End of Blog

Ashfield District Council, whilst applauding my initiative and my efforts in creating this blog (done in my own free time and not impinging on the tasks I am paid by them to do, natch), don't think the time is ripe just yet to get the Council blogging. Which is fair enough, and their prerogative of course. The door isn't shut by all means, and I have been encouraged to at a future date put together a business case of the benefits of blogs, to present to Management Team and perhaps Councillors.
So for the time being this is my last post, though hopefully not for long!

Thank you for reading, and bis spater vom WebMeister!

New Ashfield Visitor's Guide

The Ashfield Visitor's Guide for 2007 was launched last Friday and is now available for download from the Ashfield District Council website.

Select to download the guide and find more about Ashfield Tourism on the Council's website.

A group of twenty invited guests including representatives of local accommodation providers, tourist information points, tourism officers and owners or managers of local tourist attractions, joined Chairman of Ashfield District Council Cllr Edward Holmes and his wife Hilda at Teversal Manor for the launch.

The guests were shown how the guide illustrates that Ashfield offers a good tourism package which is attractive to all ages and interest groups. Special thanks were expressed to all those volunteers who work hard across the district to help run the country parks, cafes and the Visitor Information Point. Select to read the full media release for the launch.

I must admit, when I started working for Ashfield District Council this was a part of the East Midlands I'd not been to before. The attractions of the Peak District to the North West, or Sherwood Forest to the North East, or the large cities of Nottingham, Derby and Sheffield circling it, made Ashfield District more an anonymous place to drive through to get to somewhere else. How much I missed!

One of the delights of Ashfield is that yes, it is handy for getting to City shopping and night-life, and to the tourist honey-pots of The Peak and Sherwood, but it also has a charm of its own. You don't need to travel far out of the small Ashfield towns to find yourself in unspoilt countryside. And even in the towns there are areas of open green space and parks to enjoy. My particular favorite is to walk down to Portland Park on a lunchtime and enjoy its tamed wildness.

Also, if you have any interest in local history, Ashfield is seeped with it. For example, the industrial heritage of coal mining is ever-present. The last collieries closed only in the past ten years and the memories linger on in Ashfield folklore and pride. To the right is a photo I took of a striking six metre high statue of a miner sited at Station Road, Hucknall, next to a new Tesco supermarket and the park-and-ride for high-tech trams into Nottingham (click on it for much bigness).

I won't spoil your sense of discovery (or make this blog entry unfeasibly long) by going into local history further. I'll just mention the poet Byron and his daughter proto-computer programmer Ada Lovelace, the writer D.H.Lawrence, Teversal Manor and it's Tutankhamen connection, Felley Priory, Victorian Prize Fighter Ben Caunt, Bodyline cricketer Harold Larwood, and the grave of the Gypsy King in Selston Parish churchyard. The new Visitor Guide is a good starting point to go on to discover about all these and more.

Hucknall Election

The candidates standing for election as the Nottinghamshire County Councillor for the Hucknall Division have been posted to the Ashfield District Council website.

The seat became available following the sad death of Councillor Nellie Smedley.

The time-table for the by-election is as follows:

• Wednesday, January 10 (5pm) - last day to change or cancel absent vote or apply for new postal vote
  


• Wednesday, January 17 (5pm) - last day for new proxy vote application
  


• Thursday, January 25 - polling day 7am-10pm. The votes will be counted at the close of the poll, and the result announced.
  

Select to download a PDF of the nominated candidates and the location of Polling Stations for this election.

To find out whether you are on the electoral register and eligible to vote in this election, or to enquire about postal or proxy voting, contact: The Electoral Registration Office


What's the difference between the roles of a Councillor for Nottinghamshire County Council and Ashfield District Council?

Well, Nottinghamshire County Council sources and manages Nottinghamshire's (including Ashfield's) education, roads, highways, library services and social services. County Councillors are elected representatives who have a say in the running of these services. Select for the list of Nottinghamshire County Council Councillors. The Hucknall Division election is for a County Councillor.

Ashfield District Council, meanwhile, manages services for Ashfield residents, businesses and visitors such as recycling and refuse collection, street cleaning, planning and building control, housing, community and economic regeneration, environmental health and licensing, public parks and leisure centres. It also administers benefits and the collection of council tax and business rates in Ashfield. Ashfield District Councillors are elected representatives at Ward level who have an influence on these services. Select for more about Ashfield's District Councillors on the Ashfield District Council website. The next full District Council elections will be on 3rd May 2007.

To complete the three tier system of local government in Nottinghamshire, for some areas there are Parish Councils who manage the upkeep of some local parks, benches and street lighting and organises the cutting of grass and verges in the local parish boundaries. Parish Councils also act as consultees for planning applications. There are two Parish Councils in Ashfield; Annesley and Felley Parish Council, and Selston Parish Council. Select for contact details. The next full Parish Council elections will also be on 3rd may 2007.

Rebuilding Started at Council HQ

Work to rebuild the part of Ashfield District Council's headquarters which was gutted in a devastating fire began last Wednesday 10th January.

The blaze, which was caused by a chip pan fire, broke out on 3rd Jan at the council's Urban Road offices, Kirkby-in-Ashfield, and caused major damage to the building's Canteen, staff restroom area and Legal Department. See my blog entry for my account of the fire.

Council chiefs say they expect the fire-damaged annexe building to be completely demolished within this coming week and are currently discussing the options available for its replacement.

These photos are of the demolition today. The rest of the Kirkby In Ashfield Council Offices are unaffected and open to the public.

The staff car-park at the rear of the building remains closed as the area around the demolition (including the entrance to the car-park) has been fenced off for the safety of staff and the public.

Additional RSS Feeds

I've added a couple more RSS feeds to this blog site to widen its scope from just Ashfield.

Ashfield District Council isn't an island, it is part of national democratic involvement at a local level and is carried forward by nation-wide local government initiatives such as eGov (Electronic Government - using enabling technologies to give better access to, and deliver more efficient, services).

On the right hand side there are now RSS feeds from:

• the Department of Communities and Local Government (or DCLG - the Government Department which is responsible for 'building the capacity of communities to shape and protect their own future')
• the Local Government Association (or LGA - which exists to 'promote better local government')
• the eGovernment channel from eGov monitor (a website which has news items and discussion forums about using ICT to transform the way government works)

I could continue and add hundreds of channels to this blog; the process is really easy once you begin to recognize where to find RSS feeds and how to use them. On the downside, you stand the risk of boring your readers with information they are not interested in, thereby swamping the real point of a blog which is to present your own news.

When adding RSS feeds you should also consider that each feed needs to be checked for updates each time your blog site is visited or refreshed; this will cause a slight delay for visitors. Even worse, an RSS feed may be down, and that not only slows your blog site down trying to find it, but looks bad on your site if you are displaying an error message.

So, I shall stick with this clutch of channels for now, unless anyone can suggest any 'killer' RSS feeds they would like to see?

Ashfield RSS Channels Now Broadcasting

I've added four RSS channels to the Ashfield District Council website, which can be used to feed your browser, PDA, website, blog, or whatever with automatic updates. Select the links below and paste each of the URL addresses into your RSS device to be kept up-to-date on all things Ashfield!

• ADC Job Vacancy channel
  


• ADC News channel
  


• ADC Events channel
  


• ADC Council Meetings

Note: if you follow those links with a browser that doesn't support RSS (e.g. Firefox does Windows Explorer doesn't), or don't have an RSS news aggregator plug in (e.g. such as Sage), then you will only see an XML file. If you don't know what XML is (and frankly, you're better off not knowing!) then just believe me; that's what it is and it ain't pretty.

I have used these feeds to create the news, events, jobs, and meetings listings (with links back to the Council website) on the right-hand side of this blog site. Whenever a new item is added in one of these categories to the Ashfield District Council website, it will automatically be pulled through onto this page (though as this is pulling, not pushing, you may need to do a refresh to get the latest feed). If this is all mystifying to you, then try reading the explanation of RSS on the Council's website.

I have also posted RSS feeds from the BBC Weather Centre on the right there, to keep you aware of the weather forecast for Ashfield. Also, a feed from Ashfield Today's local news channel.

NB: All the RSS feeds on this blog site are set to show just the five most recent items. That's not so much of a problem for news items, which change constantly, but if you were looking for a job at Ashfield District Council you might think there are only five jobs vacant when in fact there are ten. Select one of the vacancies to explore further the Ashfield jobs pages.

Shaping the Future of Ashfield

Be a part of the process – you live here!

This is a call for local participation in plans to develop the District over the next fifteen years.

Ashfield District Council are working on the Local Development Framework for Ashfield, which will guide future development in the District up to 2021.

We need the views of you and all the other people and organisations of Ashfield to develop this framework.

To start discussions we have produced a 'Core Strategy (Preferred Options)' document, including a 'Sustainability Appraisal'. This outlines how we expect the District to develop over the next 15 years (we will be asking you where later in the year).

We would like to know whether you think we have got it right, or whether further changes are required.

The relevant documents are available (as usual) on the Council website. To reach them, follow the links below:

• A Summary Leaflet (four pages PDF) which explains where we are in the Local Development Framework Core Strategy process, explains what the 'Core Strategy (Preferred Options)' and 'Sustainability Appraisal' documents are for, tells you how to register your views, and gives dates of Consultation Events.
• The Ashfield Core Strategy (Prefered Options) document itself (116 pages PDF). This will provide a framework to help decide the character, type and broadlocation of new development, including the use of existing buildings and land. The plan also puts forward policies seeking to provide for community needs and protecting the environment.
• The Sustainability Appraisal for the Core Strategy preferred options (216 pages PDF). The Core Strategy is subject to this Sustainability Appraisal which tests each policy to see how well it performs in terms of sustainable development through the integration of social, environmental and economic considerations.

To make your views known, select this Local Development Framework Development Comment Form (MS-Word 4 pages), fill in the grey boxes on it, save it, and email to ldf@ashfield-dc.gov.uk . Either that or print it out, fill it in by hand, and post or fax to:

Planning Policy and Projects
Ashfield District Council
Urban Road
Kirkby-in-Ashfield
Nottinghamshire
NG17 8DA

Fax: 01623 457474

If you would prefer, contact us on either 01623 457381 or 01623 457383 and we will send you a copy of all these documents on CD and answer any queries you may have.

All comment forms need to be returned by
February 26th 2007

Get Active in 2007 With Online Booking

News of a new facility for online booking at Ashfield District Council's Leisure Centres. From Thursday 1st February 2007 Oxygen card holders will be able to book on line for selected activities.

Oxygen cards are available from any one of the seven places listed below:

• Edgewood Leisure Centre, 0115 9568790
• Festival Hall leisure Centre, 01623 457101
• Hucknall Leisure Centre, 0115 9568750
• Huthwaite Leisure centre, 01623 457130
• Selston Leisure Centre, 01773 781800
• Sutton Leisure Centre, 01623 457700
• Sutton Pools complex, 01623 457090

If you haven't got an Oxygen card, then contact one of these places today. Then you'll have no excuse not to keep up your New Year resolution to work off the excesses of the Christmas Season!

Watch this space for links to online booking through the Ashfield District Council website.

FIRE!

Having the Canteen catch fire is hardly a good start for the New Year.
Mid-morning today the fire alarms at the Council Offices in Kirkby sounded. We calmly evacuated the building (myself included, not even stopping to save the spreadsheet I was working on) and assembled to the rear of the back car park.

At first we could just see a small amount of smoke wafting out of the ventilators of the Canteen building. This soon became a billowing black mass smelling evilly of burning plastic. Unfortunately the wind was blowing it in our direction! It was also drizzly and perishing cold, and no chance of going back in the building to retrieve a coat.

In a very short time we heard the sirens of the Fire & Rescue Service, and we were evacuated further to Festival Hall Leisure Centre across the road. As we made our way to safety and clean air we could smell that wood and paper were now alight. Flames were leaping through the roof-tiles of the canteen building and adjacent offices, whilst the Fire Crews doused them with torrents of water.

Thankfully, no-one was injured, but four Canteen staff had to be treated in hospital for shock. It is possible that the fire started with a deep fat fryer in the kitchen; imagine being around when one of those ignites. Terrifying.

The Fire Crews successfully managed to stop the fire spreading to the main office buildings, otherwise a lot more serious damage could have been done. As for us, we were given leave to have the afternoon off, though many of us couldn't get at our cars in the car-park (dangerously just beyond the blazing building) and we had a long walk home.

Select to read more about the fire, and to see a video of it, on the BBC website.

I periodically checked the Council's website was still up this afternoon and evening. It was! The Council Offices may be staff-less, choking with smoke, and flooded with water but you can still interact with the Council through its website 24/7, come what may!

The Council Offices in Kirkby are expected to be staffed and operational again tomorrow from 10am.

Welcome!

Happy 2007!

This is the start of a blog by Andie Gilmour, Website manager for Ashfield District Council's website www.ashfield-dc.gov.uk.

In the coming months I want to tell you about changes to our website and events at Ashfield District Council. In passing, I will also be demonstrating how easy it is to publish a blog.

Pictured above, by the way, are some of Ashfield’s 2006 participants in the Nottinghamshire Youth Games, alongside Carol Hallam, Ashfield District Council's Sports Development Officer, Nick Morris, Ashfield School Sports Co-ordinator and Alison Broadbelt, Ashfield School Leisure Centre Manager. They are illustrating the news that Ashfield has been announced as the venue for the 2007 Nottinghamshire Youth Games.

Select for the full story on the Council website.

Well done Ashfield School!