Consulting The Public

We're in the middle of a three day public consultation exercise about the Stanton Regeneration Scheme - that's always assuming the public can find this marquee hidden away in the middle of the site. It's not on a bus route and not accessible for the public who don't have their own transport. It would have been much better to hold the consultation in the surrounding towns and villages who will be most affected by the proposals. This is really an exercise in how to consult with the public without actually meeting too many of them!

For those that could find it, the marquee contained lots of smart looking displays, plans and proposals but the traffic model has not yet been completed and many questions about routes could not be answered. One piece of good news though is that the Green Squeeze campaign about the proposed road through the Erewash countryside appears to have been successful and the "Red Route" has been shelved. The residents of Trowell though will be none too pleased as it looks as though the preferred option will mean a main access to the Stanton site will be into the village. The saga goes on.

Coming Soon

Erewash Museum closes every January to enable to exhibits to be renewed and maintenance to be carried out. It seems though from this information panel on South Street that a whole programme of events has already been organised for when the musuem opens again in February. There's a Fun day on the 6th to mark the re-opening, Circus Week from the 15th to the 20th with a Circus Skills day on the 16th and a Stanton Ironworks Fine Art Exhibition throughout the month. Something for everyone in fact.

Green versus Red

Whilst at the Lakeside Festival at Kirk Hallam last week I was approached by representatives of Green Squeeze and asked if I would sign a petition about the proposed access roads into the Stanton Ironworks redevelopment site.



Now whilst the developers who are proposing upwards of 5000 new houses plus some light industrial units are to be congratulated on the use of former industrial land, their proposals for access require much more consideration. Take a look at this map on the Green Squeeze website and in particular at the proposals for the red and pink routes. Both of these link into a new junction on the A52 and would be fine for traffic to and from Derby and the west. But any traffic heading towards Nottingham and the east or north and south via the M1 would, human nature being what it is, surely use the existing road network through Stanton-By-Dale, Sandiacre and Risley among others.

Furthermore the red and pink routes would forge a way through the rolling countryside such as that seen above between Dale Village and Stanton-By-Dale and have a huge negative effect on the environment. The green and blue routes provide a much more sensible approach but as we all know, common sense is often ignored when financial considerations are involved and red would probably be cheaper in the short term than green. It appears some routes have already been rejected making the cheaper options more likely so I would encourage all local people to explore the Green Squeeze website to read more about the proposals and to make their feelings known to the powers that be before our landscape is ruined forever.

It is a bad plan that admits of no modification. Publilius Syrus (1st century BC)