Welcome to Broxtowe Enews, brought to you by the Liberal Democrats and edited by David Watts, on behalf of the Lib-Dems in Broxtowe.

1. Staplefordand Eastwood Litter Picks
Litter Pickers and bin bags will be at the ready in Stapleford and Eastwood next week thanks to two tidy events organised by Broxtowe Borough Council, as part of Keep Britain Tidy’s The Big Tidy Up campaign. Local people are invited to come along and a be litter picking heroes by helping to tidy up litter hotspots in the towns and make sure the local area is clean and tidy and somewhere we can be proud of. The events will take place on Friday 3rd March, at Hickings Lane Recreation Ground, 10.30am – 12.30pm and on Saturday 4th March at Scargill Walk Craft Shop Car Park, 11.00am – 1.00pm. The Big Tidy Up aims to get everyone out and about, cleaning up their community through the year and improving understanding that small actions can be the start of big changes.

2. Register to Vote
Broxtowe Borough Counil has published a reminder this week that the deadline to register to vote in this years county council elections is fast approaching. If you aren’t already registered then you need to do so by 13th April. You can register to vote at www.gov.uk/register-to-vote.

3. Friends of Beeston Hockey Club
Beeston Hockey Club have launched a new “Friends of Beeston” initiative to raise the sponsorship necessary for the club to continue to invest in world class players. Fans are invited to join the club and pledge an amount each month to invest in the playing staff. Full details are available at https://www.beestonhockeyclub.com/new-friends-of-beeston-initiative/.

4. School Admissions Policy
Regular readers may remember that last year I reported on a change to the school admissions policy operated by Nottinghamshire County Council. My comments then (I wasn’t in favour of the change) generated a lot of correspondence with a roughly 50/50 split between those in favour of the new policy (which gave priority to those in the catchment area) and those who preferred the older policy (which gave priority to those who had siblings already present at the school). I do understand both points of view. The County Council have now decided to abandon the new policy after just one year and revert back to the system that they operated previously.

5. Bramcote Café Fundraising
The crowd funding site launched last week to raise money towards the costs of building a community café in Bramcote Park has already raised nearly £1,000. Thank you to everyone who has already donated. If you haven’t yet then there is still time to do so, and we really do need as many people as possible to donate towards the costs to make this happen. Our website at www.bramcoteparkcafe.uk has a lot more details about the scheme and the links where people can donate. We are also holding a fundraising dinner in Bramcote on Saturday 22nd April. Tickets cost £25 each and includes a three course meal and also entertainment. If anyone would like to attend please let me know. Our target is to raise £10,000 in this initial stage and any excess will go towards the overall target costs, which we estimate to be about £400,000. The café company have now confirmed that a company called Pinelog will design and build the café once the funds are available.

6. Charity Fashion Show and Sale
A fashion show and sale will take place on 30th March 2017 at 7pm, at the Temple Centre in Nuthall. Tickets cost £5 and are available by contacting 0115 913 3115 or emailing civic@broxtowe.gov.uk.

7. Model Railway Show This Sunday
On Sunday 26th February there is a model railway exhibition taking place at Trowell Parish Hall between 10am and 4.30pm. It is presented by Ilkeston Woodside Model Railway Club and features a number of exhibitions and trade stands. Admission is £3 with accompanied under 14’s free.

8. An Evening With Nottingham Concert Band
Local music-lovers are invited to ‘An Evening with Nottingham Concert Band’ on Sat 11 March when the band presents its Spring concert in Stapleford Methodist Church (Eatons Road, NG9 7EA).
Under the baton of Associate Conductor Ashley Parnell, the 60 or so players plan to treat the audience to an enchanting programme embracing show tunes, folk medleys, new arrangements of perennial favourites and original compositions for mixed wind ensembles. The concert starts at 7.15pm and proceeds will be donated to the church roof repair fund. Tickets are £5 (children £2.50) and advance booking is advised – call 0115 939 9458 or email daphneball@btinternet.com. Currently celebrating its 25th anniversary season, Nottingham Concert Band rehearses weekly in West Bridgford and enquiries about membership and invitations to play are always welcome. Email music@nottinghamconcertband.org, visit the band’s Facebook page or logon to www.nottinghamconcertband.org

9. Ilkeston Railway Station
I got the wrong date for the opening of Ilkeston Railway Station. You will in fact be able to travel five days earlier than I said as it opens 2nd April and not the 7th. Many apologies for the error.

10. Fair Trade Fortnight
You can celebrate Fair Trade Fortnight with an evening of entertainment at Stapleford Parish Church on Friday 10th March, starting at 7.30pm. The event features professional chef and chocolatier
David Greenwood-Haigh. Tickets are only £5 and are limited, so don’t miss out. The ticket price includes a welcome drink, lots of food tasting, cooking demo’s, chocolate fountains and the ever popular fairtrade goody bag! There will also be a traidcraft stall of food, craft and Easter items.
For tickets contact staplefordparish@aol.com or ring Toni Thorncraft-Smith on (0115) 9254933 or St Helen’s church office on (0115) 939 9958.

11. HS2
Officials at HS2 confirmed this week that they are looking at realigning a one mile stretch of the M1 between junction 25 and Trowell to make way for the new rail link. This was one of the ideas that they floated when the line was first proposed and they have now confirmed that this is likely to be part of the proposed route. The costs of doing this were included in the original budget for the scheme,

12. Speeding Fines
Figures released this week showed that one in forty people in Nottinghamshire have been given a speeding fine, which puts the county in the top ten in the country for fines. Last year 27,806 fines were handed out, which shows a 42% increase in fines over the last four years.

13. Attenborough Brownies
Congratulations to the 4th Attenborough Brownies who raised just over £100 and used the money to buy provisions for the Stapleford Haven Food Bank. Well done to all the girls and also to their leaders.

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.