A LEICESTER couple who dedicated their lives to improving the New Parks estate for the people who live there have been commemorated in a new heritage panel.
Don and Doris Connolly moved to Pickwell Close in the 1950s and became active members of the local community.
As founding members of the New Parks’ Residents’ Association, the couple were instrumental in securing a community centre for the estate – the New Parks Community Centre on Oswald Road – as well as an adventure playground for local children on Glenfield Road. Both facilities are still enjoyed by local people today.
Don was also chairman of the New Parks Community Project, while Doris volunteered behind the bar at the community centre and organised a Christmas toy collection for youngsters on the estate every year.
The committed social campaigners – who had eight children – were lifelong members of the Communist Party, with Don chairing the Leicester branch for three decades.
Now their selfless efforts to improve the lives of those living on the New Parks estate have been recognised by the city council, with the installation of a heritage panel that celebrates the couple’s contribution to the community.
Assistant city mayor Cllr Vi Dempster said: “I was fortunate to know both Don and Doris and it’s fair to say they were truly remarkable people.
“It is no exaggeration to say that they dedicated their lives to improving the estate for others, even though – or maybe because – they had eight children.
“Our heritage panels celebrate Leicester’s 2,000 year-history by highlighting the people and places that have helped shape the city we know today. It’s therefore wholly appropriate that we dedicate this latest panel to two community champions whose hard work and dedication over half a century had such a profound impact on an entire estate.”
Don and Doris’s daughter, Karen Laywood, said: “Mum and Dad would have been very proud to see their work being honoured in such a way in the city, especially here in New Parks itself, where they spent many years uplighting the community through their many endeavours.
“It was great to see friends and family turn up to the unveiling and we, as a family, would like to thank the city council for producing this heritage panel."
Doris passed away in 2009 at the age of 85, while Don died, aged 85, in 2012.
Shortly after Doris’s death, the city council named a street after the popular couple. Its development of council houses and flats off Birkenshaw Road in New Parks was formally named Connolly Close in 2010.
The new heritage panel outside the New Parks library on Aikman Avenue was unveiled on Saturday (29 November) by Cllr Dempster and members of Doris and Don’s family.
Leicester’s heritage panels are part of the city council’s Story of Leicester project. Since 2014, 387 panels have been installed at sites across the city to help bring Leicester’s history to life.