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.
As we get towards Christmas many services and events run down for the holiday, and as a result there is less news to report than usual, but there are still a number of things going on. Can I apologise for the typo in last week’s news about Chilwell Conservation Area. I of course meant to refer to options if you had missed the meeting, not if you had kissed it. Whoops.
1. Sale Of Care Homes
Sadly the District Auditor has decided that he will not intervene in the decision of the County Council to sell six care homes, including Bramwell in Bramcote, to a private company at a significant under valuation. My colleague Stan Heptinstall had asked the auditor to look into this sale as it seems to us that this sale does not represent anything like good value for local residents, even leaving aside the question about whether the sale was right in principle or not. You can see the letter from the District Auditor on our web site at www.broxtoweliberaldemocrats.org.uk.
2. Christmas Concert
There will be a Christmas Carol Concert at Chilwell Road Methodist Church in Beeston on 17th December. As well as soloists the Eastwood Male Voice Choir will be performing. Tickets cost £6 each and are available from 0115 919 6659.
3. Car Parking at Bramcote Hills Park
As people may have noticed the car park at Bramcote Hills Park is currently being upgraded. The council had been looking at whether or not they should introduce charging for this car park, but when the matter was discussed by the council’s cabinet they agreed with the arguments put forward by the Lib-Dems that this car park should remain free of charge.
4. Snow
The County Council have issued a statement this week to reassure motorists that they are ready to cope with any snowfall this year. You may recall that last year they ran out of grit in the really harsh winter that we have, but they have been at pains this week to stress that they are well stocked with grit and salt for this year. They have however told district councils that there is no budget to install any further grit bins this year.
5. New Tree In Bramcote Park
Bramcote History Group have donated a new tree, a Juglan Nigra, to Bramcote Park. It was planted this week by the group along with Broxtowe’s Mayor, Cllr Jacky Williams, as part of National Tree Week.
6. Domestic Violence Victims
The Borough Council have launched a new campaign to provide help and support to victims of domestic violence locally. New posters will appear in libraries, Sure Start centres and doctors surgeries as well as others to raise awareness of the issue. Further information and help area available from 0115 917 3028, or from hlc@broxtowe.gov.uk.
7. Broxtowe Sports Awards
Congratulations to the young sports people honoured at the Broxtowe Sports Awards this week. Amongst the winners were 15 year old Lauren Gill, a swimmer from Kimberley, and 23 year old gymnast Sam Hunter of Chilwell.
8. Solar panels for the County Council
The County Council has agreed to install solar panels on eight of its buildings to help generate electricity. These will cost £800,000 but should pay that back many times over during their lifetimes. They will cut costs and also enable the County Council ton get income from the Governments feed in tariffs scheme. Sadly none of the buildings is in Broxtowe, but we should all benefit from the move.
9. Health Walk at the Nature Reserve
Local residents are invited to take part in a health walk at Attenborough Nature Reserve on Monday 19th December. The walk starts at 10am from the visitor centre, is free to attend and will last for about an hour. Details are available from the visitor centre on 0115 972 1777.
10. Kimberley School
The Governors at Kimberley school are currently looking at whether to convert to an academy. However the National Union of Teachers have indicated that they will ballot their members over strike action if the move goes ahead.
11. High Speed Broadband.
The County Council have approached Broxtowe Borough Council about contributing to the cost of installing high speed broadband cables across the borough. Unfortunately, whilst the borough council are supportive of the scheme, the County requested far too much money from the borough. With resources being as tight as they are the borough council simply cannot find almost £100,000 at the drop of a hat. The County Council have suggested to the boroughs that they should contribute on a 50/50 basis with the County, despite the fact that the County get 90% of the council tax money.
12. Council Tax Survey
At the moment councils collect council tax over 10 months, which means that for the last two months of the year we don’t pay anything. The Government is currently consulting about whether this should change to collecting over 12 months. This would mean that people paid less each month but there would no longer be the payment holiday at the end of each financial year. To help me respond to this and accurately reflect people’s views I’ve set up an opinion poll on my website and I’d be grateful if you could take a minute to express your views. My website is at www.davidwatts.org.uk
13. Bramcote Hills Golf Course
Thank you to everyone who responded to the survey that I and my colleagues have been running about a suggestion that land at the closed golf course in Bramcote Hills should be used to build a retirement village. At the moment there is no formal proposal but we wanted to know the views of residents about this scheme, and overall we got just over 170 responses, with just over 100 people opposed to the idea.
14. Major Oak Sapling planting
I’ve reported here before about Stapleford Poet Dave Woods “Creative Perambulations Around Sherwood Forest,” walking the historic boundary of the forest (the first person to do so in about 300 years). To mark the end of the project Dave will be planting a sapling from the Great Oak on Ilkeston Road Recreation Ground, Stapleford. If you’d like to come along to this historic tree planting in Stapleford on 22nd December at 2pm, please let Dave know on O77 O99 77684 or email davewrite2002 @ yahoo.com.
15. New Church web Site
St Michaels Church in Bramcote has a new website. You can view this at http://www.bramcotechurch.org/. I’ve had a quick look round and it seems quite good.
As ever thank you for your support for this newsletter. Any feedback is gratefully received. That can be sent by email, or by using the forms on the Broxtowe Lib-Dem website, or my personal website, the addresses of which are above.
David
