Eyres Monsell Christmas card competition - Merry Christmas!

Over the past week or so my colleague Councillor Virginia Cleaver and I have been delivering our Christmas card across Eyres Monsell.

This year we organised a competition with local schools for pupils to design our card.

Rolleston Primary School pupil Hayan Omar (age 6) created the winning design. Two runners up were also selected; Jodi Bullen (age 10) of Eyres MonsellPrimary School and Aoife Sweeney (age 8) of also of Rolleston Primary School. Over 100 entries were received for the councillor’s competition.

Printing of the cards has been supported by Clockwise, Leicester and Leicestershire’s local credit union. Clockwise offers safe savings, affordable loans and friendly banking. Credit unions are a socially responsible alternative to payday loan companies and other finance providers. Clockwise also offers people support with household finances and budget planning, recognising that more and more people are seeing a squeeze on their household budgets. As a credit union, Clockwise is owned by its members and is a not-for-profit co-operative.

All of the entries were really good and captured the festive spirit. The winning design and runners-up are excellent and the pupils should be very proud of their work. We wanted to showcase and celebrate the talent of local school children on our Christmas card this year and the end result looks fantastic. I want to thank all the pupils who entered and our local primary schools for taking part in the competition.”

We are also grateful to Clockwise Credit Union for their support of our Christmas card competition. Credit unions like Clockwise do a really important job providing finance products that are fair and ethical and offer alternatives to payday loans. Encouraging fair finance and tackling household debt is an important priority for us.

The winning design by Hayan Omar, aged 6.

The runners-up, Jodi Bullen & Aoife Sweeney.

Leicester Mercury coverage of our
Eyres Monsell Christmas card competition.

My challenge to FA: free England tickets for school kids to help fill Wembley

I am calling on the Football Association to do more to fill Wembley for England friendlies and get more kids watching international football.

 Following last week's match against Norway in front of a crowd of just over 40,000, leaving the national stadium half empty I have written to FA Chairman Greg Dyke asking that he makes tickets available for free for school children in Leicester, and other towns and cities across the country. 

My letter to FA Chairman Greg Dyke can be read below.

I am also appealing to local businesses to sponsor the transport costs to help local schools.  

England's manager Roy Hodgson has even admitted that it is likely England will play in front of small crowds in the Euro 2016 qualification campaign, telling the BBC:

"We'll find it hard to bring attendances back to very high levels because the opponents we're playing won't excite the public."  

It is absurd when we see England playing at Wembley with vast areas of the stadium empty. There are fans across the country who would love to see England play but ticket and transport costs to Wembley make this difficult.

For matches with a likely low attendance the FA should make tickets available for free to help encourage the next generation of England supporters and to promote the game. 

I have challenged the FA to make 1000 free tickets available for school kids in Leicester for the next England match with a likely low attendance, and I am confident we will be able to get local businesses prepared to sponsor the transport costs. I am sure we have local businesses who will want to back this initiative and do their bit to help local schools and give local young people the chance to see England play at Wembley. 

I want kids in Eyres Monsell, Highfields, Saffron and from across Leicester to have the chance to see England play at Wembley. Seeing the national team play in the national stadium will be a great experience. This can help boost aspiration and encourage wider interest in football and sport. 

Sometimes the FA is accused of caring more about corporate sponsorship and big money in football than ordinary fans. This would be a great way to show that is not the case. I am sure England's players would prefer to play in Wembley stadium when it is full, let's have Leicester's school kids given the chance to help create a good atmosphere for an England match in the future.

Leicester Mercury article on this can be read here.

New community gardening project in Eyres Monsell

We are pleased to be launching a new project in Eyres Monsell this week in partnership with BBC Radio Leicester.

As part of BBC Leicester's summer campaign to get more people growing their own food, we are launching 'Blooming Eyres Monsell.'

We want to get more people growing their own food in Eyres Monsell, which is good for health, can save money on shopping bills and is good fun for families.

BBC Radio Leicester's Ben Jackson and Ady Dayman will be visiting Eyres Monsell to give away seeds to local residents to help get thing started. These seeds are for tomatoes, lettuce, sweetcorn and runner beans. As councillors we have agreed to fund some gardening starter kits including pots and tools.

This project will also see the creation of a new community vegetable patch at Eyres Monsell Community Centre. We are looking for residents and volunteers to help with this.

To get your free seeds and to find out more about this project come along to Eyres Monsell Community Centre tomorrow (Wednesday 17 April) from 5:30pm.

BBC Radio Leicester's Ben Jackson and gardener Ady Dayman will be there to answer your questions and help get this project started.

With BBC gardener Ady Dayman, fellow
Councillor Virginia Cleaver and BBC Leicester's Ben Jackson
at Eyres Monsell Community Centre.