Hello everyone,
Let’s talk about something different this week. I’ve been banging on about the Plan for several weeks now and I sense you are getting a tad weary. I know you know the importance the Plan to the neighbourhood, and you know I know I’ll come back to it again in future editions. But for now, some other news…
1. Broxtowe Lotto funding
- I promised a couple of weeks ago to provide an update on this funding stream. To quickly recap, we joined the scheme as a ‘good cause’ when the Council first launched it last September. Everyone who signs up to the scheme can select a ‘good cause’ and for each £1 ticket purchased, the good cause receives 50p with the remaining 50p divided up between cash prizes, the council’s own ‘good cause’ scheme and admin costs.
- Since it started a total of 23 people joined the scheme and nominated the Forum as their ‘good cause’. Unsurprisingly a few have subsequently dropped out and we now have 15 supporters who regularly buy a total of 37 tickets. We’d like to say “A HUGE THANK YOU” to each and every one of our supporters – we appreciate you digging into your pockets each week to provide tangible support to our work.
- Regarding the tangibleness (is that even a word?) of that support: as at the 1st of July we have received total payments of £692.50! This is a fantastic amount which helps cover the costs of run-of-the-mill items such as room bookings and office supplies.
- Back in the spring I mentioned in one of these updates that I was hoping we might end up with over £1,000 for the full year. I don’t think we will manage that now, unless we get a sudden rush of joiners. Nevertheless, getting close to £1,000 for the year is still a terrific achievement – thanks again if you are/have been a supporter.
- And if anyone would like to join up and support us, the link to the website is below. It is well worth having a look at the scheme – there are several very worthy good causes to choose from, but naturally I hope you will consider supporting your ‘local’ community.
2. Stapleford Neighbourhood Plan
- Despite being the last Forum in Broxtowe to get organised, it looks as though we will be one of the first to submit our Plan to the council. Out of a total of 10 groups in the Borough, we believe only Nuthall and Bramcote have submitted their Plans to the Council. Indeed Nuthall is the only one to have completed the whole process having their Plan ‘made’ just before Christmas last year.
- We have liaised over the last couple of years with both our neighbouring ‘forums’, Bramcote Forum and Stapleford Town Council. We’ve known for a while Stapleford have struggled to make decent headway with their Plan and we have previously offered to help them if they felt it useful.
- Last week we happened to bump into the Stapleford Neighbourhood Planning chair (and Town Councillor) Si Frost and we again offered to help them with their Plan. Si agreed it would be useful if we were to meet the Stapleford Planning team, so we hope to get a date in the diary very soon.
- It is clearly sensible to be fully ‘joined-up’ with Stapleford (and Sandiacre, come to that) given the proximity of the Bessell Lane access route to the Hub Station and Innovation Campus.
3. Meeting with the new chair of Jobs and Economy (J&E) committee
- Following changes to make-up of Council committees, we were pleased to host the new chair of the J&E committee, Cllr Tim Hallam, to our office last week. This was a follow-up to the meeting we hosted a couple of weeks ago with the previous chair and vice-chair.
- Tim is very supportive of our Plan and the work we have undertaken thus far. Tim lives in Stapleford and represents the town as both a Borough and Town councillor. Not surprisingly, therefore, Tim is very interested in our ideas along the A52 ‘corridor’ and in particular our proposed new road layout and our ideas to relocate both the George Spencer Academy and the South Broxtowe Leisure Centre to somewhere close to the Toton Lane tram terminus.
- Tim warned us there are strong feelings in Bramcote that the Leisure Centre needs to stay at its current location. This wasn’t a big surprise as our friends in the Bramcote Forum have told us they intend to keep the Leisure Centre. So, we expect the location of the new centre will generate significant debate in the council in due course. Be assured we intend to make a compelling case for it to move to our Area.
4. And finally….
- Plan publicity and promotion. Well… you didn’t really expect me to avoid all mention of the Plan did you? We have received both the leaflets and books this week. Here is a link to the leaflet you can expect through your letterbox in the next few weeks (you may need to zoom in to read it – the leaflet is printed on A3 page folded a couple of times – hence the strange layout with one page ‘chopped’ in half).
- Copies of the books will be deposited at each library (to read only, not taken away) next week along with copies of the response forms. So, pop along if you’d like to read a hard copy. However, if you’d like a personal copy (“yours for only a fiver guv’, at this price it’s a steal”) please let me know and I’ll arrange a hand-over. Below is an image of the front cover of the book. This is the first time I’ve tried to embed an image in one of these updates so not sure if it will work or not – fingers crossed.
- Updated Plan stats. Since we announced the publication of the Plan, we’ve seen almost 250 people accessing the Plan itself – which is great news. I’m sure we shall see lots more access it as the leaflets are delivered and as our stakeholders respond to the personal invitations sent to them. But… please keep on spreading the word to friends and neighbours – every little helps!
And that’s all for this week folks – more next time
Kind regards
Graham
Broxtowe Lotto: tickets available from our CTTC Forum page where you’ll find details of the scheme.