Here’s a quick summary of news, events and casework for January 2006
31st – Tenants and Residents Group meeting for Pearmain Drive estate; Group to start formally in March; issues raised include lighting and gating of passages off path to the school; and quality of equipment at the play area at the top of the road;
30th – Nottingham City Youth Council Election results announced at a celebratory event at the Council House;
29th – Phillip Whitehead memorial at Derby Cathedral; attended by 400 people including Margaret Beckett, Geoff Hoon and Melvyn Bragg; addressed by Roy Hattersley, Cllr. Sara Bolton and Neil Robson;
28th – £1 million awarded to the St.Ann’s allotments by the East Midlands Development Agency; the money will go towards repairing footpaths and roads and installing a water borehole at the 70-acre site off Hungerhill Road; the area will also be developed as a centre for employment and skills training;
27th – present next year’s budget to Nottingham East Labour Party;
27th – One Nottingham board;
26th – new figures reveal that Nottinghamshire continues to buck national upward trends for gun crime; Home Office statistics show that gun crime fell in Notts by 16.5% - one of only 13 areas in the country that has seen a reduction in gun crime over the last year; other crime figures released this week show that things in Notts are headed in the right direction; serious violent offences are well below the national average (four per 10,000 population against nine nationally); robberies are down by more than a fifth for the year ending March 2005 compared to the previous year; and overall, Notts saw a reduction of 0.85% (1% nationally) in total recorded crimes;
26th – Nottingham Development Enterprise;
25th - Dave Trimble address a conference focussing on how best to tackle the problem of some city areas becoming overwhelmed by students; Dr Darren Smith’s report into ‘studentification’ praises the city’s approach as ‘pioneering’; the City Council, along with the two universities and in consultation with local residents, have set out a plan of action to reduce the dominance and impact of large numbers of students in certain parts of Nottingham; the development of new student accommodation in and around the city centre is one of a wide range of steps being taken;
24th – present next year’s budget to Nottingham Labour Party;
21st – Shrewsbury Town visit Notts County;
21st – week of targeted graffiti removal starts in Mapperley and Sherwood wards;
20th – East Midlands Regional Assembly; raise points on incapacity benefit and on mental health;
19th – visit No. 10 for a briefing on the new policy on Incapacity Benefit, led by John Hutton;
19th – a crackdown on prostitution and kerb crawling on the streets of Nottingham has resulted in the arrests of 238 kerb crawlers, and secured charges against 5 men working as pimps; new figures, compiled over 2005, also reveal that 124 individual women working as prostitutes on the streets were arrested, with 7 being subject to Anti Social Behaviour Orders; last year, 5 women were supported to successfully exit prostitution;
17th – Mapperley and Sherwood Area Committee;
17th – Executive Board;
16th – tour of Pearmain Drive estate; recently a Derbyshire borough Councillor happened to be working in a house on the estate and reported “he saw a road sweeper pass by, sweeping the road, a motorised gutter cleaner, various maintenance work taking place obvious from the sign written vans; the house at which he was working had a pest control officer call, complete with a pleasant attitude; chances are, social services were involved with the guy who resided at the address from which the Derbyshire borough Councillor witnessed all of this, facilitating the decorating works he was having done to the property”; lots going on;
14th – Tony Blair speaks to the Labour Party’s National Policy Forum at Nottingham University; he describes David Cameron’s problem (in his weak response to Labour’s Respect agenda) – “He’s more Notting Hill, than Nottingham”;
10th – The number of shootings in Nottingham fell by 74% last year; high profile arrests, tougher sentencing, concerted campaigns to tackle the issue and greater deterrents – as well as widespread revulsion at the murder of Danielle Beccan – are thought to have combined to create the massive reduction; guns were fired less than once a month - compared with almost once a week in 2004, while the number of injuries fell from 11 to five;
10th – Tony Blair launches the “Give Respect, Get Respect” campaign; Minister Geoff Hoon MP visited Nottingham to launch the latest action plan to tackle anti-social behaviour; Geoff, MP for neighbouring Ashfield, praised “Respect for Nottingham” and said it is an example of best practice that will help shape the national campaign;
9th – Full Council; debates on - planning for civil emergencies, i.d. cards and service performance; Lib Dems mark resignation of Charles Kennedy by drinking cold tea in the Council Chamber;
8th – Tony Banks, Labour’s Minister for Sports in ’97 dies;
7th – Charles Kennedy resigns as leader of the Liberal Democrats; journalists allege that they were threatened with writs when they previously tried to run stories about his alcoholism;
1st – the death of Phillip Whitehead MEP is announced; Phillip Whitehead was the Labour Member of the European Parliament representing the East Midlands Region; in the European Parliament Phillip chaired the powerful Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee; his main interests were in Consumer Affairs, Food Safety and the Media; more about Phillip’s work can be read on his website.
Comments