Snow update
Volunteer service under threat
Toton Sidings site clearance
 

Hi all,

This one's local and not too long: I want to give a brief update on the roads and then discuss what's happening at Toton Sidings.

This week's friendly note is from Chris Smith in Chilwell:

"I value the ability to be involved in local decision making and obtain regular updates on local issues. I have voted Conservative for the last 20 years. However, over the past three years I have been most impressed with Nick's representation at a local level. His engagement with local people, hard work and enthusiasm is infectious. Whichever way things go at a national level we need a good local MP representing us and Nick, in my opinion, is just that".

(The trouble with passing on these nice comments is that I have to try to live up to them.)

1. Roads update

The position seems to be easing on the main roads, though many of the City bus routes are still being diverted. The County have been able to get fresh supplies of grit for the local containers, but not all suitable for the lorries that grit the roads, and I'm still getting numerous complaints from residents that they are effective prisoners on their side-roads. At national level a large consignment of salt is being diverted from Germany to us (a bit of EU solidarity since we need it more) and despite some grumbling the councils and government are working together fairly well to ensure that the grit and salt goes to the areas that need it most. If there are no more heavy falls of snow in the next few days I think the position will start to ease (see the note at the end of the next point). There is now a "snow line" where you can check on the impact of weather on local public services: 08449 80 80 80 from 6am to 10pm.

2. Discussion with County Council leader

I'm seeing the Notts County leader Kay Cutts on Friday, and will be pressing the case to reconsider the care home sales - many thanks for all the support on this issue, with well over 1000 constituents now signed up to the campaign.

I'm also going to try to get reconsideration of the abolition of support for the Eastwood Volunteer Bureau transport service - this is run entirely by volunteers and enables elderly and disabled people to get out to the shops or elsewhere from time to time. The County is proposing to abolish the fuel mileage allowance and support for scheme costs, which would save £27,000 but I'm told would probably lead to the collapse of the scheme. Although Eastwood is mostly outside my patch, lots of my constituents benefit.

This cost works out at 30p per Broxtowe resident per year. I'm all in favour of being careful with pulbic money, but that's ridiculous. Would you rather that we have a community where elderly constituents get help to visit shops, or would you rather have one extra Bounty bar per year?

While I'm talking with Cllr Cutts, I'll ask for an update on the salt/grit situation and ask what lessons are being learned for any future heavy snowfalls.

3. The devastated landscape at Toton Sidings

As you may have heard, there has been a remarkable and disturbing development at Toton Sidings. The flat area next to the marshalling yard had been allowed to develop into an attractive wooded space with a fair amount of typical local wildlife and birds. The hilly area above it (off Banks Road) is a popular spot for walkers and it offered a pleasant outlook.

Last week, the entire area was completely flattened in one day, with earth-moving equipment brought in to remove all the trees: they've simply left the area dark, flat and barren. After being alerted by a number of residents, as I was down in Westminster I asked two of my team (Pat Lally and Steve Barber) to investigate. They encountered two men sitting in a nearby car with a laptop. They asked if they knew anything about it, and were told that they were the new owners, and they were seeking to conduct a mineral survey. They declined to give their names, but agreed to tell their agents to contact my office.

- Discussing this with council officials, there is some speculation that they may be hoping to extract ballast and low-grade coal which was probably buried there by British Rail many years ago, and then seek to have the site approved for housing. The latter would certainly need planning approval; the former possibly not (it's not illegal to dig up 'waste' buried on land that you own), though there is a question of impact on the surrounding area and how they would transport it out.

- The former trees were not planted as part of the National Forest or greenbelt strategy and unfortunately didn't have any kind of protection orders - the former owners were the agency who dispose of old British Rail property no longer in use, and although they agreed to the tree planting their priority was evidently to sell the land. The legal position is that if you're a landowner and have no near neighbours you don't have to ask anyone's permission to cut down trees.

- However, there is widespread local dismay about the secretive behaviour and abrupt clearing of the land without local information or consultation, and that's what I find most worrying about it.

- The BBC are covering it on TV and radio today, and I've taken the opportunity to repeat the request to the owners to get in touch.

- Meanwhile, we are following up the Network Rail/British Rail aspect and trying to find out the purchasers from that side. The Land Registry say they will often only be informed some months after a transfer.

I hope this is helpful. I'll report when there is more news.

4. Comments from Ms Soubry

My Conservative opponent, Anna Soubry, has sent out an email reacting to a comment that I made on a cross-party website. Someone had asked how active local Conservative candidates were, and I said it varied a lot, and my own opponent had not written any emails since April and had only put out one constituency- wide leaflet. I also said in another context that she had some liberal views, notably on Europe and alcohol.

Ms Soubry's response to this remark is five pages long and not always easy to follow, but to summarise she says that she was ill with swine flu and then in October had an operation to remove a cyst, which fortunately turned out to be benign; she says that this did get in the way of writing emails, but she has contributed to 220,000 communications to residents in Broxtowe in the last eight months. She feels I must have known she was having an operation since she had expressions of sympathy from Labour councillors. Finally, she says it was news to her when I said she had liberal views

I try not to get into personal squabbles so I'll just respond very briefly. I'm sorry Ms Soubry hasn't been well, and although I knew about the swine flu as she wrote an article about it, I'd not heard about the operation. I'm glad she has now fully recovered.

On the 220,000 communications: if this figure is correct, then on average each household will have had five of them: you can judge better than I can whether you've been hearing from her frequently or not before the election started to loom.

The 'liberal views' are her willingness to support Britain joining the Euro if business wants it (which is something we agree on and is also LibDem policy) and her call at a Conservative party conference for alcohol purchase to be made legal from age 16 (which is something we don't agree on). In general, though, I don't regard being called liberal as something to be indignantly rejected - this isn't America, where I gather it's regarded by in some circles as a dreadful thing that your mother shouldn't hear about.

I hope this puts the matter to rest. Ms Soubry and I disagree about lots of things, but I see no reason why we shouldn't have a positive election focused on which of us will look after Broxtowe best.

Best wishes,

Nick