parkviews.org.uk blog

Hoofing it to Beeston

2012-01-10T12:27:00.001Z

Yesterday I had a dental appointment at the Cripps Health Centre on the main campus of Nottingham University. As the new term doesn't start until next week and there is no direct bus link, I 'hoofed' it and arrived in plenty of time — as did two ladies in front of me at the reception desk, except they were both complaining about the fact that because their dentists were running late, they might not be out until after their free hour of parking was up and they would run the risk of getting a parking ticket. The alternative was to move their cars to the pay and display parking area. The reception staff sympathised as best they could, but it was all beyond their control.

Since I had walked I had no such problems and I ended up in the waiting room fifteen minutes early looking forward to reading The Guardian on my Kindle whilst I waited (we changed from a paper subscription to a Kindle at the beginning of December and have now added the Nottingham Post to our list of Kindle newspaper subscriptions. It is the future and we both like it better). In fact I got called in by my dentist immediately and I am back there tomorrow for some follow-up dental work.

Cripps is about halfway to Beeston and I had some shopping to do, so I decided to walk the rest of way via Highfields Park, which stretches all along the southern boundary of the campus. I also had some photographs to take of the new University Museum of Archaeology. I say 'new', but it has actually existed for many years in a few rooms tucked out of the way at the back of one of the older buildings on the campus. When Susan was at the University studying archaeology in the late-60s the Museum was located buildings known then as 'The cowsheds' (which were still being used in the early-80s when we did the then Local History Certificate course). And here is an exterior view of the new look 'University of Nottingham Museum of Archaeology':

Inside it is well laid out and pleasing to look at. The text on the labels could be printed in a larger font size, but this is a 'age' niggle.

The Museum occupies just one space and is linked to the adjoining Djanology Art Gallery by the door you can just see at the rear of this photograph.

There is currently an excellent Lowry exhibition in the Djanology until 5 February. We've been twice. You wouldn't see better anywhere else, so to have it fifteen minutes walk from home is great. Not to be missed if you live close enough.

As I was walking around the lake in Highfields I saw these two folk with binoculars welded to their eyes. Their names were Mike and Jenny Ellis and told me that they were looking at birds, including a nearby Kingfisher. At which point Mike raised his and and whispered 'Hear that? It sounded like a high pitched whistle with a tremble. 'It's about to fly' and then, in an instant, a flash of blue and it left a bush within feet of us and flew off up the lake, close to the surface of the water. A wonderful moment.

And this is what Mike and Jenny look like. A lovely, passing, moment of the kind you can have in a park. I hope Mike is up and about before too long.

Towards the Beeston end of Highfields are the stepping stones. Thirty years ago this part of the park would be filled with kids, paddling and chasing tadpoles and Sticklebacks, including my own. Then it became neglected at the Thatcher years forced cuts on City Council staffing and maintenance. Eventually it was fenced off and became a tip. I took the picture below in May 2008. As you can see the stepping stones are overgrown and the water if full of reeds and you could only get in by climbing in to one side where there was a hole in the fence.

Yesterday's photograph gives no hint of the fact that it has been taken on a mid-winter's morning. The City Council continues to do its best with minimal resources, although I am sure that have our local ward councillor, Dave Trimble, as the Portfolio holder for parks also make a difference. He is committed to all the city's parks and open spaces. In times of cutback, we need our parks more than ever.

I left Highfields with last look back at the lake, then headed for the gate and Beeston. A walk I have done countless times and I hope to do regularly so long as I live in Lenton. Mid-winter. Who would think so from this pic?

From The Guardian today: The government has given the green light to a new £32.7bn high-speed rail network and announced new stretches of tunnelling to placate opponents of the scheme.

From the Nottingham Post today: City named among worst areas of UK for child poverty

Welcome to Martin

2012-01-05T13:04:00.001Z

Dave, our longtime groundsman at Lenton Recreation Ground, has gone off on an well deserved and extended holiday to New Zealand and the City Council Parks Department has kindly given our park replacement cover Monday to Friday (we have been without weekend cover for nearly two years now), so welcome to Martin.

Martin is a member of the Parks Department 'Mobile Team' and will be with us until Dave gets back. He spent a couple of weeks with Dave before Christmas getting to know the park and its regulars. I hope he enjoys his stay.

Sometime recently, a park 'short cut' was blocked off. It came about after the creation of the dunking area a few years ago and became a short cut to the loos and as a quick way of recovering balls when they went over the fence which surrounds three sides of the dunking area. Now it's gone. The gap has been wired off and I suspect that by this time next year, the hedge will have grown back into place and no one will notice that the short cut ever existed.

Beside the bowling green, some flowers struggle to provide a little brightness on the darkest and windiest of winter days. Seemingly not much in itself, but a lovely reminder of tenacity — a word and a quality I like and admire.

I'm sure that in other parks and places there will be far better displays, but this scene warmed my heart. Apart from me and Martin the park was empty and this view of the bowling green as I turned towards the Church Street exit and headed off to Dunkirk Post Office, captured the spirit of Lenton Recreation Ground in the middle of winter. The wind which whistled and blustered across the greens seemed to be full of ghosts; of long gone bowlers howling and longing for the return of those who will fill these greens with laughter and idle chatter in a few months time. I will be one of them. The first roll-up is always special.

From The Guardian today: 'Motorcycle bomb targeting labourers waiting for work in Sadr City is followed by car bomb in Kazimiya, with attacks killing more than 26'.

From the Nottingham Post today: NEARLY £100,000 is to be spent installing a games area and gym in a Bestwood park to help avoid antisocial behaviour.

The park five years on

2012-01-02T18:26:00.001Z

1 January 2012. Lenton Recreation Ground from our front door. The day was overcast, very wet and cold — and far too miserable for a walk — the only place to be was in front of the fire reading, drinking tea and eating leftover Christmas cake.

I started this blog in February 2007 with the aim of recording life in and around Lenton recreation Ground on a day-by-day basis for 2007 at least. Much to my surprise I managed it then and continued to post regular entries to this blog until 2010, when they became more infrequent. In 2008 I created a website with same name, which was more ambitious in terms of size and content. For the last few months I have done very little with either. Life in other departments simply overtook me, but with a new year comes recommitment and an awareness that Lenton Recreation Ground started to become a reality 125 years ago, when the then Nottingham Borough Council decided in August 1887 to create a recreation ground on the land we know today as 'Lenton Recreation Ground'.

There are no records of an official opening in 1887 or 1888 (when the park is mentioned again in Council records, with a report on the park). In the circumstances, I see this blog as a torch bearer of sorts for some kind of celebration in August 2013. We shall see, Remember you read it here first.

So, I took just one photograph yesterday. Today I have done a little better. I managed a couple of perambulations around the park and met just three people. Most of the day when I looked into the park from our living room window, it was empty.

2 January 2012. An empty playground, wondering where all the children have gone.

A view from the north side of the park towards Church Street, Holy Trinity Parish Church on the right and the Sikh Gurdwara to the left. You can see why Lenton Recreation Ground has long been described as 'nearest thing there is in Nottingham to a village green'.

What I love about Lenton and Nottingham is the fact that it is multi-culturual and international. I stopped for a few minutes and had a chat with Maksum Konovalor who came to work in the city five years ago and is originally from the Kamchatka Penninsula in Russia. He came here to work for a Russian company based in Nottingham and intends to stay. He has found England to be friendly and he loves our 'traditions' and old buildings.

Round by the bowling green I saw this recently delivered planter which Dave, our park groundsman, will no doubt be planting up when he returned from an extended (and well deserved) holiday in New Zealand. In a few months I will be able to show you a 'before and after pic', so watch this space.

Passing through on his bike was our neighbourhood Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) Brian Grant on one of his daily patrols. When Dave is back, there'll be a cup of tea and a bit of warmth in the Park Pavilion's staff room on days like this. It is so easy to take the work of folk like Brian for granted. When there are no problems they go about their business unnoticed, yet by simply stopping for a chat they make themselves known and enable us to pass by on other days with no more than a nod and a smile and the wave of a hand. Life is Lenton is made wonderful by seemingly inconsequential moments such as this.

Since the end of the bowls season in early-October, I have been an infrequent visitor to the park for all too many reasons, even then it has been no more than walking through on my way to or from Old Lenton, Dunkirk or Beeston. During this time a number of mosaics have been placed around the edge of the Peace Garden, which has been created and funded by volunteers with support and encouragement from our city council. This is one them. I will take pics on the others when it's a little warmer.

And just to show how mild this winter has been to date, there are already green shoots around the park. It is amazing how they seem to survive days like today, when the wind has been bitter and my hands, despite wearing mittens, have been shaking with cold as I took my pics and tried to write notes.

As I left the park, I passed Maksum and his son heading home as well after throwing ball in the dunking area, with both of us looking forward to our next meeting. During our brief chat, we had got around to talking about Christmas. It is something they are looking forward to, as Russians will be celebrating Christmas on the 6th and 7th January (when we are taking down our won decorations). They like the fact that Christmas begins in November and all the things which go with our early start. Maybe they will visit the Russian Orthodox Church on Carlton Hill in the next few days, as Maksum did not know it was there until I told him about it.

Because I have the website, this blog will concentrate on Lenton Recreation Ground and other open spaces I may visit from time to time, but I will keep up my habit of posting a headline from The Guardian website from the same day as my posting:

From The Guardian today: 'Criminal' police records reveal surprising statistic.

From the Nottingham Post today: Over-60s will have to pay library fines for overdue books for the first time under new plans revealed by Nottingham City Council.

And who will be our next MP?

2011-10-31T10:12:00.002Z

What follows is the draft evidence I submitted to the Boundary Commission for England when I went to Derby last Thursday (27 October) to give verbal evidence in support of my proposed parliamentary constituencies for Nottinghamshire and 'greater' Nottingham.

It's long, but brief in comparison with that of the three main political parties, and I have yet to find the time to compile maps and tables of my 'proposed' constituencies for Northamptonshire and Leicestershire. I say 'proposed' because I am hoping others from these counties will, either individually or collectively, come up with their own proposals — all I have aimed to do with mine is to demonstrate that it can be done and that, as a consequence, Nottinghamshire can have its own MPS and there is no need for cross county border constituencies in the case of Nottinghamshire.

RESPONSE TO BOUNDARY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND 2013 REVIEW AND PROPOSALS FOR NOTTINGHAMSHIRE AND THE EAST MIDLANDS REGION, October 2011.

EVIDENCE TO PUBLIC HEARING, DERBY, THURSDAY 27 OCTOBER 2011, PRESENTED BY ROBERT HOWARD, LENTON, NOTTINGHAM.

Introduction.

Thank you for hearing me today. At the end of my evidence I have added a section telling you who I am in terms of experience and knowledge.

For now, all I want to say is that I live in inner-city Nottingham and have a good understanding of the geography and communities that make up the East Midlands from a number of perspectives: as an East Midlands regional housing and support manager for over twenty years; as a one-time councillor who chaired East Midlands Airport and the Midlands Area Museum Service and as a professional local historian until I retired in 2006.

I have been a community activist and a Labour Party member for over fifty years, but I am here today in an individual capacity and I will leave in the hope that I can persuade others in the wider community to support my proposals for how new parliamentary constituencies might be created in the East Midlands, especially Nottinghamshire.

In 2000 I was the architect of community led proposals to create twenty new Nottingham City Council wards which were accepted, for the most part, by the Local Government Commission for England and implemented in 2003. I am particularly proud of the fact that every ward in Nottingham has a name which was proposed by local people.

At the end of day, I am in no doubt that a 'sense of place' is at the heart of good government. My proposals try to reflect this belief — as I am sure has been the case with the Commission. However, such are the constraints placed upon the Commission and others like myself by the Government, I have been forced to make proposals for Nottinghamshire I am less than happy with. But where I have made them, I have tried to apply my local and regional knowledge in a way which takes existing boundaries of one kind or another into account.

What I support in the Boundary Commission's proposals.

I would leave the Derbyshire and Lincolnshire 'sub-regions' as they are in the Boundary Commission proposals in the absence of commissioners being persuaded by any counter-submissions they might receive.

In the case of Nottinghamshire, I support their proposed Ashfield constituency.

What I would change in the Boundary Commission's proposals.

I believe that Nottinghamshire can be made a stand alone 'sub-region' like Derbyshire and Lincolnshire, and that ten viable Nottinghamshire constituencies can be created.

I propose that Leicestershire and Northamptonshire become the sub-group. Given the constraints placed upon the Commission (ie. constituencies have to be based on wards, which means that polling districts in larger urban wards cannot be used), it is not possible to create seven Northamptonshire constituencies without including wards from an adjoining county. It might be possible to achieve this by using wards from another adjoining region, but for reasons of time I have chosen to accept that the wards needed to make a seventh Northants constituency viable will have to come from Leicestershire.

According the Commission's own figures there are 506,628 voters in Northants and 754,878 in Leicestershire. If you take 12,889 voters from Leicestershire as follows: 9,513 (Bosworth, Fleckney, Lubenham and Misterton wards) into the Commission's proposed Daventry constituency and 3,376 (Ketton and Lyddington wards) into the proposed Corby constituency, you can create five self-contained Northants constituencies (Kettering, Northampton North, Northampton South, South Northamptonshire and Wellingborough). I will submit a detailed copy of my Northants proposal before the end of November 2011. I will do this to show that it is possible to create a solution which does not have the same drastic consequences for Nottinghamshire as the Commission's proposals.

As for Leicestershire, it has 754,878 voters in total. Delete the 12,889 transferred to Northants and you are left with 741,989 voters. Divide this number by 10 and you have an average of 74,199 voters per new Leicestershire constituency without the need to create the Commission's proposed Coalville and Keyworth cross-border constituency.

This seems a simple alternative approach that does its best to protect, and respect, county boundaries in the East Midlands. My proposals for Northamptonshire and Leicestershire can, I am sure, be improved upon by those with a more intimate knowledge of these counties and their communities and it is not my intention to talk about them in my evidence. What I want to establish is the fact that Nottinghamshire need not be part of the solution when it comes to creating the seven Northants constituencies.

My Nottinghamshire proposals for ten viable constituencies.

At this stage I would like to refer the commissioners to the two maps I have included as part of my evidence. One shows the six county constituencies I propose the other shows the four greater Nottingham constituencies I propose. These can be referred to as I talk briefly about the nine Nottinghamshire constituencies I propose (the tenth, Ashfield, is the same as that proposed by the Commission).

I have also included a separate three-page table containing information about all the electoral wards in Nottinghamshire, which I have organised by local authority areas, the proposed Boundary Commission constituency and the nine constituencies I have proposed.

I would now like to at Nottinghamshire in more detail:

Ashfield constituency.

I am happy to accept the Boundary Commission's proposal.

Bassetlaw constituency,

I have added two further Bassetlaw local authority (LA) wards to the BC proposal — which helps to remove the long ‘tail’ from BC’s proposed Sherwood constituency. Logic says it must make sense to include as many Bassetlaw wards in the constituency as possible. I have chosen to include Rampton ward (BA23) in with Newark. I could have included East Markham ward (BA22) instead, as the electorates are very close in size.

Mansfield constituency.

I have taken Birklands ward (M19), which covers the Church Warsop part of Mansfield borough, from BC's Sherwood constituency and added into my Mansfield constituency to create a constituency co-terminus with the borough.

Newark constituency.

My 'Newark' contains 20 Newark and Sherwood District Council wards as opposed to the Commission's 16 and only 3 from Rushcliffe LA area, as opposed to 9 in the Commission's proposal. I have added Rampton and Tuxford wards from Bassetlaw LA area, instead of the proposed Sherwood constituency as proposed by the Commission. Geographically this make more sense.

Sherwood constituency.

BC's constituency comprises of 22 wards from four LA areas: 5 from Bassetlaw LA; 7 from Gedling LA; 1 from Mansfield LA and 9 from Newark & Sherwood LA.

My Sherwood constituency comprises of 19 wards from three LA areas: 4 from Ashfield LA; 10 from Gedling LA and 5 from Newark & Sherwood LA. It is also more compact in terms of area and will enable those involved to meet easily in Nottingham.

'Sherwood' is, at best, a cluster of separate communities, brought together to form a constituency. At worst, it can be described as 'the leftovers' after you have made the other Nottinghamshire constituencies. The upside is that these communities will have the attention and loyalty of their own MP and this, of itself, has to be a good thing!

BC's Coalville and Keyworth constituency and my Rushcliffe alternative.

BC's proposal makes no sense at all, especially since it contains wards from both Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire and contradicts their own stated aim of 'trying to respect county boundaries wherever possible' (para 21, 'East Midlands Initial proposals' document).

I propose a new Rushcliffe constituency containing all the wards from the Rushcliffe LA area, with the exception of three to the north and east of Bingham (Cranmer R14, Oak R17 and Thoroton R18 — 4,981 voters in total). My Rushcliffe, with 80,427 voters, is only 46 voters short of the maximum number allowed by the Government.

If the wards allocated to Newark constituency could be added to Rushcliffe instead, I do not believe one person would object. Perhaps it is not too late for the commissioners when they produce their final report to ask the Government to allow exceptions to the formula (ie. 72,810 – 80,473 voters per constituency) where and when local communities are happy to agree and accept that a constituency can be outside this range. I know this is very unlikely to happen, but I believe it still needs to be said.

The 'greater' Nottingham constituencies.

The Commission proposes five constituencies for the area: Broxtowe; Nottingham East; Nottingham North & Hucknall; Nottingham South & West Bridgford and Nottingham West with a total of 377,161 voters.

The Commission's proposals include the Hucknall (24,050 voters) and West Bridgford (26,819 voters) urban wards, plus the outer Gedling wards of Newstead and Ravenshead (6,436 voters) and the rural Gotham ward (1,682 voters) from Rushcliffe.

To include Gotham ward in the Commission's proposed Broxtowe constituency makes no sense whatsoever. The fact that Gotham is geographically separated from the rest of Broxtowe by the River Trent, with no physical link between the two, and no social, transport or economic links whatsoever, should be reason enough for the commissioners to reject their own Commission's proposal.

For my part, I propose four constituencies for greater Nottingham: Nottingham South West & Beeston; Nottingham West & Broxtowe; Nottingham Central & Arnold and Nottingham South East & Gedling South with a total of 315,194 voters.

My greater Nottingham constituencies follow established transport and community networks and draw on my experience as a community activist and as someone who has spoken publicly on numerous occasions for the creation of a 'Greater Nottingham City Council' based on existing local authority partnerships. Since the whole of Rushcliffe LA area is included in existing partnerships, I think it reasonable to leave Rushcliffe as a separate constituency. The same can be said for the Broxtowe and Gedling LA areas, so you could argue that they should have their own constituencies as well. The problem is that Nottingham city does not have enough voters under the Government's formula to have exclusive constituencies, so you have to look beyond the city's boundaries, so I have chosen to base mine of shared community interests and bus routes (as odd as this may seem to some). I will explain as I take you through my proposed Nottingham constituencies one at a time:

Nottingham South West & Beeston proposed constituency.

I live in Lenton, which is a thriving inner-city community with its own ward and councillors (thanks to the efforts of local residents like myself and the support of some local councillors and our then MP). As a community we actually gravitate south west to Nottingham University and Beeston. We are very much like the neighbouring ward of Wollaton East & Lenton Abbey, insomuch as in each ward some 70% of local residents are in full-time education and there are far more private landlords than there are owner-occupiers. We share the same bus routes (there is a bus every 2 minutes between Nottingham city centre, Lenton, Beeston and Chilwell). Clifton is home to one of the main Nottingham Trent University campuses, and Dunkirk & Lenton ward is home to the Kings Meadow Campus. The two main Nottingham University campuses are in Wollaton East and Lenton Abbey ward. The large Lenton Industrial Estate and the Boots complex straddle the Beeston – Lenton border.

The main bus routes out of Clifton cross Clifton Bridge into Lenton & Lenton ward and The Meadows. I and countless others go to south west to Beeston or to the city centre to shop and socialise. We rarely go to West Bridgford, unless it is to a football or cricket match.

I am conscious that at the time of the last parliamentary boundaries review in Nottingham, the commissioners took the view that 'Wollaton Park served to unite rather than divide the two wards of Wollaton West and Wollaton East & Lenton Abbey (and there were) no community ties between the wards of Wollaton west and Bilborough… with the railway line forming a readily identifiable boundary'…

…but as my Wollaton West ward map shows, the links with Bilborough ward are actually much better and how can you ignore the Wollaton Park boundary wall which runs along the Derby Road, only breached by the prison like gatehouse which marks the park's southern entrance.

As someone who lives in an adjoining area, I believe that the only link between the wards in question is the place name 'Wollaton'. Beyond that they are different in numerous ways. The population and housing mix is very different. Wollaton West ward is almost exclusively residential, apart from a large Co-op supermarket, and has a large park of national significance within its boundary, whilst Wollaton East & Lenton Abbey ward includes two large Nottingham University campuses and has to deal with all the issues they bring to long-term local residents (it also has an important city park of its own).

The commissioners' colleagues at the Local Government Commission for England had no problems with the creation of two wards in Broxtowe LA area (Bramcote and Trowell) which straddle the same railway line. I hope the Commission will take this as additional evidence to allow the wards of Wollaton West and Wollaton East & Lenton Abbey to be in different constituencies.

Nottingham West & Broxtowe proposed constituency.

Broxtowe hugs the county boundary and all the main routes in and out of the area begin or end in Nottingham city centre. Wollaton West ward straddles the Ilkeston Road and runs on into Trowell and Ilkeston over the border in Derbyshire. 'Strelley' and 'Broxtowe' are place names you already find in the Broxtowe and Nottingham City Council areas and both are at the centre of this proposed constituency. The Nuthall Road threads the Aspley, Cinderhill, Nuthall and Kimberley areas together with the 'Rainbow One' and other routes providing high-frequency bus services between these areas. Greasley and Eastwood stand at one end and Nottingham city centre the other, with IKEA in between.

The Bulwell wards can trace their roots back to Domesday and were once a township in their own right. They are pulled into the constituency and south by the Nottingham City Transport 'Orange' 35 bus route, which begins in Bulwell, then heads south through Cinderhill, Aspley, Broxtowe, Strelley, Bilborough and Wollaton Vale to the Derby Road and Lenton, before heading north east into the city centre. It runs every 10 minutes and shares its journey with other variants of the route. As a local historian I love this bus route for way it pulls places and people together. I use it for my favourite walk into rural Broxtowe and Strelley and if I am lucky, I may get a double-decker home and see Wollaton Hall across the rooftops and catch the city centre just beyond.

My proposed Wollaton West and Broxtowe constituency may seem to the untutored eye a motley collection of places, but look more closely and you see history and communities which share more than a bus route.

Nottingham Central & Arnold proposed constituency.

Running north from the city centre this constituency is pulled together by the a series of roads. Mansfield Road travels out through Sherwood and skirts Arnold town centre, with two main spurs which go off to the north west after it has left the city centre: Sherwood Rise and Hucknall Road, with Edwards Lane a little further to the north. Then there is 'The Tram' which glides out to Hyson Green and Basford before reaching Bulwell and continuing to Hucknall. These are natural and historic lines of communication and as the city and it historic Domesday neighbours have merged, it has been along these roads. Nottingham's ring road also pulls these wards together. And as for the buses, there are too many to count. Stand beside The Forest on Mansfield Road during any work day and you will always see a bus carrying workers, shoppers and others as they go about their business.

Arnold and Daybrook in Gedling merge seamlessly in with their Nottingham neighbours and unless you are a long-time local, you will not know where one ends or begins — which is why they can be fairly included in the same constituency.

Nottingham South East & Gedling South proposed constituency.

My final proposed greater Nottingham constituency is also brought together by a mix of history and local transport links. The Woodborough and Carlton Roads, with numerous others in between all snake their way from the city centre into modern Gedling borough and places known better to local residents as St Anns, Sneinton, Mapperley, Bakersfield, Colwick, Netherfield, Carlton and, yes, there is at the end of all this a 'Gedling'. A collection of high-frequency daily bus routes knit all these thriving communities together, with the railway providing an extra link between the city, Netherfield and Carlton.

Only Nottingham City Transport's 'Lilac' 25 bus route provides a through link as it travels down north – south down Gedling's urban spine from Arnold through Woodthorpe and Mapperley to Carlton Valley, Gedling and Netherfield, before turning west to Colwick and Nottingham city centre. Other routes provide even more services between what I have termed 'south Gedling' and the city centre.

Bridge ward includes The Meadows, the railway station and the city centre, which is why I have included in this proposed constituency. Some wards could sit easily in any number of proposed constituencies and this is one of them.

Finally…

…preparing evidence for a public consultation such as this is never easy. It is time consuming and it is inevitable that somewhere along the line I will have got something wrong, despite my best efforts. I wish you well in your decision making and I am confident that you will consider my evidence fairly.

At the end of the day I want the chance to elect councillors and MPs able to serve my community either individually or in clusters with other areas I can relate to because of some kind of shared interest. This is 'the sense of place' I referred to at the beginning of my evidence and I know this is how countless other people feel. When the Commission makes its final decisions, I hope it will look beyond 'the numbers' as best it can.

Robert Howard

26 October 2011.

Another chapter begins

2011-07-07T17:32:00.000+01:00

In the past week, four people have commented on the fact that I was no longer doing the blog and that they were all sorry I had stopped. After months of no one saying anything, it was a coincidence I could not ignore. A friend in America also emailed to say how much she missed it. Another friend said Blogspot was now easier to use, so I have been back and checked and the problem with pics seems to have been resolved. You can now add pages as well. So here goes. Another chapter begins… watch this space. In the meantime a couple of pics…

This is 'Wowly Cat' – an un-neutered tom – who first arrived about two months ago, very nervous and thin. We put food out for him, now he eats in, but he sprays a lot, so he gets no further than our kitchen and breakfast room. Fortunately, Markiza (our 'inherited' cat) sniffs out his marks for us and they seem to get on OK. He is the first cat she has not seen off for some reason only known to her. We will have to make a decision about him soon. To get him taken by Cats Protection or to have him done, chipped and jabbed in the hope that his spraying habit will disappear with time after he has had 'the surgery'.

Last week some friends took us to Cleethorpes in Lincolnshire for fish n'chips. It's just south of Grimsby on the North Lincolnshire coast. This pic says it all. Once is enough. We won't be going back. I'm glad we went though, as we got to Barton-on-Humber by the Humber Bridge and we will be going back there for a couple of nights at least. I will write more in my next posting at the weekend.

The senior police officer leading the phone hacking inquiry into The News of the World says that there were 4,000 possible victims listed in the pages of the notebooks belonging to the private detective, Glenn Muclaire, at the centre of the inquiry. Source: The Guardian.

The end of this blog and in between days

2010-10-07T17:44:00.000+01:00

Well, it had to happen one day, and that day has come. I have been having problems uploading images to the blog and then adding text. I have decided it's time for a rest, then a change. To what I do not know.

I have also decided to reduce my other interests to a minimum. The Crocus Gallery on a Thursday if they need me and West End Bowls. I have some local history work I am doing, but at my own pace. Finally, there is The Notts Historian and a possible spin off from that. Plenty enough for anyone who wants to do read more and enjoy the company of friends and loved ones.

As for politics. I will deliver for the Labour Party, help on election days, attend meetings when I feel like it. To change things you have to be involved and, for now, it's not where I want to be. Maybe sometime in the future.

Life is changing and whilst I am actually very optimistic about what the future holds, right now I am wrestling with the in between bit!

Thanks for reading this blog — which I will leave this blog in situ for the time being.

Robert

Perfect for the day: overcast and grey

2010-10-01T17:48:00.004+01:00

On Tuesday I went to to Alrewas in Staffordshire to visit the National Memorial Arboretum and then on to Lichfield on a day out organsied by Lenton Local History Society. I have wanted to visit Alrewas for some time, so not owning car made this the perfect opportunity. The day was overcast and there was a constant threat of rain — which never came.

We arrived at 10am and had two hours to walk a round the Arboretum. It was not enough time, so I will go back again when I can. Preferably on another overcast day and with a pair of wellies. Away from the main path, the grass was quite long and it was wet underfoot. I took lots of pics, but have selected these few to share with you.

Whilst the information centre was bustling with visitors, outside and in the Arboretum, there was no one to be seen. I walked up to the monument on my own and found it empty. Nothing prepares you for the number of names you see. So many. So many people who died unnecessarily. I saw the names and was angry with the British politicians responsible.

I will finish the captions on Monday

Phil, a stonemason I met working under canvas outside Lichfield Cathedral, carving a grotesque.

A double park clebration

2010-09-02T17:04:00.001+01:00

Yesterday was a special day of sorts in Lenton Recreation Ground, when we combined the raising the park's sixth successive Green Flag Award with an official roll-up to mark the 100th anniversary of the park's two bowling greens, which opened on 23 August 1910. In fact, West End Bowls & Social Club had their own event on the day, which you can read about on their blog (click here for link).

Dave Trimble (left), our local Nottingham city councillor, came along and did the official raising of the new Green Flag. He also happens to be the City's Leisure, Cultural and Parks Portfolio Holder, which means he is responsible for all the city's parks. He has been a great champion of Lenton Recreation Ground and other local parks over the years he has been our councillor. Those around him listening on are members of West End Bowls & Social Club, except for Harry and Dave (the guys in green, 5th and 6th from left) who look after the park and the bowling greens. The two Daves are both ex-Cotgrave miners, who I wrote about in the last issue of The Nottinghamshire Historian. Click here to read how these two remarkable men both ended up in Lenton and helped to save Lenton Recreation Ground from being trashed.

Dave then came and had a roll up with members of West End Bowlers. Susan caught Dave bowling the first wood, whilst from right, Frank, Alan and myself looked on. The Nottingham Evening Post sent along a reporter cum photographer, who took pictures for a possible spread in this coming Saturday's issue.You may see this pic again if you live in Dunkirk and Lenton ward, as we may use in the local Labour Party newsletter, thanks to Frank and Alan's support.

All in all, a very enjoyable afternoon a little different to normal. It's a pity that bowlers from none of the other clubs which play in the park came along, but, hey, it means West End gets all the glory — especially if our pics appear in the Post on Saturday!

The total number of British jobs axed by RBS and Lloyds TSB, both of which were bailed out by the taxpayer and are still part owned by the government, reached almost 45,000 today. RBS announced the loss of a further 3,500 'back-office' jobs after the sale of 318 of its branches to the Spanish bank Santander.

Catch up III

2010-08-30T17:28:00.004+01:00

A month or so ago, we met our friends Paul and Rosie in Derby and spent the best part of the day together. They in live in Stoke and we don't have a car, so it seemed the logical place to meet up. I made just one request: that we walk out of the city centre for about a mile to visit Derby Arboretum, England's oldest public park. I have been there a couple of times, the last time being on 2006, when it looked tired and neglected. Since then it has had some money spent on it and I wanted to see how it had changed.

We approached the Arboretum via the Osmaston Road and what was its original main entrance. It was officially opened on 16 September 1840, when Joseph Strutt, a Derby millowner and the first Mayor of the Reformed Borough of Derby, presented the Council with the deeds to the Arboretum. Just over two weeks from now will be its 170th anniversary. For more information, you should visit the Arboretum website, which is run by a local supporter.

Four years ago, all these houses were in a poor state of repair and most were boarded up. The good news that the square has been given a makeover and only one house remains boarded up (the large house nearest the Arboretum on the left-hand side of the picture). The building in the centre of the pic looks like this from the other side…

…it is, in fact, an orangery, albeit empty, but still impressive.

Follow the path round to the right of the Orangery and you will come across this magnificant specimen. It is a replica of the Florentine Boar by Alex Paxton, was placed here in November 2005. The original can be seen in Florence. Both Susan and Rosie knew the Florence legend that if you rub its nose you will return to the city. I wonder if I had rubbed its nose, would I be sure of seeing it again?

I also took this 'in yer face' pic of the Florentine Boar. He looks kind of cheerful and manic at the same time.

Another pic of the Derby Arboretum.This time of one of its long straight paths. Others curl and there are a good few hummocks as well, which were added to give the Arboretum a sense of depth and a false perspective of sorts. It seems that the hummocks play tricks on the eyes, so you end up believing the park is bigger than it actually is. Well, it worked on me.

The Arboretum's is actually located in a Derby inner-city area known as Rosehill and I first visited the area some twenty years ago after reading Rosehill: Portraits from a Midland City by Carol Lake. I'm sure it won a Guardian literary prize — which how I came to read the book, which is a collection of linked stories about life in Rosehill in 1985/86. It remains one of my favourite books, which I dip into whenever I am feeling a little low. Rosehill is much the same as it was then and Carol Lake's description from 1989 does just as well in 2010:

'Rosehill (is) a twilight corner of a Midlands city — decaying, poor; known to outsiders by reputation, not acquaintance… the villas on Rosehill Street are still standing and the school building remains, though it's a community centre. Birds sing in the arboretum: even here, the seasons change'. That last sentence caught my breath at the time. It still does. Rosehill celebrates the inner-city in an understated way. It is full if warmth, reflection and passion. I sometimes wonder of what has happened to Carol Lake? I found her writing exceptional and memorable.

One final thought about Rosehill and Derby Arboretum. Look at the Google online map and you will find that neither are marked on the map. Is it because they are inner-city locations? It made me look at whether Lenton Recreation Ground is marked on the map. It isn't. Lenton Rec may be too small, but you can't say that about the Arboretum. I will see if it is possible to contact Google maps and ask them to give both parks (and Rosehill) the recognition they deserve!

The 33 Chilean miners trapped underground have spoken for the first time to family members waiting for them on the surface. The brief phone conversations late yesterday brought a measure of reassurance to families who have grown increasingly worried about the ability of the men to survive the estimated three months it will take to rescue them.

Catch up II

2010-08-29T18:32:00.001+01:00

A couple of weeks ago, we went on travels of sorts and these are some of places we visited.

A few weeks back we saw a news item on regional TV which included an art gallery in a place called Draycott, which is on the road from Nottingham to Derby, if you go via Long Eaton and catch a Trent-Barton 'indigo' bus. The gallery was called the 'Beetroot Tree Gallery', where we arrived about noon and spent a good hour looking around and talking to a couple of ladies attending a silver jewellery workshop, then we had Homity Pie for lunch in the gallery's café. I didn't take any pics, but as we made our way back to catch the bus home, we decided to walk along the main street and saw these two lovely shops, which look as if they belong to another age.

Across from the shops was this old bank, which has been converted into a home. It looks as if the archway on the left has been filled in, which suggests that the bank must have had an impressive front — ideal for sheltering from the rain.

As we arrived in Draycott, we passed this old factory building on the bus — which is why we decided to walk back down the main road. All the pic shows is the front one-third of the building. It seemed to stretch back for ever.

This was as near as I could get the front of factory in order to take this pic. Any closer and I would have chopped parts off. I found some more pics on flickr, together with a history of the building. Below the front facing clockface, the name 'Jardine' can be seen. The building was/is known as 'Victoria Mill' and was built between 1888 and 1907 and was, originally, a tenement lace factory. By any measure, an impressive sight. We are planning a return visit nearer Christmas, when I will take pics of some other Draycott buildings.

Another recent trip was to Donington-le-Heath Manor in Leicestershire. We had not visited this preserved medieval manor house for over twenty years and it has, how can I say this without sounding as if I was a little disappointed, changed — not on the outside, but…

…on the inside. When Susan and I first visited the building in the 1970s and then again in the 1980s, its interior was devoid of fitments and furnishings. It was if one occupant had left and the house was awaiting the arrival of someone new. I loved this emptiness. Now, though, someone has moved in and every room is furnished and 'interpreted'. There is also a free hand-held audio guide available, with an informative room-by-room commentary. Nothing is left to the imagination and this approach was obviously popular with other visitors and children as we walked around the house. Catching snatches of "Ooh, I wouldn't have like that. Would you?" and "Do you think the clothes were really this heavy?" and children delving into dressing-up boxes.

Twenty years ago the view from the window was also different. The frontage was less ordered, more open and, in a way, hinted at the fact that this was almost certainly a working manor — not much different to most farms today — and the view from the window would have reflected that. Now, it is tidy and ordered with a kitchen garden, lovingly attended by volunteers, including the Chair of the Manor Friends' Group, who was working in the garden throughout our visit. Again, it would be churlish to complain about this approach. It obviously works.

One thing though had not changed — the café in the barn next to the house (which you can just see through the window in the pic above this one). The food was excellent and it was just relaxing to sit there for an hour eating wholesome food and, in my case, drinking a pint of real ale. Susan and Judith had tea. This is a side view of Donington-le-Heath Manor House, which now has a small maze and, as we wandered around the building, I picked cherries from trees laden with fruit and thought that I would be here, picking cherries for pies and jam today — not in the kitchen garden.

We will go back again, of that I am sure. The day of our visit was during the summer school holidays and it was a 'Pirates' Day' for kids, so the manor house and its grounds were full of hyped-up youngsters careering all over the place, laughing and bellowing as loud as their lungs would let them. In truth, if I had to choose between the manor as I remembered it from a long tome ago and how I experienced it this August, the private me chooses the former, but the community me chooses it full of kids. A wonderful day out in good company.

Later the same week, we went across to the Black Country to spend the afternoon and evening with Susan's elderly aunt and uncle, who we had not seen for nine months. On this visit, Susan had a plan — to get them talking about their childhoods and other members of the family. She succeeded, but that's a story for Susan to tell. We decided in advance to have lunch on the way and to find a Black Country fish n'chip shop, so I did a little searching on the web and found the 'Sub-station', which had been given some good reviews. Being between Walsall and Wednesbury, it was just a few miles from our final destination. We were not disappointed. The service and food were excellent and staff friendly.To cap it all they had actually had Worcester Sauce, which is what I like with fish n'chips (otherwise, a strong brown sauce). We will go back again nearer Christmas and arrange to meet there with other family members.

You may be wondering about the name "Sub-station'. The chippy is actually located in an old Midland Electricity Company building which was once a sub-station and in the side wall, there is this memorial to MEC sub-station workers who went off to fight in the First World War, never to return. The fact that it is still there makes the building special and is another reason for a return visit.

A volcano has erupted on the Indonesian island of Sumatra for the first time in four centuries, sending smoke 1,500 metres into the air and prompting the evacation of thousands of residents.

Playing catch up

2010-08-25T11:38:00.000+01:00

It's an age since I lasted posted a Parkviews 'blog'. I have posted some entries to my Crocus Gallery and West End Bowlers blogs, but the past six weeks or so have just flown by. So I have decided to play 'catch up' and post a few pics from my travels, beginning with a view of where my Auntie Nannie and some cousins live in Harlow, Essex.

It may not look a lot, but my Uncle Dave, who died a few years ago, and Nannie went to Harlow in the early-1950s where he was involved, as a plumber and sanitary engineer, in helping to build what was then 'Harlow New Town'. One of the first areas to be built was Brays Grove and this is where they were given a house. I used to go and stay with them during school holidays from about the age of nine until I was fifteen and started work. Looking back, I realise it was to give my Nanna a break from me. She looked after me for nearly all my childhood, but she had badly ulcerated legs. Nanna died when I was fifteen, a few months after I had started work, but that's another story.

I first saw this small green with houses around three sides and a three-story block of flats on the fourth side nearly sixty years ago. The trees in this pic were merely sticks then. Nannie and Dave were a great influence on me, by example. They were both active in the Labour Party and both served as Labour councillors in Harlow. In addition, Dave was an active trade unionist all his life. And, as a matter of principle, they chose not to buy their council house. Not having easy access to car, we do not see Nannie and Co as often as would like, so it was a real pleasure to spend a day with them at the beginning of the month. We put the world to rights and reminiscenced about long gone relatives and others we had not seen for ages.

Altogether, a memorable day, but one topic came up which seems to be universal — wheelie bins! The houses in the pic were built with a large storage cupboard in the front elevation which could take a dustbin. Now, of course, there are three wheelie bins to each house (general household waste, garden waste and recycling material), so at least two bins have to be left outside the houses. Once our street scenes would have had children. Now they have wheelie bins.

Britain's leading independent tax experts today flatly rejected the coalition government's claims to have shielded poor families from five years of austerity when they described Georg Osborne's emergency budget as "clearly regressive".

A tree and Labour looks ahead in Nottingham

2010-07-18T10:51:00.003+01:00

Before I start, something which is always a sad moment. A pic of one of the London Planes on Lenton Boulevard being removed. This was taken a week ago. Workmen at the scene told me that the tree's roots had broken a electricity power supply cable and needed to be removed. Given that they were still trying to dig the roots out on Thursday (the last time I walked this way), it may well have been cheaper (and quicker) to have installed a new cable around the tree. It makes me wonder if other trees on the same side of the Boulevard could suffer the same fate eventually. I may ask the question. For now, I want to record the moment. I love trees and could not imagine living in a landscape without them — which is why, one day, I would like to visit The Shetlands, which appears to have very few trees, but still appeals to me. I would like to understand why.

A couple of days ago I received a pre-May 2011 Nottingham City Council election 'Survey' questionnaire from Nottingham Labour asking for my views on a range of topics and posing the question what should Labour be focusing on in (its) 2011 manifesto. I thought I would share my answers with you.

The questionnaire began by asking me to prioritise a list of policy areas by numbering them 1–8. The following list is in the same order as printed on the questionnaire I received with my ranking shown in (brackets):
Education (5); Rubbish (4); Crime (8); Jobs and employment (6); Anti-social Behaviour (7); Housing (2); Greener Nottingham (3) and Other (1). Against 'Other' I wrote 'Protect the OAP bus pass scheme' and 'Use the Local Government & Public Involvement in Health Act, 2007 (passed by the Labour Government) to devolve more ward powers and budget controls to ward couyncillors'.

My priorities reflect my age and the fact that us oldies have to fight our corner. I fully accept that others will, quite reasonably, have different priorities. The next question on the form was 'What is the biggest issue for you in Nottingham?'. My reply was 'The provision of suitable housing for families and older residents in student and landlord dominated areas like Dunkirk and Lenton'.

The next question asked 'What is the biggest issues in the are you live? (sic).
I listed four items:

Student housing and private landlords
Need for more family homes
Future of Lenton high-rise flats
Dangerous road junctions with traffic lights, but no pedestrian controls (eg. Derby Road/Lenton Boulevard, Derby Road/Gregory Street and Gregory Street/Abbey Street/Abbeybridge).

The final question was 'What ideas or issues do you think we should be campaigning on or championing as Nottingham Labour Party?. My reply:

Turning Nottingham into 'A city of neighbourhoods' where local residents and businesses are encouraged (and empowered) to become more involved in deciding local priorities and needs, then are given more control in partnership with their ward councillors when it comes to managing local assets, resourcers, services and budgets.
Establish 'open' ward committees to replace area committees, whilst allowing ward committees to work together if they decide to (perhaps this might happen in Bulwell and Clifton, both distinct areas with more than one ward).

I hope the Labour Group on Nottingham City Council share the replies they receive with not just Labour Party members, but the wider community as well, perhaps inviting them to comment on the views of the membership. The Labour Group is to be commended for its efforts to consult with members.

I may disagree with them on some things and believe the city council has not treated Lenton well over the years, but I have never seen any other political party attempting to take them on in Dunkirk and Lenton ward. As I have said in the past, the opposition in our part of Nottingham is the Labour Party.

For my part, I remain committed to the idea that 'doorstep' facilities and services can be better managed by local communities and, in the present financial and economic climate, this has to be a priority. I hope Jon Collins and the Labour Group on Nottingham City Council can find the vision to adopt such a policy for the 2011 city council election.

I wish them well in their deliberations. I know that I and others are only excluded because we choose not to get that involved. This is democracy as we know it in Nottingham. It could be worse, but it could be a lot better. However, in the absence of being willing to give my time and energy to help change things, I have, in truth, little to complain about. We get the governments and councils we deserve!

Details of techniques used to inflict pain deliberately on children in privately run jails have been revealed for the first time in a government document obtained by the Observer. Some of the restraint and self-defence measures approved by the Ministry of Justice include ramming knuckles into ribs and raking shoes down the shins.

Bricks in walls

2010-07-13T10:57:00.001+01:00

A couple of weeks ago we went to a friend's funeral, which was held in a small 19th century Baptist chapel in a small Northamptonshire village, where I took this picture.

Then, last weekend, I saw the brick below in a house wall on Beeston Road in Dunkirk, the small area which makes up the south-west corner of Lenton.

I have walked passed this house hundreds of times, yet I have never noticed this brick before. It is by a bus-stop I use regularly when I go to Dunkirk Post Office. It was Susan who saw it. Local historians and others are always reminding us to look up and to pay more attention to the everyday buildings around us. You could devote a blog to looking up. It could be called 'The past is looking up'. Now that I have written it, I realise that it is a wonderful play on words, with so many meanings that it could attract a wide range of visitors. Perhaps I will go out one day soon with my camera and do just that. For now, here are are two I took ages ago.

This face appears above a window of the large house on the south-west corner of the Derby Road and Lenton Boulevard junction in New Lenton.

Then there is the front of the old (New) Lenton National School cum Church School cum Gurdwara, which is about to be renovated, thanks to a English Heritage grant. I know there are countless other images out there waiting to be photographed.

And finally, this house plaque from Montpelier Street in Dunkirk, back where we started. The future for me might be looking up in ways I had not imagined a few days ago.

Six months after the earthquake, an estimated 1.5 million Haitians are still homeless and many countries have yet to provide the financial aid they promised Haiti.

Life, light and shadows

2010-07-06T10:11:00.005+01:00

The past three weeks have been taken up by a combination of things, all on top of the daily routine. I am in the second week of a 'Lenton Living History' fortnight at The Crocus Gallery in Church Square, which is going well, but a little time consuming insomuch as I have to be there 11am–4pm. On the plus side, I am enjoying it, but it did take some preparation, which I could not have done without the help of others, especially Susan.

Then, last week I went to Central Hall in Westminster and did a presentation to a workshop on how councillors and local communities can work together better. My topic was 'Re-inventing doorstep services in Lenton'. There were about fifty people at the workshop. The fact that only three were councillors was a little disappointing, but since only six attended the conference, to have 50% of them present was an achievement of sorts. All this took time and I won't do it again. It was outside what I would now call my 'comfort zone' (which I will come back to in a future blog). I need to focus my time and energy, but then this is not a new thought, as some of you will know.

Today, I want to play catch up and draw your attention to three local happenings.

On Sunday, Susan and I went to Highfields Park and the Lakeside Arts Centre to see an exhibiition about the Wollaton Antiphonal and other medieval books in the Wollaton collection now in the care of Nottingham University's Manuscript Department. It was beautiful to see such works close up and a real privilege. Then we went and had tea at Dunkirk and Old Lenton Community Centre to celebrate 'Dunkirk in Bloom' week, which was organised by our friend Maurita and her colleagues in TRAD (Tenants & Residents Association Dunkirk). Our councillors and MP were there, as well as others we had not seen in a while, so it made a very enjoyable end to the afternoon. The pic above shows a row of three hanging baskets on Beeston Road, Dunkirk, looking towards the flyover.

This little corner of New Lenton is at the Derby Road end of Park Street. Behind the wall and trees is a long disused petrol station site, where a developer is planning to build yet another mini-supermarket (it will be our third), plus eight 2 bedroom flats. Whatever happens, I hope this softened corner of New Lenton will not be protected. It is not a site without its problems and the present view on the Derby Road is as such as that a decent, sympathetic, development is preferable to how it looks at present:

As you can see, the pavement at this point along the Derby Road (looking north-east towards the city centre) is very wide and the developers want to build the new shops and flats right up to the edge of the site. The only trouble with this proposal is that the tree will have to be cut back quite severely and even then will block the light from the windows of at least three flats. There is also a bus-stop here (see the bus shelter to the left of the tree) and there will be a single entrance/exit from the site just beyond the tree. I will be submitting comments to the planners, but I fear that indifference will reign and the developers will get their way. We shall see.

Whilst looking at the old garage site, I took this pic of Lenton flats from Park Street and wondered just how long the flats will be here? There is a shadow over their future and to talk about it seems to be a kind of heresy. What gives the topic an added sense of urgency is the fact that Nottingham City Council has decided to 'decommission' the Radford high-rise tower block. In other words, pull them down. They are considered a fire risk and this alone is probably enough to justify the decision, but to have made the decision without any consultation with the tenants is inexcusable and, I am sad to say, typical of the way Nottingham City Council treats the people who elect it and finance it as taxpayers and Council Tax payers.

So, what is the future of the Lenton's five high-rise tower blocks? Their future hangs in the balance, literally. The flats are clad in concrete panels, which were tested last year to see how long they have left (concrete panels can corrode from the inside, because of the metal mesh used to hold the concrete together). I have yet to see a published report of the findings. I will try and find out what has happened over the next few weeks and report back. Dave Trimble, our city councillor, says nothing is likely to happen in the 'foreseeable future'. In itself, good news, but whilst I trust Dave, I have little confidence that the City Council will that mindful of local feelings and opinions when it comes to making a decision. We shall see. In the meantime, I hope local residents and tenants will be mindful of the possibilities and will make it clear to the City Council that the future of Lenton's high-rise flats is something they must discuss with them before finalising their options when it comes to deciding the future of the flats. Otherwise…

…it will be like a scene from Dr Who. They will disappear before our eyes, panel by panel, floor by floor until they are no more. Even worse,the flats will be sold to a private developer for £1, who will do everything Nottingham City Council says is impossible and instead of working class people being the beneficiaries, it will be aspirational, young middle-class things wanting to live the high life in a great location. You have been warned.

Civil servants who are forced to take redundancy will have their payouts reduced from a maximum of six years to just one year's pay under a tough and "non-negotiable" new compensation scheme published by the Government today. The law is being changed to make this possible.

Another perfect Lenton day

2010-06-13T18:12:00.004+01:00

Yesterday was Dunkirk and Lenton Community Festival Day. What with a stall to set up, a walk to do and people to talk to, I didn't think I would take many pics of the day. Susan went off with the intention of taking some, but soon found herself busy talking to folk. When I wandered off to get some ice creams mid-afternnon, I took the camera with me and managed to get some pics. The downside, as far as Susan and Sally were concerned, was that it took me a good half-hour to get the ice-creams. So, here is my personal record of the Festival.

I wandered into the park just after 10am to see where the Consultation stall was going to be and saw this group of students sitting at one of the many picnic benches in the park. They were recovering from an all-night session, having taken their finals and with nothing to do but wait. Who knows what the future holds for them. Some will no doubt go on to do post-graduate studies. Some will enter the world of work in the midst of uncertainty. Whatever their futures I wish them well and hope that they will remember their Lenton days with fondness.

But the real business of the morning is captured in this pic of Alex and Fiona, totally oblivious to me in sticking a camera in their faces, as they get to grips with planning the day. Unfortunately, I took no pics of the volunteers who were unfolding tables and separating stacks of plastic chairs, but they were there, grafting away. The unsung heroes of the day.

After setting up the consultation corner with help from Maurita, the next time I saw her was when I returned from my 'Festival Walk'. Not a good year. Only two people came along, but we went all the same and they were a delight to be with. It was like being in the company of old friends. From a selfish point of view, it was great. At the park entrance I saw Maurita again, about to go home and see if the dog was OK. With her are two other volunteers who were acting as gatekeepers for the day.

Inside the gates and at 1.15pm, the Festival was already coming to life. Still a bit quiet, but it was still early in the day as far as the Festival was concerned.

The following pics are arranged in a clockwise order from the Church Street gate and were taken at various times during the afternoon. So, we begin, with the 'consultation' corner, which I was meant to be looking after. In fact, Susan did more of it than me, but there were plenty of moments like this and, taken together, they made the exercise well worth while. In truth, most people at the Festival were too busy enjoying themselves to want to bother with more serious matters.

Pedals are Festival regulars and I managed to catch them during a quiet moment.

Next to them was the Nottingham City Council Area 8 display. It's an odd name for an area committee, but since it covers, Dunkirk and Lenton and Bridge wards (the latter covering The Meadows and most of the city centre), it's actually hard to think of a name which would tell you the actual geographical area covered by 'Area 8'!

The stalls were arranged around the park to form a large square of sorts. This pic shows the Derby Road side and captures the 'Lenton Churchs Together' stall, with a palm reader to their right doing a brisk business with a queue of folk waiting to see what the future has in store for them.

In the midst of all this I took one of my favourite pics from the day, when I caught Alex off guard (again), having a chat with Laura, one of the many small stallholders at the Festival. Alex and Fiona spent the day running around, making sure everything went smoothly and dealing with the kind of problems which take a disproportionate amount of time in relation to their size.

Another quiet moment, but do not be deceived! I was making my way to the ice cream van and thought' Goodie, no queue', then I got diverted by two lovely ladies and by the time I got to the ice cream van, there were ten people in front of me.

I also caught these two lovely local residents on the north side of the park at the Park Rangers tent. Betty and Kathy were clearly enjoying themselves. Kathy claimed she was 'knackered' having just finished a full day (volunteering) at the Crocus Café. You can't tell can you? She looks as fresh as one of the flowers in the previous pic!

Next stop was The Lenton Centre tent where a number of things were going on…

…including the chance to have your blood pressure taken by the 'parish nurse', who is based at the Centre.

It's where I also saw two former Dunkirk and Lenton Partnership Forum workers, Philippa and Steph. Over the years, the Forum has been blessed with staff who have given their all and even though they have moved on, they continue to come along to local events, such as the Festival.

Lenton Local History Society's tent is always a firm favourite with Festival goers, who love looking at the hundreds of photographs and local memorabilia that the Society bring with them.

Steve Zaleski (left), who edits and produces the Lenton Times for Lenton Local History Society, always comes along with plenty of back issues and every time I saw him during the day, he was busy talking to someone about some aspect of our local history.

Next door was the veggie burger van that seemed to be doing a roaring business throughout the Festival. Sad to say, I didn't have one. Susan chose samosas and bhajis from the Gudwara stall, which had all gone by the time I took my pics towards the end of the day.

Even at 5pm, it was still busy in the south-east corner of the park. The blue thing is the right-hand corner of the pic had water in and the child in green has her hands on a gizmo which randomly squirted water all over the place, much to the delight of the kids.

I took this pic, which shows the still to be finished Nottingham Peace Garden, with this odd looking, tree like, structure made from cardboard and silver foil in front of it. I get distracted before finding out what it is meant to be. I'm sure someone will be able to tell me.

Just along from the Peace Garden was the tent promoting the work and activities of Nottingham City Council's Parks and Open Spaces Department and…

…next to them was the Nottingham Sprout stall, who got involved in the planting of the Peace Garden, which was the subject of my last blog before this one.

My tour of the Festival completed, I headed back for the ice creams and my corner of the park, where I got talking to Susie and Harry. Susie was very interested in the 'State of Lenton' maps on display and completed a consultation slip, onto which she wrote this rap:
Listen to the beat.
Get down to the Lenton Streets.
Let it tickle your flavour.
Make a movement for love and community union.
Say goodbye to negative isms.
Yeah yeah.
Drop a beat not a bomb.
Yeah make a positive movement.

And what better way to end this very personal tour of yesterday's Festival, than with a pic of Maurita's venerable dog (I do his name, but I have forgotten it for the moment), who she went home to see and came back with Maurita, in tow on his very own trailer, which hooks onto the back of her bike. This is my 'aah' pic of the day. If you were there, I hope these Festival pics have caught something which you remember. If were not with us, then enjoy what was another perfect Lenton day.

England's World Cup campaign got off to a spluttering start yesterday (Saturday) when their opening match against the USA ended in a 1-1 draw, as the stuff of footballing nightmares came true for goalkeeper Robert Green (who lost his grip on the ball and allowed it to roll across the goal line).

Peace Garden day in the park

2010-06-05T17:39:00.003+01:00

Yesterday (Friday) saw the Nottingham Peace Garden take another step towards its official opening. If I understand correctly this has been set for next Saturday (12 June) as part of the Dunkirk and Lenton Community Festival. However, as the specially made fencing from patterned steel will not now be fitted until the week after, it would make sense if the opening was delayed. I will keep you posted.

The Nottingham Peace Garden was first mentioned at a Lenton Recreation Ground Park Users' Consultative Group meeting was first mentioned about five years ago, when the group behind the idea were looking for a park to be home to the Peace Garden. After a series of hiccups and a lot of tenacity, things finally began to move last year when a plan was agreed and in February this year, its location in the park was finally agreed (see the pics on the Parkviews webside park page). So, what happened yesterday?

But first a step back to 10 February 2010, when I took this pic of Peace Group members standing on the line of the decorative metal fence which will mark the Nottingham Pleace Garden's boundary. It is in the south-east corner of the park and is overlooked by the long terrace of late-Victorian houses on Devonshire Promenade and the end of Church Grove, a late-Victorian cul-de-sac only accessible by a footpath from Church Street. It is a lovely spot by any measure.

Marina and her daughter, Giselle, are the driving force behind Nottingham Peace Garden asked me if I would take some pictures of the day. In my last blog on 21 May 2010 I included some pics of the garden being marked out by Ian and on Wednesday just gone, turf was removed to reveal the outline of the 'dove' shape, which is at the heart of the garden. I took this pic at 8.30am, with Marina and Anne, the landscape gardener responsible for the disign and selection of plants, already on site.

Marina and Anne make ready for the day before anyone else arrives, double-checking the layout and worrying whether it would be big enough. As we all know, such things go with the territory. When you have devoted so much time to something, you want it be perfect on the day.

Soon, others begin to arrive and the preliminary work which needs to be done before the volunteers arrive gets underway, with Ian, Anne and Feliss looking closely at the layout plan.

Soon after, Harry (Lenton Rec's apprentice groundsperson) Steve (a Park Ranger) and a visiting apprentice listen to instructions being given off camera by Ian. It seems that the dove's tail needs changing.

Harry is soon diverted to removing plants from the old flower bed in this corner of the park before it is turfed over. The bed has had a short life, having only been laid out by Dave a couple of years ago.

By mid-morning, the first of the volunteers have arrived to help with the planting…

…including some children — which was nice to see.

In amongst the volunteers are some like Lynne on the right, who know a thing or two about plants and so are able to help other volunteers to put the correct plants in the right places.

And before you know it, it's lunchtime and all the volunteers stop for lunch.

The park pavilion had been opened so that the volunteers and others could make drinks and eat if they wanted to, but the day was so lovely that everyone decided to stay by the garden and eat where they were.

It was a chance to speak with a view of the volunteers who had turned up to help. Joanna on the left works for 'Sprout Nottingham', a local charity devoted to helping people get involved in gardening, and Hayley, one of its volunteers. They had been contacted by the Nottingham Peace Garden Group.

Superman aka Daniel from Madrid (but currently staying in Beeston) and Paul from nearby Strelley also came along to help. I think Paul is doing a Superman impression. They found out via the Dunkirk and Lenton Partnership Forum.

A little later after lunch and I had gone to play bowls, I saw Erika and Sarah, who had come around to the bowling greens from the peace garden to plant out some of the plants Harry was removing. They told me that they first met when they worked together as park rangers for Derby City Council and came along after seeing the call for volunteers on the Facebook site belonging to Nottingham City Council's Parks Department.

The day went well and, as my pics show, attracted volunteers from a variety of sources. A good few were local residensts and students, including Giselle, who I mentioned at the beginning. A great day, as I hope these pics show.

By the time I left the park after playing bowls, there was nothing that would tell a casual observer that this had been the scene of intense activity earlier in the day and that it was the heart of the new Nottingham Peace Garden, as yet unannounced to the wider world. By the end of the month, it will be a defined space within Lenton Recreation Ground. I hope there will be room for a bench, so that visitors may sit and reflect upon the intent and vision which had led to its creation.

As a footsoldier and a supporter of the peace garden, I thank Marina and Giselle and their colleagues for bringing the dreams to my park and making them a reality.

Israel faced a fresh wave of international condemnation today when its troops boarded a boat attempting to break the blockade of Gaza and forcibly diverted it to the port of Ashdod just five days after its botched assault on a six-boat flotilla ended in the deaths of nine activists and international isolation for Israel. An unknown number of naval commandos stormed the MV Rachel Corrie in international waters, about 20 miles from the coast of Gaza.

A Lenton day

2010-05-21T12:02:00.002+01:00

Yesterday (Thursday) was the kind of Lenton day I enjoy. Nothing earth shattering, no rushing, life at a leisurely pace.

Into Lenton Recreation Ground to take some pre-arranged pics of the Nottingham Peace Garden being marked out, ready for work to begin. Along the way and in sight of home, I found Harry, our park apprentice, busy hoeing away. He and Dave start early, so by the time some of us bowlers arrive in the afternoon, the workers are slowing down and rightly so. The trouble is some of us old farts don't see this side of the job, so this pic is for them.

Dave came across and joined me with Ian Cooke, a Nottingham City Council horticulturalist, who is working closely with the Nottingham Peace Garden Group and is ordering most of the plants, as well as marking out where the Garden will go in the park. Dave and Harry will be looking after the Garden once it is finished and Dave has been attending meetings as well as the volunteers who are pushing the project forward.

This is Ian marking out the head of the dove shaped garden. He knows Lenton Recreation Ground well, having worked as Nottingham University's horticulturalist until he retired and has been involved in park planting schemes in the past.

Later in the morning I wandered off the Forum office to collect the keys to The Crocus Gallery, where I was doing a volunteering stint from 12–6pm. On the way I saw another gardener, Rexx, one of our American community activists, originally from Los Angeles, who lives on a narrow boat in Lenton's Castle Marina. She is enjoyable company at all times and is involved with the Gallery project and the Crocus Café as well.

When I arrived at The Crocus Gallery, which is beside the Crocus Café, I saw these two young ladies knitting. I have written a bit more about Natalie and Lizzy in the Gallery blog posting I have just done.

After I had opened up the gallery, Hannah came in and I took this pic of her beside her three exhibits and I paid her for the picture of the spoons which I bought for Susan, after she had said that she liked it. Again, there's more about Hannah in the latest Gallery blog posting.

When I closed the gallery at 6pm, I went across Church Square and bought some samosas from Khan in the Lenton Tandoori restaurant, which I took home for tea with a salad and some lovely mint yogurt, which Khan had made. I am in the process of taking pics in of the shops and people who work in them as part of a longer piece about the Square.

After tea with Susan and Judith I left them chatting whilst I went off to meet a friend, Richard, who has recently started his own blog called Richard's World, much of which has been devoted to one his passions — the River Leen — which is how we came to meet last year. He has also written about some of Nottingham's caves. Richard lives five minutes away, so we wandered off to Radford together to visit a stretch of the Leen which has just been made accessible by the building of some student accommodation and a new footpath. For centuries the Leen was the powerhouse of Lenton, Radford, Basford, Bulwell and the other historic settlements which grew up alongside or close by. King Coal helped to change the relationship, but the river still has an important place in the local psyche and, both Richard and I believe, matters far more to people than Nottingham City Council planners realise.

Somehow, in the midst of all the development going on around them, these three, gnarled, trees have managed to survive. Behind them you can catch a glimpse of the kind of steel shuttering which has been hammered into place to shore up some of the banking. In places, the Leen looks ugly and might be dismissed by many as little more than an eyesore. Of course they would be wrong. On Saturday 7 August, Richard and I are finally going to do a walk along part of the Leen. Richard will choose where we go and to encourage a few others to join us, another Richard, my next door neighbour and Crocus Café volunteer cook, is going to do a picnic for us, which he will bring to an agreed meeting point, with the small charge we make going Café funds. More about this later.

Senior judges have overturned a high court injunction this week halting industrial action, but urged British Airways and the Unite trade union to negotiate a peace deal instead of relying on the courts. Their judgment means that five days of strikes will now begin on Monday.

Another perfect day, another year older

2010-05-16T17:39:00.000+01:00

Today I woke up aged 66. Yesterday I was 65. The good news is that Susan was still beside me and when I opened the blinds, Lenton Recreation Ground was still there. In other words, the world is still perfect. Today is a quiet day. Cooking lunch, making bagels for the first time in thirty-three years of breadmaking using a recipe from my friend Paul's Bread website. If you read this Paul, there have turned out fine. Next time I will reduce your recipe by half. I went out and bought some French cream cheese and smoked salmon, so you can guess what we are having for tea. There will also be a Susan made egg custard tart using pastry I have just made. A perfect day.

Yesterday saw the opening of Lenton's very own community-led arts project, called The Crocus Gallery and this morning I posted pics of the event onto the gallery blog I have been doing since a small group of us sat in the Crocus Café in February 2010 and discussed the idea. I hope you go and have a look. I bought a picture for Susan, which you can see on the gallery blog.

I left after an hour with Dave Trimble, Dunkirk and Lenton's Nottingham City councillor and Sarah Piper, who will be standing alongside Dave in next year's City Council election for our ward. We went off to visit the Lenton 'Community Garden Project', which was having an open day. As well as an opportunity to have a chat along the way about a wide range of local issues, it was a great chance to take some 'campaign' pics which can be used over the next year.

Dave and Sarah in close-up, taken at yesterday's Crocus Gallery opening. This will be invaluable library pic.

Dave and Sarah outside The Crocus Gallery is the kind of pic which reminds viewers that the Labour Party has close associations with the local community and is here, working alongside other local residents all the time.

Dave and Sarah both played a role in the Crocus Café next door coming to Church Square and making such a difference to the precinct.

When you leave Church Square via the south side the first thing you see is The Lenton Centre on Willoughby Street. I am currently gathering material together for a 'living history' project based around The Lenton Centre building and the land it was built on in the early-1930s. This part of Lenton was not developed until the 1820s and became known as 'New Lenton'. The building houses a swimming pool, a gym and a community centre. The City Council closed the pool and gym in 2004, but after a campaign by local residents led by Lenton Community Association, the building and land was sold to the community for £10 and the pool re-opened in 2008. It is a fantastic story and achievement and one in which local Labour Party members played an important and, at times, leading role…

…which is why I think the Labour Party can legitimately take and use in its City election a pic like this.

Next, I took this pic of Dave and Sarah outside the Dunkirk and Lenton Partnership Forum office on Lenton Boulevard. Again, Dave and local Labour Party members have played a leading role in the history of the Forum.

From the Forum office, we walked a hundred yards past the closed Lenton Primary School, along Sherwin Road and under the railway bridge, turned left beside the railway and found ourselves in the Sherwin Road Community Garden, complete with its old scout hut. This is a new project led by Parbinder from the city council, with the active support (and money) of our two Labour Party city councillors, Dave Trimble and Zahoor Mir.

Our visit was to see how the community garden project was going, but the opportunity to get a 'campaign' pic was too good to miss and local resident Bill Cauldwell happily agreed to have his pic taken knowing it could well appear in Dunkirk and Lenton Labour Party leaflets. Pics like this, taken on the spur of the moment, often seem better than pics I go out intending to take.

Over the coming weeks and months I will take lots more like this. Most will go into the Labour Party folder and stay there. Some will come out and be used. Some, in the end, have no value, except for the pleasure they provide me…

…Like this one of Bill planting potatoes. In the midst of all that happened yesterday, there were moments all too brief, which went unrecorded. Talking to Harry at The Crocus Gallery opening, who goes into the Crocus Café for mid-morning coffee and is someone I exchange nods with. In a few minutes he told me much and I have yet another lead to follow up. And so it is with Bill. I spent all too little time in his company. I saw him in an animated conversation with Dave. Had you been there you would understand why Dave has been one of our two Labour Party city councillors since 1992. He knows that life and politics is people. Nothing else.

Charles Kennedy, the former Liberal-Democratic Party leader says the he could not bring himself to supprt Clegg in the crucial, behind-closed-doors meeting of Lib Dem MPs last Tuesday night. He fears the move to a formal coalition with the Tories has wrecked for ever plans for a progressive centre-left alliance in British politics.

Did British politics really change a few hours ago?

2010-05-12T00:12:00.002+01:00

A quick post a few hours after Gordon Brown gave way to David Cameron and followed up his announcement from Monday that he was intending to step down as Leader of The Labour Party by saying that it he was doing it immediately — which means that Harriet Harman has become the Party's interim leader. Susan and I both voted for her in the Deputy Leadership election a couple of years ago (or was three?). We wish her well and hope that she performs so well at the despatch box in the House of Commons that can become a serious candidate in the Labour Party leadership contest we will have shortly. Perhaps John Cruddas will tempted to run. Both names spring to mind, but neither appear to be on the national media's radar. We will watch developments with interest.

I hardly make a reliable politics pundit, having expressed the view in last blog that 'with the rest of Parliament ranged against him, I don't see how Cameron can cut services immediately'. How little I know! I fell into the camp that thought we were probably going to end up with a Conservative minority government. I did not think the Liberals would go in coalition with the Tories, given the fact that on some issues they were to the left of Gordon Brown and the Labour Party. Yet, in truth, I am not surprised, nor do I see it as the end of the world.

As I write this, news is continuely leaking out, including a Tory/Lib agreement to have five year fixed term parliaments. Blair considered the same possibility, but for four years. As they say, hindsight is a wonderful thing. Well, at least we know what we have to look forward to, assuming there is not some small print 'get out' clause in the deal.

On balance, I am with the Labour MPs who spoke out against a Lib/Lab deal. The arthmetic simply did not add up. Another plus side to all this is the fact that political debates should be shorter, as the Tories and the Liberals will have to speak with one voice, so for the media to give them both equal space with Labour would be unfair. Hang on, I feel one of my 'how ittle I know' moments coming on.

Most of the day was spent being active in my world. Lenton. My Crocus Gallery blog is where you will find pics and happy news about local life. OK. One pic to tempt you there.

On the basis of the reports we've had so far, the new cabinet will include David Cameron (PM), Nick Clegg (deputy PM), George Osborne (Chancellor), Vince Cable (chief secretary to the Treasury), Andrew Lansley (health), Liam Fox (defence), David Laws (education), Danny Alexander (Scotland) and Philip Hammond (work and pensions). There must be some jobs going to women, but we haven't heard of them yet. The Guardian.

Results day, two great, one sad, but plenty of hope

2010-05-09T13:33:00.002+01:00

I spent election day at The Lenton Centre polling station from just before 7am until 9pm, with a couple of breaks. I did two lots of delivery in the three days before the election, so I feel as if I did my bit for the Labour Party, our candidate Lilian Greenwood and democracy. And, of course, we won Nottingham South, albeit with a reduced majority. Susan and I saw Lilian at lunchtime as we left the Crocus Café and she was about to go in. Unfortunately, I did not have my camera with me, so you will have to make do with a pic I took of Lilian in good company at the March 'Tea in the Park' event in Lenton Recreation Ground.

The attention is on the younger of Lilian's three daughters (who helped me serving the tea and the cake and did all the washing up). In the centre is Dave Trimble, our long-time Labour city councillor for Dunkirk and Lenton ward, and to the right is Matthew Butcher, who is a local community activist and was the Green Party candidate for Nottingham South in the general election on Thursday.

I spent most of election day with Matthew, as he based himself at The Lenton Centre from 7am until just before 9am, apart from going to a mock general election at a local primary and junior school. In that debate, he came second to Lilian. In the one that mattered on Thursday, Matthew came last, behind UKIP and the BNP. By no measure did he deserve that and I really felt for him when I heard the result. My elation at Lilian's election and the fact that she is Nottingham's first ever woman MP was marred by Matthew's poor performance and the disregard shown for him by voters. As a convert to 'green' socialism in the early-1970s, I readily admit to agreeing with nearly all the Green Party's policies and would certainly like to see the Labour Party adopt a good few of their policies.

Whilst the national media has been going on about Labour's poor performance in the general election, it has chosen to ignore Labour's impressive performance in local elections around England. Labour gained over 400 council seats whilst the Tories and Liberals lost well over one hundred each. It was also a bad night for independents. Labour won back control of numerous councils, including Camden in London, Coventry, Hastings, Oxford and, most significantly, Liverpool. These results matter, because they cheer up local foot soldiers like me and provide a launch pad for Labour's comeback at the next general election.

This weekend is dominated by media speculation about the ongoing talks between the party leaders, Cameron, Clegg and Brown about who will be able to form the next government. If Cameron wants to be prime minister, then he will have accept a referendum before too long on proportional representation and he may have to delay his proposed cuts programme until 2011/2012, when Labour and the Liberals want the cuts to start. The MPs from Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales will also be against early cuts, as their countries benefit the most from public expenditure. In the circumstances, with the rest of Parliament ranged against him, I don't see how Cameron can cut services immediately.

Labour and Brown might still do a deal with the Liberals and the other parties to keep Cameron out. It's still early days. I agree with Graham Allen, the Nottingham North Labour MP since 1987, that there should be a referendum on proportional representation sooner rather than later. The question asked will be crucial. I heard a senior Tory MP, Liam Fox, say that PR isn't an important issue and that not one voter mentioned the issue to him during the campaign. I wonder how many said to him that they weren't going to vote because their vote wouldn't count anyway? Many voters feel disenfranchised by the present 'first past the post' system. The one thing most voters will want to keep is a direct link with their MP and not to vote for a party list over which they have no control. Back in the 1990s, Roy Jenkins and others prepared a report for Tony Blair. Many of us thought that change was about to come. What better time than under a Labour government with a massive majority, but it was not to be. Scotland got its own parliament and Wales an assembly, both with PR. England got nothing, not even PR. I have made up my mind to follow Graham's lead and support him. He is in favour of pluralism in government and more local autonomy. Two things I have long supported.

As far as I am concerned, the general election was not a disaster for Labour. My focus will remain local and this why having a Labour controlled Nottingham City Council is very important to me. In a recent blog I went on at length about the commercial waste bins outside the Bag O'Nails pub on Church Street. Good news on election day from the City Council. I received an email saying: 'The two receptacles from the Bag O’ Nails have now been removed from the highway (and) I have had discussions with the Pub Manger and he is in agreement that their bins will now be stored within a secured compound within their building. On collection days, our crew will remove the bins from the compound and once emptied they will be returned thus keeping them off the highway'. A result after three years.

In the midst of it all, Thursday did have its lighter moments. Both involved animals.

Outside The Lenton Centre polling station, Matthew became a dog minder for a few minutes whilst a lady went in and voted. It was about 9am and the day was still young. Matthew has yet to learn how to work the votes. For a few brief minutes whilst Lilian was at the polling station, she shook hands with every voter and introduced herself. She said no more. She was not campaigning. Matthew has yet to learn the dark art of 'pressing the flesh' or kissing babies, but , as my pic shows, he has made a start.

As Susan was walking home from a turn on the polling station, she saw these ducks on Devonshire Promenade, a few doors from our house. Why two mallards and a duck decided to land so far from water is a mystery, but here they are having a nap. By the time I came home they had gone. I ended the day with a sausage sandwich, a bag of crisps and a chocolate ice cream lolly and we stayed up until 4am, when the Nottingham results were declared. We then collapsed into bed and surfaced at mid-day. For the moment we are still playing catch-up. Our bodies are not used to such high levels of frenetic activity these days.

Shirley Williams has become the first senior Liberal Democrat to break ranks and come out against the idea of her party striking a formal coalition deal with the Conservatives.

If ever there was a straw, this is it for me!

2010-05-04T12:35:00.001+01:00

I would like to be telling you something about the history of this fine building on Church Street in New Lenton (and I will when I do my Festival walk in June). For now, all you need to know is that it has been the Bag O'Nails public house for a good few years. It customers are almost exclusively students and, for the most part, it is only open during university term-times. My focus in this blog is the two commercial waste bins in the road to the right of the picture. They are a permanent feature and I have been compalining about them for two years at least.

I have just posted my latest entry to the Fix my street website and included the picture below…

and the following text: 'There has been an ongoing problem with the pub leaving its bins in the road on Church Street at all times for some years now. I think I first posted an entry on this website in 2008! They have been out all over the bank holiday. There are always excuses being made, yet the private landlord next door has never left the same style bins in the street (my pic show the landlord's bins in the foreground and the Bag O'Nailss bins in the road to the back). Why is no action ever taken against the Bag O'Nails? The City Council have no plausible answer to this question, so one just has to wonder what is going on here?'.

Last month, my last 'complaint' about the problem via Dave Trimble, one of our city councillors, got the following reply:

'I thank you for your enquiry into the trade waste issue at the Bag O Nails 60 Lenton Boulevard, Nottingham.

The 8 hour rule applies for both domestic and business waste. For example, if the regular collections are 9.00am then the bin can only be put out no earlier than 1am the day of the collection and has to be removed from the highway no later than 5pm the same day.

Therefore, with Bag O Nails collections being on Monday, Tuesday and Friday, bins are not permitted to be on the highway at any time over the weekends.

I am in the process of ascertaining approximate collection times for each day as these can vary from domestic collections.

I completely understand your frustrations and will continue to monitor these premises, and, as soon as the pub resumes trading I will be visiting the landlord again in order to rectify this situation'.

I suspect the council officer who replied is overworked, under-resourced and frustrated at their inability to resolve this problem. Here we are again with the Bag O'Nails leaving the bins in Church Street for the whole of the May Day bank holiday.

As I have pointed out in my latest Fix my street entry, and show in my pic, the property next door has four commercial bins and I have never seen them left in Church Street once, so why is such a problem for the Bag O'Nails?

My last complaint in early-April 2010 was prompted by this scene. The Bag O'Nails has its cellar shoot open, not a delivery vehicle in sight and no one in attendance. It was like this when I walked passed on my way to Church Square and still like it over an hour later when I walked back home. My next door neighbour mentioned it to me on another occasion and I have seen mothers with buggies forced in to the road on a few occasions over the years because the bins have actually been on the pavement (and have forwarded pics to councillors and officers on numerous occasions).

Why does this matter so much? The answer is simple. If a commercial business, with staff and resources, cannot keep its bins off the street, then it makes it difficult to ask students in shared houses to take their bins in. Things have got better in the last twelve months, but anyone walking around New Lenton like I was on Monday morning (I was delivering Labour Party leaflets) woould have seen how it can still look awful, with rubbish strewn across pavements in a number of places.

I do not know why the Bag O'Nails has such a charmed life, but I do know that if ever I desert the Labour Party after fifty years it will be because my Labour controlled city council talks big when it comes to keeping our streets clean and safe, whilst doing nothing about it in New lenton. All we get is talk, talk, talk.

Right now, I am, quite frankly, pissed off by their inability or, worse, decision to do nothing about the Bag O'Nails and its bins. They are a symbol of failure and I will be attending the next community meeting on Monday 10 May at Thomas Helwys Church wanting an answer about how and when the bins are going to removed once and for all, subject to the very lax regulations which exist. I also want to know whether the council change change the regulations?

Gordon Brown put in one of the most extraordinary performances of his tenure as prime minister when the three party leaders took part in an unofficial fourth debate – addressing London community groups in the largest live audience of the election campaign. As the Labour party battles to avoid coming third on Thursday, Brown appeared to find an emotional range and vocabulary previously unheard from him. Prompting repeated standing ovations, he told the audience: "As you fight for fairness, you will always find in me a friend, a partner and a brother." The speech, before 2,500 voters in a large church hall, may end up having been the most electrifying event of the campaign. Critics of the prime minister described it as one of the best speeches they have seen by a politician.

Can we afford to leave Lenton's future to chance?

2010-05-02T11:58:00.004+01:00

This coming Thursday will see one of the most important general elections in my life time. Being born in 1944, I was just one when Labour was swept to power in the 1945 general election. That election and its consequences has defined my life in many ways and all for the better.

I am the little one in this pic, which was taken in 1946. Pop, on the left, is my maternal grandfather and I am being held by my mother, Betty. On the right is my Uncle Sid, Pop's brother, who was so damaged by his experiences of World War I that he spent the rest of his life in a mental hospital, except for occasional stays with family. My mother wasn't married and never spoke to me about my father. I never had the courage to question her, or other members of my family about who my father was. I found out at her funeral, from my Uncle Frank, that he was Irish, worked at the GEC factory in North Wembley during World War II with my mother and was a good footballer. His surname might have been O'Brian or O'Ryan.

My mother was often away working whilst I was little and married Jimmy in 1952. A lovely man, who I came to love more and more as we both became older and I remember his passing in 2008, eighteen months after my mother, with fonder memories and more sadness. It was my Nanna and Pop who nurtured me, who cared for me, and it was my uncles and aunts, especially my Uncle Dave and Auntie Nannie, who provided me with that extra love that all children need. My mother was there, somewhere, in the background. I think Nanna just took charge. She died when I was 15 and so Pop and I lived alone, apart from the ever-present lodgers, who occupied the big first-floor front bedroom, except for the few occasions when mother and Jimmy came to live with us for some reason. My mother's solutuon to any problem was to try and run away from it. When she couldn't, she became depressed and morose. By any measure, Jimmy was a saint.

I have another picture of me like the one above which was taken at the same time, but without the pointing finger. In both pictures I am standing on a tank in the back garden of the semi-detached house in Wembley that was my home for the first 22 years of my life. Pop and I got along well and I still dream about him regularly. I always have done. He was a man of his time and, by my standards, treated Nanna badly. I can only remember one really bad argument about what I have long forgotten everything, except for his blurting out in the middle of it all "You're just like your father — it's the bloody Irish in you — always fighting something — you can never leave well alone".

By then I was already a very active 'young socialist' in the Labour Party and my trade union. I knew what Attlee and his post-war Labour government had done for ordinary people. Their achievements shaped our nation for a generation or more and helped shape the hopes and ambitions of many.

After Attlee, we had to wait until 1964 and Harold Wilson before we had another Labour Government. It also lasted only six years, but it achieved much. I was 20 when Wilson came to power. I did not have a vote, but I was in a small way, party to reducing the voting age to 18. My life moved on and Labour managed a comeback in the 1970s, by which time I was a councillor in Birmingham. Labour was changing, responding to global markets, a Europe flexing its economic muscle. It all ended in tears and a big 'if only'. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

What followed was Thatcher and eighteen years of social and industrial destruction. Her culture and politics played to our baser instincts and, as a society, many of us were happy to embrace all that she offered. So much so that when Blair and Brown led Labour to that fantastic victory in 1997, they believed that they could only survive by dealing with the city monsters Thatcher had helped to create. Voters wanted different then, as now. For what progress we have had during the last thirteen years we have paid a heavy price and will have to endure much for the rest of my life and beyond.

My close and long time friend Paul is, in many ways, the 'other' me. The one who is not political or active in the community. Who goes on long country walks, tends his large garden and has hobbies. We share a passion for breadmaking, cooking, and two women, who have been friends for longer than us. In his blog, Distant Thoughts, his last entry is about the forthcoming general election. I know that he articulates the views of most of the friends I have spoken to in recent weeks. I would do Paul a disservice if I was suggest otherwise. They all want a change in the voting system more radical than Brown's proposal. I find it impossible to argue against them when they say that Blair and Brown had the chance to change the voting system after the 1997 election and they didn't, so why trust Labour now? Paul makes the point that in choosing who to vote for, we have to accept things we don't like. We do not have 'pick and mix' politics.

I agree. Yet, yet, when we look at the choices before us this coming Thursday, only Labour offers some hope that all need not be lost and the price I will pay is billions being spent on a Trident replacement, ID cards and the continuing privatisation of public services. The cuts are already with us. Lenton, like the rest of England, will have to pay a heavy price for bailing out the bankers in London, but, but, they need to be managed and mindful of local needs and opinions. The cuts are not something to be imposed by a city council or a government without giving local communities the chance to offer their own practical and financially viable alternatives. What politicians and parties have done will count for little or nothing on Thursday. It is the future that matters and I am in no doubt that Labour is the party to vote for. Cuts and more cuts are inevitable, but they need to be phased and applied in a way which protects the poor, the weak and vulnerable.

In Nottingham South, a vote for Lilian Greenwood will be a vote for someone with a track record of campaigning for the less well-off, the weakest in our society. That is the only thing from the past which will matter on Thursday — as for the future, we need to take stock of where we are now and where we want to be in ten, twenty… fifty years time, then work towards that future, steadily and with determination. I have my own thoughts about these things. They will matter little if, as a society, we get things wrong on Thursday.

Vote Labour, vote Lilian Greenwood…

Now I am off delivering and will spend Thursday number taking at The Lenton Centre. Then we will watch television until the Nottingham results come in and I can go to the bed knowing that Lilian is my MP.

Notts County win promotion from the Football League 2nd division as champions.

A tree walk in the park

2010-04-25T15:16:00.002+01:00

Yesterday morning Susan and I went for a walk around Lenton Recreation Ground. It's something we have been doing for last thirty years. But this time was different. We went along to the launch of the park's 'Tree Trail', which was led by Steve, one of Nottingham City Council's park rangers and a regular visitor to our park. He quickly introduced the thirteen locals and two children who turned up to Graham, who actually did a lot of the work involved in identifying the trees in the park and provided a lot of the information which appears in the Lenton Recreation Ground 'Tree Trail' leaflet. The pics try to capture what was a very enjoyable and informative morning.

After pre-walk tea and cake we all gathered outside the park pavilion so that Steve could tell his audience a little about the history of Lenton Recreation Ground and what we should look out for.

My aim with this blog is to whet your appetite, so that you will go and pick up your own tree trail leaflet from Dave, our resident groundsman — which means I won't be telling you all about all thirty trees marked on the trail map (there are a lot more trees than this in the park, which you will be able to identify once you have used the leaflet). The second tree we stopped by was a Norway Maple, which was introduced to England in 1683, and of which 'numerous ornamental varieties exist'.

This is a pic of the Norway Maple which I took in November 2008. It is the most noticeable tree in the park, because it stands alone in the grassed part of Lenton Recreation Ground. I have many pics of it through the seasons and I like it best in late-autumn, when it is losing its leaves. Until yesterday I am ashamed to say I did not know it was a Norway Maple.

This is Graham, who was the real star of the morning. It was like walking around with your very own tree encyclopaedia. He was entertaining, informative and a joy to listen to. Here he is early on in our walk holding a leaf from a Highclere Holly tree. This particular example is a 'male' and 'very tolerant of pollution'.

Tree No.14 on our walk was a London Plane and Graham thinks is probably the largest (and oldest) tree in the park, which must have been left in situ when Lenton Recreation Ground was being created in the late-1880s. This was a tree I could identify, having grown up in Wembley on the edge of London. The London Plane is also the tree which lines Nottingham's boulevards, including, of course, our own Castle, Lenton and Radford boulevards. It's another tree I have taken lots of pictures of, but not this particular one. My favourite is on the south side of the park between the bowling green and Church Street. What I didn't know is that local authorities place values on trees and Graham estimates that this particular tree is worth 'about £190,000', whereas normal street trees are valued at '£10 to £15,000'.

I took this pic of one of the London Planes between the bowling green and Church Street in August 2007. I love its shape and never fail to look at it whenever I go in the park.

I was pleased to see that the 'Tree Trail' included the humble silver birch and I have used the two examples by the playing area on numerous occasions to 'frame' pics. And here I do it again to capture Steve telling us about this very English and relatively short-lived native tree. It is another tree I am fond of and you can find them all around Lenton.

This is another pic from 2007. This short path through the pocket-sized Priory Park in Old Lenton, less than ten minutes walk from Lenton Recreation Ground, is one my favourite Lenton spots, with its small copse of Silver Birch trees. As a child, I would catch a No.18 bus from Wembley to Harrow Weald, then a 158 to Stanmore Common. Within 40 minutes you could be lost in a wood of silver birch and elms (which have long gone and I have no idea what this once idyllic corner of Middlesex now looks like). It was heaven and to walk along the albeit far too short a path in Priory Park is a Tardis-like experience. I see and experience more in this small park than I do in many larger parks close by.

If you visit parkviews.org.uk in the week after I have posted this blog you will see a version of this pic which shows just Steve's face. Susan says he is 'just looking up'. Me? I see a man enjoying a 'happy moment' of sorts, as Graham explains how to tell the flower of a chery tree from that of a apple tree. The tree they holding onto is a 'Pillar Apple', also known as a 'Chonosuki's Crab', which was introduced to England from Japan in 1897.

OK. Here's another version of the same pic. If it catches the attention of my website viewers and gets them to this blog about Lenton Recreation Ground's new 'Tree Trail', then it will have done its job — and I am sure that Steve will forgive me for taking advantage of a pic I took purely by chance. Just occasionally, us 'happy snappers' get lucky.

Yesterday morning was really enjoyable. Steve and Graham were great. I was going to an afternoon lecture in town, but by the time we had finished and walked home (all of fifty yards at most) for lunch, it was too late and I didn't mind one bit. I was still on a high of my own and away with the trees, if not the fairies. If you want to unwind for a couple of hours, then go and see Dave in the park, pick up a 'Tree Trail' leaflet and enjoy.

Nottingham born novelist Alan Sillitoe died today at the age of 82. His best known works were Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner. He left school at 14 and worked at the Raleigh bicycle factory in Lenton until he went off to do his natonal service in his late-teens.

Hidden corners I can see from my home

2010-04-11T14:02:00.002+01:00

This week has found me and Susan both poorly again with yet another virus infection of some kind. My second this year and Susan's fourth. Yesterday, I felt well enough to have a wander around Lenton Recreation Ground and across Church Street into Holy Trinity's churchyard and the little pocket park which nestles, unnoticed by most, beside it. In fact, we can see all three from our living room. All have their attractions and two have hidden corners, where the trees, especially in summer with their leaves, muffle all the surrounding sounds. These are little havens of escape and I would put benches in both, so that I could sit and soak up the quiet, with only birdsong to keep me company.

Who would guess that I was within a few yards of our front door when I took this picture yesterday? A really hidden corner.

This hidden corner is just across from the Church Street entrance to Lenton Recreation Ground. Few notice it. Created as a community pocket park in the 1980s, with the intention that volunteers would look after it (which they did for a while), it became neglected until Dave arrived and took it under his wing…

… since when it has been lovingly cared for. I don't visit it enough. It really is one of New Lenton's 'hidden corners' and, yes, we can actually see it from our home on Devonshire Promenade.

Yesterday, I noticed this small urn, with its images of Durham Catherdral in Holy Trinity Churchyard. I peeked inside and saw that it contains ashes with traces of bone, so I assume that it is from a cremation. Afterwards, disturbing it seemed like an act of desecration, even though I just lifted the lid. I have never noticed it before and covered, as it was, in dust and grime, I suspect that it may have been there for some months. It has clearly been left on the grave as an act of remembrance and association. Perhaps the remains of someone close to those buried in the grave. Left where it is, I fear that it will disappear, its contents discarded without thought. Perhaps the urn should be buried, albeit just below the surface, and become part of the eternity whoever placed it there wishes the person in the urn to share with those in the grave?

Finally, I don't often appear in my own pictures. but yesterday after my morning walk around the park, I went back in the afternoon and spent a couple of enjoyable hours in the company of another New Lenton resident, Barrie, playing the first game of bowls of the 2010 season in the park. More about this and other West End bowlers can be found on the club's blog at http://webowlers.blogspot.com.

Today (Sunday), the morning has been spent delivering copies of Dunkirk and Lenton Life to houses and shops in my part of New Lenton. A very different, darker, experience, to the day I enjoyed yesterday in and around the park. I will write about today after I have gone out and taken some pictures…

President Lech Kaczynski, his wife, and 95 other people died after the president's plane clipped a copse of trees on its approach to Smolensk airport in thick fog. There were no survivors. Among the dead were many senior Polish government and military figures.

Lenton distractions or interests?

2010-04-02T12:09:00.003+01:00

My friend Rosie has recently posted her 500th blog onto http://rosiepblog.blogspot.com/ — which she began in 2005 and calls 'Corners of my mind'. I really love it, as do her many followers. She has created a small community of like-minded people who come together on her blog from all over the world. The web can be a truly wonderful thing. It was Rosie who suggested that I do a blog in 2007 — which is how I came to start Parkviews.

Rosie's mention of her 500th blog got me looking at how many Parkview blogs I have done. This is, in fact, my 241st posting. However, what looking made me realise was that I only did 20 postings in 2009. My time and energy has gone into my Parkviews website, which has become something different from what I originally intended. I began in 2007 wanting to record life in and around Lenton Recreation Ground, but soon it became more than parochial. And now I sit at the computer wondering at what point does an 'interest' become a 'distraction'?

But first, I have decided to reprise a few of my favourite park pics — a kind of top five — in no particular order — and why I have chosen them.

One of my first pictures, taken on 12 February 2007. Only the girl with the camera spoke English. She told me that they had come to live in Lenton from Romania and were not yet going to school. I have never seen them since, so I can only assume that the family moved on. I hope they are safe and well.

On 9 April 2007, that year's bowling season began in Lenton Recreation Ground and I was there to capture the first game. It was when I first met members of the West End Senior Citizens Bowls Club. In the picture are Alan (1st left) and Frank (2nd left). Meeting them coincided with my starting a year-long community project in Lenton high-rise flats (which are visible above the bowling green pavilion). It was also the year when I first became involved with what is now the West End Bowls & Social Club. I am now the club secretary and, yes, started a West End Bowlers blog. The 2010 bowls season starts next Saturday, 10 April. I hope it's dry and the sun is shining.

This picture is of three young visitors from nearby Wollaton, who came along to a 'Tea in the Park' day I organised on 17 June 2007. I love everything it says to me about being young. I have been him. The girls will remain beautiful to him forever. I know. I have never seen them again.

A picture of Dave (left), our full-time groundsman, who came to the park in 2004, and Simon, who came to help him during the bowls season. I took this pic on 22 August 2007, the day after a big park event and they were taking a well earned break. I have taken countless pictures of them both. Simon moved on at the end of 2008, but Dave is still with us. It is all his hard work which has made Lenton Recreation Ground the great park it is today.

I called this picture 'Going home' and took it on 24 September 2007. I knew this family to 'nod to' for years before I took this picture. I gave them a copy of the picture at the time and they would regularly stop and pass the time of day. The parents would go and meet their eldest daughter from school and then walk home through the park. Looking at this picture, I realise that it must be a good year since I last saw them in the park or about Lenton. I hope they well.

Looking at my 'top 5' selection, perhaps I should make it specific to 2007. All are about people. They make our park what it is; a meeting place, somewhere to relax, to get lost in one's own thoughts.,all these things and more. No wonder I love it so much and bless the day we found our home beside the park.

One is for sure, the park remains an interest, a passion. All that I want from life, with the exception of family, longstanding friends and the sea, can be found in what I will describe as 'Greater Lenton' for now (a blog and a topic for another day).

I look about me and I am free from being a formal member of any committee, although I attend occasional community meetings and help where and when I can with a number of Lenton groups. Being am secretary of the bowls club doesn't count because they a bunch of pensioned-off anarchists.

So, are there any 'Lenton distractions' — anything which prevents me from giving my time and attention to my 'interests' — ie. something that I am concerned or enthusiastic about? The answer is 'yes'. I can resolve to drop Lenton news from the parkviews website which is of no real interest to me. On other words, a distraction. It is something which I change from time to time anyway. The trouble is that I do have interests I want to develop. Things that I still want to achieve, to make happen. Some are personal, one is in Lenton and across Nottingham, perhaps nationally. These are thoughts I wrestle with and, at the moment, I have no clear answers to.

Eric Carlin has announced he is stepping down from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), in part because of his concerns at the speed with which ministers pushed through a ban on the drug mephedrone.

A Dunkirk 'oldies' day

2010-03-23T23:05:00.004Z

The Dunkirk and Lenton Partnership Forum organised an activities and information day for
older residents today at the Dunkirk and Old Lenton Community Centre. I went along for the day with my New Lenton 'Living History Display' and a couple of chocolate banana cakes.

There was a range of things to do, including the chance to have some reflexology from Christine. The feet in the pic belong to a friend who did not want her face to be seen.

Then it was onto a session with Elaine (left) from Nottingham City Museums Education Team, who came with a box of mystery objects. Dave (right) is having a feel. We all guessed what it was. Can you? The answer can be found at the bottom of this blog entry (but not yet).

After sitting around for thirty minutes, it was time for a workout and to get the hips swinging.

All the exercise made me hungry, so I wandered off to watch Rexx showing her audience how to prepare a quick lunch with a tin of chick peas, an onion, some couscous and a pitta bread, plus some cabbage and an orange. Luckily, the sight of all this food was followed by lunch, which was a choice between a vegetable lasagne or a ploughman's…

…but little did I realise that we would have to sing for our lunch, led by Richard, my next door neighbour, who was helped by Rexx. In fact the session turned out to be three songs from Richard separated by three cookery demonstrations by Rexx. They were very good and made a great team. Then we did finally get our lunch.

After lunch, there was the chance to do some painting, which is what I caught two of our neighbourhood community safety team at.

There was even some singing sessions — which I was 'bullied' into joining, but only after I saw this group having such a good time…

…and no wonder, with Hannah leading the singing and getting a group of novices to learn how to use their tongues, throats and tummies, she was a true marvel. By end of my half-hour session, I was taking part in singing 'I'm a Believer' by Neil Diamond, but made famous by The Monkees (see, it really was an oldies day!). There were eight of us, singing in pairs, two lines behind each other. If only my Susan could have seen me — she would never have believed it then. It was an amazing experience. I should add that I am hooked on a current US TV series called 'Glee'. Perhaps Lenton needs one for us oldies?

The person who bullied me into singing was Ruth. Yes, this lovely looking lady. She didn't persuade me the first time, so she came back a couple of more times before I finally gave in. In truth, I took pity on her. It was 2.30pm and the day was coming to an end and she was worried that the day had not been the success she had hoped for. In fact, it was just a case of first time nerves — Ruth told me that she had never organised an event like this before. If you read this Ruth, you did a fantastic job and have every right to look as happy as you do in this pic I took of you during your second singing session.

Because I had my own display to look after and people to talk to, I didn't get around to take pics of the belly dancing, the indoor cyclists or the Nordic pole walkers in the car park and these are only the other activities I remember from earlier today. So I will end by revealing the mystery object which Dave was feeling — it was a ceramic bed warmer. The fact that we all knew what it was tells you that we were all children from the days before electric blankets or central heating.

Well, that's my account of what was an enjoyable day, when there was too much to do or to take in, with good food and lots of folk to talk with. If I had sound to go with this blog, it would reveal the endless chatter of happy souls. Thanks to Ruth and all her helpers for making it happen!

Alistair Darling spurned the chance of a pre-election giveaway budget when he put his personal stamp on a package designed to cement recovery from Britain's deepest postwar recession while placating a jittery City.

Tea in the Park: 'So English'

2010-03-22T10:47:00.001Z

Yesterday I did a 'Tea in the Park' afternoon, which turned out to be a great success, with over sixty 'customers'. Many were students, whilst others were regulars from past teas and there were so many people to talk to, as well as setting up shop, cutting the cakes, making drinks and, most of all, taking the money, that I simply did not have time to take as many photographs as I would have liked to.

What was especially pleasing about the afternoon was that Lilian Greenwood, the Prospective Parliamentary candidate for Nottingham South ( the constituency that Lenton is in), came along and took advantage of the opportunity to meet local residents and to chat. Unfortunately, I got no pics (sorry, Lilian!). However, I got a few and here they are.

The only pic I got of folks enjoying 'Tea in the Park' was during one of the quieter periods. On a couple of occasions, the queue stretched to the door.

Mike and Amy were among the students who came along and enjoyed some tea and cake. In fact, Mike did come to help, but he did a better job mixing and chatting with residents young and old. Both posed to have their pic taken with Lilian, when we gathered together in the park for a 'photo opportunity'. Someone else was taking pics, so I am in one of them, but I did manage to take one of my own…

With Holy Trinity in the background, a group of local Labour Party members and supporters pose for an impromptu picture with Lilian (centre). The General Election is now only weeks away and, as it draws nearer, my 'tribal Labour' instincts take over and all my mutterings about Gordon Brown and co seem less important. All I know for sure is that, for all its shortcomings, a Labour Government is far better than the Tory/Liberal alternative (even their leaders look alike — at a quick glance can you tell Cameron and Clegg apart?).

Whilst we were having our group pic taken, Matthew Butcher, the Green Party's candidate in Nottingham South wandered over. He had been playing football in the park and was going home to do some gardening, so he couldn't stay around for tea in the park. I have a pic of him chatting with Lilian, but I couldn't resist Matthew with his boots. I explained to him that it would make a great publicity pic for a leaflet I am working on to explain to young men why they shouldn't play football in the park in studded boots and that is what I was going to say he was saying as well. He readily agreed, so thanks Matthew. When I've done the leaflet, I make sure you all see it.

Among my first customers of the day were Yana and Danelia, who are studying at Nottingham University and come from Bulgaria. Yana asked me when she came in if they could buy tea and cake and I said 'of course'. A face then lit up with a big smile and she said 'This is so English — I love it!'. It seems that back home, even community events are a bit exclusive and the idea that everybody and anybody can join in something isn't quite the same. They tried some of our homemade Lenton elderflower cordial, after I explained how and when it was made. They must have liked it, because they came back for 'seconds'.

The fact that I got any pics at all was because two of Lilian's three daughters came to my rescue and Elsie took over being my champion, tea server, cake cutter and money taker. Her elder sister Patsy took over the washing up and without them I would have been struggling. Alex, who Elsie is pouring a cup of tea, for came across from nearby Wollaton.

I also found time to chat with Anne and Adam, two local residents that I know and took a cake order for Susan, as Anne is having a party for her 50th birthday at the Crocus Café, and loved the coffee and walnut cake that Susan had made, so we will take it along as our birthday present to Anne.

At the end of the afternoon, as I was leaving the park I saw a near-neighbour, Amanda, who is an environmental biology student takes pics for her course work and we had a chat about wheelie bins and recycling. Lenton's students get a bad press in some quarters and, yes, at times, they can be annoying, but many of them, like Amanda, Amy and Mike (see previous pic), are mindful of the impact that students have on Lenton and recognise that it is an issue. My take is that when local residents blame the area's problems on students they are tackling the wrong people. Nottingham City Council is the main culprit when it comes to the demise of Lenton, ably assisted by the city's two universities, especially Nottingham University. All I know is that I am glad to have Mike and Amanda as neighbours on Devonshire Promenade.

Barack Obama last night forced his bitterly fought healthcare reform bill through Congress, bringing near-universal coverage to Americans and delivering the first major triumph of his presidency.

'B' is for Beeston and books

2010-03-14T13:13:00.001Z

Last Saturday found Susan and I going to Beeston after receiving an invitation to be reflexology guinea pigs, so we decided to turn it into a half-day out. On better days, we would have walked all the way to Beeston, breaking our walk at the Lakeside Art Centre in Highfields Park for coffee and shared cake. In the end we were lazy, had coffee and cake at home, then caught the bus to the eastern end of Beeston High Road, from where we ambled towards our destination with plenty of time for browsing and looking in bookshops before having a light lunch in one of our favourite eateries.

Did you notice that I said 'bookshops'? Beeston has four, plus a WH Smith's and numerous charity shops, all of which sell books. Reading this from afar, you may wonder where Beeston is in relation to Lenton in inner-city Nottingham. Well, its about 2½ miles south-west of Lenton and there are several routes you can take. It's the same if you walk. My preferred walking route includes two parks and the main campus of Nottingham University. Along the way you pass two art galleries and coffee shops and is a walk I do frequently. By bus, it's 15–20 minutes and by car it can take 10–15 minutes. We no longer own a car, but gave up going to Beeston by car long ago. Good bus services, bus lanes and door-to-door travel, with no need to waste time parking a car, make the bus best, during the day at least.

So, where are these bookshops and where did we have our leisurely light lunch before going for our reflexology session and a sleep?

But first, a marker of sorts. This pic of the mile long pedestrianised Beeston High Road shows one its fun sculptures, looking west to east. Just beyond the yellow A-board on the right of the pic is the Oxfam bookshop and almost directly opposite is the Beeston Bookshop.

Beeston Bookshop is a long established 'remaindered' bookshop selling discontinued books, which covers a first floor as well as a ground floor.

Across the way is a Oxfam Bookshop. Recently these Oxfam bookshops have come in for a lot of criticism in the media for their, seemingly, 'predatory' approach, allegedly driving some small, private, bookshops out of business. Compared to other second-hand bookshops in Beeston, they are the most expensive. Over recent months, I have been into finding and reading Penelope Lively novels. Elsewhere, they have been £1–£2 each. Here £3–4. When it comes to local history books, they are even more pricey. At the end of the day, Oxfam is a charity (albeit, a big business as well) and if their bookshops were run badly they would not last long.

My favourite second-hand bookshop in Beeston is 'Bookwise' on the Chilwell Road, which is what Beeston High Road joins at its western end. The walk is in a straight line, with the pedestrianised section ending by Beeston's main post office. Just continue walking on the north side of the road for about 200 yards and you come to Bookwise. It is run by 'Music for Everyone', originally formed in 1983 as the Nottingham Choral Trust. The volunteers are lovely and very helpful and I rarely go in and come out without buying a book.

Another 200 hundred yards down on the same side of Chilwell Road and you come to the newest of the second-hand bookshops. 'Karl's Bookshop' opened just before Christmas and is privately owned. Its prices are very reasonable and I already bought several books here. The couple who run the bookshop are very helpful and friendly. Next to them is 'Silver Tree', a jewellery and trinket shop which is jam-packed with delightful goodies.

And across the road is the 'Flying Goose', one of our favourite eating places. It does light lunches and snacks, plus lovely cakes, throughout the day. It is just the place to end or start a walk, with a choice of buses to and from Lenton every few minutes. On the days when we are invited to be reflexology guinea pigs, we always go to the Flying Goose beforehand. The window ledge inside is used display lots of cultural and and left-of-centre handouts and leaflets. The local Labour MP is Nick Palmer and is newsletter is usually there, along with Green Party and Transition Beeston material, plus The Guardian and The Independent. In Lenton, this would be akin to our community run Crocus Café. On the walls inside there is always a temporary exhibition of works by local artists for sale and every couple of months there are poetry reading sessions, which usually cost £3 including a glass of wine.

So, there you have it, an enjoyable suburban stroll within minutes of Lenton and Nottingham, with four decent bookshops as well, not to mention some nice craft and jewellery shops as well.

The Liberal Democrats have distanced themselves from the Conservatives by warning they would not support plans to cut public spending too early in the next parliament.

A 'one thing' day in Lenton

2010-03-01T17:41:00.000Z

This morning I had one thing to do, then home for an early lunch before going to a West End Bowls meeting in Lenton Recreation Ground. Most days start slowly for Susan and me, breakfast in bed and papers, so we tried to avoid any appointments before 11am, but today I wanted to go and see the old scout hut site off Sherwin Road, which Parbinder from our local City Council Area 8 Committee thinks might be used for a volunteer led community garden (an 'allotment' in old fashion speak). The use of the vacated scout hut is seen as separate. In fact, it's quite large and I suspect that finding a use will not be that easy. Access to the site is not easy. You have to walk along a narrow unmade path from Sherwin Road beside the railway line which has no lighting. There is easier access from Coleby Avenue, but that is across private property.

This view of the site is towards Sherwin Road, with Lenton flats just visible in the distance beyond the trees.

This view towards the backs of houses on Sherwin Road, plus the top pic, give some idea of just how large the site is. There were several local residents present who are interested in the community garden/allotment idea and you could argue that divided into three or four plots, they could each manage their own plot. Like so many community ideas, the devil is in the detail. I left the group to go and see someone who had knocked on our door at 9.30am (an ungodly hour as far as we are concerned!), so I don't know what is going to happen next. If you are interested in the proposed community garden project, contact the Forum office for more info.

I then wandered off to The Lenton Centre, where there is a dispute simmering over land at the rear of the Centre which had been earmarked for a children's outdoor play project with funding already received. Now, it seems, some of the swimmers who come from outside Lenton want to use the area for secure parking for 'about seven cars'. The swimmers bring in much needed cash which can be used without restrictions, whilst the TLC youth project brings in money which has to be set aside for their activities. Being a community organisation cum social enterprise does not protect you from the same kind of hard choices that local councils and governments have to make, so it's a tough one for Carl, the TLC's Chief Executive. On the other side, I see why Nicki, TLC's youth officer, wants to protect her funding.

Some of those who know about the problem have got a petition going in support of the play area for presenting to the next Trustees' meeting in a few weeks time. This morning I signed the petition because I think that local children who use the Centre have priority over would-be swimmers and their parents who come in their cars from other parts of the city. There is street parking outside and parking behind Church Square shops. In fact, the number of street parking spaces could easily be increased, but that will also cost money and take longer to bring about.

In happier days, summer 2008, the area at the back of The Lenton Centre being used for a family barbecue organised by Dunkirk and Lenton partnership Forum. This shows about one-third of the disputed area.

Then, of course, there is the fact that right next door to TLC is the main Edna G Olds School playground, surrounded by high security fences. For all the time I have been involved in the TLC site (from 1979–2006 it was Lenton Community Centre), there has been talk about getting joint use with the school. For years we used to 'trepass' during school holidays and use it without official permission, but all the fencing now makes that impossible. Long ago I came to the conclusion that schools are rarely part of the community in which they are located. They are distinct and separate and Edna G Olds in no different and never has been. Many of the teachers and the pupils arrive and leave by car. Lenton and The Lenton Centre mean nothing to them. In saying this I may offend some, but the proof is in the pudding. This spat we are having between TLC users would not be happening had Edna G Olds been willing to share its main playground with the various childrens' and youth groups which have been based in the Centre over the past thirty years.

I hope that the TLC's trustees can come up with a solution to the problem which protects the longstanding commitment to local children. They need to se that are valued as part of our community. As for the swimmers, the trustees will have to work with them to find a solution to their problems. I am sure this can be done.

After my TLC visit, I went to Thomas Helwys Church to get some pics of an artists' group run by Claire, who is involved in the Crocus Gallery community arts project, but everyone was having lunch and I got into conversations with several other people before leaving and heading for the Crocus Café, where I had a couple of other people to see, then it was home for lunch. On the way I bumped into three other local residents and had a chat with them about this and that, as one does. Then, as I approached Devonshire Promenade I saw a white van and I couldn't resist taking this pic:

As you can see it is full of 'to let' signs. For a brief moment I toyed with the idea of jumping in and driving off, with the aim of sinking it in the River Trent. Last week, I posted a pic of some torn down 'to let' boards. Just what would those 'vandals' have done had they come across this van?

After a quick lunch, it was into the park for a West End Bowls Club meeting and on the way I met Dave (left) showing Harry (right), his new apprentice around the park. Harry is one of twenty-four new two-year apprentices just being taken on by Nottingham City Council. I wished Harry well and told him that he could not have a better teacher. I took some other pics, which from tomorrow you can see on my parkviews.org website.

My 'one thing' days rarely stay that way — as this blog shows. Lenton is, in many ways, a kind of 'Ambridge', of the world and yet apart. There really is enough to keep me happy most days, with occasional outings to friends, family and the seaside. If you know how to live it, community life is far from boring!

Lord Ashcroft, the multimillionaire deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, today confirmed for the first time that he is a "non-dom" and does not pay tax on his earnings abroad in the UK. His confirmation puts to rest a decade of speculation about his tax status and raises serious questions for the Conservative party, which has been part of cross-party moves to ban non-doms from parliament.

A hobble around my corner of Lenton

2010-02-22T17:42:00.003Z

On Friday I lost control of my shopping trolley and stumbled off the pavement and fell into the road, rolling over in the process. A student and two workmen came to my rescue, picked me after making sure nothing appeared to be broken and stayed with me for five minutes or so whilst I got my wind back on a seat outside the flats. I was going shopping in Beeston after a visit to the Crocus and felt OK enough to continue. Twenty minutes later, walking along the High Road and the pain hit me. It was my knee and it got progressively worse. When I got off the bus in Lenton I hobbled into the Derby Road Health Centre and even though it was lunch time, I was quickly seen, the wound cleaned and pain killers administered. Then it was up to the A&E at QMC where, after just two hours and an x-ray, I was told, "nothing broken", but such was the swelling that I probably needed 3–4 days rest and so it has proved to be.

I did manage to go the few yards into the park on Sunday and get come pics, which I have placed on parkviews.org. Today's 'hobble' to see Dave in Lenton Rec was my first proper walk. I also wanted to get some pics of No.36 buses along the Derby Road for a piece I have written about why 'copycat' bus services should not be allowed, unless they area as good as, or better, than the existing bus service. This is also on parkviews.org.

This is one of the pics I took, which shows a Trent-Barton No.4 overtaking a Nottingham City Transport No.36 at my nearest bus stop, a few yards from our home. Lenton and Nottingham's bus services must be among the best in England. We have avoided the clutches of the Arrivas, First Bus and Stagecoach. I am planning to produce a Lenton bus map for parkviews.org in the near future.

In the park, I saw Steph (2nd from right), once of the Forum, now with Sustran, with would-be student bike trainers under instruction in Lenton Recreation Ground. It's great to see the park being used in this way.

I then found Dave having his lunch and gave him a copy of The Nottinghamshire Historian, which has just been published and contains an article by me called 'Two Daves and the Miners' strike, 1984'. It is about Dave and Dave Trimble, our local city councillor. Both were miners at Cotgrave Colliery (a few miles south-east of Nottingham) and took part in the 1984 strike. Both found their way to Lenton and both have played an important part in helping to restore Lenton Recreation Ground. The article explains everything and I hope to have a link in the next few days.

After I left the park and hobbled home, I came across these torn down 'to let' signs at the Henry Road end of Devonshire Promenade. Given the topic of my last blog, the scene might be taken as a sign of things to come.

This was the shortest of walks, but still not without interest as far as I was concerned. Walking around Lenton is never boring. There are always things to see and people to meet.

Support for David Cameron's Conservative party has crumbled to its lowest point for nearly two years, according to the latest monthly Guardian/ICM poll, leaving Britain on course for a hung parliament at the coming general election.

A Tory taster of things to come and good news from Labour, but will anyone notice?

2010-02-18T16:01:00.003Z

How long before a lot more 'to let' signs can be torn down in Lenton?

I saw this torn down collection of 'to let; signs at the Henry Road end of Devonshire Promenade. Someone, or a group, had obviously gone along and just ripped them all down, as the broken ends show. I don't what provoked those responsible to do this, but, given the recent news of tougher planning regulations for HMOs and shared housing in places like Lenton, it seems rather symbolic of what many of us would like to see happen from 1 April 2010 or ASAP after this date.

My first blog since 1 January 2010 (after a long bout of various ailments which left me tired) and I find myself thinking about a news item on BBC1's East Midlands Today lunchtime regional news programme. The Tories who now control Nottinghamshire County Council have announced that there will be another 1,000 job cuts on top of the 500 already announced. The Tories claim that by reducing staff levels and making services more efficient they can save £200m. The Tories say that compulsory redundancies will be kept to a minimum and that, by working working with other councils, even more savings can be made.

Labour, on the other hand, talks of 'efficiency savings' and avoids the word 'cuts'. I have absolutely no problem with running local councils (and central government) as cost effectively as possible. I can think of a good few ways in which Nottingham City Council could save money whilst delivering its services better. My 'hobby horse' in this respect is local empowerment by the creation of statutory, elected, community councils (urban parish councils). When I think of the money the City Council (and the Government) have wasted by using quangos (eg. One Nottingham, EMDA), the word 'chimera' comes to mind. I think it means something one hopes for and seems reasonable in itself, but will never actually happen.

I would normally regard myself as an optimist and tell myself that, as a Socialist, I cannot be anything else. Even though in my darker moments I think my vision of a Nottingham with lots of community councils in charge of running and developing local services is my chimera, I still believe that with money and energy it could be achieved (I can, at long last, find the time). However, some things only happen after years of effort and commitment by a dedicated few and, when they do, remind you that anything is actually possible.

On 27 January 2010, John Healey, the Housing & Planning Minister announced 'changes to the planning rules, giving local authorities the powers to manage the development of HMOs in their area, in turn helping stem the growth of large pockets of shared homes - which can change the balance and nature of communities. The Minister said that he would legislate so the new rules would come into force by April this year. The changes mean that landlords will need to apply for planning permission in order to establish a new HMO with a change of use, for example when the use of a property is altered from a family home to a shared house, with three or more tenants who are not related'.

This change in Government thinking has taken over twenty years to achieve and Lenton has been at the centre of the campaign which finally resulted in what John Healey had to say on 27 January 2010. Not least among our local heroes are Dave Trimble, Dunkirk and Lenton's city councillor, and Maya Fletcher , who helped found Nottingham Action Group to work for controls on HMOs and student housing in Lenton and other student areas in Nottingham, and the other person who makes up my Lenton triumvirate — Alan Simpson, our retiring Labour MP. Together and with the help of a few dedicated City Council staff, as well as similar areas in other towns and cities, notably Leeds at the start, they have worked wonders. I salute them all and hope that Lenton, as a community, will acknowledge what they have achieved on our behalf.

I am sure that Nottingham City Council will want to exercise it new powers as soon as possible. The devil, of course, is in the detail. How will the new rules relate to existing HMOs and planning permissions? Can the rules be used to help undo some of the damage already done? I am sure all will become clear before too long. For now, let's just enjoy the moment and repeat out thanks to Dave, Maya and Alan, as well as all the others who have worked with them to bring this change about.

This is just the latest piece of good news from our Labour Government in the midst of the continuing economic gloom, which they (and the Tories) are responsible for insomuch as both supported a lightly regulated banking and finance sector. However, the Tory response is even more pro-big business than Brown and Darling's approach. At least Labour realise that this is the very time when you need a strong and active public sector, able to provide jobs and new developments (the new Nottingham tram routes, new schools and talk of other capital projects, like railway electrification and new public housing). This approach helps the private sector just as much as it helps the poor and vulnerable.

And what of the Tories? I began with a reference to their solution to economy's problems. Cuts now and more to come. A vote for a Tory in the forthcoming general election will be a vote in favour of punishing those not responsible for the mess the banks and their pals have created. You might wonder why no mention of the Liberals or the Greens. The former have a proven history of being opportunists who play to the fears of their audience and the latter, who have many policies I support, have done nothing in Lenton (nor have the Liberals). I hope the Green Party can get a few MPs elected. Of course, the voting system is unfair and needs changing and it is a blot on Labour's record that they failed to do anything about Roy Jenkins' proposals for voting reform in 1999, so we are stuck with what we have. Whatever, the system, I will be voting for Lilian Greenwood, Nottingham South's Prospective Parliamentary Candidate.

Sir Nicholas Winterton, a veteran Conservative MP, hit out at the new expenses system in the House of Commons today, saying he is "infuriated" that MPs might no longer be able to claim for first-class travel on trains. He went onto complain that standard-class travellers are a "totally different type of people".

Lenton Rec's own rocketeers

2010-01-01T15:55:00.004Z

Yesterday morning Susan and I went with Owen, Lewis and Libby to Lenton Recreation Ground to launch a rocket! Chris, our next door neighbour came and joined us a little later. Despite the cold, we had an hour or more of fun, although towards the end, Libby and Susan wandered off to the swings (a four year old grand-daughter's attention, when it comes to rockets, is limited).

It went all too fast for me to capture in detail, but here are a few of the pics I did manage to take:

The rocket is fuelled up (with water) and ready to go — as soon as Lewis starts pumping…

…and within seconds Lewis has blast off and the rocket shoots high into the sky…

… which I manage to catch on camera as it returns to earth. The blurb with the rocket says that is can go 200 feet or more.

After just one launch, Owen had to do running repairs to a 'dislocated fin' and the decision is made to move the launching pad from the grass to the dunking area. This is because Lewis applied what science (or is physics?) he knows (and as an eleven year old he certainly knows more than me or Owen). Lewis told us that the rocket would achieve more thrust and, thereby, go higher if launched from a hard surface. He was right. I used the camera's 'movie mode' to capture a take off from the hard surface, but have yet to work out how to include a few secons of film in this blog…

… so you have to make do with a still pic I caught of another launch from the dunking area. It was all great fun and although we used just a plastic Coca Cola bottle, Owen told me that water propelled rocket enthusiasts decorate their rockets and some fit nose cones so that the rockets will go even higher. I could well imagine a fun time being had in the park if we got local kids, some students and grown-ups together for an afternoon.

Chris told me that his ambition ever since he was a child was to make and launch a paper hot-air balloon, heated with a night-light, into the sky at night. It is something I have always wanted to do as well. We must check and see what the fire brigade have to say about such ideas. For years, I have wanted to like the park with paper lanterns on All Souls' Night (31 October). Lenton Recreation Ground would be an ideal park for some kind of autumn light fest. Ideas please.

Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan Police officer in charge of the operation that led to the killing of Charles De Menezes by police officers, has been awarded the Queen's Polic Medal in the New Year Honours List.

Christmas in Lenton

2009-12-27T15:24:00.010Z

Susan's fireplace decoration with added snowflakes.

Christmas Eve in Lenton Recreation Ground looking east across the bowling greens to the park pavilion, Devonshire Promenade and Lenton high-rise flats.

Susan and I have been celebrating Christmas in Lenton since 1980. We bought our home on the Promenade overlooking Lenton Recreation Ground in the summer of 1979, but we did not move in until early 1980. The house was in a mess. It had been a lodging house and standing empty for over a year before we saw it by chance. At the time we lived in Mansfield, where Susan was then Curator of the town's museum. I worked for the British Pregnancy Advisory Service as their national Development Officer and spent a great deal of time travelling. Both of us wanted to live in a city and after our efforts to find a home in Sheffield came to nothing, we turned our attentions to Nottingham. West Bridgford at first, then serendipity brought us to the bus layby opposite Lenton Recreation Ground on Derby Road. We saw the 'For Sale' sign, came and had a look, then got the keys the next day and made a cash offer the day after — which was accepted. The house was leasehold, with just sixteen years remaining, and the deeds had been lost. Together, these two facts had deterred others from buying. Fortunately, we knew the law on buying freeholds and got the seller to take out insurance against someone else turning up and claiming the house belonged to them. With the help of our parents, we bought the house for cash, then took out a bank loan to help pay for repairs and got a grant from Nottingham City Council to rebuild the kitchen. All this took about eight months, during which time we did a great deal of work to make the house habitable.

You could say that Susan and I had a love affair with the house as instant and passionate as our own. There are moments in your life (well, ours) when the world changes in an instant. At the time, you make it up as you go along, certain that you are doing the right thing. And so it was when we decided to live in Lenton.

Thirty Christmases later and all but one of them have been spent in Lenton. Even the Christmas we missed should have been spent here, but in 1985, Susan's Dad, Reg, was taken ill on Christmas Eve and taken into hospital. He died three days later — twenty-four years ago today. He enjoyed his Christmases in our home and on more than one occasion over the last few days, Susan and I have reminisced about his evening forage in the fridge for cheese and pickles, perhaps a slice of gammon. He was a man who loved his supper.

Over the years, Christmas has been shared with family and friends. Some coming to stay, others coming for the day. There has even been one or two when we have been alone for some of the day. When the Promenade had more permanent residents, we would get together at some time during the day to share a drink and to chat. There would be a fire in the hearth, lots of laughter, ever rising voices and the rooms we were in would become fuggy in a nice, cosy, kind of way. At first, everyone would be polite and gather in the main room, listening politely to one another's conversations and drinking sherry, gin or, more often, mulled wine. Then some would migrate to the kitchen, then to another room. To wander from room to room at Christmas in the company of friends and neighbours, who you had developed bonds with simply because they lived on the Promenade, was a festive treat and, to this day, provides one with a lovely warm comfort blanket of sorts.

This year Patsy left us, so now there is just us and Chris and Richard, our next door neighbours, who also arrived on the Promenade in 1980 and moved in next door in 1996. Over the years we have seen families and older residents come and go. Some have since died, but we still think of them. Others we exchange Christmas cards with and read hand-written messages or missives. Some are now professors, one is a bishop and one an acclaimed novelist with a TV series to his name. Work and family have taken others away. Only a few have left because of Lenton's changing nature — a tide of change which not even the Promenade, with its conservation order, could resist. Now, our neighbours are students and some years are better than others, but one never knows more than a handful.

For a good few years now, Christmas on the Prom has been like Christmas in many other parts of Lenton. It has been very quiet. This year, the snow, albeit no more than an inch or two at best, has added to the sense of Lenton having been abandoned by its in habitants, fearful of spending Christmas in such a place.

I wonder how many other Christmases Susan and I will spend on the Promenade or in Lenton? We love the house and we love the park and our proximity to everything we need, but, but, we are getting older and large old Victorian houses are not cheap to maintain or to keep warm in winter. Enough of such thoughts. They are for another day, perhaps another year even, but the future seems to arrive more quickly with the passing of every month. Once it was every year. When I was a child it did not exist. Even in 1975, the year I met Susan, when we planned our future together on the third day we knew one another, I never saw us in Christmas 2009. Had I thought about it, what would I have seen? I suspect I would have seen what I see now when I look ahead to the Chrismases which remain — a timelessness, where we seem the same, just as we were in 1975, only the world has changed.

To be in Lenton at Christmas is to be blessed. To share some time and days at this time with family and friends is another blessing. I also think of those who have gone before, who I still love and care about, some family, some friends. They never leave us and as I get older, I find Christmas is as much about rememberance as expectations or hope. And with these thoughts, I leave you. I have letters to write and 'phone calls to make to friends whose lives have changed and I have only just heard the news. To those who read this, I wish you well for 2010 and the years beyond. Peace and contentment be with you.

A leading economist has called for students from well-off families to be charged the "market rate" of up to £30,000 a year to go to university.

David "Danny" Blanchflower, a former member of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee, said the "poor have been subsidising the rich" for too many years.

Lenton in a picture – is it possible?

2009-10-01T00:11:00.008+01:00

The four pictures which follow were all taken on Church Street, which runs west to east, from Gregory Street in Old Lenton to Park Street in New Lenton. A distance of about half-a-mile. If you walk from one end to the other you will see at least twenty points of historic interest, which for what first seems to be a quite short, unassuming, street is quite remarkable. I have decided Church Street will be my 2010 Lenton Festival Walk — which is 8–9 months away. For now, I just want to share the first two pictures, which I took this morning, and two I took in 2007. All are packed with history.

Lenton War Memorial has been cleaned and repaired, thanks to members of Holy Trinity Church who collected donations and obtained a grant to carry out the work. It looks very impressive, with the Albert Ball VC Memorial Homes in the background. This is one of my favourite Lenton views and, as far as I am concerned, this spot marks the centre of Lenton. If you didn't know, would you guess that this was in an area now regarded as part of Nottingham's inner city? I don't think so.

I took this picture today. It is a picture I have thought about taking on numerous occasions and even tried to take a couple of times. Previous pictures have lost some of their detail, but today I have captured enough to risk publishing it on the web. Already, it has become one of my favourite Lenton pics. Why? I like the building lines, the mix of the old and the new, both in terms of what you see and where you are.

In the foreground and to the right I have caught a corner of the Albert Ball VC Memorial Homes and a blue front door, which date from 1923. To the right and past a tree, the modern brick bungalow built in the 1990s, then comes the white stucco 19th century building that was once a public house and to its side, on the left-hand edge of the picture, you can catch a glimpse of the Albert Square flats, which were built as student accommodation and include part of an old Lenton school which opened in 1896 (see picture below). Behind the white house you can see the tower of Lenton's Holy Trinity parish church, built in 1841–2, and on either side of the tower, sitting on the roof, are the tops of two of Lenton's five high-rise blocks of flats. In other words, here in one picture, you begin in Old Lenton and end in New Lenton. Then there are the trees. I wish there were more. Far too many of our side streets are devoid of trees and greenery. What would make this picture perfect for me would be a tall chimney, as a reminder of Lenton's place in Nottingham's industrial and manufacturing history. Finally, there is what you cannot see, but you may know is there — the railway line. Once the line of this road, now known as Old Church Street, would have taken you to a level crossing that disappeared a long time ago. Just one picture so packed with history that you could write a book about it.

The date in the stonework, '1896', tells you all you need to know for now. This picture is taken on Church Street, to the left is the railway bridge and behind is the modern extension know as 'Albert Square'.

My last picture is a view of Lenton high-rise flats from Lenton Boulevard. The road you can see is the eastern end of Church Street, which divides into three sections: Gregory Street–Railway bridge; Railway bridge–Lenton Boulevard and Lenton Boulevard–park Street. The block of flats you can see may just be the block you can see the top of in my second picture. The building on the left-hand corner is a wine bar called the Bag o' Nails, which was a bank when we came to Lenton in 1979. All around me is local history — as it is in all four of today's pics. Going to P&C, coming out and taking two pics, then wandering home with my arms full of flattened cardboard boxes and stopping in Lenton Rec to take some pics of Dave, our grounds–person, for another posting, resulted in my deciding what my Festival Walk next year will be about — Church Street.

So to answer my own question in the title of today's blog: Can you capture Lenton in a picture? When I started I thought the answer was 'no'. Now I'm not so sure. I may have an answer for you by the time I do the Lenton Festival Walk next year!

The IMF says there is a need for increased private provision for health in the UK, and is concerned that the structural deficit in the public finances will be exacerbated by the rising long-term care costs of an ageing population. They also say the Government should think about raising the retirement age.

Lenton change and continuation

2009-09-18T16:09:00.006+01:00

Last saturday afternoon I saw these four students making their way home to Lenton Sands after being at a University Open Day. The tops look lime green in the pic, but I am sure they were canary yellow. However, as Susan has told me forever, I am no judge of colour. This year the students seem slow in coming back. Last weekend it was still quiet, with very few cars on the Prom, but over the last few days they have started to trickle back and, no doubt, this weekend will see a last minute rush.

Then on Wednesday when I walked through Lenton Recreation Ground on my way to a community meeting in Dunkirk, I passed these students sticking paper plates on wooden sticks in a long line. They told me it was for some course work they were doing and that they were organising a 'Fruit and Veg Olympics'. How far can you throw a carrot kind of thing. It all looked great fun, which I would liked to have seen more of, but I had a meeting to get to. I would have liked to have had a 'navvy's bum' and the young man did offer to lower his pants, but I was already late, so there was no time to pose a pic. Next time maybe.

At the meeting I met Sam Wilkinson, the Nottingham University's new Accommodation and Community Officer. It's not the easiest job in the world and over the years it's been interesting to watch them at work and seeing how they cope with older, permanent, residents who have little time for students, so they can never do anything good. The truth is students are a fact of life and always will be. There is a problem which needs addressing, but that is very different from any criticism we may all have from time to time of their behaviour. Most of time we get on OK. When there are problems we try to talk about them, together if we can. Sometimes we have call in help, but that is a last resort. Sam, I have your number and I am waiting now for your reply to my email…

On Tuesday, Susan and I went to the Park pavilion and had tea and cake with Step and her colleagues from the (Dunkirk and Lenton Partnership) Forum Office. Steph is leaving us to go and work on a Sustran project for Nottingham University and the QMC, so she isn't going far. She has built up a good team around her and will be missed, but she leaves the Forum Office in capable hands. In the absence of a co-ordinator, I am sure they will work well as a team. In the pic below, from left to right, are: Alex, Steph, Philippa, Fiona and Ruth — lenton's very own 'A Team'!

In the midst of change, there is continuity in the likes of Betty, who lives on Dunlop Avenue. Tenaciously staying put, managing to live, like a few of us do, in the company of students. Susan and I first met Betty doing 'lanes' in Lenton Swimming Pool back in the 1980s and our paths have continued to cross ever since. Occasionally we take tea and cake together and spend a couple of hours talking about nothing in particular, although we always seem to end up encouraging Betty to talk about how she came to Lenton as a teenager after the Second World War, when her father opened a butcher's shop on Park Road. Like us, she actually welcomes the return of the students. It means the builders leave. Unipol and standards for shared housings are good, but it does mean summers full of builders' noise and dust, blocked pavements and old transistor radio blurting out a distorted Radio 2. Students also mean safer streets for us oldies and the No.34 bus, which does the 'City Loop' every ten minutes during the day Monday to Friday.

Betty is a 79 year old with a zest for living and a half glass full person, who goes down to the Radford and Lenton Library on Lenton Boulevard to use a computer a couple of times a month, where she looks at things and visits local web sites, which is how I found out she reads this blog, so 'hello' Betty. See you soon.

Five pictures, all taken in the last week. Together, they capture the Lenton I know and love, the youth, the dedication and the inspiration. All these folk inspire me. I wish all of them well.

The 30,000 victims of a toxic waste disaster in Ivory Coast are being offered £1,000 each in compensation, a representative of the survivors said today. The payout offer would amount to about £30m in total, which represents slightly more than 10% of Trafigura's declared annual profits. It represents less than the £100m cheque Trafigura wrote in 2007 to the country's government to pay for a clean-up and to make some payments to the families of 16 people who had died. Capitalism kills and we spend billions rescuing banks. Where is the justice?

A Lenton walk along the Trent

2009-09-06T00:17:00.027+01:00

I'm well behind with posting my blogs. It's the same old problem. I'm still trying to do too much. I did this walk on 22 August 2009. Two weeks ago. It was a lovely, bright, sunny Saturday afternoon, so I decided to walk to Beeston Lock along the canal from Lenton to where the canal joins the River Trent, then to walk beside the Trent back to Clifton Bridge and a bus home. These are some of the pictures I took along the way.

I've posted pics of the canal walk from Lenton to Beeston Lock before. Along the way beside some of the bridges there are information panels. This one explains that here, as you approach Beeston Lock and the Trent from Lenton and Dunkirk, the towpath changes sides and this bridge was needed so that in the days before steam or, more recently, diesel engines, the barges were pulled by horses and needed bridges like this so that they can cross the canal. In fact, today, the towpath is actually along the other side.
To find an ice cream lady close to Beeston Lock in a dinky van was a real treat and very welcome at was the mid-point of my walk.

At the lock, I crossed over again and as I did so, a narrow boat passed beneath the footbridge and into the lock, so that it could enter the River Trent.
This is the reason for the Nottingham and Beeston Canal. It enables boats to bypass a section of the Trent with what these days is a weir. As you can see, the river is flowing very fast at this point. I wonder if they have ever thought of using the water here to generate electricity? Past this point and I am heading east, back towards Clifton Bridge and along Lenton's southern border.

Along the way, at regular intervals, are way markers saying you are following the 'Trent Valley Way', which I have yet to find out more about.

As I left Beeston Rylands and the canal behind, one of my last glimpses was of footballers playing an organised match with a referee and linesmen. Even organised park football seems to be starting earlier and earlier. I assume this is to avoid too many lost matches at the end of the football season because of bad weather at the beginning of each new year.

Looking away from the football, I caught a glimpse of Clifton Hall across the Trent. The last time I saw this view was a good few yearts ago and there were far fewer trees in front of the red sandstone cliff.

A few steps further on and the only sounds I could hear were the wind and the birds. Who would believe that in inner-city Lenton, on its southern boundary with the River Trent, you could find fields of barley like this? It is something to be experienced.
A little further on and I saw this dog having a swim. At this point the Trent is only accessible down the sides of a steep bank.

A little further on I met Martin and we stopped and had a chat about what was going off in Lenton and a particular concern of his to do with alleged high asbestos levels in parts of Dunkirk, but this is a story for another day. I've met Martin before in Lenton Recreation Ground.

By this point the Trent was seemingly as still as a millpond, as this picture show.
A little further on and a flotilla of swans passed by. They seemed to have somewhere they wanted to be. The dog was long gone and I never saw a single boat anywhere on my walk along the Trent, so they had the river to themselves.

Amazingly, on the wind at five o'clock I just caught the sound of The Council House clock and across the fields, towards Lenton Industrial Estate and Lenton, I could see the top of The Council House. It would be a shame if future development took away this view. I hope it is never lost.

As I looked the other way, towards the river again, I could see Clifton Bridge in the distance and see the traffic streaming across, but I could not hear it.

From the pictures I have posted you might think that I always had the Trent in view. In fact, for much of the time this is what I saw — a wooded footpath. The river is to my right, down a six foot bank and hidden behind small trees and lots of large bushes. In truth, it was not what I was expecting.

This must be the most isolated house in Lenton. I knew it was somewhere about because I have seen it on the Dunkirk and Lenton ward electoral roll.

After the house I came upon a cricket match and I knew that I was returning to those edges of the Trent in Lenton which have been invaded by single track roads and other buildings.

As I walked under Clifton Bridge, I was struck by this view of its concrete spans and, most surprising of all, how quiet it was.

I then came upon some anglers, enjoying some tins of beer and fishing, but not trying too hard. In fact, we had all met before, when I went on my walk to Wilford and along the other side of the Trent. On that occasion they were fishing in the Iremonger Pond beside Wilford Bridge.

I then saw the opening I was looking for and walked into the large park and ride car park beside Clifton Bridge, where two buses were waiting. It was 5.45pm and I had been walkingsince 2.15pm by this point, so I was glad to be stopping.

And, as you can see, I had the bus to myself all the way into the City Centre, where I transferred without a wait to a No.35 and home. It took no more than twenty minutes. I opened the front door and found Susan fast asleep on the sofa, having watched three episodes of 'StarTrek Voyager'. Exhausting stuff is television! As for me, I saw a side of Lenton few see or even know about. Telling my new friend Richard a few days later about my walk, he told me it was one of his favourite walks. So, Richard, I hope you enjoy these pics and. don't forget, we have our River Leen walk to do before the nights draw in.

Workers employed to build parts of London's new transport links which will be vital during the Olympics have been conned out of thousands of pounds by a gangmaster. The contract culture penalises the poor and disadvantaged, who receive little protection from the government.

Walking but not seeing

2009-08-17T15:48:00.007+01:00

This blog is about the everyday world around us which we often fail to notice. There can be many reasons for this. We are in too much of a rush to take notice of what we regard as familiar and commonplace. We are so wrapped up in self that little else matters. More likely than not we are so preoccupied by the next thing we have (or want) to do, that nothing between activities registers. I have written before about the demise of Bulwell Stone walls in Lenton, especially those on Derby Road (see my Christmas Eve 2008 walk).

On this occasion my interest was sparked by Marion Spencer, who lives on Harlaxton Drive, which is the last road in Lenton as you go towards the city centre and forms the border with The Park, an up-market residential area (but not as posh as it was once) which today we would call a 'gated community' because all its roads are private and, at times, public access is restricted. Until the mid-1800s it was Nottingham Castle's deer park. I digress. Back to Marion, who spoke to me about the Bulwell Stone walls on Harlaxton, which she thought were under threat from occupiers demolishing them so that they could park their cars off road. She asked me if I would take some pictures and do a survey with her, with a view to seeing if we could persuade Nottingham City Council to protect the remaining walls in some way, perhaps by creating a new conservation area.

This blog is a brief summary of what we found.

The south corner of Derby Road and Harlaxton Drive in Lenton has this rather fine wall with two pillars which I have never noticed before, despite walking past them hundreds of times over the past thirty years. Perhaps the fact that it is surrounded by a litter bin and telephone junction box has stopped me noticing it before. Now that I've seen it, I think its a street feature worth protecting.

Harlaxton Drive looking south from the Derby Road end on a mid-afternoon in August. There are no cars because there are few students about. Most have gone home for the summer vacation. Devoid of cars it is much easier to appreciate just how impressive Harlaxton Drive really is. On either side of the road, you can see original Bulwell Stone walling. The good news is that, as this and other pictures show, most of the Bulwell Stone walls are still in place. Many have lost their gates, but very few have been demolished to make way for off road parking. Gardens have been concreted over in a good few places, but this, I suspect is as much about reducing maintenance work for private landlords and lazy occupiers.

Since most of Harlaxton runs downhill towards Park Road, which in turn runs downhill to Castle Boulevard, a good half-mile away, all this concrete is contributing to low level flooding which now happens on the western side of the roundabout opposite the Grove Hotel. More concrete will only make the situation worse. There are now planning laws which say that to lay more than five square metres of hard-standing requires planning persmission. I have a nasty suspicion that this legislation is not being enforced because such things are not brought to the attention of local council planning departments.

The good news is that the walls remain and do not in any way contribute to the kind of drainage problems I have referred to. Just look at this picture of the north side of Harlaxton Drive towards the Derby Road end and this long and impressive Bulwell Stone wall. On the other side are the gardens of large houses in The Park Estate.

At the bottom of one of The Park Estate gardens is this delightful looking wooden structure. It's too good to be called 'a shed'. I can image people once relaxing here, shaded from the summer heat or a gentle shower, reading. This may be a rather posh boarded up window, but it could also be an old notice board once used to 'announce' long forgotten activities, perhaps in a local church or social club.

The gates may have gone, but given the quality of the paving the lack of gates it does not, at first glance, seem like a problem. Unfortunately it is a problem for all the reasons I have already mentioned, but we cannot turn the clock back, so we have to devote our energy to ensuring this kind of thing is stopped — not because we take any pleasure in suggesting that the rights of property owners should be controlled, but because the cumulative impact of individual actions can, quite unintentionally damage the urban landscape and environment that we all inhabit. One person's hard standing is another person's flooded home. There is a cost to us all when this happens. Higher water and drainage charges, higher home insurance costs for the victims. I agree with those who say 'the polluter should pay', but this is easier said than done. Which brings me back to the view that the only practical solution is stop the pollution before it happens.

What is that saying about a whole world in a grain of sand? The top of this Bulwell Stone wall has been softened by the moss and small plants which now grow on it. Let's hope no one decides to remove it, for it feels like velvet to touch.

However, you cannot say the same about all the street furniture and parking signs which litter Harlaxton Drive. A small fortune must have been spent putting up these signs. We didn't count them, but having noticed them, I intend to do a survey of all the streets in New Lenton and count the number of City Council signs. Back in the early-1970s when I was a very young city councillor in Birmingham, a planner I came to know and respect, described all the 'Keep off the grass signs' on council housing estates as 'municipal fascism'. It is a phrase I would use to describe Nottingham City Council's approach to corporate signage, be it on our streets or in our parks.

On my walk with Marian I saw things I had not noticed before. Some filled me with delight and hope, some made me cross and sad. So, given all this, what are we to do? Mariao's answer is that 'we keep on trying'. We do not accept defeat. And I agree with her.

At the moment I am more alert than I have been for a long time to the everyday Lenton that I see. Over the weekend I hope to spend a few minutes sharing a wonderful little gem I discovered on a house wall on Lenton Boulevard. Until then I will leave in my usual way with a story from the national media…

Sir Patrick Cormack, who stood to be Commons Speaker earlier this year, said in a submission to the committee on standards in public life that MPs should receive the increase, from £64,766 to more than £130,000, in return for scrapping their controversial second-homes allowance.

Proud to be there

2009-07-25T18:35:00.011+01:00

I have spent much of today in the company of my next door neighbour, Chris, as he played being Mrs T for the first time in twenty years. I was there as 'a heavy' to make sure no one messed with Mrs T (as if they would!). It was a fun day, with about 600–700 on the march and thousands at the festival which followed in Nottingham's Arboretum park, just north of the city centre.

Mrs T leaves her overnight residence in Lenton.

Mrs T went by bus from Lenton to The Forest, where the parade started.

Mrs T is closely guarded by two heavies — Jenni and Jackie, who have the distinction being the first two people to take part in a civil partnership ceremony in Nottingham in 2005 (only such a short time ago, yet now we take it as part of life without ever thinking that once it would not have been possible).

Mrs T with yours truly.

I loved the stilts man. What I saw him do with a lamp post has to be triple XXX rated. Pole dancin' girls, huh…

The parade leave The Forest and turns onto Mansfield Road and there to greet them is a pink bus, which then followed the parade into the city centre.

At The Arboretum there were lots of stalls, including our very own Area 8 Committee, which covers The Meadows, part of the city centre, Dunkirk and Lenton, and is a Nottingham City Council committee made up of local councillors and community representatives. From left, Lezley, Julie from West Area and Dorothy. It was good to see them there.

When we got to The Arboretum I left Mrs T, who was in the company of many adoring friends by now, and went to help out for a couple of hours on the Crocus Café stall, who were short of volunteers. Not that they really need much help as Tim, a co-chair of the Crocus Committee, was a great pull when it came to attracting young women to the stall.

All in all it was a lovely day. I was glad Chris asked me.

A city council is considering using 19th century catacombs to store the bodies of swine flu victims if the outbreak worsens, it was confirmed today.

Exeter city council has identified the empty underground burial chambers, currently used as a tourist attraction, as a potential mortuary.

Medicinal parks

2009-07-23T10:32:00.005+01:00

A squirrel gathering nest material.

The clock tower, given by a late-19th century town mayor.

A flotilla of Canada Geese on one of the park's two lakes.

This is just one quarter of what is a wonderful park vista.

I could not resist this sign by the entrance to the park.

Last week Susan and I spent the day with friends who live in Longton, Staffordshire. I should really say Stoke-on-Trent, for the six towns which make up the city have been together since 1910 (the other four are Burslem, Fenton, Hanley and Tunstall). Normally I would, but our friends took us to Longton Park, which is a grand 19th century municipal park in every sense of the word, where we spent an enjoyable hour before the rain came and we left in search of a tea shop.

All the pictures in today's blog were taken in Longton Park. In his book, English Journey, published in 1934, J B Priestley devotes an entire chapter to The Potteries, despite saying at one point that 'This is no region to idle in… for nothing that you see or hear or smell in these six towns will raise your spirits'. However, he goes on to say that, to him, 'the Potteries seem unique (and) look like no other industrial region' and ends by wishing its 'ovens never grow cold'. I like Longton and what I know of the rest of the city, but then I like work-a-day landscapes and the communities they continue to support, albeit a shadow of what they once were.

In the midst of all the smoke that once poured from nearby kilns and factories, Longton Park truly was the a medicinal place, where children could run, parents promenade and older folk recline on generous park benches and remember when they, once, did those things too. And so it was for Lenton Recreation Ground, once surrounded by factories and smoking chimneys. A place where workers from Raleighs and other nearby factories migh dash for a quick lunch-time kick around, or just to lay on the grass and watch the girls go by. Whether it was quite like this I do not know, but it is how I image it. Of one thing I am sure, like all parks it was health giving, medicine by whatever name you choose to call it. They still are.

There in Longton, my thoughts were in Lenton and with parks. My friend Allan Brigham knows only too well about the life enhancing qualities of parks, as a recent posting to my website about a park in Cambridge illustrates far better this ramble of mine.

'The localist political dividing line is no longer between public and private or between taxing and spending. It is between faceless bureaucrates, public or private, and the small institutions who have kept their spirit of face-to-face relationships. Which still feel accountable for their mistakes. Which are small enough to make things happen locally. Which can confront the fake efficiency being peddled by the establishment'. From Localism: Unravellling the Supplicant State, New Economics Foundation, 2009.

Changing habits

2009-07-01T11:02:00.004+01:00

Dennis, Barry, Maurice and Bill begin the outdoor bowling season for the West End Bowls and Social Club with the first of what will be many 'roll ups' this summer.

Part of a wonderful, albeit small, meadow of wild flowers and long grass in Victoria Recreation Ground, The Meadows, which I visited when I went on the Nottingham 'Great Inclosure Walk' on Sunday just gone. The walk is an annual event and very long, taking you from Wilford Bridge on the River Trent across the city centre via historic open spaces and green ways to The Forest. It began at 2pm and ended at 6pm.

It is well over a month since I last blogged, but have updated my Parkviews website more frequently, as there has been plenty to write about. The trouble is that new habits and other things I need to do all take time away from other things which I still enjoy doing.

In the mornings I do local history work for our website and Local History Magazine. Sometimes I go for a massage instead and, about once a month, I have to go to a meeting in my role as a trustee of a historic Nottingham alms houses charity, which dates back to 1709. In the afternoon, there are routine things to do like shopping, cooking and my share of cleaning. Since April, I have been playing bowls 2–3 afternoons a week, for a couple of hours, and I am thoroughly enjoying it. I like the company and the fact that the 'West Enders' are not that competitive. They don't play in a league — just 'roll ups', some friendlies and a few in-club competitions. As for the latter, I have played in two 'trophy' games and lost happily, given that as the 'new boy' and baby of the bunch I am learning all the time. Dennis, who is in the top picture, is the 'Club Captain' and very encouraging. I lost to him in my first ever game with four woods on Monday, having lost to Bill a couple of weeks ago in the two wood trophy competition. I have also played in one club friendly against the Vernon Park Ladies (we lost that one as well).

Lenton Recreation Ground is a wonderful place to play bowls. The setting is idyllic. You look across the green to the parish church and you could be in deepest England, yet, here we are, in inner-city Nottingham. Out there in the afternoon playing bowls, life could not be better. I love it and I can't wait for Susan to join me and the others, as I hope she will next year.

As you perhaps realised, having new pleasures (and habits) means less time for other things I still want to do. I have already decided that when the bowling season ends at the beginning of October, I will use the afternoons for my local history research projects into bus passes and the history of Lenton Community Centre and the old wash-house and laundry building. I have also taken on a footpaths project and have my ambition of a Lenton Parish Council to realise during the coming year, plus what crops up along the way.

As I have said before, I can feel myself slowing down, but my mind has yet to catch up with my body. At the moment, the only time it seems to is in the evening when I now regularly nod off in front of the television or with a book in my hands. One moment I'm there, then I feel myself drifting, then I've gone, the next thing I know Susan prodding me with her big toe and for a minute or two I'm back, then I go again… I think it's the way I would like to go when the time comes.

The government is to nationalise Britain's largest rail franchise after National Express confirmed that it can no longer afford the £1.4bn east coast contract. Once again this sham 'Labour' government rides to the rescue of big business at the taxpayers' expense, whilst letting them keep all the profits.

Are you a puppet on a string?

2009-05-24T16:40:00.008+01:00

I took this picture in Nottingham's Old Market Square a couple of weeks ago. At a first glance it looks like a fun image. On reflection I came to the conclusion that the puppet is symbolic of something more sinister. The puppet is us in so many ways. 'Don't be daft' I hear you say, but just how in charge of things do you feel? And if you're not in charge, why is that? The answer is that somewhere, someone else, often close by, is pulling the strings.

This is especially true when it comes to politics — which is what makes the present crisis in our national politics so interesting. For a few brief days, weeks at most, the political class has lost it. Thursday week's (4 June) Euro elections will be an important test for the present political system. Just how many of us will switch from supporting one of the three mainstream parties in England to one of the minor parties? I say 'us' because I include myself in this.

The Euro election is being fought by political parties on national issues, so it will be a test of our attitudes towards national matters – not Europe. For only the second time since I first voted Labour in an election in 1968 (I had to wait until I was nearly 24 before I got my first chance to vote), I will be voting for another party. I will be voting for the Green Party, along with a good few other people I know who normally vote Labour, including other Labour Party members. Why? The answer is a whole number of things. Most important is my desire to see the political system changed, so that ordinary people have more control over the political system: four year fixed term parliaments, proportional representation, more powers to local government and local people, the replacement of the House of Lords by a 100% elected second chamber, MPs salaries related to the average wage in some way and a fair expenses system covering accommodation and office costs.

There are rumblings among senior figures on the Labour side that they, too, want 'constitutional' change in support of the kind of system some of us have been advocating for years. However, Labour got elected in 1997 promising a constitutional review and Blair even appointed Roy Jenkins to come up with recommendations — which he did — only to ignore them. Labour politicians have had the last twelve years to tackle this issue and have gone back on promises and ignored votes in the House of Commons in favour of 100% elected House of Lords. To be honest, I do not trust Labour to deliver when it comes to changing the voting system, empowering local government again and creating a wholly elected second chamber (assuming that we would still need one if the House of Commons is radically reformed).

I have just heard Alan Johnson on the radio arguing for a referendum on election reform on the same day as the next general election, suggesting Roy Jenkin's proposals as a starting point. I like the idea of a referendum, but will believe it when I see it. One thing I am sure about is that I do not want a voting system which enables political parties to decide who gets elected. The list system used in the Euro elections is deeply flawed, as it enables parties to rank their list to ensure their 'top' candidate is elected, regardless of what voters may want.

Confirmation that I was making the right decision came when I got Labour's Euro election address a couple of days ago. The leaflet attacks the Lib Dems not once, but twice, because they want 'to end jail sentences for drug possession, want to legalise the sale of cannabis, and would never lock up young people who are convicted of breaching as ASBO', then boasts about 'Labour's measures for tougher penalties and punishments for offenders'. This is not the Labour Party I joined or have supported for the past 49 years. I favour the legalisation of drugs in the absence of legislation to outlaw alcohol and tobacco. Nor do I support the imprisonment of drug 'mules' or couriers who do it because they are stupid or have been threatened in some way. In a recent high profile case, the cricketer Chris Lewis was sentenced to 13 years for trying to smuggle cocaine into the country. What a waste of a life and of public money. Behaving stupidly does not make you a criminal — a view shared now, I suspect, by a great many MPs.

Having confessed all, I hope that this OAP will be humoured and tolerated, rather that admonished, and that those who would be critical of my action will take time to reflect on the situation we all find ourselves in. As puppets get older, if they are not properly looked after, their strings can become frayed and will sometimes break and the puppeteer will lose partial control, if not complete control. I have only been 65 for a week, but I am already finding it a liberating experience.

The government must embark on a major programme of constitutionaal reform to address public disillusionment with politics in the wake of the MP's expenses crisis, according to Ed Miliband, one of Gordon Brown's most influential cabinet allies.

On becoming promiscuous in my old age

2009-05-19T11:53:00.006+01:00

I took this picture a couple of Saturdays ago. It seems to capture life as part of me wants it to be, especially now that I am, officially, an 'OAP'. Me, swanning about, doing my thing, sometimes oblivious to the real world of hustle and bustle which surrounds me in Nottingham. And so it will be… sometimes.

It has been a month since my last blog, since when Susan has posted a new look Local History Online website, I have been poorly and, of course, time has flown by. The question is with so many things on my mind, where do I begin?

First, I have found a certain clarity of vision comes with being 65 (and not because I have new glasses). I know what I want to do after I have all the routine chores out of the way. I want some order and ongoing projects to keep me occupied and I want time to be like the ducks.

I am planning to do some local history research, with a view to sharing what I discover with others, and I have two projects:

A history of what is now The Lenton Centre.
A history of bus and travel passes.
There may be a third, which will span the Atlantic. If my American friend decides to do it, I have promised I will help.

My community activity will be limited:

I am about to become a trustee of a 300 year old Nottingham housing charity.
I have created the Lenton Footpath & Amenities Register with the aim of recording and promoting all the footpaths in and around Lenton, of which over twenty are unregistered, so it may take some years!
I will also find time to develop my Lenton 'healthy heritage' walks and maps.
Then, there is my long-held ambition for Lenton to have its own urban parish council, which will probably be called a 'community council'. This is something for next year.

For relaxation I will read and walk more, play bowls, continue to bake bread, cook and use my bus pass for visits and tea in new places. I also hope to spend more time with Susan on our 'sofa den' and continuing to do all the things we have done together for ever, but even more.

So there you have it. The life of an official OAP, who has told his family and friends that the next and only birthday he wants to celebrate is being 80! I know the odds are against me, but I hope fate is kind to me. In the meantime, there are things to do, people to see and a world to be changed. This month has also seen 49 years as a Labour Party member and a Party activist of some kind for most of that time. At the moment, I beginning to wonder if 50 will be a year too far, but I am saving this debate with myself for my next blog.

If you've got this far and wondered where the 'promiscuous' bit is, then look no further. Many years ago I watched a television programme about supermarket shopping and discovered that I am a 'promiscuous shopper' because I am not loyal to any particular chain. I shop at Sainsbury's because it is convenient and there is no Co-op close by, but thanks to the Internet I am going to Waitrose more. I use local, independent, shops when I can and do my best to be an 'eco' shopper, but I am OAP on a limited income, so needs must and all that.

I am seriously thinking of becoming politically promiscuous, spreading my favours about and going where I can to get what I want. I would be less than honest if I didn't say that I have voted Communist more than once and would like to see a popular Marxist party emerge from the current political crisis. I am not sure the Labour Party is capable of representing the working classes. But enough, I am already straying into my next blog in a few days time.

Well that's it for now. Even parkviews.org has been updated today, so the show is back on the road. As for me, I'm now off to join those ducks for the rest of day and to enjoy some smoked salmon, anchovies, sardines and roll mop herring for my lunch.

Michael Martin will this afternoon announce his plan to resign as Commons Speaker, according to The Guardian.

A discovery walk

2009-04-20T07:38:00.012+01:00

An 'aah' pic to start with. Ducklings with their mum on the Nottingham Canal between Gregory Street and Dunkirk. This posting is yet another to come out of one my Beeston 'shopping' walks, when I usually take different routes, depending on the weather and how long I have allowed myself to do the shopping and get back home. Today, it was down Lenton Boulevard, then along the Old Leenside path to Gregory Street, across the road, over the canal bridge and onto the towpath.

Not far along the towpath, the River Leen goes under the canal and emerges on the south side. It's easy to miss the footpath which runs beside the Leen from the canal to Willow Road. I diverted down the footpath and when I got to Willow Road, which is in the middle of an industrial estate, I stood on the bridge, looked back towards the canal and took this pic. Only the pylon hints at the factories and warehouses on either side of the Leen.

Carrying on along the canal, I walked under the Nottingham Ring Road, pass the Spider Park on the other side and came to Chain Lane Bridge, which you cross to get into present-day Dunkirk, but first, I climbed up the footpath to Redfield Way, which provides access to parking at the rear of a bowling alley, multiplex cinema and some 'nightclubs', all housed in what can only be described as 'tin sheds with gob-ons'. I then turn around and took this pic. I don't know how many people use this footpath, but it provides a quieter, quicker route from the bus stops on Beeston Road than walking beside the noisey ring road. The route of the path and the Chain Lane bridge need to be better lit. Otherwise, it's another case of a footpath which looks as if it could be in the middle of the countryside.

After crossing over the bridge, I turned left onto Gibbons Street and then right onto Cavendish Street, which leads to the railway and Montpelier Road on the other side. On the right is this dirt track, which still appears on maps as 'Newton Street', even though it is now gated at each end. Even I included in my first Lenton community map, when I should have known better.

Under the railway and you find yourself in Montpelier Road, which leads you to the Dunkirk Flyover and the Dunkirk and Old Lenton Community Centre, but today's walk is only taking me as far as the footpath beside Tottlebrook, which begins opposite the Dunkirk Hotel pub and Claude Street. On the way I go past this lovely terrace of houses called 'Birley Villas' and date from 1901. I must have walked past them a good few times over the years, but it is only this time I notice that they still have all their original sash windows and, under the hardboard cladding which covers most doors, the originals may still be in situ. I make a note to point tell the City Council's planning staff responsible for conservation areas about them. Any council with a half-decent approach to conservation would have noticed them long ago and put an Article 4 Direction on them, requiring that all the original features are retained and protected. They really do look lovely and were the highpoint of my walk.

I only know that the name of the terrace is 'Birley Villas' because of this rather nice, even though simple, stone set in the front elevation of the middle house. Just beyond, there was another nice terrace, called 'Lilac Villas' which as the picture below shows, dates back to 1884. Unfortunately, most of these houses now have uPVC windows. Then there was another terrace called 'Millicent Villas 1884',making the houses 125 years old. Where and when little pockets of historic housing exists they should be celebrated and protected in the same way as stately homes. At the time these houses were built, they would have been for middle-class occupants. The next time you go in the direction of Dunkirk, try and find five minutes, so that you can have a look for yourself. We are all guilty of failing to notice such gems until it is too late to save them.

From Montpelier Road, I took the footpath beside Tottlebrook to Highfield Science Park (which now has signs calling it 'Nottingham Science park'), where some new units have been built in the past year. From University Boulevard and the south entrance to Highfields Park, you can see this odd looking building. The large sign in front explains that it houses a 'biomass', energy efficient, boiler that burns wood pellets and provides heating for all the new office buildings.

Beyond the boiler house to the south, there is a long stretch of wooden decking, surrounded by what look liked reed beds. One of the seats has a panel explaining that this is a eco-friendly 'sustainable urban drainage system'.

I actually first visited the site a few months ago, but was drawn back because of something said by David West during his presentation about the planned MediPark last month, when he said that the decking and reed beds were linked to Dunkirk Pond. It made me wonder if there was a new entrance to the Dunkirk Pond Nature Reserve, which I had missed on last visit a couple of months ago.

Well, there isn't actually a link. This what you see from the end of the decking, which begins on University Boulevard. Between you and the bank in the picture is a ditch and, yes, as you can see, a footpath is already being made, as people step off the decking and jump across what water there is in the ditch to get into the nature reserve. It probably won't take much rain to fill the ditch, when it will become too wide for most people to jump. Even if you did manage it, the bank would be so wet and slippery, the chance are that you would end up getting your feet and legs very wet (and muddy).

Once you visit the site, you realise that walking from the bus-stops on the Boulevard via the decking to Dinkirk Pond is an easier, and much more pleasant route, than walking through the old Science Park to the existing entrance. In the circumstance, wouldn't it have been logical to have built a footbridge across the ditch and laid a proper gravel path down the slope on the other side (the pond is six-eight foot lower). I wonder who was consulted about this part of the scheme? I must ask David West. It's the kind of niggle which crops up time and again when outsiders come into an area with the best of intentions. As I said in my blog about the Medipark (see 1 April 2009 posting), 'This is what happens when you get fixated on a vision and ignore what seem like marginal issues'. Now, if we had our own Lenton Council, local people would be involved and there is a good chance the results would be better for all concerned.

The media is full of opinions by columnists and pundits about the forthcoming Budget statement by the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, especially the possibility of an even higher rate of income tax for high-earners. We shall see.

Tunnel walk

2009-04-17T17:09:00.021+01:00

Walking back from Nottingham city centre the other day, I began to climb the Derby Road hill from Upper Parliament Street towards Canning Circus, from where it was a straight walk down the hill to Lenton Recreation Ground and home, but when I got to Budgen's mini-market half-way up the hill, I decided to take a left turn into what, to anyone who doesn't know, seems like an entrance to an underground car park.

And that it was it is, but it is also something else. Not that there are any signs to tell you what it is.

Once inside the car park entrance and a few yards down you come to a flight of concrete steps and, yes, it is quite dark, as there is no lighting.

Walk down the steps and you find yourself at the beginning of a long tunnel, which has a light well in the middle of its length. Again, thanks to digital camera technology, it looks lighter than it actually is. The tunnel was built in 1855 to allow horsedrawn carriages access to The Park from Derby Road in Nottingham. The Park was formerly a private hunting park fo owners of Nottingham Castle. In the 19th century, the area began to be developed as a housing estate for wealthy tenants and owners.

Midway down, as you head towards The Park Estate, there are steps in the light well, which take you up to Park Terrace. For many years, there were closed off, but on this walk they appeared to open again.

At the end of the tunnel you come onto this path, which leads you down to the appropriately named 'Tunnel Road'. As you can see, it is all very pleasant and I have never seen anyone else using the tunnel on any of the occasions I have used it over the years.

Once out of tunnel, turn round and look back to get a good idea of its length. You can just see a pinprick of light at the far end and that is how it really seems.
This picture of the Park Tunnel entrance was taken at the end of Tunnel Road and, again, captures just how pleasant and quiet it is.
As you walk away from the tunnel and along Tunnel Road, on the south side you will have tennis courts and bowling greens, and on the northern side, as this picture shows, there is another bowling green. It also shows large Victorian villas in the distance. These are on Newcastle Drive and overlook The Park Estate.

At the first road you come to, Tattershall Drive, you turn right and past the tennis courts and bowling greens on your left. The road curves round to the right and becomes Holles Crescent, which you follow round until it meets Lenton Road. Until this point you will have been walking gently downwards, then on the level.

Once you cross the south side of Lenton Road, you begin a gentle climb towards this gate, which marks the point where The Park Estate ends and New Lenton begins. Beyond this point, the name of the road changes to Park Road. The Park Estate believes that, because the estate is privately managed, only residents have a right-of-way through The Park and the rest of us can be excluded at any time — hence the lockable gate. In fact, since the gate was put in place some ten years ago, there has been a long running dispute about the issue and at the beginning of 2009, Nottingham City Council issued a public order saying there is a public-right-of-way, which is being challenged by The Park Estate.

Through the gate and you begin to walk along Park Road downhill towards Castle Boulevard and, as I did so, I saw this entrance to a small building being used for storage. Part of the hardboard cladding has been torn away, revealing part of the signage on the door. I have yet to look for the builders in question, but I am really pleased with the picture I took and it has gone instantly into my personal 'top ten'. It is an image which speaks to me.

A hundred yards on and we come to end (or beginning) of this unexpected walk between the city centre and Lenton. This is the roundabout where Castle Boulevard meets Abbey Bridge and on the south corner is the Grove Hotel (a public house) and on the north side, where Park Road joins the roundabout. The building, which is now a Tesco 'Express', was once a public house as well.

My walk was really a leisurely stroll and took me thirty minutes. It wasn't the quickest way from the city centre, but I did get to walk through The Park Tunnel — something many people who lived in Lenton a lot longer than me have never done, whilst others have no idea that it exists. It is something everyone should do at least once.

The police officer suspended following the death of Ian Tomlinson during the G20 in London protests has been questioned on suspicion of manslaughter after a second postmortem examination showed the newspaper vendor did not die of a heart attack. Findings released today show that Tomlinson, who was thrown to the ground by a Met officer during the protests, died from an abdominal haemorrhage.