The award from the National Association is sponsored by AON Insurance
and Quorn was voted the best Parish Council out of over 100 entrants
from Councils in England and Wales. The runner-up was Waters Upton
Parish Council in Shropshire.
This follows on the village’s previous successes as Leicestershire’s
Best Kept Village two years running and leading in 2000 to the Daily
Telegraph/Calor Gas National Environmental Village of the Year award.
The judging panel was particularly impressed with the many aspects
of Quorn Parish Council’s work.
The Council has published and regularly updates ‘A Plan for
Quorn’, the Council’s policies and plans for the future,
arrived after consultation with the community. It covers development
and planning issues, conservation and restoration, highways and traffic,
community facilities, environmental issues, recreation and leisure,
and business. It is delivered free to every household and a copy is
displayed on the central notice board.
The environment is closely monitored by the Council. Although the
central areas are mostly urbanised, there are a number of ecologically
important sites in, and surrounding the village. These are listed
and the Council and volunteers work together to ensure that they are
sensitively managed and plans and policies exist for their maintenance
and preservation.The Council relies on information supplied by volunteer
tree, footpath and heritage wardens.
The centre of the village is a conservation area and the Council has
projects in hand to restore original features such as granite walls,
wrought iron fences and churchyard gates, period lighting columns
and paved or cobbled lands. Old ‘jitty’ or alleyway names
have been resurrected and commemorated with stylish new nameplates.
The parish and Baptist churches have been floodlit, the capital and
running costs met by the Parish Council.
A greening project in the conservation area is ongoing. Projects to
date include movable planters and permanent beds sited on formerly
unkempt areas in the village and the refurbishment of the central
War Memorial garden with prize money from a Charnwood Council sponsored
Enviromental competition. The Parish Council also judges an annual
Best Kept Garden competition and awards prizes.
Quorn has a lack of affordable housing for young people and families
wanting to live or remain in the village. The Parish Council has sought
and received outline planning permission to develop part of some publicly
owned land in the centre of the village for this purpose. East Midlands
Rural Housing has completed a survey of housing need in the village
in conjunction with the Parish Council.
For younger people, the Council owns and maintains a central, large
park with a newly refurbished children’s playground, and basketball
practice ground. A half-pipe ramp for skateboarding and cycling has
recently been constructed and a youth shelter has been built alongside
it. These have proven extremely popular.
The Council has been involved in a campaign to prevent housing development
on the village cricket ground and has now bought the ground and will
retain it as a cricket pitch and amenity space.
The Council has part-funded the award-winning village magazine ‘The
Quorndon’ [see website]
produced by volunteers and distributed free to every household in
the village. The magazine is now self-supporting from its advertising
revenue.
The Quorn village website is at www.quorndon.com.
This contains pages on all aspects of life in Quorn, including a major
section on the Parish Council. The site is run by two volunteers partly
financed by a grant from the Council.
There is a new parish notice board in a heritage style in front of
the main parade of shops and a Millennium Map commissioned to depict
Quorn’s heritage and provide a current street guide has been
installed at The Cross.
The Council sponsors an annual Art Exhibition and Craft Exhibition
at which local artists are encouraged to display their work to the
public. The village clubs occasional in need of financial assistance
can apply to the Council.
The Council has formed a sculpture garden adjacent to the churchyard
and other stone work around the village. Much of this is by final
year students at Loughborough University, using stone recovered from
a demolished mill chimney in the village.
The award from the National Association is sponsored by AON Insurance
and Quorn was voted the best Parish Council out of over 100 entrants
from Councils in England and Wales. The runner-up was Waters Upton
Parish Council in Shropshire.
