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.

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.

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!

How many £250,000s' does it take to make a Nottinghamshire doughnut?

Nottinghamshire County Council

is offering Beeston to make part of a doughnut 

Four more stories on the BBC News today* about the County Council's plan to create a unitary Nottinghamshire Council, which excludes Nottingham City Council (already is a unitary council).

The first one says the County Council has voted itself £250,000 of our money to progress the idea and to carry out 'a consultation'.  This decision was made with the help of four Mansfield Independent Forum county councillors and (I am assuming) the support of the Conservative leader of Broxtowe Borough Council. The best the Conservatives have been offering Beeston since they came to power is crumbs

Broxtowe Conservatives feed Beeston crumbs

The second story says that a Mansfield Independent Forum council on the said district council is moving a motion opposing the idea and expects MIF's county councillors to support him.

The third story was about Ashfield councillors who walked to County Hall in West Bridgford to demonstrate their opposition to the County Council's plan.

Nottingham City Council may offer Beeston the chance to join them in the kitchen so we can all eat better and grow healthy together

The final story was that Nottingham City Council has reiterated its own proposal, should the County Council's plan ever grow legs, to propose the extension of the city council area to include the Greater Nottingham conurbation.

So, what does Beeston want?

To be part of a county council doughnut,

To continue surviving on Broxtowe crumbs

or to be in the kitchen helping to make Greater Nottingham a healthy place to live?

The Conservatives in Broxtowe offer us crumbs and I wonder how many more £250,000s Nottinghamshire County Council will spend on its power grab?

Broxtowe Borough Council is running short of money, hence the support of its Leader for the Council Council's 'doughnut' solution.

Logic says we should support Nottingham City Council and to share Beeston's enterprise with the wider conurbation.

* NOTE.  All the stories have disappeared from the visible BBC News website before I could provide links. 

How Beestonians can support municipal enterprise

Today I began the process of switching my gas and electricity supplier from Scottish Power to Robin Hood Energy, the new Nottingham City Council energy company, which started trading today. The only difference between now and the old pre-nationalisation days is that the City Council does not own the power stations, so they have to buy gas and electricity on 'the market', but by any measure it is a welcome, and enterprising, step in the right direction.

My projected annual saving is modest — £176 — but I know that my money is not going to pay directors and shareholders. The City Council's directors will not be paid and RHE is described as 'a not-for-profit' business. There are different tariffs for city council area residents, so I suspect they will get a better deal than me, but I am happy to be supporting a municipal enterprise.

I would like to see a return to municipalism across a whole range of services: public transport, primary health care, all utilities and housing, especially the latter. There is a limited role for specialist housing associations, but they have no role to play in the provision of general housing, and private landlords would disappear overnight if they had to 'compete' with municipal housing on the same terms and lost all their tax advantages.

From 1985 until 2006 I was a supported housing manager, both regionally and nationally, and saw how Thatcher and the Conservatives set about crippling local authority housing and effectively brought about the commercialisation of voluntary housing associations. I saw them 'professionalised' (like the voluntary sector in general) and watched as large pay increases for senior officers were justified on the grounds that to get the best staff the sector had to 'compete'. It was a spurious argument then and still is.

The money wasted by housing associations having to compete for proposed local  'social housing' developments over the years could have been better spent building homes. I have no idea how many housing associations operate in Broxtowe Borough or Nottingham City, but the duplication of services in this way cannot be justified by any measure.

I have already blogged about how Broxtowe Borough Council appears to have no interest in controlling private landlords, as witnessed by its irresponsible attitude towards houses in multi-occupation (HMOs). Perhaps now Labour is in opposition in Broxtowe, it might take more of interest in this issue. I hope so.

My favourite blog, which you can find in the right-hand column and its masthead at the top of this post, is Municipal Dreams. To use the site's own words:

Municipal Dreams celebrates the efforts and achievements of our early municipal reformers.

These men and women dreamed of a better world.  But this was a dream built in bricks and mortar; an idealism rooted in the practical power of the local state to transform lives and raise the condition of the people.

I believe that the legacy of our early municipal reformers is unjustly neglected and often unfairly maligned.  This is a modest attempt to record their story and set that record straight.

But I’m not naive.  There were failures and missteps as well as successes. Mistakes are made, real-world limitations intervene, times change – the road to a better future is never easy.  But at least that road was taken – however falteringly – and a better, fairer future striven for.

This isn’t a crudely party political blog but, at a time when the local state and directly provided public services  are under unprecedented attack, the lessons of the past seem relevant.  In other words, this is not an exercise in nostalgia but a reminder that it doesn’t have to be this way.

For the second time in my active political life, which began in 1959 when I was fifteen, I sense change is about (the first was 1964 and you have only to look at Labour's achievements under Wilson to realise he was second only to Attlee). There are those among us who are determined to destroy what hopes and ambitions we have. We must not let this happen. The best way to win is to be open, to be reasonable and to promote models of ownership and control based on local communities and not state capitalism, for that is what the old model of nationalisation was and remains.

We will know soon enough and Nottingham's Labour controlled city council, for all its shortcomings, is there, once again, showing a better way. 

Some have greatness thrust upon them. If the person I voted for in the Labour Party leadership ballot wins, we will have to stand shoulder to shoulder with him as he faces a media and establishment determined to bring about his downfall at the first opportunity.

Right now, give yourself a lift and get a quote for your gas and electricity from Robin Hood Energy. As someone said 'Every journey begins with one small step'. Let this be yours! a

Beeston's 'Flying Dutchman Bus' and embracing the Creative Corner

Before I begin the journey I made on Friday, a footnote of sorts to last week's post. My new driving licence arrived on Thursday, so I went into Broxtowe Borough Council offices during my travels to prove that I am me. Hopefully, I will get a letter soon confirming that I now am a registered voter.

I have asked the Borough's Electoral Office for information about registered voters in the four Beeston wards by streets and the number of households, together with the same data for 2011. This will enable me to compare voter nos. by Beeston streets. I will tell you my findings in a few weeks, assuming I am given the data I have requested.

Now back to Friday, when I took myself off on a bus journey around Beeston, Toton, Stapleford and Sandiacre before reaching Long Eaton. The bus in question was a no.17 and not a single person I have asked knows about it and I have asked a good few over the past few weeks, so what am I talking about?

Well, it's this old fella…

This is the 17 arriving at my bus stop on Wollaton Road on Friday morning just after 10.20am — right on time, having started its journey in Beeston Fields (Dennis Avenue).

It was empty as my photograph shows apart from me and the driver and this is how it stayed all the way to Chilwell Retail Park, where to two other oldies joined me. The bus stopped just twelve times whilst seven other passengers got on and off between Toton and Sandiacre. For the run into Long Eaton I again had the bus to myself. I picked up a timetable on the bus:

This map is inside it (to enlarge, just click on the map):

At my bus-stop on Wollaton Road towards Beeston there was a timetable, but the route no.17 does not appear on the bus-stop itself, and this is the case for most of the route. At a good few stops no timetable is displayed. Taken together all these explain why this little red bus has been winging its way around Beeston empty most of the time like a Flying Dutchman Bus, although I have seen a few passengers on board coming up the hill out of Beeston towards Dennis Avenue, 

The 17 is a commercial bus route operated since 2 December 2014 by Nottingham Coaches, but their website contains no easy to access information about the service — which operates from 9.20am–2.20pm Monday–Friday hourly (start times from Dennis Avenue and Long Eaton Asda). The timetable leaflet says that 'When the new tram routes start running in 2015, our buses will pull into the new tra stop park & ride site to provide (passengers) with fast access to Nottingham City Centre'.

Premiere Buses, who folded a year or so ago, operated a no.17 bus route along part of the same route, so I suspect that the fact that Nottingham Coach chose to number their route '17' is no coincidence.

Given how little publicity there has been and the restricted service I just hope the 17 is still running come mid-summer when The Tram is due to start. The bus was old, noisy and rattled. Given the high quality buses of the local rival bus companies, they will have to up their game if their 17 bus route is to survive. I wish them well. I also suspect that Trent-Barton will be introducing their own Tram feeder bus routes when The Tram finally starts running.

Having said all this, it was an interesting journey 'around the houses' so to speak. Most of the other passengers knew one another and it had all the makings of a route like Nottingham City Council's Linkbus service L10, which I have become a regular user of after years of travelling of the 36, Y36 and Indigo.

The L10 really is a friendly bus and also goes 'around the houses' and I love the little section from Beeston along Derby Road, when it is heading to towards the Victoria Centre in the direction of Derby! I grew up in Wembley using bus routes like this (namely the 16, 46 and 55) and wrote about the 28 in Birmingham back in the early-1970s (the 28 used to head south out of Birmingham City Centre before turning east, then heading north to Kingstanding on the northern edge of the city).

I photographed this L10 in Beeston Bus Station at the beginning of its journey to the Victoria Centre. The bus has seen better days and will, I believe, be replaced by new electric buses before too long, when Nottingham City Council start operating the service instead of Nottingham City Transport (hence the signs about EasyRider tickets no longer being valid on Linkbus routes from 1 March 2015).

My fascination with buses began as a child and as a local historian of sorts I have long been interested in the role buses (and trams) have played in the development of our towns and cities over the last one hundred years and more.

As often is the case, I digress, so it's back to my Friday day out. When I got off the 17 at Long Eaton I caught a Indigo back towards Chilwell with a view to visiting the Mish Mash Gallery. I had a vague idea of where it was, having passed it many times over recent years, but on my many walks around Beeston I never got further than Park Road to visit friends.

Seeing the time, an account of my eventful visit will have to wait until Wednesday, so please come back and learn more about Chilwell's 'Creative Corner'. I have done one thing already: updated my Beeston Pubs & Cafes Map to include its location. See the Pages section in the column to the right of this post.

Much more than it looks… a Tardis of the Arts.

To learn more return Thursday…