Welcome to Broxtowe Enews, brought to you by the Liberal Democrats and edited by David Watts, the leader of the Lib-Dems on Broxtowe Borough Council. May I give a special welcome to the new readers that we have this week. Last week’s newsletter generated a lot of correspondence so if I haven’t replied to you yet please bear with me – I’ll respond in the next couple of days.

1. The Unpleasant Side Of Politics
Because I am still officially off sick I have been able to watch some events connected to local politics from more of a distance than would normally the case and if I’m honest I haven’t liked what I have seen. I came into politics because I wanted to make things better for my local community and I think that this is why most people do, but there have been three incidents in the past week that have left me very disappointed. First a Labour councillor from Kimberley admitted that they had asked people from outside the borough to write letters of support in favour of the councillor’s pet project, but with false details to make it seem as though they were locals. To me this sort of deceitful conduct is wholly unacceptable and as a result of his actions the councillor in question will be facing a vote of no confidence next week. Next I went to this week’s Development Control Committee meeting at the council and saw the very unpleasant sight before the meeting of one Labour Councillor trying to bully another Labour Councillor into voting a particular way. This was so unpleasant that I had to step in and I’m pleased to say that the other councillor voted with her conscience rather than the way that the bully wanted. Finally we have had to councillors (one Lib-Dem and one Labour) resign from the Town Council in Stapleford this week because of the way that recordings of the meetings are being conducted by certain members of the public. I am all in favour of allowing people to record meetings but in this case it looks like this power has been used to intimidate councillors (and town councillors receive no payment for what they do – it is a purely voluntary role) and that is a matter of great regret.

2. Ambulance Recruitment
Regular readers will be aware that the East Midlands Ambulance Service has struggled to hit its performance targets for some time. The Trust that runs it have now announced that they will be recruiting an extra 80 front line staff in Nottinghamshire to try and tackle the issue. This is extremely god news and something I warmly welcome. To show the level of challenge that the service faces it’s worth noting that between Christmas and New Year they answered an average of 3,000 calls a day, and yet only half of those actually needed to be taken to hospital. It is clear that there are a disappointingly large number of people who call 999 when they really do not need to.

3. A52 Vegetation Cutting
Work has been carried out by the Highways Agency to cut back the vegetation along the A52 and at Bramcote Island. However the Highways Agency themselves seem to have left a significant amount of rubbish behind. I have been in touch with the council about this and hopefully arrangements can be made to clean it up sooner rather than later.

4. M1 Disruption
The Highways Agency have commenced two months of work on the M1 between junction 25 and junction 23A. There will be lane closures and speed restrictions between 8pm and 6am each night and also at weekends.

5. Beeston Film Festival
The first Beeston Film Festival will be held next weekend at the White Lion Pub in the town. Tickets cost £4 and are available at http://festival.beestonfilm.com. The festival includes 40 hours of film submitted from film makers in 32 different countries.

6. Tram Latest
We all know that the tram is running several months late in its construction. The latest estimates from informed sources are that the line through Beeston and Chilwell will not be fully open until September. Is this is correct then there is a penalty sum for the contractors to pay of approximately £30 million. I have made enquiries about where his money goes, hoping it would come to the local area which has faced such disruption, but I’m told that the terms of the contract are that it goes to the banks who lent the money to finance the scheme in the first place! Needless to say I’m not impressed by that but there is nothing now that can be done about it. This is another reason why I think we need a full enquiry into the issues with the current scheme before we embark on anything else.

7. County Libraries
Notts County Council have announced that they are looking for a new body to take over the running of the County Library Service from them in an attempt to cut costs. I am extremely concerned about this as I think that it would leave many of our smaller libraries at great danger of being closed. At the moment there are very few details about these proposals but I will post more as soon as I hear anything.

8. County Councillors Allowance Rise
Although the County Council are having to make significant savings the ruling Labour group this week forced through a rise in councillors allowances of 2.2%. This was opposed by both the Liberal Democrat and Conservative groups on the council but the Labour Party refused to allow a vote to be taken on the issue. They said that because the recommendation had been made by an independent panel it had to be implemented. Here is Broxtowe we also have an independent panel to make a recommendation but it is always the council which makes the final decision and there has been no rise in councillor’s allowances since 2009. I’m surprised that the same rules don’t apply for the County Council.

9. Accidents at Work
The Health and Safety Executive have released figures this week showing the number of reportable accidents at work in each county. In Notts there were two fatal accidents at work during 2014 and 1,552 people were injured in the workplace. Obviously these cover a range of different things but they do illustrate the need to take care.

10. Return of the Spectrum
Anyone of a similar age to me is likely to remember the ZX Spectrum computer which was around in the 1980’s. I had one as the first computer that I ever had. They are now being relaunched as a dedicated games machine and the contract to manufacture them has gone to SMS Electronics Ltd in Beeston. I’m not sure when they will be launched into the shops but I expect they will prove very popular.

11. Council Funding
On Tuesday of this week I travelled to London to meet with ministers and civil servants from the Department for Communities and Local Government to press the case that Broxtowe was being treated harshly in the grants that we get from central Government. In the next financial year we are facing a cut of 6.4% in our grant, the highest of any authority in the country. Whether we will see any change or not I do not know, but we were staggered to learn that the civil servants believed that this year we were receiving £300,000 from a Government scheme called the New Homes Bonus. In fact we are receiving £80,000. We have therefore written to the Department and asked them to check all their figures. If they have got this wrong they may have made other mistakes as well. I will report back on any developments in due course.

12. Bereavement Website
Bramcote Bereavement Services, which administers the Bramcote crematorium and the council cemeteries in Broxtowe and Erewash has launched a new website designed to ease the burden on people who have been bereaved. The site includes advice and information for people preparing for a funeral and it can be accessed at www.bramcotebereavement.org.uk.

13. Boy Racers at Chilwell
Notts County Council has now taken out an injunction to stop “boy racers” gathering at the Chilwell Retail Park at night time. There have been problems with the numbers of cars meeting and many instances of dangerous driving on and around the park, and the injunction will prevent them from doing so in the future. This will be good news for local residents who have had to put up with noise and danger.

14. Fire Brigade Tax Rise
Notts Fire and Rescue Authority, which runs the fire service in the county, is proposing to raise its element of the council tax by 1.9%. This will mean that for a Band D property you will need to pay an extra £1.39 a year. The proposal will be decided upon on 27th February.

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

Best wishes

David
www.davidwatts.org.uk
www.broxtoweliberaldemocrats.org.uk
Follow me on Twitter @davidwatts12.

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