worthy charities. Go Rachel!

We try to keep things moving at the Village Voice and so we’re introducing a couple of new features this month, which we hope readers will enjoy: a new column from Whistlewood Common, who are doing great things for the environment at the community-owned ten acre site on the outskirts of Melbourne. Every month Whistlewood will be letting readers know what they’ve been up to. And, we’ve also started a new ‘What’s On’ column which will list up and coming events in the local area, in date order. We hope this will be a useful tool for readers so they can find out what’s going on.