MOUNTSORREL POST YOUR FREE COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER
MARCH 2019
www.birstallpost.co.uk
No. 66
Tributes paid to Noel TRIBUTES HAVE been paid to a well respected local man who championed his community and was devoted to local history. Noel Wakeling, dubbed ‘Mr Mountsorrel’, died on December 16 aged 83. His friend Geoff Wainwright said: “Noel loved Mountsorrel and would talk to anyone from anywhere who would listen to him but he was also a very good listener which is how he soaked up so much knowledge. He was a village lad, his ambition was to join the RAF which he did as a mechanic. He wanted this to be his career for life but having suffered a very bad motorcycle accident, his lifestyle was dramatically changed.” Continued on page 2
Pic: Lorraine Selby from Leicestershire Council (front row, left) hands over the keys of the library to Parish Council Clerk Lorraine Davies watched by campaigner Liz Blackshaw, volunteer Sylvia Stanton, Ruth Bosworth (library assistant) & Christine Baker (supervisor)
Library’s future secured THE LONG term future of Mountsorrel library has been secured. Leicestershire County Council have handed over the keys to the building to Mountsorrel Parish Council who will now assume responsibility for the management of the facility in an agreement that will see them buying back the library service from the county council for an annual fee (£23,920 for 2019/20)
It has been three years since the county council announced a string of libraries were facing closure due to cost cutting measures. Liz Blackshaw, long time campaigner for the library, said: “The building is owned by a private individual and was leased in perpetuity to the
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County Council for housing the library but three years ago officials met with parishioners to explain that their future plans for the county library service did not include Mountsorrel. “The meeting was packed out, there wasn’t even standing room, it was clear that feeling in the village was very strong. Less than 15 years previously we had raised a lot of money to make this building suitable for a library, we were not going to let it sit idle. So together we started a campaign, we ran petitions, held demonstrations and made representations to the Library Service and the Continued on page 2
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