The following new plans have been submitted in recent weeks:
4 Norfolk Street, Spon End – Conservation Area Consent for change of use of building to form additional living accommodation (ref. CON/2014/0173). The application has been withdrawn by planning officers as they required much more information about the plans to be able to proceed. In the meantime eleven neighbours objected on various grounds including overdevelopment, overcrowding and existing problems with tenants.
Meadow House, Upper Spon Street – application by Whitefriars Housing for change of use from A1 (Shop) to community room for residents of the block and storage for 8 mobility scooters (ref: FUL/2014/0043). The plans are due to be considered by the planning committee on 6 March.
Albany Court, Brunswick Road – works to Tree Preservation Order trees: re-pollard 2 lime trees (ref. TP/2014/0149)
The following plans have been approved in recent weeks:
Former Texaco Petrol Filling Station, Allesley Old Road – amendment (remodelling of internal staircore and apartments) to planning application reference 39201/H, granted on 16 May 2005 for demolition of petrol station and erection of three storey apartment blocks and associated works (ref. AD/2014/0050).
11-12 Westminster Road – change of use of both properties and single storey extension to the rear to create 1 single house in multiple occupation with 20 bedrooms (ref. FUL/2013/2641). A similar previous application last year was rejected on the grounds of over intensification of the use of the site.
The following plan is still being considered:
37 Warwick Street – demolition of existing buildings, and development of 19 x 2 bed apartments with associated parking (ref. FUL/2014/0012). A growing number of nearby residents, supported by Councillor Allan Andrews who arranged a very useful meeting on 10 February between residents and planning officers, have objected strongly to this plan. It was agreed that the plans as submitted were not acceptable to residents or the council and Councillor Andrews has now arranged for residents to speak directly to the developer, to see if a compromise can be reached. See also February issue for more details of the plans.
All these plans (and others) can be inspected at the planning offices on the ground floor of the Tower Block, Much Park Street from 8.30am to 5.00pm Monday to Thursday and from 8.30am to 4.30pm Friday. Full details of all the applications and local residents’ responses can also be viewed via the City Council’s website.
ECHO’s policy is to include in this section plans which are likely to have broader impact than on immediate neighbours. We do not therefore normally include house extensions, loft conversions etc. which should be notified to adjacent properties by the City Council.
After just over five years trading in Earlsdon Street, Sam Harrison and Tilly Tromans have announced that they will be closing the lid on Tinderbox Toys & Trinkets at the end of March. Sam and Tilly have really enjoyed running the shop, and have appreciated the custom and support of local people. They have done what they can to raise people’s consciousness about their shopping habits and stressed the importance of local shopping, but fear that with increased internet shopping the time for independent toy shops may be over. “We have seen several toy shops open and close throughout Warwickshire. We are proud of the success we achieved with our shop, but we also know it’s time to call it a day on Tinderbox too“ said Sam.
Their closing down sale will begin on 1 March at 12 noon. The sale will take place throughout March when they will leave to make way for local businesswoman Hannah Johnson, from Lean Body Vision, who will be launching The Juice House.
Anybody who knows Sam and Tilly will know that they have taken part and organised many community events and activities in Earlsdon Street over the past five years, with Sam currently busy with booking of stalls for the Earlsdon Festival 2014. On Friday 21 and Saturday 22 March, Tinderbox and The Juice House will join forces to raise money for Sport Relief by organising a `stationary’ cycle ride from the shop. They will be manning a static bike and riding all the way to London and back! “We thought this would be another great way to mark the occasion of our departure and help Hannah celebrate her arrival at Number 62. We hope the sun shines and support from locals raises lots of money again for a good cause” explained Tilly. Please pop by and support them.
…and hello to The Juice House
The Juice House will take over the Tinderbox premises on 1 April and owner Hannah Johnson hopes to be open within two weeks selling fresh juices and smoothies, salads, healthy snacks, health foods and supplements. For more information see next month’s issue and visit the website.
Meanwhile, Lean Body Vision were expecting to move to new premises in Providence Street at the end of February. However, having obtained planning permission and building regulations approval and just a few days away from signing the lease, the landlord instead accepted an offer from someone else to purchase the building. Owner Hannah Johnson is very disappointed but says that life will go on for Lean Body Vision at number 1 Earlsdon Avenue South and for Earlsdon bootcamp. For more information visit the website.
Clive Mark Schoolwear closed their shop in Earlsdon Street at the end of January, but school uniforms can still be purchased via their website.
John Taylor & Son Butchers will be closing on Saturdays at 3pm (previously 5pm) from 1 March. They will continue to be open Monday to Saturday from 7am each day.
From Litigation to Meditation
A former local Criminal Solicitor has hung up her wig and gown and embarked on a dramatic career change. Nuala Grocott, who lives in Earlsdon and has worked as a solicitor for 25 years has given up her day job to teach t’ai chi. After training with the Association of Traditional Martial Arts for 13 years she has decided to turn her enthusiasm for t’ai chi into a permanent lifestyle change. She is a 2nd Dan in karate, (hoping to make 3rd Dan by the end of the year). There is no equivalent belt system for t’ai chi; the joy is in the journey not the destination. The two different but complementary disciplines go well together, the yin and yang of a hard and soft art each bringing something to the other.
Many people don’t think of t’ai chi as a martial art but it undoubtedly is. Dating back centuries, it is the stuff of legend and for many years a closely guarded secret practised by a single family in China. In those days it was very much a fighting art used in self-defence. However, it was also developed for its health giving properties and has always been intertwined with meditation and the development of internal discipline with an emphasis on the whole person, valuing not just physical prowess but also spiritual strength.
Nuala’s classes are informal and relaxed allowing the students to explore and find out how t’ai chi can benefit them. She says “We are all different and the beauty of t’ai chi is that it has something for everyone and can be adapted for all levels of ability”. She describes each class as an hour of time just for you where you can gently stretch yourself physically but also find peace and leave feeling better in both mind and body. Find out for yourself what t’ai chi has to offer you; the first class is free. See Diary for class details.
Ryan with Duncan Bannatyne
A new lettings agency, Ashmore and Co Lettings, is now operating from 2 Hearsall Lane. Its owner, Ryan Ashmore, was the youngest entrepreneur to receive an investment from Duncan Bannatyne on the BBC programme Dragons’ Den at the age of 18. Last year Ryan sold his music business and used the proceeds to launch his lettings business.
Ryan’s family has been involved in the local lettings market for over 20 years and his mother is the manager of a Coventry based housing association. ‘Having a family background in lettings has really benefited me when I was designing Ashmore and Co”, says Ryan. “I am confident that landlords will find what we have on offer to be very refreshing.
“Our slogan is ‘ALL IN HAND’. Our systems are set to find the right tenants, protect a landlord’s property and take care of all the time consuming stuff. Landlords will also be dealing directly with the business owners to ensure that the highest quality of service is always received.”
The company will be dealing with both the mainstream residential lettings market as well as the student market. Ryan adds ‘We have already had a very encouraging response after launching Ashmore and Co on 3 February. In the first week we let our first two properties and the landlords are delighted with the quality of tenants we have found for them. We need to build on this success by getting more landlords to take advantage of the great deals we are offering them.
Ryan can be contacted on 024 7671 6558 or visit the website. You can also see Ryan’s Dragon’s Den appearance online.
ECHO’s resident fitness freak has been back out in the area again looking for more people and places offering new health and fitness alternatives for you. This time, they’ve been learning about some changes to the Earlsdon Running Club.
I discovered the Earlsdon Running Club about three years ago when I was looking to add more structure to my running schedule. I love the freedom of running but I was finding it hard to motivate myself to get out there when I had no-one to run with. The Earlsdon Running Club was the perfect solution.
Run by Frances Ihenacho, local Personal Trainer, the Earlsdon Running Club is a very relaxed, informal group for runners of all abilities. When I joined, Frances asked me about my level of fitness, my personal goals and then she ran with me for the first run to measure my pace so that she could match me with other runners within the group. I found the group really helpful and soon started knocking huge chunks of times off my previous personal bests. Three years on and I’ve completed a few half marathons, one full marathon and I’m feeling stronger than ever. Running with a club was the best decision I made and, for me, the Earlsdon Running Club provided the perfect opportunity to run in a group without feeling the pressure that can sometimes be associated with official, affiliated running club.
From Tuesday 4 March the Earlsdon Running Club is taking on a new structure so, if you are interested in the idea of running with a club but you’ve not done it before and you’re not sure what to expect, why not try one of the next 6 week blocks to see if it’s for you.
New coach, David Conway, is keen to provide professional, varied and structured training sessions including interval training and longer runs. David will ensure that the sessions are also inclusive and fun, regardless of your ability. The 6-week blocks will cost £18 to be paid for before the 6 weeks commences. If you would like more information about the new timetable contact Frances on 07775 853 015.
Freya Kendall has written this account of her work placement in Tanzania working with Raleigh International.
What do you remember from your primary school years? Practising the shape of ‘a’s over and over in your exercise book? Being read exciting stories out of colourful books by the teacher? Maybe chanting your times tables over and over again until the point where you drive your parents mad? Perhaps taking home models and artwork you created from various yogurt pots and egg boxes? These are all happy memories that we take for granted in this country, but it wasn’t until I spent 10 weeks living and working out in rural Tanzania that I came to understand that many children in Tanzania, and Africa generally, do not obtain a decent primary school education due to such a huge lack of basic resources and materials.
During the summer of 2013, I was sent out to rural Tanzania for 10 weeks to work on behalf of Raleigh International and the International Citizen Service (ICS) to work on a number of different projects to ultimately cultivate development and progression of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set up by the UN in 2000. One such goal is to have implemented universal primary education across the world by 2015. Sadly, I don’t think this goal will be achieved in time, not only because there is still a great deal of work for the UN and various charities and NGOs to do, but because existing schools are struggling to properly educate their children because they have very few resources to do so.
The pre-school children of Mgongo Primary School, with Freya (behind the boy in the Gap t-shirt)
I visited and taught at various primary schools within a 20 kilometre radius of where my team and I were living, and at each primary school we frequently came across the same problem: the teachers struggle to teach the children as there simply are not enough decent resources to go around. Classes of 40, 50 or even over 60 children with one teacher would sometimes have only four or five battered old textbooks to work from. Many of the children did not have proper exercise books, as these are not given out by the school, but rather have to be paid for by the family. As a result of this, high numbers of children did not have an exercise book because their family simply could not afford one. Many of the children did not have a pen or a pencil of their own, and virtually all the textbooks I came across (though it has to be said that there were not many) were extremely outdated and not appropriate for primary school curriculum.
How can children be expected to learn the most basic maths and literacy skills if such basic resources cannot be provided? How can we look to implement universal primary school education across the world if the existing schools are not able to educate their children properly? We all seem to agree that it is education which is the key to breaking the poverty cycle, so we must work to provide schools with the most basic of materials to allow the teachers there to give the children the best possible education.
What I am urging is for people to have a look in the loft, in the old bookshelf which houses all manner of books no one ever looks at, and give whatever books and resources they can to the wonderful charities that can take donations and distribute them to schools across Africa. It may not seem like much to send a few books across, but I know first-hand that any donations will be highly appreciated and could change the lives of children, families and generations to come.
Here are just a few charities which gratefully accept book and monetary donations:
If you’re interested in hearing more about what I, my team or other teams have got up to out in Tanzania, here is a link to the weekly blogs we wrote whilst we were out there.
The Earlsdon Neighbourhood Police Force would like to remind ECHO readers about the importance of protecting homes and vehicles from theft. PCSO Richard Brown explains why.
I can confirm that, in January this year there were nine reported home burglaries and 13 counts of vehicle damage or theft. For the majority of the burglaries, entry was gained by forcing/smashing a rear window or door and stealing small electrical devices (laptops, phones etc.) Three of the 13 reports regarding vehicles were thefts of number plates. The others were all regarding theft from cars with three having had windows or doors forced and seven having been broken into with no damage caused. The root cause of the break-ins appeared to be leaving sat navs, cash and handbags on display.
Please help us by reporting any suspicious behaviour or crimes as they happen. We have had reports from residents that there is someone trying to break into cars in the early hours so please remember not to leave items in your vehicles overnight. If you spot anything, please pass the information on.
You can also help to protect yourself and your property by following these simple guidelines:
Always lock all doors and all accessible windows
Use a timer switch to turn lights and radios on when you are out or away to give the impression that your house is occupied
Close curtains and blinds after dark so that your valuables can’t be seen from outside
Install a visible burglar alarm and make sure you turn it on. If it has ‘zones’, turn on the alarm for downstairs while you are upstairs, asleep
Register your valuables for free on the national property registration site so that if your property is lost or stolen and recovered by police, you’re more likely to get it back
Do not leave tools (or anything that might assist a burglar) out in your garden
Lock your car and check who if there is anyone around when you walk away
If you have a garage then use it for your car
As always, the Earlsdon Neighbourhood Police Force is available to carry out surveys of premises so we can assist in making your home or vehicle a harder target to burgle.
We also hold monthly police surgery meetings at the War Memorial Park, Earlsdon Methodist Church and Earlsdon Library. All dates and times are on local boards and the website (below). These are in place so that you can come and speak to us in person about any concerns you may have.
This time last year we were still in the icy grip of winter, but this year, the middle of February, it’s still raining. We are very lucky to avoid the serious flooding of buildings but everywhere is waterlogged and every stream and river full to the brim.
However the rain has also brought us many beautiful rainbows, some of them have been double. Secondary rainbows are caused by a double reflection of sunlight inside the raindrops, and appear at an angle of 50-53⁰. As a result of the second reflection, the colours of a secondary rainbow are inverted compared to the primary bow, with blue on the outside and red on the inside.
The secondary rainbow is fainter than the primary because more light escapes from two reflections compared to one and because the rainbow itself is spread over a greater area of the sky. The dark area of unlit sky lying between the primary and secondary bows is called Alexander’s band after Alexander of Aphrodisias who first described it around 200 AD. Rainbows have a rich and long history; some cultures view rainbows as omens and others see them as lucky.
One of the interesting fungi to be found even at this time of year
There is always something to see at Canley Ford, even in the rain. Our snowdrops are at their best now. Snowdrops are some of the first bulbs of the year to bloom. This early flowering, which carpets the ground between January and April, is aided by hardened leaf tips that can push through frozen earth.
The downside to flowering in winter is that pollinating insects are scarce, so these little drops of snow spread mainly through bulb division. The flower is milky white as indicated by its scientific name Galanthus, from two Greek words meaning ‘milk’ and ‘flower’. There are green markings on the inner petals, which experts are able to use as a means of identification. These are said to glow in ultraviolet light and thus attract pollinators such as bumble bees to whom ultra violet light is visible. Once the temperature reaches 10⁰C, the outer petals open to be horizontal, thus attracting pollinating insects.
“The snowdrop in purest white arrair,
First rears her hedde on Canalemas daie.”
From an early church calendar of English flowers c.1500.
Oh dear! More fence mending needed
Enjoy your walk at Canley Ford, we saw two mice in the leaf litter gathering berries for their food store, there are still crab apples under the leaves for hungry squirrels. We also saw some colourful fungi and celandine in flower. The next working party will be on Saturday 1 March 10am till 12 noon with coffee and biscuits at 12, everyone is welcome.
A familiar background and a reference to current traffic problems, captured by Nick’s pen
Earlsdon based cartoonist Nick Shingler has been featured regularly in the Coventry Telegraph recently after the Telegraph invited cartoonists to submit their work to be considered for publication. Nick’s creation the Cov Kids has proved popular with readers.
Nick, who moved to this area from Wolverhampton in the 1980s, is a building surveyor by profession, and has recently been elected a Fellow of the Chartered Association of Building Engineers, but has been drawing and painting all his life.
After winning a children’s art competition when he was a teenager Nick had a painting featured in a London gallery, which led to national coverage in the Guardian newspaper, and in the 1980s had paintings exhibited in Coventry Cathedral and the Herbert. Drawing cartoons has also been a long term hobby and he particularly admires the work of the hugely popular British cartoonist (Carl) Giles of the Daily Express and the American Jack Kirby from Marvel Comics.
At the Leeds Thought Bubble Festival a few years ago Nick exhibited a full comic strip of an airborne Angel of the North and has supplied a cartoon for the Sky Blues Trust but the nine cartoons that have appeared in the Coventry Telegraph are his first such work published in a newspaper. The Coventry Music Museum charity admired his 2-Tone cartoon and requested he donated a signed copy which Nick was happy to do.
Nick draws using traditional pen and ink, creating an A4 image which is then reproduced at one third the size. He uses recognisable and realistic backgrounds, including some clearly identifiable in the ECHO area, and then puts his Cov Kids characters into those scenes. The drawing process itself takes 2 to 3 hours but extra time is required in preparation, seeking suitable backgrounds and taking photos that he can work from later.
Nick lives in Earlsdon with his wife Nicky (“Yes, it does cause confusion”, he says) who used to teach at Earlsdon Primary School and now gives private tuition in English and maths, and their sons Ben, 19, and Joe, 17.
There’s an interesting variety of shows coming up at the Albany Theatre, with ballet, musicals and even psychology! Dance company Ballet Theatre UK visits on 13 March, with the world premiere of their production of Hans Christian Andersen’s popular story ‘The Little Mermaid’. The ballet explores the nature of longing, the lasting consequences of making choices and how goodness can be rewarded in unexpected ways. In the story, the mermaid of the title rescues a human prince during a storm and falls in love with him. She strikes a bargain with an evil sea witch that allows her to follow him onto dry land but it carries a heavy price. The Albany Theatre performance is the first show of an extensive spring tour of the UK and Ireland that takes in more than 60 venues.
Richard Wiseman
Best selling author, psychologist and magician Richard Wiseman brings ‘An Evening of Psychobabble’ to the theatre on 18 March. The show premiered at 2012’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival to sellout audiences and rave reviews, with one critic describing it as “hard to beat”. Richard promises to rummage around in your mind with games, fun and entertainment exploring the psychology of luck, dreaming and how to change your life in less than a minute. He holds Britain’s only Professorship in the Public Understanding of Psychology, at the University of Hertfordshire and has spoken at The Royal Society, The Royal Institution and has addressed organisations such as Microsoft, Google and Amazon. Richard has also acted as a creative consultant to Derren Brown, the MythBusters, and Heston Blumenthal.
‘Another Opening, Another Show!’ on 22 March sees talented young performers from both the Jill Purser Theatre School and Earlsdon Ballet School display their talents in a showcase of song and dance, covering an array of styles including ballet, musicals, tap, freestyle and more. Moving into next month, The Guildhall returns to the theatre between 2 and 5 April with an ambitious production of musical favourite ‘Calamity Jane’, which includes a stage coach in its set. The show’s story is based on the life of American frontierswoman Martha Jane Canary, who was best known for her association with Wild Bill Hickok and gained her nickname during the 1870s. The stage musical is based on the 1953 film starring Howard Keel and Doris Day and includes all of the well known songs, including The Deadwood Stage (Whip-Crack-Away!), The Black Hills of Dakota and the Academy Award winning My Secret Love.
Tickets for all shows can be bought in person from the box office, by phone (7699 8964) or via the theatre’s website.
The warning signs were there: the blood-spattered programme, with its ‘parental advisory’; the menacing stewards; the panic alarm on the desk. But that was scant preparation for what followed. Anthony Horowitz’s Mindgame, the latest Criterion Theatre production, was a visceral examination of good, evil, psychiatry, and the boundaries between sanity and madness.
Hack writer Styler (played by the increasingly bewildered Jon Styles) makes a living penning popular accounts of serial killers’ crimes. The play opens with his arrival at Fairfields mental hospital to interview convicted killer Easterman. But in this hermetically sealed world, nothing is quite what it seems, and events spiral out of control from the word go.
His host, Craig Shelton’s disquieting Dr. Farquhar, seems strangely unaware of the writer’s supposedly pre-announced visit. When Farquhar persuades Styler to don a straitjacket to ‘get inside the mind’ of Easterman, all hell breaks loose. Farquhar morphs into Easterman, at the head of a mob (unseen) that has apparently taken over the institution and killed the real Farquhar. Murder and mayhem then seemingly ensue, with Styler in the end persuaded that he is in essence no different from the serial killer who fascinates him.
Is Styler really a mad inmate all along, caught up in an elaborate psychodrama? We’re never told. The three actors did a superb job of creating and sustaining a bewildering, intimidating, even frightening atmosphere, throwing out questions about who and what is normal, the malleability of personality, and the imbalance of power in institutional relationships.
The central stage, with audience seating on three sides, allows the audience to get uncomfortably close to some apparently pretty stomach-churning action. Suffocation, death by scalpel (with appropriate noises off) – the advisory about onstage smoking seemed likely to be the least of a parent’s worries. But Anne-marie Greene’s taut direction steered the piece expertly away from the reefs of schlock horror on which it could easily have been wrecked, and allowed the actors to demonstrate, once again, just why an evening at the Criterion is such a compelling event.
The production for March is the “warm, tender – and multi-award winning” play, Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa. The piece premiered at Dublin’s Abbey Theatre in 1990, and tells the story of five impoverished spinster sisters in a remote part of County Donegal at harvest time in 1936.
The five Mundy sisters, ranging in age from twenty-six to forty, live in a cottage outside the village of Ballybeg, and are barely able to make ends meet. With them live Michael, seven year old son of the youngest sister, and Jack, the sisters’ elder brother, a missionary priest newly returned from Africa. The events of that summer are recounted looking back by the adult Michael, who reminisces with warmth and tenderness about that time.
Previous productions of the play elsewhere have won many awards, including an Olivier and a Tony. It’s also been made into a film starring Meryl Streep. This production is directed by the Criterion’s Annie Woodward, and runs from 22 to 29 March.
Tickets are available from the box office – for details of how to book using the secure voicemail/online ticketing, visit the Criterion website or you can phone the box office on 024 7667 5175 (evenings from 8 – 9 pm the week before the play is on, or 7.30 – 9 pm during the week of the play).
Hearsall Primary School’s Parent Teacher Association were delighted to be able to present a giant cheque to the Headteacher, Mrs Emma Billington, recently (pictured, right). The cheque, for £7000, was presented by Chair of the Friends of Hearsall, Rachel Barker along with some pupils from the school, in a Friday afternoon assembly. The money will be used by the school to purchase some much-needed IT equipment, from which all of the school’s pupils will benefit.
Friends of Hearsall have been working hard over the last school year to raise this money. They have held many successful events such as the hugely popular Pamper Evening in June (watch this space for information about the next one, so that you do not miss out!) as well as the school’s traditional Christmas and Summer Fayres. Parent helpers have turned out in all weathers to run after school Cake Sales, including twice in the snow, and in the summer term Friday afternoons were often celebrated with an Ice Cream Sale in the playground.
“We have a great team running events” says Rachel, “but it is really the parents of the school who make what we do a success. Without their support we could not have raised this sum of money.” Mrs Billington, Head Teacher at Hearsall added, “our children are extremely excited about the new equipment and it will be an enormous enhancement to their learning experience. We are very thankful to our parents and carers”.
Friends of Hearsall’s next big purchase will be outdoor play equipment for the playground.
