Officers are appealing for witnesses after a robbery at a shop in Market Harborough yesterday evening (Monday 13 December). Two men entered the Spar shop in Coventry Road around 7.50pm and threatened the staff with bladed weapons before stealing a quantity of cigarettes. The suspects made off in a grey hatchback type vehicle towards Farndon Road. No one was hurt during the incident. One of the suspects has been described as being a white man, in his 40s, he was wearing a black beanie style hat, a black knitted balaclava, black hooded top and jeans. The second suspect was also a white man, in his 40s, he was wearing a grey hooded top with the hood pulled up over his head, a black knitted mask and black jeans. Officers would like to speak to anyone who was in the area yesterday evening. It’s a busy time of the evening and there may have been pedestrians and motorists around at the time. Anyone who was driving in Coventry Road around the time of the incident and has video recording equipment installed in their vehicles, is asked to check the footage and get in touch if they captured anything that may assist with the investigation. Anyone with any information is asked to contact PC 4752 Ben Leaning on 101, quoting crime number 21*725172.

Detectives are appealing for witnesses after a 22-year-old man was the victim of an attempted robbery in Ashby. The victim was walking through an alleyway which runs between Scott Close and Canterbury Drive around 5.50pm on Wednesday 1 December. As he approached the Scott Close side of the alleyway he was approached by two men who demanded his phone and cash. An elderly man was walking through the alleyway at the time of the incident and the suspects made off empty handed. As they ran past the elderly man one of them pushed him into the wall injuring his wrist. Both suspects were in their mid-20s. One of the suspects has been described as being white, around 5ft 10ins to 5ft 11ins tall and of large build. He was wearing a distinctive face mask which had the jaw of a skull on it and a rose, a black coat with red stripes down the arms, on the front of the coat there was a flame design going across the stomach area. The coat was a shiny thin material and he may have been wearing a dark blue hooded top underneath, dark jeans, blue trainers with two white stripes down the side of them. The second suspect was wearing a dark hooded top and jeans. He was slightly taller and slimmer than the first suspect. Detective Constable Gavin Chantrill is the investigating officer, he said: “From enquiries we’ve conducted so far we know, as well as the elderly man, there was a couple walking in the alleyway too around the time of the incident but we are yet to identify these potential witnesses. If this was you or you witnessed any part of the incident we would like to speak to you. “Also, if you recognise the suspects’ descriptions or clothing and have any suspicions about who they may be get in touch.” Anyone with any information is asked to contact DC 2968 Chantrill on 101, quoting crime number 21*705298.

Images have been released of four men officers want to speak to following a fight at student accommodation in Queens Road, Leicester. It happened at approximately 12.40am on 5 June. An investigation has been continuing since the initial report and now new CCTV footage has been obtained. No-one has been arrested in connection with the incident. PC Maddie Hayes, the investigating officer, said: “I would like to speak to any of the four men pictured as, having made further enquiries, I believe they may have information that could help. “If you’re one of those people, or you know who they are, then please get in touch.” You can pass on information by visiting https://www.leics.police.uk/ro/report/ocr/af/how-to-report-a-crime/ and quoting reference 21*309564. Alternatively call 101. Leicestershire Police Appeal 14/12/21

Leicestershire Police have already arrested 39 drink drug drivers since the start of their December campaign, there had been 32 arrests on this same day in December 2020. Drivers are being stopped across the Leicestershire Police force area, so far these have included 17 in Leicester, 8 in North West Leicestershire and 5 in the Harborough district. Jonathan Clarkson, Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Road Safety Partnership spokesperson said, “We have seen a worrying trend in the number of arrests this year which look set to continue during the festive period.” “Between January and October this year Leicestershire Police made 1226 drink drug drive arrests, the number of arrests in October alone was 134, the highest monthly figure since April 2010!” If you see someone who appears to be a drink or drug driver enter a vehicle to drive away, make a note of the registration plate and the direction of travel and call your local police on 101 or make a make a free and anonymous call to CrimeStoppers on 0800 555 111.

A Leicestershire Police officer has been fined £100 at Leicester Magistrates Court for careless driving following an investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC). PC Charlotte Parry – who pleaded guilty at a hearing at Loughborough Magistrates Court in September - was responding to a Grade 1 call for assistance when the police van she was driving collided with a Subaru car on 18 March 2021 on the A47 King Richards Road in Leicester. A passenger in the car, a man in his 40s, was left with life changing injuries after the van hit the front of the car. Our investigation began in March 2021 following a mandatory referral from Leicestershire Police and looked into the manner of PC Parry’s driving. At the end of the investigation in August 2021 and following discussion with Leicestershire Police, it was agreed that PC Parry had a case to answer for misconduct. It will now be for the force to take forward disciplinary proceedings.

Additional funding has been approved for the latest series of measures to help the city’s economic recovery post Covid-19. £370,000 has been set aside to deliver a programme of long-term support and development of the city’s creative and cultural economy. The funding will focus on four key areas, designed to build on existing strengths and set out a sustainable framework for future work. A total of £30,000 is earmarked for projects working with partners, including both universities, to support research and new thinking into the major economic, social and environmental challenges facing the city, focusing on areas such as support for more ‘green jobs’ in the local economy. £125,000 will be invested in support for the city’s cultural and creative economy, looking at the viability of major cultural development projects, and devising a longer-term vision for expanding the city’s cultural and creative industries sector. This funding will also support the creation of a new archive celebrating the contribution to the East Midlands of communities from Africa and the Caribbean. £65,000 will be put into work to attract inward investment into the city, by developing a long-term city growth plan to highlight opportunities for potential investors and developers and support other initiatives to attract investment and drive business recovery. A programme of “Animating the City” activities, building on the success of the Summer in the City programme, will receive £150,000, to draw up a diverse range of activities to encourage people into the city in 2022. The work marks the latest stage of work by the city council as part of its Economic Recovery Plan, which was drawn up a year ago to set out a framework for ensuring the city bounced back from the disruption of 2020 and the first part of 2021. The latest funding will be drawn from money set aside to finance Covid-19 recovery measures. City Mayor Peter Soulsby said: “We drew up the Economic Recovery Plan back in November 2020 as a roadmap to ensure the city’s economy was able to come back in a strong position after the upheaval caused to the lockdowns. “This additional funding will help accelerate that recovery as we move forward. The measures set out here are all designed to enable short and long-term growth in the economy, attracting investment, generating footfall and promoting the city, which are all vital steps to ensure we emerge from Covid-19 in as strong a position as possible.” Details of the Economic Recovery Plan are available here.

People are being asked to give their views on a range of measures being proposed to help safeguard tenants in communities across the city and tackle rogue landlords. Leicester City Council is considering bringing in extra measures requiring landlords and properties to be properly licensed in order to protect the most vulnerable people and improve the standards of private-sector rented housing citywide. Three different options – or combinations of these options – are being consulted upon to give people the chance to get involved in the decision making which will help their local neighbourhoods. Councils have existing mandatory powers and these proposed schemes look to widen the scope of those where there is evidence of ongoing issues. The city council’s consultation sets out three options showing how these different approaches could be used to improve private rented sector standards. The first approach would involve bringing in Selective Licensing, which would require all privately-rented properties to be licensed by the city council, and which would operate within parts of the city’s Westcotes, Fosse, Saffron, Stoneygate, Braunstone Park and Rowley Fields wards. A second option proposes introducing citywide Additional Licensing, which would require all small HMOs occupied by three or four unrelated tenants who share facilities such as kitchens and bathrooms, to be licensed. It would operate in all areas of the city. A third option would bring in Additional Licensing only within parts of Westcotes, Fosse, Stoneygate, Braunstone Park and Rowley Fields. Each of the proposed licensing measures would place conditions on the landlord to ensure issues such as gas and electrical safety, installation of smoke, fire and carbon monoxide alarms are adequately dealt with, along with matters such a repairs and maintenance, waste disposal, tenancy management and addressing antisocial behaviour. The consultation on the three approaches has now been launched and will run until February 22, 2022. Leicester assistant city mayor for housing, Cllr Elly Cutkelvin, said: “Access to decent affordable housing is essential to support good health and wellbeing and a good quality of life. “Ongoing pressures within the housing market mean that for many, including a rising proportion of families, the only chance of a decent home is a private rented tenancy. “We are committed to improving the quality of private-sector rented housing in the city, by ensuring both landlords and tenants are supported and engaged with us. “Our responsibility is to protect the most vulnerable people by ensuring their housing, and their landlords, meet a higher standard in terms of safety, maintenance and the effect on the wider community. “Additional Licensing would include smaller HMOs of three or more people, rather than five or more, and ensuring they are properly licensed. “Selective Licensing would give us the powers to ensure all properties in those targeted areas are licensed. “While licensing helps us improve safety standards in the first instance, with a robust enforcement action plan it can also benefit the wider community.” Additional Licensing and Selective Licensing are the latest steps being considered by the city council to both crackdown on rogue landlords and improve the standards of private-sector rentals. Earlier this month, the city council announced it was launching a consultation on plans to expand legislation known as an Article 4 Direction, which means planning permission would be needed to convert any house into a HMO in certain areas of the city. An Article 4 Direction already exists covering parts of the West End, streets near to De Montfort University’s campus and Leicester Royal Infirmary, numerous streets in the area between New Walk and HMP Leicester, as well as most of Clarendon Park and a section south of Lancaster Road. That would be expanded to include thousands more homes from Rowley Fields, to Westcotes, Newfoundpool and parts of the Waterside area, as well as much of Knighton Fields, Knighton, Stoneygate, part of Aylestone, along with most of Spinney Hills and Highfields. To take part in the consultation visit here.

Leicester's garment industry is set to benefit from a new £500,000 business support project. The sector has received a boost after the city council was successful in a bid to the Government’s Community Renewal Fund (CRF). It means Leicester City Council will receive £500,000 to work together with partners Fashion-Enter Ltd and De Montfort University (DMU) to offer co-ordinated support to textiles manufacturers and local textiles workers. The project will see all three partners providing lots of practical support to participating businesses to ensure ethical compliance and best practice, support innovation and develop their workforce skills. Deputy city mayor Cllr Adam Clarke said: “This is great news for Leicester and demonstrates our commitment to the garment sector locally, which is a vital part of our economy. We’re determined to help raise standards and promote best practice in the industry – and this funding will help us to do that, by working intensively with local businesses. “We are very pleased to be working with our partners Fashion-Enter and De Montfort University on this project, both of whom bring substantial valuable expertise to the project. Specialist training providers Fashion-Enter are also working with us on our fashion technology academy, while DMU is well known for driving innovation in the fashion industry. Together, we can combine our expert local and industry knowledge to support businesses to become beacons of best practice, in turn sharing what they learn with other businesses to create a wide-reaching positive impact.” DMU will mapping all the textiles activity in the city from companies and dye houses to brands. The university will then work with companies to develop a sector growth plan - providing leadership training and shifting the focus from low cost and non-compliance to high quality products. New business models will be developed, focusing on new production systems and more sustainable methods and fabrics. Professor Katie Normington, Vice-Chancellor of De Montfort University, said: "The city of Leicester and DMU share a rich history in fashion and textiles, and the university is delighted to be part of this far-reaching project. We will be working closely with companies of all sizes on this plan, which has the potential to re-imagine business models and develop a more sustainable future for the industry." Jenny Holloway, CEO of Fashion-Enter, said: “Following on from the launch of the fashion technology academy, this is more good news for Leicester! The CRF revenue will allow for a wider range of training initiatives that will offer further wrap-around support to factories and workers. This will include information on new learner technologies, workers' rights and e-commerce websites for brand development. It’s time to really establish Leicester as a major quality ethical manufacturing centre of excellence.” The project will work with local manufacturers and textiles workers on accredited skills and training via the newly-launched Fashion Technology Academy, develop links to research and innovation to drive productivity, offer support for manufacturers to adopt best practice ethical compliance procedures, and work to promote the best of Leicester manufacturing. The funding award is part of an overall £3milllion package secured by Leicester City Council from the Community Renewal Fund, with four further projects also benefitting, including schemes to support people into employment, provide English lessons for speakers of other languages, help women in business and provide mentoring and digital support to businesses. The UK Community Renewal Fund is a Government programme which aims to support people and communities most in need across the UK, investing in skills, community and place, local business, and supporting people into employment. For more information, visit https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-community-renewal-fund-prospectus

Leicester Park and Ride is running extra services throughout December – which means shoppers and sightseers can catch a Park & Ride bus into the city centre every day in December except Christmas Day. The extra services will be running every Sunday in December, including Boxing Day. On those Sundays (December 5, 12, 19 and 26), buses will be running every 15 minutes between 10am and 5.30pm from the three sites at Meynell’s Gorse, Enderby and Birstall. The services on Monday 27 and Tuesday 28 December will also be running from 10am to 5.30pm, with the 7am-7pm buses resuming on Wednesday 29 December. And with all 11 buses in the fleet being powered by renewable green energy, group tickets just £3 for up to five people travelling together in the same car and free travel for NHS staff and concessionary pass holders, Leicester Park & Ride is also the environmentally-friendly, great value way to travel into the city centre this festive season. Cllr Adam Clarke, deputy city mayor for environment and transportation, said: “Leicester's Park & Ride services are the cost-effective way to get the whole family, or a group of friends, to the city centre for a great day out. "At just £3 for a return ticket for up to five people in one car – and no parking charges to worry about – it's the best way to travel from the county to the city. By leaving your car out of town, and using our zero-emission, 100% electric buses, you'll help to reduce the number of cars on the city's roads, which reduces congestion, cuts carbon and improves air quality. “Sunday is a great day to enjoy Leicester's shops and Christmas attractions, so do make the most of these additional Sunday Park & Ride services in December and let our green buses take you straight to the heart of the city centre." Cllr Ozzy O’Shea, Leicestershire County Council cabinet member for highways and transportation, said: “Leicester Park & Ride services are the perfect way to travel into the city centre to make the most of the festive season, whether for a shopping trip, a day out with the family, visiting the Big Wheel and ice rink in Jubilee Square or just relaxing with friends. “I would encourage everyone planning trips into the city centre to leave their cars at one of our three Park & Ride sites and take one of the zero emission, electric-powered buses instead. It means people won’t have to fight their way through the traffic or queue for parking, taking the stress out of the journey and reducing harmful carbon emissions by reducing the number of cars driving into the city centre.” Leicester Park & Ride is a joint operation between Leicestershire County Council and Leicester City Council. More details of the additional services, festive timetables and fares are available from the Leicester Park & Ride website. www.choosehowyoumove.co.uk/park-ride All three of the Park & Ride sites have free parking for service users, including disabled spaces and parent & child parking.

Leicester City Council will not be making any changes to the waste and recycling collection days over the Christmas and New Year bank holidays. Collections will take place as usual on all days over the festive season this year. All bins and orange bags should be put out for collection by 7am on the regular collection day. Households can put out as many orange recycling bags as they need for their recyclable waste. Festive items like sweet and biscuit tins and tubs, glass bottles and jars, cardboard boxes, and non-metallic wrapping paper and greetings cards can all be bagged for collection as recycling. Real Christmas trees can be composted and artificial trees disposed of at either of the city council’s recycling centres. There will also be some changes to the opening hours of the two household waste and recycling centres over the holiday period. Both the Gypsum Close and Freemen’s Common sites will be closed on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day. The centres will be open from 8am until 2pm on Christmas Eve (24 Dec) and New Year's Eve (31 Dec), and from 8am until 6pm at all other times. Details of opening times for the trade recycling centre at Gypsum Close will be available on the council’s website. For more information visit www.leicester.gov.uk/recycling

Have fun and enjoy yourselves this Christmas – but please ensure you celebrate safely and look out for your family and friends. That’s the message from Leicestershire Police this year as the festive season fast approaches and as officers and staff plan for the month ahead to ensure we are here to help keep you safe. Officers will continue to be out in communities across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland throughout the month carrying out proactive patrols and working to keep residents safe. Extra patrols and shifts are also planned for key dates across Christmas and New Year which are usually some of the busiest nights of the year for the force. Our licensing teams across force have also been working with pubs, bars and clubs and licensing teams within local authorities. This work includes continuing to ensure premises are aware of signs to look out for in relation to potential spiking incidents and that any incident is immediately reported to the police. Chief Inspector Manjit Atwal said: “We have been planning for several months in force to ensure we have resources in place and are fully prepared for the upcoming busy festive season. Our officers will be out and about on proactive high-visibility patrols both at day and night to help you, to keep you safe and to respond quickly and effectively to any reports and incidents when we are required. “Across force we have also been working with licensing teams to help keep you safe on nights out and to ensure any suspicious behaviour or incidents are immediately reported to us. “Please continue to work with us during this time too. Please ensure you plan ahead when having a night out and that you look out for yourselves and your friends. If you feel unsafe on a night out or start to feel unwell, make sure you tell someone such as a member of bar staff. Report any suspicious behaviour or incidents to the police. “Thank you for working with us in this way and thank you to all of our officers and staff who once again are giving up time with their own families during the festive season to help keep the communities of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland safe. We wish you all a safe and enjoyable festive season.”

Motorists are being reminded of the dangers of drink drug driving during the festive season. Between January and October this year Leicestershire Police made 1226 drink drug drive arrests, the number of arrests in October alone was 134, the highest monthly figure since April 2010! Despite the pandemic lockdowns, which included the closure of pubs, bars and restaurants, there were 1434 arrests in 2020 compared to 1237 the previous year. Jonathan Clarkson, spokesperson for the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Road Safety, said, “Driving while impaired, whether through drink or drugs, devastates lives. Sadly, each year drink and drugs are a contributory factor in death and serious injury on the UK’s roads. “Despite our continued road safety messages, it is quite clear that far too many drivers make the decision to get behind the wheel while impaired by drink or drugs.” “Just because you haven’t been out at the pub – drinking at home can still leave you over the limit, including the morning after, can I remind drivers not to put themselves and others at risk.” “Drivers should be aware that Leicestershire Police patrol 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week to challenge drink drug drivers and bring them before the courts.” If you see someone who appears to be a drink or drug driver enter a vehicle to drive away, make a note of the registration plate and the direction of travel and call your local police on 101 or make a make a free and anonymous call to CrimeStoppers on 0800 555 111.