We are delighted by this opportunity to take over for one week, to share a quick round up of the latest local news.  We are very pleased to report that during this, our take over week, covid infections are at the lowest levels seen since mid-December, added to which, there has been a fall in hospital cases.

So over to the headlines:

Our newly elected Chair, Councillor Mini Mangat and her Vice-Chair, Councillor Sidney Syson, have both been working hard in their new roles, joining the local Mayors in Whitnash, Kenilworth, Warwick and Leamington Spa to unveil living wisteria sculptures in memory of those we lost to Covid-19.  Residents joined the unveilings, and we hope you will find these living sculptures to be peaceful places of reflection and remembrance.

Following our successful £10m Future High Streets Fund bid for Leamington Spa town centre, Cabinet have given their approval for a further submission to the government’s Levelling Up Fund. If funding is secured it will allow us to bring forward two major projects identified in the Leamington Transformation Framework around the Bath Street area and the Grand Union Canal.

Over in Kenilworth, the preparatory work has now started to develop the brand-new leisure centre at Castle Farm.  This will bring the same opportunity to enjoy state-of-the-art fitness and leisure facilities to the residents of Kenilworth, as they have in Warwick and Leamington, which is great news.

Staying in Kenilworth we’re buzzing with the announcement that the Bee Friendly Trust has just awarded Kenilworth “Bee Friendly town” status, which puts it up there with only eight other bee friendly towns in the whole country! Credit goes to our Green Spaces team, who have been buzzy supporting members of “Bee Friendly Kenilworth” on several projects, well done all!

Back in Leamington, a visit to the recently opened Modern Pre-Raphaelite Visionaries (British Art 1880-1930) exhibition at the Leamington Spa Art Gallery and Museum is not to be missed. Admission is free and you can discover a host of ‘forgotten’ British artists working at the turn of the century, with loans from the British Museum, Tate and Fitzwilliam Museum. The exhibition runs until 18 September. 

And finally, we hope you are using this weekend to make those final preparations for the Platinum Jubilee celebrations next week. Leamington Spa will be joining the traditional Lighting of the Beacon ceremony in the Pump Room Gardens at 9pm on Thursday 2 June, which marks the start of a whole weekend of fun-packed celebrations across the district.  If you check our website, you should find something happening close to you!

That’s all from us, bye for now!

Richard Hales Deputy Leader             Andrew Jones Deputy Chief Executive