Weekly digest: March 31st

Hi

Well, it’s Easter time and the weather is predictably disappointing. On the upside, it means I don’t have to spend the weekend pressure washing the decking and garden path! Instead it gives me a chance to catch up with the outputs of our consultation exercise back in February. The survey results have been collated and the results provide great input to our thinking for the Plan

  1. Consultation survey: The Results are in!
    • First, let me say we had a terrific response to the survey: 179 people took the time to give us their views – our thanks to you all. With this level of response, it means we have detailed, credible insights into the thoughts & views of our community. Our Plan will be all the stronger because of it.
    • Responses were split roughly 50/50 between male/female contributors – which was good to see. A disappointing element, however, was the age profile. Only 1 in 5 responses were from people under 45. The Steering Group will need to give further thought to how best we garner views from the younger generation. After all it is this group who will be most affected by the changes coming our way over the next 15+ years.
    • Full results can be viewed here. There are a number of graphs and a selection of comments. I’ll provide some further thoughts on these results next week.
    • Work is still needed to collate and assess the comments collected on the flip charts at each event – more on that next week as well.
  1. HS2 Station Delivery Board
    • The latest HS2 Strategy Board meeting was held last Monday (26th March). The main item discussed was the creation of a ‘HS2 Station Delivery Board’. This group will focus on turning the ideas for our Area contained in the Growth Strategy into actions ‘on the ground’
    • The set-up of the Board has taken longer than we hoped. Due to the size & significance of the plans for our Area there are, unsurprisingly, a number of competing interests. But whilst the final shape and remit of the Board has still to be ironed out, everyone agrees we must quickly move forward
    • A number of meetings for the new Board have been scheduled over the next 6 months and we are pleased to report that the Forum has been asked to join. At this stage our concern is that the number of people invited to join looks excessive, but we’ll see how things develop.
  2. £100million HS2 garden village bid for our Area
    • You may not have seen this news article (from the D2N2 website) published a week or so ago. It’s about a bid made by Notts County Council for a sizeable chunk of funds from central government to help fund ‘infrastructure’ work in our Area
    • Kay Cutts (leader of County Council) reported to the HS2 Strategy Board that their bid had successfully cleared the first hurdle to access this funding and she was hopeful the government will approve of the bid at the next stage. Which is fantastic news!
    • As to the nature of these ‘infrastructure’ works, well we can only speculate. But clearly that amount of cash should go a long way to: build/improve road access from the A52 to the station; perhaps help ease the move of George Spencer across the road; perhaps even to move/relocate the electricity sub-station at the top of Stapleford Lane. BUT…this is just speculation so best not to get ahead of ourselves.
  3. Stakeholder meetings continue…
    • Last Wednesday (28th March) Richard and myself held another useful meeting with a stakeholder who has an interest in land off Stapleford Lane. This time it was with UKPP(Toton), a company who works closely with Heart Church on land either side of the Lane
    • Not surprisingly UKPP(Toton) are aligned in their thinking with Heart Church. They too acknowledge the publication of HS2 Growth Strategy is potentially a ‘game changer’ in the way Toton Lane is developed. However, like Heart, they too believe the HS2 Growth Strategy is, at this stage, too uncertain as it is wholly dependent on HS2 receiving Royal Assent in 2022.
    • They are therefore working on the current, approved, planning application for 220 or so houses. Once all planning conditions have been cleared, UKPP(Toton), like Heart, will look to sell their interest in the land (to a builder) rather than wait a further perhaps 4/5 years for HS2 to be confirmed
    • An interesting side conversation developed around another company the director of UKPP(Toton) is involved in – Charterpoint Group Ltd. This company specialises in developing retirement villages – it’s involved in developing the land next to the tram stop on Chilwell Road. We mentioned that an option we were considering was some retirement dwellings on the Barracks site. So, we are hoping to develop this relationship further.
    • Anyway, we are now arranging to meet Peveril (the last major owner of land west of Stapleford Lane) as well as contacting landowners to the east of the Lane – around the tram terminus. As always, I’ll keep you updated on progress
  4. And finally…
    • Welcome to our new members! I’ve added new email addresses gathered from the consultations to our lists. We now have over 760 people registered with the Forum. It would be terrific to break the 1,000 mark before we submit our Plan at Christmas. If you know of anyone who isn’t yet receiving these updates, please ask them to get in touch.
    • This is the first digest to be sent from our website via our new MailChimp service. It is easier for us to manage these digests from a central location not least because it means we are less reliant on particular individuals. But we hope to maintain the chatty, informal style as well. Let us know your thoughts on this switch

And that’s all for this week folks – more next week.

Kind regards
Graham

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2 Responses to Weekly digest: March 31st

  1. chris carr says:

    Hello Graham.

    Thankyou for the update.

    One comment from my wife and myself. We work, but will retire within a few years . We would like to stay in this area and may downsize at some stage. There appears to be a shortage of bungalows which is the sort of housing we would look for. Could this aspect be considered within the Chetwynd Barraks development ?

    Our property is three bedroom detached, which logically would be freed up for a family.

    Regards,

    Chris and Karen.

    • CTTC Graham says:

      Hi Chris & Karen
      Thanks for the comment – it’s always great to receive feedback like this.
      As for the shortage of bungalows, yes we want to make sure we have a good mix of housing for all segments of the community. In particular we are interested in supporting housing at both ‘ends’ of the spectrum i.e. starter homes for young people wanting to get onto the housing ladder and ‘retirement’ homes for those – like yourselves – thinking of downsizing when the time is right. So your comments are very helpful & reinforces that we are on the right track.
      I’ll make sure to add your comments to the housing ‘strand’

      Thanks again for taking time to comment and keep them coming…

      Regards
      Graham

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