ROSE-Fighting for Local Services
It is nice to have successes when campaigning to retain and improve local services and conditions. ROSE was set up to do just that following the catastrophic closure of our GP branch surgery, our pharmacy and our post office in December of 2024. It is however easier said than done and more often than not, it takes a lot of effort and can span many months or even years.
In recent times we have had some small victories and one quite significant one. The latter is the decision of the City Council to continue to fund and run Evington Library, significant because the alternative might well have spelt the end of local library services as we know them.
One ROSE Steering Group member has taken an influential and important role in bringing about the decision to continue the much-loved library under Council stewardship and funding, albeit with some slight changes. Zuffar Haq who is also a very active local councillor as well as an adviser to ROSE, led the way on this issue and organised local people in their efforts to gain a positive outcome. He also put forward a very pragmatic suggestion as to the way forward, which appears to have been heeded. Of course, other locals such as Helen Pettman, and Deepak Bajaj were also involved and another of the ROSE Supporters Group members, Sal Iqbal, campaigned vigorously. Several others also contributed, and the meeting held at the Evington library under the capable Chairpersonship of Cllr Vi Dempster, Assistant City Mayor for libraries and community centres, was very well attended and several salient questions and points were made.
We must continue to campaign for the things that local people think of as important, and we could do with more supporters joining ROSE.
Another current ROSE campaign led by Zuffar Haq, is to improve the 22 bus services which many locals find falls short of being reliable. He is also speaking up and campaigning on wider issues such as cuts to funding for pupils with Special Educational Needs.
ROSE is still lobbying the City Council regarding the GP Surgery and pharmacy services to Evington Village, and a recent petition has shown clearly, that many people are still unhappy and still feeling raw about this unjustified removal of vital local services.
We have also opened up ROSE Supporter’s Group to include the traders in Evington Village thereby establishing a channel of communication between residents, councillors and traders, and between the traders themselves. This allows issues of local interest to be aired, shared and discussed, thus ensuring we are all as well informed as possible. To date eleven traders have joined the group.
So why not join this community led initiative which has the support of two of our local councillors.
