https://www.rutlandwelcomesyou.co.uk/about

This website has been developed by Rutland County Council working with town and parish councils, and local businesses.

It’s part of the ‘Open for Business’ campaign to welcome residents and visitors back to Rutland’s towns following the Covid-19 lockdown.

It’s aim is to support the safe reopening of Rutland’s high streets, providing information on what changes to expect, along with details of each business’ opening hours and the measures they are putting in place to ensure safe shopping.

We hope it offers useful information for local people and visitors, as well as supporting our hard-working local businesses.

Cllr Lucy Stephenson is Rutland County Council’s cabinet member with responsibility for Culture and Leisure, Highways, Transportation & Road Safety. She explains: “We’re delighted to be in a position to reopen our high streets and welcome shoppers back. Lockdown has been very challenging but with the Council, residents and local businesses pulling together, we’ve been able to reach this milestone.

“Things will be a little different at first, with some temporary measures in place to ensure safe shopping for all parties. It’s vital we all do our bit to follow the rules, protect ourselves and each other.

“Local businesses and retail staff have been vital for so many of us over the last few months, keeping us stocked with essentials and keeping our spirits up. This is an opportunity to keep supporting them as we continue to ease out of lockdown. It’s time to restart Rutland’s economy.

“We’ll be monitoring the situation closely and if safety guidelines aren’t being followed, we’ll step in and take action.”

The ‘Open for Business’ campaign has been funded through the Government’s Reopening High Streets Safely Fund. There are stringent rules on how the funding must be spent and the overall aim is to establish a safe trading environment for businesses and customers. The funding is part of the European Regional Development Fund which aims to strengthen economic and social cohesion in the European Union

We are pleased to advise you of the launch of Fight4Rutland.

Fight4Rutland (F4R) is a local campaign group of Rutlanders dedicated to achieving the best for Rutland and Rutlanders in every way and opposes the disastrous over-development planned for St George’s Barracks (SGB). Over 2,300 houses slap bang in between North Luffenham, Edith Weston and Normanton and next to Rutland Water, in a Local Plan seemingly driven entirely by the MOD and Rutland County Council (RCC) in the face of widespread opposition from Rutlanders.

F4R is campaigning for a reasonable plan that would benefit our local communities, wildlife and tourism instead of  damaging this by creating a dormitory town of 2,300 plus houses.  We are also concerned about RCC’s increasingly anti-democratic position, refusing to currently allow public presentation of deputations or questions, (zoom attendance is allowed but no other participation) and generally appearing to be trying to force the development through at any cost and regardless of the changing socio-economic profile of the UK, including Rutland, following the Covid-19 crisis.

Herewith the links to our website https://fight4rutland.org/ , our FaceBook page https://www.facebook.com/Fight-4-Rutland-109059604199382 and our Twitter feed https://mobile.twitter.com/Fight4Rutland  All will be regularly and frequently updated as the fight for Rutland progresses.

Best Wishes

The Fight4Rutland Campaign Team

THE STORY SO FAR

St George’s Barracks (SGB) ‘Garden village’ /Township

SGB, proposed by Ministry of Defence (MOD) and Homes England supported by Sir Alan Duncan (former MP), with a massive U-Turn by Rutland County Council (RCC).

What started out in 2017 as a Local Plan with broad support from Rutlanders, has been changed out of all recognition, into a Plan that will build a new Township larger than Uppingham

It is someone else’s problem (what does the MOD do with SGB?).

Looking for a Plan (not the 2017 Plan, a completely different 2018 version to suit)

A Plan with no Vision – RCC will only look at a 50-year County vision in 2021 AFTER the Local plan.

• The MOD do not care about Rutland – they are only in it for the money from selling SGB
• Rutland County Council caved into political pressure and are deaf to the voice of Rutlanders
• Creating a ‘Vision for Rutland’ after committing to a New Town is perverse (‘cart before the horse’)
• The COVID-19 crisis will create enormous changes for the future – another argument against committing to a New Town now
• This is the last chance to get RCC to see sense
• A Township at St George’s barracks will be just 400 metres from the South shore of Rutland water – our Jewel in the crow

TAKE ACTION

David Wood writes:

“Very many thanks to everybody who have given to the Food Bank by leaving donations in the Church porch. We have now sent 8 boxes to the Food Bank in the last four weeks – you are all very generous.

Please keep donations coming – there is continued heavy demand.

In addition, we were able to make a cash donation of £92.50 to the Food Bank from extra donations made for VE Day.

Thank you very much.

David Wood”

From Carolyn Comben:

Congratulations to children and adults who submitted entries to the fun art competition. What talented people our village people and their relatives are!  I had such pleasure receiving and looking at the imaginative and beautiful wildlife themed entries that I wanted to share them with everyone so here they are.  I hope to display them in the church when it is open again. 

Many thanks to Angela and Mary for their help with judging.

Ages 9 and under

Lucas (age 4

Squirrel by Lola (age 6)

By Poppy (age 6)

Seasons by Darcy (age 8)

Ages 10-15

Emily (age 13)

Freya (age 12)

Hattie ( age 11 )

Amy (age 11)

Adults

‘Canine Caffeine’ by Amber-Rose Bedwell

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Springtime by Fiona Cairns

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Jack Vickerman

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Annabelle Brewin

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Lyn Walsh

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Jess Whight

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‘A Moment in Time’ by Shirley Smith

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Wendy Dalton

I’ve been taking part in a research project since the outbreak of Covid19 using a symptom tracking app that is using techniques that I used to track the SARS virus nearly 20 years ago when I was in the virus “industry”.

It runs on your smartphone and it takes 1 minute of your time a day to anonymously report how you feel and what new symptoms you have. It has successfully been responsible for identifying a change of taste and smell as a symptom of Covid19.

With the government moving ( at last ) to “track and trace” this app will give independent data to check the progress of the disease. It is being used by the Welsh Government, NHS Wales, the Scottish Government and NHS Scotland – but not Health England who are using their own system. It is also being used in other countries by a total of over 3 million people.

You can download the app at https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/covid-symptom-tracker/id1503529611 for Apple devices and https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.joinzoe.covid_zoe for Android phones.

It is run by Professor Tim Spector 😦 https://covid.joinzoe.com/about ) of King’s College London. He says

Logging your health daily is more important than ever and due to the conflicting and unverifiable data from the government system this app might be of interest to others. With lockdown measures easing, there are plenty of new opportunities for ‘R’ to increase. As the weather improves and children and teachers head back to school, more people will come into contact with one another.

The risk of new COVID hotspots emerging is also likely to increase without adequate monitoring. Our app is a crucial early detection tool to understand if there is a risk of a second wave of the virus. It’s is more important than ever that you keep logging daily using our app to help us to detect new COVID hotspots earlier.

Protect your community as lockdown lifts by reporting for yourself and behalf of your children to stop the spread of new infections quicker. We would also like to encourage you to share the app with schools, parent’s associations, and other organisations within your community. The more of us there are using the app daily, the more accurately and quickly we will be able to identify potential hotspots.

How might I keep my kids safe as they return to school?

As children return to school, we know that parents may be wondering how they can protect their children from COVID. We’ve made sure to cover this topic in one of our latest blog posts. Read our six tips for keeping your children safe as they go back to school.

We encourage all parents to take just 1 minute each day to keep using our app to log on behalf of their children. This data will help us better understand how the virus might affect kids and identify potential COVID hotspots as schools reopen.

New incidence data: are the numbers falling?

Last week we published insights into the number of daily new COVID cases are occurring in England. We have now added daily case estimates for Northern Ireland, Wales, and Scotland, which you can find on our website.

Stay well, Professor Tim Spector

We have now had two people who have been directed to “xx
Morcott Road” with the correct postcode to collect their French Bulldog puppy on which they have already paid a deposit.

The supposed owner is somebody who calls herself Donna Rose – who does not then answer her mobile and clearly has no puppies.

It is clearly a scam! This is being reported to the Pets4Home website
and we have contacted the police. We are waiting to see how many more visitors we get!

As many of you know Wing has, as many villages have, a 100 Club. People can buy shares in this club and once a month there are 3 members who are “picked out of a hat” to win prizes. This is normally done at the Thursday morning coffee morning but in view of Corvid-19 the village hall is closed until further notice. But the draw has been taking place! The winners have been notified but here are the results for the rest of us.

Due to the current Covid-19 restrictions, we are now offering some virtual sessions as trial. Via telephone or online with Zoom or Skype (using a suitable mobile phone, tablet, laptop or computer), each lasting up to 40 minutes

Please let us know if you would like to take part, so far, we are offering: –

• Virtual Coffee morning via phone or Zoom

• Virtual Afternoon tea via phone or Zoom

• Virtual Group meeting via phone or Zoom

• IT support via phone or Skype

• Cooking groups online only

• Seated Exercise online only

• Music and coffee online only

• Quiz or Bingo Via phone or Zoom

If you would like to try any of the above or have another suggestion for us to try, please telephone

Yvonne 01572 770324

Penny 01572 822171

If you need help getting Zoom installed on your mobile phone, tablet, laptop or computer we have Digital Champions who can help you over the phone or via Skype

Just a reminder that the next RAS talk is tomorrow evening (Monday 18^th May) at 7pm

“Growing your 5 a day”! UK vegetable production – current successes and challenges. An illustrated talk.

You can join the talk from 6:45pm using the following link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87550083814?pwd=dUZlYlg0d3Eyd29JS2JLNGFlTXlGZz09

Feel free to distribute this link to any family/friends who may be interested in attending the talk.

We have the capacity for 100 people to attend this session so entry is on a first come, first served basis.

Robert Miles will be our host and will be joined by Robin Buck, a Rutland resident who has an extensive vegetable farm and pack house operation just East of Spalding. Robert will be in conversation with Robin on the farm scale production of a wide variety of crops from the conventional, including peas and potatoes to the more exotic, such as artichoke, chicory, mooli and celeriac.

If you have missed any of the previous RAS Zoom talks, you can access them via the following Society webpage:

https://www.rutlandshowground.com/courses-and-education/