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!