Nine wasted months by local councils creating new CA. Will Broxtowe and Erewash Conservatives make the same mistake?

The local authorities of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire have quietly joined forces to submit a 'combined authority' (CA) bid to the Government. You can read all about it on Broxtowe Borough Council's website.

At the beginning of 2015, Nottinghamshire was insisting that it would be successful with its own bid to create a CA. It was never going to happen and I blogged in January 2015 why. I argued then for the creation of a 'then city' CA based on Derby and Nottingham (see a link to that post here).

NINETEEN councils have signed up to create this new super-council, including Broxtowe. They are a disparate bunch for a number of reasons - politics, social, economic and geography. History and time have moved on since Domesday and the great local government reforms of the late-19th century (everything else outside Greater London and the metropolitan counties created in 1974 has been no more than tinkering).

The creation of a Derby-Notts CA, which will come with an elected mayor/super leader, will bring with it inevitable change. Five tiers of local government, from the many many parish/town councils to the two county councils, was not sustainable when it was just Nottinghamshire bidding to become a CA. Now it is even less so. I would not be too surprised if Bassetlaw did not eventually leave the Derby-Notts CA and join the proposed Sheffield CA, based on the South Yorkshire unitary councils. It would make sense in every respect.

Greater Manchester set the ball rolling (in terms of public awareness) and is based on just nine unitary councils (not NINETEEN councils from three different levels), all created in 1974 when the Greater Manchester Metropolitan County Council came into being. It didn't last long. The Conservatives created the council under Ted Heath and another Conservative leader, Margaret Thatcher, abolished it in 1986, by which time the upstart council had earned a place in the affections of those who lived there. It continued to exist as a powerful voluntary partnership, jointly owning such things as Manchester Airport.

Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire have no such legacy to build on, but for it to work it will need to reduce the number of local political leaders. Broxtowe will have to cede powers to the new CA leader and the most important powers it will lose will be housing and planning. Privatise bin emptying services and you are left with Broxtowe becoming one big town council, who will then find itself under attack from the new CA and existing parish/town councils.

There is a way though for Broxtowe Borough Council to survive and I would suggest that is by teaming up with Erewash Borough Council. Both are Conservative controlled. Both border large Labour controlled city councils and, together, make a harmonious geographical area. Both have similar populations and total c.222,000 together - enough to create a sustainable unitary authority. If the Conservatives running the two councils could do this they would win twice - they would protect themselves from bigger city neighbours and almost certainly bring about the end of the two county councils. 

This, in my book, equals survival. It is a better fate than any of the others which await Broxtowe once the new CA exists. Leave it nine months and it will be 'bye bye Broxtowe' at some point. What would you do in this situation? Sit around and wait? I refuse to believe that Broxtowe Conservatives are that stupid. Act now and they stand a good chance of being in charge of their own destiny. 

I was right about the proposed Nottinghamshire CA at the beginning of 2015 and I am right again.

Remember, come the day, you read it here first.

PS. If you have not seen it, a Government report to Parliament in May 2015 is worth a look. Also the first CA in England is for Cornwall and the Scilly Isles. It is beginning happen...

Beeston Overground

I have 're-branded' my Beeston 'underground style' transport map 'Beeston Overground'. I think enough people are now familiar with Transport for London's Overground map to recognise my efforts for what it is — hence the change of name (see right-hand column).

Here is a quick look. It has taken me two years to reach the point where I am very pleased with my creation and I am thinking about ways to make it even better. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy it for what it is...

Simply click on the map to enlarge. To find out more, click on the link in the right-hand column.

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

Local produce comes no fresher than this

A month ago I blogged about a Saturday amble into Beeston town centre and caught Dave, a Wollaton Road Allotment holder, selling his last beans. Yesterday morning (Saturday again) I walked into town a lot earlier to spend time helping on the Beeston & District Civic Society stall publicising the Heritage Open Days which begin this coming Thursday and last until Sunday (see map in right-hand column). This time I caught Dave with loads of vegetables. They could not come any fresher. Picked just minutes before. If you are in the know, the entrance to Wollaton Road Allotments at the north end of the town centre is a great place to buy fresh, local, produce.

A tapestry in stone

Friday found us venturing away from Beeston to meet up with close friends who live in Longton, one of the towns which make up Stoke-on-Trent, to celebrate a 65th birthday. We met in Rocester and had a long slow lunch in a farm shop, before heading in convoy to Croxden Abbey.

Over the years I have lost count of how many times I have seen the fingerpost sign saying 'Croxden Abbey' and never once diverted to see what there was to see. My focus always on getting to Longton to be with our friends Paul and Rosie (whose birthday it was).

I knew enough to know that we were going to see ruins and Rosie had blogged about Croxden Abbey. Click here to see a Croxden post she did in 2013 and an earlier Croxden post form 2008. Beyond that I had no idea of what to expect. In the event I was blown away by the experience.

I go to a place like Croxden and, selfishly, think that to take pictures will detract from the experience. It is as if those monks laboured all those centuries ago for us now and it had to be robbed of stone so we could be left with something greater than a religious house. Rosie's posts are full of great photographs and the few I am sharing with you now were taken by Rosie and Paul on Friday.

As wonderful as the larger remains are, I get the greatest pleasure from the detail. Little corners like this. I didn't want to leave.

I asked Rosie to take this photograph for me as it encapsulates the day and my feelings about Croxden Abbey. I see it as a tapestry in stone, woven, not built, knitted together and in places the walls were warm to the touch and I believe such walls can capture the human spirit as well as the Sun's rays. The marks on the dressed stone carry messages if we touch and let the vibration of time soaked into our bones and minds.

I am not religious or a mystic, but Paul caught me unawares with this photograph. Looking towards one corner of the Abbey remains. I was surrounded by stillness, oblivious to everything but the beauty of the moment. This is as near as I get to having a faith in anything beyond socialist humanism. I really connected with the monks and brethren who made this moment possible.

During the course of my seventy-one years I have visited countless places and a few register and stay with you, ever present, to be conjured up as inner releases — places which make you instantly happy. On Friday Croxden Abbey joined Sempringham, a Southwold beach-hut, Belgrave Road in Leicester, the Fosse Way, Bakewell Meadow, Haddon Hall and Oldmoor Wood. Wembley High Road from a 83 RT bus or 662 trolleybus, a 35 bus going to Bulwell. 

And you may wonder about people. I could fill a book with happy thoughts about friends and family, but they will all pass with me. Croxden will remain and I like to think that some of what spirit I have was left there on Friday to become part of what makes such places greater than just stones standing on stones.

See you on Saturday with copies of my Beeston Pocket Companion ©

I am taking copies of my 2015 Heritage Open Days Pocket Companion with me to place on the Beeston & District Civic Society's stall in Beeston Square on Saturday. 200 copies. The cover measures 7.5 x 10.5cm and is easy to carry about and refer to. If you would like a copy come along. I am printing just 100 at my own expense, unless a sponsor shows up in the next twenty-four hours.

On my wife's advice, who is keen on copyright, the term 'Beeston Pocket Companion' and my Beeston map design, will now come with a copyright claim in my name (Robert Howard). I will make the map freely available for not-for-profit activities and to independent local businesses in return for the inclusion of my beestonweek.blogspot logo and if any are printed for distribution I expect them to be printed in Beeston or Chilwell. I support local independent traders.

Good news. Simon at Pixel & Graphics on Chilwell Road in return for a sponsor's box, is sharing the cost of producing 100 in colour with me. I can't imagine anyone choosing mono until that option as gone. We shall see on Saturday. There has also been a cover change. Judy at the Civic Society fell in love with this pink box, so how could I deny her.

PS. It won't be in colour. It will be mono, but this what it would like if I had the money!

Beeston foodie quote, local art and a 20 bus

A quick dash into Beeston town centre was the intention, but the rain came so we popped into L'Oliva for a light lunch and got a foodie quote from a favourite detective as well.

We are great Montalbano fans, the Sicilian detective who features regularly on BBC4-TV on a Saturday night. The programmes are beautifully filmed and come with lots of wholesome Italian ladies and plenty of food 'porn'.

The books are written by Andrea Camilleri and are a joy to read. 

Sometimes a picture says it all and this is one those occasions. All I need tell you is that what you see before you cost less than £20 and I understand that L'Oliva will be opening in the evening as well from October, if everything go to plan. We look forward to walking down Wollaton Road for an  early evening meal.

We also made time to pop into Beeston Library to see a exhibition of work by local artists and 'creative' photographers (my description). A mixed bag, with some local scenes of topical interest, including the tram and Beeston Lock. I am sure every visitor will find something they like. I think people who put their creations on public display should be applauded. 

This is a photograph of Beeston Library's staircase from the 1st floor. The images also appear as etchings in some of the glass door panels. You can walk past up and down the stairs a hundred times without giving the images a second glance. I rather like this public 'artwork', for that is what it is. There is always a big danger that you could go into the Library next week and someone will have painted the wall. These are the kind of small things we need to be alert to in public spaces.

Finding the time to post all I want to is not easy, given there are other things I want to do as well, but I will end with a couple of 'by the ways', one a rare sight and the other recognition of sorts:

On Sunday, Susan and I popped into Nottingham city centre and went on the tram. It was mid-day and it was standing all the way, although at the QMC a mum did take her daughter on her lap so Susan could sit down. Just before it arrived at the Interchange, I saw a very rare sight — a 20 bus going to Heanor. It only runs on Sundays and covers parts of Trent-Barton routes 18 and 21, which run Mondays–Saturdays. Routes like this seem only to become 'essential' when they are lost, which is why it is important that they are promoted and supported as much as very frequent services like the 36, Y36 and Indigo.

'Heanor' I hear you say.'Where's that?' It is part of the Greater Nottingham conurbation on the road between Ilkeston and Ripley. From Beeston it is houses all the way. I would argue that Beeston needs a direct bus service to Ilkeston every day, but I will leave that argument for another occasion.

Finally, thanks to Judy Sleath, the Chair of Beeston & District Civic Society, my Beeston 2015 Heritage Open Days map has been put into the public noticeboard in Beeston's Square. Thank you Judy for your support and encouragement.