Mapping what's best for Beeston

Click on the map to enlarge (please contact me if you would like a PDF 300lpi version emailed to you) — Robert Howard.

The map above has been created to examine and ponder. If I have shown anything wrong in terms of the data I have used, then please contact me. All the data has come from the statutory bodies and some is not yet available.

I have added Heritage Open Day locations since my first version because I want to show how Beeston pulls places in Nottingham into its orbit as well as the other way round. During the month I spent in the Beeston High Road pop-up shop I met lots of interesting people, a good few regular visits from places like Bilborough and Bulwell as well as Wollaton. Most came here to shop, liking the fact that there were plenty of places to snack and get a drink. The fact that Beeston & District Civic Society publicises history events in Bilborough and Strelley is yet another example of Beeston relates more to the city than to the northern half of Broxtowe Borough.

Also bear in mind the Nottingham City Council is already a unitary council — Nottinghamshire County Council is not!  Becoming one will cost a lot of money because it will involve merging data and services presently provided by the 7 district councils, including Broxtowe Borough Council, with that of the county council

Beeston has little in common with any of them, including Broxtowe. It is by any measure part of the Nottingham conurbation sharing many of the same interests and problems as neighbouring Nottingham City Council wards.

If Beeston residents sit on their backsides and do nothing they will find themselves isolated in a small of corner of a county council which shares none of its interests or problems, some of which I have addressed in previous posts to this blog.

The purpose of this post is share the map I have created with as many people as possible. I don't do Facebook or other social media so I am hoping others with these skills will spread my map far and wide because they believe it to be in the best interests of Beeston — like I do!

There has been an online 'consultation' which finishes tomorrow are less than 4 weeks with no land address for written submission.

I posted a link in my 21 October 2018 blog, which you can click onto here.

The consultation document is a farce but the game begins in earnest in May 2019 after the local elections. From now on we need to argue the case for Beeston becoming part of Nottingham and we need to elect councillors who; IF faced with a choice, will choose joining with Nottingham City Council and not Nottinghamshire County Council.

A P.S.  Today I joined Facebook so I could share this map on the Beeston Update Facebook 'public' space and someone kindly pointed out that I had a Liberal councillor in Kimberley instead of a Labour councillor. This map is now amended. I got some positive feedback, but I will continue to blog. I hate how Facebook keeps throwing stuff at you and suggesting 'friends' I have never heard of. It is not a website I will be posting directly to more than I have to.

Map showing Council Tax Band 'A' charges in Broxtowe Borough and Nottingham City councils.

A map which speaks for itself. Beeston Band 'A' council tax payers transferring from Broxtowe borough Council to Nottingham City Council will, at the 2018/2019 charge rate, pay an extra £71 per annum, assuming the City Council's unitary charge matches the £885 levied by Nottinghamshire County Council onto Beeston Band 'A' council tax payers.

Usual thing, click on map /table to enlarge

I created the Council Tax chart below in August 2018:

The Broxtowe Council Tax charges are as for Beeston. As the above map shows these charges vary across Broxtowe because of charges levied by town and parish councils. 

Because Beeston's services are provided by two councils there has to be additional admin charges. By Beeston joining Nottingham there will only be one council managing council services and we should be as beneficiary of this.

A map showing Beeston in relation Broxtowe Borough Council and Nottingham City Council wards plus the Parliamentary case for Beeston going with Nottingham

A few days ago, in my last blog, I posted the first version of the map below. Here is the 4th version and this is how it will stay bar tweaking. Over the next week or so it will be joined by versions showing the total electorate in each ward, the area covered by the annual Beeston & District Heritage Open Days programme and a Council Tax version based on Band 'A'.

In addition there is the fact that in September just gone  the Government accepted the Boundary Commission's report on proposed new Parliamentary constituencies which MPs will have to agree, assuming the Government proceeds with trying to get the new constituencies in place for the next General Election. This will lead to the new Nottingham West and Beeston constituency, which includes all the Broxtowe Borough Council Beeston wards and the Attenborough & Chilwell East ward — yet further (and strong) evidence of the argument that Beeston should join with Nottingham City Council.

Click on the map to enlarge.

A new graphic Beeston - Broxtowe - Nottingham ward map – a work in progress

I still have some graphic tweaking to do but I think the motorway and the railway lines are self evident. The orange lines show where buses go to and from Beeston including Derby Road and Queens Road as both are in Beeston wards and its historic parish. One thing is startling clear — no buses go to the north of Broxtowe Borough.

Once you start looking at Beeston in relation to Broxtowe Borough it becomes clear that the links with Nottingham are social, historic, cultural, economic, and with Nottingham University too. 

Yet another important link between Beeston and Nottingham is the new proposed Parliamentary constituency of Nottingham West AND Beeston. The fact that boundary commissioners accept the link adds weight to the argument that come the demise of Broxtowe Borough Council Beeston should join with the already unitary Nottingham City Council and not the proposed unitary Nottinghamshire Country Council.

The other great advantage of joining with Nottingham (given that Broxtowe Borough Council's days are limited — hence the Conservatives supporting Nottinghamshire County Council's plan to merge with all the county's district councils to create a unitary council) is that the City Council is already a unitary council and for Beeston to join the City will save a whole load of money.

Over the coming days and weeks I will develop my arguments, even get a banner made of this map and it spin-offs. I believe maps and graphics make the case I am arguing easier to understand.

Comments welcome.  I am planning to add ward electorate numbers and Band 'A' council tax rates (the largest band).

I hope you find this map interesting. Updates will follow next week. For the next few days I have other things I need to do.

Robert Howard

A taste of Scotland comes to Wollaton Road shops

The new new teashop on Wollaton Road is now open and is called the Thistle Teahouse. They opened at the end of last week and it looks very different to Edwards, the Beeston award winning 'street food' café who previously occupied this little space.

A peek inside shows that it is nicely arranged and welcoming and here is a glimpse of its menus, one for afternoon tea and the other for more normal eating, albeit with a Scottish take:

Living as I do barely 5 minutes away I used to pass Edwards by, but in the next few days I will be going to the Thistle for brunch, with its black pudding, or maybe the Scottish square sausage roll and, oh, then there's the oatcakes. Not many eateries get off to a such good start as this. And then there's Afternoon Tea!!

If I was a betting man I suspect the Thistle TeaHouse will be quickly sniffed out and busy. The only threat on the horizon is being so successful that people give up trying to get in and that would be a pity, but I'm going to be kind and show you where it is.

I wish the owner, a lady called Maggie if I remember her name correctly, every success and, as for Beeston, this little parade of shops is turning into something quite special and a great advert for the town.

It's time for Beeston to wave good bye to Broxtowe Borough Council

I've spent an adult life mapping local issues and today I have compiled a map based on Broxtowe Borough Council's own website. 

The map speaks for itself. This at a time when the Conservative led Nottinghamshire County Council is pushing through a super fast consultation on the future of local government in the county (excluding Nottingham City Council) which could result in Conservative councillors across the county having even more control over Beeston. I've come to the conclusion it's time to wave goodbye to Broxtowe Borough Council and to campaign for a fourth option: that Beeston can join with Nottingham City Council. I will argue again for this option in a few days time. In the meantime look at my map and ponder, then go and fill in the County Council's rather dubious online questionnaire.

The green wards have councillors who voted to sell Beeston Town Hall and the red wards voted against selling the Town Hall. In no ward was there a split vote but councillors did abstain in Kimberley and Stapleford North, so one can reasonably assume they can live with the decision to sell Beeston Town Hall.

Click on map and vote record to enlarge.

I believe my map tells its own story. Beeston is isolated from the rest of Broxtowe Borough in so many ways. It graphically shows where the few Labour and even fewer Liberal Democrat councillors are.

The chances of Labour winning back control of Broxtowe on its own are small. In other words it will almost certainly have to govern post-May 2019 with the support of Liberal councillors. Given that this assumption is reasonable and I have seen no evidence to suggest otherwise, then logic says Labour and the Liberal Democrats need to be talking now so that over the next six months they can use their resources to best advantage.

'Heresy' I hear you say and you will be right, but I make no apology for telling it as it appears to me.

If, between them, Labour and Liberal Democrats by their desire to go it alone allow the Conservatives to hold onto Broxtowe Borough Council to its very end then they will be doing a grave disservice to the people of Broxtowe.

I am no fan of Liberal Democrats, but deeply regret that Labour failed to find a way to work with them after its 2010 General Election defeat. We live with the consequences every day.

The best to avoid being governed by Conservatives councillors or having to do deals with Liberal Democrat councillors is to become part of a Greater Nottingham City Council at the first opportunity — something I will return to again and again over coming months, even taking myself onto Beeston High Road with a banner to argue the cause if I have to!

It's time to hibernate

Two days ago I realised it was time to hibernate, something I’ve been doing the last couple of years. This time two years ago  I had already slowed down to the point where exercise was difficult thanks to my heart condition and I was expecting to have my aortic valve replaced before the end of October. In the event that didn't happen until the end of February last year. No pain or discomfort, just a case of being overwhelmed by lethargy.

Alongside it I had my ideopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), which had been diagnosed in May 2015 and led directly to the discovery of the fact that I had managed to live with only two cusps in my aortic heart valve instead of the usual 3, which meant my heart had spent a lifetime working 50% harder. And my lung condition was only found because of an x-ray I had at the QMC on the day after the 2015 General Election and within 21 days I was facing the prospect of being dead in three years, but here I am battling on, although as of yet it doesn't seem much of a fight.

I started doing what I was told by the medics and my open heart surgery marks the first day still in my Filofax diary. I have been more amazed by the experience than overwhelmed. Even looking death in the eye, and it was a dramatic as that, I felt like an observer, never a victim, but that moment passed in hours thanks to the care and support I received whilst in Nottingham City Hospital.

At the beginning of November last year I had my vanity appealed to (not that the person asking me knew that) and I went to a meeting. Within two days I was in bed with a chest infection that felt as if my lungs were being squeezed shut. Two weeks of antibiotics helped me through it and it was close to Christmas before I felt well enough to go out again. I actually remember that experience more vividly than anything else — which is why when I got the first signs of winter two days ago, the cold, the damp and that tightness of the chest, I stopped!

I will miss the pop-up shop I have been helping Judy Sleeth in and blogged about, but I know the signs and the potential consequences of not slowing down. There will be things I still do, my lung and heart exercise group every Thursday morning, going to Jo in the Local Not Global Deli once a week, but now for brunch and Rosie Lea's on Wilkinson Avenue. I'll walk every day, I'll deliver for the Labour Party and the Civic Society, but I'll avoid crowded rooms and buses, the latter almost the thing I will miss most for the next 4-5 months.

At home I will still cook and go shopping with my trolley, write, draw maps, make bus boxes and watch Christmas films on Channel 5 (as I have done for past two years) if they do them again, even garden a little, not too much as I know the wildlife in our garden depends on it being untidy if they are to make it through the winter. In so many ways I am very lucky. I have Susan and close friends I love and with whom I will do things during my 'hibernation'. Perhaps the word is too dramatic, but it doesn't feel that way if you have spent all of your life being actively engaged with people.

Five days ago I was still in my spring and summer mode, enjoying autumn. Now I am in late-autumn / winter mode busy looking forward. 

Of one thing I am sure. It's good to be alive!

The fate of Beeston Town Hall is very much a local issue, but the process of its going should concern every every Broxtowe Borough resident

I can't pretend that I regard Beeston Town Hall as anything other than an uninspiring example of toy town architecture. Pretty at best. Having said that I understand why many Beestonians feel a fierce attachment to the building and, how, despite 45 years of being part of Broxtowe Borough Council they have never quite accepted the fact.

Countless town halls around the country have been sold off over the past fifty years because local authorities have merged or have been replaced by modern civic 'sheds'. The creation of the metropolitan boroughs in 1974 resulted in mergers between not just two councils, but several. Just to name three: Sandwell and Stoke-on-Trent in the West Midlands are both comprised of 6 former councils and Broxtowe 3: Basford Rural District (part); Eastwood and Beeston & Stapleford (the result of an earlier merger in 1935). 

In the latter's case the decision was made in 1973 (I am assuming it was then because there were shadow local authorities in the run-up to April 1974) to keep Beeston Town Hall council chamber rather than move the Council's meeting place to Ilkeston — which is what I would have argued for had I been a borough councillor on the grounds that it is as near to a geographical centre that Broxtowe has despite being in Derbyshire.

Erewash and Broxtowe councils sharing a council chamber would have made sense then and it still does, so long as Broxtowe Borough Council exists, and if the Conservatives have their way Broxtowe will be subsumed into Notts County Council at the first opportunity!

Ilkeston is geographically easier to reach from ALL parts of Broxtowe borough. It's a bit like County Hall being in West Bridgford. Logic says it should be moved to Ollerton in the middle of the county or, once I would have argued Kelham Hall but, oh, wait a minute, Newark & Sherwood District Council sold it to a private company in 2014.

The fate of Beeston Town Hall is very much a local issue and I am assuming the community group bidding to run it have done their sums with regards to rent, servicing and maintenance. As a charity they can plug into the Lottery for capital and project grants, but there is already fierce competition between local groups for what Lottery money there is. If the council lease or rent the Town Hall to the community group they will still have landlord responsibilities, which I'm sure is the last thing they want.

At this late stage I believe the 'community' argument is countered by mismanagement on the part of Broxtowe Borough Council; that the cost of moving a computer hub and decommissioning the Town Hall will take much of the £450,000 the church group is, as I understand it, paying for the building. The community group's offer it can be argued provides income, but the rent will not be a peppercorn one.

The Council could sell the Town Hall to the community group for a nominal £10 as happened when Nottingham City Council sold Lenton Leisure Centre to Lenton Community Association and the whole site morphed into The Lenton Centre. Back then the City Council were trying to sell the site for £160,000 with LCA occupying a third of the building and a 10 year lease because they had refurbished and extended their part of the building with Lottery funding and other charitable grants. 

I was was actively involved in LCA and renting was our first approach until at a meeting attended by the Development Trust they suggested we buy the site instead and that our business plan needed third party input despite LCA having the skills in-house to produce such a business plan. Susan and I raised £15,000 from Social Enterprise East Midlands* (SEEM) and Tesco gave us the services of a senior financial executive to oversee the creation of the business plan. In the event I believe this outside third party support was key to LCA's success. We carried out a door-to-door consultation with our questionnaire across the whole of (New) Lenton and  had a 41% response — it also helped to identify new volunteers with skills which help  the campaign immensely and one of the those volunteers, Carl Towner, an active member of St. Nicholas Church in Nottingham city centre, went on to become The Lenton Centre's first Chief Executive. 12 years on TLC is still going strong and now runs the 'wet' side of the Portland Leisure Centre in The Meadows.

NOTE: * SEEM has obviously changed, but it still exist.

It was a long time ago, but we've kept a few papers and among  them was a copy of the questionnaire we designed and delivered to every house in New Lenton as early as 2004 when Lenton Leisure Centre finally closed (two previous attempts, in 1994 and 2000, were fought off by the local community). We printed it on cream card, because people are more likely to open cream envelopes and to read leaflets printed on cream, thicker, paper (I have no idea if this is still true in 2018).

Click on the images to enlarge.

I had also forgotten that the reason for the 41% response rate was the free draw offering 4 x £50 cash prizes to people completing the form with Lenton addresses.

Getting grants quickly was easier then and, if I remember correctly, the questionnaire was funded by  Nottinghamshire Community Foundation who gave LCA a number of small grants during the course of our campaign.

It is a story I know well because Susan and me were part of it. The logo Susan created was being used until quite recently and it is my history of the building and how it all happened that is on The Lenton Centre website. Back in 2016 we gave the archives of Lenton Community Association to Nottinghamshire Archives and they end on the day The Lenton Centre took over the building from Lenton Community Association and Susan was one of the first directors.

It was hard work, I couldn't do it now, but whole process from beginning to end was in the public domain, all the meetings were open to the community. We were pushing newsletters through every door in Lenton almost monthly for 2 years.

Our Labour ward councillors, Zahoor Mir and Dave Trimble were fantastic throughout, as was our then Labour MP Alan Simpson and the value of their support cannot be underestimated.

You do not win community campaigns by being polite or non-political. Our campaign was open and that was at the heart of our success. No one was excluded.

The only thing that can save Beeston Town Hall from falling into the hands of a church group is that the bidding process has been flawed from the beginning and Matt Turpin and his colleagues are to be praised for all their hard work in revealing this fact more than once in such minute detail. The latest post to his Beestonia blog should be enough to ensure the church bid is never considered by Broxtowe Borough Councillors.

No councillor worth the title will agree to selling it to a non-community group. It should be as simple as that!

Somehow every voter in Broxtowe needs to be alerted to the flawed process at the heart of this sell-off and this is the argument which needs to be concentrated on!

Mention of Beeston will alienate many who live in other parts of the borough. Beeston appears to thrive whilst other parts suffer, so the argument to save the Town Hall has to focus on the process — not the outcome.

Halloween comes early to Wollaton Road's Cafe Roya?

I'm not sure why he or she is sitting in the window of Cafe Roya on Wollaton. I suspect it has something to do with Halloween, which is still a few weeks away. I say 'he or she' even though I'm not into ghouls, zombies or the like.

On the plus side I'm sure it will bring a smile to the face of any passer-by who notices our friend in the window, but not quite as amusing as the Metro Cafe's Halloween offering for the last few years, also a skeleton but with a dog too. I've never seen him or her with the cup of coffee but then skeletons do have bowel problems if you think about it.

I took these two pics almost three years ago to the day and did a post at the time, which you can see here under the heading 'Unworldly folk you can see here in Beeston'.

I admit to not liking the 'trick or treat' Halloween which has been imported from America for purely commercial reasons. Oh I know it has a place in some Christian faiths, but then I am no fan of religious redemption; of being able to buy eternity whatever one's mortal crimes regardless of faith.

We live with our sins (and by this I mean things which we do rather than the breaking of some religious command/rule) as best we can.

I have reached the point in my life where Christmas has become my time for reflection and find myself missing those who I would have once shared a table with but then I love winter, especially February. Right now though I am enjoying autumn. My next post I think.

Tea pots in a row

142 Wollaton Road is slowly getting a makeover and will open at some point in the future as a high end teashop. The shop was previously occupied by the award winning 'street food' café called Edward's.

There are now bubble wrapped chairs and tables inside and now this row of teapots has appeared in the window — which suggests it won't be long before another eatery opens. 

Pop-up Beeston shop goes electric

The Pop-up Beeston shop

40 Beeston High Road

I did another stint at the Pop-up Beeston Shop yesterday afternoon and enjoyed the company of a steady stream of visitors, including two very special ones, not that I knew this at first — that came later in our conversation...

The extra special visitors turned out to be Steve and Lynn Hallam who own the shop. The other person in the pic, which was taken by Dan Walker of C.P. Walker & Son is me (Robert Howard).

I thanked them for their support and explained what we were trying to do; that it had all happened so quickly, that we were all volunteers, and we hoped the experience gained in their shop would enable us to work with Dan Walker when shops become empty in the future.

Steve Hallam was originally a Beeston lad (he's not related to the town's other Hallams) and his great-grandfather, a baker, Philip Wells Glover, came from Kegworth (follow this link to the Beeston-Notts History website).

Until Steve and Lynn came in none of us knew who the landlord of the old Thornton chocolates shop was or who we had to thank for our good fortune.

Later Steve and Lynn came back with Dan Walker and inside the shop was lit for the first time, which enabled me to take some better photographs. As this pic shows the lights being on even softened this exterior view and made the shop look more inviting. I also found more people came into the shop during the hour or so the lights were on; the whole shop was just so much more inviting.

The shop just looks better as these three pics show…

As I have mentioned in a previous post about the pop-up Beeston shop there is a need for what I call 'PUB commandos, to help us keep the shop open. A mix of 2–3 hour sessions Monday to Saturday covering the hours 10am–4pm will be more than enough. I say this based on previous experience in Lenton helping to run the then Crocus (community) Gallery for three years in a empty shop owned by Nottingham City Council (the flats were going to be demolished together with Church Square, where the empty unit, next to the Crocus (community) Café).

By the end of this week I will have done six sessions. I prefer to stay in the shop waiting for visitors to come in and when they do it is often to ask what is happening to the shop or to share reminiscences. The local historian in me believes the latter is reason enough, together with the We Are Beeston panels. Tomorrow (Saturday) I will take a contact notebook along to the pop-up shop.

Visitors who ask for more information about the shop are being directed by me to the excellent Exploring Beeston's History website, which has a section devoted the High Road and an entry for no.40, which is the pop-up shop. Follow this link.

I have taken the liberty of capturing this image of the shop from the website.

With thanks to the Exploring Beeston's History website

A lady came in last week and said she started worked in the 1950s in Ferrands when she was 15 and clearly remembered her time there with fondness. 

But there is a downside to running a pop-up shop — you need money to pay for electricity and water. That's about it, but in a shop such as this it will not be cheap. Beeston & District Civic Society is going to take the lead, but they will need our help and support.

I see this very much as a community venture drawing in local folk of all ages and by this I mean anyone who lives, works or has an interest in Beeston.

So over to you. What can you do? What would you like to do?

For now contact me via the comments section, but I will change this bit ASAP to a proper contact.

This is an exciting venture — be part of it and share the pleasure.

Take a look at History By Bus and see Nottingham a little differently

Click on the poster to enlarge and see it at its best.

More of my time is going to be taken up with my other blog: historybybus.blogspot.comhttp://historybybus.blogspot.com.

The blog tells its own story, so I won't repeat it here, other than to say that I have worked with local groups and Nottingham City Transport since 2014 promoting the 35 bus route as the city's 'History Bus' and a couple of weeks ago NCT published their version of my guide, for which I thank them wholeheartedly.

There are eleven 35 branded buses and all now carry this roundel on their sides to the back of the bus. Seeing it gives me a buzz.

Each of the eleven buses has different history panels on the lower and upper decks. Here is a copy of the one for Wollaton Vale and its link to Trowell.

Reproduced with thanks to Nottingham City Transport who own the copyright, designed and created the panel using my text.

I hope you'll go and have a look at my History By Bus blog. Over the coming months I am planning to walk the entire 35 History Bus route recording the different styles of council and charitable housing along its length with a view to creating a 'Nottingham 35 History Bus A–Z of council and charitable housing' and it will include parts of Beeston Fields, so watch this space.