Your Echo, Your Say.
Many people look forward to the Evington Echo dropping through the mailbox. It’s bright well laid out copy with a mix of community information and local adverts makes it appealing and useful to many residents.
The Evington Echo was first published in June 1981. As of 2026, it has been in continuous existence for 45 years. It was launched in June 1981 as a volunteer-run community magazine serving the Evington area of Leicester. It has never missed an issue, although during the COVID-19 pandemic one edition was distributed through local shops and another was delayed.
It is currently delivered free of charge by volunteers to around 6,000 homes in Evington. Its editor, Helen Pettman, has been in that role since 2005, although, approaching her eighties, she has recently declared it her intention to step down from the post.
An online edition was launched in 2012, complementing the long-running printed magazine.
The Echo has become an important historical archive for the area. Its website contains summaries of every issue from the very first edition in June 1981 onwards, documenting local events, planning issues, community groups and changes in Evington over more than four decades.
It is a continuing record of community life: the people who organise activities, care for local places, run clubs, raise concerns, celebrate achievements and preserve Evington’s history.
The Echo reports on local meetings, groups and talks to organisations and local projects. This has included reporting on litter-picking, gardening, environmental campaigns, schools, local businesses, libraries, heritage, faith groups, public meetings, fundraising and community celebrations.
At present the document that controls the ethos of the Evington Echo is the Friends of Evington’s constitution, which sets out that the aim of the organisation is to maintain public benefit in the Evington area and to promote for the benefit of the public, the conservation protection and improvement of the physical and natural environment in the Evington suburb of Leicester and the surrounding area. Its constitution states that in a common effort, it should advance education and provide facilities in the interests of social welfare for recreation and leisure time occupation with the objective of improving the conditions of life for the residents.
This is a noble aim, however perhaps community reporting has progressed and is also about informing, stimulating and involving. Given the community’s experience of the closure of the GP surgery, pharmacy and post office, in December 2024, which highlighted that despite the advance of social media, just how ill-informed we are as a community. It could be said that community reporting has a role to play in aiding democracy and awareness by sharing information and garnering community involvement, neutral to party politics.
The Evington Echo is also always keen to recruit community reporters and others willing to help keep this local charity alive and well.
Will you join in this effort, what do you think?
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