Welcome to Broxtowe Enews, brought to you by the Liberal Democrats and edited by David Watts, the leader of the Lib-Dems on Broxtowe Borough Council. A special welcome to the new readers that we have this week.
1. Public Transport Money.
Thank you for all the suggestions for how the borough council can spend the money it has available for public transport schemes. I’ve had more responses to this than to any other request I’ve ever included, which is why I just haven’t had time to send personal replies to everyone. I have read them all though. I will pass them all on to the borough council and will try and get as many of them implemented as possible.
2. Walking Round Sherwood Forest.
I’ve mentioned before that Stapleford poet Dave Wood is walking around the ancient boundaries of Sherwood Forest. He has now published his latest set of dates and anyone who wishes is welcome to join him. Phone Dave on O77 O99 77684 or email him on davewrite2002 @ yahoo.com for details.
3. Mayors Fashion Show
Broxtowe mayor, Lib-Dem councillor Jacky Williams, will be hosting a fashion show in aid of two young peoples charities later on this year. Tickets are on sale now and they are going fast. The show will be held on 15th November at the Pearson Centre in Beeston. Tickets cost £7.50 and are available by ringing 917 3210 or by emailing civic@broxtowe.gov.uk.
4. Council Meeting
We had a very interesting full council meeting last week. The first main motion for us to discuss was one that I put forward about the riots last month, pledging the support of the council to the police in apprehending those involved in criminality and thanking the council staff for their contingency planning about this. I spoke about the need to avoid knee-jerk reactions but both the extreme left and the extreme right promptly demonstrated this. A tory member called for all people involved in criminality to be evicted from their homes (ignoring the fact that the council would then have a legal responsibility to rehouse them and we would be hot with the costs for this) and a number of Labour members tried to blame everything on the coalition, (even the fact that there is a 15 year difference in life expectancy between different pasts of Nottingham, which I really don’t think we can have created in the last 12 months). One of the most sensible contributions in the debate came from Tilly Stone, the youth mayor, who spoke about the need not to demonise young people.
The second motion that we had was another one I put forward calling for the Government to provide more support to local authorities about steps they can take to combat global warming. The coalitions new energy bill is extremely good in many ways, but a small injection of extra money could unlock a lock of new support for authorities, and whilst Broxtowe has an excellent record in tackling climate change more support is always welcomed. I thought that this would receive unanimous support but we had members from both Labour and the Tories speaking to deny that global warming was even happening! (To be fair to the Tories, the best contribution to the whole debate was from Conservative Councillor Graham Harvey, who clearly outlined the overwhelming evidence to show that global warming does exist.) The motion was passed but five Tories and one Labour member voted against.
The third motion was one from the Tories calling for protection for the green belt in Broxtowe and a reduction in housing numbers being proposed for the borough. Much of the motion is very good (they appear in fact to have used my words from the cabinet meeting in July when we looked at this) but the motion was premature as the time to discuss this is after the consultation has closed at the start of last month. Whilst I agree fully with the sentiment expressed by the motion the actual result had it been passed would have been the very opposite of what the Tories were asking for, due to the poor timing on their behalf. I therefore proposed that this motion be adjourned until the next meeting, after the consultation had closed, and this was carried (even though two Labour councillors got confused and voted the opposite way to which they wanted!)
5. Road Improvements
I was able to report at the council meeting that a programme of road repairs was being implemented by the council. I asked earlier on this year for suggestions from people as to roads in urgent need of improvement and the new list comes from that. We haven’t been able to do all the roads that we wanted to as their simply wasn’t enough money to do them, but I’ll press for further repairs to take place next year.
6. Katelyn Severn
Congratulations to Bramcote dancer Katelyn Severn, aged 18, who has been selected to represent the UK in an international ballet competition in South Africa next month. Katelyn, who trains at the Redhead Scott School of Dancing in Beeston, will be representing the UK at the Genee International Ballet Competition in Cape Town. This is yet another young person from the borough achieving great things.
7. Support for Abuse Victims
Broxtowe Womens Project is offering a 12 week course called the Freedom Project, aimed at protecting victims of domestic violence. The course runs in Eastwood on a Thursday and details are available on 01773 718555.
8. Stapleford Walk In Centre
I was delighted to learn that the county council refused to support the closure of the Walk In Centre in Stapleford. Lib-Dem councillors led the argument and were supported by the Labour party. The Conservatives voted in favour but the overall result was that the council refused to support the closure. Unfortunately this will not stop it happening, so it’s only a pyrrhic victory.
9. Beeston Wildlife Group
The Beeston Wildlife Group will be having a talk about safari’s in Botswana at their meeting on 19th September. They meet at Trent Vale School and it costs £2. The meeting starts at 7.30pm and details are available from Bill Wheatley on 0115 925 0208.
10. Attenborough Health Walk
There will be a health walk around Attenborough Nature Reserve on Tuesday 20th September at 10.30am. The walk will last 90 minutes and is free to talk part in. Further details are available from the visitors centre on 0115 972 1777.
11. Next Newsletter
There will be no newsletter next weekend as I will be at the Lib-Dem conference in Birmingham, so the next edition will be in two weeks time.
As ever thank you for your support for this newsletter and any feedback is gratefully received.
David
