Janet Patrick

“Without a local plan the Government have made it clear that developers can build what they like where they like,” said Steve Barber, the Labour chair of Planning and Development Control.

I was very nervous. I’d read the council papers four times and been to two briefing sessions. I knew the arguments and was committed to Broxtowe’s development plan based on the core strategy. We had a plan that we believed would be robust and would produce 6,150 extra houses in Broxtowe in the next 15 years: the majority would be built on brown-field land but around 1,825 would need be in the Green Belt, taking up to 2% of it. Our plan had been prepared by working in partnership with Erewash, Gedling and Nottingham City through the Joint Planning Advisory Board chaired by Broxtowe Borough Council.

Twenty minutes before the meeting was due to start, the council chamber was full and by 7 0’clock over a hundred people filled the overflow in the old council chamber. The BBC and the press were there and the atmosphere was quietly exciting. Pedestrian business was put aside. David Watts, as portfolio holder for the Labour/LibDem partnership, introduced the discussion. The well researched arguments presented by the partnership members based on evidence were invaluable, and a Tory amendment (No building on Greenbelt land) was debated and lost.

Then the ‘real’ debate began. Essentially it was about losing a small amount of greenbelt land and safeguarding the rest. At least two dozen councillors rose to speak: they were full of passion and we could see why they wanted to be councillors. Some old hands spoke several times but it was those who rarely made speeches that were the most moving. The arguments went back and forth. Would the plan save or destroy the greenbelt? Should councillors follow their conscience or do as their constituents wished? Sharp words were exchanged and apologies demanded. One of the most moving speeches was by Cllr Mary McGuckin of Kimberley. She spoke of a friend called Tracy who existed by sleeping on various friends floors for a week or two at a time. She desperately wanted a place she could call her own but none existed within her means.

The debate lasted for four hours, the longest debate ever. At the end of it we had a recorded vote: 24 for the strategy and 18 against. We won!!

Now begins the timetable for consultation, submissions, public hearings, amendments and examination before the independent Inspector decrees whether the report is sound or not. This will all take until around June 2014.

It was democracy at work. All councillors wanted the best for the borough and for their own wards but we differed in our conclusions. We live in exciting times and while we may be nervous we will all work hard for Broxtowe.

Councillors had always seemed to me to be rather remote people. Were they party political people first?  How did they represent the people in their ward? How much time did it take? These were some of the questions I asked myself and I am still asking them. First there was an enormous amount to learn about the council and the committees, and how to work with officers. Then there was getting to understand the issues facing the council, how to put policies into practice, what not to say to the Press, and how to be an effective campaigner.

What have I done this last year? I’ve chaired the People and Places Examination and Inquiry group and also the Members’ Development group. I’m a member of the Scrutiny EIG, the group looking into parking in Beeston and the Tram Liaison group. I have been on many members’ training sessions and attended the full Council sessions, speaking at two of them.

Locally I raised 3,500 signatures for the Save Wilkos petition. I chaired two CAT meetings which discussed the Tram and the future of Beeston. Dealing with parking issues has proved challenging and there is more to follow.  Greg Marshall and I held surgeries in Beeston Library. I wrote a monthly newsletter to Labour supporters and established this weekly blog.

I have enjoyed the year and hope to do even better next year! Thank you to all my supporters.

At the Beeston West CAT meeting in March, residents complained about the cleanliness of the twitchell alongside Round Hill School. I know that my predecessor as Councillor used occasionally to do some litter-picking there himself.

So I got onto the street cleaning department and talked to them about their sweeping schedule.  Nigel ["Mr Smiley"] made a special visit this morning to spruce up the area.

Wilkinson’s Hardware shop in Beeston finally closed today, and soon the tramway will run through the site. A public campaign to retain the shop in the town centre, backed by a petition signed by 3500 people, appears to have failed.

But there is still hope that Henry Boot Developments Ltd, which holds the lease to redevelop the Square, will find a suitable premises to rehouse this popular shop. Meanwhile, the manager and staff are being relocated to Long Eaton, Clifton and Nottingham.

It’s just as important for Beeston as it is for London that urban development provides residents and businesses with the environment they need.  The direction and control of the evolution of our town centre is to some extent in the hands of the Council, and thus in ours.

A packed meeting of the Beeston Community Action Team [CAT] last night heard a broad-brush update of the Council’s vision from John Delaney, Broxtowe’s head of service for the Built Environment.  The physical preparations for the NET Phase 2 tram service that will be running through the town centre by 2014 are shaping Beeston’s shopping centre: Wilkinson’s Hardware is already emptying its shelves prior to its regretted closure next month.  We now have a clearer idea of how the rest of the shopping centre in the Square may appear to visitors from Nottingham and from the M1 via the Toton Park & Ride, disembarking at the new transport interchange in Styring Street.

Henry Boot Developments Ltd are about to submit their plans for The Square Retail Centre in which some of the existing units will be rebuilt and the remainder refurbished.  They are hoping to attract some big national names and of course the establishment of a thriving commercial centre is in their interest as well as ours.  Clearly, delicate negotiations are afoot, and we don’t yet know whether Wilkinsons can be accommodated.  But we can perhaps get a glimpse of their priorities from the stores they highlight on their website, and they do mention “Completion by Autumn 2013”.

The imminent demolition of the multi-storey car park, the fire station and Blockbusters’ shop will leave a further large area ripe for development, but John Delaney could confirm no firm plans or even prospects for that part of the town yet.  The recession has made investment in town centre development generally less attractive and we will have to be patient.  There are glimmers of hope, however. Steve Barber [chair of Broxtowe’s planning committee] reported a recent expression of interest by an unnamed national developer; local residents showed that they were engaged and concerned, and senior Council Officers are committed to the cause.  All these provide glimpses of a bright future for Beeston.

Councillors are offered training in a variety of skills by the Council. Some tricks of the trade they just have to pick up themselves.

I helped a couple of local student journalists with an interview on the impact of the tram in Beeston last evening. I also helped them charge up their video-camera battery!

There was a real buzz at the Town Hall in Beeston last Tuesday evening.  People were jockeying for position to see what the stalls were displaying, as they hung on to their Fairtrade wine and banana bread.  It was Fairtrade Fortnight again and there was much to celebrate.

With the support of Broxtowe Borough Council and a small group of enthusiastic workers, Beeston was declared a Fairtrade Town in 2008. The message has spread and this year Moses Renee, a banana grower from St Lucia, was in Beeston on his tour of Britain telling how Fairtrade had saved Winfresh, their banana cooperative.  ‘Without Fairtrade there would be no more Windward Island bananas.’  Sainsbury’s is its largest customer and since 2007 the bananas they have sold have only been Fairtrade.

This story was enormously encouraging to the Fairtrade supporters who realised they had indeed made a difference.  There was a feeling of success in the air, the stalls were busy, and people lingered to share their stories.  I told mine about the Fairtrade Project at Oak Field School where every class is involved in selling fair-trade goods, making posters and inviting parents to join them in a Fairtrade Assembly.

Bananas have become a symbol of a fairer world. Keep munching! Don’t let people tell you, ‘you can’t change the world’. YOU CAN.