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.
1.
Newark By Election
As regular readers will know I was the Lib-Dem candidate for
the Newark by election. The result was very disappointing but we were probably
outspent a thousand times over by the Conservatives. My small team did all that
we could be a lot of our supporters voted Conservative to stop UKIP winning. I
enjoyed the campaign but I’m looking forward to getting back to normality now.
2.
“Racist” Constituents
The press got very excited this week about comments that our
MP made saying that some constituents were racist. Unfortunately this puts the
wrong slant on what Anna said. The point that she was making was that when you
discuss the facts on immigration with most people their concerns are alleviated.
Perhaps Anna’s choice of words wasn’t the best but the point she was trying to
make was correct.
3.
Stapleford History Society
The next meeting of the Stapleford and District History
Society will be on Wednesday 11th June at the Maycliffe Hall on
Toton Lane, starting at 7.30pm. The subject is Mary Ellen Shaw (1859-1926) and
admission is £2.50.
4.
Axe Attack on Attenborough Nature Reserve
I was disgusted to hear yesterday that the visitors centre
at Attenborough Nature Reserve could not open when it was meant to as vandals
had attacked the bridge to the centre with an axe! The centre is the jewel in
the crown of an excellent reserve and for people to act like this is absolutely
disgraceful. It can’t even have been an opportunistic attack as someone had to
take the axe there in the first place! Thankfully the centre was able to open
later in the day.
5.
Bramcote Litter Pick
This is advance notice for Bramcote residents that my fellow
Bramcote councillors and I will be organising another community litter pick in
the village on 30th August. More details will be provided in due
course.
6.
Speed Skaters
At the British Speed Skating Championships held at the
National Ice Centre in Nottingham on 25 and 26 May 2014 Andrew Martin from
Bramcote won the Bronze Medal for the aged 14 group and Kyle Ross-Waddell, also
from Bramcote, won the Silver Medal for the aged 12 group. Congratulations to
them both.
7.
Hemlock Happening
Thank you to everyone who attended this year’s Hemlock
Happening and especially to those who took part. I’d like to congratulate my
colleague Stan Heptinstall who is in charge of organising this each year and
who arranged for the rain to stop just as the event started! Both of my
children took part and thoroughly enjoyed the day, as always.
8.
Model makers
A new club has been formed in Chilwell for local model
makers. Anyone aged over 35 who is interested in learning more about arts and
crafts is invited to join the group which will meet at 56 Longleat Crescent
every Wednesday from 7pm to 9pm. The sessions have disabled access. For more
details phone Pauline Day on 0115 925 9989.
9.
Chilwell Road
At long last Chilwell Road in Beeston is open to traffic. It
has been closed for many months for the tram work, and work will continue for
the next few months. However traffic can now travel down the road again.
10.
New Curate
Brinsley and Eastwood Church of England churches have a new
curate. Anna Alls has been appointed as curate of St Mary’s Eastwood, St James
in Brinsley and also a church in Underwood. Congratulations to her on her new
role. She lives in Brinsley.
11.
Eastwood Cemetery Chapel
The council have launched a consultation with local
residents about the future of the cemetery chapel in Eastwood which was gutted
by fire in April. Local residents are being asked to give their views on a
range of options from a complete rebuild to demolition. The survey will close
at the end of this month and decisions will be made very quickly afterwards.
12.
Power for Kimberley
Work is now starting on a £5 million scheme to improve power
supplies in Kimberley. This includes a new sub-station in Watnall and new
cabling and the result should be that there are less power cuts for local
residents.
13.
Sunnyside Post Office
Sunnyside Post Office in Beeston has now closed for a refurbishment.
It will reopen on 13th June at 1pm and when reopened will then have
longer opening hours, from 6am to 9pm. These longer opening hours are certainly
to be welcomed.
14.
Grass Verges
A number of people have contacted me about the fact that
once again this year the grass verges do not appear to have been cut as they
should have been. I have made enquiries about this with the council and will
report back next week. I apologise that I haven’t responded to the various
comments about this in individual emails but due to the Newark by election I
have been pretty busy over the last few days.
As ever thank you for your support for this newsletter. Any
feedback is gratefully received.
Best wishes
David
Follow me on Twitter @davidwatts12.
