newton fallowell
Panto stars’ post-op pick-me-up for young Isabelle
raising the standard of estate agency
MELBOURNE ESTATE AGENTS Residential Sales and Lettings Tel: 01332 865696 Melbourne: 01332 865696
No. 314 January 2019
A HOSPITAL trip to have your tonsils out isn’t much fun, but this 10-year-old from Melbourne still had a smile on her face despite the operation when she had a personal visit from a trio of panto stars. Duncan James, of early noughties pop group Blue fame, took time away from the stage – where he was playing Jack in the Derby Arena production of Jack and the Beanstalk – along with co-stars Lizzie Wofford and Bethan Nash to pay a visit to children in the Royal Derby Hospital in December. Among those to get a touch of Christmas cheer was Isabelle Gadsby, a pupil at Melbourne Junior School, who had just undergone an operation to remove her tonsils. Isabelle’s dad John said: “She’d literally just come around from the operation and they came round, so it was a massive lift for her; it took the edge off.” Isabelle, who stayed in hospital for
one night to have her tonsils out, said being visited by the panto stars had made her very happy, as she was “very bored” in hospital. “When we went around the hospital before the operation, somebody told me they’d be coming round,” she explained. And Isabelle had another treat during her stay too: a visit from a magician before her operation organised by Pod children’s charity. “This magician came round and that really helped take her mind off it,” said John. Because of the timing of her operation, Isabelle had not been able to join her friends at Melbourne Junior School when they were taken to see Jack and the Beanstalk at the theatre, but the personal visit from some of its stars hopefully made up for it. Isabelle is pictured with Lizzie Wofford (Fairy Story), Bethan Nash (Jill) and Duncan James as Jack.
NOW LET’S MAKE IT THE MELBOURNE WE WANT!
WHAT do local residents want to see in the centre of our village of Melbourne?
That is the question being asked after news of another major public exhibition event in the spring to gauge local views on the thorny question of traffic management in the village centre. Last year Derbyshire County Council announced proposals for a one-way system plus additional double yellow lines in the centre of Melbourne to ease traffic congestion. The suggestions unveiled at a Local Area Forum also included proposals to re-route HGVs and attracted many comments from the local community – some supportive, others against. In September of last year, a further public meeting held in the village heard how the proposed one-way system was not broadly sup-
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ported locally, particularly by residents living in the affected streets. The suggestion from the county council is for a one-way system taking traffic along Derby Road from Queensway to the Market Place, up Chapel Street from the Station Road end, and down Potter Street towards Castle Square, a scheme accompanied by more double yellow lines for the streets in question, limiting cars to one side of the road.
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Residents at the meeting in September felt this would result in excess speeding, longer journey times and inconvenience. Derbyshire County Council is holding a big public drop-in exhibition and consultation event in the spring on the subject of traffic management in Melbourne. One of our readers has invited us to act as a forum for comments from local residents ahead of this exhibition, so we can all have the Melbourne we want. “Could we therefore suggest that the Village Voice acts as a forum for views of Melbourne residents and business owners in preparation for this meeting?” says John Robinson, whose letter has been published in full on Page12. John goes on to suggest that there are other
improvements that local people may wish to see, such as a “mixed mode” centre with slow driving speeds for cars; a regular market, or another car park. The Village Voice is delighted to perform such a role. We undertake to publicise the exhibition in the spring, and all comments can be received at letters@melbournevillagevoice.co.uk. We will store them safely, pass them on to the relevant authorities, and publish those that we can, with the agreement of the sender.
It’s OUR Melbourne. Let’s make it the Melbourne that WE want.
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