Here’s a quick summary of news, events and casework for December 2006
December
30th – trouble caused by drunken people has been halved in 3 years at the ten worst affected pubs and clubs in Nottingham; Police said licensees should take most of the praise after introducing a "zero tolerance" approach; there's been 31% cut in all alcohol-related incidents in or near the city's 350 pubs and clubs;
26th – Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” comes out on DVD;
21st - Nottingham is the country's second-best party destination, according to a new survey by PartyDelights.co.uk;
20th – Lord Mayor’s charity disco for council staff;
19th –Nottingham City Council’s ‘Changing Place’ toilet on Greyhound Street wins an award in the ‘Carers’ category for providing a new style, fully accessible toilet for many disabled people;
19th – Executive Board; a very full meeting; Adult Social Care Performance Assessment 2005-06 - improved service; Primary School Reorganisation in St Ann's and Mapperley; enable money on education to be increased on teaching and learning rather than building mtce and repair, by organising schools on either one form or two form sizes; recommended proposals are to close The Elms and St.Ann’s Wells Junior, reduce the capacity of Blue Bell Hill and to slightly expand Walter Halls and to form a new St.Ann’s Wells primary on the site of the current Infants school; all in the context of further growing financial support for education; The Elms recommendation was driven by a belief that the standards in the school are not high enough for the closure of other schools to be agreed by an independent Schools Organisation Committee in The Elms stead; I asked a range of questions on that point to enable protestors (who have a web-site) to hear the arguments; (Mapperley Tories have put a leaflet around saying this is wrong, but bizarrely, they can’t have told the Tory who sits on the Exec. Board who said nothing and did not vote against the recommendation); (read more) Open And Green Spaces; recognition of the importance of such space; Centre For Contemporary Art Nottingham (CCAN); agree to progress a facility that will add to the range of Nottingham’s attractions to learn at and visit, on Garner’s Hill; improved Procurement Strategy; Achieving Level 4 of the revised Equality Standard - Nottingham is one of the few councils to have achieved Level 3; The Council's Medium Term Financial Strategy; recognising the better deal for Nottingham from the national government; The Evening Post present this as a 3% Council tax increase; 3% is below the inflation figures published by Gov’t, but the aim of the strategy is to provide new services with the extra tax, not just cover costs; Meanwhile, rebut a letter from the Tory Deputy leader - The City Council's Medium Term Finances are to be updated in the broad daylight of a meeting in public on Dec 19th and not in the fog that Cllr. Cowan claims (letters 11 Dec 06). Yes, the Labour Govt's financial settlement for Nottingham City Council is sunny. But with the warmth comes new expectations - including building on the progress in reducing crime, a better support package for older people and doing more to mitigate climate change. Cllr. Cowan as a Labour Chair of finances in the eighties faced nothing but wind and rain from a Tory Gov't that cut public services and the repairs of roads. Mist-ifying then that after years of raising local taxes to moderate Tory cuts, Cllr. Cowan should have defected to the Tories. Should the Tories win control of the City Council, they'd stop the expansion of the best tram system in Britain. More damaging to the ambition for Nottingham than any English tornado could muster. And for all Cllr. Cowan's protest on timing, what's the betting that once again, Tory party proposals on the budget for next year will only come out of the murk at the Council's March budget meeting, after the opportunity for scrutiny by anyone else has been lost. Clear visibility in Cllr. Cowan's political analysis? Anything but. Definitely another pea-souper. MORI Residents Survey; Nottingham people now regard availability of affordable housing as the second most important issue; we have been supporting the release of land, former industrial sites such as off The Wells Road and land in the city centre, for more housing;
13th – Ruth Kelly announces a new star rating system for homes and that within 10 years every new home will be a zero carbon home, to promote sustainability and help mitigate climate change;
12th – the early completion of the transformation of the area around the Victoria Centre, Royal Centre and Trinity Square quarter of the city as part of the £11.7 million Turning Point scheme; this area of the city centre has seen pavements widened, more crossings installed and public transport links improved by relocating bus stops closer together, as well as general traffic removed from Milton Street and part of Parliament Street;
11th – full Council, focussing on gambling policies;
6th – Gordon Brown’s pre-budget statement; “growth - sustained under this government for a record 38 quarters - will continue into its 39th and 40th quarter and beyond”; big things on green issues; child benefit will be paid to every mother expecting a child; basic Pension rises from next April by 3.6 per cent and the pension credit minimum guarantee will rise by £5 a week for a single person and £7.65 a week for a couple; 20 pence per litre discount to include the next generation of biodiesel; Gordon Brown’s two fiscal rules are re-iterated - they are (for the economic cycle) - - the golden rule that current spending is paid for by tax revenues, and - the sustainable investment rule that with debt at a prudent level we can invest in our education, the NHS, infrastructure and other essential priorities; Labour rejects a Tory party fiscal rule - would require us to cut public spending by £28 billion this year alone; Instead - - capital investment in education - only £1½ billion in 1997 will be £8.3 billion next year and we will set out long term plans for investment to rise further over the next decade; - investment in transport - just £4 billion in 1997 - will be £9.6 billion next year; and - investment in housing, just £2 billion in 1997 will be nearly £8 billion next year;
1st – fire destroys classrooms at the Thorneywood Education Base (off The Wells Road);
1st – publish Mapperley Rose No. 37; (Tories were later to produce a leaflet for Mapperley Park expressing particular concerns on The Elms school and then fail to express those concerns at Exec Board when a key decision was taken;)
(Last updated – 2007-01-28)
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