Hello again
Another short edition as there’s not been a lot of news. But after last week’s missive I shall be a little more circumspect when using images – especially emojis! When I added the ‘winking face’ icon last week, it appeared to be of a modest size when viewed on the website. However, I don’t know what it was like in your email version, but what appeared in mine was a grossly outsized face with a grin that just seemed to mock me and my puny attempt to become a ‘graphic artist’. So, I’ll take more care next time!
1 Plan’s Progress – a further update
- We continue to hold weekly workshops to get all the revisions incorporated into the Plan and we’ve made good progress. Changes have been made to Sections A and B and in the policies section (what was Section C) we have completed Housing, Urban Design, Leisure/Heritage/Communities, and Employment. Just Environment and Infrastructure need polishing off and we intend to get those finished in the next 2 weeks
- The trickiest bit of work is producing a revamped Section D. Most of this section has been rewritten and given a new, clearer focus to:
- Act as a ‘bridge’ from the vision and objectives as outlined in Section B to the policies in Section D
- This ‘bridge’ comprises a set of guiding principles for masterplanning purposes across the Area
- Besides these principles, the new section will also document our aspirations, such as our desire to see George Spencer Academy relocated to a new purpose-built school across Toton Lane, somewhere near the tram terminus. A criticism we had from some stakeholders was that the Plan didn’t clearly differentiate between aspirations (which we’d like to see implemented) and policies (which must be implemented).
- We’ve produced a first draft of this section – which will become the new ‘Section C’ – but some more work is needed. This should be completed in the next couple of weeks.
- We’re still looking to get the final version completed by the end of February, but it probably won’t be submitted to the council until the end of March, to allow time for a couple of associated documents to be produced.
2. Living with Beauty
- I don’t know if you have heard about the ‘Living with Beauty’ report by the Building Better, Building Beautiful (BBBB) commission which has just been published. I’ve only skimmed it so far, but it clearly contains a lot of good stuff that we want to see adopted in our Area.
- The report was picked up in last week’s Sunday Times and they highlight that the report urges the government to:
- Engage communities early and widely in planning
- Local ideas for beauty to be prescribed in new neighbourhood design codes
- “Regreen” towns […] with two million street trees.
- Rewrite the National Planning Policy Framework to explicitly ‘ask for beauty’.
- Robert Jenrick (SoS for Housing) is quoted as saying the report is, “…one of the most important we’ve seen for many years”.
- This is all positive news for us as it reinforces our ambitions and aspirations to build something special here in Toton and Chilwell.
- Here is a link to the report if you are interested in reading it. Let us know your views.
3. And finally…. (I did warn this was a ‘slow news’ week)
- The Council is still consulting on its Leisure Centres. I posted about this a couple of weeks ago and asked for your help in pushing for a new Leisure Centre to be built in our area. So please take part in the online survey – here is the link to the website. Many thanks.
- Last time to take part in the Stapleford Town Deal consultation (scroll down to the Survey Monkey link). The survey closes next Weds 12th February so if you are interested in adding your thoughts on what improvements you’d like to see in Stapleford, now is the time to act.
- Phone boxes consultation. The council have also approached the Forum for views on the viability of a couple of phone boxes in our Area. BT are looking to remove the phone boxes at:
- Woodstock Road, Toton – located next to the bus stop near the convenience store. This box has been used only 4 times in the last 12 months
- Blenheim Drive, Chilwell – located outside Sainsbury’s Local. This box has been used 35 times over the last 12 months
- Do you have strong views about retaining either of these boxes? If so, please get in touch. Clearly it is going to be difficult to justify keeping the one on Woodstock Road given it is only used once every 3 months. The one on Blenheim Drive is used more often however, at less than once a week, it is still going to be a battle to retain it. We need to respond back to the council within 21 days so please let me have any views you have. Alternatively, you can respond directly to the council if you wish – I’ll be happy to provide details.
And that’s all folks. Apart from the continuing work on the Plan, and planning for the AGM, we have little else on our radar screens, so it will likely be a couple of weeks before you receive the next update.
Kind regards
Graham
Broxtowe Lotto: tickets available from our CTTC Forum page where you’ll also find details of the scheme.