October...

Welcome to the October edition of the Village Voice. Traditionally in this issue we feature photographs of all the new school starters who are stepping out into their educational years in their first reception class. Village Voice photographer Pete Clough has been taking these pictures for years and we are very grateful to him for doing so. You can see the area's new school starters on pages 14 and 15. We wish all these children all the best for the coming year.

Also in this edition we celebrate the Melbourne Festival. This year was the busiest yet, organisers report, and our picture spread on pages 10 and 11
give a great flavour of everything there was on offer this year from art to food to music. Businesses also reported good takings from this year’s two-day art trail, which is great news for Melbourne.

On our front page this month we bring an interesting question for readers to ponder, courtesy of district councillor Martin Fitzpatrick: should the recycling bins in the car park make way for new car parking spaces, now that kerbside recycling is much more comprehensive? Cllr Fitzpatrick has invited readers to comment and we are sure that plenty will do so.

There was a shock for Chellaston Academy last month after Ofsted inspectors deemed it "inadequate" due to safeguarding issues in the sixth form. The school has said while Ofsted's findings were regrettable, they accept them and are putting measures in place to address the issues. The report was by no means all bad, though, with inspectors having much to praise too, especially in the lower half of the school. You can read our summary of Ofsted's findings on page 6.

There's more interesting news in the report on page 3 that a new bus service may come to Melbourne which links the village to East Midlands Airport once again.

Reading our pages this month, you can't help but feel that some absolutely wonderful fundraising efforts are always going on locally. Frank Hughes paid a visit to the beer and gin festival up at Melbourne Sports Park which looks to have raised thousands for the village's rugby club - and what better way to do it - while the memorial "Pricey 10k" held in Aston-on-Trent in memory of talented runner Stephen Price was also a highly memorable and emotional fundraising occasion.

Over in sport, it was fabulous news for Melbourne Town Cricket Club whose first team won their first league title for seven years, with further good news for the football and tennis clubs too. There was a more mixed picture for Melbourne Town Rugby Club, but it's still early days in the season.