Funeral arrangements for well-known and respected Packington resident Wesley Ewing have been circulated by Ashby de la Zouch Town Council.

Wesley sadly passed away earlier this month and the Council posted the following details on Thursday.

"Alison and the family have asked us to circulate the arrangements for the funeral of Wesley Ewing which are as follows:

1. It will be held at 4pm at Bretby on this Friday, 1st May. Due to current restrictions only 10 mourners will be allowed.

1. The cortege will leave Charity Farm (opposite the school) at approx 2.45pm.

1. It will travel up Mill Street towards the Mill at walking pace. The family will be walking behind - an Irish tradition.

1. At the top of Mill Street they will transfer to cars and the procession will travel down Normanton Road, along Heather Lane and back up High Street before leaving the village via Ashby Road to Bretby

Subject to maintaining social distancing, the family would be very happy for any residents, who may have wished to go to the funeral, to line the route to pay their respects to a man who has given so much to the village as illustrated in the Village Tribute below and will be sorely missed."

A Tribute to Wesley Ewing on behalf of Packington Residents 1966 - 2020

Wes was always able to find time to contribute to and get involved in local groups. As his family grew, he was involved with JPEG, Packington Junior Entertainment Group.

His enthusiasm, along with Alison's, saw many events organised by the mums and dads and he was right in there helping organise and establishing a real community spirit within the children and adults.

In the early 2000s Wes, along with others, was worried about how the Gilwiskaw Brook threatened to flood even more properties in Mill St.

He was instrumental in setting up a group of residents called Float, who looked into solving this danger.

After much dogged determination, mainly by him, the authorities were persuaded to take away the solid brick Little Lane bridge which was stopping the flow and diverting water into Mill Street.

This partly solved the problem until the rains of 2019 and 2020 when Float was resurrected.

Again, Wes was right in there organising meetings and trying to get action from all the responsible authorities who have the ability to protect Packington Residents from flooding.

He was the initiator in setting up a cooking /diner's club following the refurbishment of the Memorial Hall.

He had sessions at the Hall for youngsters to learn to cook and for the adult groups too. For them it was a chance to bring their favourite wine to go along with the meal!

In recent years the Packington Big Breakfast has been a real success.

According to organiser Mike Coke, when the Charity Big Breakfast was first proposed, Wes got him out of trouble by putting together a team of chefs.

This event has become a village fixture thanks to the input he has had over the years.

Not just the cooking team, but he organised the food requirements as well. Wes will be sadly missed by all the volunteers, especially Mike.

Wes had always been interested in security and contributed a huge amount as a member of Neighbourhood Watch over the last four or five years.

He acted as Chairman of this group and it is really down to him that Packington has an excellent security system involving cameras, police involvement and a full complement of active Neighbourhood Watch street co-ordinators.

Wes was one of the two remaining original members of the Packington Communications Group set up in 2002.

Using the resources of Context, his printing and publishing company, he designed and printed over 100 editions of the Packington Post.

Sitting with the Editor of the day, each edition often took hours of precious voluntary time to complete. It had to be right! With much input from other members of the team, this arguably resulted in one of the most professionally produced magazines in the country from a small village.

Recently, as we know, the Covid-Lockdown has meant that the elderly and vulnerable had to be looked after.

Wes was the one who quickly saw the need for this and, along with the Parish Council, Neighbourhood Watch and Packington Post, he got things organised.

A chain of command was soon established from the volunteers within these groups and the problem we hope was resolved. Thank you Wes.

Finally, Wes was a friend to many. You were always greeted with a smile and you knew he would help if he could.

He was generous, he was kind and, for a person who often said that he hated meetings, could always be found putting the case for Packington residents at the many he attended.

Wes, we salute you, we will miss you and thank you for all you have done for Packington.

Compiled by Chris Miles, Steve Plummer and Mike Coke on behalf of all Packington residents