Festival of Leisure this weekend

It's that time of year again!  The annual South Derbyshire of Leisure is upon us again.  Open to the public from 1pm to 5pm on both Saturday and Sunday, please see link below for more information:

http://www.south-derbys.gov.uk/community_and_living/community_events/festival_of_leisure/default.asp

Hoping for another fantastic weekend!

A reluctant farewell - hopefully for the time being

Further to the recent election summary, I feel compelled to write a few words about my recent election experience, namely being voted off but also a few words over the last 4 wonderful years.

I am very disappointed that I am not a local councillor now but that's politics!

The recent election was a strange local election due to running at the same time as the general election which must have had a huge impact.  There was also a 3rd party involved which clearly took votes away from Labour rather than the Tories and we must look into this as a party though why such a significant number of people voted for people who lived far outside the ward thought they could do a better job for Church Gresley is a concern.

Whilst there are several things in hindsight I wish we had done, I feel I can hold my head high and feel I have represented Church Gresley well over the last 4 years for a number of reasons including the following points which, as a team and some individually we have achieved:

• Improved communication through our surgeries, this blog and our newsletters.
• Engaged with community groups and, where possible, help with funding.
• Supported residents through major planning application issues.
• Ensured that the ward is included in SDDC consultation events.
• Had several new bins placed or enlarged throughout the ward.
• Challenged play equipment provision within the ward.
• Ensured that alleyways are kept tidy and passable.
• Had air quality monitoring installed in Church Street.
• Engaged with the Environmental Health Department to combat issues of dog fouling, particularly around the Pennine Way schools and brought the Green Dog walker scheme tp their attention from a scheme in County Durham in order to put some long term sustainable actions in place (rather than spray dog mess with spray and get in the Burton Mail).
• Did the best within our remit to highlight the issue of pressure on school capacity within the ward.
• Always tried my hardest to resolve individual issues and always responded within a day of receiving an enquiry.
• Used my passion for cycling and Sustainable Transport to good effect.  I noted that links within a major plan within the urban core were noted as "potential" and took action to ensure that the wording was changed.  I also requested that part of planning policy should include advising that communal developments should have cycle storage as part of design.

Whilst I am no longer a councillor I intend to stay involved in local activity and support Gordon and Trevor in their work but do hope to be able to spend more time with my young family.

The last 4 years have been a fantastic time and it has been a privilege to serve Church Gresley as a councillor.  There were many highlights including having the honour of laying the wreath on Remembrance Sunday and being able to meet so many different people and groups and learning about their work and experiences.

I am grateful for the kind words of support from residents over the last few weeks and hope to be able to represent you in the future.

Ben Stuart

Election Summary

The recent General Election and District Council Election results have been announced and as you may have read in the press these were not good for the Labour Party.

In the Church Gresley Ward, Trevor Southerd and Gordon Rhind will continue to represent the residents capably as they have done over many recent years.  Unfortunately I lost my seat but will continue to be active within the local Labour Party and within the ward.  There will be another post written in more depth to this effect.

The District Council election was very different to those in the recent past being combined with the General Election and there being a third party involved.

We would all like to thank those who voted for us and showed support for us and look forward to working for you all over the next 4 years.

Best Wishes,

Trevor, Gordon and Ben

Monthly Surgery and a busy Saturday in Gresley

Monthly Surgery

Our next monthly advice surgery takes place between 10-11am at the Methodist Church on York Road this Saturday 11th April.  All welcome as always.

Litter Pick on Castleton Park

As previously communicated, the Castleton Park Neighbourhood Watch Scheme (N.W.S) have re-organised a litter pick of parts of the estate on this coming Saturday 11th April at 2pm following a postponement recently due to the weather.

The group will meet at the shopping development on Glamorgan Way.

Litter picking equipment will be provided by South Derbyshire District Council. In order to ensure that there is enough equipment to go round, if you would like to help please either email the group on castletonparknws@gmail.com or ask to join the group on Facebook and then "join" the event.

Open Tower Morning at St George and Mary's Church

Following work done on the Church tower for the first time in 8 years the church bells are now ringing again.  To celebrate this the church are having an open morning on Saturday 11th April between 0930 and 1230.  More details on the poster below.

Litter Pick on Castleton Park rearranged

The litter pick planned today by the Castleton Park Neighbourhood Watch Group has been postponed due to inclement weather.

A new date of 11th April has been chosen to avoid Easter weekend.

Further details will follow on here and on the Castleton Park NWS page on Facebook.

Council tax rebate - who does it really benefit?

In the last Full Council meeting there was a proposal following a hastily, albeit well prepared report to allow a 5% rebate on the council tax for this year.  This followed the decision to freeze council tax.

The Labour Group decided to vote against this and considered it to be electioneering by the controlling Tory group.  You may be thinking "Why did you vote against a rebate?"

Well, firstly, what does it mean for residents?  A5% rebate represents an extra 12p per week per household on average.  We do not consider this to be a significant amount, certainly nothing that will change anybody's lives for the better and this will not benefit those most in need of help.

How does this affect the council?  Basically £270k of the general fund will be allocated towards this giveaway of which at least £20k will be swallowed up by administration.  Within the report it did highlight the risks involved.  With the current political future unsure the council has limited visibility over future funding and £270k is a large chunk of money to giveaway.

How else could the money have been spent? On the report were various options including the granting of disability living grants (these can change someone's lives), using for current projects including Leisure Centre improvements, upgrading of IT systems and also building maintenance.  The report had been put together at such short notice that several possible ideas were not considered that may have benefitted our own local communities and address problems such as street cleanliness.

If there had been some way that the money had been put forward to something that would pave the way for an improved service that would either improve people lives or aid the council to work then it would have been worth more consideration.

Our deluded opposition are still coping with the news that the Financial Crisis was driven by global economic factors.  They still like to blame Labour for issues and love to tell the lie that you can't trust Labour with the money. As this article demonstrates  here in South Derbyshire we are deeply concerned about the public purse.

Work Club at CAB

I was recently invited to the Citizen's Advice Bureau in Church Street to meet staff and users of the Work Club set up to help those seeking work.

The story below explains the basic purpose of the work club and shows what a benefit this has been to people who have used it.

http://www.burtonmail.co.uk/Jobseekers-South-Derbyshire-helped-work-work/story-26213083-detail/story.html

There are a few details, however, that the article does not mention and I was lucky enough to share some time with the course tutor and also some users of the sessions.

Part of the success of the sessions has been that they are available in locations close to the urban core in Newhall Old Post Centre, Oaklands Village in Swadlincote, Woodville and the CAB offices here in Church Gresley.  This is good in a number of ways as it means they are accessible by foot in some cases, they are more relaxed than in the environment of the Job Centre and the advice from the enthusiastic and helpful tutors is more freely available.

The good news is that funding has been sourced to allow the sessions at Church Gresley and Woodville to continue but the bad news is that the Church Gresley sessions will only take place once a month rather than every fortnight unless more funding can be found.

The service provided includes creation of CV's and covering letters as well as assistance with searching for jobs and looks to be well received by those who use the service.

More details will be provided on dates when these are confirmed.