Prenton Updates

Full results.

Natascha Engel (Lab) 17, 948

Huw Merriman (Cons) 15,503

Richard Bull (Lib Dem) 10,947

James Bush (UKIP) 2,636

The turn out was 65.95 per cent.

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• Free Events To Highlight County’s Inventors

A number of talks and workshops are taking place at the Derbyshire Record Office, in New Street, Matlock, on Wednesday and Thursday May 12 and 13.

One of the events on Thursday between 12.30pm and 1.30pm will give visitors the chance to find out about innovative paper-making machines in a talk about the engineer Bryan Donkin. Bryan Donkin Ltd was a major employer in Chesterfield until closing in 2001.

For further information about the talks, interested parties can contact the record office via email at record.office@derbyshire.gov.uk or telephone 01629 539202.

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• Police Seek Intruder
• Images for Derbyshire

The break-in at a property on Highfields Way, Holmewood, happened around 9.30pm on Tuesday. The householder heard some keys jangling in the kitchen and went to investigate — only to see the door being shut behind the burglar.

He then spotted a white hooded male in his late teens, early 20s, slim build, 5ft 10ins, with medium dark hair, walking past the house on to Meadow View.

Any witnesses should call police on 0345 123 3333.

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• Taxis Tested In Road Safety Blitz

Almost two-thirds of private hire taxis randomly inspected during spot checks in Derbyshire have passed safety tests.

South Derbyshire District Council and Derbyshire police ran the checks along with the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency.

Twenty-two of 36 private hire vehicles that were checked during the operation passed the tests.

Two vehicles considered to be unfit for purpose were given prohibition notices and had their license plates removed.

In addition, 12 vehicles were given seven-day notices to correct less urgent problems.

Peter McEvoy of South Derbyshire District Council, said: “Whilst we are disappointed that two vehicles were considered unsafe, it should be recognised that the majority of the vehicles inspected passed the test.”

Thirteen drivers were given advice on defects, such as bald tyres, faulty brake lights and loose handbrakes.

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• Pedal Power To Support The Soldiers

Chris Moorwood (18), of Slayley View Road, Barlborough, will be taking on the Big Battlefield Bike Ride from Caen to Dunkirk for the Help for Heroes charity next month and has already raised about £3,500 for the worthy cause.

He said: “I’m not a die-hard cyclist so this is going to be quite a challenge for me and one I probably won’t do again, so I hope to make as much money as possible for this very good charity.”

Colleagues, family and friends have already sponsored the apprentice electrician, who is working on the new Chesterfield FC stadium, and he has even completed a static fund-raising cycle ride at a Barnsley shopping centre to boost the appeal.

The Big Battlefield Bike Ride will take place from May 24 to May 31 with about 300 other cyclists and they aim to arrive at Dunkirk to mark the 70th anniversary of the Second World War forces’ evacuation from the town’s beaches.

Anyone interested in sponsoring Chris and supporting Help for Heroes can visit his fund-raising website www.justgiving.com/christopher-moorwood-bigbattlefieldbikeride

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• Goal To Beat Cancer

Helen Mitchell (39), who manages Sheffield FC’s Ladies team based at the Coach and Horses ground in Dronfield, was diagnosed with the illness last year after she discovered a lump in her breast.

The keen footballer will lead a 20 strong team of her players into the 5K Chesterfield race on July 11 to raise cash for Cancer Research UK and she wants other people to get involved after experiencing a health shock she never expected.

“It was a big shock and completely out of the blue,” said Helen, a landscape architect. “I’ve been so healthy and active all my life, I’m hardly ever ill, I’ve never been in hospital and breast cancer doesn’t run in my family.

“It makes you realise it could happen and the chances are it could happen to someone you know.”

Helen had a small lump removed from her breast then underwent four weeks of radiotherapy.

She added: “The Race For Life will be a challenge and it’ll raise more awareness about breast cancer so people can understand about it better.”

The Race for Life is being organised with Chesterfield Borough Council, Cancer Research UK and NHS Derbyshire County.

For more information about Race for Life visit www.raceforlife.org or to donate to charity for Helen and the women’s team visit www.justgiving.com/SFCLadiesRaceForLife

He wrote a letter to the House after being told to apologise and pay a quarter of the £9,439 he received from the new owners of Dolphin Square for relinquishing tenancy rights in 2006.

Mr Holmes said he accepted the outcome of the Standards and Pr

ivileges Committee investigation and intended to send a cheque this week.

He was one of six Lib Dem MPs who referred themselves to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards over the matter when it came to light last year. The Daily Telegraph revealed payments had been made by Dolphin Square’s new owners to a number of MPs who allegedly agreed to move out or pay higher rent — charged to the taxpayer.

Mr Holmes said he believed in good faith at the time that accepting the sum was not an issue because the money was not a claim from the taxpayer and he was moving to a flat with lower rental.

He added: “The great majority of MPs deliberately use taxpayers’ money to help buy a property and keep the huge profits made when selling such properties.

“Therefore accepting a completely unplanned and unexpected compensation package and moving to a cheaper flat in no way seemed to be at odds with the code governing MPs.”

In the letter to the House Mr Holmes wrote: “The Committee ruled in my case that ‘there was no significant extra cost to the public purse as a result of my decision.’ The Parliamentary Commissioner concluded that ‘he could find no evidence that we made this misjudgement deliberately.’ I apologise for making that misjudgement.”

He said none of the Labour and Conservative MPs who took the payments have referred themselves for investigation.

He said that after six years working on the plans, he is “very happy” that the scheme’s outline planning application has now been approved by councillors.

“It’s a regeneration scheme and that says it all,” he said.

“Chesterfield needs a new place — when we have done the research the people of Chesterfield have all said they want something new and different.

“The idea of the scheme is that it offers iconic buildings and it’s designed to complement the town centre rather than compete with it.

“It’s a more mature offer.”

Mr Swallow explained that the next step in the project is designing the buildings and getting occupiers sorted out so detailed planning applications for each section can be submitted.

Interest in the site is already being shown and is is hoped construction work will begin next year with a final completion date, though not definite, thought to be in around ten years.

Mr Swallow added: “We can bring the project forward as the market recovers rather than being stuck with something that doesn’t work.

“It has been designed in a way that makes it deliverable.”

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• Vulnerable Festival In Jeopardy

Old Bolsover Town Council heard aduring its public meeting last Tuesday how fellow festival committee members have raised concerns about the event’s future unless a big attraction can be arranged to revive its waning popularity.

Clerk David Kee, o

f the town council which funds the event, said: “It lacks something to hold it together and everyone is thinking, ‘can we carry on?’

“The committee made us aware the event doesn’t have the impact it used to and they want to hear ideas that could make it more attractive, but we only have a limited budget.

“It’s all about footfall and without a spectacular event people aren’t going to come.”

The council funds the Bolsover Christmas Festival with £5,000 of fixed cash for projects like lighting and trees and £4,000 to invest in other initiatives and it oversees the event with a committee including other community groups.

Ideas include a fair, a music festival and a craft fair or holding the festival once every two years or reducing it to just a panto and visiting Santa.

Bolsover lost its firework festival and Derbyshire County Council pulled its food fair out of the town last year.

A town council decision about the Christmas Festival is due after options have been considered.

Protesters holding banners, from Firth Rixson in Darley Dale, gathered outside Derbyshire Dales District Council headquarters after the forging firm revealed it was facing closure – following a noise abatement notice served against the factory by the council.

Thirty-six redundancies have been announced at the firm, which employs over 160 people, after working-hour restrictions were imposed by a judge at Chesterfield Magistrates Court earlier this month. Firth Rixson is now appealing the decision.

Councillors held a meeting on Thursday February 25 to discuss the company’s appeal and have now pledged to work with the business to help solve the noise problem.

The district council has so far spent £200,000 on the court case.
Resident Tony Taylor said to the council at the meeting: “I’m surprised you’re wasting so much money on something like this, something that may lead to a local business that has been here for over 70 years to close resulting in a large number of job losses.

“I would have thought the people complaining should have taken in to account there is a factory near to their properties.”
Logistics manager at the firm John Collins, has set up a group called Help Save Jobs in Darley Dale on social networking site Facebook. The group currently has over 1,140 members.
The noise abatement notice follows complaints from Darley Dale Residents Action Group.
No one from the group attended the meeting but it issued a statement, which read: “We thank the council for supporting us in our long standing complaints regarding the noise nuisance from Firth Rixson Forgings.
“Both you, the council and we, the residents were vindicated by the Judge’s decision.”

The group added it did not want the factory to close but that vibrations from the 5,600 tonne press was making lives a misery.

Peter Bland, Firth Rixson chief financial officer, said over £750,000 had been spent on work to reduce the noise.

The council has now called a meeting with Firth Rixson management.
Derbyshire Dales chief executive David Wheatcroft said: “The district council does not want to see Firth Rixson axe jobs in Darley Dale.

“What both the district council and the residents now want to see from Firth Rixson is a reasonable technical solution that protects jobs in Darley Dale for the foreseeable fu ture and also the living conditions of local people.

“We have heard the company’s closure plan – what we want to hear now is the survival plan.”

He added, of the £200,000 spent defending the appeal: “We made sure, in the public interest, that the money spent was the absolute minimum required to successfully defend our original decision.”

West Derbyshire MP Patrick McLoughlin is holding a special meeting on Saturday at 9am at the Whitworth Hotel for Firth Rixson employees and residents to discuss the noise issue.