The next Oakham South Surgery has been confirmed for the first Saturday in May.

This comes after the council announced that Catmose Sports Centre would be closing - a decision that Cllr Raymond Payne has said was "difficult".

Continuing their series of monthly surgeries, Liberal Democrat Councillors Paul Browne, Diane Ellison and Ray Payne look forward to chatting to constituents at their upcoming surgery.

These surgeries allow residents to voice any concerns that they have about the local area, including but not limited to infrastructure, maintenance, management and more.

Cllr Ray Payne said: "We are well aware that our recent decision not to vote for the continued funding of the Catmose Leisure Centre has not endeared us with a number of our residents, however we feel that we should not hide from people but continue to be available to them as usual.

"It was not an easy decision to make, but as was said at the time, we had to make the difficult choice of supporting Catmose or vital flooding protection measures, in the end we opted for the latter, sadly, due to the Conservative Governments deliberate and continued squeeze on Local Government finance, we did not have the funds available to do both."

They go ahead on the first Saturday of the month from 10am until 12pm, and take place at The George Hotel, formerly the Whipper-In, which can be found in Oakham Market Place, Oakham, LE15 6DT. 

The next session will take place on Saturday 4 May. No appointment is needed and the councillors encourage residents to attend to catch up with local politics, share their views and highlight any concerns.

Residents from Oakham South are invited to come along and take the opportunity to share any matters of concern to them with their elected representatives.

Oakham South's Liberal Democrat Cllrs look forward to seeing you there.