Picked up by the Post

The Nottingham Post kindly picked up on my Beeston Pubs & Cafés map today, and has published the map. On their website they have included this photograph of me they took yesterday outside the Local not global Deli.

The headline in the paper is awful and does not bear repeating. It is what the story omits to say which prompts this quick post. The Post story has no link to beestonweek.blogspot, but anyone looking at the map closely will find this web address on the map. I describe my map as 'diagrammatic'. It is others who describe it as a (London) Underground style map and I can understand why — for that was my starting point when I created the first version in 2013.

I also told the reporter who spoke to me that there is a blank template 'master' version which I will happily pass onto any local voluntary group free-of-charge and to any small business in return for a £10 donation to Beeston WEA Branch.

When you talk to the press you have to accept that they will write what they want, so I have no complaints about the story as written.

If anyone coming new to the map sees any omissions or has any suggestions about how I might improve the map, then I would welcome their comments. There is another version of the map which includes Beeston Marina and the University of Nottingham main campus (see entry in the top section of the right-hand column).

For the record, the text beneath the map in the above photograph reads:

Beeston is the destination of choice for those in the know. Start with exquisite coffee at the Fusion Café in Chilwell’s Creative Corner, home to three contemporary art & craft galleries, then walk towards Beeston, past more art and gift shops and stop at the Local not Global Deli, just in time for an early light lunch. The few tables fill quickly, so don’t be late!

I could have mentioned Relish or the Flying Goose. Perhaps next time. Weatherspoon’s Last Post is a popular haunt, right by The Square, within sight of the new tram & bus interchange. To the south are three good pubs. Fish stew and Tapas make the White Lion a favourite of mine. 

Along the High Road and into Hallams for a fishy treat to take home. Past Belle & Jerome where you can return for afternoon tea. ‘The best I’ve ever had’ I heard a lady say last week and when it comes to sausages, Barnsdale butchers, can’t be beat. A little further on, more galleries and gift shops await your attention. I like to end with tea and cake in Mason & Mason. 

Hop on a bus and come tomorrow. Don’t wait for The Tram!

Council Tax exempt (student) properties in Beeston and Broxtowe by street

In the right-hand column under Pages you can see a complete list of council tax exempt properties by street. I received the information from Broxtowe Borough Council on 23 February 2015 following a request I made to them. I would like to thank the Council and the staff involved for compiling the data.

The map below shows the Beeston streets with the highest percentages of council tax exempt properties (click on the map to enlarge):

At some point I will have more to say about the information I have received. For now it is suffice to say that the streets with a high percentage of council tax exempt properties are presently clustered, for the most part, around Beeston town centre.

At a recent meeting of the Beeston North Community Action Team, a Council officer, Steffan Saunders said that it was a matter Planning had not looked at in any depth and that they would be looking at six unrelated occupants and the property becoming an issue before doing anything, but accepted that three unrelated occupants could be enough to trigger registration as an  HMO if that was Council policy (Steffan, understandaby, qualified his response to my question by making the point that actual registration is not a Planning decision - it rests with Environmental Health).

As far as I am aware this is the first time this information has been published in this format. In the meantime you can find some initial analysis in the right-hand column headed Broxtowe properties claiming council tax exemption by street.

I have also submitted a Scrutiny Suggestion Form to the Council, in which I ask the committee to look at 'the impact of student lets and Houses in Multiple Occupation on the Borough of Broxtowe and, specifically, Beeston'. The form asks 'What outcomes do you expect?', to which I have answered 'That in the absence of continual monitoring and assessment, the balance of local communities cannot be satisfactorily measured or maintained'.

The Tram and a fools night out in Beeston

Last Friday I went along to the Beeston & District Civic Society meeting* to hear a number of presentations by different professionals associated with The Tram and its construction, management, publicity and future operation. The hall was full, which is a measure of the interest there is among local residents in The Tram.

In truth it was all a little disappointing. I heard nothing new and most of the questions asked were inane. For example: 'Will there be fire safety training given to the staff and drivers?'; 'Are all the grey poles on the streets insured and who do they belong to?'; 'Why is there a hump between the tracks at the White Hart (pub) in (Old) Lenton? and 'Will trees cause track problems like they do with trains?' I heard members of the audience around me groan. I thought the professionals all gave full answers, but still some of the questioners kept coming back and, at one point, angry words were exchanged at the back of hall between members of the audience over some minor point. It was that kind of meeting.

(NOTE: *For another take on the meeting, you can visit the Civic Society's website and read their account of the meeting).

The most sensible question of the evening went unanswered. A lady asked why the temporary footpath from the main post office to Devonshire Avenue was so narrow, making it difficult for buggies and wheelchairs to pass one another, when all around there was space.

A man in front of me was very upset about there being restricted access to Devonshire Avenue, even after the work was complete. He claimed this was a last minute change, not mentioned before. When the Nottingham City Council speaker said the restriction had been in the plans all along, it took a lady behind me to shut the man up. She said that she had objected to the restriction at the time of the Planning Enquiry.

Someone pointed out that the restriction was already turning Imperial Road into 'a rat run' for cars and there had been no discussion with local residents. A fair point I'm sure, but I cannot believe that if the road really is (or becomes) a rat run that the problem will go unaddressed. The man then left, his anger expressed, not seemingly interested in any discussion, so no more was said.

It was that kind of meeting. The question about 'leaves' was probably the most stupid of all. The track from Toton Lane to Ring Road tram bridge has no gradients as such when compared to the existing line on either side of Forest Road East, where there have been no problems of note. I thought everyone knew that trams are fitted with sand boxes which can be used on the few occasions when a tram does need extra traction.

It really was a fools night out. Janet Patrick, also a councillor, made the most interesting contribution of the evening when, towards the end, she said The Tram is the 'most exciting development in Beeston in a hundred years'. Perhaps the claim was a frustrated response to the questioners in search of some last minute victory which, somehow, would result in The Tram disappearing. The claim does actually prompt in my mind a topic for discussion at a future Civic Society meeting. As a member, I am going to put the idea to them. Perhaps it is a debate they have had already (I have had a promise already that the idea will be considered, so thank you to the Society's Chair, Judy Sleath, for a very quick response)

I already have it in mind to write about Beeston's expectations for The Tram, shared by the Nottingham Post as recently as today in the paper's Editorial. Great claims are made for The Tram and we have heard them all before. The Tram was going to work wonders for Hyson Green. It has never happened and the same will be true for Beeston unless those responsible for all the hype around The Tram and Beeston actually do more than wait in the belief that a year from now The Tram will have brought a new golden age to the town with its shopping centre re-born, helped by the return of Wilkco's.

In my next post I will explain why fast developing bus technology will see off The Tram, except where trams can take over existing railway tracks and operate as tram-trains. If I was a betting man, I would give you 100-to-1 that we will see no more street running tram routes developed in Greater Nottingham. Buses remain more important to Beeston's future than The Tram — as they do to our conurbation.

Beeston – A Guide from the past

The first three images in today's post come from a 152 page 'Official Guide' published by Beeston and Stapleford Urban District Council. The Guide is undated, but the title page says it is the 'Third Edition'. I suspect it dates from c1970. I bought it on e-bay very cheaply and it has proven to be a good investment in so many ways. Local history of course; a reminder of how much local government has changed and that in the drive for ever more centralisation, we can sometimes lose more than we gain.

My wife, Susan, has been telling me this for years: that larger does not mean better. I have been a supporter of a Greater Nottingham City Council since my days as a Nottinghamshire county councillor in the 1980s. I suspect my belief in large urban councils goes back to the fact that I grew up in Wembley, Middlesex, before it was subsumed in the new London Borough of Brent, when the then Greater London Council was created. For most of the 1970s I was a Birmingham city councillor, which was enlarged at the time of local government re-organisation in 1974 when the neighbouring borough of Sutton Coldfield became part of Birmingham.

If Birmingham with a million residents could have another 125,000 added in 1974, why were the boundaries around Nottingham drawn so tightly at the same time? The answer, of course, was gerrymandering. English local government is dotted with examples of large towns and cities constrained by tight geographical boundaries: Nottingham, Mansfield, Leicester, Norwich, Ipswich, Reading to name just a few. Look at a local government map for England and you will find many more examples.

In defence of my belief in large urban councils, I have have always been an advocate of neighbourhood empowerment through neighbourhood councils, urban parish councils and giving councillors more control over ward budgets. It is something I have spoken about in the past at national conferences and, as recently as 2013, I was invited to give evidence in person before the Parliamentary Local Government & Communities Committee on the topic of urban parish councils and 'neighbourhood mayors'.

In the 1970s, Birmingham was at the centre of a campaign for neighbourhood councils, which was led by Dick Knowles, who later became the Labour Leader of the City Council. Unfortunately, not even he could bring the change about — such were the forces ranged against us. The last Labour Government, thanks to Hazel Blears, put all the legislation in place to empower neighbourhoods. Unfortunately, no council has ever chosen to exercise these local democracy enhancing powers. Local councillors and officers are as eager to protect their status as are the Westminster colleagues.

I support executive council leaders only if they are counter-balanced by executive councillors representing single-member wards and I argued this during the Nottingham mayoral referendum a couple of years ago.

Thanks to Scotland, local government and de-centralisation are something local and national politicians are talking about. What we have to ensure is that the discussion does not stop in The Council House, County Hall or the Town Hall. The 'Summary of Local Government Changes' below is taken from the Beeston and Stapleford Official Guide. The only change since this was published has been the creation of Broxtowe Borough Council in 1974 (I know about the shadow council from 1973) and Nottingham becoming a unitary authority in 1998 after losing its county borough status in 1974, when it became a district council like Broxtowe. I think it is a very good summary of how local government evolved over one thousand years.

The Guide also offers a detailed insight into how 'personal' Beeston and Stapleford UDC (and the NHS) were c1970. It includes sixteen pages of 'Classified Information' giving names and addresses for all manner of public officials — most of it information you would not find easily, if at all, in 2015.

There is something ironic about the fact that in 2015 individuals happily post personal information about themselves on Facebook or Twitter and the like, yet our public servants have become, for the most part, anonymous.

How I wish we still had Medical Officers of Health managing services and compiling annual reports when, prior to the 1974 re-organisation, even a small UDC like Beeston and Stapleford had charge of primary health care and its scrutiny.

A section headed 'Midwives' gives names, addresses and telephone nos. Another section does the same for 'District Nurses'. We knew who they were. They visited us in our homes and were part of the communities they served. The Guide provides a detailed snapshot of Beeston and Stapleford UDC and local organisations in all their guises.

Today, the web has scattered such information to the wind. There is nothing online which is comparable to the Beeston and Stapleford Official Guide c1970 which I now own. Our local studies libraries and county archive will have many examples of such guides in their collections, published year in, year out, both by local councils and commercially. The web can give us nothing as good to peruse or use on a day-to-day basis. Everything has been compartmentalised, turned into a 'specialism'.

The web is a good example of what can happen when something large takes over. I treasure the few 'official guides' I have bought for places I have known and a few others as well.

The Guide is full of adverts for local companies, including this full-page advert for Boots:

By chance a similar image appears in the second edition of This is your Nottingham by Guy Denison and published by Nottingham City Council at about the same time. It also has no date nor, unfortunately, does it have a 'Classified Information' section. I like both images, but the pen and ink version a little more. 

I will try to find a present-day image of the same view, but I suspect it not be a patch on either of the above. Modern digital images provide so much detail that nothing is left for the imagination.

If ever you find a copy of an old official guide to Beeston, buy it!

You will have days, no months, of wonder and enjoyment ahead of you. I would not sell my guide for a thousand pounds — that is how much pleasure it gives me.

In search of missing voters

Individual voter registration as presently constituted is an attack on democracy dressed up by the Conservatives and Liberal Parties as a change which will make it easier to vote. What is happening in Beeston right now is happening across Broxtowe, Nottinghamshire and every other part of England, especially our large towns and cities — the number of registered voters is actually falling. Why? Because it has never been harder to become a new voter or to remain on the electoral register if you are an existing voter. I know the latter is true because of my own exclusion from the electoral register after fifty years and, as of this moment, I do not know whether my name has been added, having provided additional information about myself.

The above data for the four Beeston wards speaks for itself. A 16% fall in Beeston Central voter nos. and a 11.5% fall in Beeston North.

Broxtowe Borough Council's Electoral Team supplied me with all the information in their possession, but explained that digital copies of the electoral registers for 2011 and 2013 have been deposited in the Nottinghamshire Archives. The trouble is that the archive is closed whilst a new extension is built and I would have to pay for a member of Archive staff to access the digital register and extract the information I am requesting. So much for the wonders of technology.

With a growing student population in Beeston, a good few of the missing voters will be students, but new voters of all ages also need reminding that only they can apply for their vote. No longer can anyone else do it on their behalf.

Hundreds of thousands of people will turn up to vote in the General Election (and local elections) only to be told 'Sorry, your name is not on the Electoral Register, so you do not have a vote'. It will be a bad day for democracy, whatever the result, if one person is prevented from voting. The Hope Not Hate campaign have just posted a report on their website.

I have pinched this image from the homepage of Broxtowe Borough Council's website. Thursday 5 February this week is National Voter Registration Day and the Council are doing their bit, by going to Tesco and Sainsbury's in Beeston on Wednesday (Sainsbury's am, Tesco pm) and Thursday (Tesco am, Sainsbury's pm) this week. It is a pity the day has not been better publicised nationally. I get the feeling that the Government and the Electoral Commission are doing what they have to and no more.

The Labour Party and some student organisations are planning to organise a voter registration campaign in Beeston and I have told the Labour Party I will actively support their campaign. As and when I learn more, I will place a link on this blog.

Come the 2020 General Election voting will probably be even harder, as there is talk of requiring all of us to produce proof of personal identity before a ballot paper is given to us.

Beeston, like every other community, is in the front line when it comes to protecting our individual right to vote. Conservatives and Liberals are condemned as the anti-democrats they are by the way they treat us. Oh, they will protest, but make no mistake they want a right-wing state where socialists and other dissenters are excluded from voting.

There is every chance that the campaign to win the 2020 General Election will begin the day after the 2015 General Election. I hope so. For what despair I feel at the moment is tempered by a belief that such will be the injustice of the election result that many will rise up determined to ensure that the 2020 General Election becomes a date with change and destiny.