Home Care In Charnwood, ON

The borough of Charnwood is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2024.

The borough was created on April 1, 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972 when three former districts – Barrow upon Soar Rural District, Loughborough Municipal Borough and Shepshed Urban District – were all abolished.

Charnwood was formed, and Charnwood Borough Council followed soon after.

To celebrate its golden anniversary, the Council will be highlighting everything that is great about the borough, including its landmarks, open spaces, businesses and its people, on social media and its other online channels.

The Council will also be looking back on the past 50 years and is asking people from Charnwood and beyond to take part in the celebrations by sharing their favourite memories, moments or places about Charnwood on social media.

Send us your photos and videos

Please consider including details about what the picture/video shows and when it was taken.

Memories shared will be posted on our social media channels and will also feature on this webpage.

Memories and Fun Facts

In 1974, Charnwood Borough Council had 58 Founder Members across the political parties.

The first Mayor of Charnwood was Cllr L.H. Bradley, pictured below with the Mayoress. On the right is a picture of a board that shows the Mayor's of Charnwood from 1974 to 1998.

Councillor Margaret Smidowicz is the current Mayor of Charnwood for 2023/24. View the full list of Mayor's over the past 50 years.

The board below shows the Leaders of the Council at Charnwood from April 1974 to the present day - from Cllr L.H. Bradley and Cllr E.M. Shardlow in 1974/75 to current leader of the Council, Cllr Jewel Miah, who was elected in May 2023.

As part of the borough’s 50^th birthday celebrations, we’ve been looking back at Royal visits to Loughborough over the years.

On November 17, 1989, HM Queen Elizabeth II visited Loughborough University.

On April 24, 1990, Diana Princess of Wales visited various sites in Loughborough, including Mountfield County Junior School, Barnardo's, Ladybird Books and Charnwood indoor bowls centre.

The Mayor’s Parlour at Loughborough Town Hall has several artefacts with a Royal connection, including a thank you letter from the Chief Clerk to HM Queen Elizabeth II to the Mayor and Mayoress and the people of Charnwood for their 90^th birthday wishes, back in 2016.

A commemorative plate for HM Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee from 2012 also sits proudly in the parlour.

Alongside the Council’s celebrations, Loughborough Library will be hosting their ‘50th Anniversary Exhibition 1974-2024’ from May 9 until July 27, 2024. A poster for the event can be found below:

The exhibition will be hosted in the Local and Family History Centre section of the library and will feature photos and monuments from the past half century.

The exhibition has been collated by the Loughborough Library Local Studies Volunteer Group.

The Council will also be looking at other opportunities to mark the milestone year.

Royal visits

The innovative scheme for residents to trade their skills and knowledge has expanded to Charnwood.

Time4Leicestershire is a free skills exchange initiative from Leicestershire County Council, where members can sign up to share their skills and knowledge and support others and can request skills they would like to learn in return.

‘Timebanking’ differs from volunteering as it allows people to swap skills at a time that suits them, with no minimum commitment needed. For every hour of time somebody gives, they receive an hour’s time credit to bank and give to another Timebank member in exchange for supporting them with another skill.

Exchanged skills can be anything from gardening, knitting to video editing and coding. People do not necessarily have to meet in person to benefit from the scheme either; they can also help each other online. A skill that one person takes for granted may be invaluable when passed on to someone else.

Already available for residents in Melton, the County Council’s Public Health team offer the programme as part of the national Timebanking UK initiative, and residents are being encouraged to sign up to Time4Leicestershire to exchange skills.

As well as benefitting local communities and building a greater community spirit, it can also reduce loneliness and isolation, help people to learn new skills, increasing physical activity and improving emotional wellbeing.

The Charnwood scheme was officially launched at Fearon Hall in Loughborough, with local residents joining together to share their skills and showcase what can be offered through the programme. Timebanking is being rolled out across the county and will be available in all districts across Leicestershire in the future.

Community spirit is such an important part of a thriving county, and it’s great to see our timebanking scheme growing into Charnwood.

I’m sure there will be plenty of opportunities for people to both share their skills and benefit from others. It’s a brilliant initiative and I encourage residents in both Charnwood and Melton to sign up and give it a go.

Councillor Louise Richardson, cabinet member for health and wellbeing

To find out more about the Time4Leicestershire timebank, and to get involved, visit: To find out more about the Time4Leicestershire timebank, and to get involved, visit the website.

By Samantha Jagger and Hannah Richardson

BBC News

Waste and street cleaning staff in part of Leicestershire are to vote on strike action that could cause "huge disruption" during freshers week, a union has said.

The GMB union said members in Charnwood would walk out on the week when new Loughborough University students arrive in the borough next month.

The union has asked waste firm Serco for an "inflation-matching pay rise".

Serco said it was committed to working with the union to find a resolution.

The union said Serco has offered refuse drivers an 8% pay rise but their offer to the rest of the workers put their salary at £11 per hour - 58p above the minimum wage of £10.42.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service asked for details of the offer but did not get a response.

Charnwood refuse and street cleaning staff collect household waste for about 200,000 residents, the GMB said.

GMB organiser Jim Clarke said: "Strike action is always a last resort, but we must be open and honest about the impact this industrial action will have on our borough.

"With thousands of students set to arrive in Loughborough in September, freshers week strike action will cause huge disruption and a massive pile-up of waste across the borough," he added.

Jo Mortimer, contract manager for Serco, said: "We are committed to working in partnership with the GMB in Charnwood and hope to reach a positive resolution."

Charnwood Borough Council, which is responsible for organising waste collections in the borough, said if strike action goes ahead it would "work closely with Serco to minimise the impact on services as much as possible".

"We will keep residents up to date with any changes to waste and recycling services via the council's website, social media channels and email alerts," a spokesperson said.

The ballot closes on 18 August.

Follow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].

The borough of Charnwood is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2024.

The borough was created on April 1, 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972 when three former districts – Barrow upon Soar Rural District, Loughborough Municipal Borough and Shepshed Urban District – were all abolished.

Charnwood was formed, and Charnwood Borough Council followed soon after.

To celebrate its golden anniversary, the Council will be highlighting everything that is great about the borough, including its landmarks, open spaces, businesses and its people, on social media and its other online channels.

The Council will also be looking back on the past 50 years and is asking people from Charnwood and beyond to take part in the celebrations by sharing their favourite memories, moments or places about Charnwood on social media.

You can also send us your photographs and videos here. Please consider including details about what the picture/video shows and when it was taken.

Memories shared will be posted on our social media channels and will also feature on a designated webpage.

The Mayor of Charnwood, Cllr Margaret Smidowicz, said: “The 50th anniversary of the formation of Charnwood is the perfect opportunity for the Council to reach out to the fantastic people of the borough and join together in celebrating everything that makes this such a wonderful place.

“We want to involve our residents in the celebration of Charnwood and hope that you will share your memories and photographs and stories with us.

“I am looking forward to seeing your contributions and enjoying a nostalgic insight into what makes Charnwood such an amazing place.”

Alongside the Council’s celebrations, Loughborough Library will be hosting their ‘50th Anniversary Exhibition 1974-2024’ from May 9 until July 27, 2024.

The exhibition will be hosted in the Local and Family History Centre section of the library and will feature photos and monuments from the past half century.

The exhibition has been collated by the Loughborough Library Local Studies Volunteer Group.

The Council will also be looking at other opportunities to mark the milestone year.

A solar farm that could power more than 16,000 homes and is planned for land between two villages is set to be given the go-ahead at a council meeting later this week. Members of Charnwood Borough Council’s plans committee will consider the scheme by Endurance Energy for land between Long Whatton and Hathern.

In a report to the committee, planning officers have recommended the solar farm be approved, subject to conditions. The land straddles the boundary of Charnwood Borough Council and North West Leicestershire District Council, with North West also yet to make a decision on its part of the application.

The 99-hectare site is split across two parcels of land on either side of Oakley Wood and is to the west of Hathern and north of Shepshed. The smaller parcel in the west falls in North West Leicestershire, and the eastern parcel is in Charnwood.

The farm has been designed to allow agriculture to continue on the site, and Endurance Energy says it has worked with wildlife groups to restore ‘historic ponds’ on the site. But two local residents have contacted Charnwood to object to the plans, fearing the ‘impact on the environment and countryside’, and possible negative effects on neighbouring Oakley Wood – which is a site of special scientific interest – and two nearby listed buildings.

Other concerns raised include flood risk, impact on wildlife and the loss of agricultural land. Comments were also submitted by four people to North West Leicestershire District Council’s planning team.

One objector said: “Whilst appreciating the need for the supply of green energy, the countryside around the suggested area is currently being denuded by various past and present building projects.”

When the application was submitted, Endurance Energy said the company had consulted local residents and received feedback from more than 100 people, with two-thirds supporting the plans. The planning officers’ report says the solar farm would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 11,210 tonnes per year, with 448,400 tonnes saved over the expected 40-year lifetime of the scheme.

The report adds: “This represents a significant contribution to the legally binding national and international requirement and associated targets to increase renewable energy generation and reduce CO2 emissions.”

Recommending the scheme for approval, the report concludes: “The development could be successfully accommodated within the existing landscape pattern and could be assimilated into the surrounding landscape without causing any permanent harm to the landscape character or visual amenity or serious long-term harm. The proposed development would be beneficial in terms of landscape elements comprising trees, scrub, hedgerows, land cover, and ponds.”

The committee meeting takes place on Thursday (February 22) evening, and can be watched live on Youtube.