Sileby

I lived in Sileby for 7 years when I first married and really enjoyed the life of the village. In fact I was a ward Councillor on Charnwood between 1995-97 when I became the MP. I still worship there every weekend at St Mary's Church (see below).

Sileby is undergoing a period of economic and social change at the moment as it has lost its traditional industrial base over the last 20 years. Industry still resides in Sileby but on more modern industrial estates that suit modern 21st century industries.

A lot of work has gone into finding out what local people want and the direction they want the village to head over the next decade. I have already asked everybody in the village twice about their concerns and desires and a more formal exercise was undertaken by the Village Appraisal team in 2001-02. I fully backed this initiative from the start and am now working with them and their successors to achieve some of their goals. However, much of what they want can be achieved by the village 'doing it for themselves', and I want to help here too.

When I lived in the village I got involved in doing what I could to help regenerate the village. Many of those projects are now bearing fruit. Indeed, Sileby has done better than most local villages in attracting outside investment in the last few years.

The local sites below give a much fuller picture from a village perspective. I have contributed articles to the Talk@Sileby magazine about some of my views.

There was also a campaign to get Braodband into the village, which I backed, and the sites below show how keen local people are to get Sileby wired!

Sileby fortunately has its own rail station on the Ivanhoe line. Services are not as great as I would like to see and I have had to fight service reductions and potential threats over the years. I continue to beat the drum for this service and would still like to see improvements.

Sileby has many of the usual issues for large villages like this - bus services, leisure facilities and schools as well as persistent small scale anti- social behaviour and petty vandalism for example.

I also firmly believe that Sileby needs better and more sporting facilities to cope with the growing village and the increased sporting activity. As you can see below the Cricket Club had done really well over the last few years and the football team deserves better. A planning application for a site just outside the village was regretfully turned down by Charnwood Borough Council.

I am also delighted to see that a rugby team has started in Sileby too and I look forward to playing against them!

Unemployment is now very low - which has also added to the normal social pressures - ie shops unable to keep going because the village centre is empty as people commute to and from work.

The health facilities have also not kept pace with the growth of the village and concerns are righlty expressed. I am backing calls for better GP facilities.

Sileby Cricket Club Success

Andy Reed said he was overwhelmed by the success of the Cricket Force event at Sileby Cricket force today. he said "I had been led to believe this was to be a good event, but I never dreamt it would be so successful. This is what grassroots sport is all about. Volunteers putting Sileby cricket on the map and it being recognised nationally. Everybody helped in some way and it was great to have international cricketers like Ashley Giles along to sign autographs and make the presentations. Everybody at the club deserves praise for the work that has lifted them to this position. It is only thanks to hard work by volunteers that this is possible. I was also pleased to note that the club have registered for the tax reliefs available for amateur clubs - a Bill I introduced in parliament. They are, like me, encouraging other clubs to sign up too!

Sileby Football Club Deserves Better

The leisure facilities in Sileby are still not good enough. Recent success with tennis and cricket club improvements have highlighted the need for further work to get better facilities for soccer!

I was bitterly disappointed that planning permission was denied to the club to develop land outside the village to give Sileby football a home it deserves.

Leisure facilities are limited in Sileby because it does not have a large school and development in the Soar Valley has delivered better facilities for all the villages - but not actually located in Sileby. As its population has grown the facilities have not grown to match this growth.

Environmental Heart to Sileby