Leicester

A commission has been set up to look at ways to tackle child poverty.

The Leicester commission will be chaired by deputy city mayor Rory Palmer and include councillors, MPs and academics.

DESPITE stating just two months ago that there was no truth in the rumours that Loughborough’s Somerfield store was to close – its owners have now announced it is to shut on September 17.

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Plans for a £30 million medical school have been rejected by councillors.

The University of Leicester had planned to replace its medical training centre with a six-storey building that would house 1,900 medical students and 450 staff.

The centre would have been built next to Regent College, on land at the corner of University Road and Lancaster Road.

Planning officers had recommended that city councillors approve the plans at a meeting this week, but they rejected it by five votes to four.

A PROGRAMME of events designed to get communities involved in helping cut Leicester's carbon emissions is being launched tomorrow (August 11).

The rolling programme of community carbon-reduction events forms part of City Mayor Peter Soulsby's 100-day pledges for his first 100 days in office.

26,565 or 35.3% of children and young people between 0 - 19 years living in Leicester currently live within the official definition of child poverty. Many more families experience low income and the challenges that this brings. Further details can be found in the City Council's initial Leicester City Child Poverty Needs Assessment.

August 2011 edition, pdf format

http://www.leicestersecularsociety.org.uk/newsletter/secularist_201108_31.pdf

City mayor Sir Peter Soulsby says backbench councillors are as important as ever – despite complaints that they feel powerless.

Three newly-elected councillors have contacted the Mercury to say that they feel left out of political debate, despite spending the past year or so working towards getting elected. They declined to be named for fear of being disciplined within their party.

Leicester's city centre management organisation LE One is keen to get entries for it's competition to uncover what it somewhat optimistically calls "Leicestershire's Favouritie Dish".

Shoppers are being invited to make their own reusable eco-friendly bag.

Volunteers from Morsbags, a global initiative which makes and gives away reusable bags, will host a pop-up shop at Fabrika Independent Arts Centre, in Humberstone Gate, Leicester.

It will run on Saturday, between 11am and 5pm.

Live broadcasting of key council meetings will return – at a reduced cost.

Streamed coverage of the monthly full council meeting and other committees had been in place for three years until April, when the contract with the firm providing it ran out.

The service cost £10,000 a year to provide. Some 1,200 people had tuned in live in the last 12 months the service ran, while a further 5,000 watched archive footage.