A message from City Council Leader, Cllr David Mellen:
As Leader of the Council, I have heard first-hand of the turmoil and disruption that this pandemic has brought to people?s lives and to business across our city. Having taken difficult decisions earlier in the year to cancel events like Splendour, the Riverside Festival, Bonfire Night and Goose Fair, we had hoped to offer some festive cheer to local people and to help local businesses that have struggled during the pandemic.
Like the rest of the country, the city saw significant footfall on Saturday and was much busier than anticipated. This began to have a knock-on effect mainly on areas surrounding the Old Market Square but also including the Christmas Market later in the day. We wanted the market to help support the local economy, bringing people into the city centre in a safe, managed way as part of the reopening of non-essential retail after the national lockdown. Having monitored the market throughout the day, we reacted quickly to close early on Saturday and have now made the decision not to reopen the market again this year.
The views I have had expressed to me, both for and against are very important and we have listened carefully. The decision to go ahead with the market and subsequently close was not taken lightly and I am sorry that it has not worked out as we had envisaged.
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No Nottingham child should go hungry this Christmas
Child poverty is a serious issue in the UK and in Nottingham and Covid has highlighted many of the inequalities that exist between children in our city. We will not stand by while children go hungry this Christmas. We will ensure almost ?1m of funding is provided directly to households most in need this Christmas and the support will continue into the spring. Our message is clear - if families need support, they can call the council and we will make sure they get the help they need.
More than ?945,000 will be spent on food for families where children are in receipt of free school meals. The Christmas and February schemes will be delivered to parents by schools providing digital vouchers for supermarkets. The vouchers will also be available for qualifying younger children in pre-school in pre-school settings and older children in Further Education settings.
Find out more how about we?ll be supporting children receiving Free School Meals this Christmas and February half term ? PR link
Give the gift of reading this Christmas to a child in Nottingham
Dolly Parton?s Imagination Library is a book gifting programme devoted to inspiring children with a love of reading. Each month, enrolled children from birth to age five receive a high quality, age appropriate book in the post, free of charge.
Studies show that reading from a young age helps children attain better exam results, which means they have better job prospects when they leave school. I was delighted to hear that our Dolly Parton Imagination Library campaign has now delivered over 280,000 books to almost 6,000 local children since it started in 2009.Text donations will buy a book for a child in Nottingham.
You can do this by texting?NOTTM to 70085 to donate ?2* | Text NOTTM 5 to 70085 to donate ?5* *Texts cost ?2 or ?5 plus one standard rate message
Alternatively, you can raise money for Nottingham?s Imagination library by buying specially designed Christmas cards by the very talented & creative Sophy Henn, Buy your cards here.?
When you complete your purchase you will be asked which Imagination Library you would like to support, just select 'Nottingham' from the drop down box and ?1 will be donated to Nottingham Imagination Library.?
You will also have the option to add an extra gift inside the card e.g. a ?25 donation would gift a year?s worth of books. ?This is shown as a gift inside the card, and donated to Nottingham?s Imagination Library.
Find out more - Dolly Parton?s Imagination Library: Nottingham
Please click?here?for some of the answers to questions we?ve been asked about what you should do, and what we are doing, to respond to Coronavirus.
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