The year ahead and the year gone by - Happy New Year from us

We would like to wish all of our residents a happy new year.  We hope you all had a good time over the festive period.

2015 is going to be an interesting year, especially with the elections coming up in May.

2014 was also an interesting year with residents contacting us on a whole variety of issues as always, many of which have been reported in the blog.  We would like to thank all of those people who came to see us at our surgery and also those who contacted us in other ways.  We will continue to be available to our residents through the surgery, the blog and newsletters as always and continue to ensure Church Gresley is well represented in the Council Chamber.

The ward has seen a few changes this year with the new school and the subsequent arrival of the nursery on the old school premises.  Whilst both of these are positive developments they have brought some issues in relation to parking in certain areas.

Education continues to be a major issue in the area with schools being heavily or over subscribed. We continue to challenge the contributions to education through development.

We are also keen to develop the infrastructure towards the Pennine Way Schools to make walking, scooting and cycling easier and ease the traffic issues.

The ward has outline permission for another 306 houses following a hotly contested planning committee decision last year despite a great deal of objection and an unsatisfactory point of access.  This will continue to be an issue in the coming year. 

We were reminded at our last surgery of the problems some families face, especially at Christmas time.  Our surgery takes place at the Methodist Church and the toy collection was handed over to the CVS.  There were a huge number of requests for the toy collection last year as well as food parcels.

The collection of toys for the Xmas appeal was staggering.

A glance at the health profile for the District shows that there are significant differences of life expectancy and poverty throughout and also the worrying trend of obesity.  The Citizens advice Bureau annual report highlighted the stark issue of debt throughout the district .

These issues are there to be faced and need to be done so through a combination of bodies and we look forward to further building these relationships this year.  In the midst of many harsh government cuts to funding this will never be more crucial.

2014 saw the arrival of some new faces to the ward, most notably our new vicar Mike Firbank and his family, our new PCSO Lee Walker and our new PC Kevin Cassidy.  We look forward to all working together going forward.

We also tragically we lost one of our Safer Neighbourhood Wardens, Darren Andre late in 2014.  We are grateful for the work he did in the ward and will miss him.