Here’s a quick summary of news, events and casework for June
The wettest June in Nottinghamshire on record.
Serious floods started on Monday June 25, when a month's rain fell in a day in South Yorkshire and the Severn valley. In East Yorkshire the entire average for June came down in an hour. Water overwhelmed drains, drowning three people in the initial onslaught. A Victorian dam cracked at Ulley near Rotherham, and only 48 hours of shoring and pumping saved three villages. By Wednesday vast run-off had burst banks on the Don, Hull and Severn. Some 27,000 homes were damaged. Rain continued, leaving lakes of filthy watercontaminated with drain refuse and sewage. The national death toll reached seven. Hull was later to declare that 30,000 homes had been damaged.
29th – Nottingham East Labour Party greet MP John Heppell at the end of his 6 year stint as a Government Whip;
28th – Elliott Durham governors;
27th – Surgery at St.Ann’s Library;
27th – Tony Blair bows out as Prime Minister at Question Time; “Some may belittle politics but we who are engaged in it know that it is where people stand tall.”
26th – visit “Exposed - Climate Change in Britain’s Backyard” - an exhibition of photographs showing the impact of climate change on Britain already; sponsored by the National Trust;
25th – terrible flooding in Sheffield and also in Notts after some places receive a month’s rain in a day;
25th – Full Council - - adopt Labour Party manifesto as Council policy; - review of City Council’s annual performance;
24th – Labour Party Leadership conference at Manchester - Gordon Brown and Harriet Harman are elected as the Labour Party’s Leader and Deputy Leader;
22nd - Nottinghamshire local authorities strike an agreement for improved co-operation;
22nd - Ofsted inspection on Elliott Durham published;
21st - Performance and Resources Scrutiny Panel hear progress from various public agencies on improved services;
19th - NET Development Board;
19th - Executive Board - consider - financial outturn for 2006/07; - extended ban of smoking in public places;
18th - Nottingham Tennis Open;
15th – Nottingham partnerhips' "FutureScoping" event;
12th – 14th – Public Finance Accountants' conference (CIPFA);
12th – Mapperley & Sherwood Area Cttee.;
10th – "Piknik" - Polish event at The Forest;
7th – Ofsted inspection of Elliott Durham school;
6th – Hine Hall residents meeting;
4th – 6th – support review of the North East Regional Assembly;
2nd – "everyone's talking about climate change" event; environmental groups hold stalls in the new Old Market Square;
1st – Red Arrows fly over the new Old Market Square at 15:13 precisely;
1st – launch of the second GameCity festival to be held in October;
1st – Eurostar presentation on their new 186 m.p.h. service from St.Pancras, opening on November 14th; Nottingham to Paris in 5 hours;
Tiger Squad renew their dedication
Fri 29th Jun 2007
The changeover has been exciting this week. But there are some regrets and one of those was that Nottingham East's MP John Heppell was overlooked for a ministerial post, having been - in our emphatic opinion - one of the best Government whips during his 6 years of service.
John was at our regular all-members' meeting last night and said again what we had always known - that he firmly believes that the greatest progress is made by electing and supporting a Labour Gov't. No "newly discovered principles" that will stop him voting for Gordon Brown and his gov't.
There's are part of us glad to have him back and no longer being a whip. More space and opportunity and time to highlight the progress in Nottingham, on health amongst other things.
And our party has renewed its commitment - now the elections in Nottingham have been won - that the Nottingham East Tiger Squad will be out again, seeking to help wins seats in the East Midlands and throughout the country.
Customer focus
Fri 29th Jun 2007
Friday was my first chance to call in at Nottingham City Council's contact centre.
Where previously we'd had a severe set of glass booths and long queues, I walked into an large open plan office with plenty of light, open booths, some glass fronted booths for taking cash, new and jazzy carpet, an island reception, a wide range of information displays (called "Infopoint") and play equipment for tots (who might otherwise get bored).
I spoke to staff at the island reception who'd dealt with "180 customers" on Thursday and there'd not been one moment of frustration.
Now Nottingham is not the first to do this and many readers from across the country will know similar facilities have done good things for their cities and towns too.
But it's a step forward for Nottingham and a pleasure to see staff so on top of the work they were doing and helping so many people.
Au Revoir, Auf Wiedersehen and Arrivederci - we stand tall
Wed 27th Jun 2007
Wednesday, 27th June was a very special day. Tony Blair's last question session as Prime Minister. Gordon Brown taking over.
I'm afraid I skipped some normal duties to watch the events on TV.
Prime Minister's Questions was great.
Not just for the dismissal of eurosceptics or irrelevant questions from Lib Dems, but cos of a tribute from
Ian Paisley - during which he stated his aim "that every man and woman in Ulster has the same rights, liberties and opportunities to lead their lives, have their families and have a future"
- and for a final vindication from Tony Blair of those of us who are involved in politics -
"Some may belittle politics but we who are engaged in it know that it is where people stand tall. Although I know that it has many harsh contentions, it is still the arena that sets the heart beating a little faster. If it is, on occasions, the place of low skulduggery, it is more often the place for the pursuit of noble causes."
We stand tall.
Exposed - Climate Change in Britain
Wed 27th Jun 2007
The news of this week's floods (in South Yorkshire and the Midlands), the damage caused and the lives lost is very sad.
Reports of a month's rain in one day & the unusual nature of such floods of the River Severn in the summer are not deterring the media from starting to wind up a "why didn't the Gov't / local council do more about this?" campaign.
I visited “Exposed - Climate Change in Britain’s Backyard” at Nottingham Castle yesterday. It's an exhibition of photographs showing the impact of climate change on Britain already; sponsored by the National Trust. Its opening words were "The numbers of storms in Britainhas doubled in the last 50 years." The images are stark and include those of the problems large medieval properties like stately homes face cos they were not designed to withstand the kind of storms we’re having now.
We way we have chosen to live, produce and consume is the reason why we face these problems.
Even calls not to build on flood plains in the future should be tempered by the knowledge that such building is taking place in the Netherlands - it's just that there, they build houses that can float or are on stilts above the predicted flood levels. We have a park & ride on the flood plain in Nottingham. Our view was that simply, we were prepared to let it be flooded every now and again. Amazingly for years, it didn't flood at all even though stats suggested it would have been many times. But in recent years it's changed and been flooded more often that predicted.
We need to adapt to the future, not defy it.
And we need to re-visit what the Stern Report said and draw on his conclusions, that a £1 milllion invested now on mitigating climate change, saves £5 million of damage in the future.
Think about the future
Sat 16th Jun 2007
More extreme weather is one of the signs of climate change. Yesterday’s storms in the Midlands are not proof but they were spectacular. The windscreen wipers couldn’t clear the water fast enough and the spray bouncing back up from the bonnet obscured the view.
I was returning from an event called “futurescoping”, and reflecting upon how such scoping had not addressed adapting to climate change.
Representatives of the Council and our various partners in the well-being & development of Nottingham were convened to talk about the future. We were given 3 different scenarios of Nottingham in 10 years time and from that asked to determine what we might need to do now either to bring them to effect or to improve them.
The scenario my group was asked to consider was one of 10 years of Gordon Brown, continued economic stability & growth and success for the city’s drive on science and IT businesses. Sweet.
The scenario did bring out the idea that house prices would become even more of a problem - must accept this trend towards ever more expensive mortgages that diminish people’s ability to lead full lives?
Not all scenarios presented at the event were so positive, but even the optimistic scenario missed the strength of Nottingham’s shopping, restaurants and night life. Our drive to get Nottingham understood as the Hollywood of games software was not acknowledged.
And the scenarios we were shown omitted any of the social and economic challenges we face, such as -
- fewer people of working age caring for more elderly people and others in need of support;
- insufficient social mobility;
- people’s diet and activity;
- coping with fuel prices 3 times the current level (cos of huge growth in demand expected from China);
- adapting homes & property to deal with more extreme weather and to keep heat out in the summer.
I felt primed for the exercise cos I’d heard Nick Pearce (from the left-of-centre IPPR) at this week’s public finance accountants (CIPFA) conference. Conferences such as CIPFA’s are very useful for providing the space to make you think about current and future opportunities and challenges, often beyond the prime finance & business management role of their members.
Nick said something to the effect that in the last 10 years, Labour had delivered falling levels of poverty, better public services, falling crime and economic stability.
Despite this progress, there were public concerns - inequalities in health and education were still too large, the NHS workforce are very upset, perception of crime is up, there is still unemployment, there is regional disparity in economic development and house prices had gone up too much.
He then presented 3 emerging challenges to be addressed -
- tackling inequality and social mobility which if anything appears to be getting worse;
- the “care crunch” - fewer people looking after our elderly (an Oxford Professor had just shown projections for the number of people in working age to the people above working age falling from the current 4:1 to 2.5:1 by 2036); and
- climate change.
Other points on the political landscape included the issues of trust, immigration & social cohesion and the “politics of the family” - horrible phrase - but meant to cover quality of childhood and the right balance for working & caring.
(For balance, a spokesperson for a right-wing think tank - Policy Exchange - attended. He emphasised introducing a proper market into education. He did not mention social cohesion.)
I thought Nick’s list was pretty good and was able to easily apply it to the Nottingham event. Frustrating then, with so much to discuss, that the event ended with a focus on process. Something I rarely find the public on the doorstep are that engaged by.
A Piknik for Ruth Kelly
Sun 10th Jun 2007
Tony Benn said something truly alarming on BBC's Question Time last Thursday - to the effect that go back a thousand years or so and you find we each had hundreds of millions of ancestors. “We’re all cousins” he said.
Today, the Polish community in Nottingham, both old (from the time of WWII) and the new - perhaps 1600 Poles in Nottingham in recent years - met for a “Piknik”. I proudly wore my red tie - specially made for and by the City of Poznan, with which Nottinghamshire is twinned.
I spoke to the “Piknik”, explaining the impact of immigration on Nottingham from across the ages.
That Nottingham was started by an Anglo-Saxon king, most probably from the north of today’s Germany. That Nottingham’s significance was established by William Conqueror, a Norman, who chose Castle Rock as the site to establish a castle to dominate the lowest fordable point of the River Trent. That significant industrial development was founded on the establishment of the lace industry, led by the Huguenots, religious exiles from France and Germany.
I hope Ruth Kelly, with her concerns on today’s BBC Politics Show about translation isn’t going to be too disappointed with us in Nottingham. Cos we’d put the event on especially to reach the new Polish immigrants and to support them at a challenging time for them. The GMB have been great on this - employing organisers to mobilise the new workers.
But we also had Police officers and Community Police Support Officers there. Both to show that different and more caring side of the British Police (the Polish Police have a fearsome reputation) and to recruit some of the new workers to the ranks. And yes, we’ve had materials translated.
But I don’t think it’s right to assume this can replace the importance of learning English or Welsh or our other native tongues.
(How does a firm in Bangor decide to tell its staff to sell holidays only in English, after the decades of campaigning to give Welsh a new importance? My sister’s just moved to Caerphilly and my nephew is happily learning Welsh - he’s very clear on the Welsh word for chips.)
Such is the global nature of our society that inner-city secondary schools can often have over 25 first languages in the school’s cohort. Our immediate drive is to get their English up to scratch to take on the demanding curriculum.
And the aspiration for community centres to no longer be designed or focussed on one community group is not new. The new Indian Centre for Nottingham has an obligation to serve the local community it’s in and other groups, even though it will carry the “Indian” title.
The older generations of Polish immigrants, from WWII, were clear today at the importance and value of helping Britain’s new immigrants.
The dentist's chair
Thu 7th Jun 2007
Today, Ofsted were inspecting the school I chair and I was to visit the dentists to have 2 fillings replaced. What a prospect.
Which was going to be the more painful? No contest. I even had the fillings replaced without an anaesthetic to give the Ofsted inspectors chance (and not, I stress, to compete with Gordon Brown - how could I? - he’s made of girders).
Of course, I’m being unfair. Ofsted has changed and for the better. They now test a school’s assessment of its own strengths and weaknesses and do so within 2 days.
I still don’t think Ofsted can say enough in their conclusions about the social factors that schools like mine have to tackle and the system still marks a school down to its minimum scores. But the mood of the inspection, building on a much better understanding these days of what makes a good school, is so much more positive. Today we reached a constructive and agreed set of recommendations on what to work on next.
It is a tragedy we’ve had to wait so long for this approach. Years of raw league tables, failing schools for deigning to help the children most in need of help. Expectations that for any issue a school still has to face, it must be because they hadn’t searched or tested every possible solution. I’ve seen valuable senior members of staff breakdown and leave teaching or quit leading schools because of the inspection system.
A focus on standards has done some good, but (by the current systems of awarding only the minimum of scores for a public service) at too much human cost.
Reformers have been right to seek that schools are accountable to the wider public for what they do. The challenge is to find a way of informing the public so that they know what to look for in educational terms. Yes - standards, personal development, teaching & learning, curriculum, leadership & management. And perhaps now an extra space for a school to proclaim their achievements - such as for my school, being in the top 20% in the country for progress in key stage 4.
Icons on the Tyne
Wed 6th Jun 2007
I've visited Newcastle & Gateshead to help a review of the North East Regional Assembly. The Regional Assembly hardly gets a mention on the doorstep in the East Midlands, but in the north-east, the "No" vote to an elected assembly in 2004 has made it difficult for the unelected assembly left in its wake to venture a public view on anything.
I stayed at a hotel by the Tyne Bridge and the bridge is iconic. The new Millennium bridge & the new facilities along the River Tyne are great too and are a visible sign of progress under a Labour Gov't and Labour local gov't. In the Gateshead civic centre, there was a model of The Angel of the North, 1930's Japanese pottery, new paintings of Gateshead scenes. And the Council is part of a national arts festival taking place soon.
"The Journal" featured the Leader of Gateshead signing the Nottingham Declaration and it seems that the North-East is only 3 councils away from being the second region to have all councils signed up for the Nottingham Declaration on Climate Change.
On one of the taxi rides, a GPS system warned the driver of a nearby speed camera site. Reason - he'd been caught speeding 6 weeks earlier (so he'd bought the system as insurance). I expected a tirade about cameras but his explanation was very level headed. He'd been offered the choice of 3 points and a £60 fine; or a £65 pound fine & a speed awareness course. He took the £65 fine and the course and he had found it very useful & quite an eye-opener.
New green ideas and products
Sat 2nd Jun 2007
A range of environmental groups held stalls in our new Old Market Square today as part of Greenweeks and in support of "everyone's talking about climate change" - a gov't funded campaign for Notts and Derbyshire that tries to sign people up for action much in the way has been achieved in places like Manchester.
The event did better than I expected. Many people walking through the city centre are heads down & focussed on shopping, but this morning, a good number were taking their time to stop and chat at the stalls.
I had some good chats with the stall holders and picked up some new ideas for action.
The Wildlife Trust and the RSPB are both interested to know how future property developments in the city centre might accommodate green roofs. It's an important for Nottingham city centre cos our castle has commanding views over the city centre, which mostly comprises drab flat roofs with various utilities. Green roofs, varied in style to support different kinds of wildlife, could be a lot more interesting to view and appreciate.
The National Trust are highly concerned for the Peak District, where the peat is drying out, partly cos of the warmer weather, cos drainage is now too 'good' but also cos certain plants need to be reintroduced to hold the water. The erosion of peat releases more carbon dioxide.
Greenpeace were running a petition for the end of the sale of traditional lightbulbs. All very well I said, but what about the specialist small bulbs you often find in modern kitchens. And the stall holder produced some of the new low energy bulbs that can work in these small places.
I append the web-sites supplied to me by the Greenpeace activist this evening -
the world's first carbon neutral train service
Fri 1st Jun 2007
Eurostar visited Nottingham today and gave us a glimpse of the future -
- a refurbished and renewed St.Pancras railway station;
- new services to Brussels and Paris from St.Pancras on November 14th; (http://stpancras.eurostar.com/en-gb)
- the world's first carbon neutral train; the amount of CO2 per passenger emitted by a Eurostar passenger will fill a mini car; the amount emitted by an air passenger will fill a double-decker bus; (http://www.eurostar.com/UK/uk/leisure/about_eurostar/environment/tread_lightly.jsp)
- Nottingham to Paris in 5 hours; and if we can get the investment into the Midland Mainline, maybe we can reduce that to 4 hours 40 minutes; supported by through tickets.
It's great to receive talks about the future at events like this.
Next door, a presentation on Nottingham and its GameCity (showing how Nottinghamhappens to write most of the well-used game software) is taking place. (http://www.gamecity.org/)
And outside, in the new Old Market Square, the RAF are holding an exhibition, with the Red Arrows due to fly over at 15:13.
So once again, Friday is a happening day.
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