Update – New St Ann’s ASDA supermarket

City Council Leader Jon Collins confirmed this evening that ASDA are on the point of signing a new contract with the Co-op for the land on which they intend to build its new petrol station and car park in Carlton Road. He said everything looks good for a planning application to be submitted in early autumn.

Robin Hood Chase Plans | Key decision

The Executive Board of Nottingham City Council meets on Tuesday 16th July. It will discuss the subject of the “DISPOSAL AND REDEVELOPMENT OF THE ROBIN HOOD CHASE LOCAL CENTRE” which is a major decision. Councillors will receive a joint report by councillor Graham Chapman (Deputy Leader/Portfolio Holder for Resources and Neighbourhood Regeneration), and councillor David Liversidge (Portfolio Holder for Commissioning and Voluntary Sector).

The Proposed planning application covers only the bottom half of the Robin Hood Chase, and includes the site of the former Health Centre, and the nearby commercial unit that presently contains the Co-op chemist and grocery store. The plans include a new supermarket, shops and social houses by developer Wilmot Dixon.  The ASRA Housing Group will manage the new homes when completed. The first floor of the new supermarket will be sheltered homes for the elderly.

Providing councillors at this meeting give the go ahead, the planning application is likely to be submitted in August, when public consultations will be held in the St Ann’s area.

The Time the Place | Impoverished St Ann’s

© Richard Pearson

In this week's program we give St Ann's a health check, and ask why the area is just as impoverished today as it was 44 years ago. We have film of the Robin Hood Chase 'Save our Co-op' protest; more news about the Bedroom Tax, and we take a look at the history of King Edwards Park.

Please share this video among your friends, on face book & Twitter. You are also welcome to imbed it into your own website or blog. Visit our Our TV Video channel We are also on Daily Motion

If you like this week’s program you may also like The Time the place | St Ann’s Well.

If you have any ideas for news features or community group highlights then please Email us at stannsnews@yahoo.co.uk

If you have any ideas for news features or community group highlights then please Email us at stannsnews@yahoo.co.uk Also Email your comments to us at this address.

Until next week, Have a nice holiday, Good bye for now

Richard Pearson

‘Well Wishers’ on Sneinton market today promoting ‘St Ann’s Well.’

Top Left: Richard Brown & Colin Haynes. Top Right: Carly Williams. Bottom Left: Frank Shelton from Carlton; and Bottom Right Colin Haynes holding a Snowy Owl.

Well Wishers Richard Brown & Colin Haynes held a public exhibition on Sneinton Market today, and it was all about raising awareness of the history of St Ann’s ‘magical well.’ formerly located on land at The Gardener’s Pub near Kildare Road, Mapperley. The pub has since been demolished to make way for 9 new social houses on the site. Carly Williams of local community group St Ann’s projects, posed for this publicity photo of ‘The Lady in Robin Hood’s Chair,’ a pagan ritual of bygone days.

Robin Hood Chase: Public consultation on 27th November

“The Council's regeneration team is currently discussing the viability of proposals to redevelop the next phase which includes the acquisition of the former Health Centre from the NHS. Consultation with the community including the shopkeepers will be an essential part of any new proposals.

 The regeneration team of Alan Parker & Gill Callingham will be available to discuss the current position in the Neighbourhood Centre on November 27th between 10:30am – 12:30pm

“The regeneration of Robin Hood Chase is one of the priorities for Nottingham City Council, and we have already invested around £5m in the development of the new St Ann’s Valley Centre. This new Joint Service is the first phase of the regeneration of the area, and has been well received by the local community.

“The Council has recognised the importance of retaining the existing shops and facilities throughout the duration of the works and redevelopment plans have to be phased carefully in order to allow this.

“Following the completion of the St Ann’s Valley Centre, the next phase planned for redevelopment involves the southern part of the site between St Ann’s Well Road and the Community Centre (area 2a in the 2009 master plan). This area is planned to be a mixed development which will include a number of new shops and a supermarket facing onto St Ann’s Well Road and the new Valley Centre. This main road frontage will create better visibility and access to the shops and improve their commercial viability.

“Whilst the front part of the site is redeveloped, the Council intended to consolidate the existing shops into the units to the North of the site, and discussions are underway to move the general store from the front block into one of the vacant units here.

“The two remaining blocks of shops (behind the community centre and by the Co-op) will remain until such time as the new shops are built and operating, and it is hoped that some of the existing retailers wish to take the opportunity to relocate into the new units.”

By Andrew Gregory

Head of Development Management
Nottingham City Council

St Ann’s - tributes & candles for popular Co-op manager

A steady stream of St Ann’s residents, friends, and family members continue to visit a make shift shrine outside the former Co-op store on the Robin Hood Chase.  Some of those attending were tearful as they paid their respects to Germaine Edwards who lost his life on Saturday.

28 year old Germaine from Bilborough worked at the Coop for a number of years, and was very popular among his work colleagues and store customers.

 

The Co-op store closed down for the last time on 15th November after 40 years

Video update: 15th November 2012

This is the latest video taken around our Stonebridge Park Estate, there is still much to do finishing the new flats in Magson Close. Tarpaulins cover the front porch canopies of the concrete stair ways leading into the building.

Many of the pavements have now been tarmacked, while some adjustments are being made in which curb stones around our estate are being replaced. It’s as though the building contractor, Lovell’s, now realise that some of the pavement levels are uneven!

I was informed today by Lovell’s; Dennett Close Road will be surfaced with tarmac and finished at the end of this month.

Meanwhile, WATES have now begun installing off road parking areas in Wray Close & Stonebridge Road, and will be moving into Eastham Close, Lytton Close and Dennett Close sometime in December.

The service provider I spoke to today said that WATES was only contracted to do 31 Dennett Close, which left me wondering about the other home owners & tenants along this road, who are expecting the work to be carried out soon?

By Richard Pearson

Plans for a new St Ann’s dental practice ‘submitted’

St Ann’s has been without its own dental practice for more than twenty years, and there was considerable disappointment earlier this year when the new £15m St Ann’s Valley Centre on Robin Hood Chase was opened with no dental facilities.

This is a joint service centre with NHS & council facilities, including St Ann’s library.

However, a mobile dentist has been operating in the area for a number of months, and has treated a considerable number of locals since April.

Now all of this is about to change as Doctor Mustafa Najat from West Bridgeford has submitted a planning application for change of use to turn a store at the junction of St Marks Street, with Huntingdon Street, into a new dental practice.

The planning application 12/02957/PFUL3 was submitted to Nottingham City Council on 14th November. The pre planning advice from City Council officer Sue Davis states “informal opinion is that this type of use would be acceptable, and an application for a change of use would be viewed favourably.”

Iconic Carlton Road store to be demolished

Co-op store Carlton Road VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Developer Blueprint (Igloo) are presently working alongside ASRA (Leicester Housing Association) to build a number of new social houses on the site of the former Co-op store in Carlton Road.

This store was opened in 1975 and closed down on valentines day 2008, a period of 33 years.

The Co-op building has an iconic design with its white spanned structure, and no supporting pillars inside the store itself.

It is in fact a two story building, as their is office space, store room, and staff facilities on the upper floor. Then there is the main grocery store itself, which sits above the secure ground floor car park.

The main car park area is located at the side of the Co-op with access from Seymour Street.

Seymour Street runs from a cull-de-sac adjacent Carlton Road to Stonebridge Road. The Co-op warehouse is the building at the back of the Co-op store at the Seymour / Stonebridge Road junction. The main warehouse wall runs along Stonebridge Road to St Matthias Road, which indicates just how big this building is.

Historically, the Co-op store is built on the site of a Victorian Infant & junior school, since demolished, while the warehouse is located on the site of the school playground.

New report says “crime down 27% in St Ann’s”

Voting takes place all day tomorrow (Thursday) for Nottingham’s first Police Crime Commissioner, and the good news is that all crime in St Ann’s ward over the last 12 months has gone down by 27%. In addition, all calls to the council about antisocial behaviour have also decreased by 21% over the same period.

Paddy Tipping is the Labour candidate for Police Crime Commissioner

This information is contained in a special Executive Summery on St Ann’s which will be discussed at the next Area 6 (East) meeting that will be held on Tuesday 20^th November at Loxley House.

The report also gives the latest figures for unemployment which shows that St Ann’s tops the list for the whole of the City of Nottingham. At the present time there are 1,242 people unemployed in St Ann’s.

The report says that “St Ann’s is an inner city housing area located approximately 1.7 miles from the Nottingham Town Centre. St Ann’s Ward lies within Area Committee 6 to the East of Nottingham City. At the time of the 2001 census, which is still some of the most thorough information available, there were a total of 14,840 people living in a 7940 households (2005 estimate) in the St Ann’s boundaries, according to the Office for National Statistics.

“There are a larger number of people between the ages of 16 -29 and 30- 44 than across the Nottingham City as a whole, whilst the number of children and young people under the age of 15 is slightly lower than the City figures. This age profile suggests that the area is likely to contain a higher number of working age people than the City average as a community, St Ann’s estate experiences extreme social need and local deprivation.

“As part of this, Health deprivation is currently a particular major problem for the residents which include the lowest life expectancy in particular for females than the average across the City. Some examples of poor health include; high incidences of coronary heart disease and stroke, of certain cancers in the older population, respiratory disease and poor diet amongst other.”

CRIME

The Report concludes that “all crime in St Ann’s is showing a reduction compared to September 2011. In addition, Year to Date figures indicate that All Crime is down by 27% compared to the previous year.

“All Crime in St Ann’s has decreased by 36% against 2010/11. The Rate of All Crime per 1000 of the population for St Ann’s falls below the City average. However St Ann’s does have the second highest rate of ‘Violence’ in the City, and the third highest Rate of ‘Criminal Damage’ and ‘Theft from Person’.

ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOUR

For the month of September 2012 compared to September 2011, St Ann’s is showing a reduction of All ASB calls.

“By Year to Date, St Ann’s has experienced a further reduction in All ASB calls of -21%. The Year to Date performance of the Division as a whole was at -31% at the end of September 2012.

“Over a 2010/11 Baseline St Ann’s is showing a reduction of -8%. Of all ASB calls received for St Ann’s in September 2012 the majority (73%) were categorised as ‘Nuisance’. This is consistent with the Division as a whole. Of the remaining calls 17% were classed as ‘Environmental’ and 10% were classed as ‘Personal’.”

By Richard Pearson

Latest News update

Our website continues to gain new supporters. Our Blog has become increasingly popular since September, and today we have a regular world wide audience of over 4,000 visitors a month, which is double the number of visitors to our site since July. We would just like to say thank you to all of our visitors for regularly dropping in for updates & for all of your kind comments.

Limmen Gardens. The closing date for objections for the ASRA’s (Leicester Housing Association) planning application to build 16 new social houses on Stonebridge Park  is Friday 16th October. It is therefore important that if you are unhappy about any aspect of the proposals to send in your letter today or Thursday at the latest.

While WATES are continuing to install the external wall cladding around the Stonebridge Park Estate, construction company Lovell Partnerships have done very little work to finish off resurfacing the new Dennett Road, and have instead been concentrating their efforts to complete the new flats being built in Magson Close. These flats are shown in the above photograph. A new video update of our estate will be added shortly.

The Closure of the Robin Hood Chase Co-op. During the course of Tuesday I have been assisting Caroline Lowbridge, a BBC journalist, who is covering this news item for the BBC News website. This story has gained the highest number of hits on our own website ever since it was published.

This is also a tragedy for the people who work at the Chase Co-op as there will be 8 redundancies. Co-op Managers had offered their employees alternative work at other Co-op’s in the City, including Sherwood & West Bridgeford. However, they were offered these positions but the employees have told “they had to keep the same working hours as they had at the Chase Co-op store”. The additional travel expenses have meant that this was simply not an option for them. It is such a shame that the Co-op management could not have done more to help their own staff on this sad occasion.

The Chase Co-op will close down at 2pm on Saturday 17th November, after being open, and a part of the St Ann’s community for the last 40 years.

By Richard Pearson.

Time shift: Wright & Dobson factory 1999

This aerial photograph has recently become available which shows the Wright & Dobson lace finishing factory in Carlton Road, Nottingham, while in was still open. The factory was also known as ‘the Albany Works’. Soon after this image was taken there was a fire in the ventilation ducts on the roof of the main building, and the factory closed soon after. We believe that the site was demolished in 2000. The Co-op store can be seen on the lower right, this closed in 2008.

Developer Blueprint (Igloo) intend to put in a planning application “before Christmas” to build a new ASDA store on the vacant land where Wright & Dobson’s once stood, and a number of new social houses on the site of the Co-op once the store and warehouse have been demolished.

Update: Nottingham East MP Chris Leslie

Chris talking to Joan Bradley at Bluebell Hill Primary School

The Robin Hood Chase

“There are many issues facing the community in St Ann’s, but currently the imminent closure of the Coop Food Store in the Chase precinct is causing a great deal of anxiety, particularly as this is the last basic food shop in the area – with the Aldi in the city centre the nearest available main store half a mile away. On Friday around fifty local residents gathered outside the Coop (see picture below) to protest at the decision and I joined them to discuss what few options now exist.

“It is especially disappointing because the Cooperative Group normally take a more ethical approach to their business – but they say that this particular shop is making a persistent loss and that the revamp of the premises three years ago didn’t reverse the losses. I have been talking with senior people at the Coop Group at a regional and national level and urging them to rethink or at the very least give a stay of execution, perhaps leaving the store running for a few more months until the redevelopment of the health centre land nearby at St Ann’s Well Road is able to provide brand new modern space for their relocation. I haven’t yet given up trying to persuade them to recommit to St Ann’s, but so far I have no positive news. I am deeply concerned that many vulnerable residents will face a long walk over the cold winter months – with scant public transport options available – just to get a basic food shop. Together with local councillors we will have to come up with a plan to tackle this issue going forward, and I will report further if and when we get any news.

Blue Bell Hill Primary School

“It was a great honour to visit Bluebell Hill Primary School on Friday and meet with head teacher Jo Bradley to look around their modernised building and hear about the great progress they have made at this outstanding school. They run a number of very welcome projects including ‘Every Child A Reader’ and a breakfast club which helps give a real boost at the beginning of the school day to many of the children – and they work hard to encourage parental involvement in much of the school activities. Jo Bradley has been at the school for 29 years and it is a tribute to her commitment and dedication that the school has such a positive ethos and has improved so much.”

St Ann’s: Remembrance day at the Westminster pub

It was ‘Sing-along-a-war-years’ at the Westminster Pub from 2pm on Sunday when local residents & veterans came together to remember loved ones lost in the two great wars.

In St Ann’s 923 soldiers died during world war I (1914 – 1918): St Ann's church 387; St Catherin's 64; St Emmanuel 123; St Bartholomew's 154; St Marks 95 & St Luke 100.

This is an annual day of remembrance which turns back the clock to recreate the atmosphere that was around in the old St Ann’s before 1969, and as you can see from this video, it was well received.

The event was organised by peter Loft with help from David Booth & others.

By Richard Pearson

St Ann’s Co-op protest hits the right note

Around 80 local residents turned up outside the Chase Co-op this evening to try to keep the store open until at least the new year. Carly William of St Ann’s projects & her partner arrived to support everyone, and Christopher Shannon of the nearby St Ann’s Advice Centre also voiced his opposition to the closure. Also in attendance was Nottingham East MP Chris Leslie, St Ann’s Labour councillors Jon Collins, Dave Liversidge & Sue Johnson, while Paddy Tipping, the Nottingham Labour candidate for the role of new Police Commissioner, made an appearance.

It was a well organised & peaceful demonstration, which was recorded by  BBC East Midlands Today, and a CH4 documentary crew recording a film about St Ann’s for the Dispatches programme to be broadcast later in the year.

The Co-op on the Robin Hood Chase is set to close at 2pm on 17th November.