The 'Lentonisation' of Beeston by landlords and goodbye to Gourmet Delights

Evidence (like the signs above over shops on Beeston High Road) and experience tell me that private landlords are in the process of doing to Beeston what they did to Lenton and it all begins with students wanting to live away from the campus, preferably with just a few friends, in a house. An innocent enough ambition in itself, but it is one which takes an established mixed/balanced community and turns it into a ghetto.

It was the mid-1980s when Thatcher made it easy
for universities like Nottingham and Trent to expand rapidly and this continues apace. Back then residents like myself saw the consequences and argued that all student accommodation in the community should be registered and the number of student properties in any road limited to 25%. This level still results in 50% or more of the residents being students and contributing to the destruction of the community so many want to be part of. Sad to say few listened and the City Council and the two city universities ignored us. We won a few fights along the way, but it was others, who took a harder line when it came to students, who finally won the day resulting in Nottingham City Council introducing rules in 2013 requiring any shared property with three or more tenants/occupants to be registered as a house in multi-occupation (HMO) and banning more HMOs in many parts of the city, including Lenton and Radford (Broxtowe Borough Council presently sets the HMO test at six sharing a house, but appears to have no enforcement plan).

Talk to students and their representatives and they, for the most part, understand this. Beeston can prevent its "Lentonisation' if it chooses to.

This is not a new claim or observation by me and I am not the first to make it. What I probably do have is more experience and understanding of the challenges Beeston faces, which left unchecked will see the town losing many of its shops, many being turned into student accommodation. It happened in Lenton, Radford and Hyson Green in the city and can happen here.

In Lenton, where I was a community activist for the best part of thirty-five years, we saw road after road bought up by private landlords who happily paid more for a house than any owner-occupier ever would or could. Why? Because they counted the number of rooms they could turn into bedrooms and this almost always including one, if not two, of the ground floor living rooms. This way they could easily fit 4, 5, 6, even more students into the house.

My 2015 map when I am able to update it will show the onward march of council tax exempt properties in Beeston. Of this fact I am sure. The signs on the streets I walk along tell me this.

I use the word 'student', although the official term which is important here is 'full-time education'. I think the latter is a nicety. Students do not have to pay council tax on the property/room they rent because properties occupied exclusively by those in 'full-time education' do not have to pay council tax.

This exemption currently reduces the council tax collected in Broxtowe by £950,000. This figure was provided by the Borough Council to a Beeston councillor. In the side column you will find a page devoted to this topic which I compiled last year based on the information available at the time. Last year 84% of Broxtowe's council tax exempt properties were in Beeston. I am sure the percentage is now higher and I am currently waiting for this information to be provided, but at 84%, the cost, you can argue to Beeston is £798,000!

When landlords set the rents they charge students the fact that the student occupant does not have to pay council tax becomes part of the calculation used to set the rent. This way the landlord can charge a slightly higher rent and increase his/her profits in the process.

Once Beeston had a few established estate agents, now they are everywhere and they are like the private landlords they feed on. The lucky make fat profits and can pay higher rents and business rates. Established businesses are forced to close because rents go up and business rates rise as well. And it is the demise of one such local business which prompts this post. The loss of a café may seem of itself of no importance to anyone bar the staff who lose their jobs and the regular customers who see it as an extension of their home — for that is what a good café can become.

I will leave you with the evidence and I will not be alone in mourning its passing. The question is 'Do you?'

Beeston Vertical Heritage Map

Another work in progress (maps always are). I have a few other things I want to add.

If you compare this vertical map to my other two Beeston vertical maps you will see how I have shifted vertical and horizontal street lines to accommodate the information I include. I could reduce the height of this map because of the space I have created by excluding most pubs and cafés, but for now I am leaving it as it is. I like the white space.

As with all my maps I try to pull in the Trent and University. Perhaps it has suited some to ignore them (an observation I will return to when I write about a book, The River Trent by J H Ingram, published in 1955, which I bought in Oxfam for £3 last week).

Just click on the map to enlarge.

A few photographs of Beeston's everyday heritage, which few notice. 

Beeston Nights — a work in progress

My new style Beeston 'vertical map' has the advantage of being easily adaptable, of which the Beeston Nights map below is an example. I am also working on a Beeston Heritage version based on the town's numerous blue plaques. Having been given time I did not expect to have this side of 2017, I am going to complete these two versions and that will be it. Beeston Nights will show what shops are open, the supermarkets taken as given, so I will show launderettes etc. I will also try and take some night-time photographs of the town (I have included the few I have to give a feel of Beeston after dark).

Some eateries are not open every night, so I need to check out opening hours when I do my evening walk. In the meantime, gaze upon a very different Beeston to the one many of us know much better.

Usual rule. Click on map to enlarge.

Chilwell poet a seasonal must have

This morning I went with my friend John White to collect his first ever published collection of poems, Attenborough Churchyard, Canary Girls and other poems from The Russell Press in Old Basford.

With a couple of exceptions, all sixty-six poems were published in newspapers between 2008 and 2016. It is a wonderful and varied collection. Here is little taster:

Lust

I was tempted by what she proffered

In thrall with what was offered

Refusal would leave me inconsolable

My desire was uncontrollable

Finally I thought I would risk it

And accept just one more chocolate biscuit

Derby Telegraph

16 January 2014.

One thing is certain. John's poetry ranges far and wide when it comes to subject matter. Love, passion, history, death, reminiscence, all have a place in John’s work.

The first edition is limited to just 150 copies and all the profit after the printing cost (Russell Press charged £248 for this 80 page plus cover book) will go to Attenborough Parish Church.

I used my local history publishing skills to assist John with layout, pricing and how the poems are organised (chronologically from 11 December 2008 – 6 October 2016, with the exception of the last poem. If you buy the collection you will understand why). We used Russell Press because they are simply the best. End of story. We also decided to set the poems in Helvetica 13 point, a nice clear typeface well suited to verse.

John's modesty prevents him from believing that interest in his poems will extend any further than family and friends. I have tried my best to convince John otherwise, so he was somewhat stunned when he sold his first copy within minutes of Jo putting them on display in The Local Not Global Deli on Chilwell Road, opposite Imperial Road. What is more, the buyer, Margaret Richardson, a Beeston U3A member, asked John to sign the book.

Below is the cover. I did persuade John to increase the price by 50p. At £4.50 the collection is excellent value.  To enlarge, just click on the image.

We decided to have just one place in Beeston selling Attenborough Churchyard, Canary Girls and other poems and that's The Local Not Global Deli on Chilwell Road, simply because we met more often than not in the Deli, both loving Jo's food (tonight Susan and I will be sharing a generous slice of Jo's Salmon Quiche with a simple salad) and it's the only place I know in Nottingham where I can buy Henderson's Relish (the veggie Worcester Sauce from Sheffield), but I digress...

... for me it has been a real joy to work with John and I have loved every minute of the experience. We worked our way through eight drafts and watched the number of pages and poems increase with every draft until we reached no.9 and I wanted to have it published before I go into hospital for open heart surgery. Publishing now also means a good few folk may be tempted to buy it as a Christmas present for themselves or a loved one.

I hope on Friday to find a city centre seller too, so watch this space. Attenborough Churchyard, Canary Girls and other poems costs just £4.50 and offers great value for money.

I will end with the first verse of one of my favourite poems in the collection.

War

Give a fool an inch

He will strive to take a mile

Gift a man an army

See the bodies start to pile

The collection is full of such reflections and passion is never far away. John the lover shines bright and in them I find a reflection of myself, but I will leave it to you to discover more of yourself in John's poems.

Beeston Loyalty Map draft no.2 looking for a sponsor

I did a post a few days ago of my first draft of this map. This is my second draft. Slowly it progresses! My aim is to find a sponsor so the map can be published in January, before I go off the scene for a few months whilst I recover from open heart surgery.

Usual rule applies. Click on image to enlarge.

The following bus and tram information will appear on the reverse side of the map.

Saturday trolleybus rides and a Beeston might have been

Last Saturday I persuaded Susan and our close friend Judith to humour me. We went to Sandtoft, an old and isolated airfield cum industrial estate located in the North Lincolnshire lowlands just beyond Nottinghamshire's most northern tip. Why? Well, a mix of reasons. I am a romantic, a bit of a bus nerd, especially trolleybuses, but as Susan and Judith could see with their own eyes at the Sandtoft Trolleybus Museum, I am not the nerdyest of nerds.

My final reason for wanting to visit the museum last Saturday was that it was their annual 'Twilight' event, when the museum stays open until 7pm so you can ride on trolleybuses in the dark. Last year, we went to Lowestoft and did the same thing. I also did a post (click here to revisit).

Sandtoft Trolleybus Museum is a leisurely two hour drive from Beeston (just over 60 miles) up the A614 via Ollerton and Bawtry. On the way we had an excellent lunch at Rose Cottage, which is on the A614 opposite Rufford Abbey Country Park.

Growing up in Wembley I travelled on the 662 trolleybus every week, even writing a poem about unrequited love and the 662 (which you can read here). Just thinking of those days fills me with happiness, my Nanna and me going to Harlesden eto go shopping every week when I was little, then during school holidays when I was at home. My first dictionary was bought there, now battered, which I still use. Just to have it my hands, to open it, unlocks a treasure chest of memories. I have other books I love, but if I had to save just one, it would be this.

I consider myself blessed to have lived during the few brief decades trolleybuses graced our streets. They date back to the end of the 19th century, but really gained ground in the 1930s when they replaced trams in towns and cities across Britain, but come the end of the 1960s they had gone from everywhere bar Bradford and Walsall, where I went on my last ride on a trolleybus on public streets with Pop, my grandfather, who had come to stay with us that first Christmas we spent in Birmingham after leaving Harrow a few months before. Nanna died in 1960. I was fifteen at the time and been working just six months. Riding on a trolleybuses is a cocoon of memories and emotions for me (as if I need to tell you this!).

Nottingham had one of Britain's largest trolleybus systems and a good few of the city's trolleybuses survive in the care of enthusiasts. Earlier this year, Sandtoft had an open-day devoted to Nottingham trolleybuses. They never made it as far as Beeston, although Nottingham did plan to run trolleybuses as far as Chilwell along three routes through Beeston (Broadgate, Chilwell Road, Queens Road and Wollaton Road), but these and other routes never happened because diesel buses were cheaper to buy and more flexible. In truth, trolleybuses were quickly overtaken by events and technology — as it happening now with street trams. History really does repeat itself and here ends the lesson. 

Sandtoft Trolleybus Museum last Saturday was sadly deserted. Lincolnshire mist surrounded us and the damp seeped into our bones. It was that kind of day, so we stayed a couple of hours and left, but not before I took a few pictures:

We arrived at 3.30pm and saw these two trolleybuses waiting for passengers. There were just three running.

This Hudderfield trolleybus was the first one we rode on and, for me, the most handsome. In appearance, closer to Nottingham and London trolleybuses than the other two, but with a clunky ride.

Inside the trolleybus was empty except for the three of us, who sat on the bench seats above the rear wheels. Our ride consisted of two loops in both directions around a circular route. The museum is not as developed as Crich Tramway Museum or the East Anglia Transport Museum in Lowestoft, even though all three were formed at the about the same time. I first visited Crich and Sandtoft when I was councillor, giving a grant to the former in my capacity as Chair of the then Midlands Area Museum Service, and the latter when I was a Notts county councillor and floating the idea of finding the trolleybus museum a home between Edwinstowe and Rufford, so that it could provide a on-road service between the Robin Hood Centre and Rufford Abbey Country Park, but it was not to be for a number of reasons.

Our second ride (and by far the smoothest) was on this single-decker trolleybus from Wellington, New Zealand. This was popular with the real enthusiasts present, who clambered aboard every time it was waiting for passengers.

Then, finally, what the visit was all about, riding on a trolleybus in the twilight and the dark, and this was our last ride, on a Bradford trolleybus, the most modern in use, dating from the 1960s, with a front entrance and a folding door. Bradford lost its trolleybuses in the mid-1970s. Again the ride was smooth and the seats more comfortable, helped by the fact that the trolleybus was 8' wide (the other two were 7'6" wide).

The Museum's café closed at 4.30pm even though the museum was open until 7pm! Some kind of service was going to be offered in another part of the museum, but come five o'clock it still was not in place, so we headed back to Beeston.

Sandtoft is not Crich, but it is still worth a visit. It has bags of potential, but as Susan observed, the volunteers who run Sandtoft probably like it as it is.

Changing times for the Y36

Below are three Y36 timetables, showing weekday journeys from Victoria Centre to Beeston and Chilwell for 2013, today and from this coming Monday (21 November), but first some background.

I admit to having a love-hate relationship with YourBus. They originally took advantage of de-regulation to offer a bus service in competition with Nottingham City Transport's route 36 between Nottingham Victoria Centra and Chilwell via Lenton, the QMC and Beeston c2010. At the time NCT were operating a crap service with single deckers, often full and with passengers standing for long parts of the journey. I know. It happened to me often enough. Their arrival on the scene also affected Trent-Barton.

How YourBus chop and change timings and routes is something I have written about before (see here for a post I made in May 2015)

Some readers might remember the first buses, branded 'yourcity', with orange fronts and destination displays saying 'Orange Line 36'. I took the above picture in 2010. NCT quickly took action and got this sharp practice stopped and the buses changed colour, branding and became the Y36.

Both NCT and Trent-Barton responded after a few months, introducing better buses and more buses per hour.  YourBus then got new Citaro single deckers, which they still use and I think are the best buses in Nottingham for comfort and quality of ride. Being a bus nerd, I also like the throaty sound of the engine.

YourBus were also the first Nottingham bus operator to introduce a Boxing Day bus service after an absence of a good few decades (I took the above picture on Boxing Day 2013). 

For a while they were such a threat to NCT's 36 that NCT positioned staff at the Victoria Centre terminus outside John Lewis to chase away Y36 bus drivers if they arrived too early or overstayed their departure time. When this didn't work, they got the bus stop arrangements changed, so that the NCT 36 and YourBus Y36 used different stops (as they still do and the same has happened at the Beeston Interchange).

YourBus have always indulged in sharp practices, timing their buses to run within a couple of minutes of NCT 36s. Instead of buses every five minutes, we got two buses coming together most of the time (bus 'headway' allows buses, when running on time, without obvious holdups, to run two minutes either side of their timetable times, if I understand the regulations correctly). At first YourBus were content to cream off day-time passengers, then they introduced evening and late-evening journeys.

YourBus tried to challenge NCT and Trent-Barton on other routes and failed, with the exception of the Y36 and Y5. The latter follows the same route as Trent-Barton's Indigo service, except for a small section in Beeston (the Indigo goes via Broadgate and the Y5 via Queens Road). I could go on, but this a Beeston blog and a good few of you will know about these things already.

The point of this blog post is to share extracts from Y36 timetables for 2013, the present timetable and from the new timetable which begins on Sunday.

Click on the timetable and you will enlarge enough to read the times of Y36s Monday–Friday:

2013: 0502–0010

Today: 0500–2130

From Monday: 705–1815.

YourBus is no longer competing with NCT. It is just trying to cream off day-time passengers. In August it withdrew buses between Beeston and Chilwell (Bramcote Lane, Inham Nook and Field Lane loop), diverting the route to run in a one-way loop around Beeston via Wollaton Road, Broughton Street, Park Street, Cator Lane and Chilwell Road to Beeston Interchange. 

This is a case of history repeating itself, especially if you use the YourBus routes Y28 and Y4 as recent examples. NCT and Trent-Barton learnt the lesson from failing to tackle the first Y36 incarnation and immediately upped the competition and this year saw the demise of both the Y28 and Y4. All the evidence suggest the Y36 (and probably the Y5) will go the same way.

Now I should say that I am in favour of bus regulation and have had articles about Nottingham public transport published in Buses and Nottingham Post, plus my own blog of course. I love the fact that NCT is Britain's second largest municipally owned bus company (only Edinburgh is larger), and believe that we need London style public transport controls in Greater Nottingham (ideally the entire joint Derby-Nottingham conurbation), with public funding to match.

I'll leave it to you to make up your mind about YourBus. All I would ask you to do is to look at their Y36s and Y5s as they run through Beeston and the number of passengers you see on their buses. You do not have to be a genius to ask the question 'How long?'

Inside Beeston's Magic mountain

I did a post on 8 October which included the photograph below of a shop front on Vernon Avenue. It's not a street many are likely to walk along unless using as a cut-through (which is what I do). Well, the good news is that Magic Mountain has now been open for nearly a fortnight, so I thought I would take you 'inside the mountain'.

Just in case you're thinking Vernon Avenue? I have included a section of my new Beeston 'vertical' map (which is presently still a work in progress – see my last post). Vernon Avenue runs between Wollaton Road and Villa Street. Click on the map to enlarge.

The shop specialises in 'samples, seconds and clearances'. During my ten minute visit half-a-dozen folk came in and looked around. The two photographs below capture the essence of Magic Mountain. Now I wish I had photographed what I can only describe as 'the sock bins' offering the chance to buy quality socks at a discount. I was drawn to the hat corner and can happily say probably the best display of its kind I've seen anywhere, but then I am a hat man. I never go out without one.

Whilst in Magic Mountain I had a chat with Joe Bird (left), the manager, and Chris Prentice (right), one of the shop's founders. The Broxtowe Ramblers had already been in and left brochures advertising themselves and their present programme of walks, which immediately alerted Joe and Chris to the need for the shop to have a community noticeboard — something which may now be in place.

Their website has not been update since I first visited it in early-October and still shows an opening date for 24 June 2016 on its home page. It does need updating. Chris told me their focus has been on twitter. I found Chris on twitter (here is a link), but no obvious shop twitter, nor does the website direct you to a twitter site. This is obviously something they have to work on, because Magic Mountain has a lovely feel and deserves to succeed, but don't take my word for it, go and find them on your next visit to Beeston town centre. 

Beeston goes vertical — a new kind of map

This map is a first of its kind. The idea comes from a Beeston Bus Connections Map I created at the end of 2013. If you follow the link you will see that is also a vertical map, but was a less than satisfactory solution to the challenge I had set myself at the time — the creation of a pocket bus map centred on Beeston.

I thought the idea might be better applied to a map promoting Beeston's pubs and cafés, since a landscape map results in text being set at 90 degrees. A vertical map overcomes this problem, but at the end of the day it is all about scale and proportions, so that the map can be folded and opened in a way which does not distract from what the map is trying to share. I believe that with my draft version 2, I have met the challenge. 

At some point, I hope to see the map published. In the meantime this is your opportunity to make comments and suggestions about how it might be improved. So here it is, Beeston as you have never seen it before!

To see a larger version, click on the map:

How projects like The Tram and HS2 turn politicians into chameleons and vultures

The following quote is from a news item in Anna Soubry's e-newsletter dated 5 November 2016:

Beeston’s Central College set to close

Central College has announced that their Beeston site will close after 2020. I met the Chief Executive John van de Laarschot yesterday; he said the plan is to cut costs by reducing the number of campuses and instead build a new £50 million College in Nottingham. 

I am far from convinced this is a good idea. 500 students use Beeston College and whilst I accept the buildings at the rear are in poor condition, the front is modern and attractive - and it has its own tram stop. The closure will be yet another blow for Chilwell High Road. I am very concerned that yet again, the City is taking precedence over areas like Broxtowe.

Now  a quote and link to a page on Anna Soubry's website headed 'HS2 in Broxtowe':

Anna Soubry has welcomed plans to place the HS2 East Midlands hub at Toton Sidings. But the planned line will cause disruption to a small number of houses in Broxtowe, some of which will have to be demolished. There is also real concern about the affect on the environment at  Strelley Village, Nuthall and Trowell. Anna Soubry is committed to getting the best deal for those affected by HS2.

The impact of the tram on parts of Beeston and Chilwell is pretty much as Anna Soubry sees it, especially when she writes 'I am very concerned yet again (that) the City is taking precedence over areas like Broxtowe'.

Personally, I would prefer existing railway lines electrified and modernised so that there can be more, faster, trains to cities like London, Birmingham and Manchester instead of wasting billions on HS2. Another argument used by opponents of HS2 is that the this new high-speed line is all about sucking more business and jobs into London. Those who support HS2 are of the view that if HS2 is good for London, then, by default, it is good for the rest of England too, especially the Midlands.

Downscale these arguments and replace 'HS2' with the Nottingham–Chilwell 'Tram extension' and you have much the same scenario and arguments. The Tram has not gentrified or improved things for Bulwell or Hyson Green in twelve years and, as yet, it has done nothing of note for Beeston or Chilwell — a fact which Anna Soubry recognises. In her own words 'The City is taking precedence'. She could be talking about London and HS2. In fact she probably, albeit unknowingly, is!

I will be long gone come 2036 when the occasional HS2 train stops at the Derby-Nottingham (or Nottingham-Derby) HS Station at Toton, but I have learnt enough in my 72 years to know that Anna Soubry's successor in Parliament (if she is not Mother of the House by then) will also be complaining that 'The City is taking precedence'.

Central College is doing what is expected of it in a society where education has been commercialised and serves the interests of business before the students it is meant to be helping to educate. It is as simple as that. The financial and logistical problem the college is trying to address is one created by Parliament and all three main political parties in England.

I can imagine local Conservative, Labour and Liberal councillors on Broxtowe Borough Council saying much the same thing as Anna Soubry. Political elites in 2016 are like chameleons, they morph colour to please whoever it is they want to please on any particular day. They share policies like vultures share a corpse.

An educated population with access to decent public services and housing should be the No.1 priority.

FOOTNOTE. The new runway at Heathrow Airport also comes to mind. The vision offered  bears little resemblance to the awful reality it will bring about, if you consider the negative impact it will have on the environment, public services and public expenditure.