Broxtowe Enews 19th May 2013

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.

1. Bramcote Hills Care Home
An application to extend Bramcote Hills Care Home by extending it to include the two houses next to it was defeated at the Development Control Committee at Broxtowe Borough Council on Wednesday. Both myself and my colleague Stan Heptinstall spoke against the application, drawing attention to the parking problems that already exist and would be made worse by the extension and also he dominating impact on the street scene that the building would have. I’m pleased to report that the vote to reject the scheme was unanimous.

2. New Homes in Kimberley
Also on Wednesday the Development Control Committee approved an application to build 22 new homes next to Kimberley Brewery.  This one had the unanimous support of the councillors, as did an outline application for building in Newthorpe, where 20 homes are to be built.

3. Kimberley Brewery
An exhibition of the final plans for the Kimberley Brewery site will be on display the end of the month. The developers say the ‘master plan’ has been worked on since a public consultation, and they now wants to present people with the finished planning application. The exhibition will be held at Holy Trinity Church Hall in Kimberley on May 24 between 2pm and 7.30pm.

4. Core Strategy
The borough council will meet tomorrow to discuss the Core Strategy for the next 15 years. This is a hugely important document which has attracted a lot of publicity in the past over the limits for house building that we will be imposing over the plan period, but it covers much more than that. It covers the way that the council will try and tackle global warming, traffic management and employment and regeneration. I’ve attached a fact sheet to this email giving more details about it, and I will be discussing it on Radio Nottingham tomorrow morning at 7.10am with Andy Whittaker.

5. New Mayors
This week both Eastwood and Stapleford have elected new town mayors, and both are Liberal Democrats. Hazel Charlesworth is the new mayor of Eastwood and David Grindell is the new mayor of Stapleford. Congratulations to both of them on their new roles. Jim MacDonald was elected in Kimberley to continue as the Chairman of the town council there.

6. Kimberley Pram Race
I reported last week that it looked like Kimberley Pram Race would be scrapped following anti-social behaviour in previous events. However I’m delighted to say that following further discussions an alternative route has been prepared for the race and it looks set to continue. It will now start at Swingate or the Stag Recreation Ground and finish at Hall Om Wong Park.

7. Beeston BID
The Beeston Business Improvement District is the not-for-profit body which promotes Beeston Town Centre. It’s success has been shown by the very few vacant shop units along the High Road. The latest scheme they are launching is to target families by putting on a number of family friendly events over the next few months. With the disruption in the town at the moment with the tram works this is a very welcome initiative.

8. British Geological Survey Open Day
 Whilst Keyworth is not in Broxtowe a significant number of BGS staff live there. A significant amount of public money is spent every year by BGS doing science that is by intended to be of direct benefit or importance to the UK public. As BGS have not had an open day at the Keyworth site for well over a decade (in which time the site has been completely rebuilt) many people will have no idea that one of the world’s foremost scientific institutions in its field is just down the road. Details are available at www.bgs.ac.uk/news/events/openday/.

9. Beeston Market
Starting tomorrow Beeston Market is back. The market closed last year because of the poor state of the old site but from tomorrow it will be a weekly market in the town square, offering a mix of craft stalls, food and retail.



As ever thank you for your support for this newsletter. Any feedback is gratefully received.

Best wishes

David
www.davidwatts.org.uk
www.broxtoweliberaldemocrats.org.uk
Follow me on Twitter @davidwatts12.

Broxtowe Enews 14th May 2013

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. May I give a special welcome to the new readers that we have this week.

May I start by apologising that the Enews is a bit late this week, I was struck down by a heavy cold and not in the best of states to write for the past couple of days.

1.       Broxtowe Core Strategy

Broxtowe Borough Council will be meeting next Monday evening to debate the new core strategy for the borough. This is the central plank of the council’s development plan for the next 15 years. The publicity so far, understandably, has been around housing proposals but the strategies to be debated cover much more, including the environment, the town centres, transport and others. Everyone is welcome to attend. The meeting starts at 7.00pm at the Town Hall, Foster Avenue, Beeston. I will be sending a fact sheet about the core strategy next week, but if you want it in advance it should be on our website at www.broxtoweliberaldemocrats.org.uk during the week.

2.       New Mayor and Deputy Mayor

At the borough council meeting last week Iris White was elected as the new mayor of Broxtowe after having been the deputy mayor last year. The new deputy mayor will be Bramcote Lib-Dem councillor Stan Heptinstall.  As a result Stan will be standing down from the cabinet on the council and his place is being taken by fellow Bramcote Lib-Dem councillor Ian Tyler. (Unfortunately I completely missed tonight’s cabinet meeting as I was stuck in a traffic jam in Leicester for an hour!)

3.       Bramcote Bonanza

The Bramcote School will be holding their Bramcote Bonanza on Friday 12^th July from 5.00pm to 8.00pm. This will include stalls, sideshows, live music and face painting. Everyone will be welcome to attend.

4.       School Governors Wanted

White Hills Park Federation of Schools are currently advertising for new school governors. If you would like to take on this important role which supports the school then please contact Karen Sims, Clerk to the Governors on 0115 9078111 for further details.

5.       Same Sex Marriage meeting

Anna Soubry MP is holding a public meeting to discuss the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill on Thursday 16th May, 7:30pm-8:30pm, at Clarkes Lane Methodist Church, Chilwell.   Everyone is welcome to attend.

6.       Beeston Police Station

Work is now well underway to move Beeston Police Station. From early June the police station will be located in the Civic Centre on Foster Avenue, along with the borough council and Citizens Advice Bureaux. A Police front counter service will be open from Monday to Thursday, 8.30am until 5.00pm, and Fridays 8.30am until 4.30pm.

7.       Stag Recreation Ground, Kimberley

The Stag Recreation Ground in Kimberley is getting a £200,000 makeover and school children are being asked to choose the equipment. £35,000 of the funding has come from Broxtowe Borough Council, £50,000 came from Nottinghamshire County Council’s Local Improvement Scheme and a contribution of £18,600 was made by Kimberley Town Council. The town council, which is running the project, is now applying for £100,000 Landfill Funding to make up the total. The views of residents and local children about what equipment should be installed on the park can on the Kimberley Town Council website at www.kimberleytowncouncil.org.uk.  

8.       Housing Application for Nuthall

Developers have submitted plans to build a 550 house development in Nuthall alongside the A6002. This is on a site where the HS2 is proposed to pass through, although it’s fair to say that the HS2 staff didn’t know anything about the proposals until I told them about it at a recent meeting. The application will need to be considered by the Development Control Committee in the future.

9.       New Trees

Beeston and District Civic Society engaged at the end of last month in a programme of planting new trees across the town, following suggestions from local residents as to the possible locations. This is an excellent project and they have also asked local residents to take on the role of tree guardians to water and look after the new plantings. Trees were planted in five locations across Beeston.

10.   Kimberley Pram Race

It was disappointing to read this week that Kimberley Town Council are considering stopping the towns annual pram race. Unfortunately in recent years drunken behaviour associated with the event have led to complaints and difficulties ensuring that the event can be properly policed. It is a shame that the actions of a drunken minority may have spoiled it for the majority who usually enjoy the event.

As ever thank you for your support for this newsletter. Any feedback is gratefully received.

Best wishes

David

www.davidwatts.org.uk

www.broxtoweliberaldemocrats.org.uk

Follow me on Twitter @davidwatts12.