Archive Material: Evington Echo (Issues 81 to 90)

The following is a selection of items from past issues of the Echo. It is the personal view of Mike Stevens, one of our Echo team.

Issue 81: June 1991

• A packed meeting of Evington residents at Judgemeadow School , rejected a plan by County Hall for the Eastern Distributor Road . This plan would have threatened residents of Goodwood Road and Spencefield Lane with “massive increases of heavy traffic” according to the Echo.
  
• The public house ‘Lesters' (unoccupied as at the time of writing, Jan 2009) was licensed to open until midnight on Thursdays Fridays and Saturdays.
  
• Coincidentally, a letter in this issue of the Echo complained about noise from ‘Lesters'.
  
• A small group of fourth formers from the City of Leicester School, reached the finals of TV-am's, ‘Growing up Green' competition. Their project involved renovating the School's old bicycle shed site. They dug a pond, refurbished benches, planted trees and shrubs. J. Coles & Sons generously donated plants to the project.

Issue 82: September 1991

• The Echo received a letter from Keith Vaz MP, in which he said that he was impressed by the coverage in the Echo of the history of the Eastern Distributor Road . It said the coverage was “second to none” and he found the information “was helpful in putting the whole topic into perspective”.
  
• The story of the development of Francis St and Allendale Road , which had begun in issue 81 of the Echo, was continued.
  
• A meeting of Echo distributors was featured and a photograph of the event was published. Former editors, Angela Plowman and Anne Blandamer attended, as did Margaret Tomalin, the former graphics expert. Robert Raven who was instrumental in starting the Echo and former distribution manager Noel Bown and his wife were also there.

Issue 83: October 1991

• The subject of the Eastern District Distributor road rumbled on. The City Council Labour party was reported to have performed a U-turn and were calling for it to be routed along Spencefield Lane.(To be continued)
  
• We were reminded of the days before the collection of recycled waste by the photograph of the bottle bank area near Waitrose. It was shown to be massively overflowing. One other reminder of the past were the large number of 4 and 8 pint size beer can, which were popular at that time.
  
• A request for a traffic warden to monitor the crossing of school children at the Tavistock Drive , Wakerley Road junction was reported. The council had agreed to install a pelican crossing at a future date. (This was built some years later),
  
• The Golden Weddings of Mr & Mrs Cyril E Green and of Jack and Joan Birch were celebrated.

Issue 84: December 1991

• A reader (who had best remain nameless) sent a letter to the Echo regarding the plan to install a Pelican (traffic light controlled) crossing at the junction of Tavistock Drive and Wakerley Road . The reader wrote that he was ‘alarmed' at the plan, one reason being that he could “imagine late night revellers setting it going just for the fun of hearing it pinging”
  
• The same reader also complained about “delivery lorries (which) regularly park in the most inconvenient places … for other motorists” I wonder where the reader suggests that delivery lorries should park?
  
• The Echo reported that there is a house in Evington called “Avintoe” and this was the name for Evington, as listed in the Doomsday Book. (Does this house still survive? And if so, where is it?)
  
• The City of Leicester School, raised £1,700 to buy a Guide Dog. A photograph showed the following pupils who were involved: Alun Seright, Rupesh Joshi, Rakhee Tailor, Kiranjit Moore, Tom Joannu, Joanne Keen, Sanjay Mistry, Paresh Joshi, Vinesh Chauhan, Matthew Palfreyman, and Peter Farmer. Where are they now?

Issue 85: January 1992

• A photograph graphically illustrated the large amount of material placed near to the (full) bottle bank at Waitrose. This was before such material was collected at houses.

Issue 86: March 1992

• “Evington in Bloom” was the major theme of this issue. A small group met and decided to enter the “ East Midlands in Bloom” competition. To encourage participation, businesses and private individuals would be encouraged to enter. There would be prizes for back and front gardens, best hanging baskets and windows boxes.

Issue 87: April 1992

• A planning application to build a “place of worship” at No 1 Evington Drive had been submitted. (This is now the Masjid Umar mosque which was completed in the year 2000)
  
• A significant anniversary was the 21 years that J & A Bennett, the shop that seems to sell almost all hardware and gardening equipment. A history of the shop revealed that it was first sited next door when Steven Bennett was a baby. After his education, he took over the running of the shop. Bennett's provides a comprehensive service to this day. Bennett's have advertised in every issue of the Echo, apart from the first one.
  
• Old Evington WI celebrated their 60th anniversary.

Issue 88: May 1992

• Leicester Lions Club raised £2,000 for the purchase of equipment for the Renal Unit at Leicester General Hospital . Dr John Fehally demonstrated the equipment at the Unit on April 29th.

Issue 89: June 1992

• Photographs on the front cover showed the “Leicester Mercury” Historic Vehicle Parade, passing through Evington. Vehicles included an ambulance, a breakdown truck and a turntable / fire engine. There were even spectators watching seated in fold-up picnic chairs!
  
• The Waste Recycling Officer from the City council wrote to the Echo about the state of the bottle bank near Waitrose car park. He pointed out that in his experience, providing a larger container, provoked the deposition of larger items, eg furniture and televisions. He also said that some of the waste was from shop premises, whereas the facility was for domestic bottles.
  
• It was reported that the Evington Hall Convent School will cease to exist as a Catholic teaching school at the end of the summer term. The building was to be leased to the Leicester Grammar School .

Issue 90: July 1992

• The Echo and in particular Roger Jones, was thanked for it's participation and help in the organisation of “Evington in Bloom 1992”. It was considered to be a great success. Photographs on the front page of this issue showed the results of several people's efforts. The issue also included the results in the various categories.
  
• A coincidence? Three Evington students graduated from the same University after starting their Junior School days together at Linden Primary School . Joanne Crofts, Tim Farrow and Jonathan Morton, they studied for their “O” and “A” levels at the City of Leicester School, achieving the same grades at “A” level! All three then went to the University of Manchester 's Institute of Science and Technology to study for degrees in Management. At the time this issue was published, Joanne was training as a Chartered Accountant, Tim was in Bank Management and Jonathan was continuing his studies at Birmingham University . Where are they now?