From the Member and Communities Team we wish you all a very joyful Christmas and best wishes for 2026! Can we take this opportunity to thank you all for your continued support and collaboration throughout 2025.
Issue 40 of our Parish and Communities update can be found below. We would love to hear your thoughts – let us know what you think of this newsletter and how we can make it even better!
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NEWS
Festive Fun by Bus
Hop on board this festive season and head to popular events around the county. The scheme focuses on Leicestershire towns to encourage people to shop locally and support the bus network.
Click here to see what is coming up in your area.
Some Sunday events will be served by a temporary festive timetabled bus, and will be FREE to use! The services have been put on to support Leicestershire towns and encourage bus travel this Christmas. Take a look at the Festive Timetables.
Staying Safe This Winter
For guidance on flooding, gritting and winter travel, visit: https://www.leicestershire.gov.uk/adverse-weather
Highways & Gritting Over the Holidays
Gritting teams will be out overnight on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year’s Eve, and New Year’s Day. Highways and Street Lighting gangs will be on call 24/7 for emergencies.
Check out our website for our interactive gritting map and report problems online to report your highway issues from defects on our roads or pavements to empty or damaged grit bins.
Urban Verges Wildlife Scheme
The scheme is a fantastic way to bring nature back into our communities and directly support the ambitions set out in the Local Nature Recovery Strategy for Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland. If you want to find out more about the scheme, submit an expression of interest or to register for the webinar contact the environment team at EnvironmentTeam@Leics.gov.uk
The team is also keen to hear from parish councils which would like to be involved in a pilot project to include additional community green spaces, not just verges, in the scheme.
Image of pink cat with the text Never bin them, recycle your batteries.Let’s waste less this Christmas!
With Christmas just round the corner, now is a good time to familiarise yourself with what you can do to reduce waste over the festive period.
Many of the seasonal items – like decorations or Christmas jumpers – can be kept for reuse. Not only does this save you time and money for following years, but keeping items in use for longer protects our resources and reduces waste. It’s worth looking out for items that can be reused when you’re making your Xmas purchases, and you could consider buying second-hand gifts this year and give something preloved a fresh start with someone new.
We tend to produce more of everything around Christmas time, including recycling and so it’s particularly important to ensure we recycle right. Remember that items for recycling should be empty, clean and dry.
Food waste, from the residue of the cranberry sauce jar, through to the actual turkey carcass, should never go in the recycling bin.
Batteries and electrical devices should never go in either your waste or recycling bins as they can cause explosions and fires. Go to https://www.recycleyourelectricals.org.uk/ to find your nearest battery and electrical recycling point.
Check locally what you can recycle. Leicestershire residents can check what to recycle at https://www.lesswaste.org.uk/recycle/ or visit Let’s waste less at Christmas for further waste prevention tips and advice.
Recycling and Household Waste Sites – Christmas Opening
All our Recycling and Household Waste Sites (RHWS) will be CLOSED on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day. This is in addition to their normal closure days. For example, if a site is usually closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, it will be closed Tuesday 23rd, Wednesday 24th, Thursday 25th and Friday 26th and then the following week closed Tuesday 30th, Wednesday 31st, and Thursday 1st.
Whetstone Waste Transfer Station will be open on Christmas Eve for trade waste.
Please check details of opening times/days on our website. You are encouraged to avoid the busy periods and always check the website before setting off.
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REMINDERS
National Highways and Transport (NHT) public satisfaction survey
Just a reminder if you wish to complete the recent NHT survey, the deadline has been extended to Friday 16th January 2026. We encourage you to complete the survey online https://www.nhtnetwork.co.uk/isolated/data/scorecard/244717/scoring/16/section/12287, but you can also use the copy attached to this email if you are unable to complete this online.
Weekly Roadworks Update
Find details of planned roadworks across Leicestershire found here. Updated every Monday, it shows the next 10 days. Please note: this reflects the position at the time of publication and excludes emergency works – these can be found on the one.network site. For help or guidance using one.network, contact the Special Projects team.
Illegal Parking Report it Form
We now have a way for customers to report illegal parking online at the following link. This is to improve the way parking is reported.
https://www.leicestershire.gov.uk/roads-and-travel/cars-and-parking/parking-enforcement
Please go and have a look at our Parishes and Communities webpages, all the information featured on these parish newsletters and more (information and guidance, useful links and applications) feature here.
These webpages are here for you, please let us have your feedback on how we can improve what we do via SpecialProjects@leics.gov.uk