News – Page 3 – RUDDINGTON.info

Final Call for ‘Rudd Awards’ Nominations!

19th February 202419th February 2024 Graham Wright

Have YOU nominated a deserving Ruddington trader, group or person for a ‘gong’ yet, to show your appreciation for what they do in our village? If not, there’s still time… just! Launched by Ruddington Village Community Partnership (RVCP) in 2022, the ‘Rudd Awards’ are back again this year for a second time. With seven categories, these awards are designed to recognise and celebrate those businesses, community groups and individuals that contribute to making Ruddington a thriving place to live, work and enjoy. Nominations for the 2024 awards in six of…

£336k of Ruddington Schools’ Cash to Expand Edwalton Academy!

17th February 202419th February 2024 Graham Wright

Late last year we reported how Nottinghamshire County Council (NCC) had indicated the expansion of Rosecliffe Spencer Academy in Edwalton (top photo) would be the focus of its efforts to accommodate an increasing population of Ruddington children, rather than creating more school places here. This has now been confirmed in a ‘response’ from NCC to last summer’s petition by village resident Katie Santana on behalf of aggrieved parents in Ruddington. To their surprise and dismay at the time, a number of families living here found their children couldn’t get a place…

Church’s Fundraising Milestone for Ugandan School

15th February 202415th February 2024 Graham Wright

St Peter’s Church in Ruddington is celebrating raising £6000 to allow the completion of a four-classroom block for a school in an impoverished area of Uganda. The target was achieved by a mixture of donations and fundraising events over a ten-month period, culminating in a Beetle Drive event in the church at the end of January 2024 which raised £763. As RUDDINGTON.info has previously reported, St Peter’s has been supporting the Aminit High School in Teso since 2019, aiming to establish secondary education in an area in which none was…

New Crossing Plans Revealed

13th February 202415th February 2024 Graham Wright

Eagle-eyed villagers who’ve ventured down Clifton Road during the past couple of days may have wondered why men in fluorescent jackets were digging up a perfectly good pavement!? Well, we can reveal it’s part of ‘exploratory’ excavation work to determine the depth of utility services there for ‘design purposes’ for the installation of a proposed ‘Toucan’ pedestrian crossing. As well as workers digging up the pavement area outside ‘Victoria Court’ (see photos) they’re also digging on the opposite side of Clifton Road in the grass verge and on the pavement adjacent…

New Pentecostal Church for Ruddington

11th February 202411th February 2024 Graham Wright

The original timing for announcing the launch of a brand new type of worship in Ruddington was rather unfortunate, to say the least. It was back in February 2020 – just a month before the COVID-19 ‘lockdown’! Edwalton-based ‘The Rock Church’ managed to host only ONE of its Pentecostal-style services in St Peter’s Rooms before further plans had to be put on hold due to the virus. Undeterred, its members returned to our village last summer, led by Ruddington’s new ‘Location Pastor’ Cathy Appelbee (famously the owner of Wilbur the Cat), for a further ‘trial’…

Kids’ Fun Run Turns Ten

9th February 202411th February 2024 Graham Wright

It’s hard to believe that Ruddington’s free, weekly park run for children aged 4 to 14 and their families is now a decade old! When Rushcliffe Junior Parkrun was launched in Rushcliffe Country Park, at 9am on Sunday 2nd February 2014, it was only the eighth junior event to be set up in the world – and yet it managed to attract 118 participants and 20 volunteers for the very first one. This 2k ‘fun run’ was set up to encourage kids, families and friends to enjoy exercising in open spaces,…

Historic Footbridge Closes Again

7th February 20248th February 2024 Graham Wright

Less than five years since it was last closed for repairs, one of Ruddington’s railway landmarks is currently undergoing a little more TLC following new safety concerns raised by the increased number of pedestrians who now use it. ‘Fifty Steps Bridge’ over the Great Central Railway line was constructed well over a century ago (circa 1899) and still survives as a functioning footbridge to this day. This is despite the passenger line beneath it becoming a victim of Dr Richard Beeching’s cuts in 1963, and nearby Ruddington Station subsequently being…

‘Troubled’ Ruddington Arsonist Sent to Prison

5th February 20245th February 2024 RUDDINGTON.info

A village resident has ended up in gaol after he set fire to his own flat. As RUDDINGTON.info first reported last autumn, Stephen Pritchard, prompted an emergency evacuation when he started fires in multiple rooms of the property in Dunblane Road in Ruddington on the evening of Thursday 12th October 2023. As his neighbours watched from outside, 32-year-old Pritchard was rescued from his flat on the second floor of the block by firefighters who guided him down a ladder. Thankfully no-one was injured and the blaze was soon extinguished. Pritchard immediately…

Junction Works to Last Until October!

4th February 20244th February 2024 Graham Wright

After another short period back on the old traffic lights, following the timely completion of cable re-routing work by Virgin Media, potentially disruptive work resumes at the Kirk Lane/Loughborough Road/Flawforth Lane crossroads this week. Since this major highways project began in July 2023 – to improve the layout and install or reconfigure utility connections at the busy Ruddington junction – it has caused major frustration due to long, peak-time delays for drivers and bus passengers, and had a significant impact on nearby residents. The latest bombshell from Via East Midlands is that it now anticipates…

‘Have Your Say’ on New Development Design

2nd February 20242nd February 2024 Graham Wright

Ruddington’s green spaces have seen significant shrinkage over the past few years as a result of infill housing within our village and, most recently, because of the ‘Rushcliffe Local Plan Part 2’. Not only was planning permission granted by Rushcliffe Borough Council (RBC) in 2020 for hundreds of new homes on four large areas of our village’s former Green Belt, developers are also continuing to benefit from ‘windfall’ land which wasn’t originally included but had its ‘protected’ status removed at the same time. So far this has allowed a significant…