Local News

Making a Local Splash

By John Weitzel

In September 2019, stepping down as Loughburians’ Chair was an easy decision for Richard Bailey (Class of 1996) as four months earlier he had been elected for the first time as the Conservative Councillor for the Loughborough Outwoods Ward on Charnwood Borough Council. There he joined fellow Loughburians Ted Parton (Class of 1990) and Paul Mercer (Class of 1979) who had both been re-elected as Councillors for the Southfields Ward. Since then all three have made their mark in the Borough.

With Paul as Cabinet Lead Member for Local Housing and Richard as Lead Member for Planning, the future development of the Borough is in for exciting times! However, it was Ted that captured the headlines after he read a letter from another Loughburian, Nick Hardy (Class of 1980), concerned about the state of Loughborough’s Town Centre. Together with architectural designer, Raffaele Rosso, the three formulated a plan to create an art trail around the Town Centre. This was not to be an ordinary trail but one involving 20 high quality large murals on walls around the Town Centre – suddenly their distinctive logo appeared and the ‘Ladybird Collective’ was born, creating massive community and media interest.

The first mural appeared in Ashby Square and was that of Leicester City footballer Hamza Choudhury. Hamza is a Loughborough boy, scouted from the town as a youngster before progressing through Leicester’s academy system all the way to the first team and England U21 recognition. He was selected because of his significance across the community and hero status for the youngsters of our town. Hamza is the first ever footballer of Bangladeshi heritage to play in the Premier League. But the mural I see most is that of Paula Radcliffe on Pinfold Gate and there are plans to have ‘Johnnie’ Johnson painted in the future.

When Richard, Ted, Paul and Nick were at the School, Politics was not taught as an A level subject. Until Politics first appeared on the syllabus in 1997, the boys’ interest in Politics was restricted to being lucky enough to be at the School when a General Election was called and a mock election was held as a result. The advent of it being an A level subject means that now boys are interested in politics from an earlier age and this was reflected by Bertie Harrison-Rushton (Class of 2016) being elected Councillor for Kegworth on the North West Leicestershire District Council at the age of 21, although the School can take very little credit for that as his father, Councillor Nick Rushton, is Chairman of Leicestershire County Council! Even younger was Kieran Hopewell (Class of 2019) who failed to get elected for Sutton Bonnington. Being just 18 appealed to voters but having to canvass whilst preparing to do A levels was a challenge! Both did get A*s in their Politics A level.

Having no power but holding the oldest secular office under the crown dating back to 1066 is the position of High Sheriff, who originally was the principal law enforcement officer in the County. Tim Hercock (Class of 1981) was High Sherriff of Leicestershire for 2019/2020 which led me to thinking: how many other alumni have held this position in the past?