Police carry out daily raids in town
Your weekly round-up of Ashfield News
Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of Ashfield News. Today, there is news of a major crime crackdown in an Ashfield town and plans for a huge employment space have been withdrawn.
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Daily police raids
Police are carrying out daily raids in Hucknall to target drug dealers and criminals.
Local officers have now initiated a three-step approach to drive offenders out of the Broomhill Road area, tackle related antisocial behaviour, and boost residents’ confidence in reporting to the police.
The Clear, Hold, Build initiative first seeks to clear criminals and their associates from the area.
High visibility patrols will then be conducted before residents are "equipped and empowered" to build a strong community free from crime.
The Broomhill Road area has been chosen to address residents’ concerns about drug-related crime and antisocial behaviour, to disrupt cross-border criminal activity from Nottingham and Bulwell, and to bring additional resources to the area.
Speaking after the first raid in Thorn Grove on Monday, Inspector Chris Boylin, district commander for Ashfield, said: “Organised crime has a corrosive effect on our communities – enriching a few individuals at the expense of other residents and causing a great deal of harm to vulnerable people.
“People may think of organised crime and imagine the glamorous and showy depiction captured on TV, but the reality is very different and far more damaging than that.
“It is young or otherwise vulnerable people who are being exploited by cross-border criminal gangs to carry, sell, or store drugs; and it’s the acquisitive crime, antisocial behaviour, and violence that comes with this illegal trade.
“People may not be aware that these issues are linked to organised criminal gangs, but the reality is that they very often are.
“But the good news is that – thanks to the Clear, Hold, Build initiative – local residents are now in a much better position to strike back and remove this type of offending from their community.
“We’ve got a lot of activity planned for the next few weeks and I want local drug dealers and other criminals to know that they are very much in our sights.”
Campaign to return school crossing
A campaign has launched calling for the return of a school crossing patrol on a junction labelled "an accident waiting to happen".
The lollipop patrol for the junction of Dalestorth Street, Dalestorth Road and Skegby Road, in Sutton-in-Ashfield, was axed eight years ago.
Campaigner Samantha Ferguson is working with Ashfield councillors in a call for the county council to bring it back.
They are also calling for a pedestrian crossing in the longer term, close to the busy junction that is used by pupils at Dalestorth Primary School, Quarrydale Academy and Sutton Academy.
Samantha, a mum of four, of Redcliffe Street, uses the junction every day.
She said: "This busy junction serves pupils from three local schools, all with increasing pupil numbers. I see near misses on a daily basis and I fear that unless urgent action is taken – we will see a serious accident.
"I am not prepared to stand by and wait for this to happen."
An online petition has now been launched – residents can sign at https://chng.it/bNDLNsrtRy
Industrial units plan withdrawn
Plans to create new industrial units on land next to a railway line in Hucknall have been withdrawn.
Outline planning permission was sent to Ashfield District Council for 4,900 sq m of employment space, which would have been used for research and development, light industry and storage and distribution.
The new development would have been built on land in Wigwam Lane, Hucknall.
Concerns were raised by a number of individuals and organisations, including Nottinghamshire County Council, as the highway authority.
Transport bosses stated there was a flood risk in the area and also said a traffic management scheme would need to be put in place as the road to the proposed development is “substandard”.
The application was officially withdrawn on March 20.
Missed hospital appointments
Patients unable to attend or no longer need a hospital appointment are being urged to cancel or rearrange them.
Sherwood Forest Hospitals is working to reduce outpatient waiting lists, but latest figures show more than 6,000 appointments were missed in a month.
The figures relate to appointments at the Trust’s King’s Mill, Newark and Mansfield Community hospitals that patients either did not attend or cancelled at too short notice (less than 48 hours) to enable hospital staff to offer the appointment to another patient.
Among the total are unattended appointments within the Trust’s audiology, orthopaedic and paediatric services, along with therapy and surgeries. In the Trust’s Cardiology Diagnostics clinic 8.44% of appointments were missed in January.
More follow-up appointments are missed than first appointments and this can be even more detrimental as a missed follow-up appointment may mean that diagnostic tests that have been previously done need to be repeated.
Dr James Thomas, Chair of Clinical Support, Therapies and Outpatients at Sherwood Forest Hospitals, said: “Your NHS is here for you and we all have a part to play in making every appointment count especially at a time when demand for NHS services remains high.
“To combat the number of unattended appointments, the Trust is offering patients more telephone and video follow-up appointments, with as many as 4,005 telephone and 203 video appointments taking place in January.
“The pandemic has seen us all make such great use of technology and your NHS is no different, with thousands of patients now choosing to attend their follow-up appointments remotely in a way that is more convenient for them,” Dr Thomas continued.
“So even if patients can’t physically attend an appointment at one of our hospitals for whatever reason, there are plenty of opportunities to still get the medical attention they need and deserve.”
East Midlands mayor elections
A campaign has been launched encouraging residents to vote in the first ever election for an East Midlands mayor.
The election will take place on Thursday, May 2, and the new mayor will cover Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire in the East Midlands Combined County Authority.
EMCCA has been formed by Derbyshire County Council, Derby City Council, Nottinghamshire County Council and Nottingham City Council, and will be led by a mayor, similar to areas like the West Midlands, Greater Manchester and South Yorkshire.
The mayor will have new powers and resources to begin a long-term process of growing the region’s economy by investing in skills that lead to better jobs, transport that works better across the region, housing where it’s needed, and an economy equipped to deal with net zero.
Its small team will have specific responsibilities – housing, skills, transport and the environment – and the transfer of powers means it will be doing work previously carried out by government. It will collaborate with councils and will not duplicate what they do or provide services that are best delivered locally.
For more information about the campaign and how to vote visit www.voteeastmidlandsmayor.co.uk