Merry Christmas to all Spotlight Readers!
Groby Community College does Operation Christmas Child 2012
Free advice and £3,000 grants
County council launches scheme to help village shops Grants and free advice to help village shops boost their businesses is on offer from a £30,000 county council scheme.
This year saw yet another triumphant year at Groby Community College. Staff and students contributed to a total of 60 shoe boxes filled with gifts for some of the most deprived young children in the world. This year our efforts will be putting a smile on young girls and boys in Montenegro, a country in Southeastern Europe. Miss Laura Wright, Geography Teacher at the college said that a ‘huge well done and a big thank you goes out to all of the students, staff and families who contributed to these shoe boxes, you are making such a huge difference to the many young children’. This is the second year that the college has run the Operation Christmas Child programme. It was such a popular success in 2011 that Laura wanted it to run again.
Vacancies for two parish councillors in Groby Two vacancies exist in the Office of Parish Councillor for the (Groby Ward) Parish of Groby. The vacancies will be filled by election if any ten Local Government electors for the said Ward submit a written request to that effect in the manner prescribed below and if no such request is made the vacancies may be filled by the Parish Council by co-option. Any request for an election to fill the vacancies must be in writing and must reach the Returning Officer, Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council, Council Offices, Argents Mead, Hinckley, Leics. LE10 1BZ, not later than Wednesday 19th December 2012. (See also article on page 4.)
Leicestershire County Council is running a village shop support scheme, to help village shops and Post Offices survive the downturn and fend off superstores. It is offering free specialist advice, plus grants of up to £3,000. One venue that has benefited is Woodhouse Eaves Post Office, which has developed a thriving art gallery. Jennifer Cox, who runs the Gallery at the Post Office, said: “I’d encourage other traders to get support from this scheme – the council has been very helpful. “We got a grant to convert a spare room into a gallery, where we display photos, paintings, prints, sculptures and scarves from 40 different artists, mainly from the local area. Over the last three months, our takings have trebled.” Lesley Pendleton, Cabinet member for rural affairs, said: “Our village shops and Post Offices are the lifeblood of our local economies and we’ve launched this scheme to help them survive and thrive. “These shops provide essential services to people who can’t get to their local market town. I would encourage shopkeepers to check out the advice that’s on offer.” The council has commissioned Kerching Retail to offer the advice service. Corin Birchall from Kerching said: “This targeted scheme is helping shops to explore all the opportunities to help their businesses grow. “Examples include revamping your window display, using a website or Facebook to communicate regularly with customers and launching a loyalty scheme.” The following, free services are available to Leicestershire rural retailers: •24 hour access to online training, support and assessment tools •one-to-one email support or phone support •face to face support, including retail assessments and analysis of window displays For further details, businesses can see www.kerchingretail.com/vss or email vss@kerchingretail.com or telephone 01455 203 206.
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