Broxtowe ENews 27th August 2010

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. I’d expected during August that the growth in readers would stop, so I’ve been delighted to see that we are still getting new people signing up.

1. Kimberley By Election

Congratulations to Shane Easton, the Conservative candidate, who won the Kimberley by election. In a real three way marginal, where all three candidates were within 200 votes of each other, Shane came out on top. This means that the political mix of the borough council stays as it was as the Tories were defending the seat.

There has been some criticism of the campaign that the Liberal Democrats ran, and I think we have to accept that we did misjudge the mood of the election. We spent too much time attacking the other parties when instead we should have been talking about the positive difference that the Lib-Dems make. After all, we do have a lot to be shouting about. We will learn from this and hopefully get it right next time.

2. Kimberley Surgery

Staying in Kimberley there is bad news about Kimberley Medical Centre. After local people managed to persuade the PCT to keep the centre open they advertised it to other doctors. Thirteen practices enquired but unfortunately not one of them put a bid in. Given this the PCT feel that they have no option but to close it down. Patients are being written to and asked to find new practices.

3. Kimberley Brewery

We’ll start off with a hat trick of Kimberley stories today, and I’m afraid that this one is also bad news. In the run up to the by election a Kimberley Councillor announced that he was working with the Co-op to bring new development to the brewery site, which he said would be extensive with a range of house sizes and also new businesses. He announced that he had also been working with the councils planning department on this. Sadly all of this was simply a case of someone playing fast and loose with the electorate to try and pick up a few cheap votes. There had, until this week, been no consultation with the planning team. The councillor did bring the Co-Op to meet planning officers this week and it turned out that they had no plans to redevelop the site at all, and were simply interested on working with others to develop some of the site as public open space if a developer could be found. Significantly they were not bringing any money to the table. The officers view was that the whole meeting was “a complete waste of time.”

4. Beeston Graveyard

The current graveyard in Beeston will be full in a couple of years time and the process of finding a replacement site has now started. Councillors will look at a range of possible sites in the next couple of weeks and try and narrow down a short list of two or three sites. These will be subject to public consultation.

5. Moorgreen Show

Just a quick reminder that the Moorgreen show is on tomorrow and Monday. I will be there and I look forward to meeting some of you at the event. Broxtowe Borough Council remain a major sponsor of the event.

6. Oil in Broxtowe

I was telephoned the other day by a local newspaper to ask for my views on the report that a firm were looking for oil in Broxtowe. This was the first I’d heard about this so I made some enquiries, and a firm are carrying out some tests in the north of the borough. This is part of a more extensive survey of parts of Nottinghamshire. The tests are carried out by a number of lorries with specialist equipment and should not cause any inconvenience to people, but I’ll be interested to hear any reports of people encountering them.

7. Bramcote History Group

Bramcote History group have just launched their first book – “Remembering the People of Bramcote.” The book costs £7.99 and can ordered on 0115 925 1491.

8. Road Closure

Riverside Road in Beeston Rylands will be closed for the next two months as the Environment Agency build the next stage of the flood defences. During this period there will be no through access for road traffic although access will be maintained to the caravan park there. Footpaths in the area will also be subject to temporary diversions.

9. Beeston BID Zone

Voting has now started amongst businesses in Beeston Town Centre about whether or not we should create a Business Improvement District (“BID”) Zone. This is a scheme where firms pay a small increase in rates and that money is pooled to bring in extra services and promotions for the town. As an employer in the town the borough council has a vote on this and we have voted in favour of the scheme.

10. Car Crime

There has been a big jump in car crime in the south of the borough. During warm weather it is important to remember to shut windows and sun roofs, and not to give criminals an easy time. Crime has fallen a lot in recent years but we must ensure that we all remain vigilant.

11. Road Signs

As you may have seen on the national news the Government are encouraging councils to reduce the amount of road clutter that there is. I’d be very happy to hear any suggestions that people have for unnecessary signs which can be removed. Having said that I’m still trying to get the county council to make good on a promise they gave ages ago to install an illuminated speed sign on Coventry Lane in Bramcote. I was promised it would be in by the end of March, so they’ve missed that by a long way.

12. A52 Closures

Just a quick note here to remind people that the A52 will be subject to night time closures from 6^th September.

13. Commemorative Plaques

The Beeston and District Civic Society and Beeston and Stapleford History Groups have joined together to launch a series of blue plaques to commemorate locally significant people in the south of the borough. The first is dedicated to Mr T H Barton, the founder of Barton Buses. Others will follow in the next few months.

Thank you for your support for this newsletter and as ever I’m happy to receive any feedback.

Best wishes

David

Broxtowe ENews 14th August 2010

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

First many apologies that there was no edition last week. I’ve been away on holiday but obviously didn’t want to publicise that fact in advance. For the same reason if you’ve contacted me over the past few days you haven’t had a reply, but I’ll try and catch up on correspondence over the next few days.

1. Kimberley By Election

If you live in Kimberley or Cossall you have the opportunity to vote for a new councillor this coming Thursday. The Lib-Dem candidate is Elaine Cockburn, who would make an excellent councillor. This is a genuine three way marginal, in the last council elections each party won one of the three seats. I hope that Kimberley residents will endorse the way that the Lib-Dems have been running the council and elect Elaine.

2. Attenborough Flood Defences

At the Development Control Meeting last Wednesday members voted to permit an alteration to the flood defence scheme through Attenborough, moving the defences to the opposite side of the village green. This was the route I had always favoured and when we had the meeting to grant permission originally I urged the relevant parties to keep working together and I’m pleased to see that this has been done. However everything is not yet cut and dried as Natural England could still object to the scheme and refer it to the Secretary of State. This could happen at any time in the next month.

3. National Impacts

There were two announcements from the Government last week which will have a direct impact on Broxtowe residents. The first was that the Government intend to incentivise the building of new homes by providing financial support for councils who build new homes. This will be financed by reducing the financial support to councils who do not permit the building of new homes. I’m delighted that the Liberal Democrats are part of the new coalition Government but I do think that this decision is wrong. At the moment it seems like too much of a blunt instrument. It does not take any account of the capacity to build new homes. Here in Broxtowe we are the most densely populated borough in Nottinghamshire, and we simply can’t build at the same rate that some other boroughs.

The second announcement was from the Audit Commission. They inspect local authorities to make sure that we are providing value for money. They charge all authorities for the privilege. Due to the changed requirements of the Coalition Government the Audit Commission will be required to do far less work in this regard, but they have announced that they still intend to charge us the same amount. Last year this came to over £150,000 and I object strongly to us paying that for far less work.

When I go back into the council on Tuesday I will be writing to the Government and to our MP on both of these issues objecting to the approach being taken and asking for a rethink.

4. Directly Elected Mayor

One legacy of the last Government was that they have obliged councils to consult on whether we should have a directly elected mayor. As a council we had considered this and rejected it when the option was first offered, but it seems that we didn’t come up with the answer that Labour wanted so they obliged us, and many other councils, to have a rethink. As a result we are currently carrying out a public consultation on what we should do. I wouldn’t waste too much time responding to it though as the Coalition have already announced that they are scrapping this whole system and new proposals will be out later this year. As a result we are legally obliged to consult on something that we know will never go ahead.

5. Regional Structures

I had some correspondence after the last newsletter from people saying that they did not think that the city and county councils could ever work together for a new regional body. In fact, although they seem to disagree with each other regularly in public the two organisations do work with each other regularly, and they are both committed to establishing a new Local Economic Partnership, and so I’m expecting that this will go ahead.

6. Railway Funding

One example of the City and Country Councils working together is over improvements to the Midland Mainline. Both have written to the Coalition stressing the importance of improving this line, and the need for an extra £27 million of investment. The signatory from the County Council was Chilwell councillor Richard Jackson.

7. Toton Sidings

The formal order has now been served on the landowners who chopped down the woodland at Toton Sidings, requiring them to replant 2,200 trees. These are to be replanted starting in the autumn.

8. Fuel Poverty

Broxtowe Borough Council have decided to fund a Warm Zone Scheme in Broxtowe, aged at tackling fuel poverty. We are committing £200,000 towards this and this brings in £1.2 million of other funding. This money is being used to provide insulation and fuel saving measures for Broxtowe residents. Full details are available from the council on 0115 917 7777.

9. A52 Resurfacing

The Highways Agency have announced that work to resurface the A52 from Priory Island to the QMC will start on 6^th September, and will be carried out at night time. They have abandoned the original plan to carry out the work by closing the whole road. This was due to local opposition, led in the main by my colleague Stan Heptinstall. We recognised the complete chaos that the closure of the whole road would cause, and I’m pleased that common sense has won out in the end.

10. Crime Levels Fall

Recorded crime in Nottinghamshire fell by 15% last year. This is a great improvement but is only one part of the battle against crime. As well as crime falling, people have to feel safer for the benefit to be realised, but this is slower in happening. There are many complex reasons why, but it is a challenge that still needs to be addressed.

11. Bisham Drive Junior School

Congratulations to the pupils of Bisham Drive Junior School in Toton who won the national Kwik Cricket championships for their age group. Hopefully we may have some budding England Internationals in there!

12. County Council Cuts

The County Council have announced that they are shedding a further 1,500 jobs, on top of the 1,500 that they announced earlier this year. This means that by the end of the cuts they will have reduced their workforce by a quarter. What we have done in Broxtowe is to reduce behind the scenes staff but to maintain front line services. Sadly this doesn’t seem to be the approach with the County Council, who are cutting functions which will hit the most vulnerable in society the hardest.

13. Charity Walk

About 300 staff from Boots in Beeston are to take part in a charity walk to raise cash for MacMillan Cancer Research on 9^th September, walking from Loughborough to Leicester. I will post details of where to sponsor them or make donations as soon as I have them.

14. Attenborough Nature Reserve

The visitor centre at Attenborough has now been open for five years, and as part of the celebrations there is a family day tomorrow (Sunday) between 11am and 4pm, including pond dipping, mini-beast hunts and guided walks.

15. DH Lawrence Award

The DH Lawrence Heritage Centre have won the Notts Heritage Awards Best Event award. Congratulations to all the staff at the centre who made this happen. The award was for the DH Lawrence Festival last summer. The 2010 version of the event will take place next month.

16. Beeston Railway Station

On the theme of awards Beeston Station was Highly Commended at the East Midlands Trains best station award, so congratulations to all the staff there. It’s only a small team of people who work there and I have always found them very friendly and helpful, and this award reflects that.

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

Best wishes

David

Broxtowe Enews 25th July 2010

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

There aren’t so many events to report this week as many activities are winding down for the summer. Broxtowe Borough Council will be running a series of events for children and families throughout August though so keep an eye out for these if they may be of interest. I’ll post some more specific details next week.

1. Bogus Callers

I’ve seen reports of people in Broxtowe receiving calls from someone claiming to be from the council telling people that they have overpaid their council tax and asking for bank details to make a repayment. These calls are totally bogus. If you have paid too much council tax we will write to you and we will never ask for your bank details. If you receive a call like this please notify the police immediately.

2. Kimberley By Election

The Kimberley By Election for the borough council will be on 19^th August. The Liberal Democrat candidate is local resident and teacher Elaine Cockburn. The election has been caused as a Conservative Councillor failed to attend a meeting for six months and was therefore automatically expelled from the council. Unfortunately the election already seems to bee embroiled with dirty tricks. I’ve read a Labour leaflet making completely false claims about Ken Rigby, the Lib-Dem County Councillor for the area. I promise you this, the Lib-Dems will not sink to that level and we will fight a fair, honest and positive campaign.

3. Kimberley Brewery

There have been claims circulating in Kimberley recently that groups are meeting to bring forward a comprehensive solution for the old brewery site. Sadly I think that this claim owes more to the forthcoming election than to fact. Any proposals would need to involve the borough council, and no-one has even contacted us for a meeting. Equally no-one has attempted to involve the local residents action group. Sadly the position is that in the current economic climate the costs of developing the site would be prohibitive.

4. Mental Health Services

The County Council are currently consulting on the possible closure of a care centre for people with mental health problems in Middle Street, Beeston. I met the councillor in charge of this last week when we both attended the AGM of Eastwood Age Concern last week, so I took the opportunity to stress the case for retention. I also made the point that if it was simply a question of needing cheaper accommodation then they should talk to the borough council and we would be very happy to discuss sharing some facilities. I can’t say that I received an overwhelmingly positive response.

5. Incredible Young people

I’d like to take this opportunity to mention the achievements of two young people here in Broxtowe. First 14 year old Sophie Wadsley from Newthorpe has been crowned World Champion in the 13-18 year old range in Taekwondo. She won the title in South Korea.

Second we have 17 year old Hannah Birkin from Eastwood, who will be competing at the World Lifesaving Championships in Egypt in October. She is currently trying to raise the £12,000 she needs to fund the trip. The council have made a donation, and if anyone else would like to help please ring Heanor Swimming Club, where she trains, on 07725 658 466. Hannah has qualified for the world championships after winning the Welsh championships earlier this year.

Congratulations to both Sophie and Hannah. They are great examples of the sort of achievements that young people can make.

6. New Police Number

The police have a new county-wide telephone number for non-emergencies. This is in operation now. The number is 0300 300 99 99. For emergencies ring 999.

7. Fitness Scheme

The borough council owned leisure centres in Bramcote, Chilwell and Kimberley are launching a Vitality Health and Fitness membership. Anyone who takes this out gets unlimited use of the council leisure facilities.

8. Beeston Business Support Zone

A vote will be held shortly of businesses in Beeston Town Centre to see if they want to designate the area as a Business Support District (“BID”). Businesses in Bid areas receive financial and other support to encourage growth. I hope that the result will be an overwhelming Yes vote. The cabinet at Broxtowe unanimously agreed that we would vote in favour.

9. Changes to Regional Structures

The East Midlands Development Agency and the Greater Nottingham Partnership are to be abolished. Other regional quango’s are also being abolished, in particular the Primary Care Trust. The Government Office for the East Midlands is to be shut down. All of these may seem remote or meaningless, but they collectively represent a fundamental shift in the way that this country is run. Some of the functions that these organisations carried out are very important, and by and large these will be transferred to local authorities, but some were just unnecessary levels of bureaucracy and I’m glad to see the back of them. This is part of the commitment of the coalition to tackle the deficit.

10. Award Winner

Congratulations to Lillian Britton from Stapleford, who has been awarded the Most Outstanding Community Group Volunteer for Children from the What’s on 4 website for her work as a foster mother for the past thirty year.

As ever thanks for your support for this newsletter. We have a record number of subscribers now, and it’s primarily word of mouth that gets new readers in. Thank you for this.

One final note. It’s twenty five years tomorrow since my wife and I got engaged. Can I wish her happy anniversary.

Best wishes

David

Broxtowe Enews 4th July 2010

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

It’s quite a short newsletter this week as things are starting to wind down for the summer, but there are some interesting developments going on. Much of this weeks news, for one reason or another, seems to take place in trowel so I’ll start there.

1. Trowell War Memorial

At the moment there is no war memorial in Trowell, although a number of young men from the village died in the World Wars. My colleague Ken Rigby, councillor for the village, is seeking to change that and is attempting to raise about £8,000 to have a memorial erected. A site has been identified and Ken has pledge £2,000 from his County Council fund to the scheme. The parish council are backing him and I hope to be able tto report on a positive outcome in due course.

2. County Council Cuts.

The county council have announced that they are looking at the possibility of privatising many of their services, involving about a quarter of all their staff. Given the lack of funding around this was inevitable, but I hope that the interests of staff are considered within the process. I was disappointed to see that road maintenance is part of the proposals. This is currently done by the borough council under contract from the county and works very well. However the county are taking it back in house. When I challenged the Tory councillors on Broxtowe about this I was assured that the reason for this was absolutely not as a precursor to privatisation, but that assurance was clearly false. This means that the staff currently doing the work face the very uncertain future of having to transfer from the borough to the county council even whilst knowing that they will have to move on again a few months down the line to private hands.

Meanwhile it has been announced that cuts already instigated at the County Council will save £1 million more than previously announced. I’m not sure if this was a simple case of getting the sums wrong originally or the County Council trying to hide the real position, but if it’s the latter it flies in the face of the openness that councils are being encouraged to adopt.

3. Bridge The Gap

Last month the borough council organised a week of activities under the title of bridge the gap, trying to bring different age groups together. We hoped that it would lead to ongoing events and I’m pleased to see that this is happening. In Brinsley the youth club are holding joint sessions throughout July with the Brinsley Retired Person’s Club. By getting old and young to work together much of the fear of young people can be eradicated.

4. Trowell FC

It was so sad to hear that vandals have attacked the premises of Trowell FC for the third time in recent months. Trowell FC is a youth football team and they don’t have the funds to carry on repairing the damage caused by this sort of mindless stupidity. The play ground in Trowell also had to be closed recently because of vandalism which cost the council a significant amount to repair. If anyone has any information to assist in identifying the perpetrators please contact the police or, if you don’t wish to speak to the police direct, contact me in strict confidence.

5. Houses in the Flood Zone

Residents who live on the flood plain, which particularly effects those living close to the Trent, can now monitor river levels online. The Environment Agency will be publishing the information daily, together with a range of other information to enable people to understand what is happening, at their new web site www.environmet-agency.gov.uk/flood.

6. Crown Inn, Beeston

Congratulations to the Crown Inn in Beeston which has been named Notts pub of the year by CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale. The Crown Inn is apparently the oldest pub in Beeston and the award is an excellent testament to the new landlord who took over last Septembeer.

7. Housing plans

As you may be aware the Regional Spatial Strategy, the government plan to force Broxtowe to allow 6,000 new homes to be built here, has been scrapped by the coalition. I received a letter from Grant Shapps MP, the Housing Minister, late on Friday starting the process of finding a replacement system. I’ll need to work through the consequences of this and will hopefully have more to report next week. It does seem to stress local choice, but seems to still want a significant amount of new building, so I want to make sure that I have understood it before I comment fully.

8. Finding of Maladministration

The Local Government Ombudsman has made a finding against Broxtowe that we were guilty of maladministration in 2003 in allowing a planning application for Temple Lake, a house in the Nuthall Conservation Area on the edge of the green belt. This was no surprise as we quite clearly were guilty of it. We have already had our own independent enquiry chaired by a QC which concluded that this was the case, and which the council published some years ago. I am very pleased however that the ombudsman recognised that, one the council realised our mistake, we took every step possible to try and rectify the situation. Sadly it turned out to be a situation that could not be rectified. I have already apologised both personally and publicly to Mr Vickers, the owner of a neighbouring property who was the victim of the maladministration, and I have invited him to a meeting to see if we can agree a figure for compensation. If we can’t agree a figure the ombudsman has suggested a mechanism for calculating it.

9. Fire in Trowell

May I take this opportunity to thank the fire service who worked so bravely to tackle a fire at the old mill on Nottingham Road, Trowell, last Saturday night. The fire was not suspicious but the building, which housed textile business and a tyre business, was destroyed and had to be demolished. I’ve seen photos of the fire in progress and it’s clear that the fire service faced a real challenge in controlling it. Debris was falling close to houses nearly 100 metres away!

10. New Play Equipment in Chilwell

New outdoor fitness and play equipment for teenagers has been unveiled at Inham Nook recreation ground in Chilwell. The council had identified a lack of facilities for teenagers as being a significan problem, so hopefully this will help to address the balance.

11. Moorgreen Show

Broxtowe Council have decided to remain the principal sponsor of Moorgreen Show, although we have had to reduce the amount of our sponsorship because of the economic climate. The Moorgreen Show is the biggest event in the north of the borough and it seems to me to be important to give it what support we can, in the same way that the council supports the Hemlock Happening in the south. The show takes place over the August Bank holiday weekend and if you’ve never been I would strongly encourage you to visit, it is a wonderful day out.

As ever thank you for your support for this service. The feedback i receive from many people is very welcome.

David

Enews 27th June 2010

Welcome to the Broxtowe Enews, brought to you by the Liberal Democrats and edited by David Watts, the leader of Broxtowe Borough Council. We’ve on;y had one new subscriber this week, the first time for ages that new numbers have been that low, but a special welcome to that new reader.

1. Free Swimming

You may have read in the press that the coalition Government have withdrawn the funding for free swimming places as one of the spending cuts that they have been forced to make. That cut is due to come into effect at the end of July. I have decided as leader of the council to ask our cabinet, and I’m sure that they will agree, that we should continue to provide free swimming until at least the end of the school holidays. Dropping it one week into the school holidays would be unthinkable. We will look at whether we can afford to keep it going in the future but until we’ve seen the figures I don’t know whether that will be possible.

2. Council Terminology

The County Council have decided to stop talking about Greater Nottingham and to instead refer to the “core city area” from now on. This is a phrase which has been used in council terms for ages but it seems to me that everyone knows where we talk about when we refer to Greater Nottingham and it would much more sensible to refer to that. Spending time and money changing the terminology to Core City Area does not appear to be a sensible use of very scarce resources.

3. Social Workers

Whilst on with the County Council I have read this week that they have spent £1.5 million on employing temporary social workers. This works out at £90,000 per agency member of staff, which is twice the maximum wage that they pay employed social workers. Social workers always get a bad press but they are vitally important in safeguarding children, and it seems to me that it would be a better use of our money to employ enough of them and not spend so much on the temps.

4. Kimberley Primary School Summer Fare

This will take place on 3^rd July from 10am through to 1pm, and attractions will include a bouncy castle, face painting, a penalty shoot out and an animal corner.

5. Broxtowe Community Celebration

I mentioned this last week but as it’s one of a number of special events on 3^rd July I thought I would give it another plug. This is a Round Hill School in Beeston and is a celebration of all the various cultures who live in the borough. This will be on from 11am to 4pm. The organisers are still looking for volunteers so if you’d like to help please email lizpierce@nottspct.nhs.uk

6. Attenborough Village Fete

Completing a trilogy of events on 3^rd July is St Mary’s Church Atttenborough holding their village fete. This will start at 2pm on the village green. Live music will be provided by Occasional Jazz.

7. New Mums Exercise Classes

During the summer the borough council will be running a series of exercise classes for new mums and their baby’s. These will start on Stapleford Sure Start centre on 7^th July, Beeston Fields Primary School on 8^th July and Sunnydale Primary School in Chilwell on 9^th July. Further information is available on 917 3572.

8. Councillors Expenses

The former Labour County Councillor for Eastwood, Ellie Lodziak, has recently submitted an expenses claim for £13,000 that she didn’t claim whilst she was acting as a councillor. It’s now over a year since she retired from her post aqnd the County Council have decided that they will not be paying this.

9. Kimberley Taxi Rank

Residents in Kimberley have submitted a petition to Broxtowe Borough Council objecting to the siting of a taxi rank in Station Street. Local residents say that the position of the rank would lead to anti social behaviour outside of their homes. The matter will be decided by the council on 28^th July.

10. Arts and Crafts Fairs

A series of art and craft fairs will be held throughout the borough over the summer. The first one will be on the 25^th and 26^th June in Beeston Square, followed by 10^th July at Beeston Carnival, and then at the Kimberley Pram Race.

11. Beeston Division Girl Guides

To mark 100 years of girl guiding a new flower display has been unveiled at Sherwin Island on the A52. As well as the borough council words the girl guide logo is now on display as well.

12. New Exhibition in Durban House

A new exhibition of photos of Vietnam has gone on display at Durban House in Eastwood. These were taken by photographer Alan Clayden.

14The World Cup

Finally as a football fan I have to just say how disappointed I have been with England’s performance throughout the world cup, cumulating in such a dismal performance today. The team have totally failed to perform and their complete inability to defend today left me speechless. I doubt that Mr Capello (or whoever replaces him) will seek my advice for the future but if they do I would simply say that he should decide now who are likely to be the key players four years hence and start building that team now. For me I would build the squad around James Milner (to my mind the best player in England’s squad), Aaron Lennon, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Adam Johnson, Theo Walcott and Wayne Rooney. I would tell them not to bother with big money transfers for the sake of it but to make sure that they were in a team where they played every week, and to say to the country to forget about the European Championships, that we are building a team for the next world cup now. Sadly I don’t see that happening.

As ever thank you for your support for this project. I am always grateful for the feedback that I receive and for the recommendations that people give, and which are our best source of advertising.

Best wishes

David

Broxtowe Enews 30 May 2010

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

1. Kimberley Medical Centre

I’m delighted to hear that Kimberley Medical Centre has been saved. The Health Authority had originally planned to close it but they have now reversed that decision and it will become a branch outlet of another medical practice. This is good news for patients and my congratulations go out to everyone who has been involved in campaigning to save the centre.

2. Notts County Council

The council have scrapped the Dial A Ride scheme for disabled people, in a bid to save £364,000 a year. The council have released figures which show that the scheme only had 28 regular users last year, and with such a low level of patronage it is hard to disagree with the decision. The city council are also discussing whether to switch off the street lights during the late night as a cost saving exercise. I’m open minded about this so far, and will be interested to see the research on which they are basing their decision. Whilst they are trying to save money the County Council have also announced plans to spend £1.5 million recruiting 32 new jobs, whose role will be to find other cost savings across the authority. This last decision does seem extremely difficult to justify.

3. Hemlock Happening

Just a quick reminder that the Hemlock Happening will be on at Bramcote Hills Park on Saturday 12^th June from 1pm through to about 10.45pm. This is usually a wonderful event, totally free, and I would encourage as many people as possible to attend. You can set the video for the England match and watch it later.

4. Moorgreen

A pond dipping event will be held for families at Colliers Wood on Saturday 5^th June from10.30am to 3pm, at the large pond. This is free to attend, and is targeted at families. Details can be obtained on 0115 938 5101.

5. Strelley Village

A spring fair will be held at Strelley Hall on Monday 31^st May from 1.30pm. Admission costs £1 for adults. Accompanied children get in free.

6. The Tram

The new Government have announced that the tram scheme for the city is under review. No-one is quite clear what the outcome will be, but I hope very much that the tram scheme will continue. A delegation of pro-tram supporters will be travelling to London in the near future to make the case directly to ministers that the tram scheme is needed. Whilst the coalition have also said that they will be making other cuts from funding local authorities it does not appear that Broxtowe will be badly affected by these. Of course there are still many more savings that the Government have to make and there is no guarantee that we won’t be badly affected by them.

7. Stanton Building

Plans are going on show about a proposed development of 3,000 homes at Stanton By Dale. This includes proposals to bring a new main road into Trowell, so that traffic could then link up with the A52. If this happens I fear that the roads will be gridlocked in a morning as huge amounts of extra traffic try to get into Nottingham. An exhibition will go on display from 10^th to 12^th June for people to view the proposals and make their comments. The exhibition will be at a Marquee on Lows Lane, Stanton By Dale, at the Saint Gobain offices. On the 10^th it is open from 2pm to 8pm, on the 11^th from 10-6, and on the 12^th from 10-3pm.

8. Attenborough Nature Reserve

A pond dipping workshop will take place at the nature reserve on Tuesday 1^st June from 10am to noon, aimed at children on their half term holidays. The session costs £5 per person and should be booked in advance on 972 1777. Children under eight will need to be accompanied by an adult. On Friday 4^th June there will be an orienteering workshop from 10am to noon. Children have to be at least 8 years old and it costs £5 per person. On Saturday 5^th June there will be an open day at Attenborough Sailing Club, from 11am to 5pm. This will include an opportunity to have a trip on a boat, a barbeque and a display of model boats.

9. St Michaels Church Bramcote

St Michaels Church, a grade 2 listed building, has received a grant of £56,000 towards its upkeep from English Heritage.

10. The Pearson Centre childrens activities

A holiday club is being held at the Pearson Centre this week. On Tuesday and Wednesday it is aimed at school years 1 to 3, with years 4 to 6 on Thursday and Friday. Each session, from 10am to 4pm, costs £6.

11. Parking In Beeston Rylands

The County Council has published details of its proposals for a controlled parking zone in the Rylands. It will only apply on specified roads and only between 9am and 5pm. Also being proposed is a new one way system round a number of streets.

12. Archery at Durban House

People have the opportunity to try their hand at archery at Durban House, Eastwood, on Thursday 3^rd June from 10am to 3pm. There will also be an opportunity to handle owls from Sherwood Forest. Further details are available on 01773 717353.

13. Casework

I have received more casework since becoming leader of the council than I did in the whole of the last two years. I expected this and am quite happy to take matters on for people. If there are any issues you want me to look at please use my council email if possible, at david.watts@broxtowe.gov.uk.

As ever may I thank everyone for their support for this newsletter. Our best source of new readers is recommendations from existing subscribers, so please feel free to pass on the details to anyone you think might be interested. As it is half term there is no newsletter next week, and the next edition will be issued on 12^th June.

Best wishes

David

ENews 16th May 2010

Welcome to Broxtowe Enews, brought to you by the Liberal Democrats and edited by our parliamentary spokesperson David Watts.

May I start by thanking everyone for their feedback and good wishes after the general election. A few people have asked what I will be doing now, and there’s more of that below. I’m needless to say delighted to see Liberal Democrats in government, something I have dreamed of since I joined the party in the 1980’s. I’ve been at the Special Conference today where the Lib-Dems overwhelmingly backed the position taken by the Parliamentary party. It’s quite scary to think that I’m on first name terms with the Deputy Prime Minister!

1. New Mayor

At the council meeting on Wednesday night Beeston Central Cllr Pat Lally was sworn in as the new mayor of Broxtowe, taking over from Stapleford North Cllr John Longdon. The deputy mayor is Cllr Jacky Williams who represents Stapleford South East, and who is one of the longest serving Lib-Dem Councillors on the borough.

2. Bridging the Gap

Broxtowe Borough Council are running a series of events this week under the title of Bridging the Gap aiming to show young people in a positive light. Basically we are fed up with young people always being reported in a negative light when most young people are excellent. More details are available to the special website, http://www.broxtowe.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=7302. For the first time the council also has a Facebook page detailing events, at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bridging-The-Gap-Bringing-Generations-Together-in-Broxtowe-Borough/115206451851685.

Finally you can follow events on Twitter http://twitter.com/broxtowebc

3. Beeston British Legion

The Beeston Branch of the Royal British Legion have launched a petition calling for a sign to be installed showing the way to their premises as many visitors apparently have difficulty finding it. This petition will be presented to Notts County Council. Initially the council have asked the Legion to pay for a sign but the Legion hope that they may change their minds.

4. Council Leader

Also on Wednesday night the leader of the council, Michael Rich, publicly announced that he is standing down from that position with immediate effect. Michael intends to retire from front line politics next year, and so he is standing down as leader now to give the new leader time to settle into the role before the next borough elections next year. This means that the Liberal Democrats, as the leading party in the partnership running the borough council, have had to select a new leader. I’m very honoured to say that the person they have selected is me. I took up the role officially on Wednesday night.

I’d like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to Michael’s leadership of the council, which has been second to none. He will always have a place in the history books as the first ever Lib-Dem leader of Broxtowe. He has, throughout his time as leader, tried to encourage others to take the front seat and to offer support from behind. He did not take on the role of leader of the council for any sort of personal reward of glory, but because he wanted to make a difference to people’s lives. I’ve asked Michael if he would accept an honour from the borough to mark his time as leader and his role on the council but he has refused point blank, showing the mark of the man. I hope that I can be as good a leader as him.

5. Brookhill Leys School

A new picnic bench has been installed at Brookhill Leys School in Eastwood, made out of recycled plastic bags. These have been collected by children at the school and the costs of making the bench were met by Warburtons Bakery.

6. Contact Details for Anna Soubry

Anna has now taken up her role as our new MP, and says that at the moment the easiest way to contact her is via her new email address, anna.soubry.mp@parliament.uk. I’ve already emailed her asking for a meeting about the green belt and the threat to build on it. I hope that this is something that we will be able to work together on this.

7. Care Charges

I’m pleased to say that the County Council have changed their minds over plans to change the costs of social care for the elderly. They have agreed to maintain the current rules, which mean that there is a maximum charge of £120 per week on a means tested basis. Congratulations to my colleague Stan Heptinstall who was instrumental in getting the council to change it’s mind.

8. M1

In case anyone hasn’t been along it recently all 4 lanes on the M1 are now open. However the 50mph speed limit remains in place whilst they test the communications systems on it.

9. Exhibition at Durban House

A new exhibition of art inspired by the railways has opened at Durban House in eastwood and runs until 13^th June.

10. Hemlock Happening

This years Hemlock Happening at Bramcote Park takes place on 12^th June from 1pm to 10.45pm. This is an excellent free event in the borough. You may recall that last year it had to be cancelled because of the appalling weather that we had, so much that could not take place last year will be in this years programme.

11. Attenborough Nature Reserve

A wildlife cross stitch exhibition is being held at Attenborough Nature Reserve throughout may, organised by volunteers from Notts Wildlife Trust, and funds will go towards the Trust.

12. Book on Brinsley

Local writer Stan Smith has launched a new book about Brinsley, costing £1.99 and available from www.ztanzmith.co.uk. Profits from this will be donated to St James Church in Brinsley.

13. Local History Societies

The Beeston and District Local History Society will be having a talk about the Erewash Canal at Chilwell Memorial Hall on 19^th May at 7.45pm. It costs £2 for non-members. The Bramcote History Group will have a talk about the English Civil War on Monday 17^th May at 8pm, meeting in St Michaels Centre on Church Street.

14. Half Term Activities

The Borough Council are offering a range of activities for school children during half term week, including archery, orienteering, circus skills, trampoline sessions and go karting. These will take place at Bramcote Leisure Centre, Chilwell Olympia, Eastwood Leisure Centre and Durban House, and Kimberley Leisure Centre.

15. Leicester Housing on Lowes Estate

A petition was presented to Broxtowe Borough Council on 12^th May from residents of the Lowes Estate in Beeston, calling on Leicester Housing Association to take their responsibilities as a landlord seriously and take action against problem tenants who are causing problems for other local residents. This was organised by my colleagues Steve and Barbara Carr.

ENews 1st May 2010

Welcome to Broxtowe Enews, brought to you by the Liberal Democrats and edited by our parliamentary candidate David Watts. A special welcome to any new readers this week.

It will only be a short edition this week. It’s not because of the hours I’m putting in for the election but simply there does not seem to be a lot happening this week! I could fill this up with election comments but this newsletter is about local activities and events and I don’t want to give people who have signed up over the past couple of weeks the impression that this is simply a party political list, which it isn’t.

1. Council Core Strategy

Having said that I want to start with the election, and to go back to something I raised last week, the fact that the local council had disclosed to Nick Palmer that Anna Soubry hadn’t made a submission on the councils Core Strategy consultation, which seeks the views of local residents about where new building might or might not take place. I said last week that I was deeply concerned about the council disclosing this, but having looked at the matter further I now realise that I was wrong. I hope that I will always be big enough to recognise when I have made a mistake and this was one such time.

On checking the position I was informed that the submission forms say on them that all submissions will be made public. If people have made a submission on that basis then clearly there are no confidentiality issues here. I don’t think that a council official should have told Labour that no submission had been received (council officers have to be completely neutral on political matters and not be seen to be helping one side or the other) but that is a minor point, and the more significant issue is that the Conservatives sent to submission in on this, despite Ms Soubry saying that she had done.

Someone contacted me this week to ask if I had made a submission. I can’t, because I sit on the council committee which will review them. I have to assess the comments made by everyone else, and if I submit my own answers I would be accused of having pre-determined matters and I would not then be able to participate. When we were debating this week in Beeston Nick Palmer told the audience that this was the reason why I hadn’t submitted a comment sheet even before I got a chance to say anything, although he left this particular fact off the email he sent round afterwards.

2. Castle College

I was very disappointed to read that Castle College is closing its venue in Middle Street, Beeston. Castle College has already moved a lot of courses from local venues to others in the city, and this will lead to a further decrease in placed for students staying in Broxtowe.

3. Development Control Committee

It has been my privilege to chair the Development Control Committee at Broxtowe Borough Council for the past seven years, and I have enjoyed every minute of it. However I announced at the meeting on Wednesday that I have chosen to stand down as chair, no matter what the result of the general election. After seven years I felt that it was time to move on to new challenges.

4. Grants from the Borough Council.

Broxtowe Borough Council have announced that they are paying out grants of £9,000 to local organisations. The two largest beneficiaries are Eastwood Volunteer Bureau and Framework Housing Association.

5. ”Labours Only Hope”

On Tuesday evening I went in to the council offices. There I bumped into a senior Labour Councillor. He asked how my campaign was going and I said that it was going really well. His response was to say “Don’t say that. Ours is awful. In fact we were only saying today that you were our only hope.” This is the first time I have ever been called Labours only hope. I think what he meant was that they were hoping that I was taking more votes from the Conservatives than I was from Labour. An article in the Evening Post today says that where the Liberal Democrats do well we usually take more votes from the Conservatives than from Labour, and this has been my perception in this campaign. I do think that people are swinging to us from both other parties, but probably more from the Conservatives.

I did see that the Labour run blog Broxtowe2010 had an article yesterday suggesting that I will come second, beating the Conservatives. Their projection was 37% Labour, 33% Liberal Democrat and 30% Conservative. Of course all the polls in the world don’t actually count for anything, it’s how you use your vote on Thursday that counts. However this poll does run very counter to the usual Labour line that the Lib-Dems just can’t win here.

My personal view is that people will vote this time for what they believe in, rather than vote against what they don’t. I suspect that this election will be very close, and I predict that there may be as few as 500 votes covering all three main parties.

6. Volunteering In Kimberley and Eastwood

Sessions have been set up in Kimberley library for people who are interested in volunteering. These are run by Voluntary action Broxtowe and further details can be obtained on 0115 917 8080.

7. Your Vote

I do hope that you will vote for me on Thursday, but the most important thing is that people actually go out and vote. Most of the worlds population do not get to vote at all, and in this country many people gave their lives to ensure that we could each have a vote. Please honour their memory by using your vote this Thursday.

Thank you as ever for your support for this newsletter. I will post the election results on Friday when they are announced, but there will be no newsletter next Saturday. After the stresses of the election I’ll be having a day off.

Best wishes

David

Broxtowe ENews 255th April 2010

Welcome to Broxtowe Enews brought to you by the Liberal Democrats and edited by David Watts, our parliamentary candidate. A special welcome to the new readers that we have this week.

As we get close to the election I will of course cover that, but there are other things going on in the borough as well to cover.

I’d like to begin with an endorsement of my candidacy, this time from the former Labour chair of the County Council and mayor of Broxtowe Maureen Tewson. Maureen said:

“I’m backing David Watts in this election. I’ve seen David work as a local councillor and seen how effective he is. Labour has failed and David will be an excellent new MP for Broxtowe. I’d urge everyone to vote for David.”

This follows on from the endorsement from former Labour councillor Alan Buttery last week. I also have a former Conservative borough councillor in my campaign team, and my perception is that voters from both other parties are swinging to the Liberal Democrats. I had an email this week from a former Conservative Party member in Bramcote who no longer backs them and will be voting for the Lib-Dems as he believes that Vince Cable offers the only hope for the future of our economy.

1. Local TV Debate

I’m afraid that you didn’t get the chance to see the three main Broxtowe candidates on TV today. I received a call from the Politics Show on BBC1 on Tuesday to ask if they could come to Broxtowe. They had been planning to be in Ashfield, just up the road, but the Labour candidate suddenly refused to participate. (She’s also pulled out of other debates in that constituency.) I was all in favour of this but they had to ring back later to say that Nick Palmer wasn’t able to attend and so it couldn’t take place.

2. Beeston Town Centre

I’m pleased to report that Henry Boot, who run the town square in Beeston, have confirmed that they are still committed to redeveloping the square, and they will start work as soon as possible after contracts are signed with the council. This is extremely encouraging as to keep Beeston as the prime shopping centre outside of Nottingham city itself we need to redevelop as soon as possible. However the plans won’t be rushed through and there will be detailed consideration and the opportunity for people to have their say through the planning process.

3. Hustings Meetings

I’m pleased to say that there are opportunities to hear the candidates in Broxtowe as we have participated in a number of debates, most recently tonight. There is still one debate to go, next Thursday at St Michaels Parish Hall, Church Street, Bramcote, starting at 7.30pm. We were missing Chris Cobb, the UKIP candidate tonight, and the BNP were not invited. We were almost missing the Tory candidate as well. I had a call from Anna yesterday morning to see if there was a debate today as she hadn’t got it in her diary. Given that she has been late for two debates already it doesn’t bode well should she win. However my impression is that this is a fading possibility.

4. My Facebook Page

If you want to keep up to date with how things are going in my election campaign you can visit my Facebook page and read the various comments on that. It’s available at:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/David-Watts/108146162557473

5. Emailing Anna Soubry

I’ve been sent copies of a number of emails from Anna Soubry and others have been published on the Beestonia Blog. Basically she has refused to answer emails from constituents, claiming that there is a concerted campaign to waste her time with lots of emails. I suspect that this is a bit of paranoia on her part. I’m getting between 50 and 100 emails a day at the moment from people wanting to know my view on some subject or other, and I’ve managed to reply to them all. (At least I think I have, if you are waiting for a reply to me I’ve overlooked it so please send it again.)

If you want to read the emails they are available on Beestonia at http://beestonia.wordpress.com/.

6. County Council Legal Bill

The County Council have run up a legal bill arising out of a dispute with Veolia over publishing details of contracts they have, and this has now reached £60,000. This seems to be entirely the fault of the council whose drafting of the contract with the company was poor. If they had got matters right in the first place there would have been no problems. In tight financial times the Council cannot afford to throw money away like this.

7. Visit of Harriet Harman

Labour have had a visit from the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Harriet Harman. I wouldn’t normally mention this except that another party has told a local paper that they shouldn’t report it. The paper (quite properly) won’t tell us who objected, but I know it wasn’t us and I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t have been Labour, so that only leaves one prime candidate. II think that this behaviour is appalling. The free press are a really important part of the UK, and a safeguard for our democracy, and no political party should ever try and restrict that.

8. Stapleford Business Forum

The Stapleford Business Forum have published their annual plan, which includes proposals to boost the local economy by better promotion and marketing of Stapleford, improvements to the environment, improvements to shop security. All of these features should help make Stapleford a better place to shop and so I wish them every success. If elected I will of course try and get thee best result for all of our local town centres.

9. Campaign Trails

I’ve been overwhelmed by the levels of support that we have received from people in Broxtowe during this election. The level of support has been phenomenal. I haven’t seen much of the Tories and I hear reports about significant infighting there as they place the blame for their poor performance. There was also a concerted attack on me by a Labour blogger over the past few days, which at times went far too far. When he attacked my children another Labour supporter did post a message taking him to task for this. I’m inspired though by the words of Mahatma Ghandi – “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they attack you, then you win.”

We have really made Broxtowe a three horse race. For me to win in this election I need to persuade about 1 in every 8 people who voted elsewhere last time to vote Lib-Dem this time. That is something which really is doable, especially when you consider how the Labour party locally has slipped into meltdown, dropping from the largest to the smallest party in the borough council and losing all their county councillors.

There has been a lot of rubbish put out by some supporters of other parties. I assume that the candidates themselves are not involved in this but amongst the things people have been told are that I have withdrawn from the race and am urging my supporters to vote Labour, that I have been banned from preaching by the Methodist Church, that we have asked the Labour Party for a copy of their email database and finally that I objected to a church meeting taking place. There is no truth in any of these whatsoever. If you hear something about us and think that it sounds a bit bizarre then the chances are that it is not true and is just a smear from another party.

10. Possible Disclosure of Confidential Information

At the debate in Beeston tonight Nick palmer and Anna Soubry clashed over her opposition to building in the green belt, something which I am totally opposed to. At an earlier hustings Nick had asked her if she had submitted comments on the consultation paper published by the Borough Council. Anna hedged around it but eventually said that she thought that she had. Tonight Nick palmer revealed that he had since telephoned the council and been told that she had not. Whilst this is a very poor performance by Anna, and might give the impression that she was just saying what she thought people wanted to hear, I do agree with her that the council should never have given out this information in the first place. As the only one of the candidates who is a local councillor I have tonight written to the Chief Executive expressing my deep concern about the apparent breach of data protection and asking that an urgent enquiry is carried out.

As ever thank you for your support for this service. The number of readers we have has doubled over the past few weeks, and I hope that people will continue to find it useful.

Best wishes

David

Weekly News 12th February 2010

Welcome to Broxtowe Enews, brought to you by the Liberal Democrats and edited by our parliamentary candidate David Watts.

1. Council Tax

Tory run Greasley Parish Council have decided to raise their element of the council tax for this year by £10 per person. Given that parish councils amount for only a small element of the total council tax this represents a pretty big increase. Other town and parish councils will be announcing their council tax rises over the next few weeks, before Broxtowe and the County Council settle on their figures.

2. Vandals Target Church

Thieves and vandals seem to have targeted St Mary’s Parish Church in Eastwood, smashing stain glass windows and causing several thousand pounds worth of damage. If anyone knows who is responsible for this please pass this on to the police or to Crime Stoppers.

3. Oaks Medical Centre

I was disturbed to read that the Oaks Medical centre in Beeston has thrown 120 of its patients off their register. They say that they need to reduce patient numbers to maintain care, but frankly it seems to me that this is a poor way of going about things, with patients simply being given 28 days to find somewhere else.

4. Tesco’s

Work starts this week on the new Tesco for Beeston. Whether you supported or opposed the store, I’m sure that everyone will welcome the end of having a large patch of derelict land in the middle of Beeston. Removing that is an important part of the redevelopment of Beeston Town centre. However Tesco’s have also applied to build a new store in Sandiacre. Although this is in Erewash it is close to Broxtowe and would impact on business here. Broxtowe have formally objected to this new store being built.

5. Housing

The councils latest consultation on where new development might take place will be launched publicly next week. The council have also arranged for two public meetings where people can have their say and ask any questions that they have. These have been arranged for Roundhill School, Beeston on Thursday March 4th at 7pm and for George Spencer School, Stapleford on Wednesday March 10th , again at 7pm. There will also be a further meeting arranged for Trowell but the date for this hasn’t yet been confirmed.

6. Toton Trees Meeting

May I remind people that a public meeting is being held tomorrow at the Greenwood Community Centre in Toton at 4pm to discuss the chopping down of the trees on Toton Sidings. Anyone interested is welcome to attend. Nick Palmer, Anna Soubry and I will all be attending.

7. Geoff Hoon

Ashfield MP Geoff Hoon, whose constituency includes Eastwood and Brinsley, has announced that he will not be seeking re-election. Although the press are suggesting that this is because of the internal warfare going on in the Labour Party (and his attempt to force a leadership vote last month didn’t make him popular with many of his own party members) I suspect that the growth of support for the Lib-Dems in Ashfield, which has been very significant over the past few years, also contributed substantially to this. Ashfield is now one of our most significant target seats, and I confidently expect voters there to return a Lib-Dem MP after the next election.

8. Bramwell Nursing Home

As you may well be aware the Tory County Council have proposed selling off this nursing home to private business (as well as others in the county). I am totally opposed to this. I think that it creates fear and uncertainty for the residents, and demonstrates the uncaring nature of the new administration at County Hall. Tory candidate Anna Soubry also says that she is opposed to this plan, but Anna really can’t have it both ways. She cannot in all honesty stand on a platform saying this shouldn’t happen whilst at the same time urging people to vote for the party who are making it happen.

9. Bramcote Hills Primary School Family Fun Day

May I thank all the parents and children who made this event such a great success, and especially those who voted in the family photograph competition. The challenge was to take a picture of the family engaging in a hobby, and I’m delighted to say that the Watts family picture, showing us playing guitars or singing (not me singing as I can’t carry a tune in a bucket) was voted as the overall winner. Although I’m a keen photographer I think this is the first time I’ve ever won a photo competition, so thank you all for your votes. (I hope I’m saying that on May 6^th as well.)

As ever thank you for your support for this newsletter. Any feedback is very welcome.

David

Changes to this blog

Sorry that there hasn't been much on this blog recently but instead I've been editing a weekly newsletter. I'll now be posting that on here each week as well.