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

Westminster pub closure – ‘a calamity for our St Ann’s community’

The Westminster Hotel has been part of the old St Ann’s since the turn of the century, situated on St Ann’s Well Road adjacent Donkey Hill, and is named after the grandiose Westminster Abbey in London.

The old building was demolished as part of the area’s slum clearance program in 1970 and the present building was opened in 1971.

The first Landlord was Harry Carnell, and a year later Stan Burcanshaw took over the Westminster pub.

In a 1999 interview with social historian Ruth Johns he said “When I first came here in 1972, the estate was still being knocked down and the new estate being built. My first wife used to stand on this doorstep in the morning when the workmen were coming in off the site, and ask them to take their dirty boots off.

“There was sludge everywhere. There were still two pubs left on the estate; one of them was across the road. The Havelock and the other was the old St Ann s Inn. A smashing chap in there, he worked for our brewery for nineteen years and he had the new St Ann's Inn on Shelton Street. The old St Ann's Inn was the last pub to be knocked down. Before demolition there were over fifty pubs on this estate. Many of them Shipstone's. And there were four or five good little breweries here as well, but they all lost their licences. The Council gave them to the big three, Home Brewery, Shipstone's and Mansfield Brewery.

“There used to be a sign Westminster Abbey outside. It was about the only pub named after the Abbey. Then they changed the name to the Wheeltappers. The big Westminster Abbey sign, which cost £3,000 and came second in a championship of the best signs in England, went. They ruined the pub; made it an entertainment pub and it went down and down. And then they couldn't afford the entertainment and let it go tenanted. I came in as Manager.

St Ann’s 2012 Remembrance Event at the Westminster Pub

Evening Post News story by Jayne Garfitt

“I was here two and a half years, and Shipstone's then asked me to open up a brand new pub at Rainworrh called the Sherwood. I spent five happy years there, and then the brewery asked me to come back here. It had been run down by management. I've been back here eighteen years. Shipstone's sold out to Greenalls about 22 years ago and Greenalls sold out to Nomura over two years ago. It's a Japanese bank!”

The pub then changed it name back to The Westminster, and today is owned by Punch Taverns.

Established in 1997, Punch Taverns is one of the UK’s largest leased pub companies with a portfolio of around 5,000 pubs nationwide.

The Westminster was put on the Market in February 2012, and a Carlton based congregation of Jehovah witnesses, who have their main Kingdom Hall situated in Victoria Park off Bath Street, St Ann’s, offered to buy the pub on condition their planning application was successful.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses submitted plans to demolish the Westminster pub and build a new single story Kingdom Hall on the site. However, regulars put up stiff opposition and the proposals stalled in May.

Sadly, after closing on November 18^th there was a break in. It’s not known if anything was stolen during the burglary or if any vandalism was caused inside the pub itself, however, Punch Taverns took the decision to close down The Westminster after 41 years serving the St Ann’s Community.

The closure of ‘The Wessy’ this week has shocked local residents & the pub’s regular customers, who fought really hard to keep the pub open for the benefit of elderly, and disabled people. These locals now have nowhere else to go & socialise anywhere in St Ann’s today; its a social calamity.

By Richard Pearson

Stonebridge Park: Beacon Hill Rise ~ ‘road safety concerns’

Letter to: Jennifer Williams
Senior Officer - Accident Investigation
Development Department
Nottingham City Council

--------------------------------------------------

Dear Mrs Williams,

Your Ref ADM0274/Stonebridge-JW/PUBLIC
Reference code: TCM1008

Q: What action do you propose to take to introduce new traffic calming measures along the rest of Beacon Hill Rise Road, to stop ‘cruise’ motorists from regularly racing each other down hill at speeds in access of 60 mph, in order to improve the safety of Stonebridge Park residents & their children during the hours of darkness?

Thank you for sending me a copy of the proposed road traffic calming changes; you ask for our comments and observations.

New traffic calming proposals – Beacon Hill Rise Road

I have placed a copy of your letter & plan on our community website and have spoken to people living on the Stonebridge Park Estate to gage public opinion before writing to you today.

The new proposals are broadly welcomed, and well designed. However, they will only supplement and benefit the home owners of the three new social houses planned by ASRA in Limmen Gardens on the site of the former pedestrian subway, since filled in.

The proposals will do little to improve the safety of Stonebridge Park pedestrians & their children who risk their lives every day trying to cross over this hazardous road during the hours of darkness.

Beacon Hill Rise Road is a main arterial highway leading down hill towards Bath Street/ Sneinton Market, and is frequently used by ‘cruise’ motorists to race each other down hill at speeds in access of 60 mph.

The central refuges on the road today slow these speeding motorists down slightly; however, they are considered a challenge rather than a hindrance. In addition the zebra crossing near the Stonebridge Road, Campbell Street junction has no decent yellow flashing beacons, and is not raised in the form of a speed cushion, so does little to ensure the safety of any local residents or children attempting to use it during the hours of darkness.

Many of the locals I have spoken to are surprised that as a Senior Officer - Accident Investigation, employed by NCC in the Development Department, you have shown little care or consideration for the safety of our Stonebridge Park citizens, by showing no interest in installing new road cushions, improving the zebra crossing to ensure the safety of people using it, or any other traffic calming measures along this hazardous, and in my opinion dangerous road.

I refer to the stretch of Beacon Hill Rise Road between Dennett Close & Stonebridge Road.

On our website we recently reported that “on the evening of Friday 14th September 2012 two cars raced each other at high speed up & down the road at about 10pm.

“Ten minutes later both cars made contact at the zebra crossing at Paxton Gardens, and one vehicle veered out of control colliding with the window at the side of Paul’s grocery shop in Campbell Grove causing structural damage.”

Yours sincerely

Richard Pearson
Website Manager.

200 New Homes to be built on Stonebridge Park

More good new for Stonebridge Park this week, as the Nottingham Target Plan for new house building in the City says that over 200 new homes are to be built on our estate by 2018.

The Executive Board of Nottingham City Council meets on Tuesday 20^th November to discuss their three year Housing Nottingham Plan 2013-2015. This is a ‘draft’ copy of a joint report by Mike Andrews CEO of Nottingham Community Housing Association. Chair of Nottingham's Housing Strategic Partnership. And St Ann’s Labour Councillor David Liversidge, Portfolio Holder for Housing Delivery at Nottingham City Council.

This is a detailed and comprehensive 65 page document that covers every aspect of housing strategy in Nottingham, and is being presented to the Executive Board along side the Nottingham Target Plan to 2020.

The Stonebridge Park Estate gets a mention in both documents.

Recently Keepmoat Homes Ltd has been awarded ‘kick start’ funding from the Homes & Communities Agency under the ‘Get Britain Building Program’ to enable them to build 104 new homes on Stonebridge Park. Keepmoat are presently in discussions with the City Council as to the best and most economical way to provide these properties in the near future. However, Keepmoat are not mentioned by name, the Target Plan simply says “NCC in partnership with private developers.”

The Nottingham Target Plan is to deliver 11,500 new homes by 2020 across Nottingham, with 4,150 to be completed by 2014.

For the Stonebridge Park Estate the plan indicates that “61 new homes are to be provided by ASRA” (Leicester Housing Association) by March 2015. It also says that “Stonebridge Park phases 3 & 6 consist of 40 houses being built by Dec 2013 and 104 units by March 2017. NCC in partnership with private developers.”

However, the 2009 Master Plan for our Estate shows 165 additional new homes to be built here in the near future, including the 16 new units to be built by ASRA in 2013. So in reality the number of new social houses to be constructed is likely to be closer to 150 by 2018.

ASRA have just submitted a planning application to build 16 new houses in Limmen Gardens. If the application is successful they aim to begin building them next summer; the construction company being Lovell Partnerships.

In the Housing Nottingham Plan under the Regeneration Theme, it says “transforming Nottingham’s Neighbourhoods is identified as Strategic Priority 2 in the Nottingham Plan 2020 which aims to achieve:

“Greater balance…. in the city’s housing market with an increased choice of quality housing meeting the needs of a diverse population and enabling the city to retain more of its aspiring residents”.

“In Nottingham, the Stonebridge Park regeneration scheme has provided a good example of where housing replacement programmes have attracted regeneration benefits beyond the initial scope of the scheme. The scheme has created 10 apprenticeships for local young people while delivering 95 new homes. In addition, the programme has stimulated the development of a new extra-care facility, Albany House on an adjacent site. Private investor interest in the Carlton Road/Albany works near the southern end of the Stonebridge estate is likely to see this site brought forward for a mixed residential and retail development in the near future.”

Developer Blueprint (Igloo) intend to submit a planning application before Christmas, which includes building a new ASDA store on the Albany Works site, and new houses on the land presently occupied by the Co-op nearby.

By Richard Pearson

Work begins installing new parking areas

New off road parking areas VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

On the Stonebridge Park Estate, over the last week contractor WATES Living Space have been installing new off-road parking areas for residents living in Wray Close & Stonebridge Road.

WATES have also been putting in new cobbled footpaths to the front doors of the residences.

In Eastham Close the old wooden perimeter fences have now been taken down, while the old concrete sheds are going to be removed on Monday.

New low level iron railings, gates and off-road parking areas will be installed soon after.

Many St Ann’s locals ‘not allowed to vote at their nearest polling station’

A review is to be carried out into how the police and crime commissioners (PCC) elections were conducted, the Electoral Commission has said.

The overall turnout was 16.77% and there were 135,754 votes cast in total. In the Nottingham City area, the turnout was 16.09% with 33,185 votes cast.

Each vote cast for a police commissioner cost the taxpayer £14, making it the most expensive election in British history.

The poll, which cost £75 million to administer, saw just 5.34 million people – one in six of the electorate – vote.

In May there was also a very low turn out for the first referendum for Nottingham to have its first elected Mayor. Its 23.9% turn out then was only just below Manchester's and Bristol's figure of 24%.

For the SECOND time in the last 6 months, in St Ann’s the polling stations were situated up to 1/2 mile away from voters homes, and residents -- many of which were either elderly or disabled -- were not allowed to vote at their closest polling station.

For example, for elderly & disabled locals living in Bellevue Court the closest polling station was in the new St Ann’s valley Centre a short walk over St Ann’s Well Road. However, Nottingham City Council insisted everyone living in Bellevue Court should walk almost half a mile down Gordon Road?

Fewer than 15% of voters turned out in the 41 English and Welsh police areas electing a PCC, a peacetime low.

Ministers said a lack of familiarity and understanding of the role might have been behind the low turnout.

The Conservatives won 16 posts and Labour 13. Twelve went to independents, including some ex-police officers.

The commissioners will be in post until 2016 and will have the power to set policing priorities, budgets and also to hire and fire chief constables.

Breaking News: Paddy Tipping is Nottinghamshire’s first ‘Police Crime Commissioner’

On completion of a second count, former Government Minster and Labour candidate Paddy Tipping has been elected as the first Nottinghamshire Police Crime Commissioner with 65,919 votes. Malcolm Spencer  came second with 52,789.  We don't have the spoilt total, but total rejected (includes spoilt) was 2,769.
Paddy Tipping will now take up his post on 22nd November.

Turnout for the election was low at just 16.77%, with 135,754 votes cast.

Read Mr Tipping’s election statement by clicking the ‘Read More link’ –>

Election statement:

Nottinghamshire needs a Labour Police & Crime Commissioner to stand up for our communities in the fight against crime and anti-social behaviour; not be a cheerleader for Conservative Government cuts to the police.
 
Paddy Tipping has lived and worked in the voluntary, public and private sector in Nottinghamshire for over forty years.  He’s well known in communities around Nottinghamshire, and his family live here too. That means that your concerns are his concerns and he’ll always speak up for you with a strong voice.
 
Paddy believes that residents need to feel safe and secure in their homes and streets.  We all want a better and safer environment for our children and families.
 
Paddy will:

•Fight for extra resources for our Police who face a budget cut imposed by the Conservative Government of £42 million or 20%.  Already nearly 300 Police Officers have lost their jobs. You can’t cut crime by cutting Police Officers.
•Improve and enhance neighbourhood policing by recruiting an extra 150 Police Officers backed by 100 more PCSOs. We need a regular uniformed presence on our streets.
•Work with local Councils and others to cut anti-social behaviour by 50%. He’ll clamp down on yobbish behaviour.
•Make sure that the victims of crime are treated as people, not cases, and properly fund Victim Support.
•Give extra priority and resources to domestic violence and crimes against women.
•Be fair and honest; protect Council taxpayers money and he won’t take a pay rise if elected to office.
 
Paddy Tipping will be the People’s Commissioner.  He will be a strong and effective leader of Nottinghamshire Police, while always listening to you and the communities he is elected to serve.
 
This statement prepared by Nicola Heaton, Agent, at 23 Barrett Lane, Attenborough, Nott's NG9 6AD
 
Contact details: Email: paddy4pcc@gmail.com
Website: www. paddy4pcc.co.uk

New traffic calming proposals – Beacon Hill Rise Road

Stonebridge Park residents living in Limmen Gardens, and locals living in Nugent Gardens opposite, have today received new planning proposals to modify the traffic calming measures at the top of Beacon Hill Rise Road near their homes.

The four red squares on the plan are raised ‘speed cushions’ to slow down traffic on this section of road.

Presently during the hours of darkness speeding cars race one another down hill towards Sneinton Market. Recently one of these speeding motorist’s lost control and crashed into the side of the corner shop in Robin Hood Street.

Any comments on these proposals should be returned by Friday 7th December.
Jennifer Williams, Senior Officer Accident Investigation. Traffic Safety, Development Dept.’
Nottingham City Council. Loxley House, Station Street, Nottingham. NG2 3NG

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

Limmen Gardens planning application 12/02954/PFUL3

An artist impression of the two proposed houses on the site of the former pedestrian underpass (Now filled in), as seen from Beacon Hill Rise Road.

An artist impression of the proposed new houses on the site of Limmen Gardens as seen from Limmen Road. The entrance of the proposed new side road can be seen at the centre of the drawing indicated by the tree. 71 Limmen Gardens is the existing house on the right of the drawing.

The new planning application for Limmen Gardens has now been submitted by the Developer ASRA-Group, formerly Leicester Housing Association. It is very comprehensive and the first impression is that ASRA has spent a lot of time getting it right. While the application is on the City Council Planning website, this site continues to experience regular IT problems. I have therefore put together a Portfolio of the new plans which can be downloaded here. [52 MB].

The closing date for comments & objections is 16th November 2012.

There is no Crime/Antisocial Behaviour assessment for Limmen Gardens in the planning application, and at the recent public meeting of Stonebridge Park Tenants & Residents Association the local Beat Manager, PC Paul Dean, confirmed that neither his team or the Police had been consulted by ASRA. In addition Nottingham Drug Partnership has also confirmed that they had not been consulted regarding the new plans.

This seems strange as their are regular occurrences of drugs and ASB on Limmen Gardens, especially in the long footpath between the two rows of houses. With three new homes being built on the green open space at the rare of 71 Limmen Gardens, this long footpath is extended in two directions.

While several mature trees are to be cut down as part of the building schedule, I have been informed that new trees will be planted in the gardens of some of the new houses. The particularly nice Weeping Willow tree in one home owners’ garden is being retained, and as the roots go under the site of the proposed new side road, the road building plans have been modified so as not to damage the tree.

On going consultations have taken place with the 40 home owners & tenants in Limmen Gardens, involving home visits, since September 2012, assisted by Mark Lowe of the City Council.

For Nottingham City Council the Planning Officer is Joanna Briggs, and the Project Manager is Debra Ross. Michelle Walker is the Project Manager for ASRA. The plans for the Limmen Garden Phase 4 Scheme have been produced by Geoff Perry Associates Ltd on behalf of Lovell Partnerships Ltd & ASRA.

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.

Time Shift: Chase Neighbourhood Centre 2008

Report by Alan Lodge 22 October

On visiting this afternoon, we asked staff about the rumours that we had heard about closure. It turns out it had been an intense week at the Chase Neighbourhood Centre in St.Anns.

Much of the good works being conducted there are drawing to a close. Over 30 redundancies, notified at very short notice. Some paid positions and many volunteers. It is uncertain how this came to be, but we hope to provide a little more in-depth reporting of the background to this situation shortly. In the meantime however, suffice to say that urgent help is asked for and needed. It is an iconic building, there in the centre of the community at Robin Hood Chase.

One of the first projects down was the Youth Inclusion Project. An inspiration to those challenged by education, lack of employment opportunities and lack of self-esteem.

Awat Aziz from St.Ann's said: "I joined the YIP in 2003 and learned how to make cloths, which lead to a voluntary job at Urban Fashion  http://www.urbanfashionhouse.co.uk. "I'm running my own business now making tee-shirts. Before I went to the YIP I didn't know anything about fashion, but now I am able to make my own clothes. I also learned computing".

Some went on from the advantages that such projects give them, to become a mentor to help and inspire other youngsters. It is obvious when this happens that the whole community can only benefit. It is apparent the projects like YIP are so important in engaging with young people when they have more limited educational opportunities and if they have been excluded.

In addition to youth projects, it is the whole community who are about to suffer with this loss. Mother and baby groups, social groups where people can gather and share their experience, isolation for many is about to get more extreme. There is / was a large computing suite, this being so useful to get folks more skilled and hence employable. It seems such community provision has been so much more effective than anything the job centre had been able to offer to the unemployed.

In an area of deprivation, it was great to see efforts of so many people to engage and assist each other in life in general. A sense of community, ownership and sharing of problems and assets obviously follows from such a space.

I am sure that the lack of funding and support being offered to such community enterprises is very short-sighted and will inevitably result alienation, increased health costs, social exclusions in many forms and in increased policing costs. Thus in due time, you can expect demand for increasing funding from those authorities to cope with the fallout.

© Nottingham Indymedia

Chase Co-op closure: NHS signs contract with private developer?

I had an interesting conversation today with a manager of the Co-op. In 2010 the Co-op shown great interest in wanting to build a new store on the site of the NHS Wellspring Health Centre located at the front of the Robin Hood Chase shopping precinct. Until recently negotiations were seen to be going well, until the NHS suddenly let it be known that they had signed a contract with a private developer?

As the land is privately owned by the NHS, City Council officers said that they had no control over the situation. However, council officers must have been aware of the NHS being in talks with a private developer earlier this year, and decided to keep quiet about it, because, to use their own words “it was commercially sensitive.”

As a result of this recent NHS announcement, Co-op Managers decided at the end of October to close down their store on the Robin Hood Chase on November 17th giving just 17 days notice. Removing their business from St Ann’s after serving the local community for the past 40 years.

This Comment by Chris Shannon has just been received:

“They [The Co-op] should be bloody well ashamed of themselves.Their roots are as community based self help societies set up with the goal of bypassing the monopolies and enabling working class people access to reasonably priced food. They have made money out of that constituency ever since! Shame on them, they are abandoning the very people they are in existence to serve”!

Have your say, send us your comments about the Chase Co-op Closure, and we will do our best to publish all of them.

By Richard Pearson.

Lets save the Co-op & make St Ann’s a nice place to live

This is a letter sent by myself today which aims to highlights the main problems with St Ann’s, and the new plans for the Robin Hood Chase Shopping Precinct. I have excluded the new £15m St Ann’s Valley Centre because it is a fine building & well designed.

I think that it is very important that the Co-op store on the Robin Hood Chase should remain open, and that the Co-op managers have a change of heart.

There will be a Protest gathering outside the store at 4pm on Friday 9th November, we will all do our best to achieve this.

Website Manager
Mr Richard Pearson
42 Bellevue Court
Nottingham NG3 3NA
Email stonebridge54b@hotmail.co.uk

Development Management
City Planning
Loxley House
Station Street
Nottingham NG2 3NG

7^th November 2012

Dear Sir,

Outline Planning Application 2010, the Robin Hood Chase

I am writing in support of all of the remaining Shop Keepers on the Robin Hood Chase, who feel very frustrated by the way St Ann’s Ward councillors have let them all down in recent years, by not spending any money on the shops or the Robin Hood Chase itself. Everyone has also been badly let down by some of the Project Managers responsible for the Robin Hood Chase Regeneration scheme, who have managed to turn the project into a complete shambles.

Above everything else, I am writing in support of everyone living near the Robin Hood Chase today who has come to rely upon the Co-op store being open, and serving our local community over the last 40 years. Many of these locals are either disabled, in poor health or elderly, and have difficulty travelling into Nottingham City Centre to do their regular shopping.

I sincerely hope that the Management of the Chase Co-op will reverse their decision, and keep the store open for the foreseeable future. I want to encourage the Co-op Management to allow their store to remain open while they enter into meaningful negotiations with Nottingham City Council to seek a solution, which will allow the store to remain open for the best part of 2013.

For the main part of my letter I am very critical of Nottingham City Council.

Read more of this letter by clicking ‘Read More’ –>

I am deeply concerned about the 2010 Outline Planning Application for the Robin Hood Chase Shopping precinct, because it is very damaging to the local economy. And the Project Managers at Nottingham City council have not consulted the remaining shop keepers, and have deliberately kept everyone ‘in the dark.’

The only money spent on the Robin Hood chase shops was £1.5m provided by Nottingham City Challenge in 1995. This was when The Chase was a vibrant area in the heart of St Ann’s, and well used by the local community. There was some vandalism and antisocial behaviour at this time; however, it was being kept under control by the Police & City Council initiatives.

When the Chase Neighbourhood Centre was built, and opened in the middle of the Robin Hood Chase Shopping precinct in 1997, this monstrosity caused irreparable damage to all of commercial units in Zone 3. The St Ann’s Library, Co-op, Pink Elephant, Post Office, Fish bar and laundrette were left isolated on the north side of the precinct from that of the south. These commercial units were all hidden from view by the big wooden hut, and there-after the number of customers declined significantly.

All of the frequently used shops, hidden behind the neighbourhood Centre in Zone 2B, including the Hairdressers, lost all of their customers and closed down. These commercial units have never been viable units since 2000, and have been given rent/rates free to local charities. This was a scandalous situation. I am not saying the neighbourhood Centre should not have been built; rather, it was built in the wrong place due to the 1996 planning blunder of Nottingham City council.

In my opinion, the commercial units on the south side of the Robin Hood Chase Precinct were more popular than the northern units, because the Chase pub was a big attraction for many local residents. The Chase has always been used for family gatherings, and well behaved parties following weddings or christenings at the nearby St Ann with Emmanuel Church. It was therefore a significant planning blunder by Nottingham City council to close down this pub, and demolish the building merely to turn the site into a small car park. This was very damaging to the economic success of the Robin Hood Chase.

The loss of the Chase pub was also the final ‘nail in the coffin’, and a potent symbol of the rapid loss of other St Ann’s pubs: The Beacon, The Wishing Well, Pint & Pot, and Dame Agnes Mellor’s, so that today (2012), only three remain open. The closure of the Chase Pub was therefore a disaster for St Ann’s.

During the St Ann’s slum clearance programme of 1972, a whole town of 10,000 Victorian houses, 55 pubs, 300 shops along St Ann’s Well Road, six churches, and community centres, were all demolished – all lost. This was a considerable planning blunder by Nottingham City Council because the authority destroyed the social & economic structure of St Ann’s Ward. Few facilities were put back in place when Wimpey's built our new neighbourhood.

The Marple Square shopping precinct suffered crime & antisocial behaviour due to bad planning. St Ann’s Councillors then decided to shut the precinct down rather then spend any money on it, or support the local shop keepers. Soon after, the flats/houses nearby had to be demolished too, and the land was regenerated during the Phase 10 Scheme. Therefore all of the shops on the west side of St Ann’s Ward were all lost as a result.

In January 2012 all that remained in St Ann’s Ward were 3 pubs, The Westminster, St Ann’s Inn & the Sycamore. Three corner shops; one in Robin Hood Street, Alison Walk, and another in St Ann’s Well Road opposite St Catherine’s Church. Two community centres: Blue Bell Hill and the Chase Neighbourhood Centre, and the remaining shops on the Robin Hood Chase.

Since 2010, Project Managers responsible for the Robin Hood Chase shopping precinct have made a mess of it! Their plans have not been thought through. Over the last 12 months they have completely failed to consult with local shop keepers; have not taken into consideration the frail social & economic structure of St Ann’s; and have employed poor planning design & concept.

While the Co-op had indicated they would like to build a new store in Zone 2A, and local shop keepers have said they would also like new commercial premises their, Project Managers have not entered into discussions with anyone. Their cliché is constantly “it’s commercially sensitive.”

Today this intransigence has resulted in the Management of the Co-op deciding to close down its Chase store on 17^th November, after serving our St Ann’s community for 40 years; the store opened in 1972.

From 17^th November, there will only be four general shops left in St Ann’s Ward, along side the Chase Fish Bar, St Ann’s Post office, a chemist, the Pink Elephant shop and Bookies.

If this situation is not bad enough, these ‘balmy’ Project Managers want to demolish the whole of the Robin Hood Chase commercial units during 2013, leaving no shops in the heart of St Ann’s Ward until new shop units are built in Zone 2A ready for use in 2015!

They have got no idea what they intend to build in place of the old Wellspring Health Centre at the entrance of the Robin Hood Chase. The Project Managers of the Robin Hood Chase Regeneration Scheme have not consulted anyone about this, and have constantly kept local shop keepers and residents ‘in the dark.’

One thing is clear, the small number of commercial units planned for Zone 2A on the Chase, will do very little to improve the economic structure of St Ann’s. The end result will be yet another serious planning blunder by Nottingham City Council.

In my opinion both Zones 2A and 2B should be made available for new shops, commercial units. There should be no office building put on any of these sites, and the Chase Neighbourhood Centre is well suited to provide refreshments from their own indoor café.

The entrance into the Chase neighbourhood Centre should be from the south side, for easy access for locals walking up the Robin Hood Chase from St Ann’s Well Road; as the current western entrance is trouble-some and unsuitable.

In my opinion, in 2013 the first demolition phase should begin with Loxley House, and the old Well Spring Health Centre. Nothing further should be done until new shops are built on the Health Centre site, and open for public use.

The Second Phase should be the demolition of the first block of commercial units that presently houses the Chemist & General store, and maisonettes above the shops. In addition the second structure contained in Zone 2 B should be demolished at the same time. These facilities should all be replaced by new shops, which should be given a major priority for the heart of St Ann’s.

I believe Zone 3 should remain unchanged and utilised for the construction of social houses with access from Aster Road via Hunger Hill Road.

St Ann’s Councillor Dave Liversidge is a portfolio holder at Nottingham City Council & use to be Director of Housing. Presently David has a responsibility for Regeneration & Communities. Therefore he is very experienced indeed. While St Ann’s councillor Jon Collins is also the Leader of Nottingham City Council.

I would like to encourage them both to hold a series of crisis meetings over the next seven weeks to sort this ‘mess’ out, and help to prevent the present situation turning into another planning blunder which will be very damaging to the St Ann’s economy.

In my opinion the social and economic structure needs to be significantly improved. There should be more shops opening up around St Ann’s, more community facilities for young adults to keep them occupied and out of trouble, and more pubs & social facilities for local residents to enjoy.

To begin with, our councillors could take a look at the shop at the top of Luther Close, and have it opened up for the benefit of local residents. This general store has been closed for almost 23 years, and is urgently needed to be open right now to serve the local community following the imminent closure of the Chase Co-op.

I apologise for the length of this letter, but I feel very passionate about St Ann’s & I want our neighbourhood to be a really nice area in which to live.

Yours sincerely

Richard Pearson

ASDA planning application to go in ‘before for Christmas’

I have spoken to Alice Rossi from Developer igloo today, and asked about the progress of ASDA putting in their planning application.

She said “Things are moving ahead, and we are as keen as anyone to get the project underway. We still have work to do, but we are hopeful of a submission by Christmas this year.”

ASDA plan to build their new store on the site of the former Wright & Dobson lace finishing factory in Carlton Road, along with a number of new social houses on the site of the closed Co-op next door.

The new ASDA store is even more needed now, following the announcement by the Co-op that they intend to close down their store on the Robin Hood Chase on 17th November, after 40 years. The Carlton Road Co-op closed in 2008.

By Richard Pearson