Broxtowe Enews 9th October 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 several new readers that we have this week. I took the opportunity to do a bit of a promotion for the egroup this week and as a result we now have the highest level of subscribers that we have ever had. Thank you all for your support and your feedback.

There has been so much happening this week that it is difficult to know where to start. I’ll deal with the main issues in the order that they occurred.

1. Boots Redundancies.

It was disappointing to hear on Monday that Boots were to shed 750 jobs. I was invited to meet Anna Soubry MP on this on Thursday morning. The day before Anna had met the Chief Executive of Boots and she was able to relay that the news was not as bad as it first appeared. Obviously if you are one of the people affected it remains extremely bad news, and I don’t seek to minimise this for a moment, but overall it might have been far worse. Some of the jobs were data inputters as they had a new computer system that no longer needed the people doing this. About 200 were senior management positions, and the people doing these will have the skills to acquire new positions. The vast majority of the jobs however are middle management, and Boots hope that the vast majority, if not all, of these people will be redeployed throughout the firm.

2. Stapleford Walk In Centre

On Tuesday I met with the Primary Care Trust, who provided a briefing about their plans for the Walk In centre in Stapleford. In short they want to shut the walk in centre and move the facility to the QMC. (They do not propose closing the building so the doctors surgeries and the dentists would remain, but the most useful facility would go.) They gave various reasons for this. The primary motive for this is a cost saving exercise. Apparently too many people use the wrong facility and so they cost the PCT double or treble cost, as they would have to pay for the visit to each establishment. People also go to A&E when they don’t need to, which is the most expensive option. By having the walk in centre at the QMC they can direct people to the right facility and cut the cost. I’ve told them that I have no objection to them having a walk in centre at the QMC but that should not be at the expense of Stapleford.

The second reason put forward was an equality of service argument. Because the facility is only in Stapleford it is unfair that local residents there get a really good deal and people elsewhere don’t. To quote them exactly “Stapleford has had it too good.” Frankly this almost beggars belief. If you want to ensure an equality of service then you raise standards for those who don’t have them, you don’t drop them for those who currently have the better services. It is also daft to say that only people from Stapleford benefit from the centre, people use it from across south Broxtowe and beyond. 22,000 people a year use the walk in centre and 85% of them are treated to conclusion on the first visit, which seems to be a pretty good level.

I asked the PCT representatives if, should they go ahead with their plans, they could guarantee parking spaces at the QMC and also could they guarantee appointments with GP’s within 24 hours, but needless to say they couldn’t.

The public consultation will begin on 1^st November and I would urge everyone to contribute to this. I’ll post the web site address as soon as I have it. I will oppose the plans in every way possible as I think they are wholly ill-conceived. The Liberal Democrats have already launched a petition against the plans, as have the Beeston Civic Society. If you would like to collect signatures for this amongst your neighbours let me know and I’ll let you have some petition forms.

3. Open Cast Mining

On Wednesday UK Coal announced that they want to start open cast mining around Cossall. They will be applying for permission before the end of this year and will hold a couple of public exhibitions to explain what they want to do. They anticipate that the mine might have a working life of 3 to 5 years and they would then return the land to green land. Applications of this nature are dealt with by the County Council rather than the borough, but we in Broxtowe are utterly opposed to this and we will fight these plans all the way. The public exhibitions will be at Trowell Parish Hall on October 17^th from 10am to 2pm and Awsworth village hall from 4pm to 8pm. I will attempt to attend these to hear what people have to say. There have been two previous attempts to mine the site and Broxtowe have successfully resisted them both. Let’s make it three in a row.

4. Beeston Town Centre

On Thursday I met with two directors from Henry Boot to see if we could get them back on board with the redevelopment of Beeston Town Centre. I was fairly confident that we could reach agreement provided that they were willing to be reasonable. Sadly reasonable was not a word that I could use to describe the people I met with. Obnoxious, ignorant, stubborn, those are words that I could use, but reasonable was not one. As a result I’m afraid that the Henry Boot option is dead in the water. However this is not the end. As soon as we realised that there were problems with Henry Boot we began making contact with other developers and we will now proceed with these. Sadly this will cause some delay but we will do everything we can to minimise it. However a delay to get the right result is better than rushing ahead with the wrong scheme, which would be a disaster for Beeston.

After the events of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday is anyone surprised I decided to take the day off on Friday.

5. Greening Broxtowe

The greening scheme is an attempt to improve the quality of life for local residents in environmentally friendly ways, reducing the carbon emissions of our communities and engaging in simple, sensible and practical sustainable options. Greening Stapleford launched today and Greening Beeston Rylands launches on Saturday 16^th October at Trent Vale Infant School at 2pm. There will be family friendly activities and even a specially commission poem being performed. I hope that as many people as possible will join in these campaigns which are leading the way in bringing about a more sustainable Broxtowe.

6. Improving the A52

The Highways Agency have announced a number of alterations to the A52 in and around Broxtowe, which will be implemented next year. These will include traffic lights at the Priory and QMC Islands, adding a bus lane to the QMC Island but also removing part of the bus lane on Derby Road (60 metres worth) and installing a pedestrian Crossing at the Thoresby Road junction.

7. Kimberley Brewery

Green King have announced that they will put the Brewery Site up for auction on 8th December. If this goes ahead it is likely that the site will be sold in several lots, which might make it far more difficult to achieve a holistic scheme for the site. This would be a great shame.

8. Beeston Improvement District

Traders in Beeston voted in favour of creating a Business Improvement District (“BID”). The aim of this will be to generate further trade to Beeston Town Centre. A management team will now be created to take this scheme forward. It covers over 400 businesses based in Beeston, and each of them will contribute towards the costs of the scheme. A headquarters for the scheme will be up and running by next month.

9. Rainbow Gallery, Durban House

The Rainbow Gallery in Durban House, Eastwood, are inviting people to write on their walls between 19^th and 31^st October, creating a piece of community art work. There is a £1 charge to take part, and details can be obtained on 01773 717353.

10. School Governor

As I mentioned last week I was one of eleven parents nominated to be a governor at my daughters school. When I read the details of who was nominated it was clear that we had eleven extremely competent candidates. I was therefore very honoured (and very surprised) to be elected to one of the positions, so may I thank everyone who voted for me for your support.

11. Beeston Civic Society

Yesterday I addressed the monthly meeting of the Beeston and District Civic Society, talking about the planning system and developments in Beeston, past and future. It seemed to go very well and if any other community group would like me to come and speak about any aspect of the councils work I would be very happy to do so. Just drop me a line or give me a ring.

12. Neighbourhood Alerts

You can now receive crime alerts specific for your area by email from Notts Police. To receive these please sign up at www.broxtowecommunity.co.uk

13. Charity Bike Ride

Conservative Councillor Mick Brown has recently completed a charity 450 mile bike ride across Scotland from Inverness to Skye. He raised £400 for the mayor of Eastwood’s charities, the Samantha Dixon Brain Tumour Trust and the Cleft Lip and Palette Association. Mick owns a cycle shop in Eastwood and carries out the repair work on my daughters bikes if I can’t do it myself. Congratulations to him for his efforts.

14. UK Youth Parliament

Youngsters in the borough are currently voting for who will represent them at the UK Youth parliament. The two candidates are George Fletcher aged 16 and Gillian Chivinde, also 16. Voting opened on 4^th October and finishes on 15^th October.

Thank you for your support for this newsletter and as ever any feedback is gratefully received.

Best wishes

David

Broxtowe Enews 3rd October 2010

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

1. Beeston Town Centre

This is the big news this week. I’m afraid that after more than a year of negotiations with the leaseholders, plans to redevelop Beeston Town square have collapsed. I put the blame for this completely at the door of the leaseholders. We have between us managed to agree all the terms bar one, which was that they refused to give us a commitment to start work within a reasonable time. We were asking for them to agree to start within four years, which is the industry standard, but rather than do this they have broken of negotiations. From the council’s point of view this was something we had to insist on, as otherwise there would be no commitment from the developer to actually ever start work.

As a council we now have two options, we either get them back round the negotiating table or we find another developer. I will put my efforts into exploring both avenues. It would be far better and cheaper if we could run with the existing leaseholder and bringing in a new developer would put matters back a considerable time, but I’m not prepared to sell Beeston short just to get a quick deal. Whatever we agree must be right for the town and the borough.

2. Tesco in Eastwood

Rumours are circulating that Tesco are wanting to open a Tesco Express in Hilltop, Eastwood. Tesco haven’t confirmed this but they haven’t done anything to quell the story. A number of people have contacted the council asking us to block it, but I’m afraid that we simply don’t have the power to do that. If they need planning permission, which is not certain, then the identity of the applicant is something that the Development Control Committee are prohibited by law from considering. We can’t for instance say that we don’t want Tesco but we would have John Lewis as that would be unlawful.

3. Shoppers in Beeston

The Borough Council records the number of people visiting Beeston each week, (the “footfall figure”) and I’m pleased to say that it shows there has been s sustained increase over 2009. Every week bar one through the summer saw more people visiting Beeston than the year before. This provides a very good answer to those critics who said that introducing parking charges would kill the town. It hasn’t, and because the car parks have more spaces now, it has led to an increase in shoppers. (I read a headline in an opposition leaflet in Bramcote this week declaring car park charges a failure but this seems to totally ignore the facts. How sad that some politicians still behave like this.) I know that there are some problems with displacement of parking onto local streets bbut we will try and address these.

4. Durban House

One issue that the council is looking at to save money, which I have commented on previously, is whether or not we can afford to keep open Durban House in Eastwood. Before we make any decisions however the council have formed a working group to look at all the options and possibilities that there are. I’ve already read how both the Labour and Conservative parties are going to fight to keep it open so I was very surprised on Thursday when no Labour councillors attended the working group, and neither did any Conservatives. It was only Liberal Democrats who attended! You may consider whether or not their claims to be supporting Durban House are borne out by their actions.

5. Campaign to fight hate crime

My council colleague Ken Rigby has launched the boroughs councils initiative on to fight hate crime, together with Notts Police and the Council for Equalities and Human Rights. Hate crimes are utterly repugnant and I’m glad that the council is being pro-active in trying to stamp them out.

6. Kimberley Brewery

SOBS, the residents organisation trying to resolve the problems of Kimberley Brewery and bring in some investment to redevelop the site have reformed. Their next meeting will be at Kimberley Parish Hall on 19^th October, and anyone interested would be welcome to attend. I think the group has started up again as a response to the false claims made by a local councillor during the Kimberley By Election, where a claim was made that a huge and exciting redevelopment was about to happen. Sadly this just wasn’t true.

7. Older Persons Borough Roadshow

Older residents will have the opportunity to attend a road show for the over 55's. Broxtowe’s older persons information roads how will be at Assemblies of God Church, Hilltop, Eastwood on 13 October, from 10.00am. Anyone aged over 55 is welcome to visit.

8. School Governor

My daughters school announced at the start of term that they had vacancies for four parent governors. I’m pleased to say that a couple of neighbours were kind enough to nominate me for one of the places, but I’m really excited to report that the school have had eleven nominations for the four spaces. It’s absolutely fantastic that so many people are willing to take an interest and volunteer to play a part in their children’s education. Thank you to everyone who has put their names forward. School governors aren’t paid, and it is people willing to volunteer who are the bedrock on which this country can go forward and thrive.

9. Council Meetings

At the council meeting on Wednesday we will debate a range of changes to council meetings to improve democracy and make them more effective. Amongst the options that I’ve put forward which I’m asking members to consider are giving a voice to the youth mayor and the youth council, to introducing public question times and to allowing any councillor to raise a matter of concern to their ward, rather than the agenda being set simply by the leader. I appreciate that this is giving a way a bit of the (very limited) power that I have but I firmly think that this is the right thing to do and that democracy will be enhanced by it.

10. Hoax 999 Calls

I’m pleased to report that there has been a drop of 22% in the number of hoax calls to Nottinghamshire’s fire brigade. Much of this is down to increased education of school children, which is clearly bearing fruit. Not only does each call cost money, but it also means that crews may not be available to deal with real emergencies, and so this is extremely good news.

11. Roy Tomlinson

I was very sorry to hear of the death of Roy Tomlinson, who was for many years the chair of Nottinghamshire Pensioners Action Group. He was a regular correspondent arguing the case for older people, and he will be sadly missed. I’m sorry that, despite corresponding over a number of issues, I never got to meet him in person.

12. Carbon Management Scheme

I’m pleased to say that Broxtowe are one of three councils who have signed up to the East Midlands Carbon Management Programme, the others being Rushcliffe and Newark. The aim is to reduce the energy consumption and carbon footprints in each authority. We will all work together to share best practice and good ideas.

13. Priory Celtic FC

Priory Celtic football club, who are based in Kimberley, have launched a new youth team for players with physical disabilities or behavioural problems. I’m delighted with this and I hope that other teams will come forward so that a new five a side league can be formed. For information please contact Kevin Bonington on 01773 714486.

Thank you as ever for your support for this newsletter. Any feedback you have will be gratefully received.

David

Broxtowe Enews 25th September 2010

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

1. Chetwynd Barracks Estate

A good public meeting took place on Wednesday to discuss the state of the roads on the Chetwynd Barracks estate. Unfortunately I couldn’t attend because of a pre-existing business commitment in Cardiff. Briefly the problem is that the developer went into administration leaving the roads unbuilt and unadopted by the council. The County Council won’t adopt them until they are built and the developers have contributed money towards their upkeep. TThe council have been trying to resolve the problems for the past few years, but have to date been unable to do so. Anna Soubry, as our new MP, has got involved and contacted all the relevant people. She has managed to identify that the developers had already put the money to build the roads into a separate account and it may well be possible therefore to get this work done sooner rather than later. I hope I will always be fair in my comments on other people and I do think that Anna deserves credit for her intervention. Certainly matters have progressed more in the past couple of months than they appear to have done all year prior to now.

What I am less impressed with is that since I became leader of the council not one of the local councillors (who are all Conservatives) has contacted me about the problem or even tried to draw it to my attention. I’ve checked with my predecessor and they never raised it with him either. This is disappointing as local councillors are there to represent local people and deal with issues exactly like this.

2. Meeting with Kay Cutts

I have a meeting on Monday morning with Kay Cutts, the leader of the County Council. I will be stressing how the cuts that they are making are impacting on local people here in the borough and also expressing my strong concern that the County Council are hanging on to money which they have previously paid through to the borough councils. Doing this directly impacts on the services that we are able to provide to local people.

3. Chilwell School

Chilwell school are currently raising money to refurbish the theatre, which is used by the community as well as by the school. They have two events coming up. On Saturday 9th October at 7.30pm in conjunction with Beeston Probus, Paradiso Cinema presents Singin’ in the Rain at Chilwell Arts Theatre, Chilwell School, Queens Road West. Tickets on the door - £5. Second on Friday October 22nd at 7.30pm Village Ventures present Vertigo by the Oxfordshire Theatre Company at Chilwell Arts Theatre, Chilwell School, Queens Road West, tickets £8, £6 (conc), £24 family (2 adults + 2 children), available on 0115 925 2698 or 07584 263893

Made famous by Alfred Hitchcock in his 1958 film of the same name, Vertigo is a story of obsessive love and an almost perfect murder. Age 14+.

4. Stapleford NHS Walk In Centre

I mentioned the rumours that this is to close last week. I’ve now been notified that a public consultation will begin on the 1^st November about the provision of services at the centre, so we’ll have a better idea then about exactly what the NHS are proposing. As soon as I have further information I’ll post it.

5. Lib-Dem Conference

We had an extremely good Lib-Dem conference this week. We firmly set out our policies as a party and hopefully killed off some of the silly stories about us being split as a party. The reality is that our membership is up, both nationally and locally, and we have already accomplished a lot in Government. Scrapping ID cards and the surveillance state, scrapping plans to build all over the green belt and restoring the link between pensions and earnings were all Lib-Dem policies which have now come into force.

6. Council Tax Revaluation

Another Lib-Dem policy was that there would not be a revaluation of properties for council tax. The Government have now ruled this out for the lifetime of this parliament which means that there will be no unexpected rises in council tax.

7. Crime Rates

Crime rates in Nottinghamshire have fallen in August to the lowest since 2002, which is encouraging. However not all crime is recorded (the highly reputable British Crime Survey suggests that less than half of all crime is) and even if crime falls that’s only half the battle as people also need to feel safer before success can really be claimed. This change is still to happen.

8. Beeston Tip

There was a risk that Beeston tip could be forced to close because of an industrial dispute between Veolia, who run the tip, and the GMB union. I’m pleased to report that this threat has now been lifted as the two sides have managed to reach agreement.

9. Runners Wanted

Broxtowe Sport have set up a new running club in Brinsley and is appealing for members. The first meeting will be on 18^th October at Brinsley Recreation Ground, starting at 6.30pm. Runners of all ages and abilities are invited to attend. Further details can be obtained on 01773 770100. Also on the subject of running entries are now open for the annual Goose Fair Gallop, which starts from Kimberley Leisure Centre. Details can be found on www.kadsrunning.co.uk

10. Stapleford Litter Pick

There will be a community litter pick in Stapleford on Staurday 9^th October from 10am to midday. This will be led by the Lib-Dem mayor of the town, Kevin Thomas. Everyone is invited to help. Meet at the Carnegie Centre on Warren Avenue at 10am.

11. Poland Trip

A group of councillors from Broxtowe have been in Poland this week, promoting links between there and here. Before anyone raises the issues of expenses I’m pleased to report that each councillor paid their own costs of travelling and none of it fell on the public purse.

12. Ed Milliband

Congratulations to Ed Milliband on being elected as the new Labour leader. I hope that Labour will now tell us how they intended to cut £44 billion from the budgets, which they promised before the election but seem to have forgotten since. I’m pleased to see that Labour use the AV system to elect their leader, so hopefully they will support that for electing MP’s in the future. However I am extremely confused about how Mr Milliband managed to win when he wasn’t the choice of either the members of the party or the MP’s!

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

David

Broxtowe Enews 19th September 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 our new subscribers, which this week include Anna Soubry’s office manager. That’s fine, this service is read by members of all three political parties and many members of none.

1. Stapleford LIFT Project

There have been rumours circulating in Stapleford that the Lift Project, or parts of it, are to close. I had a meeting with the chair of the Primary Care Trust this week so we asked him about that. He told me that the PCT are reviewing the use of all their buildings, and they do recognise that the Lift has never been fully utilised and always has had spare space. However he also said that, as the building was financed under a PFI agreement the PCT will have to pay £500,000 a year for the next twenty years or so, whether or not they were using the building. To my mind this shows the craziness of the PFI scheme. Millions of pounds of public money which would otherwise have been available to spend on patients goes instead to the banks and bankers who hold the purse strings.

2. Rylands Methodist Church 60th Anniversary

During 2011, Rylands Methodist Church will be celebrating 60 years since its opening in 1951. The church is planning many activities throughout the year, including special services, concerts, a street party, film shows and a pub quiz. There will also be involvement with the national Biblefresh initiative. It is also planned to produce an Anniversary booklet about the history of the church. If anyone has any memories of the church including Boys & Girls Club, camps and the many other activities the church has put on over the years, could they please get in touch.

In November 2010, the church will host ‘An Evening with Syd Little’. The well known comedian will talk about his life, work and his Christian conviction. It will not be all talk - singing and Syd’s brand of comedy will be part of the evening. It will take place at Chilwell School Theatre, November 2nd (7.30pm.). Further details of all these events and tickets for the Syd Little evening can be obtained from Geoff Bagley: Tel:0115 9258801, email: rylands.little@gmail.com

3. Apple Day

Local writer Dave Wood will be reading a specially written piece on Saturday 25th September 2010 at the Albany Allotments, Stapleford. Everyone is welcome to attend.

4. Recycling

The Government pay money to the County Council each year for the amount of waste that they put through recycling. The County Council then pass the money on to the borough councils as it is us who collect the material in the first place. This year the County Council have suddenly announced that they will not be doing so and they will be keeping the money for themselves. This means that Broxtowe will lose £52,000 next year. Putting it into context, this is equivalent to a 1% increase on council tax. I have a meeting next week with Kay Cutts and this will be at the top of my agenda.

5. Political Meetings

Having mentioned that I’ll be having a meeting with Kay Cutts it gives me the opportunity to mention that I have been invited to meet Eric Pickles, the Secretary of State for Local Government, next month in London. I’ll be taking the opportunity to press the case for Broxtowe to try to make sure that we get a fair deal from central Government. I’m grateful to our new MP Anna Soubry for arranging this meeting.

6. Anna Soubry

The Evening Post reported a story last week that Anna Soubry has called for police officers to be prosecuted if they lie in court. Anna was a barrister working in the criminal justice system before being elected and so she’s able to share her experiences of practice with fellow MP’s. This sort of real life experience is vital for parliament. Too many of our MP’s have spent all their working lives in the Westminster bubble and don’t know what the real world is like. So far I think that Anna has done a reasonable job as our MP, and she seems to have sought to involve local councillors of all parties in matters, which is what one would hope for from an MP. (I still think I’d have done the job better though!)

7. Local Radio

Of wider interest than for just Broxtowe is the announcement that Trent FM, our local radio station, is to merge with Ram FM and Leicester Sound, to create a new station called Capital FM East Midlands. I’m really not sure that this will be a benefit for the local community. My immediate thought on hearing the news was “Who will they shout for in the football derbies/”

8. Crown Inn

The Crown Inn in Beeston, which won the CAMRA Nottinghamshire pub of the year award earlier this year, has now gone one better and won the East Midlands title. It now goes on to the national finals.

9. Free Tai Chi

Universe tai Chi, who meet at the Cliffe Hill Avenue Community Centre in Stapleford, are offering free taster sessions for newcomers on 26^th September between 6.30pm and 8.00pm. For more details ring Pete Watson on 0115 916 2231.

10. Register to Vote

Just a quick reminder that registration forms have been sent out for people to ensure that they are included on the electoral roll. Registering will be even more important than normal this year as next years elections will also include the referendum on changes to the voting system, a campaign that I fully support.

11. Health Factsheets

The Health protection Agency has launched a range of factsheets giving information about local levels of health and sickness. These can be viewed at www.hpa.org.uk/healthprotectionprofiles.

12. County Council Redundancies

The County Council have advertised internally for staff to apply for voluntary redundancy. Incredibly in excess of 2,000 people, or 1 in 6 of their workforce, have applied. At the moment this does not commit the council to losing that many people, nor does it commit the staff to go, but I understand that the vast majority of people who have applied will be given the opportunity to take redundancy.

13. Beestonia Blog

Readers in the south of the borough may well have come across the Beestonia Blog, which has been running for a number of years. It provides a witty and irreverent commentary on local life. Sadly it is to close, as blogger Matt Goode is moving away from Beeston to the North West of England. This is a real shame as I’ve been a loyal reader for some time.

14. Notts County Cricket Club

Finally, through gritted teeth, may I congratulate Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club on winning this years County Championship. It’s through gritted teeth as I’m a Yorkshireman and Yorks pushed Notts all the way. Sadly we fell just short.

As ever any feedback will be gratefully received (apart from gloating cricket fans).

Best wishes

David

Broxtowe Enews 11th September 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 especially to the new readers that we have this week.

Although September sees the restart of many activities I’m afraid that this newsletter may not cover everything that it should as I’m afraid that I left my notes in my office and I’m having to do this from memory. Hopefully I’ll cover everything but if not I’ll add them next week.

1. Stanton to Trowell Road – As you may know the developers wanting to build at Stanton in Erewash had proposed a new road coming into Trowell, which would have been the main way of getting out of the new development and would have resulted in gridlock. My colleague Ken Rigby, as well as many local residents, objected to this new road being built and I’m pleased to say that the developers have now abandoned the idea.

2. Bramcote History Group – As part of the Heritage Open Days Bramcote History Group will be having a display at St Michaels Church tomorrow (Sunday) showing the history of Bramcote and also selling copies of their new book on Bramcote during the war. The original print run of this ran out so it has been reprinted, and is available for £7.99.

3. Cossall Church – The church has been granted permission to replace the roof with modern material rather than with lead, as the lead has been stolen on a number of times recently. Whilst it is disappointing that they have had to do this the decision makes absolute sense.

4. Boundary Review – As part of the electoral reforms being brought forward by the Government they want to redraw constituency boundaries so that every MP represents more or less the same number of people. This seems extremely fair to me. The bill has been through the House of Commons and will now proceed to the House of Lords. It does however mean that in all probability the constituencies in Broxtowe will have to change. At the moment Broxtowe borough falls into two constituencies, Eastwood and Brinsley are in Ashfield and the rest of the borough is in the Broxtowe constituency. Both of these are larger than the 71,000 voter target for the redrawn boundaries, so alterations are likely to be needed. My personal preference, if the numbers work out, would be for a Broxtowe North and a Broxtowe South constituency, but the council will be looking at this in more detail later and making submissions when invited to do so.

5. Nuthall Graveyard – Broxtowe Borough Council has agreed to provide half the funding for running Nuthall Graveyard, which is owned by the parish council. They had asked for help with the costs and we’ve been happy to oblige.

6. Beeston Graveyard – Beeston Graveyard is getting full and the council on Tuesday looked at options for the future. We have agreed to explore two options, extending Chilwell Graveyard and also developing a new one at Bramcote crematorium. We have ruled out using some of Beeston Fields Park, which was one option that had been suggested. In the meantime some trees will be removed from Beeston Graveyard (the low grade ones, not the more established and prominent ones, which will extend it’s life for a further couple of years.

7. Chetwynd Barracks Estate – As residents who live on the Chetwynd Barracks estate will probably be aware, the major developer of the site went into administration leaving roads uncompleted and the public open space unfinished. I saw a letter that Anna Soubry sent to local residents last weekend saying that this was the fault of the borough council. It isn’t and it was extremely disappointing that Anna has said this. The council have now agreed to take over the ownership of the land for public space and also to fund the improvements necessary to make the site usable. Despite what Anna said the Conservatives on the council acted spoke against doing this! Work should start pretty quickly on this.

8. A52 Improvements – Work has now begin by the Highways Agency to carry out repairs and improvements to the A52. Unfortunately they managed to carry out the noisiest part of the work between 2am and 3.30 am on Wednesday, waking many local residents. My colleague Steve Carr, the local ward councillor, was one of those woken and Steve received 25 calls from local residents by 9am the next morning. He and I arranged for the Highways Agency to be contacted immediately, and they have apologised and promised that this will not occur again.

9. Street Lights – The County Council have decided to switch off or dim many street lights to save money. On main routes lights will be dimmed between 10pm and 7am and on minor routes they will be switched off between midnight and 5.30am. The work will actually cost £3 million but will save £1 million per year. The concern is that it will lead to increased crime or increased accidents, but we will need to wait and see what happens with these.

10. Stapleford Tip – Stapleford Tip was closed by the county council at the end of August. The borough council, who own the land, have decided that we will use it in the short term for storage of vehicles. This saves many vehicles having to drive to the current depot at Kimberley just to drive back again the next day, or even later that day, and should enable us to improve the services that we offer.

11. Garden waste Collections – as a measure to save money the borough council will not be collecting garden waste during December, January and February. The amount of material collected during this period is always very low and so it seems a sensible step to take. All three political parties agreed to this.

12. Greener Businesses – The borough council want to help businesses cut the amount of waste that they produce, and have just launched a consultation with local businesses about how to do this.

13. The Olympics – A team has been in Broxtowe this week seeking volunteers to help with the Olympics in two years time. If you missed them and are interested in participating then you can log on to their web site to volunteer: http://www.london2012.com/get-involved/volunteer/index.php

14. The County Council have launched a “Big Conversation” with local residents about how they will cut their spending in the future. Whilst I have been a regular critic of the county council I do applaud this. It’s about time they started talking to people, and I hope that they will listen to the answers that they are given. You can participate in this using their website at http://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/. Whilst this is going on a number of Labour activists seem to be flooding the local papers with letters saying that cuts are unnecessary, which seems an awful attempt to rewrite history. Before the election the Labour Party were telling us that they would have to make massive cuts, they just wouldn’t tell us where they would do this. Here in Broxtowe we’ve tried to cut back office functions and have concentrated on maintaining the service we provide to local residents.

15. Printing Service – Just a quick advert. I’ve set up a new business providing cheap printing services for local residents. I can do 1,000 A4 sheets double sided for £40. If you’d like to use this service please ring me on 07854 409628.

As ever thank you for your support for this newsletter. We now have an all time record number of subscribers and word of mouth remains our best form of advertising.

Best wishes

David

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