Barrie's latest news...
Success! The A453 gets the green light!
I am absolutely delighted by the Chancellor’s announcement that the Government is fast-tracking the widening of the A453. This is the best Christmas gift that businesses and residents in Nottinghamshire could have, bringing a £540m boost to the East Midlands economy.
In May this year, Nottinghamshire County Council pledged £20m towards the scheme if it was bought forward. Since that pledge was made, the campaign to widen the road has garnered support from the local business community and other local councils, including a pledge of £500,000 towards the scheme from Rushcliffe Borough Council in October.
The A453 has been on the Council’s wishlist since the 1970s. At last it is going to happen and I am thrilled for local businesses and commuters alike. I want to particularly thank East Midlands Airport, Boots, RH Freight, Hardstaffs, the Nottingham Post newspaper and partner authorities for their support in this campaign.
In the five years up to October 2010, there were 185 accidents involving personal injury on just the Nottinghamshire part of the A453. The Nottinghamshire section of the road is the second most congested part of the national road network after a short section of the M25. This congestion has been costing larger businesses as much as £100,000 a year because of increased fuel usage, difficulty reaching customers, abandoned journeys and accident costs.
Finally, we can look forward to smoother and safer journeys on this vital road link through Nottinghamshire from the M1 and I am immensely pleased that the Government has listened to our determined campaign.
(Posted 29/11/2011)
West Bridgford GPs merger
Five West Bridgford GP Practices intend to co-locate on a single site. Four of these practices intend to merge into a single large practice on Wilford Lane in my colleague Councillor Gordon Wheeler's division. The practices concerned are Ludlow Hill, Southview, Trent Bridge, Compton Acres and Musters. Four intend to merge into a single large practice, with the other practice co-locating to the same site and working alongside taking advantage of joint working within the building.
Councillors from the Overview & Scrutiny Committee were provided with a briefing on the proposals from NHS Nottinghamshire County on 8th November 2011 at a meeting convened to discuss this issue. A public consultation page has been set up by NHS Nottinghamshire County, giving residents until 6th January to submit their views.
(Updated 24/11/11)
West Bridgford Library
West Bridgford Library will close at 6.30pm on Friday 18 November for major re-development. This will provide a new, larger and improved library, which will be built on the current site, opening in spring 2013.
A temporary library will be open on Monday 5 December at 52A Rectory Road, West Bridgford, NG2 6BU. The temporary library is much smaller so will provide a basic service with a reduced stock for adults and children and fewer computers. The opening hours of the temporary library will be: -
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Monday 9.30 - 7.00
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Tuesday 9.30 - 6.00
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Wednesday 9.30 - 4.30
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Thursday 9.30 - 7.00
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Friday 9.30 - 6.00
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Saturday 9.00 - 4.00
(Posted 16/11/11)
Budget Conversation underway
Nottinghamshire County Council has announced proposals for its 2012/13 budget.
Nottinghamshire residents are invited to give feedback on the budget proposals and take part in our Budget Conversation, which is open until Friday 29th January 2012. The results of last year's consultation led us to change some of our proposals and we will be listening very carefully once again. Please let us know your views.
(Posted 11/11/2011)
Bridgfest success
The 'Bridgfest' youth festival in West Bridgford on 14th August 2011 clocked up its biggest attendance since this became a regular annual event on the summer calendar.
Out of the 1,200 plus young people coming along to the day of free music, sport and fun organised by Nottinghamshire County Council, 700 also signed up to a charter of non-violence condemning the recent spate of anti-social behaviour demonstrated by a small number of people in some of Britain’s cities. Those adding their names to the charter also called for the media to increase their coverage of the positive behaviour and activities that most young people are involved with on a regular basis.
Bridgfest is a great example of youngsters enjoying a great afternoon of outdoor music and positive activities peacefully. Their behaviour was outstanding - a real credit to them. The atmosphere was fantastic and high levels of respect between those at the event were evident.
Since the first Bridgfest in 2009 when less than 500 teenagers attended the event, the festival’s popularity has kept on growing. Along with the 1,200 eight to 25-year-olds it attracted this year, a further 2,500 adults and younger children also attended.
Twelve rock and pop youth bands from the Rushcliffe area performed on the main stage and the urban marquee hosted MC-ing, DJ-ing, street dance and poetry. The fun activities on offer, including body zorbs, sumo wrestling with inflatable suits, graffiti art and circus skills, were mainly aimed at young people between 10 and 19, but children from five were also catered for. In the science gazebo, there was a chance to experiment with chemical balloons, hoop planes, make an iodine clock, and test your visual powers with optical illusions. Youngsters could also scale the climbing wall, check out the bungee run and skate ramps or join in football activities.
A big thank you to all our partners and providers who helped make Bridgfest such a success.
(Posted 15/8/2011)
West Bridgford Library
On 6th July 2011 the Cabinet considered the latest report on proposed works to replace West Bridgford Library and create a Young People's Centre whilst retaining the 1938 original library building. Provision of a Registrar's office and Shopmobility service are also included in the scheme. It is anticipated that building works will start on site in November 2011 and be completed in February 2013.
(Posted 14/7/2011)
More grass cuts
Nottinghamshire County Council is increasing the number of times it will be cutting grass verges this year.
As part of this year’s budget savings it was originally intended to reduce the frequency of routine grass cutting in urban areas from six to four times a year. However, we have listened to public feedback and have now increased that frequency to five cuts. In rural areas the frequency remains at two cuts a year.
At the same time we have issued guidelines for a growing number of residents who are happy to cut the grass verges outside their homes. Again, this is a direct result of feedback from the Council’s Big Budget Conversation consultation process, when hundreds of people said they would be prepared to cut verges if it helped to release money for use on other priorities, such a repairing potholes.
The guidelines highlight what needs to be considered when cutting grass near the roadside. They can be found online at: www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/roadverges
(Posted 14/7/11)
Pledges of support sought for A453 widening
As you may have seen in the Nottingham Post newspaper, Nottinghamshire County Council has stepped up the campaign to convince the Government of the urgent need to improve the A453. A letter has already been written to transport secretary Philip Hammond pledging £20m towards the cost of widening the route.
The Leader, Councillor Kay Cutts, has now also written to major businesses in the region, urging them to support the bid. The importance of improving the A453 to Nottinghamshire and the regional economy cannot be underestimated.
In order to maximise our chance of success we need to gather pledges of support from as many local people and businesses as possible. There is now a dedicated A453 web page on the Nottinghamshire County Council web site where you can read about the campaign and sign up to pledge your support.
(Posted 17/6/2011)
Strict spending controls save £20 million
Strict controls to stop non-essential spending at Nottinghamshire County Council have helped the authority to save £20.4m during 2010/11. Details of the saving are contained in the Council’s final accounts for 2010/11 which will be discussed at the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday 8 June.
The saving is due to a budget underspend and is in addition to the £29m saving made during 2010/11, much of which was reinvested in social care and protecting children at risk.
We have stopped non-essential spending including holding back on staff and councillors attending conferences and not travelling to meetings when email or telephone calls suffice.
Spending control measures were introduced in September to help meet the Council’s current financial challenges. Here are a few examples of the savings made on non-essential spending during 2010/11:
- £460,000 saved on reduced water and energy consumption.
- £820,000 saved by holding back on the purchase of IT equipment.
- £1.06m saved on staff travel and subsistence.
- £63,000 saved on restricting staff attendance at conferences.
- £743,000 saved on print and stationery.
The Council also has a strict policy on staff vacancies which restricts the filling of vacant posts unless there is a business need.
(Posted 31/5/2011)
Council Budget 2011/12
At the Nottinghamshire County Council Budget Meeting on 24th February 2011 I joined my Conservative colleagues in voting to freeze Council Tax for a second successive year. In doing so, I approved £4.1 million of changes to the Council’s original budget proposals in direct response to the outcomes of the Big Budget Conversation. Extra money has now been found from reserves for the Supporting People programme, grant aid to voluntary groups, libraries, country parks and welfare rights advice.
With less formula grant funding from the Government, Nottinghamshire County Council has to find more than £80 million of savings in 2011/12 by reducing management and administration costs and reviewing expenditure on non-essential services. Just over half of this is being reinvested to meet growing demand for our most vital services, including: -
The budget was approved at the Council meeting by 34 votes to 29.
(Posted 28/2/2011)
Trevor Road traffic petition
At Full Council on 9th December 2010 I presented to the Chairman a 75 signature petition from residents wishing to draw the Council’s attention to the speeding concerns on Trevor Road, West Bridgford. The residents had self-funded and carried out their own traffic survey and found that during a 24 hour period, over 60% of cars were exceeding the 30mph speed limit by a considerable margin.
The Cabinet Member for Transport & Highways, Councillor Richard Jackson responded on 27th January 2011 that a County Council traffic survey had shown that Trevor Road does meet the criteria for interactive signs in both directions. This road was therefore being added to the list of sites for possible provision of interactive signs as part of a future programme depending on availability of funding.
Councillor Jackson further reported that Nottinghamshire Police had confirmed that Trevor Road was not enforced by the Safety Camera Team as it did not meet the relevant criteria for speed-related casualties. He said the Police had been made aware of the residents' concerns and had been asked to consider further action if possible.
Gritter Twitter
Nottinghamshire County Council will now be advising the public of when the county’s roads will be gritted, using Twitter. During the cold weather last winter there were a number of calls to the Council’s Customer Service Centre asking when the roads would be gritted. Now people can sign up to the Council’s Gritter Twitter feed to receive the latest gritting alerts.
In an age of social networking and 24-hour news, the Council recognises the need to give people ‘live’ information that will help them plan their journey. You can sign up to follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/nottscc
(Posted 11/11/2010)
Improvement Programme latest
At the full meeting of Nottinghamshire County Council on 21st October I joined my Conservative colleagues in supporting the recommendations for action contained within the Nottinghamshire County Council Improvement Plan Progress Report.
The Deputy Leader of the Council, Councillor Martin Suthers set out the financial challenges facing local authorities across the country and stated that Nottinghamshire County Council needed to save £150 million over the next three years.
He said this would require savings of £69 million in 2011/12, to be achieved through a series of major initiatives including reprioritisation of services, improvements in business management and a review of property owned by the Council.
Of this £69 million, it is intended to reinvest £39 million largely in services for our most vulnerable service users. The council has faced a 59% increase in children’s social care referrals over the last year and a 25% increase in the number of children in care over the last two years.
For Children and Young People, a proposed reinvestment of £22.5 million will provide:-
Our Adult Social Care & Health services are under similar pressure, with 500 extra people aged over 80 and 4,000 extra people over the age of 65 in Nottinghamshire every year. Our proposed reinvestment of £13 million in 2011/12 will provide: -
- the care and support services necessary to meet this increased demand
- more support for adults with physical disabilities
- more support for adults with learning disabilities and mental health needs
- extra resources for independent sector care.
I joined my Conservative colleagues in arguing that Nottinghamshire County Council must live within its means and ensure frontline statutory services are maintained.
(Posted 5/11/2010)
County Council Budget 2010/11
At the Nottinghamshire County Council Annual Budget meeting on Thursday 25th February 2010 I joined my Conservative colleagues in voting for a freeze in council tax for the forthcoming financial year 2010/11.
My colleague Councillor Reg Adair, Cabinet Member for Finance & Property, presented the first budget of the new Conservative administration which included a range of management and efficiency measures to save £30 million. This money will be re-directed into front line services including key priority care services: -
In Councillor Adair's speech introducing the budget proposals he pointed out that even with a council tax freeze, Nottinghamshire County Council will still be spending £11 million more in 2010/11 than in the previous year.
(Posted 10/5/10)
Improvement Programme
Like every council in the country, Nottinghamshire County Council faces ongoing, significant and unavoidable increases in demand for key services. At the same time, it faces an unprecedented and long-term reduction in the resources available to it. Present forecasts are that the Council must reduce its current expenditure by at least £88m, or 18% of its revenue budget, over the next three financial years. Most of this reduction will be used to fund increased demand in other service areas. £30m of reductions have already been identified for 2010/11, leaving a further £58m to be found in 2011/12 and 2012/13.
In the past, reductions have been achieved through a process of allocating savings targets across departments. However, the scale of the financial challenge is now such that a more strategic approach is needed to achieve reductions in a structured and consistent way.
At the County Council meeting on 25th February 2010 the Deputy Leader of the Council, Cllr Martin Suthers gained approval for a new Improvement Programme to deliver these aims, called ‘One Council - One Business - One Plan’. This will involve an estimated investment of £21 million over five years to deliver total aggregated savings of over £200m over a five year period.
The Improvement Programme will include: -
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a complete overhaul of the Council’s approach to procurement
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implementation of an integrated Business Management System and changes in processes
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rationalisation of the Council’s property portfolio and improvement in flexible ways of working
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a fundamental review of all services followed by a comprehensive programme of organisational redesign
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departmental improvement programmes that deliver service-specific developments and
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the Chief Executive’s own programme to deliver improvements in partnership working, communications and organisational development.
The aim of ‘One Council-One Business-One Plan’ is to drive out inefficiency, target resources, minimise the impact on service delivery and create an organisation that is fit for purpose and financially sustainable in the long term.
(Posted 10/5/10)
New Strategic Plan
Nottinghamshire County Council's new Strategic Plan 2010-2014 sets out our promise to the people of Nottinghamshire; our priorities for the next four years; and how we aim to support the people of our county to be aspirational, independent and to share with us responsibility for the future.
This Plan complements the wider Nottinghamshire Sustainable Community Strategy which is the collective plan that outlines how organisations in the county will work together to promote and deliver a better Nottinghamshire.
Our plan is ambitious. It is a plan based on what local people tell us they want, and what they want to see happen. The success of our plan relies on us working well together with local people and organisations. Whilst we face challenging financial times, nevertheless we have opportunities to promote and deliver a better future for Nottinghamshire.
(Posted 10/5/10)
Gritting
The exceptionally cold weather which affected Nottinghamshire and most other parts of the UK between December and February led to unprecedented pressures on local authority gritting supplies. Nottinghamshire County Council possessed stockpiles far exceeding Government recommendations and was able to keep its priority routes gritted even when other councils had exhausted their supplies. The biggest difficulty was obtaining replacement supplies, given the exceptional pressure on the two national companies who supply the country’s salt.
Taking these events into account, it was agreed at the recent County Council budget meeting to increase the gritting budget by £50,000 for 2010/11. It is also intended to use 6mm rather than 10mm salt, which will improve spread rate and increase our gritting capacity still further.
(Posted 10/3/10)
Tram
On 24th September 2009 Nottinghamshire County Council voted to withdraw its financial support for the NET Phase Two transport scheme. As a Conservative County Councillor I was elected on a manifesto which stated: "We will avoid spending a small fortune on tram extensions which few people in the county will be able to use."
During the Council debate, several Conservative Members presented the argument for this change of policy. Some referred to the increasing costs of the scheme, whilst others supported the Cabinet Member for Transport & Highways' assertion that flexible bus services, rather than a fixed tram line, represent the most suitable public transport solution to serve the whole of Nottinghamshire.
Some of my colleagues took the opportunity to state that, contrary to some media reports, the Conservative position on the proposed tram extensions has not changed. They pointed out that the previous Labour administration had entered into certain legal agreements in relation to NET Phase 2 which must be respected to protect the interests of the County taxpayer, but the new Conservative administration is quite clear that it does not support the proposed tram extension routes.
(Posted 5/10/09)
Workplace Parking Levy (WPL)
Also at the Nottinghamshire County Council meeting on 24th September 2009, the Cabinet Member for Transport & Highways, Councillor Richard Jackson stated that the new Conservative county administration is opposed to Nottingham City Council's proposals for a Workplace Parking Levy (WPL). He expressed concern about the financial impact such a Levy could have on County residents who work in the City and stated his belief that the WPL would be unlikely to cut congestion. Councillor Jackson argued that the scheme could lead to significant parking problems in the County area, frighten off economic investment in the City and County and hit business confidence at a time when it needs to be nurtured.
(Posted 5/10/09)
Barrie's latest Councillors' Divisional Fund awards...
Following a decision taken by Council on 19th May 2011, each County Councillor now has an annual fund of £10,000 to support worthy initiatives in the division they represent.
The Councillors' Divisional Fund aims to make use of each councillor's 'grass roots' knowledge to identify projects, events, people and clubs that work hard to benefit and promote their local area, but often lack access to resources. Even a small amount of funding can sometimes make a huge difference.
If you know of a deserving initiative in the West Bridgford Central & South division that might be eligible to receive a CDF grant, please do contact me. You can click the following link to read the eligibility guidance criteria.
Here are some of those I've been able to help so far: -
Simkins Farm & Community Project: a grant towards running costs for the community garden group
Play Away: a grant to facilitate music workshops for the local youth community
Helen Barnes: to purchase the equipment necessary for constituent Helen's successful attempt to set a World Record for the fastest time completing 100 eskimo rolls in a kayak
Pierrepont Gamston Primary School: a grant to purchase an all-weather playing surface
Holme Pierrepont & Gamston Parish Council: funding towards May Day celebrations
Lady Bay School Fund: funding towards the provision of shade canopies in the school playground
West Bridgford U3A: as grant to help purchase new computers
Carlton Arena Taekwondo Club: to assist this Rushcliffe-based club with training and travel expenses for a young member representing Great Britain at the European Championships in Portugal
Nottingham Synchronised Skating Academy: a grant to help three local young people to take part in a competition in the Netherlands
Cruse Bereavement Care: assistance with the costs of running the local bereavement care voluntary service
Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme: assistance towards setting up the scheme in West Bridgford
Friends of Sharphill Wood: funding to provide materials for the footpath and border maintenance of the wood
Rushcliffe Barn Owl Project: a donation to help with running costs
World Triathlon Championships: help with travel and accommodation costs for a constituent competing in the World Triathlon Championships in Australia.
Nottingham Concert Band: help with travelling costs for this West Bridgford-based band to perform in Manchester
Churches Together in West Bridgford: funding towards the West Bridgford Photo Marathon community event
West Bridgford Explorer Scouts: funding to help organise their International Scouts mini jamboree
Women of the Year: assistance for four pupils from the Rushcliffe School to attend the presentation event in London for their nomination as Women of the Year
West Bridgford Dramatic Stage Society: a grant to help provide stage lighting for this self-funding theatre society
West Bridgford Summer Gathering: a donation towards insurance costs for this event.
Barrie's committees...
In addition to being the Conservatives' lead spokesman on Nottinghamshire Fire Authority I also serve on other committees including: -
Appeals Committee
Education Scrutiny
Health & Wellbeing Scrutiny
Nottinghamshire Fire Authority
Personnel
Full details of council committee meetings can be found in the Council Diary.
