Remembrance Day

Ilkeston's Remembrance Day service is usually held at 3:00pm with a similar service at 11:00am being held in Long Eaton. In recent years there have been several calls for the Council to hold Ilkeston's service in the morning too but until this year the call has been resisted as the Mayor can only be in one of the towns at the designated time. This year however, the Mayor's Chaplain is also the Vicar of St Mary's in Ilkeston and the annual service of Remembrance was switched to the eleven o'clock slot with Long Eaton's service at the same time being attended by the Deputy Mayor.

I have attended many of the afternoon services in Ilkeston and there has always been a good turnout but Sunday's was exceptional with twice as many (and perhaps even more than that) standing in silence to honour all those who have paid the ultimate price in two World Wars and many other conflicts. I felt honoured to be among them and if the Council needs any more encouragement to make the Ilkeston service on Remembrance Day at 11:00am a permanent arrangement, they only have to look at the evidence of this year.

Regeneration. Are You Serious?

There was dancing in the streets last Saturday as music sounded out across the Market Place. It was the music of my youth with some good old rock'n'roll tunes well-known by anyone of my age. Dancers in fifties dress showed how to jive and a large American car with a picture on the dashboard of Elvis was parked nearby. What was it all in aid of? Well nobody, not even the market traders, seemed to know but the general consensus was that it was an attraction to bring custom into the town.

   There were large gaps in the market with several regular traders missing. They could have been on holiday or taken heed of the mistaken weather forecast that predicted heavy rain and thunderstorms, none of which occurred or they may even have taken their wares elsewhere. But it becomes more and more obvious as time goes by that something drastic needs to be done to regenerate the town centre. The proposal to move students into the town centre and build a supermarket on the existing college site defies belief in its logic and common sense. Another supermarket on the edge of the town centre will drive another nail into the coffin of existing small businesses.

    Here's an idea. Car parking charges in Ilkeston deter many people and lead to illegal parking on double yellow lines and pedestrian crossings. In neighbouring Broxtowe, the first 30 minutes on council car parks is free, thus encouraging shoppers. In Long Eaton, Erewash's other big town, there are free car parks at Asda, Tesco and Aldi all in the town centre. In Ilkeston the free supermarket car parks are away from the town centre with those in the middle of town being fee paying.

   If the council is serious about regeneration, then the time is right to review their charging policy. Invest by sacrificing some parking revenue, even if it is only on market days but don't kill town centre trade altogether by being blind to the effect of planning decisions. Those who take the decisions should learn from the success of Team GB in the Olympics. Investment in the right place is what is needed - it will provide its own rewards. Austerity has not worked, is not working and will not work.

The Second Option

Last week I started to outline some of the choices and options for a new monthly series and suggested a look at Derby's heritage as the first possibility. The second option is a photographic tour of a local town similar to the Ilkeston Town Walk I conducted a few years ago.


In this category there are two contenders - Long Eaton and Belper. Among all those leaflets I mentioned last week, I have one first published in 1995 detailing a route and identifying places of interest for Long Eaton, the second in a series of which the first was the "Ilkeston Town Walk". Although this is nearly fifteen years old and there are bound to be some changes, much of the information contained in the leaflet is still current and would easily form the basis of a series.

For Belper I have two "Heritage Walk" routes published in 2006 as part of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site and these could easily be combined to form a circuit around the town.

So that's Derby, Long Eaton or Belper and next week I'll outline some of the villages that also come into the equation.

Everything you do in life, every choice you make, has a consequence. When you do things without thinkin', then you ain't makin' the choice. The choice is makin' you. - Mark Steven Johnson