St Ann’s Projects win ‘Golden Trowel’ award

People from 35 Nottingham neighbourhoods who have been working to make their area a greener, cleaner and friendlier place to live are celebrating their achievements with Britain in Bloom 'It's Your Neighbourhood' Awards.

The award for the Most Inspiring project amongst the 135 groups in the East Midlands was presented to St Ann's Projects, for their efforts in turning a forgotten patch of land in Moffat Close into the Zig Zag Community Garden. At least 40 local people attend each monthly gardening session, with more than 200 people involved overall.

Carly Williams and Martin Sommerville, who lead the group, said: "We're very proud of what everyone has made happen on the Zig Zags. We feel totally humbled and really excited to keep growing."

Thousands of residents across the city are involved in greening and cleaning up their own areas in liaison with Nottingham in Bloom. Many groups have their efforts recognised officially by entering the awards, which are run by the Royal Horticultural Society.

Assessors visited each group in July and awarded marks for horticulture, environmental responsibility and community participation. Certificates were presented at Wollaton Park Community Centre in Harrow Road in Wollaton by Jeff Bates, Chair of East Midlands in Bloom - with eight groups receiving the highest award of 'Outstanding.'

Councillor Malcolm Wood, Chair of the Nottingham in Bloom Working Group, said: "Congratulations to all the neighbourhood groups, who are doing so much to improve their own environment and instil a sense of pride and community spirit across the area. Many of these projects have sparked an interest amongst people who have never been involved in gardening before and we hope that many more will be inspired to get involved in the future."

The Neighbourhood Bloom groups also played an important part in Nottingham's Gold Medal winning entry into the East Midlands in Bloom competition, with 25% of the marks allocated for community participation.

Report withdrawn by councillors as Nottingham City Homes ‘can’t add up’ !

The AREA CAPITAL FUND - 2013/15 Report presented to councillors at the recent Area 6 committee meeting (Dales, Mapperley, St Ann’s) on 10th September, written by Nottingham City Homes, has had to be withdrawn because it contained erroneous financial information. The main parts of the report affected are for Newark Crescent, and improvements at Sneinton Hermitage & Rest garden (The Dales).

A series of meeting are being held this week to resolve issues with the report. Councillors at the Area 6 meeting indicated that they had not read the report prior to the meeting, and they were not happy with its contents after reading through it. They therefore asked for it to be “pulled”.

The Area Capital Programme was established to improve the environment of the neighbourhoods and to create a sense of place for residents in order to improve the quality of life of local people. Since it was established in 2006 to meet the then corporate priority of “Transforming Neighbourhoods” the Area Capital Fund has included a total programme expenditure portfolio of £40 million. The improvements that have been carried out to date using this programmed have included footpath, fences, visual enhancements to public realm, refurbishment of parks and improvements to public buildings.

New City Council Budget consultations

The Budget 2014/15 consultation program is set to begin in a month’s time, which will consist of a number of public meetings taking place around the city in two phases:

Phase 1 – pre-budget engagement and consultation to help to shape the draft budget will start in October 2013 and run until mid November, and will consist of:

a) a survey distributed with the October edition of the Arrow;
b) an online survey on the City Council website – www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk;
c) a programme of pre-budget engagement events with citizens and with the voluntary and community sector which will be led by Portfolio Holders;
d) engagement with Nottingham City Council colleagues.
Some questions may also be added to the 2013 Nottingham Citizens’ Survey to gather additional insight to feed into the pre-budget consultation where appropriate.

Phase 2 - consultation on the draft budget proposals will occur during January and early February 2014 and provides the opportunity to view, challenge and propose alternatives to specific proposals. Specifically it will involve:

a) a budget consultation form which will be made available online and in hard copy to enable everyone to have their say on the proposals;
b) events in neighbourhoods across the City;
c) consultation with businesses;
d) events for the voluntary and community sector and One Nottingham partners.

Ed Miliband is now less popular than Gordon Brown!

The monthly Ipsos-MORI poll for the Evening Standard is out today.

They repeated their semi regular question comparing whether people like the parties and their leaders, asking whether people like each party and its leader, the party but not the leader, the leader but not the party, or neither. 63% of people now say they don’t like Ed Miliband, up from 56% in Oct 2012 and 51% in Jan 2011. 30% say they like Miliband, a net score of minus 33. In comparison Gordon Brown’s worst score was minus 36 in July 2008. On the party he leads 49% of people say they like Labour, and 43% say they dislike Labour giving them a net score of plus 6 and meaning they are still the party that people have the most positive opinion of.

Looking at the same questions for David Cameron, 43% of people like him, 52% dislike him (a net score of minus 9, slightly better than last year but less positive than when he was in opposition). For the Conservative party 39% have a positive view, 57% a negative view (a net score of minus 18). The pattern we’ve seen before continues – David Cameron is still more likeable than his party (-9 compared to minus 18), while Ed Miliband trails behind his party (minus 33 compared to plus 6). Neither prevents Labour having a lead in voting intention.

For the first time the like him/like his party question included Nigel Farage and UKIP. Farage was liked by 27%, disliked by 50% (a net rating of minus 23); UKIP were liked by 25%, disliked by 52% (a net rating of minus 27, so Farage slightly more popular than his party).

Stonebridge residents anger at poor customer relations by ASRA Housing Group.

The date of our next meeting is 24th September 6:30pm – 8pm at Blue Bell Hill Community Centre

FRIENDS OF STONEBRIDGE PARK held a public meeting at the Blue Bell Hill Community Centre on Wednesday evening (Last Night), when local residents gathered to hear what was happening around the estate.

Martin Harris of the City Council’s Parks Dept. gave a presentation about beginning consultations for new play equipment. Martin said there was presently £10,000 available to spend on the site, while Developer Keepmoat Homes at offered another £10k. This was a start, he said, however, for the provision of a good climbing frame, swings and a slide about £60k was needed.

A rude woman and her daughter was disruptive during Martin’s presentation saying they didn't want anything done with Rocket Park. There was even talk of spending all the money elsewhere on King Edwards Park!

Martin said that if locals did not want play equipment on Rocket Park, the money could be spent on other improvements, better street lighting, perimeter fence etc.

However, 3 individuals are not representative of the 320 families living on Stonebridge Park today, and there will be a further 125 when new homes are completed in 2015. We the committee will be contacting Martin Harris to ask for a door to door survey of as many people as possible concerning the future of Rocket Park, and an open air gathering on the site for local residents to come along and have their say. Only then can an informative decision be made.

Three Jersey Gardens residents complained about the new Keepmoat compound being setup adjacent their homes. Workers cars parking along there road blocked them in so they could not get out to work in the mornings; large vehicles prevented dustbin lorries emptying their bins; and there was the danger ambulances/fire engines could not get through in an emergency. We agreed to raise these issues with with the site Manager, and invite him along to our next meeting.

Keepmoat Homes Ltd have an excellent first class record of customer relations across their portfolio of housing developments.

There was a lot of criticism of ASRA Housing Group who are continuously doing very little to support the new tenants of their new properties on Stonebridge Park. Some are experiencing significant problems, while ASRA are not listening and  refuse to visit Stonebridge to resolve issues due to the poor workmanship of Lovell’s, their contractor. Cracked brick walls, blocked drains, overflowing guttering. In one instance a badly fitted sewerage pipe led to smelling sewerage flooding into a couple’s living room & bathroom in the Beacon Hill House apartments. ASRA did next to nothing to support the couple, and offered them no compensation for their distress, discomfort and time while the problem was being resolved by Nottingham City Homes.

Another family described how they lived in the flat above the big main car park gates The gate hinges are attached to the main structure of the building. Many times a day as these gates open and close it causes significant noise and vibration inside their home. Other flats are also affected in Beacon Hill House. The CEO of ASRA, Matt Cooney is fully aware of this issue, yet ASRA have completely failed to do anything about it.

This exceptionally poor customer relations is very worrying, since ASRA will begin building 15 new houses in Limmen Gardens in November, and will also manage the new homes yet to be built on the Robin Hood Chase in St Ann’s. We will try again to invite a representative along to our next meeting scheduled for September 24th, and raise this subject with the Homes & Communities Agency.

There was an update from Robert Batey on the Defend Council Tax campaign; speeding vehicles & double parked cars on Beacon Hill Rise, Stonebridge Roads etc..

By Bill Robinson (chairman)

Richard Pearson (Secretary)

Affordable Homes Guarantees Programme

Homes & Communities Agency

Government announced its proposal to guarantee up to £10bn of debt which will help housing providers expand the provision of both purpose built private rented and affordable housing as part of the Housing and Planning package on 6 September 2012. This housing guarantee will use the Government’s fiscal credibility to reduce the cost of borrowing for housing Providers, as well as attract investment from fixed income investors seeking a stable, long term return on their investment without exposure to residential rental property risk. The rules for the Housing Guarantee Schemes, clarifying their terms, and an invitation to tender for delivery of the Schemes were launched early in 2013. 

As well as the Guarantee for the Affordable Homes element, the Government confirmed that it would make £225m of funding available for new affordable housing, for use where needed alongside the Affordable Homes Guarantee. This funding was then doubled in the 2013 Budget to £450m, including London, to support up to 30,000 new affordable homes.

We have published details of how Registered Providers can bid for a share of the £450m and how this might work, whether grant funding and/or agreement to convert existing stock to deliver additional affordable homes is sought. This essentially builds on our existing AHP Framework, and should be used in conjunction with that.

• Download the Affordable Homes Guarantees Programme Framework - PDF (274KB)
• Download the update to the Prospectus following the 2013 Budget - Word (38KB)

Bids were invited on 27 February 2013 with a closing date of  21 May 2013 and bidding under that bid round has now closed with resulting allocations being announced on 25 July 2013. In addition to entering bids on IMS, providers were also required to submit a number of supporting statement setting out further details of their proposal a cover sheet in the form supplied below.

For the avoidance of doubt bidders are advised that reference in the AHGP Framework to the ‘standard offer template’ should not be taken to mean that a standard offer template must be completed in order to submit a bid, bidders are asked to submit bids via IMS and accompany IMS bids with AHG lead respondent information which can be accessed via the link below.

Full details of what is required in these statements are listed in the Affordable Homes Guarantee Programme Framework. Supporting statements along with the cover sheet were required to be emailed to AHPOffers@hca.gsi.gov.uk by 21 May 2013 and were to be saved with a file name or names that clearly identifies the provider and scheme name, ideally using the same names as in the IMS bid. 

• AHG lead respondent information - xls (60KB)

In addition registered providers were required to email relevant information direct to the Regulator at FA.Enquiries@hca.gsi.gov.uk including an updated financial forecast return. This should be the latest version of the financial forecast return template which contains specific information requirements relevant to the Affordable Homes Guarantees Programme bids as provided below.

• Financial forecast return template - xls (228KB)

On 24 July 2013 we published the successful bids that could deliver over 13,800 new affordable homes:

• Allocations for AHGP 2013-16 delivery - xls (41KB)

Please note: that allocations contained in this document are subject to contract.

In summary: Midlands

Funding Requested £63,289,871

Units 4,436

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.

Nottingham Council Tax protest

TODAY The Defend Council Tax & Bedroom Tax campaign group held a protest outside the Council House in Nottingham’s Old market Square. Supported by union Unison the campaigners called on Nottingham City Council to suspend the eviction of council tenants who are unable to pay their Bedroom / Council Tax, and to use Council reserve funds to help vulnerable people who are having financial difficulties paying there rents.

£3.6 billion government boost for social housing

The Homes and Communities Agency, the national housing, land and regeneration agency, has today welcomed government’s spending plans as a strong settlement for the sector.

The plans, announced by The Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander today and published in Investing in Britain’s Future, set out more detail on how £3.3bn of investment will deliver 165,000 new affordable homes by 2017/18.

The announcement included:
• An extension of the Affordable Homes Programme with £957m funding each year from 2015/16 to 2017/18, and a £400m Affordable Rent to Buy scheme, to deliver 165,000 new affordable homes.
• Certainty that the guideline limit for social rent increases has been set at CPI + 1% per year from 2015-16 to 2024-25.
• A review of the Government estate to be led by the Government Property Unit and a role for the HCA as the single public body charged with bringing surplus public land to market from 2015/16 onwards.
• An additional £150m funding for Enterprise Zones and an additional £102m to speed up delivery on large scale sites.
•£160m to reduce the backlog of non-decent homes, bringing the Decent Homes Backlog Programme to an end.
• Allowing the HCA to charge fees for the regulation of social housing providers.

Many of the programmes announced today will be administered by the HCA outside London, on behalf of the Department for Communities and Local Government.

Andy Rose, Chief Executive of the HCA, said:

“This is a strong settlement for the sector.  The commitment of £3.3bn for affordable housing to build 165,000 new affordable homes reflects the Government’s confidence in the sector and the HCA; as well as housing’s role in driving economic growth. This is core business for us and we are ready to work with our partners to deliver these new homes.  This includes our role as regulator to ensure providers have appropriate management strategies to take advantage of the new opportunities.

“The announcement that the HCA will be the single public body charged with bringing surplus public sector land to market builds on the HCA’s role as the Government’s key delivery partner in increasing the amount of public land for development and speeding up the rate at which it is brought to market.  It clearly recognises our commercial expertise, experience of managing large portfolios of land, and delivery performance to date in contributing to the Prime Minister’s ambition to release enough land by 2015 to support development of 100,000 new homes.

“There are significant opportunities in today’s announcement for house builders and providers to meet their development aspirations. Our role now is to maximise the impact of the investment that has been made available and we will be talking to the sector about implementation, to take advantage of these opportunities.”

The Time the Place | Housing Allocations Policy

© Richard Pearson

In this week's program we have a video of the King Edward's Park Fun Day, and the Teddy Bears picnic at Stonebridge City Farm. We take a look at the proposed changes to the Nottingham Housing allocation policy, and the new planning proposals for Bath Street. We also have the latest news on Student loans. and Disability Living Allowance.

Shown here is the Planned Netherfield development

The Time the Place | Stonebridge Park

© Richard Pearson

In this week’s program we take a look at the history of the Stonebridge Park Estate in St Ann’s including old photographs of some of the streets, and buildings. Also the Defend Council Tax group held a successful meeting at the neighbourhood centre on the Robin Hood Chase this week

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

Help for Clifton Businesses

As the new NET Tram line continues to be constructed through Clifton, the affect on local businesses has been quite damaging. This week Councillor Jane Urquhart, Portfolio Holder for Transport at the city council, made an executive decision on 13^th June to spend up to £500,000 supporting Clifton businesses affected by the NET phase 2 construction works. The revenue will come from the NET budgets.

Robin Hood Chase consultations delayed again

The Robin Hood Chase Regeneration Scheme is moving closer to reality. Project Officer Alan Parker said today that things were more exciting. Both the Developer Wilmot Dixon & the Asra Housing group were close to agreement. The next stage is for the Executive Board of the city council to be asked to give its approval for the submission of the planning application. However, this is unlikely to happen before 16th July. This means that consultations with St Ann’s residents and local businesses will not now take place until August at the earliest.

Housing Allocation Policy set to change

Are you affected by the Bedroom Tax? This week the city council is to make it easier for tenants to down size into smaller properties, and they will also discharge there homeless responsibilities on to the private sector.

The Executive Board of the city council meets this Tuesday, when councillors are being asked to approve new changes to the Housing Allocations Policy.

A joint report by Graham de Max, Policy and Partnership Manager, Housing Strategy, and Sue Lomax, Housing Options Manager, Nottingham City Homes will be presented to councillors at the meeting.

The report takes into account the impact that the Bedroom Tax is having on people living in Nottingham today, and its impact on the available housing stock of 29,000 homes.

The report says Nottingham City Council’s Housing Allocations Policy is regularly reviewed to maintain its relevance in providing homes for people in need, which last happened three years ago.

Nottingham is currently experiencing increasing demand for social housing, in particular as a result of the Government’s Welfare reform agenda.

Currently there are just fewer than 12,000 applicants on the housing register. Approximately 1800 properties became available for re-letting last year, which means that supply is greatly outstripping demand.

The increased demand means that applicants who have low or no needs are placed on the housing register with little or no realistic chance of being offered a social tenancy.

In June 2012 parts of the Localism Act 2011 relating to housing allocations came into force.

Local Authorities throughout the country are making amendments to their Housing Allocations Policies to make use of the powers and flexibilities, particularly in relation to setting a residency qualification and in discharging homeless duties to the private rented sector.

The proposed new amendments include the Introduction of qualifying criteria for applicants to the Housing register, in relation to age and residency in the City; and non-qualifying criteria in terms of un-acceptable behaviour, home ownership, no housing need and unavailability to occupy accommodation.

In terms of city residency the qualifying period will change to 3 years to prevent immigrants from entering the UK and jumping the Nottingham housing cue, or transferring into Nottingham from other areas of the country.

It says that the Housing Register will be closed to new applicants with a low chance of success.

Re-designation of the holding band 5, which will become a band for lower need applicants who will qualify for older people’s accommodation.

Amendments to eligibility and occupancy criteria to relax previous age restrictions which were applied to ground floor flats. This is in view of the increased demand, particularly from those who currently have to pay the Bedroom Tax who want to down-size, or need to be re-housed due to regeneration.

There will also be amendments to the eligibility and occupancy criteria for two bedroom low rise flats to make best use of all accommodation which can be used for smaller families, many of whom are particularly impacted by the reductions in benefits due to the Bedroom Tax.

The introduction of affordability and risk assessments for all applicants prior to offer, to ensure applicants are only offered accommodation which they can afford and, where any risks can be managed.

Sanctions will also be introduced for those who are not bidding realistically or who are continuously refusing suitable offers?

There will be amendments to the Allocation Policy in order to facilitate decisions from Nottingham City to discharge their homeless duty to the private rented sector.

This is a controversial decision since the private rented sector is presently under a lot of pressure.

This is for two reasons. Firstly, Lettings agents in England charge tenants an average of £350 in fees on top of a deposit and up-front rent, a housing charity has said.

Shelter set up anonymous testing of 60 lettings agencies to record what they charged to set up a tenancy, make credit checks and other paperwork.

It called for new rules to ensure these fees were only paid by landlords.

But the lettings agents' trade body said it was fair that tenants made a contribution.

The Association of Residential Lettings Agents said that if this was not the case, then rents would rise.

Secondly, private sector housing rents are considerably over valued. The average rent in England and Wales is now 3.9pc higher than it was this time last year and yet the average wage in the private sector hasn’t gone up at all, with pay rises grinding to a complete halt.

The squeeze is especially acute in London, where rents are 7.6pc higher and where a quarter of residents rent privately and here in the East Midlands rents are up 4.1pc, according to LSL Property Services.

As a result we are starting to hear tentative calls for rent controls – compulsory limits on how much landlords are allowed to charge, and caps on annual rent hikes.

On June 12th the Institute of Physical Studies released a report showing that wages have fallen more in real terms in the current economic downturn than ever before.

"The falls in nominal wages... during this recession are unprecedented," said Claire Crawford from the IFS.

On top of the rising cost of living, one third of workers who stayed in the same job saw a wage cut or freeze between 2010 and 2011, said the Institute.

Whatever the decision of councillors at this week’s Executive Board meeting, it promises to be a significant turning point for every tenant, and those on the Housing Waiting List.

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

The Time the Place | Walter Halls Music Night

The Time the Place | Walter Halls Music Night by The-Time-the-Place

In this week’s program we show-case Walter Halls School Music Night. We also have news from the Defend Council Tax Benefits Group; Mapperley Councillor Emma Dewinton successfully defends one of her constituents from the threat of eviction due to the bedroom Tax, and highlights of the June Night Sky.

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 like this week’s program you may also like The Time the place | St Ann’s Well. And The Time the Place | 20th may

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

The Time the Place | 20 May

In today's program. Plans for the new ASDA store in Carlton Road are under revision again. A full news bulletin, plus video of St Georges' Day parade in Nottingham; Moffatt Close Community Garden; and St Ann's residents pay tribute to The Dambusters 70 years on. This was the last social gathering at the now closed Westminster pub.

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

Comment   I live opposite where this store would be and wholeheartedly support ASDA building a larger store with Petrol Station. Local businesses survived with the co op and therefore, should survive now ... Unless they are the ones selling beers and spirits to the homeless people in the area. The local council should ask the local people who have got homes in the area what they want, and not make decisions based only on their opinion, especially as I bet they do not live in this area. Come on ASDA stand up to them and give us the large store our area is desperate for. Anonymous

Until next Monday, have a nice week, Good bye for now

Richard Pearson

Award winning Developer to revamp Robin Hood Chase

Wilmott Dixon the Developer behind the successful St Ann’s Valley Centre is also the new developer for phase 2 of the ambitious scheme to regenerate the Robin Hood Chase nearby.

ASRA Housing association will manage the houses to be built on the Chase upon their completion.

City Council Project Manager Gill Callingham, who along side Alan Parker are managing the Robin Hood Chase redevelopment, said today “Wilmott Dixon had done such a nice job building the St Ann’s Valley centre, and they worked really well with the local community, we felt it was important to have them on board from the outset.”

She said Wilmott Dixon have now drawn up the new plans for the Chase, and are presently working with ASRA and the city council to finalise the number of homes to be built in order to make the scheme financially viable.

Once this is complete, and contracts signed, there will be wide ranging consultations with local shopkeepers, and the local community taking place. The planning application will to be submitted in July, and any demolition work on the redundant commercial units, and former health centre, will take place in the autumn around November 2013.

The Time the Place | St Ann’s Well

© Richard Pearson

On Tuesday 11th June 10:30am – 12 Noon Colin Haynes will be giving a talk about St Ann’s Well at the St Anns Library in the St Ann’s Valley Centre. Colin Haynes set up the St Ann’s Well Wishers’ group a short time ago, and in April they launched an online petition asking for any archaeological dig on the site of St Ann’s magical well to be carried out as soon as possible. Please sign Colin’s petition here

This TV program takes a look at St Ann’s Well and its place in history, based on my own research from 1995 onwards.

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

If you like this video please share it on your Facebook wall/Twitter, download it onto your pc to play back later, and do share it with your friends & family.

The next program will be broadcast in June.

Richard Pearson

Head Teacher Peter Strauss says Farwell to Walter Halls school

On Thursday 23rd May Walter Halls Primary and Early Years School, near the top of The Wells Road, is holding its annual ‘Music Night’.

The annual event -- 6pm – 9pm – gives children at the school the chance to play musical instruments, and perform songs, in front of parents & visitors.

Peter Strauss, the Head Teacher, has just announced that he has accepted the position of headmaster of another school, and will be leaving Walter Halls later this year. A meeting of the school’s governors is to meet later this month to appoint his successor. In a letter to parents this week, Peter Strauss said he has had many happy years at Walter Halls Primary and Early Years School, and will miss all the school children and staff.

Next year 2013 Walter Halls Primary and Early Years School is holding its 75th anniversary, 1939 – 2013, which will be a special occasion for the school and local community.