An (incomplete) overview of how the age of austerity has affected Notinghamshire over the last week or so. Culled from various local media outlets, so don't blame me for some of the dodgy analysis.

Ashfield District Council

It was reported to a meeting of the Ashfield District Council Cabinet (main decision-making body) that if grants from Westminster are slashed in line with predictions, the council’s bank-balance would be decimated.

Within five years, it would go from more than £3 million in the black to £17 million in the red at current spending levels.

Minimum savings of £1.4 million a year must be made to achieve a balanced budget by 2015. This is from a predicted spend of between £19 million and £20 million.

It is almost inevitable that services will be cut and jobs will be lost.

Ashfield must cut £1.4 million a year ……or face ruin, Hucknall Dispatch

Campaigning

(1) Monday’s Notts SOS planning meeting was very well attended with 30 participants in all. As well as the three major Nottingham demonstrations last week, and our interventions at the City Council consultation, Notts SOS were pleased to hear from a new campaign in Lincoln that had held an anti-cuts meeting and march. The attack on welfare claimants in the Spending Review was highlighted. Sub-groups were formed to put together publicity, handle communications, and collect funds. A Nottingham demonstration was proposed for Saturday, November 20th.

Biggest Notts SOS meeting so far – forthcoming Saturday Nov 20th demonstration, weekly meetings & more, Notts SOS

(2) A new association is being set up to organise benefit claimants in Nottingham, to represent our interests and fight the cuts in welfare being perpetrated by the current government: Nottingham Claimants’ Union. Anyone living in the area who claims a benefit – including housing/council tax benefit, working tax credits, child support etc. as well as JSA and medical benefits – is entitled to join.

Nottingham Claimants’ Union, Nottingham Indymedia

Criminal justice

The Senior Presiding Judge, Lord Justice Goldring favours closing Newark Magistrates’ Court, it can be revealed.

Earlier this year, the Ministry for Justice earmarked 103 courts in England and Wales it believes it can do without, therefore saving £15.3m a year in running costs and trimming £211/2m from the maintenance bill.

On the cuts list are Newark, Worksop and Retford magistrates’ courts.

This would leave just Mansfield and Nottingham with Newark cases tried in the city.

The Advertiser understands that Lord Justice Goldring favours closing both Worksop and Retford courts too.

Newark County Court, which shares the magistrates’ court complex on Magnus Street, would also disappear. Fifty four county courts in England and Wales are threatened.

Newark Magistrates’ Court closure favoured, Newark Advertiser

Forestry

FORMER Notts MP Paddy Tipping has raised fears that tracts of Sherwood Forest may be sold off as the Government seeks to raise cash to lower the UK’s budget deficit.

Meanwhile, the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) which takes ultimate responsibility for forestry issues refused to confirm or deny rumours of a sell-off.

It said plans would be released soon.

Reports suggested Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman would imminently announce plans to sell off about half of the 748,000 hectares of woodland overseen by the Forestry Commission by 2020.

The parts of Sherwood Forest owned by the commission include the 1,335-hectare Sherwood Pines Forest Park – the largest tract of forest open to the public in the East Midlands.

However, Sherwood Forest Country Park, which includes a nature reserve and the world-famous Major Oak, will not be included in the Government’s plans as it is not managed by the Forestry Commission.

Fears parts of Sherwood Forest may be sold off, Nottingham Post

Health

(1) A public meeting is set to be held in Southwell over changes to services at Newark Hospital.

Southwell Town Council has agreed to organise a venue for the meeting and will support calls by the Save Newark Hospital Campaign for an independent review over the changes.

The council will write to the MP for Newark, Mr Patrick Mercer, and health minister Mr Simon Burns to inform them of its support for a review.

The decisions were taken after two members of the Save Newark Hospital Campaign spoke to councillors about the issue.

Campaign secretary Mr Paul Baggaley and chairman Mr Francis Towndrow outlined concerns about plans for the hospital as part of NHS Nottinghamshire County’s Newark Healthcare Review.

From April no more blue light ambulances will go to Newark as the town’s A & E is changed to a minor injuries unit plus.

Backing for hospital campaign, Newark Advertiser

(2) THE family of a severely autistic six-year-old are angry that a service which helps him communicate has been cut by the NHS.

Notts Community Health say it will only provide speech and language therapy services for children with autism until the age of six.

Notts Community Health, which provides health services in the community outside the city, says it wants to focus on “early intervention” for younger autistic children.

In a letter to Mrs Scothern’s MP Vernon Coaker, managing director Eleri de Gilbert said it faced an £11 million funding gap this year.

She said officials “had to make some tough decisions based on tough choices”.

Anger over cuts to speech therapy service for autistic children, Nottingham Post

Housing

THOUSANDS of council house residents in the city may not get the new kitchens, bathrooms and heating systems they were promised.

The Government’s Spending Review last Wednesday said £2.1bn would be available to continue the Decent Homes programme nationally. It has now emerged councils will have to reapply for funding from this pot – and Nottingham could potentially be left without a penny.

A spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government said: “It is about taking a fresh look at what needs to be done and making a fresh set of allocations.”

Council house residents may not get improvements, Government has revealed, Nottingham Post

Nottingham City Council

(1) A boy with Asperger’s syndrome has sent a video message to David Cameron asking for a disabled children’s club to be spared from spending cuts.

Mark Torr, 10, from Nottingham, is a member of Cool Kids, a project which organises meetings and trips and also publishes a quarterly magazine.

But the scheme is to stop in March next year after it lost £40,000 funding as part of wider cuts.

Boy with Aspergers asks PM to spare children’s club, BBC Nottingham

(2) NOTTINGHAM City Council is still fighting legal battles to get millions of pounds back from Icelandic banks.

The council invested £41.6 million in three Icelandic banks before the country’s financial system collapsed in October 2008.

It has since joined forces with other authorities through the Local Government Association to battle for the money to be paid back.

Heritable Bank has returned more than £7 million so far, but held £15.6 million of Nottingham taxpayers’ money when it collapsed.

Nottingham City Council is only expected to have £35.93 million returned, which is a loss of £5.67 million.

The city council was the second most exposed authority in the country, with 20 per cent of investments tied up in Iceland. The £5.67 million which the council is expected to lose would be enough to employ about 120 social care workers on its maximum salary.

It would also pay for more than four new adventure parks, like the Ridge Adventure Playground near the Bestwood Estate.

Nottingham recovers £7m from Icelandic bank – but legal battle continues for £26m, Nottingham Post

Only £34.6 million still owing!, Nottingham is Crap

Nottinghamshire County Council

(1) AN AUTISM group in Hucknall has warned that among £75 million worth of savings given the green light by Notts County Council, there is a cut that will have a “devastating impact” on vulnerable children.

One of the controversial items rubberstamped was the reduction of support for youngsters with special educational needs, which will realise a saving of £3.2 million.

Now the Indigo Kids organisation, which was launched two years ago to support families of children with autism, says the move will hurt those who most need the support.

A petition has been launched, with the backing of Indigo Kids, through the countywide Parents And Carers Together (PACT) organisation.

‘Devastating’ changes feared by autism mums in wake of cuts, Hucknall Dispatch

(2) BURGLARS will prosper if plans to save money by switching off street lights in Hucknall and the rest of Nottinghamshire at night go ahead, it has been claimed.

Notts County Council has given the go-ahead for the scheme which, it says, will slash bills by £1 million and cut carbon emissions and light pollution.

But opponents of the Conservative-controlled county council have slammed the idea.

Liberal Democrats in Ashfield have launched a petition campaign and have been collecting signatures in Hucknall.

Anger mounts over lights switch-off, Hucknall Dispatch

Policing

Nottinghamshire police force will merge its four county divisions into two in a move to cut costs.Council house residents may not get improvements, Government has revealed

The police authority has agreed to the move despite concerns about the impact on rural areas.

The restructuring will save money in management posts as the force aims to cut up to £56m in the next four years.

Nottinghamshire police to merge divisions to cut costs, BBC Nottingham

Private sector

TIME is being called on a Retford family business after more than 60 years of trading in the town.

Customers have descended on Watson Furnishing’s Carolgate store in numbers since it announced its impending closure.

But it has come too late to sustain the independent business which has been badly hit by the economic downturn.

The recession has been blamed for a decrease in buyers and the family-run company took the tough decision to cease trading.

Long-standing furniture shop Watson’s is forced to close under recession pressure, Retford Times

Roads

(1) Transport Secretary Philip Hammond announced on Tuesday that an upgrade to the road will not take place until after the next General Election.

It means there could be another five-year wait for any work to be carried out – and even then there is no guarantee that a post-election Government will approve the scheme.

The decision to delay comes after a review of what transport improvement schemes the Coalition Government could afford, given deep cuts recently made to public spending.

Fury after A453 widening scheme delayed for years, Nottingham Post

(2) Hucknall’s jinxed inner bypass, complete with town-centre pedestrianisation, is on the verge of being buried in a landslide of billions of pounds worth of cuts.

Among the announcements as part of the spending review was a 21% (£2.6 billion) reduction in the transport budget as part of overall moves to save £81 billion in the coming four years.

It means the £10 million promised by Whitehall towards the long-awaited £13 million bypass is in jeopardy.

Experts believe the money will not be stumped up, which would leave the scheme as one of Nottinghamshire’s most high-profile victims of the cuts

Bypass could be major victim of cuts, Hucknall Dispatch

Transport

The Government was not providing hard cash to build the tram extension, but £530m of Private Finance Initiative (PFI) credits.

This is why money granted in PFI credits is only drawn once the capital project in question, the tram extension, is completed.

In Nottingham, the extension won’t be operating until at least 2014 and then the money will be drip-fed to the city over 23 years.

But the Coalition’s Spending Review document is only a plan for Government expenditure – or lack of it – up to 2015, by which time only a miniscule proportion, if any, of the PFI credits will have been handed over.

The real beauty of the spin is this – the money for the tram was initially allocated by the previous government, most of it will be paid out by the next government and yet it is this Government that takes credit for the investment at a time when it is cutting.

Joseph Watts: Why I’m in awe of the Government’s PR, Nottingham Post