Here’s a quick summary of news, events and casework for July 2006
July
The hottest July on record; and a month chock full of activity on climate change; finishing with an interview with the Guardian for a podcast;
29th – Woodlane Gardens Tenants and Residents Group tidy up an old playground that is overgrown, off Mickleborough Avenue; the Youth Offending Team will be maintaining the site in future as part of their work with offenders;
28th - abandoned car removed from Mapperley Rise;
28th - One Nottingham board - hear that Nottingham is one of 13 cities to receive Government cash to pilot a scheme to get people off sickness benefit and into work; Work and Pensions Secretary John Hutton was in Nottingham on 27th to announce the scheme and praised the strength of the partnerships in the city, including the One Nottingham local strategic partnership, that will deliver it. Nottingham will receive a share of £5m to carry out work to identify and help Incapacity Benefit claimants who may be well enough to return to work;
28th - new recycling collection starts for dry recyclables in the northern parts of Mapperley ward; (Mapperley Park area gets the new bins in August, The Wells Road area & Thorneywood in September);
27th – see Al Gore's movie on climate change, "An Inconvenient Truth", at BAFTA, at event organised by David Miliband MP;
25th & 26th – Tony Blair visits Nottingham, to talk about health;
24th & 25th – tour of Nottingham, Leicester, London, Sutton and Woking to see the best practice in sustainable development and climate change mitigation practice;
23rd - major resurfacing and other works on Porchester Road and Carlton Road junction start;
21st - attend Michael Lyons' presentation on his review of function and financing of local government;
21st - East Midlands Regional Assembly; raise concern over sufficent health professionals being available to help those in depression and claiming Incapacity Benefit into the world of work;
20th – Off-Grid Power Supply presentations at a meeting of the Business Council for Sustainable Development (UK) at the University of Nottingham; including from WindSupply; the British developed the current design of wind turbines and we can develop the next generation;
19th – hottest July day in British history;
18th – meet residents of Mapperley Hall Drive to discuss a planning application;
18th – Mapperley & Sherwood Area Committee; improvements in street cleaning welcomed;
18th – the new Nottingham Declaration Action Pack is launched by Angela Smith MP, Department for Communities and Local Government Minister, as a new resource and one-stop shop for Councils wanting information and guidance on climate change; it’s now available at: www.nottinghamdeclaration.co.uk ;
18th – Executive Board; extra capital spending for pavements and community safety announced;
18th - Met Office issue a Level 3 – Heatwave alert; "A guide to looking after yourselves and others" is available; keep out of the heat, stay cool, drink regularly, seek advice if you have any concerns, help others (visit older people living on their own);
17th - full Council; celebrate further progress in attainment of Nottingham children at key stage 2; appoint Michael Frater as Chief Executive;
14th - meet U.S. delegates from local government in the Southeast region of the United States to present activity on tackling climate change and to encourage the formation of an ICLEI group for the South East Region;
14th - Michael Frater’s selection as the new Chief Executive of Nottingham City Council is announced; Michael has been Chief Executive at the Borough of Telford and Wrekin Council since 2000; having interviewed the candidates on Monday, I was pleased at the strength of the field we were able to choose from; Telford and Wrekin Council is rated 'Excellent' by the Audit Commission and was recently awarded the accolade of 'Best Achieving Council of the Year' by national local government magazine, the Municipal Journal and has been shortlisted for the Local Government Chronicle Council of the Year Award for the last two years; he was previously Chief Executive at the London Borough of Redbridge from 1993 to 2000; Michael Frater said: "Nottingham is one of England's Core Cities and known throughout the world so it's a proud moment for me to have been chosen as the Council's Chief Executive. I'm looking forward to helping the Council achieve the ambitious plans it has for improving the services it provides to local people and fulfilling the great potential Nottingham has as a city."
13th - ICLEI North American Congress - hear Ed Mazria present the Architecture 2030 challenge - http://www.architecture2030.org/open_letter/index.html
13th - ICLEI North American Congress - see exceptional Flash cartoons advocating action on Climate Change from teenagers commissioned by Citizens for Global Solutions; http://www.globalsolutions.org/index.htm
12th - Digital City Nottingham reaches the final 10 of the Digital Challenge competition – a £7m Government initiative to create a world class example of a wired up community; Nottingham will receive a share of £1.2m to develop its ideas;
12th - arrive at ICLEI North American Congress to present the work of the Nottingham Declaration on Climate Change, on behalf of the British Government;
11th - ICLEI North American Congress meet in Chicago to persuade North American city and county governments to take further action on mitigating climate change; Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett (MP for Derby South) opens the event;
11th - Gov’t announces findings of an energy review with a news emphasis on being more efficient in how we generate and distribute energy;
11th - report to Regeneration, Infrastructure and Sustainability Standing Panel (scrutiny) on climate change;
8th – Nottingham Labour Party summer conference at the GMB; speakers include Clare Short MP;
6th – LGA conference at Bournemouth; Tory Leader Dave Cameron pledges to tackle climate change by allowing the new energy generation technologies to compete with existing ones, whereas Labour’s programme will build up to £1bn support a year;
5th – LGA conference at Bournemouth; Ruth Kelly says re-focus accountability of councils to people rather than central gov’t;
4th – Local Government Conference (LGA conference) at Bournemouth; David Miliband highlights his concern over climate change and supports drive for local generation of electricity;
Mapperley Tories delivered a leaflet - a special edition targeted at "Thornywood"; didn't have much to say about Thorneywood either.
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