The East Midlands Mayor is consulting upon a Transport Plan for the East Midlands. It has ambitious objectives and will affect our lives when implemented. The Draft can be read here and we have less than 12 weeks to make our comments. There will be a drop-in session at Beeston Library on the 12th December between 2:00pm and 5:00pm.
We were advised that following the survey may feel restrictive but free-form responses are acceptable.
We have some sad news to impart to you this week. Norman Lewis MBE sadly passed away following a short illness this week on Thursday evening aged 95. Norman was a founding member of the Forum and ever-present member of the Steering Group from 2016 up until the end.
Norman lived in Toton for over 60 years and worked locally for half his working life in commercial horticulture. In the 1950s, he was involved in the Derbyshire Youth Service and in organising Further Education classes in Long Eaton, having grown up there. In around 1949 he started his involvement with the Attenborough gravel pits to pursue his interest in birds. This then led to persuading the gravel company to agree to the formation of a nature reserve on their site. Attenborough Nature Reserve was opened in 1966, and has since become a SSSI. For the last twenty years of his working life, he was Principal Conservation Officer at the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust, having responsibility for the nature reserve for over forty years. During this time, he was also a governor and member of the committee at Brackenhurst Agricultural College for over ten years. Since his retirement in 1995 he continued to pursue his interests in a voluntary capacity, and during this time he felt very honoured to be awarded an MBE for his work in conservation in the county. His interests included: local history, natural history, ecology, and he had a detailed knowledge of both Toton and Nottinghamshire.
This knowledge and experience, as well as his great wisdom, were of vital importance to the Forum and he very much guided the Environmental Policies in the Neighbourhood Plan, and also informed our knowledge of the heritage assets within Toton in particular, as well as other policies and sections of the Plan.
Members of the Steering Group (past and present) have paid the following tributes to Norman:-
“Sad news about the loss of a fine gentleman with a passion for the natural world. He leaves a great legacy from his work.” (Ian)
“Very sad to hear about Norman, I didn’t know him very well but could tell he was a lovely man. Condolences to his friends and family.” (Michelle)
“RIP, a lovely and wise gentleman.” (Jo)
“Sad news but he lived a full life.” (Mark)
“Very sad. Norman was a great ecologist – a complete one-off. He will be sadly missed by a lot of people in Toton and beyond.” (Graham)
“Very sad news but we should celebrate his life and achievements and the huge impact he had on our community even though the majority of people never knew. He was a true powerhouse of knowledge which spanned so many years. A man that will be missed by many and I certainly feel honoured to have been able to work with him on the Neighbourhood Forum project over many years.” (Richard)
Richard has summed up very well his contribution to the Forum, elsewhere locally and further afield. He will indeed be very much missed by all those who knew or met him, and we should remember and celebrate his life and work. Our thoughts are with his two sons Martin and Jonathan and their families. Norman was a very proud father, grandfather and great grandfather. May he rest in peace.
If you would like to send a message of condolence to the family, then you can do so via the Contact Us page or by email to assist.cttcnf@gmail.com, and we’ll pass them on for you.
Some of you may have seen this planning notice near the Toton tram stop – Certificate of Alternative Development for the previous Toton HS2 site.
The Forum has been aware of it for a while, but it has taken us some time to get to the bottom of it! The details can be found on Broxtowe’s planning portal by typing 25/00646/ALT into the search box. There are only four documents submitted with this application, all diagrams and no written explanation.
As we understand it, a Certificate of Alternative Development can be applied for by a landowner to determine the compensation value of their land when subject to a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) i.e. what their land would be worth if not compulsory purchased. It is not a formal planning application per se.
We believe that the applicant is the owner of a property on Carnforth Close (Stapleford) which would have been subject to a CPO as it fell within the original HS2 safeguarded area. The rest of the area (the vast majority) marked within the red boundary is not in his ownership! Again as we understand it, none of this land is now subject to a CPO following the cancellation of the Eastern leg of HS2, and therefore in our view such a certificate is unnecessary and takes no account of our Neighbourhood Plan as what is being suggested as alternative development (nuclear reactors and some form of stadium) is unacceptable. On that basis the Forum has lodged an objection to Broxtowe.
Our representations to this application can be viewed here.
As always please do feel free to ask any questions you may have on this week’s latest bulletin or anything else via the Contact Us page or by email to assist.cttcnf@gmail.com, and we’ll do our best to answer them via the Questions and Answers page.
Following our post about the Local Government Reorganisation, Broxtowe has published the report on the results of the consultation.
The report itself is here it makes interesting reading.
We’ve no idea what happens next but at least they have the opinions of people who will be affected.
Archeological Study: Following on from the post of the 10th September.
Thanks to those of you who responded with information about the fact that trenches are being dug in other fields.
We’ve also had the following initial response from Nottinghamshire County Council:
Many thanks for your email. My colleague Emily is the case officer for this site and is on leave at the moment, but I’ll attempt to provide some detail in her absence.
As a general point, archaeological remains are often well preserved below the plough soil, although in most cases some loss has occurred from ploughing. In Britain the oldest archaeological remains date to around 900,000 (during the Palaeolithic period) years ago (Happisburgh, Nortfolk), but we tend to find much more recent remains dating from around 11,600 years ago after the last glacial period (Mesolithic period) and until the middle of the 20th century and everything in between. These are usually in the form of finds or cultural material (flint tools, pottery, bones, metalwork, bricks etc) and cut features or earthworks relating to previous use of the land such as enclosure/drainage ditches, pits, structures and many more.
While we know where some historic activity has taken place, thanks in large part to people reporting finds etc to the Nottinghamshire Historic Environment Record (NHER), many of these sites are unknown until discovered through assessment work before development. Since 1990, archaeology has been a material consideration in Planning and many applications are required to undertake an archaeological assessment of the land they propose to develop.
Where archaeological remains are identified within a site, the developer is required to ‘mitigate’ the damage to those remains by undertaking further work to record the remains before they build on/disturb them and make the results publicly available. That said, we often try to ensure that remains are preserved as far as possible without digging them up or removing them, but this is often not possible.
In the case of the site at Stapleford Lane, the developer undertook some non-intrusive survey work (geophysics) which identified anomalies consistent with buried archaeological remains (some potential ditches I believe). These are currently being investigated through a limited programme of trial trenching which will aim to characterise the features present and inform the necessity for any further mitigation work. The report on this work will be submitted to the NHER once completed and will be publicly available for you and everyone to read.
I would also like to draw your attention to the online map of the NHER which provides information on the historic data we hold for Nottinghamshire and can be viewed here. This is a limited data set for a variety of reasons, but the full NHER can be accessed for free by the public and details of how to do so can be found here.
My colleagues and I do often input into local plans and will normally recommend there is a section on heritage and development. I note the Toton and Chilwell Neighbourhood Plan does have a Policy on heritage (Policy LHC02) which does not support harm to non-designated heritage assets (which includes archaeology) and requires the recording of heritage assets which will be lost. This fits well with our approach to planning advice and I welcome its inclusion in the Plan.
I hope this is helpful and please let us know if you have any queries.
Greenbelt Framework Review Response:
We sent this response to the Greenbelt Framework Review.
As usual any comments/information contact us.
Last week we asked the question “If anybody knows what’s happening please let us know”. Nobody did but we found out. Pegasus Group told us:
“these works are archaeological trial trenching, these works have been requested by the Nottinghamshire County Council Archaeologist in advance of any development. Bloor and Peveril Homes had a window at the end of the harvest to undertake these works. The findings of the trenching will be issued as part of the consideration/determination of the Toton East planning application.”
So now we know.
We’ve contacted Nottinghamshire County Council archeology group for more information.
There’s activity east of Stapleford Lane (in the area known as Toton East with Planning Application 25/00255 see our responses to the application). They seem to be digging trenches and filling them with concrete. If anybody knows what they are doing (we can all speculate) please let us know through our contact-us page
Don’t forget to make your comments by the 14th September on the proposed Local Government Reorganisation. The more people who respond the more likely we are to have an effect. The online survey is here:
https://online1.snapsurveys.com/Interview/362fb9f6-3d56-4921-ae1e-78ad475b3bb8
For help this is the Central Government White Paper explaining why they think the reorganisation is a good idea pages 91-105 make a good read. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/english-devolution-white-paper-power-and-partnership-foundations-for-growth
This document
https://democracy.newark-sherwooddc.gov.uk/documents/s23352/15.07.25%20-%20LGR%20-%20Appendix%202%20-%20Summary%20Document%20Options%20Appraisal%20July%202025.pdf
gives a summary of the Councils’ initial considerations and (page 19) the savings they forecast for the options put forward.
This BBC Article https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1kzk0enx1wo gives a report of the County Council’s vote on the proposals.
As ever, contact-us with information or questions.
The consultation is being led by Gedling Borough Council on behalf of Broxtowe Borough Council, Nottingham City Council and Rushcliffe Borough Council.
A Green Belt review does not itself determine whether or not land remains or is included in the Green Belt. It is the role of the council’s emerging Local Plan to formally revise Green Belt boundaries and to allocate land for development, having taken into account all relevant planning considerations.
The review is a technical exercise, comments are being specifically invited on the Framework from local authorities, parish councils and other bodies with which the Council has a ‘duty to co-operate’ as well as developers/landowners.
Once the Framework has been finalised and the review undertaken, decisions about Green Belt release and the identification of land for development will be confirmed through the preparation of each council’s local plan. There will be an opportunity for anyone to comment on these decisions through consultation on the local plan.
The purpose of the Green Belt Assessment Framework is to try to ensure that all the Councils have a common Approach to deciding the future of Green Belt and whether some areas should be Grey Belt when considering the update to the relevant Local Plan.
The Forum may be making representations and would appreciate your comments on the consultation which can be found here: https://www.gedling.gov.uk/GreenBeltAssessmentConsultation/
If you have comments please email assist.cttcnf@gmail.com.
Notes from the meeting with Juliet Campbell MP
As promised last week, here are our notes (not minutes) from our meeting with Juliet Campbell on 30th July for your perusal.
Consultation for Local Government Reorganisation in Nottingham & Nottinghamshire
The consultation on the options for Local Government Reorganisation in Nottingham & Nottinghamshire is now live and open until Sunday 14th September for you to provide your views – see here.
For more detailed information to inform your response, and to access the consultation/survey, just click on the image above
The Steering Group will review the information, before deciding whether to make a Forum submission. However, please do provide your own individual responses as
“This is an important opportunity for local people to help shape the future of local government in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire.”
As always please do feel free to ask any questions you may have on this week’s latest bulletin or anything else via the Contact Us page or by email to assist.cttcnf@gmail.com, and we’ll do our best to answer them via the Questions and Answers page.
Members of the Forum Steering Group met with our MP, Juliet Campbell, this week. It was a useful introductory meeting. Juliet provided us with a response from the Minister to the questions we had previously raised about Neighbourhood Planning with her (see our previous post). We are pleased that the Minister has confirmed that the Government continues to support Neighbourhood Planning, however she doesn’t say how this will be provided through advice, consultancy & grant funding without Locality (or another body) being commissioned to provide it. Whilst “the Government continues to believe that neighbourhood planning is an important part of the planning system”, ending the necessary support to achieve it, may well put an end to it. Juliet believes that funding may come forward in a different way, but as yet unknown what form that will take. Let’s hope it does, and we will keep an eye on the situation.
We will aim to publish our notes from the meeting next week, once Juliet has had the opportunity to review them.
Follow-up to the meeting with the Broxtowe Development Management Team
One of our actions from the meeting reported last week was for us to express the local community’s concerns about the junctions/traffic on the B6003. We have provided those concerns now to the Planning Team, along with some proposals for consideration. These are available for you to read here.
As always please do feel free to ask any questions you may have on this week’s latest bulletin or anything else via the Contact Us page or by email to assist.cttcnf@gmail.com, and we’ll do our best to answer them via the Questions and Answers page.
