Broxtowe Enews 29th January 2011

Welcome to Broxtowe Enews, brought to you by the Liberal Democrats and edited by David Watts, the leader of Broxtowe Borough Council. A special welcome to the new readers that we have this week.

1. Sainsbury’s, Kimberley

Sainsbury's in Kimberley is to extend. Planning permission has been granted and the larger store will in future carry electrical items and clothing as well as the current range of items. 40 new jobs (some full time, some part time) will be created.

2. Victoria Street Car Park Kimberley

The council is to introduce reduced prices for season tickets for Victoria Street Car Park. The new price will be £40 per quarter, which is reduced from £125 at present.

3. Affordable homes in Eastwood

22 new affordable homes are to be opened this week in Eastwood – this is more than were built during the whole of the last financial year. I’m very pleased to see this development coming on line.

4. Walk And Talk Events

Broxtowe Borough Council is putting on walk and talk events in Moorgreen each Monday and Wednesday with a walk of a couple of miles and a chance to get to know new people. More information is available on 0115 988 5542

5. Chinese New Year

Saturday February 5th sees the Chinese new year celebrations. The council still funds this, although not to the extent that we used to. There will be a series of events in Beeston Square from 10 - 12.30. Furtther information is available on from 917 3695.

6. School Crossing in Kimberley

Parents in Kimberley have launched a petition to have a new school crossing installed in Nottingham Road near the junction with Noel Street and Broomhill Road, to help prevent accidents. I will report on how this progresses in future editions.

7. Fight The Library Cuts Campaign

There will be a read in at libraries across Broxtowe, especially Beeston and Stapleford, on Saturday 5^th February as part of the campaign to prevent the county council from cutting back on the hours and facilities that libraries offer.

8. Middle Street Resource Centre

For those who don’t know the Middle Street Resource Centre in Beeston offers a first rate service for people suffering with mental health difficulties. The county council consulted on closing it and a vigorous campaign was launched against that. I’ve posted below the most recent message from the campaigners in full so that you can see the achievements to date and the further efforts that are needed.

Dear Friend of Middle St Resource Centre,

Last year many of us service users wrote letters to ask Notts County Council not to close Middle St Resource Centre. That has had some success, but now the plan is to keep Middle St open but only for very severely ill people. This will mean that those of us who are being kept well by the support of staff and other service users will not be able to use the Centre any more.

If you care about the well-being of anyone you know who attends the Centre - a friend, family member, fellow church member etc - would you please write a letter or send an email to say that they should be able to keep using the Centre. You can address it "Dear Cabinet Member".

You don't have to name names or identify health conditions if you don't want to. This campaign is being co-ordinated by service users at the Centre. Please either email your support back to us or write a letter and give it to the service user concerned, or send it to:

Karen Medd

Middle St Advocacy Group (MiStAG)
C/O 74 Middle St
Beeston
Notts NG9 2AR
MiStAG members will ensure that everything gets to the decision makers. If you have any questions you can ask them via this email address.
Please do not involve staff at Middle St as this is a service user-led campaign. Closing date is 18th February.

Many thanks for your support.

MiStAG

9. GP Consortium

Primary Care Trusts, which run much of the NHS, are being abolished by the Government (and good riddance). Most funding decisions will now be taken by local GP’s, and in Broxtowe a consortium has been formed to coordinate these decisions. The doctors elected to manage this are Kelvin
Lim, Mike O'Neill, Andrew Hopwood and Guy Mansford.

10. Trip to Downing Street

On Wednesday of this week I will be at 10 Downing Street for a reception for Liberal Democrat council leaders. I’ve never been before and I’m looking forward to the experience.

11. Kimberley Brewery

I met the new owners of Kimberley Brewery last week. The new owner (Rafiq) seems to be a very approachable man with a willingness to engage with local people. His opening comment to us was that “if it works for local people it works for us,” and so I am very hopeful that we will get a long term development which benefits local residents. I have urged him to meet with SOBS, the local pressure group, which he has agreed to do.

12. Broxtowe Youth Council

I attended the meeting of Broxtowe Youth Council on Tuesday of this week. This comprises representatives from all the secondary schools in the borough. It was inspiring to hear them at work. They have already produced some really high quality material to deal with issues affecting young people and are looking at a range of topics to explore further. The current youth mayor, Tilly Stone, is an exceptional leader and a real standard bearer for young people. The youth council also led the act of remembrance on Thursday for Holocaust Memorial Day which I found exceptionally powerful.

13. Bramcote Park School

Bramcote Park Sport, Business and Enterprise School has been named as one of the 100 most improved schools in the country for GCSE results this year. Congratulations to all the staff and students in achieving this.

14. Bird watching in Attenborough

A bird watching session will be held at Attenborough Nature Reserve on Wednesday 2^nd February at 10am. If you want to participate meet at the ticket machine in the main car park. Details are available from 0115 983 0946.

15. Open cast Mining

A private members bill is being introduced to the House of Commons next month which would ban open cast mining within 500 metres of a settlement. This is highly important for us locally as, if it becomes law, the proposed open cast mining between Trowell and Cossall would almost certainly not take place. The bill needs the support of 100 MP’s to have any chance of becoming law and I’m pleased that our MP, Anna Soubry, is backing it.

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

David

Broxtowe Enews 22nd January 2011

Welcome to Broxtowe Enews, brought to you by the Liberal Democrats and edited by David Watts, the leader of Broxtowe Borough Council.

A special welcome to the new readers that we have this week. I mentioned just before Christmas that I was hoping we would hit a new target for readers by the end of the year. We didn’t quite do it, but with our first subscriber of the new year we got there. We already have a new target to work towards for new readers, which is to have a further 1000 new readers by Easter. We’ll see how we get on with that.

Sorry that there wasn’t a newsletter last week but I was away for a couple of days.

1. Wind turbine

We already have proposals from Nottingham University to install three giant wind turbines in Beeston Rylands, and now Severn Trent have applied for permission to install a turbine in Greasley. This will be determined by the council’s Development Control Committee in due course, but details are available on the councils web site on www.broxtowe.gov.uk

2. Sir Dennis Pettit

Sir Dennis Pettit, the former leader of Nottinghamshire County Council and Eastwood Councillor, passed away last Sunday. I would like to extend my sympathies to all his family and friends. Sir Dennis retired from politics some years ago, but he was awarded the Honour of being an Alderman of Broxtowe by the borough council.

3. The Tram

The County Council has now formally withdrawn from being a partner in Nottingham Express Transport. The county claim that this will save them £18 million, although that seems to be spread over a 30 year period.

4. Beeston Bid

If you run a business in or around Beeston Town centre you now have the chance to join the Beeston BID (Business Improvement District). 500 firms have signed up already. The aim of the BID is to improve and promote Beeston for businesses, and it has been established following a vote by local traders to support it. More details are available at www.beestonbid.org

5. Coventry Lane Speed Sign

The painful saga of this sign shows the levels of incompetence that we have to deal with sometimes at the County Council. We were promised it by April but it was eventually installed in November. However it wasn’t switched on until mid-December and since then has never worked properly. I’ve reported and chased this, and have been told by the County Council that they thought it was working as they have been invoiced by their contractors for the repair. I have assured them that it is not working and queried why they were having to pay for a repair when it has never worked properly. Surely the providers should be meeting the cost of putting it right?

6. Electoral Registration

Broxtowe residents who completed the electoral registration process by text, which was available for the first time this year, will have received a letter pointing out that there is an error in the charges that they were informed about. One resident raised with me whether it was justified spending 30p on a letter to tell residents about a 5p error. This seems like a fair criticism, but when I checked I found that the full cost of the letters was met by the contractor whose error it was in first place, so there is no cost to the council for these.

7. Stapleford Walk In Centre

The campaign to prevent the closure of this continues. If you have used the walk in centre and haven’t yet signed the petition please do so in the next ten days. You can follow the link from our web site at www.broxtoweliberaldemocrats.org.uk. There have been two significant developments in the last week. First there was a public meeting at the Maycliffe Centre in Stapleford. Unfortunately John Bell, who runs the centre, failed to attend to open the hall, meaning that about 80 people were left standing round outside. The meeting was eventually held at the Health Centre instead. The second event was that the campaign organisers were emailed this week by the Green party asking for information so that they could include it as one of their activities on their election leaflets. It is hard to think of a worse case of bandwagon jumping than this. The campaign has been firmly run by the Liberal Democrats, although supported by other parties, and it’s pretty bad form for another party to suddenly think that they can just turn up and claim credit for it!

8. Community Action Meetings

All areas of Broxtowe have CAT meetings (Community Action Teams) but attendance varies from nearly a hundred to less than a handful, depending on the area. The council is therefore reviewing whether these are the best way of engaging with local residents. The council’s People and Places Examination Group is currently looking at this, under the chairmanship of my colleague Jacky Williams. Any changes will come into effect after the elections in May.

9. Lib-Dem AGM

Broxtowe Liberal Democrats have their AGM this coming Friday, 28^th January, at 7.30pm. All members of the Lib-Dems are welcome to attend. You can sign up on the night so if you’re a Lib-Dem supporter why not join us and come along. The venue is Bramcote Memorial Hall.

10. Sky Sports “Living For Sport Student of the Year”

Congratulations to Alison Padgett from Bramcote Hills Sports and Community College who has reached the final of this award, after she designed a fitness plan for other students.

11. Over 50’s Dancing

Broxtowe Borough Council is now inviting entrants for it’s Strictly 50’s dance event. All entrants must be over 50 years of age. The competition will be held at the Village Hotel in Chilwell on 13^th February. Details are available from the council’s website or by phone on 0115 917 3572.

12. Time Capsule

Pupils at Brookhill Leys Primary School in Eastwood buried a time capsule last week, aided by Broxtowe’s mayor. The plan is for it to be dug up again in 30 years time. Pupils from the same school also helped open the new Tesco’s in Eastwood this week.

13. Coronation Park Skateboard Area

I met with a group of students from Eastwood Comprehensive School yesterday who want to have the skate park in Coronation Park improved. The current ramps are metal and not of the highest quality, and they are difficult to use when they are wet. I was really impressed with the students, who have very sensible ideas about how to take matters forward and to raise the funds necessary for this. I was very happy to give the council’s backing for the scheme and our officers will work with the students to take this scheme forward.

14. Brinsley Animal Rescue

Brinsley Animal rescue helped a record number of animals during 20110. In total they rescued 117 pets, 470 farm animals and 204 wild animals. They are still housing 150 animals, including 16 hedgehogs and 3 ponies. The owners would like to thank everyone who has donated to them during the last 12 months.

15. Most Costly Addresses

A survey published this week says that Beeston Fields Drive in Bramcote is the second most expensive address to have in Nottinghamshire, with average house prices of £755,000.

16. Bramcote Park

Broxtowe school pupils have helped to plant a further 150 trees in Bramcote Park this week, in the area which used to be a landfill site run by Biffa. This is part of the council’s plan to plant 100,000 new trees over a five year period in the borough.

17. Trip to Downing Street

I’ve been invited to a reception at 10 Downing Street on 2^nd February, in my capacity as a Liberal Democrat council leader. I’ve accepted of course, as this is a chance that may never come again. It does mean that I will miss the council meeting that night, which is a shame especially as we have just made a series of changes to make council meetings more effective. The biggest of these is that our Youth mayor now has the right to address the council, and current youth mayor Tilly Stone will become the first ever non-councillor to address a full council meeting. I’ve already sent my apologies to Tilly that I will miss this, but I’m sure that I will hear here in the future. I’ve also been invited to attend the Youth Council meeting on Tuesday in a reciprocal gesture by them.

Thank you all for your support for this newsletter. Any feedback is very welcome.

Best wishes

David

Broxtowe Enews 8th January 2011

Welcome to Broxtowe Enews, brought to you by the Liberal Democrats and edited by David Watts, the leader of Broxtowe Borough Council.

A happy new year to all our readers, and a special welcome to all the new readers that we have.

1. Borough Community champions award

The council is running the 2011 community champions award. These are presented for outstanding achievement in crime, business, health, cleanliness, children and young people, good neighbours and community. We’re inviting nominations for these awards from local people, for local people. Nominations can be made via the web site (www.broxtowe.gov.uk) or by phone on 0115 917 3395.

2. Oxylane Sports Village

The owners of the Decathlon store on the Ikea site have consulted with the council and many other local groups about building a sports village, with numerous playing fields and courts, based around a new Decathlon store. Whilst this seems like an interesting idea the location they have identified is in the green belt, and I would need an awful lot of persuading to support this.

3. Open evening for prospective councilors

Have you ever fancied being a councillor. If you are interested the council are holding an open evening for prospective councilors on 22 February 2011 starting at 6pm. (Refreshments will be available from 5.30pm.) I will be taking part and I hope that the leaders of the other political parties will be there as well, along with several other councillors. Anyone is welcome to attend and further details are available from Sue Rodden at the council on 0115 917 7777.

4. Durban House

A council scrutiny committee has now prepared a detailed report on the future of Durban House. Contrary to some reports in the media, this does not recommend closure, sale, or indeed any other option. The report assesses each possibility but does not make specific recommendations. It has now been referred to myself as portfolio holder for resources and Labour leader Milan Radulovic as portfolio holder for Leisure to decide how to take it forward. We will be meeting in the next few days to discuss this.

5. Councillors Expenses

The council has published details of the expenses claimed by councillors in the past year. This runs up until May, the month that I took over as leader of the council. We will publish these details on an annual basis. Members receive a basic allowance for the work that we do and can then claim expenses on top of that, but I choose not to claim these so I had a zero expense claim for last year (and will have for this year as well).

Also on the topic of councillors allowances, I’ve seen a comparison in the last few days of the allowances paid by each of the local councils in the area. Broxtowe pay our councillors less than all of the surrounding councils. As an example, the leader of the council in neighbouring Ashfield gets paid £4,000 a year more than I do, whilst the members of their cabinet take home an extra £7,000 each that Broxtowe’s cabinet members.

6. Stapleford Walk In Centre consultation

The Primary Care Trust are holding a public meeting to discuss their proposed closure of the Walk In Centre this Thursday, 13th January, at the Maycliffe Hall in Toton Lane, Stapleford, starting at 6pm. I hope that there will be a huge turnout to show them what an appalling proposal this is. (Sadly I’m working in Bristol on Thursday so won’t be back for the start, but I’ll sneak in at the back when I get there.)

7. Bridging the Gap

The council launched the Bridging the Gap scheme last year to break down some of the barriers between generations in Broxtowe. One of the latest, very successful initiatives in this scheme has been a group of young people visiting the Alexandra House nursing home in Eastwood to teach residents how to use the Wii Fit. I think that schemes like this can have a real long term benefit.

8. Giltbrook

Developers submitted plans just before Christmas to build 96 new houses off Smithurst Road in Giltbrook. Details of this can be seen on the councils website. The reference number is Ref 10/00662/FUL which you will need to put into the search engine on the site.

9. Recycled Christmas Trees

If you have a real Christmas tree that you want to recycle if you take it to the household waste disposal site in Beeston they will take it off your hands, and a donation will be made to charity for these. Details are on the council web site. The entry on the web site is a testament to the effectiveness of this newsletter. A reader asked about the issue and I didn’t know the answer so contacted Stan Heptinstall, the portfolio holder. Stan provided me with the answer to relay back to the reader, but noticed that the information wasn’t on the website and so he raised this with the councils web team and within 24 hours of the initial query (which was on a bank holiday) we had the information available on the website.

10. New Bridleway

The County Council have agreed to create a new bridleway in Cossall along part of the old Nottingham canal to connect up two existing bridleways. This had been requested by the Erewash Riders Association.

11. Chilwell Leisure Centre

The Vitality Fitness Suite, which closed for refurbishment in November, re-opened just after Christmas. Nottingham Forest players performed the opening. New members are very welcome.

12. Crime Figures

Crime figures in Broxtowe have dropped by 20% over the past year. I’m pleased to say that the council’s Darker Nights campaign, reminding people of the importance of ensuring windows and doors are secure, seems to have contributed to this.

13. Beeston railway station

Work to refurbish this, funded jointly by Broxtowe and the County Council, will begin this month. The plans are for CCTV, new lighting and footways, and in the longer term a new commuters car park.

14. Lifesaving Training and Awards

There is an opportunity for young people in the region to learn lifesaving skills, including resuscitation and water rescue, with Colwick Park Lifeguards who train at Bramcote Leisure Centre. A poster is attached with details of courses which start in the next week or so. As well as providing training for Royal Lifesaving Society and National Pool Lifeguard qualifications, the club specialises in provide water safety cover for events such as Reading Festival and Henley Royal Regatta. A minimum age of 14 years is required for the introductory course advertised, but please feel free to contact the club for details of other courses and training for under 14s.

15. Local traders

I don’t normally carry commercial adverts but I do want to say thanks to the Euronics Centre on Derby Road in Stapleford. My fridge freezer packed in on 23rd December, which is about as big a disaster as you can get. Comet said that they could deliver on 25th January, Curry’s were far better, they could deliver on 27th December, and the Euronics Centre said that they could get a new one to us in an hour. It actually took them half that time. Shopping locally really is the best. Thanks guys – you saved Christmas.

As ever thank you for your support for this newsletter. Thank you especially to the people who took the trouble over Christmas to tell me how useful they found this.

Best wishes

David

Broxtowe Enews 20th December 2010

Welcome to Broxtowe Enews, brought to you by the Liberal Democrats and edited by David Watts, the leader of Broxtowe Borough council. May I start by offering a special welcome to the new readers that we have this week. We are new very close to a significant milestone for subscribers, and I’m hoping we may make it before the new year. If neighbours would find this newsletter useful why not mention it to them. We’re at an all time high for the number of readers but 5 more and we tip over that milestone.

1. Council Funding

Next years financial settlement from the government has now been announced. The official spin from the government was that Broxtowe had an 8.1% cut, but when we’ve actually analysed the figures it’s more like a 14% cut. The year after will see a further 11% reduction which means that over 2 years we will suffer a £2 million reduction in income from the government, down from £8 million to £6 million. As you can imagine this is extremely challenging for us and it will result in a reduction in service. I’m afraid that there is just no way of avoiding this, but we will minimise the impact on the front line as far as possible.

2. Gritting

With the temperatures plummeting again in recent days I was reassured by the County Council last week that grit levels were holding up well. I was therefore very surprised to then receive a letter just a couple of days later to say that stocks were at critical levels and that only main roads were to be gritted. As regular readers will know the borough council has been gritting above and beyond the directions permitted by the county, but this has now been stopped I’m afraid. I don’t go as far as the Labour Party on the County Council who called on Highways Cabinet Member on the County Council (Chilwell Councillor Richard Jackson) to resign, as I’m not sure that it’s really his fault that it snowed a lot, but sending out such mixed messages certainly doesn’t help.

3. Changes to Council Meetings

At the full council meeting last week councillors voted through a series of amendments to the way that council meetings operate which I had proposed. These are designed to make council meetings more open, relevant and interesting and they will come into force from the next meeting. One of the most significant changes is that the Youth Mayor will have the power to address the council and so next month 15 year old Tilly Stone, the current youth mayor, will become the first non-councillor ever to address a full council meeting in Broxtowe. Tilly attended the last council meeting as my guest and I’m sure she will rise to the occasion. The young people of Broxtowe made a very smart choice in choosing her to represent them.

4. Trowell Christmas Tree

I was really disappointed to hear that a Christmas Tree planted in the churchyard in Trowell five years ago has been destroyed by vandals, just a year before it was due to start being used as the village Christmas Tree. The village had been looking forward to using the tree, and I think it was a really good idea to plant a special tree, and it’s such a shame that a piece of mindless vandalism has spoiled the plans. Trowell residents will now need to decide whether they are going to replant the tree or choose a different method in the future.

5. Smithurst Meadows Nature Reserve

I’m delighted that Smithurst Meadows was officially adopted as the council’s tenth nature reserve. This is off Smithurst Way in Giltbrook. We have a target of declaring at least one new nature reserve every year until 2012 and are on course to achieve that.

6. Attenborough Nature Reserve

The Nature Reserve 2011 calendar is now available to buy online for £9.50 including post and packing from www.attenboroughnaturecentre.co.uk

7. Kimberley Car Park

A petition was handed in to the council last week from residents in Kimberley calling for car park charges at the Victoria Street car park to be scrapped. I have already committed the council to reviewing car park charges after they have been in force for a year, and I stand by that. I think that we really need to see a years information before we can make a properly informed decision. I have checked the position and we are breaking even at the Victoria Street car park, and if we withdraw charges generally we do need to decide how we will raise the £300,000 each year that it costs to maintain our car parks, or which services or facilities we cut to make up for the drop in income. This will all be included in the review.

8. Recycling in Beeston

Tesco in Beeston have been approached by the council to see if they will host a recycling bank for that part of Beeston. This came as a result of a suggestion from a local resident, for which I’m grateful. If there are other places that we should look at installing recycling centres please let me know.

9. Fire Service Cuts

The Fire Service, like all public bodies, is looking to save money. They are considering doing this by withdrawing a number of fire engines, including one of the three based at Highfields Fire Station in Beeston. I haven’t seen the detail yet but my initial view is that this is the wrong thing to do. We are trying to save money with back-office functions (Broxtowe already share a number of services with other local councils to save residents money) whereas this seems to be a direct cut in front-line services.

10. Beeston Wind Turbines

I reported a couple of weeks ago that Nottingham University were trying to obtain permission to install three giant wind turbines in Beeston. A residents group opposed to the idea has been formed, and their web site is at http://www.no2turbines.com. For balance the University’s page on the proposals is at http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/renewableenergyproject/index.aspx.

11. Kimberley Brewery Homes

The second sale of Kimberley Brewery has now occurred, with the current houses on the site being auctioned last week. These have been bought by an unnamed investor for £790,000. I hope that the new owners will be able to offer the current tenants some peace of mind about their futures, something which they have not been able to enjoy for the past couple of years since Greene King put them onto very short contracts.

12. Durban House

A council working group has spent several months looking at the future of Durban House. This is a lovely building in Eastwood, with a very tenuous link to DH Lawrence, but it costs the council £160,000 per year to run it. The working group have concluded that selling the building, and moving the museum that it houses to new accommodation, is the best option for the council. A decision on this will need to be taken early in the new year. I’ve already had emails from people telling me what a dreadful idea this is, but the reality is that the building is a costly white elephant and with the councils finances being squeezed so badly we are duty bound to consider this. I do stress that no decisions have been taken at this stage, but if we maintain the building we will need to identify where the money to run it will come from.

13. Christmas Wishes

Christmas has started badly for me this year. In the same week the clutch on my car has gone and my laptop has died, never to be revived. I’m a thousand pounds out of pocket already! I hope that your Christmases will be everything that you want, and that Santa will be especially generous this year. My older daughter is hoping for a puppy, but she’ll be disappointed!

As ever than you for your support for this newsletter. This is the last newsletter for this year and we will resume service in 2011. I will however try and deal with any feedback and correspondence.

Best wishes

David

Broxtowe Enews 11th December 2010

Welcome to Broxtowe Enews, brought to you by the Liberal Democrats and edited by David Watts, the leader of Broxtowe Borough Council.

1. The Weather

It seems very hard to believe now that just four days ago the temperature was minus 12 and we were having massive difficulties providing services. The two main issues we had to address were gritting the roads and collecting the rubbish. I think we’ve done well with the gritting. We are restricted by the County Council on where we can grit but we have pushed beyond those limits wherever possible. I know that many people would have liked extra roads gritted or new grit bins provided but we’ve done as much as possible. However when it comes to the bin collection I could not award us more than a C+. Most people seemed to appreciate the problems that we had in the first place but it’s taken a week just to catch up with the black bins, and the missed green bins haven’t been done. I think we should have done better and we will review our contingency plans to ensure that we raise our game for next time. I would be very interested to hear peoples views and experiences on the past couple of weeks to help inform that review.

2. Residents Parking Schemes

I’ve received an update from the County Council as to where they are with their review of residents parking schemes:

Beeston Rylands Area - There have been no objections to removing a residents parking scheme and it will be removed in January or February

Castle College Area Beeston – this is a new scheme which they will start consulting about shortly.

Fletcher Road – (New Scheme) – A consultation was held in May 2010 which showed no support for scheme. This proposed scheme has been terminated

Lower Road Area Beeston (New Scheme) – There have been no objections to this scheme being introduced. This will be timetabled to be brought forward shortly.

Station Road Area Beeston (New Scheme) – A consultation is due mid December on this

The Cloisters Beeston (New Scheme)- (SW) – There have been objections to this scheme and the matter will be referred to the cabinet on the County Council for a decision.

Councillors in Beeston West have also asked for a residents parking scheme to be considered for the Devonshire Avenue area but I have no news on that yet.

In Stapleford a number of schemes will be the subject of a second consultation during December and January, namely:

Albert Street

Cyril Avenue Area

Eatons Road

Wellington Street Area

Other areas of Stapleford are being assessed as part of the overall review of residents parking in the area as well.

3. Kimberley Brewery Site

The old brewery was sold to the Alif group from Leicester the day before the auction was due to take place. They were not people I have had any dealings with, but I have invited them to a meeting and they have accepted the invitation. My understanding is that they may want to develop the area as a business park. The vision that the council had for the site is for a mixed use development, with housing as well as businesses. I still hope that this may be achieved, and I’m cautiously optimistic that the new owners will be bringing new jobs to the area.

4. Castle College

The Skills funding agency are consulting on proposed merger of Castle College and South Notts college. Comments can be made online at thttp://skillsfundingagency.bis.gov.uk/providers/allthelatest/consultations/

The closing date for comments is 14th January 2011.

5. St Catherine’s Church, Cossall

The church has had significant problems with lead being stolen from the roof, to the extent that a police officer had to spend a night sleeping in the church to try and catch the culprits. They have now applied for planning permission to instal a new roof using alternative materials which are not attractive to thieves.

6. Health and Safety

Broxtowe Borough Council are leading a consortium of 8 local authorities seeking sensible health and safety management. We aim to kill off some of the myths and silly stories and provide sensible protection for our staff and members of the public. The initiative is backed by the HSE, and I hope that it will lead to a common sense culture developing with regard to health and safety.

7. Low Cost Burglary Alarms

The South Notts Community safety partnership is giving away low cost burglar alarms and are also subsidising other crime prevention accessories for householders. You can obtain details at www.broxtowecommunity.co.uk.

8. MP’s Expenses

The first details of claims for our new MP’s have now been published. Anna Soubry claimed £5,247 and Gloria De Piero £8,673. There were some comments in the media about Ms De Piero claiming £1 for some cleaning gloves. I can see why this generated the headlines but I guess the question is how that was claimed. If it was just part of a receipt for other related matters then it’s quite understandable, but if someone had to fill out a separate claim form for this then I’d be pretty surprised.

9. Cemetery Hill Chapel, Kimberley

Kimberley town council want to spend £35,000 improving the chapel on cemetery hill so that it can be used for civil ceremonies and as a community meeting place. This will be funded by an increase in the Kimberley precept of £12.50 per year from each resident. It’s fair to say that not all councillors thought that this was a good idea as it is a significant amount of money to spend during difficult financial times.

10. Kimberley Town Council

Sticking with Kimberley, the Eastwood and Kimberley Advertiser reports that Shane Easom has decided to stand down as leader of the Town Council. There has been recent controversy after the council co-opted on a new member who is one of Shane’s employees, but the paper reports that Shane had decided to stand down before this row began. I’ve had no dealings with this so will simply report the facts and not comment on them.

11. New Speed Sign

New speed sign is being installed in Eastwood after a residents petition. An illuminated sign has gone up outside Lynncroft Primary School after the petition was presented by Councillor Keith Longdon and neighbourhood watch member Josie Forrest. I’m delighted that this has been done. However the new speed sign installed on Coventry Lane in Bramcote back in October still has not been switched on. I’ve chased this on a number of occasions but it still isn’t working.

12. Broxtowe Womens Project

This scheme offers support for women across the borough who have suffered from domestic violence. This is a crucial service for desperate people. Most of us would like to believe that this doesn’t happen in Broxtowe but I’m afraid it does. However the scheme is now facing closure as it is funded by the County Council, and they have decided to withdraw the funding. I think that this is a completely backward step and have urged the County Council to reconsider. My County Council colleagues have also argued that this should be reversed.

13. Beeston Bus Station

Users of tour coaches have been complaining that these coaches are no longer allowed to use Beeston Bus Station. We took a decision about a year ago to implement this ban as coaches were regularly parking in the bus station for lengthy periods and causing considerable problems and delay. Scheduled services were often unable to use their designated bays. Since we introduced the ban there has been a considerable improvement at the bus station and it will remain in place.

14. Forthcoming events

I’ve been asked to advertise the following events, which I’m happy to do:

Friday 17^th December, 7.30pm, Paradiso Cinema presents, Scrooge (original 1951 version starring Alastair Sim) at Chilwell Arts Theatre, Chilwell School, Queens Road West NG9 5AL. Tickets on the door - £5, £4 (conc). Come at 7pm for refreshments.

12 week life drawing course, starting 5^th January at Chilwell School, Queens Road West NG9 5AL from 6.30pm to 9pm. Cost: £130 (£105 concession for OAPs and A level students). Contact David Hallows on 0115 9730838 or emaildavidhallows@onetel.com

12 week creative drawing course, starting 11th January at Chilwell School, Queens Road West NG9 5AL from 6.30pm to 9pm. Cost: £115 (£95 concession for OAPs and A level students). Contact David Hallows on 0115 9730838 or emaildavidhallows@onetel.com

As ever thank you for your support for this newsletter and for all your feedback.

Best wishes

David

Broxtowe Enews 4th December 2010

Welcome to the Broxtowe Enews, brought to you by the Liberal Democrats and edited by David Watts, the leader of Broxtowe Borough Council. A special welcome to the new readers that we have this week.

1. Refuse Collections

Due to the bad weather we had to abandon bin collections part way through the week. It just wasn’t safe for the refuse lorries to be out and, in the event of a collision, it would almost certainly be the other party who came off worst. I’m very grateful to those people who took the time over the past few days to email me saying that they understood the position. I’d expected a lot of criticism over this but I’ve had none, so thank you all. We expect to start collections again on Monday. Your normal collection will take place as scheduled and we will also try and catch up with those missed last week. Please put your bin out as usual for it’s normal collection, but would you please also put out your missed bin on Monday morning and we’ll start the process of catching up. We won’t be able to get everyone done on Monday but we will get to them as quickly as possible. Please would you pass this on to anyone else you know in the borough. This email goes out to several hundred people (and readership is at an all time high) and we’ve also put it on our website and Facebook page, but this alone won’t get the message to everyone. Any help you can give on this would be appreciated.

2. Gritting

As the thaw seems to be setting in this may now be irrelevant, but I thought it would be useful to let you know why certain roads get gritted and others don’t. The work is at the moment carried out by the Borough Council under contract from the County Council, and so we have to comply with their directions on what should be gritted and what not. We do however expand beyond this where possible. Next year the County Council will be doing the work themselves so we won’t be able to do this. Our number one priority is the strategic road network designated by the County Council - "frost runs". These are the A and B roads (and some other roads such as major bus routes). These are to keep the Borough moving, to allow people to get to work, and to allow emergency services to rapidly get near to their final destination etc.

http://www3.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/travelling/roads/winter-roads/

Our second priority is a further network of secondary routes - "snow runs". We also hand grit the town centre footways and our sheltered housing schemes, and check/filling grit bins. I have had to intervene in a couple of areas where grit bins weren’t being filled because they didn’t fit with the County Council matrix, and the borough council have now decided that we will try and keep all the grit bins filled.

3. Kimberley Brewery

I had hoped to be able to give some good news over this. The brewery, for those who don’t know, was closed about three years ago, with the loss of 170 jobs. Since then the site has been vacant, and owners Greene King have been trying to sell it. They have put it up for auction in three separate lots, and the first of these auctions is due to take place on Tuesday next week. I’m really worried about this as if the site falls into separate ownerships then getting a comprehensive redevelopment becomes so much more difficult. A couple of months ago the council were approached by a developer who was trying to buy the whole site and so we have been working with them to try and put together a package that made this feasible. This was all done behind the scenes, firstly at the request of the developer who did not want to risk being gazumped, and second to prevent peoples hopes being raised until we knew that the deal would proceed. Sadly this caution proved justified, as at the very last minute, on the day that contracts were due to be exchanged the developers financial backers pulled out. To say that I’m gutted by this is an absolute understatement.

4. Council Tax Scam

I’ve mentioned this before but I’m aware that the problem persists so it’s worth repeating it. Someone is making phone calls claiming to be from the council’s council tax unit, telling people that they have overpaid council tax and are due a refund. They then ask for bank account details to make the payment to. Please be aware that this is a con. When repayments are due the council always write, and we don’t deal with financial information like this over the telephone.

5. Rail Services

There are three matters to mention here. First the Government have decided not to finance a new high speed rail link to Nottingham at this time. This was disappointing but not unexpected. I, and many others, have made the point to the Government that Nottingham is suffering from a second rate transport infrastructure and we need more investment, but the reality is that the money just isn’t there. (Remember the letter from a Labour minister saying “Sorry, there’s no money left.”) Following on from this the City and County Councils are pressing for some improvements to the existing line to reduce journey times between here and London. Third I’m afraid that East Midlands Trains are putting up many fares in January by 5.5%.

6. Babbington Kennels

Babbington Kennels in Kimberley takes in stray dogs from across the area. They currently have more than 60 dogs in store looking for new homes. If you can help please ring 0115 932 4576.

7. New Freemen of the Borough

At a ceremony last week the council appointed seven new Freemen of the Borough, people who have been recognized for their unselfless work in the community. These were Paddy Farrell who ran the youth team at Eastwood football club, Ghulam Mayauddin who has done a significant amount to bring different communities together in the borough, Roy Plumb who was an independent councillor in Kimberley for many years, Brian Sanders who has been heavily involved in the Phoenix regeneration project, Colin Slater who amongst many other things commentates on Notts County matches for Radio Nottingham, Peggy Wainwright who has been a dance teacher in the borough for over 40 years and will be known to many people as Peggy Payne, and Bill Wheatley who has done much for nature reserves and young peoples opportunities. All seven were appointed unanimously.

8. Parks and Open Spaces

The quality of the boroughs parks and open spaces has led to them, and the team who look after them, being nominated for two awards. They have been nominated for the best performer and best improved performance at the Association for Public Service Excellence awards. I’d like to congratulate everyone involved in this.

9. County Council offices

The County Council, as part of their cost saving measures, is looking to reduce the number of office sites it operates from. They currently operate from 23 sites but are seeking to reduce this to just five sites. I’d like to know more about the detail but my initial impression is that this is a good idea. It’s the sort of cost saving that should be made rather than cutting front line services, which has been the situation until now.

10. Garden Cutting Service

The borough council currently offers a free garden maintenance service for council house tenants over the age of 60. We are going to consult with residents to see whether they wish this service to be continued. It is used by about 700 people but costs £100,000 per year. The issues that we need to decide are whether it is appropriate to withdraw a service from people who already use it, but on the other hand 3,800 tenants aren’t eligible for it and they pay exactly the same rent. I have to stress that absolutely no decision has been taken yet about this, but with the current financial situation we are forced to look at every area of expenditure.

11. Budget Consultation

The borough council have recently carried out a public consultation, through IPSO/MORI, on peoples views as to areas we should spend our money on. There was strong support for involving local people and voluntary groups in running services and deciding how money was spent, but little support for privatizing any areas that we currently engage in. Most people thought that we were right to seek to recycle as much as we do, but perhaps surprisingly a majority of people thought that we should spend less on Christmas lights than we do. The survey only closed yesterday and so these are just the first headline figures, and we’ll be doing more analysis in the coming days.

As ever thank you for your support for this newsletter, which celebrates it’s highest ever number of subscribers this week. Any feedback is gratefully received.

David Watts

Broxtowe Enews 20th November 2010

Welcome to Broxtowe Enews, brought to you by the Liberal Democrats and edited by David Watts, the leader of Broxtowe Borough Council.

1. Chilwell Meadows estate

Yesterday I attended a meeting chaired by Anna Soubry at the council offices where we had all the developers who have been involved in this development present. For those of you who don’t know, the estate was built several years ago but the principal developer went bust, meaning that the roads and pavements were never finished. By getting everyone together we seem to have been able to overcome all the remaining problems, and the builders have promised that they will start work on the pavements on 6th December, completing the roads by the end of February, weather permitting. After many years of delay this is extremely good news for residents. I’m delighted to have been involved in bringing this to a conclusion, but I want to give the credit to AAnna Soubry whoo provided the impetus to get this resolves.

2. Bramcote Hills Golf Club

There is still no news on the eventual disposal of the land here but in the meantime the council have repainted the building (it is currently derelict) to cover the graffiti. I think that this has made a massive improvement to the area.

3. Stapleford Walk In Centre

Our campaign to prevent this being closed is proceeding full steam ahead. We now have more than 800 people on the Facebook page and so far the PCT have received back more than 150 consultation responses and 100 emails. This is unheard of for a consultation like this. We are still collecting signatures on the petition and hope that many more people will send in responses. The sheer weight of numbers here will have an effect. One point we have raised in the campaign is that the figures produced by the PCT don’t add up, and I understand that they are about to publish revised financial information.

4. Governance of the Council

The last Government, shortly before leaving office, passed new laws meaning that the way we currently run the council, with a leader and cabinet appointed by the council, can no longer be used. We have run a public consultation over the last few months about which of the two options we are now allowed to use is preferred and about 78% of people voted for the option with the minimum change, which is to have a leader appointed by the council who then appoints the cabinet. When people were asked why they preferred this many people said that they were happy with the way that the council was run at the moment and didn’t want any major changes. Thank you for this vote of confidence in us. The new system will come into force from May, immediately after the local council elections.

5. Council Tenants

A survey of satisfaction levels in Broxtowe council house tenants gave the council a 78% satisfaction rating. This is pleasing as the national average in 69%, but it also means that there is still room for improvement. I will be talking to the officers shortly about how we can get this figure higher.

6. Hetley Pearson recreation ground

The council is shortly to install a new park and children’s play area at the Hetley Pearson recreation ground, the land next to the old Beeston Rugby ground. This is being paid for by the developers of the estate. I have instructed the officers coordinating this that local schools are to be consulted to see what children want in the play area.

7. Community Action Trust Meetings

The next CAT meeting in Attenborough will be on 24^th November at the Lucy & Vincent Brown Village Hall at 7pm. The next Stapleford South East CAT will be on 23^rd November at Stapleford Care Centre at 7pm

8. Neville Sadler Court, Beeston

I attended a meeting at Neville Sadler Court yesterday with local residents. Also present were Anna Soubry MP and Nick Palmer. The residents of this sheltered housing scheme are understandably unhappy as part of the complex is to be demolished to make way for the tram. Nick and Anna both said that they were against the route, so it fell to me to be the pro-route spokesperson. I don’t know if they expected me to hide from this because of where I was but I won’t do this, and will hopefully always be honest with people about what I feel. There was actually a strong degree of agreement between all of us that the route argument was now over, and that what we had to do on behalf of the residents was to get them certainty about timings and exactly what is involved and ensure that they were properly supported during the move to new premises. I think most residents appreciated this, although one man was clearly only there for an argument. He was busy shouting and being abusive to Anna until I pointed out to him that she was on his side, so then he shouted at me instead.

9. Health and Safety at the Council

The borough council has a very good health and safety record, but I discovered recently that councillors have no oversight into this whatsoever. I have now changed this so that councillors will now receive health and safety monitoring information.

10. Footfall figures in Beeston

The average footfall figures for the number of shoppers in Beeston for the last few weeks have been lower than 2009, primarily because one week saw a drop of 23,000 people compared to 12 months ago. Someone asked me recently how this was monitored and I said I would find out and come back to them. I’m afraid that I then lost the email so I couldn’t respond personally, but the answer is that it is monitored by sensors on the High Road

11. Attenborough Nature System

There will be an exhibition of embroidered landscapes by artist Anne Harrison at Attenborough Nature Centre throughout November.

12. Greasley Recreation Park

Greasley parish council have decided to revamp their recreation park, costing have £30,000. This is despite opposition from local residents who suffer anti-social behaviour from users of the park and who have been asking for steps to be taken to prevent this.

13. Gritting

The county council will now provide information on what is being gritted and when on twitter at www.twitter.com/nottscc. I’ve criticised the county council enough in the past but this seems to be a good idea so well done to them.

14. Freemen and Aldermen meeting

Next Thursday the borough council will be holding a special meeting to award the titles of freemen or aldermen of the borough to eight local residents who have contributed substantially to the life of the borough. This is a tradition which the council usually observe in the final year of every council.

15. Eastwood Age Concern Fund Raiser

Eastwood Age concern have a sixties night fundraiser on 3^rd December. It will take place at the Greasley Welfare and features a live singer. Tickets cost £6 and are available from 01773 787130.

16. Fair Votes

The Fair Votes campaign have just launched a new video featuring veteran Ralph Hill, aged 86, explaining why he is voting in favour of the fairer voting system in the referendum next May. This is available here - http://www.yestofairervotes.org/Ralph

As ever thank you for your support for this newsletter. Word of mouth remains our best form of advertising and many of the people who read this newsletter heard of it from other readers. Thank you for this. Any feedback is gratefully received.

David