Circulated to members during August, 1995; published 4th August, 1995.
Mapperley Park
Mapperley Hall
A developer has bought the site and has provided a new plan.
On the positive side, he wants to demolish the old ministry block and only wants 7 flats in the hall.
But it's intensive - 10 detached houses have been crammed into the grounds.
The risks are - the financiers are Pickerings, the developer may be under-capitalised, the new plan is sketchy, it underestimates the size of the housing it proposes, takes more of the Hall's gardens, has garages which blocks the view of two of the proposed houses, has no details at all on materials, proposes an in-fill for the site and has no sense of of creating something special in the middle of Mapperley Park.
Ebers Grove
The derelict garages are set to be demolished. The new owners are submitting plans for two houses and some garages.
Prostitution
The Police have conducted another exercise against the clients, arresting 95 men.
Alexandra Court
Following polite letters from tenants over the proposed redesign of the Woodborough Rd / Mapperley Road junction, highway officers now hope to put one and possibly two Bextra pedestrian refuges Bˇon Woodborough Road.
Beechwood
14 kids on the books. It's quiet at the moment. Two lads from Mansfield had caused problems but are no longer on the books.
Still no appointment of a new principal.
Ozanam House
The Blyth St. residents have met a management cttee.
Elliott Durham
A major refurbishment scheme was almost withdrawn but Peter Burgess intervened.
John Heppell has visited the school.
Kingsthorpe Close
Emma is working hard with the tenants. The city are planning new security for the flats and closed circuit television for the estate.
Rents will go up from £1.48 per week (to £6 per week for new tenants).
The County's Leisure Services have made special provision for Kingsthorpe teenagers over the summer school holidays and this has been very well received.
Mapperley Hospital
Nottingham HealthCare Trust took officers and councillors on a tour of the site.
They want to demolish the second half of the old hospital and build villas, studio flats and social housing instead.
This makes a profit; converting the building for student use makes a loss.
The new proposal is not realistic. For instance, luxury villas are sited in the shade of very large deciduous trees.
There is a large chapel, with a theatre (with a balcony!) below it. A tremendous community asset.
I think students would make the most of it and more halls of residence will alleviate problems in other parts of the city.
City officers are talking again to Nott'm University. Grants may need to be sought from national organisations seeking to protect old buildings of merit. middle of Mapperley Park.
Sherwood Vale
There was Banother accident Bˇwhen a transit van, allegedly travelling at speed, hit a kerb on the left hand side, and then ploughed up a wall over a rose garden, demolishing two more garden walls.
The residents affected had asked about traffic calming only last April.
Sherwood Bus Garage
NCT have announced that this garage is now for sale. Cases
135 in 1995.
We've held another surgery.
The City Council have printed leaflets advertising the surgery.
1945 leaflets
The Labour Party has produced a free six page glossy leaflet celebrating the 1945 government.
We hope to get 2,500 for delivery to Labour households.
Unemployment
617; 15.6%. 18th highest district ward in the county.
County Budget.
The attached report shows the County expects to have to Bcut £50 million Bˇfrom next year's budget.
New County
The County is thinking about its future and addressing three main themes.
That the County should be perceived more and more as one organisation; and not as a series of departments.
That the strategic needs of the County falls into 3 wide areas, the conurbation, the coalfield and the rural areas; and that these wide areas need different patterns of services.
That the County could meet demands for local service delivery within a strategic framework by forming new types of agreements with towns and villages; (something of a throw back to the neighbourhood offices of Walsall in the early eighties).
Mapperley and Sherwood are being treated as one area for these early stages.
Area Committee
Interesting, because the City have also formed area committees where we've been combined with Basford and Portland as well.
A budget of £140,000 has been allocated for use in this area above existing or planned City services.
A tour of the wards is planned for local Councillors.
Ideas for Mapperley include helping private tenants in lower Mapperley Park, better youth provision (which may help reduce crime), dog dirt. The tour may also show the problems on Caunton Avenue and Kingsthorpe Close.
Waste Notts
The County may consider the sale of Waste Notts to raise capital for other projects.
This company is an arms length company created following Tory legislation in 1990.
Waste Notts controls the land-fill sites in the County, as well as the incinerator at Eastcroft.
Last Full Council
Gay Rights: We passed a motion calling for full rights for gays and lesbians.
One Tory claimed only to have discovered the mean of homophobia that day - should he have studied more Greek?
National Conference
I'm Nottingham East's delegate to this year's Conference at Brighton.
It's an exciting time to go; with controversy over education policy, minimum wage, nature of economic policy.
And Shrewsbury Town play the "Seagulls" on the Saturday before conference.
Policy statements
A large number of statements have been published recently.
Economic & Social Policy
Mapperley branch has opposed the recommendations of the Social Justice Commission, but at least they were clear on the need for a Bminimum wage set at a reasonable level. Bˇ The new Labour document, "A New Economic Future for Britain", says Labour will Bnegotiate Bˇthe level with business et al after the election - even though the CBI oppose the minimum wage.
The document embraces targets for growth, and for low inflation. But the Commission recognised that to create jobs, this was not enough; you have to expand the "non-tradeable sector" (by which they largely meant the public services).
There's no target for job creation. Instead New Labour may be obeying the "golden rule" of only borrowing to invest; the emphasis is on investment, a stable economy. There will be "no quick fix approach and tax-spend-and-borrow solutions."
Sure, let's manage the way our money is spent, but I believe there is still a role for Keynesian demand management.
Education
The most remarked upon paper. Although it abolishes grant maintained school status, it creates the concept of a Foundation school to replace GM schools and church schools.
It's a sophisticated solution, but the main problem is trying to explain the merit of having Foundation schools without undermining other LEA schools and the comprehensive ideal.
Health
The New Labour approach of moving forward from where we find ourselves seems most successful in this paper, which wants to abolish the internal market in the NHS, yet keep powers with GPs by building on GP commissioning schemes, one of the most successful of which works in Nott'm.
Regional government
This paper abandons the notion of elected regional government for all of England.
Communications
This paper calls for the information super-highway to be made available to all, with extra emphasis on schools and libraries.
It publishes a photo of Graham Allen "marvelling at his own image". I'd sue.
4% swing
The effect of the boundary commission changes have not been disastrous for Labour as was once predicted.
We need a 4% swing from 1992 to gain an overall majority.
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