Broxtowe Enews 26th November 2011

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.

Sorry that there was no enews last week but I was away for the weekend and didn’t want to publicise the fact, especially after we had been the victims of crime so recently in any event.

1. Constituency Boundary Review

The public consultation on new electoral boundaries closes on 5^th December. In Broxtowe the proposal is that we keep the existing boundaries but with the addition of some villages from south of the river, current part of the Rushcliffe constituency. You can make your comments on the Boundary Commission website at http://consultation.boundarycommissionforengland.independent.gov.uk/.

2. Service of Remembrance at Bramcote Crematorium

Bramcote Crematorium will be holding a service of remembrance for friends and relatives to remember loved ones who moved away. They’ve done this for the last few years and this year it will take place on Sunday 11^th December at 2pm. Everyone is welcome to attend. For more information, please contact Bramcote Crematorium on 0115 917 3849, email bramcotecrem@btconnect.com or visit www.bramcotecrematorium.org.uk

3. Council Tax Rises

The County Council have announced that they will be accepting an offer from the government to keep council tax at last years levels. As the substantial majority of council tax collected goes to the county council this will have a significant impact on people. However the position is not as clear for councils as it was last year. The government last year committed to provide funds to the councils to keep council tax down, and that they would commit these funds on an ongoing level. However they haven’t made that offer this year so if council tax stays where it is then next year councils face either a loss of income or a substantial council tax rise.

4. Dr Margaret Colley

Bramcote residents may remember Dr Margaret Colley who was the village GP for 35 years. I’ve had a phone call from her son this week to inform me that she sadly lost her battle against cancer. There will be a private funeral in Suffolk, where she had been living, but a memorial event will be organised early next year in Bramcote which everyone will be welcome to attend. Dr Colley established a web site in her later years to reflect back on her life, and this is available at www.margaretcolley.co.uk

5. Christmas Choir Event

Carlton Male Voice Choir will be performing a concert at Chilwell Road Methodist Church in Beeston on3rd December 2011, starting at 7.30pm. Tickets cost £6 (£5 in advance) and are available on 0115 943 1164.

6. Awsworth Buses

Residents in Awsworth are campaigning to have an improved bus service to the village. Following the withdrawal of the Phoenix Flyer there are now few buses running to the village, leaving many people feeling virtually cut off. Readers may recall that a couple of months ago I asked for suggestions for where the council might spend £500,000 of money we had available to use on public transport schemes. The most common suggestion was to use it to improve bus services, although legally this is the most difficult. The officers at the council are currently exploring whether we can overcome the many hurdles that there are, and if so services to Awsworth are on the list to address.

7. The Big Tree Plant

Beeston & District Civic Society, together with Broxtowe Borough Council, are launching a project to replace as many as possible of the large trees along roads that are missing. They plan to locate areas in streets and on small grassy patches in Beeston and district where extra trees will improve the appearance of the street ~ and they need your help to do this. When the sites have been chosen, the council will check suitability with regard to services below the pavement and liaise with Nottinghamshire County Council who have ultimate responsibility for the roads and footpaths. The council will apply for funding from The Big Tree Plant funding scheme. The Civic Society, with your help, anticipate planting the trees, which will be 8 – 12’ or so high (at planting), in Autumn 2012. At that point they will need TREE GUARDIANS - ideally the householder nearest the tree - to water and generally keep their eye on that tree for 2 to 3 years until it has matured sufficiently to be included in the council tree maintenance programme. If you would like to take part or want more details please email: babsel@ntlworld.com

8. Erewash Valley Landowners and Managers Event

If you own or manage land in the Erewash Valley then there is an event for you on Monday, from 6pm to 8.30pm, at the Town Hall in Beeston. There will be informal presentations on the Erewash Valley and the partnership developing the landscape for people and wildlife; Stewardship and funding opportunities; Business opportunities for landowners to buy into renewable technology concentrating on solar and wind, saving costs and an opportunity to see various displays. In addition free trees will be given out to all attendees.

9. Heat recycling at Bramcote Crematorium

Bramcote Crematorium is seeking the views of the public, Council employees and wider stakeholders on whether it would be appropriate to reuse the waste heat from its processes to heat its building. At present, all the waste heat is simply vented into the atmosphere, increasing global warming and costs. The Crematorium is considering installing a heat exchanger which would harness the surplus heat from its mercury abatement plant and turn it into usable energy for the rest of the Crematorium. This is a practice already used in a number of crematoria across the country. Views can be submitted on the councils website at http://www.broxtowe.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=9876.

10. Beware of Bogus Charity Collectors

A bogus team of charity collectors have been doing the rounds in Bramcote again this week, claiming to collect for the Notts Air Ambulance. They have nothing to do with the air ambulance and so please do not give them anything.

11. Field Farm Stapleford

Westermans Builders have published information about their proposals to build a new estate on Field Farm in Stapleford. These are available at www.fieldfarm.info. They have not yet submitted an application but will probably do so shortly. The information that they are currently putting out is something that the coalition are requiring developers to do in the future, so that local people can be kept fully informed about what is being proposed. Once again I’ve seen an email from the Tory’s accusing the council of treating this as a done deal, exactly the same thing that they were saying about proposals to build in Toton even on the day that we dropped them.

12. Bramcote Hills Golf Course

Thank you to everyone who has so far submitted their views about the idea to allow building on the site of Bramcote Hills golf course. We have had over 130 responses so far, and I’ll publish the full results in a couple of weeks.

13. Paradiso Cinema

The film at the Paradiso Cinema, Chilwell School, Queens Road West, Friday 9th December will be “ The Bishop’s Wife” (1947). This is a change to the original advertisement as they were unfortunately unable to get a licence to show, "It’s a Wonderful Life". Instead they are showing this film, starring Cary Grant, Lorretta Young and David Niven. Tickets on the door £5 (£4 conc). Films start at 7.30pm. Come at 7pm for refreshments.

14. Milan Radulovic

The current leader of the borough council, Milan Radulovic, is unwell at the moment so may I take this opportunity to wish him a full and speedy recovery.

As ever thank you for your support for this newsletter, and any feedback will be very gratefully received.

David

Broxtowe Enews 12th November 2912

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 news readers that we have this week. We had pretty much plateaued in terms of readers for a number of weeks but over the past two weeks we’ve had a big increase in readers.

1. Bramcote Hills Golf Course

Readers in Bramcote may be very familiar with the problems at the golf course. It closed a few years ago and since then the owners have been trying to persuade the council to allow them to build houses on it (which we’ve always opposed). The latest idea that they have been talking about (although there is no application yet) is to apply to build a retirement village there, and make the rest of the site public open space. I have a survey running on my web site asking whether people would support this as an idea or not. As there is no application yet we can’t give any specific details about what the details would be, but what we would like is simply whether people would support this as an idea or not. If you’re a Bramcote resident would you take a minute to visit my website at www.davidwatts.org.uk to express your view.

2. Changes to the NHS

If you are interested in the changes that are happening to the NHS then come along to an event that is taking place at Beeston on Thursday 24 November at Chilwell Road Methodist Church, Chilwell Road, Beeston NG9 1EH from 7-9pm, or at St Mary’s hurch, hurch Street, Eastwood on 1^st December. Local GP’S will be responsible for buying health services from April 2013. 12 GP Practices in the Broxtowe area form Nottingham West NHS Clinical Commissioning Group. Representatives will be present for you to ask questions. Please register your place – email: nwc.admin@nottspct.nhs.uk or tel: 0115 883 5224.

3. New County Councillors Newsletter

My colleague Stan Heptinstall, County Councillor for Bramcote and Stapleford, produces a regular monthly newsletter. The November edition is out now and can be accessed from the Broxtowe Lib-Dem website at www.broxtoweliberaldemocrats.org.uk.

4. Beeston Wind Turbine

The County Council have announced that they are opposed to the proposals by Nottingham University to build three large wind turbines along the bank of the River Trent. The County Council say that there may be an ancient stream on the site.

5. HS2

MP’s have suggested to the Government that they should bring forward the date that High Speed rail trains run to the East Midlands. This is potentially very important for us in Broxtowe as Toton has been suggested as the East Midlands station for the new HS2 line. This is, at this stage, simply a report from MP’s and not government policy, but it is encouraging to see how the MP’s are supporting the scheme.

6. Growing Places Fund

The Government have announced that they are making £17.5 million available for schemes in Nottinghamshire to kick start building on infrastructure schemes. This is a very welcome investment but we will need to see what schemes come forward as a result.

7. Events at Rumbletums Café in Kimberley

Friday 18th November (6.00pm – 8.00pm) – Special evening opening for Kimberley Christmas light switch on.

Saturday 19th November (10.30am – 12.30pm) – Table Top Sale offering Christmas gifts, hand-made cards, second-hand goods and jewellery (cafe open as normal).

Saturday 3rd December (7.30pm to 10.30pm) – Open Mic Night for young people with disabilities, their friends and families. Bring your own CD’s, MP3’s and sing, dance, tell jokes or whatever

All the events above take place at Rumbletums Cafe, 2a Victoria Street, Kimberley... and don’t forget, we’re now open on Thursdays from 10.00am to 3.00pm as well as Fridays and Saturdays.

8. Fire Call Outs in Notts

Figures released by the Nottinghamshire Fire Brigade show that the number of call outs each year has dropped from 30,000 in 1995 to 13,000 now. Of those 13,000 call outs, 6,000 were false alarms. I’m not sure if there are any significant reasons for the fall but it is a quite staggering amount.

9. Valuables In Cars

The police have launched a new initiative to encourage people not to leave their valuables on show in parked cars. If the police find a car where valuables are on display then officers will record the number and will then write to the registered owners.

10. Crime Reduction

Congratulations to the staff running the County Council’s crime reduction team, whose targeting youth programme was the runner up in the national Youth Justice Board Innovations Award. This scheme works with a number of schools across the county and seems to have considerable success in reducing offending rates.

11. Kimberley Youth Gym

Kimberley Youth Gym have been awarded nearly £50,000 from the County Council for new equipment specifically for disabled users. This is excellent news and new machinery should start appearing shortly.

12. Children in Need

Three members of staff at the Charlton Arms in Chilwell are fundraising for Children in Need by spending 14 hours sitting in a bath of stout. I can’t begin to imagine how disgusting that this will feel at the end of their session, so hopefully they will raise the £1,500 they are aiming to.

13. Drug Seizures in Notts

The police have published figures showing that the number of drug seizures in Notts has gone up 11% this year, from 2,273 seizures last year to 2,528 this year. The police say that this is the result of better targeting and the better use of intelligence.

14. Eastwood Town

Health and safety officers have reduced the capacity at Eastwood Town’s Coronation park ground by 50%. The capacity is now 400 people, although the club have said that they are intalks with the County Council to address their concerns and to tackle this.

15. County Council Budget Consultation

I reported last week that the County Council were slashing ever more off their budgets. You can now comment on these online at https://secure.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/your--‐

council/consultations/budget--‐conversation/budget--‐proposals/

16. Bramcote Branch Meeting

If you’re a Lib-Dem supporter in Bramcote why not come along to our branch meeting on Tuesday at 7.30pm, at 8 Cranston Road. Everyone is welcome to attend.

As ever thank you for your support for this newsletter. The next edition will be in two weeks time, but any feedback in the meantime is gratefully received.

David

Broxtowe Enews 5th November 2011

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, it’s been a very good week for new subscriptions.

1. Toton Garrison

I read an email from Anna Soubry this week which claimed that the council were in talks with the MOD about plans to build 2,500 houses on the garrison. She even produced a plan of the alleged site. All of this is completely incorrect. The council are not in discussions with the MOD and the plan was actually one prepared by council officers for an all-party discussion held last week about places where we might look for new development. The garrison was rejected as a site, apart from anything else because the MOD have no plans to release the land. We have asked them to notify us if they are intending to sell any part of the site, but there has been no discussion other than that. I was disappointed to hear the claims being reported as fact on the BBC, although heartened to see them being dismissed by the Nottingham Post.

2. New website

Following the upgrade to the Broxtowe Lib-Dem website I’ve also updated my personal web site this week. Why not have a look at www.davidwatts.org.uk and tell me what you think. The site has the opportunity to report problems or volunteer to help, and I’m starting to build up a database of community links and groups. If you want to be added to this please let me know, with the relevant details.

3. Work on the A52

The good news is that work on the A52 is nearly completed. The bad news is that for the next week they will need to close the road at night between the Priory Island and the QMC. Road closures will be between the hours of 8pm and 6am from the 7^th to the 12^th November.

4. Winter Gritting

The County Council have produced a new leaflet on winter gritting. I‘ve put a copy on our website at www.broxtoweliberaldemocrats.org.uk where it’s available to download or read online.

5. Tree Planting

Tree planting season is upon us and a perfect time to plant trees to improve local communities and schools by making them more attractive, provide shade and improve biodiversity. The Greenwood Community Tree Planting Grant Scheme provides funding and advice to help schools, community groups and parish councils to carry out small-scale tree planting projects. The scheme has taken place for more than 10 years and in that time over 100 schools and community groups have received grants to plant thousands of trees.

The scheme is designed to be flexible and offers up to £250 to cover the cost of buying trees, shelters, tree stakes and ties. To be eligible, your scheme must:

· Plant native tree or shrub species (advice is available on suitable choices)

· Involve the school and/or local community

· Be situated within one of the following districts: Ashfield, Broxtowe, Gedling, or Mansfield.

· Be located on school grounds or publicly accessible land

Application forms for the 2011/12 planting season (November to March) are available from the Greenwood Community Forest Team. The deadline for applications is 16th December 2011, but funding is limited so apply early. For further details contact the Greenwood Team on 0115 977 2188 or email greenwood@nottscc.gov.uk.

6. Police Phone Number

Don’t forget that from Monday the police have a new non-emergency telephone number – 101. For emergencies dial 999, but everything else will now be on 101.

7. Cars in Bramcote Park

This is an example of how effective newsletters like this can be. A reader contacted me at the start of the week to raise problems with cars using the private road from the school across Bramcote Park during the school holidays. Dog walkers had to jump out of the way on at least one occasion. We’ve been able to raise that with the school and Kevin Dean, the Executive Head at the White Hills Park federation of schools has emailed to say that they will look at closing gates or constructing a barrier to stop cars out of school hours. Ideally we will still want pedestrians and cyclists to be able to use the route.

8. Bramcote Hills Park

Sticking with Bramcote Hills Park for the moment, resurfacing work will be carried out on the car park from mid-November through to late February. The car park will hopefully be open throughout but with a reduced number of spaces.

9. County Council cuts

The County Council have announced that they will be cutting back next year by a further £12 million compared to this years budget. Worryingly this includes cutting £10 million from Connexions, the career advice service for young people. At a time when youth employment is already far too high I think that this is a misplaced cut.

10. Council Housing in Stapleford

The Borough Council disclosed last week that the reason ten new council houses in Stapleford haven’t yet been occupied is because Severn Trent Water have failed to connect the water supply, despite having been paid to do this six months ago. Congratulations to my colleague Cllr David Grindell who highlighted the issue, and we will keep an eye on this to make sure things are now dealt with quickly.

11. Enterprise Zone

It was disappointing, if not altogether surprising, that the Enterprise Zone on the Boots site, part of which is in Broxtowe, was not allocated any money from the regional growth fund in the announcement this week. Added to that was an announcement from Network Rail that they had no plans to electrify the Midland Main Line and it’s been a poor week for infrastructure. We do need an improved transport network to Nottingham, and improving the A453 (which will have a major impact on Broxtowe even though it doesn’t come into the borough) and getting the HS2 Rail Line, would appear to be our best hope for the future.

12. The Politics Show

I’m on the Politics how on Sunday on BBC1 discussing the threat to the green belt. We recorded it on Friday and it seemed to go okay, although we were very pressed for time. The interviewer was Marie Ashby, and some years ago she interviewed me on the first ever edition of the Politics Show to come from the East Midlands. The point I was making this week was that changes being brought about by the Government threaten the green belt and the relevant ministers seem oblivious to the threat.

13. Trowell, Cossall and Greasley Events

The Trowell Christmas Special will take place on Friday 25^th November from 6.30 – 8.30pm at the Parish Hall. The Cossall Village winter market will take place the next day on Saturday 26^th November starting at 12.00 midday. Everyone is welcome to attend. There is also a craft fair at Greasley Parish Hall on 12^th November from 11am onwards. The Victorian Market takes place in Greasley on 26^th November from 10am onwards.

14. Broxtowe Business Women’s Network

The next meeting of the Broxtowe Business Womens network will be on 14^th November at the Belfrey Hotel in Nuthall, starting at 5.30pm. The speaker will be Jeannette Tokeley, MD of Dash Corporations, talking about how to gain, manage and retain clients. Details are available from the council on 0115 917 7777.

15. Christmas Lights Switch On

I mentioned these dates a few week ago but am repeating them because of the number of new subscribers we have had over the past couple of week. Christmas lights will be switched on as follows:

Kimberley 18^th November
Eastwood 22^nd November
Beeston 26^th November
Stapleford 1^st December.

Everyone is of course very welcome to attend.

16. Building on the Green Belt Part Two

After having read and heard so much over the last few weeks about how the Tories tell us they are going to save the green belt I was very surprised to heard last week that the Conservative controlled County Council had approached the borough to enquire about getting planning permission to build houses on green belt land the County own adjacent to Coventry Lane in Bramcote. They were told a very firm No.

17. CAT Meetings

There are a number of Community Action Team meetings coming up this month. Local residents are welcome to attend:

· Nuthall West – 10^th November, Church Hall, Back Lane

· Beeston Rylands – 15^th November at Beeston Rylands Community Centre

· Attenborough – 23^rd November at Lucy and Vincent Brown village hall

· Beeston Central – 23^rd November at Queens Road Methodist Church

· Nuthall East – 23^rd November, venue tba

· Stapleford North, 24^th November, Pastures Road Community Church

· Bramcote – 28^th November at Bramcote Memorial Hall

18. Belize Scam

Last week I reported an apparent scam from Belize. This was a message I had received via neighbourhood watch, which is usually a very reliable way of filtering out hoaxes. However I’ve been informed by the police this week that, whilst the scam was genuine, the phone number was closed down about 5 years ago and so is no longer a problem. Many apologies if this caused anyone any distress or worry.

19. Residents Parking In Stapleford

I am told that the County Council will publish their proposals for a resident’s car parking scheme in Stapleford this week. Hopefully I’ll be able to provide details next week.

20. Feedback

Each week I end this newsletter by saying that feedback is welcome. A reader from one of the web sites who carry this newsletter contacted me to say that there is no easy way to send feedback from them, which I accept. You can post feedback on either the Lib-Dem website or my personal website, both of which have their addresses above, or why not get the newsletter delivered by email and you can just use the reply button to send me a response. You can sign up on either of the web sites I’ve already referred to.

As ever thank you for your support for this newsletter, and any feedback is always gratefully received.

David