Broxtowe Enews 19th March 2011

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

After last weeks mammoth edition things seem to have been a lot quieter this week, but we still have a few things to mention.

1. Japan Appeal

I sit on the Board of Trustees for Voluntary Action Broxtowe, and one of the other trustees is Kiyoko Naish, a Japanese resident of Wollaton. She is organising a fund-raising charity for those affected by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. I’m reprinting her message below

“The devastation is utterly incredible. I am still in shock to see what has happened and is still happening in the Sanriku coast, Japan. Japan is facing now a nuclear power plant crisis. The death toll in Miyagi prefecture may reach 10,000. The Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, said that the earthquake, tsunami and the nuclear incident is the biggest crisis Japan has encountered in the 65 years since the end of World War II. The rescue teams are coming from the all over the world to help. The number of the people in the rescue operations including the troops, police forces and the overseas teams are reaching 350,000. One of my friends in Japan said that hearing the news about how many people are coming from all over the word to help Japan is very encouraging and inspiring.

I have set up a charity account for people to donate money. I am planning to visit local schools to talk about the earthquake and the effect of the disaster to raise school education fund especially for the children in the most affected area, Miyagi prefecture.

Kiyoko Naish”

Kiyoko has organised a fundraising day on Saturday 9^th April at Oban House, Chilwell Road in Beeston between 10am and 3pm and I hope many people will attend. Oban House is the headquarters of Voluntary Action Broxtowe and is about three doors down from the main post office, so it’s very easy to get to.

2. Stapleford Walk In Centre

The Primary care Trust (a branch of the NHS) have published their recommendations over the Walk In Centre in Stapleford. Despite huge public opposition locally they are recommending that the centre should close. The decision will be taken by the PCT’s Board next Wednesday. I met with the PCT on Tuesday and told them how unhappy I was about this, and the Liberal Democrats will continue to campaign against this. I hope that common sense will be displayed at the board meeting, and the recommendation will be rejected.

3. Potholes

Thank you to everyone who has responded to my request for details of pot hole problems. I was about to send the whole list to the County Council but Anna Soubry has repeated my request on her newsletter tonight so I’ll wait for a few days to see if that brings in extra suggestions, which I can then include.

4. Bramcote Leisure Centre

The new changing rooms at Bramcote Leisure Centre were officially opened yesterday by the mayor of Broxtowe and Anna Soubry MP. We then took the opportunity to give Anna a tour of the building. It’s really encouraging to see how well the facilities are being used, and we really do provide a service to rival commercial leisure centres.

5. New Council Homes

After visiting the leisure centre the same people then visited a new development of council homes at Sunnyside in Chilwell, so that Anna and the mayor could open these. The new homes are built to a very high standard and they have ground pump heating installed, drawing heat from 30 metres below ground, which should provide very low bills for the tenants and which helps to reduce global warming. These are the first of about 20 new homes coming on stream over the next few months, and it’s really exciting to be able to add to our stock of council houses. (We currently have about 4,500 council houses and nearly 4,000 people on the waiting list for one!)

6. Local Elections

Nominations open this week for the local elections, which will take place on 5^th May. The Lib-Dems currently lead the council on Broxtowe, and I hope that most people think that we have done a good job and will re-elect us. As part of the nomination process each candidate, from each party, needs to have ten local residents to nominate them as a candidate. If you would be willing to nominate the Lib-Dem candidates for where you live please email me at d.k.watts@ntlworld.com. If people volunteer to do this it saves us a significant amount of time having to organise this.

I’m afraid that, despite my oft repeated plea otherwise, this looks like being a very dirty campaign. One of our councillors, Barbara Carr, has chosen not to stand again, partly because of how the Labour Party in Beeston have behaved which she has found most unpleasant. To hear a Labour activist then boasting that they had “got rid of her” was well below the belt. I’m afraid that the days when the Labour Party locally even pretended to practice positive politics are well and truly gone.

7. Police Consultation

The police in Eastwood are holding a public meeting this week in Eastwood about how they propose to carry out policing in the town from now on. Embarrassingly I’ve left the details in my office and I can’t find them on the police web site, so if you want more details please email me on david.watts@broxtowe.gov.uk and I’ll send them through. I was pleased to see that none of the police stations planned to close were in Broxtowe.

8. Man in Space pub, Eastwood

This pub has been empty for some time, and it has now been bought by Sainsbury’s, who plan to turn it into a supermarket. I was staggered to find that they do not need planning permission to do this (although one wing is planned to be a vets, and this does need planning permission)!

9. Bramcote History Group

Bramcote History Group will be having a talk on the history of Notts County FC at St Michaels Church in Bramcote on Monday. The speaker is Colin Slater, well known as a match commentator for County and a freeman of the borough of Broxtowe. It costs £2 for non-members and starts at 8pm.

10. Eastwood Shop Fronts

Five stores in Eastwood have been awarded a grant of £12,000 between them to improve the appearance of the shops. All five are in Nottingham Road and they have received the money from the council’s Keeping Up Appearances grant.

11. Pregnancy and Baby Show

A pregnancy and baby show will be held on 2^nd April in Beeston. It is aimed at Mum’s to be and will be held at the Pearson Centre on Nuart Road. Tickets are available by ringing 07809 419175.

12. Police Federation Concerns

The Police Federation, which represents rank and file officers, has expressed its concern about plans to force all officers in Nottinghamshire who have more than 30 years experience to retire. This will leave the force short of experienced officers, and does not seem a sensible idea to me.

13. Attenborough Flood Defences

The Environment Agency held a public meeting in Attenborough last Monday to display their latest proposals for the flood defences in Attenborough. These seem to have met with fairly positive comments from local people. I hope that the defences can now be finished as soon as possible.

14. New book on Brinsley

A new book about life in Brinsley, from local writer Ztan Zmith, will be launched at the Brinsley Church faire on 2^nd April. It will also be available from Brinsley Post Office and costs £1.99 and has been published as a fund-raiser for the church.

15. Royal Wedding Celebration

Also in Brinsley local resident Janet Enever has organised a street party to celebrate the royal wedding on 29^th April. This will include a mock wedding, staged by local children, and takes place at the White Lion pub at 1pm, followed by the party in Church Walk. Both events are free of charge for local residents.

16. Anna Soubry Surgery

Like all MP’s Anna Soubry holds regular surgeries. These are fairly non-political and for people to come and see their MP with problems that they may have. Having an MP take up your case really can help open doors. Often the people who use this service are vulnerable and in real need of help, and that was exactly the same when Nick Palmer was MP. I was therefore really disappointed to read this week that the Labour Party had chosen to picket Anna’s surgery. This was wholly inappropriate behaviour.

17. Web Sites

This newsletter is now carried on five web sites that I know of. If you are reading it on a website and would like to receive it directly to your inbox please email me on d.k.watts@ntlworld.com.

18. The Situation In Libya

Although this isn’t local news I know that many people will be concerned about the deteriorating situation in Libya. I’ve set out below the statement from the Deputy Prime Minister which was issued today:

“As you will have seen in the news our coalition government has successfully led efforts in the UN Security Council to agree a ‘no-fly zone’ across Libya.

Colonel Gaddafi’s treatment of his own people has been brutal, savage and wholly unacceptable. We have worked with Libya’s regional neighbours, especially the Arab League, and countries across the globe, to secure a resolution in UN Security Council. This resolution will allow us to act lawfully in deploying our forces to up-hold a ‘no-fly zone’ in Libya.

The Prime Minister gave a statement yesterday, which you can read here. And on Monday we will have a full debate in the House of Commons, followed by a vote. In addition we will be publishing a summary of the legal advice of the Attorney-General.

That is the right approach. This is a coalition government that will act decisively to protect innocent lives and uphold universal human rights. But one which will do so working with, not against, international law and the international community.

Best wishes,

Nick Clegg MP”

As ever thank you for your support for this newsletter, which now has more subscribers than ever before. As ever any feedback is gratefully received.

David

Broxtowe Enews 13th March 2011

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

First may I apologise that this is a day later than usual, but I have been at the Liberal Democrat conference in Sheffield this weekend. More of that below.

Before moving on to the main news may I just make a comment about the situation in Japan. What has happened has been utterly horrific, and it’s hard to comprehend the level of devastation even when seeing it on TV. A couple of weeks ago I spent four very worrying days waiting to hear from a friend who lives in Christchurch (fortunately she and her family were okay although their house was badly damaged) so I feel especially for those trying to contact loved ones at the moment.

Having said that lets move on to the local news.

1. Recycling news

There has been some confusion about the changes that the council is making to recycling so let me explain the position clearly. We are still going to be collecting the green bin all year as we do now. The only alteration to the service is that the garden waste will not be collected between December and February, as indeed was the case last winter. This is the only reduction in service. Everything else remains.

2. Brinsley Carnival

I’m afraid that there will not be a carnival in Brinsley this year. This is nothing to do with spending cuts but there are simply not enough volunteers to run it. This is a real shame and hopefully other people may come forward for future years.

3. DH Lawrence Society

I was very sorry to hear that Notts County Council have decided to stop the DH Lawrence Society meeting at Eastwood Library. They are now looking for a new home, and I hope that the borough council may be able to help on this.

4. Tax Changes

Local residents should have received tax codes for next year over the last few days, and many will have directly benefited from one of the changes that the Lib-Dems have brought to the coalition. It was one of our main campaign themes to reduce tax for the lowest paid and to take many low earners out of ta altogether by raising the tax free amount to £10,000. The first step on this path has now been taken and as a result from next month 1,380 Broxtowe residents will no longer pay tax and a further 52,000 local residents will be £200 a year better off because of these changes. This is one of the very real benefits that comes from us being in Government.

5. Flood Defence Design

The Environment Agency are holding meeting at Attenborough Village Hall on Monday between 3.30pm and 6.30pm to show the designs for the flood defences through the village. Everyone is welcome to attend.

6. Broxtowe Warm Zone

Lib-Dem led Broxtowe Borough Council decided to set up a warm zone scheme last year, and it’s proving very useful for local people. It is a home insulation programme for home owners and private tenants, which started in 2010 and runs through to 2012. We are doing this in partnership with Scottish and Southern Energy, Nottingham Energy Partnership and the Government. We aim to ensure every household in Broxtowe has affordable warmth. Home insulation is free for over 65′s. There are also free heating improvements if you are in receipt of certain benefits. Other people can have the insulation work carried out at an affordable rate. To apply contact the Broxtowe Warm Zone team on 08455 390 390. Lines are open Monday to Friday 8.45am – 5pm or visit http://www.broxtowewarmzone.com/. My colleague Cllr Stan Heptinstall used this last week and was telling me at the weekend how very impressed he was. This is a scheme which as a Liberal Democrat I was delighted to see happening, it’s part of our philosophy of putting people first.

7. Babbington Kennels

At the Development Control meeting on Monday planning permission was granted for Babbington Kennels to redevelop a block that they use to house stray dogs. This will mean that the standard of accommodation for these animals will be greatly improved.

8. Stapleford Allotments

The Borough Council have given a grant of £2,500 to Stapleford Town Council to pay for improvements to the access to the Nottingham Road allotments.

9. Protesting about cuts

At the cabinet meeting on Tuesday the decision was taken to send a letter to the County Council objecting to the cuts they are imposing on the voluntary sector and on care for older people. It seems to me, as the signatory of the letter, that the proposals by the county council breach their duties under the Equality Act, let alone being morally indefensible. We can’t enforce moral grounds, but the Equality Act is an area that permits rights to be enforced in court if needs be. We have made this point to the County Council.

10. Citizens Advice Bureaux

One example of the unfairness of the cuts is in the CAB. The County have cut the funding to Broxtowe CAB by 72%, more than any other office in the County. This comes despite the fact that even more people than ever are likely to need the service.

11. Fundraising Events

Thank you to everyone who attended one of two fundraising events last Saturday night. First the Mayors Ball was held at the East Midlands Conference Centre to raise money for the mayor’s charities. This had a 1940’s theme. At the same time there was a 1960’s theme for the Friends of Bramcote Tower fundraiser at the Youth and Community Centre in West End in Beeston.

12. Indigenous Arts Exhibition

There is an extremely good exhibition on at Durban House in Eastwood at the moment – Indigenous Arts. There are over 100 paintings on display by local artists. I went to see it last Sunday and was very impressed by the quality, so I’d encourage as many people as possible to attend.

13. Broxtowe’s Got Talent

The Rotary Club of Beeston is organising a second “Broxtowe’s Got Talent” event and are looking to entrants. An entry form is available from www.broxtowesgottalent.org.uk and auditions will be held on 19^th and 20^th March. The final will be on 16^th April and there is a £300 prize for the winner.

14. Bramcote Leisure Centre

I’m delighted that Bramcote Leisure Centre has been added to a national directory of baby-friendly swimming pools, organised by Huggies Little Swimmers. This recognises the quality of classes, changing facilities and pool temperature.

15. Teenage Drawing Class

Artist Rosemary Maclennan will be holding an action drawing class for teenagers at Attenborough Nature Centre on 21^st April. It costs £10 and places can be booked by phoning 0115 972 1777.

16. Digital TV

I mentioned last week that the switch-over to digital TV was due to begin later this month. A number of people have pointed out that this only applies if you receive your TV signal from the Nottingham transmitter. If you get your signal from Sutton Coldfield, as many local residents do, then you are not affected until September. Sorry for any confusion caused by that.

17. Economic Growth

I was delighted to read this week that accountants PwC expect GDP growth in the East Midlands to be 1.7% this year, the second highest in the country. Only the south east is expected to have higher growth. After the terrible recession that we have been through it’s nice to see some light at the end of the tunnel.

18. Care Charges

The County Council is raising the cost of meals on wheels to up to £5 per meal, and care home charges are going up by £100 per week to £550 each week. This applies to Bramwell Care Home, despite the promise that the County Council made last year that Bramwell, because of the specialist services that it offers, would be exempt from these increases.

19. Nottingham Big Wheel

One thing to mention from just outside Broxtowe is that the Nottingham Big Wheel in the Market Square is to close on 2^nd April for good, so if you want to have a go on it get there sometime tthis month.

20. New Bramcote Website

A new website has been launched for Bramcote, “Bramcote Today.” This has been put together by members of the Bramcote CAT (Community Action team) and 100 local residents turned up for the launch last Monday evening at the Bramcote CAT. I think it is very good and you can see it for yourself at www.bramcotetoday.org.uk

21. Bargain Bus

One thing that has attracted discussion on the Bramcote Today website is the change to the timetable of the Bargain Bus, which no longer stops at the Sherwin Island. The Bargain Bus was introduced last year and as a result of this another cheap service, Premiere Red 4, closed. Since then the Bargain Bus service has effectively been withdrawn. On the face of it this causes concern as to whether or not there has been any improper practice, and so as leader of the council I am writing to the Competition Commission to ask them to look at things.

22. Fire Authority

An attempt to prevent massive proposed cuts to the fire service by the Labour run fire authority, by voting them out of office, has failed. Unfortunately one Conservative councillor from the city council voted with Labour to keep them in power. There is a real risk that as a result of this more than one fire station in Broxtowe may be closed over the next couple of years.

23. Newthorpe wind turbine application

The County Council have decided to formally object to proposals by Severn Trent to install a 120 metre high wind turbine at Newthorpe. This application will not be decided until after the elections in May.

24. Fair Votes Campaign

Ashfield MP Gloria De Piero has been selected as one of the faces of the Yes Campaign for fair votes. I fully support this campaign and am delighted that it is attracting such strong cross party support. I heard a statement from the No camp recently saying that AV was too complicated. It involves writing the numbers 1, 2 and 3, which I think most people can manage very easily indeed, so if they can’t come up with any better arguments than that it shows the weakness of their argument. I would encourage everyone who believes in fairness to vote Yes on 5^th May.

25. Lib-Dem Conference

It’s been a really good Lib-Dem conference this weekend. Despite some of the media writing us off it was the best attended spring conference we had ever had as a party. We were told that there would be a “day of rage” by protestors, and organisers of the protests claimed that they would get 10,000 people there. In the end I doubt that there were any more than 2,000 people present, and the Observer this morning said that the day of rage ended up as a day of being quite cross! As a party we voted to oppose the proposes changes to the NHS being proposed by the coalition. The media reported this as a blow to Nick Clegg, which isn’t the case. They just don’t understand how we make policy. Lib-Dem policy is made entirely by our members at conference, and so this opposition is now party policy. We recognise however that we won’t get everything that we want in the coalition programme, but such a strong rejection of one item gives our senior people a strong argument to take back to argue for changes. I expect that we will see some of these in the next few months.

I spoke at conference on Access to Justice, and also at a discussion meeting on future policies. However the main benefit for Broxtowe was that I had the opportunity of a brief meeting with Nick Clegg and a much longer one with Vince Cable, the Secretary of State for Business. I was accompanied to this by Cllr Brian Taylor, the chair of the Broxtowe Constituency Party, and we were able to lobby regarding a number of issues affecting the borough. This again shows an advantage of us being in Government – Dr Cable’s office contacted me to invite me to this meeting, rather than me having to work my way through levels of civil servants to get to speak to a minister.

One amusing event was on Friday night, when we had a rally at which Nick Clegg was speaking. I was queuing at the door waiting to go in when I was suddenly grabbed by Jason Zadrozny, the leader of the Lib-Dem group on the County Council. “Just the man we were looking for,” he said. “We need one extra council leader to be in the group on the stage so you’re it.” Instead of being in the audience for the rally I ended up sat on stage participating!

26. Creative Writing Workshop

There will be a Creative Writing workshop (including performance) at Stapleford Library on March 18th 2011, 10am - 3pm (includes 1 hour break), led by local writer Dave Wood. Email davewrite2002@yahoo.com or phone 077099 77684 to book in advance. The session costs £10.00.

27. The Census

You should have received a census form this week. These need to be filled in as accurately as possible. It is actually a civic duty to do so, but more importantly it will affect local services. As the Government use census data to allocate money every form not completed costs the borough about £2,000 in lost income. Please therefore do send them back and encourage everyone else to do the same.

Sorry that this has been such a long newsletter but there has been a lot going on. I’ve had to hold some stuff back to next week. As ever I do appreciate feedback. Lots of people have given me lists of potholes following last weeks newsletter, and I’ll be responding to these next week.

Best wishes

David

Broxtowe Enews 5th March 2011

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

1. Queen Adelaide pub, Kimberley - Greene King, who own the building, want to demolish the Queen Adelaide pub on Babbington Lane in Kimberley and build three houses there instead. This will be considered by the council in due course.

2. Broxtowe Sports programme – Broxtowe will again be running a full sports programme this summer, including a 5K run around Bramcote Park on 15^th April, and a children’s 1K fun run the same day.

3. Victims of hate crime – the council has worked with the Council for Equalities and Human Rights to establish a new drop in service for victims of hate crime in the borough. Although overall crime levels are falling significantly hate crime, where the offence appears to be motivated because of a dislike of some characteristic of the victim, is increasing. Sessions will be held at Eastwood Volunteer Bureaux every Wednesday.

4. Broxtowe budget – The Borough Council has approved the proposed budget for next year. The headlines are that we will not be increasing council tax, we will not be drawing any money from the councils very limited balances, and we will not be imposing any compulsory redundancies. This last point seemed to annoy the Conservative opposition, who voted against the budget saying that we weren’t cutting enough. They didn’t submit an alternative budget, which was a little odd given that they criticised the Liberal Democrats and Labour at the County Council last week for exactly the same thing.

5. Council tax rises for the parishes – All of the parishes have submitted their budget plans for next year as well, and all are maintaining council tax levels at the rate of last year (with some very minor variations) except Kimberley Parish Council. I’m afraid for residents of Kimberley the parish council are putting your rates up by 12%. Given that this is a council run by the Conservatives this was a point that they didn’t want to dwell on at the budget debate.

6. Kimberley Town Council – talking of Kimberly, the parish council apparently passed a motion of no confidence in the borough council in December. I mention it now because they eventually wrote to us on 21^st February (in a highly ungrammatical and badly laid out letter) telling us. This is, I’m afraid, pure party politics in the run up to the elections in May. They put forward a number of issues where they say that Kimberley has had a raw deal, but each of these is either simply wrong or a misinterpretation of the facts. I guess that there is a reason why they waited 2 months to tell us what they decided. If anyone read the reports about this in the Eastwood and Kimberley Advertiser you must have thought that I had spoken to them about it, given that I was quoted a number of times. This however isn’t the case and I never said any of the things that are in the paper.

7. Labour leaflets – Having criticised the Conservatives I need to mention the actions of the Labour Party. They have put out a leaflet in Eastwood containing a number of factual errors and false claims about the Liberal Democrats and we are now taking action against them through the courts.

8. Cuts to Supporting People – The Supporting People programme is a Government funded programme which supports care schemes for elderly people, young people, victims of domestic violence, those released from prison, the homeless and a range of others. It also funds the wardens who look after our sheltered housing complexes. The money is paid by the Government to the County Council, who then redistribute it to the various groups and the district councils. The County Council in Nottinghamshire however have decided to keep the vast majority of the money for themselves and to impose massive cuts on the services provided by other people. Next Tuesday Broxtowe’s cabinet will be asked to approve a letter being sent to the county council threatening them with legal action if they don’t change this policy. Having taken legal advice it seems to us that the actions of the County Council breach their duties under equality legislation towards the elderly, women and young people at the very least. I assume that the letter will be approved and it will be signed by myself and the leader of the Labour group.

9. Digital TV – The switch-off of the analogue TV signal to Nottinghamshire will start at the end of this month. First the BBC 2 signal will go and then two weeks later the rest of the signals. If you watch TV using an analogue TV then you need to make sure that you have a set-top box (either Sky or Freeview, or one purchased from a shop) to be able to still view TV.

10. Next Store at Giltbrook – The Next Store at the Giltbrook retail site have applied for planning permission to increase the amount of sales space there by using the mezzanine floor for sales and not just for storage. This will be considered by the council in due course.

11. Pot Holes – The Government has made an extra £100 million available to County Councils to aid in repairing pot holes caused by the severe weather during the winter. I will be lobbying to ensure that Broxtowe get their fair share of that from the County Council, and I know of a number of roads in Greasley, Chilwell and Beeston which are in urgent need of attention. If there are any near you in a particularly poor state let me know and I will pass them on.

12. Middle Street Resource Centre – I have mentioned this centre before. It is used by people with mental health problems, and has been threatened with closure by the County Council. This would be an appalling decision as it provides a vital service. A decision is due in the next couple of weeks and I’ve rumours that the centre is to get a reprieve. If it is then this will be good news, but we will need to check exactly what happens. The users of the centre have mounted an excellent campaign and I hope they will succeed.

13. Speed Sign on Coventry Lane – This is a personal success. I’ve been pressing the County Council to install an illuminated 30 sign on Coventry Lane for nearly 3 years. After inordinate delay we were promised by the County Council that they would install it by last April at the latest. It was eventually installed not in April but in November, but even then it didn’t work. Now the County Council have eventually been out and got it working. I’ve lost count of the number of letters, phone calls and emails that I’ve had to send over this to get it properly installed, so I hope that speeding cars will now take notice of it.

14. New Cat – long term readers may recall that our cat, Marmalade, was killed in an accident last year. Having gone 12 months without a cat we have been back to the RSPCA and my girls have selected Lily, who will be moving in with us tomorrow. Readers of the Evening Post may have seen an appeal in Saturday’s paper for people to take on cats from the RSPCA, and we did ask to meet Flo, the cat featured in that appeal. Unfortunately she had been taken ill this morning and so we weren’t able to try her out. I’m sure though that Lily will rapidly become an important part of our family.

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

Best wishes

David

Broxtowe Enews 26th February 2011

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

1. Mayors Ball

The Broxtowe Mayors Ball, to support his charities Help For Heroes and Hope Nottingham, will take place on Saturday 12^th March 2011 at The East Midlands Conference Centre. Tickets (£30 each) are still available.

2. Paradiso Cinema

Paradiso Cinema presents Another Year, a Film by Mike Leigh on Sunday 13th March at 7.30pm At Chilwell Arts Theatre, Chilwell School, Queens Road West, NG9 5AL. Tickets on the door are £5 or £4 for concessions. Refreshments are available from 7pm. Further details are available from www.chilwellartstheatre.co.uk

3. AV Referrendum

I was pleased to see that the first Ipso/More opinion poll on this put the Yes vote 12 points ahead. However many people are still undecided so we still need to keep making the case for a Yes vote for reform. I was however appalled by the adverts run this week by the no campaign. If you haven’t seen them they involve a 2 page advert with a picture of a baby saying words to the effect that this child needs a dialysis machine, not voting reform. If that’s the level that they’ve already sunk to then they have lost the argument. I have added my signature to a letter to the Advertising Standards Authority objecting to this advert, and if you are equally appalled I would invite you to do so as well. You can do so via http://www.yestofairervotes.org/demandmore-demandbetter

4. Village Ventures

On Friday 11th March at 7.30pm Village Ventures present Frankenstein Live!, a play by the Angus & Ross Theatre Company, based on the novel by Mary Shelley. at Chilwell Arts Theatre, Chilwell School, Queens Road West, NG9 5AL. Tickets on the door or in advance from 0115 925 2698 or 0758 426 3893. Tickets for this are £8, £6 conc or £24 family (2 +2). Further details are on www.chilwellartstheatre.co.uk

5. Fair Trade Fashion Show.

Last week I mentioned the Fair Trade Fashion show at St Margarets Church in Aspley, but I didn’t have all the details. The start time is 7.30pm for 8.00pm and the organisers aim to finish around

9.30pm. Further information is available from Estelle Turner on 929 1738.

6. Greasley Wind Turbines

I’ve seen some claims in the last week or so that one councillor or another has arranged for the consultation period on this application to be extended. This simply hasn’t happened, but the reality is that even if comments are submitted late they will be considered. When I was chair of the Development Control Committee I introduced a system where the officers prepare a summary of any late items on the day of the meeting, so even if your comments only come in after the deadline they will still be considered.

7. Stapleford NHS Walk In Centre

I’m pleased to see that over 1,900 responses have been submitted to the consultation on plans by the NHS to close the Walk In Centre in Stapleford. This remains a really daft idea and the whole basis of the argument to close it has been shown to be false by my colleagues from Stapleford Liberal Democrats. In short the figures published by the NHS didn’t add up and the other arguments they put forward contradicted each other. There will be a further public meeting about this on 16^th March and the decision should be made by the end of next month. The Green Party have been in touch again to ask if they can use the campaign in their material! It’s a shame that they couldn’t find things that they’ve been doing to talk about.

8. Drink problems

Broxtowe Borough Partnership are organising training to help people spot the signs of alcoholism. The aim is to help people spot the first signs of alcoholism, so that problems can be avoided in the future. The class will be on 15^th March, and further details are available from 0115 917 3492 or www.broxtowepartnership.org.uk

9. Conservation Area

The Beeston Civic Society have submitted an application to the Borough Council to have an area around Beeston Station designated as a conservation area. This is a step that I have been encouraging them to take, and I will be pressing the officers to assess this as soon as possible. There is already a list of areas being considered and we can’t jump the queue on them, but we can certainly try and get this added to the end of the queue.

10. Housing Revenue Account

The Housing revenue Account is a part of local government financing, showing how we finance council housing. The government want to reform this, and the original consultation paper on reform suggested that Broxtowe would be tens of thousands a year better off. A revised consultation paper has now been produced and this suggests that we would in fact be nearly half a million worse off a year. Needless to say I’ll be objecting to these changes.

11. Council Industrial units

Although the footfall figures for Beeston a couple of weeks ago were disappointing better news comes from the industrial units that the council rents out. These now have a 97% occupancy rate, which provides crucial income for the council as well as jobs for the local community.

12. Erewash Valley Trail

You may well have seen signs appearing over the past few weeks for the Erewash Valley trail, a 30 mile walking and cycling route around Broxtowe. This will be officially launched in the spring, but has involved 3km of towpath improvements to the Erewash canal and 6kn of footpath improvements in Broxtowe and Erewash.

As ever thank you for your support for this project. Any feedback will be very gratefully received.

David

Broxtowe Enews 19th February 2011

Welcome to Broxtowe Enews, brought to you by the Liberal Democrats and edited by David Watts, the leader of Broxtowe Borough Council. A special welcome to the new readers that we have this week. It’s been a good week for new subscribers and we now have a new record number of people receiving this newsletter. I know that for the most part it is personal recommendations that bring new readers in so thank you all for that.

1. Council Budgets and Council Tax

At the cabinet meeting on Tuesday the council’s proposals for the next financial year were discussed, and they have now been referred to the full council where they will be debated (and hopefully approved) on 2^nd March. As the information is now in the public domain I can now set out the key elements of the budget:

a) There will be no increase in council tax. This is being encouraged by the coalition who are providing some extra funding if we agree to this course of action.

b) There will be no withdrawal from balances. Until the Liberal Democrats became the lead party on the council money had been withdrawn from balances every year since I was first elected and I believe that this had happened every year since the council was created in 1974. As a result we have very limited balances left. I was determined that we should not weaken the councils financial position any further.

c) There will be no reduction on front line services used by the public

d) There will be no compulsory redundancies.

All in all I think that this is pretty brilliant. We’ve done it by cutting costs behind the scenes. For instance, when we took over as the lead party there were half a dozen directors plus a deputy chief executive and a chief executive. Four of those director’s posts have gone. We’ve also made massive savings by working with other councils to achieve better value for money.

What did amaze me was that the Conservative opposition voted against the budget, not because they didn’t like any of it but they claimed that there had been insufficient public consultation about it. That is the lamest excuse I’ve heard for years. I was really disappointed by them, and other members of the cabinet were quite vocal in making their displeasure known.

2. The Tram

The Government have confirmed that they will not order a fresh public enquiry into the tram, and in particular the compulsory purchase of county council land by the city council. This will save time and money (I’ve seen estimates as high as £200,000 but I suspect that the reality would have been a lot lower than that). It removes one of the last obstructions to the tram construction going ahead, and brings the third part of the plan for Beeston into effect (along with redeveloping the land where Tesco’s now sits – accomplished – and redeveloping the town square – now agreed).

3. Greasley Wind Turbine

This has generated quite a lot of correspondence this week, with Nottingham Pro-Wind Alliance coming out in favour of the scheme and Greasley Parish Council coming out against. I also read with some amusement claims from a Labour councillor that he had asked for the decision to be put back until after the local elections. In fact, as he would have known, it was always the case that a decision would be made after the elections. One of the Conservative Councillors has suggested that it would not be appropriate for a new council to decide this straight away, and that it would be better to delay matters if needs be until after new councillors have become more familiar with their roles. I hope that the Labour councillor was trying to claim credit for her suggestion.

4. Designated Places Order for Kimberley

The council have agreed to conduct a public consultation about whether to implement a designated places order (in effect giving the police the power to remove alcohol from those drinking in public) for Kimberley town centre. The consultation will start shortly and if approved the scheme would be implemented later this year.

5. Toton Trees Appeal

The appeal against the restocking notice (the order requiring the land owner to replant a large number of trees that they illegally felled) was due to have been heard during February but this has been put back as the agent for the land owner is unwell. Hopefully it will now be heard in March. We are creating new ground here as, although the legislation goes back to the 1940’s, no-one has ever appealed against a restocking notice before.

6. County Council Strike

Members of Unison at Notts County Council have announced that they are taking strike action on Thursday 24^th February in protest at the council’s budget proposals. Significantly thisis the day that the council will be voting on their proposals.

7. Rumbletums Community Café, Kimberley

The Rumbeltums community café, being established in Kimberley, is aimed to support young people with disabilities. It has now been given a grant of £4,000 by the County Council. This money is aimed at giving the café a start. It will be based in The Hub, which is currently being refurbished. I think that this is an excellent idea and I’m delighted to see it coming to fruition.

8. Beeston Holiday Club

Wollaton Road Methodist Church in Beeston is running a holiday club during half term week with the theme “Pirates.” It is aimed at 5 to 11 year olds each day between 2 and 4pm and the cost is £1 per day. Details are available from the children’s worker for the church on 07502 193618.

9. Babbington Rescue Centre

Babbington Animal Rescue Centre is a privately run company but which does sterling work dealing with abandoned animals. They have just launched an appeal to raise £40,000 to build a further kennel block at the centre. Details are available from them on 0115 932 4576.

10. Green Electricity

The Greening Campaign, which runs a number of schemes through the borough to promote a more environmentally sustainable way of life, is hosting a drop in session with Broxtowe Borough Council at Beeston Town Hall on Monday28th February at 7.30pm. They will be providing advice on what schemes are available and what Government grants can be accessed.

11. Ken Rigby Vindicated

Some of you may recall reading in the newspaper last year that Labour Councillor Richard Robinson made a complaint to the Independent Standards Board at Broxtowe about a leaflet put out by my colleague Ken Rigby. I’m pleased to say that the Standards Board have now fully investigated and considered this and unanimously decided that Ken had no case to answer. Unfortunately it has wasted a significant amount of time and money getting to this stage.

12. Fair Trade Fortnight

This years Fair Trade Fortnight starts on 28^th February. The theme this year is “Lift the Label” (see www.fairtrade.org.uk) and has particular focus on cotton and the fashion industry. I’ve been asked to particularly promote an event happening just outside of Broxtowe, which is a Fair Trade Fashion Show on Thursday 3 March at St Margaret's Church, Aspley. I’m afraid that I don’t have a start time but will post it next week when I get it. The main aim of the evening is not so much fundraising (although any profits on ticket sales will be donated to Traidcraft Exchange) as to raise the awareness of consumers regarding the relationship between the price we pay for clothing and the working conditions and earnings of the people who grow the raw materials (e.g. cotton) and who make up the clothes.

13. Seismic Testing

TESLA- IMC International Limited will be carrying out a Seismic Survey in the north of the borough from the 21st February 2011. The survey will take place on the public highway, on private farmland and three sites belonging to Broxtowe Borough Council, (Kimberley Depot, Hall Om Wong Open Space, and Watnall Green). The survey should take around 10 days to complete. All complaints/concerns or requests for information should be directed to Rachel Clark 01773 838950 or 07846953934.

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

Best wishes

David

Broxtowe Enews 13th February 2011

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

1. Typo

There’s a lot to get through this week, but I do need to begin by apologising for the rather unfortunate typo in item 4 last week. May I especially thank the two dozen readers who emailed within minutes last Sunday to point out the error. The range of witticism’s shows that we have a group of local residents with cracking senses of humour.

2. Beeston Town Centre

The excellent news from the end of this week is that Broxtowe Borough council and Henry Boot have now reached an agreement over the terms to redevelop Beeston Town Square. This is the result of some extremely protracted and difficult negotiations, but we are now all systems go for the future. The importance of this cannot be over-stated. We could have reached an agreement a year or more ago, but it would not have been the right agreement for Beeston. What we have now obtained will set up the town centre to ensure that Beeston re-establishes itself as the premier shopping destination in Greater Nottingham.

3. Police Operation

The police have carried out a series of drugs raids across Broxtowe this week, aiming to completely demolish the supply network for serious drugs in the area. This was the result of a 9 month police operation gathering intelligence and evidence on which to act. I accompanied officers on Wednesday as they executed a number of searches, and by the end of Wednesday 65 people had been arrested and at least 30 premises raided. Significant quantities of class A drugs have been recovered. The operation has been planned in conjunction with the borough council, so where anti-social behaviour issues were linked or tenancy issues breached regarding council houses we are taking co-ordinated action. Operations like this take significant levels of planning and resources but are far more effective at completely breaking the supply chain than simply an officer turning up when someone calls in a report of suspicious activities. The police want to assure people though that these operations often have their origins in calls from members of the public, so please keep them coming.

4. Letter to the Times

Some readers may be aware that I was one of 91 Lib-Dem council leaders who signed a letter to The Times this week calling for a change to the speed of the cuts being imposed. I agree wholly that the Government is right to tackle the deficit and think that the amounts being talked about are necessary because of the scale of the debts that the coalition found that they had to deal with. Without urgent action the UK would have found itself in the same mess as Greece and Ireland. However it seems to me to be totally unfair that central Government is making the cuts over 4 years whereas local Government is being required to do it within two. This is entirely the fault of Eric Pickles, the Secretary of State for Local Government, and the main thrust of our letter was to make clear our utter lack of confidence in him.

5. Greasley Multi-Use Games Area

The multi-use games area in Greasley, which was installed by the County Council and is run by the parish council, has been a source of complaints from local residents ever since it was installed. The situation has been monitored by the borough council and this has shown that acceptable noise levels are being regularly breached. As a result the council has this week served a noise abatement notice on the parish council, requiring them to take action to bring levels down. Hopefully this will make life significantly better for local residents.

6. Beeston BID

The Beeston Business Improvement District has now held it’s first meeting. Generally there was a very positive response, although one or two businesses said that they hadn’t been consulted and were clearly unhappy at this. I’ve checked and every business was sent a letter, although what happened after this with them is clearly outside of my control. However it would not actually have made a difference if more firms had voted as more than 50% of the businesses consulted voted in favour, so the scheme was always going to be passes. The BID works by raising an extra levy on local businesses which is then used to finance schemes to promote the local area. The money paid by organisations in Beeston (including the borough council) will be used to promote business in Beeston, doing things that the council is unable to do.

7. Greening Beeston Rylands

Greening Beeston Rylands was launched a few months ago. The aim is to reduce the areas carbon footprint by encouraging people to take simple steps. A similar scheme exists in Stapleford. The Beeston arm is now looking for other schemes to develop in the next stage of it’s work. Residents can submit their own ideas, such as P cells or wind turbines, at a public meeting at the New Ventures Social Club on Tuesday at 7.30pm. More details are available from Julie Jackson on 07814 289442.

8. Abandoned Meeting

It was highly embarrassing that a council meeting on Monday of last week as not enough members turned up to make it quorate. Even worse, this was a meeting where the submissions for next years budgets were to be looked at in detail. Incredibly, when the decision was taken to abandon the meeting not a single member of the opposition Conservative group had turned up. I’m not sure that this is a version of opposition that local people wil be happy with.

9. CAB Cuts

As regular readers will know I and my Lib-Dem colleagues have been campaigning against the horrific decision of the County Council to cut funding for the CAB by 67%. I was pleased to hear that the County Council are putting a little more money into CAB’s, but it looks like none of that will come to Broxtowe I’d now like to welcome our MP Anna Soubry onside for this campaign. Anna has publicly called for the County Council to reverse their decision.

10. Private Members Bill

I reported recently that Anna Soubry had submitted a private members bill banning the reporting of the identities of suspects in criminal cases until they have been charged. Anna has now withdrawn the bill after the Government agreed to look at the matter.

11. Footfall figures

A report in the Evening Post this week said that the drop in footfall figures in Beeston was down to Tesco’s opening in the town. I personally think that it is much more complex than just this. We have the impact of the recession, the decline in other shops in the centre (which is why the news about the rebuilding is such important news) and also the poor weather. Finally there is the impact of internet shopping. We have all read the reports about record numbers of people buying online so these are people who are no longer coming in to town.

This does not mean that I am complacent about the position, far from it. The council is doing all it can to attract new trade and business to the town, and to the other towns in Broxtowe. We will continue to do this and our economic development work continues apace despite the cuts we are making. Economic Development is a front line service for the council and we have ensured that these have not been affected.

During December 2010 335359 people went past the automatic counters in the High Road. In 2009 the figure was 337914, meaning there was a drop of 2,555 people during the month. In January 2011 for the first three weeks 163697 people visited, compared to 180006 people in 2010. This is a drop of 16,309.

12. Police Crime Priorities Survey

Notts Police have set up a web site for people to have their say about their priorities for dealing with crime in the future. You can have your say at www.neighbourhoodprioritysurvey.co.uk

13. Street Pastors

Hope Nottingham are setting up a street pastor scheme in Beeston to help people at night and make them feel safer. A scheme like this already runs in Nottingham very successfully, and so I hope that this will have a positive effect on Beeston’s nightlife. It goes live on 11th March, after the volunteers are properly trained.

14. Ikea Retail Park

The owners of the Giltbrook retail park have applied for planning permission to build a new restaurant hub opposite the existing foot outlets. Anyone who has queued for ages to get food will see the benefit of this, but if you have queued for the same length of time to get a parking space then you may well think that the proposed loss of 27 parking spaces would be a major problem. This is one that the council will need to wrestle with over the next few months.

15. Census Workers Needed

The council is still looking to recruit more staff to work on the census from Eastwood, Kimberley, Nuthall and Brinsley. If you are interested then visit www.censusjobs.co.uk for an application form.

As ever may I thank everyone for their support for this newsletter. Any feedback is gratefully received (and I hope that there aren’t any other howling typo’s). Finally may I wish my Grandad a very happy 90th birthday, which is a pretty fantastic achievement by a pretty fantastic man.

David

Broxtowe Enews 6th February 2011

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

May I start with two apologies. First this is a day late coming out, and second it will be a bit shorter than usual. The reason for both is the same. I’m afraid that I have tonsillitis, and so I’ve not been up to collating everything that I usually do. This is also the reason that I haven’t replied to all my outstanding correspondence yet, so if you’re still waiting for a reply I will get back to you in the next few days. Normal service will be resumed next week (I hope).

1. Royal Wedding Street Parties

First a message from the County Council highways department. If people are planning to hold street parties to celebrate the royal wedding then please let them know so that they can make arrangements to have the streets properly closed off. You can register online at www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk or by phone on 0115 878 6050. The deadline for registrations is 31^st March.

2. Trip to Downing Street

I didn’t let a bit of poor health prevent me visiting Downing Street on Wednesday. I met David Cameron and Nick Clegg and was able to discuss Broxtowe with them both. I also had a longer time with Andrew Stunnell, the Local Government minister, and was able to discuss the pressures to build on the green belt with him. I think that it’s important to press with ministers the point that Broxtowe simply doesn’t have room to build many more houses. We will build what we can, as we want to make sure that there are enough homes for people who want them, but it’s vitally important that we protect the green belt.

3. Sir Dennis Pettit

The funeral of Sir Dennis, the former leader of the County Council, took place at Bramcote crematorium on Friday. I was surprised to read in the paper that “a number of councillors” from the County Council had asked whether they could claim expenses to attend.

4. Family Fun Day at Ikea

Children are being urged to wear wellies to Ikea on Wednesday 16^th February as part of a family fun day. There will be a chance to learn about woodlands and to win prizes. It is being organised by the Woodland Trust.

5. Beeston CAT Meeting

There will be a Community Action Trust meeting at Boundary Road Community Centre on 15^th February starting at 7.30pm. All local residents are welcome to attend. I will just mention here that the future of CAT meetings is currently being reviewed and if you have any comments on them then they would be very grateful to hear. You can send them direct to the council or send them to me and I will forward them on.

6. Workers Education Association

The Beeston Branch of the WEA still have some places available on many of their courses, which include floristry, creative writing, reading for pleasure and digital photography. For more details ring Betty Cliffe on 0115 922 2627.

7. Beeston Rylands Methodist Church

Beeston Rylands Methodist Church, where I have had the pleasure to have preached on a number of occasions, is celebrating it’s diamond anniversary this year. They are planning to produce an anniversary booklet and would like people’s stories and memories of the church and their boys and girls brigade companies. If you can help please give them a call on 0115 946 8277.

8. Youth Mayor

On Wednesday this week the Youth Mayor, Tilly Stone, became the first non-councillor ever to address Broxtowe Borough Council. We have changed the rules to make the council more interactive and to ensure that young people’s voices are heard, and as part of this we have given the youth mayor the right to speak about young peoples issues at every meeting of the borough council, and to speak on any other issues under debate. Tilly took the opportunity to speak about the work of the Youth Council and was extremely confident and accomplished in doing this.

9. Running for adults

Two of the council’s adult running clubs have spaces for new members. At Brinsley the group meetings at the recreation ground on Monday’s at 6.30pm. On Tuesday’s there is a ladies only class meeting at Bramcote Park at 6.30pm. Both groups are free of charge, and further details are available from 01773 770100.

10. Mayors Charity Ball

The mayor’s charity ball, with a 1940’s theme, will be on 12^th March at the East Midlands Conference centre. The first prize in the raffle will be a new front door provided by KLG Amazing Glazing ion Beeston, worth £800. The two charities which will be supported by the ball are the local Parish Pantry and the St George’s Mother and Baby hospital in Nigeria.

11. County Out Of The Tram

The County Council have now formally withdrawn from the tram. I think that this is incredibly short sighted of them. The Tories who run the County Council tell us that they are not anti-ytram, only anti-route, but of course they have now abandoned the position they held where they could determine future routes. Any expansion of the tram system from now on will be based solely on what is good for the city, not what is good for the wider county.

12. MP Plans to Ban naming Crime Suspects

Broxtowe MP Anna Soubry has tabled a back bench bill in parliament to ban the naming of people suspected of committing a crime until they have been charged. She is proposing certain safeguards, such as the powers for a judge to override this in appropriate circumstances, and given the way that Jo Yeates landlord was vilified by the press when he was arrested for her murder in Bristol recently (something which someone else was subsequently charged with committing) then I can see the merit in Anna’s proposals. This will be a controversial bill but personally I think that it should succeed.

13. Open Evening for Prospective Councillors

Just a quick reminder that there will be an open evening for anyone interested in being a councillor on Broxtowe on 22^nd February at 6pm. Refreshments will be available from 5.30pm. Details are available from 0115 917 3365.

14. A52 Closures

The A52 will be closed overnight in stages from 27^th February through to 18^th March, between Bardills Island and Derby. This is for the Highways Agency to install new lighting columns.

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

David