Nottinghamshire Health Feature Archive

On Saturday February 6th, the Save Victoria Baths campaign held a demo in protest at the council's plans to shut Victoria Leisure Centre on April 1st. The event was well attended and attracted a fair amount of media attention. Although the council seems to have made its decision, campaigners believe the fight is far from over. They will hand over a petition against the closure on Monday February 8th.

The campaign has also announced on its website that users of the Victoria Leisure Centre have formally threatened legal action against the council over its sudden announcement that the centre will be closing on April 1st. The legal action asks the council to withdraw the decision and keep the centre open whilst the planning process is undertaken, echoing the appeals of the campaign. London public law firm, Pierce Glynn are acting on behalf of the users, seeking a judicial review, accusing the council of failing to take into account the fact that no planning application has been submitted, that this process will take at least several months, and failing to take into account the impact this will have on users, especially disabled ones.

On the newswire: Report from Save Victoria Baths demo 7/2/10 | Save Victoria Baths: Interview | Council does the dirty on the Save Victoria Bath Campaign

Previous features: Victoria Baths axed early in city budget | Credit crunch hits Notttingham | Nottingham City Council: Mired in Corruption | Council Under Fire From Campaign To Save Leisure Centre

Links: Save Victoria Baths | Petition | Nottingham City Council LOLs

After a long period of silence from the council the Save Victoria Baths campaign have learnt that the authority intend to close Victoria Leisure Centre on 31 March 2010, despite having no approved plans for development and no planning permission to demolish what is already there. The campaign allege that the council intends to relocate staff in February, making it more likely that it will close earlier than then.

Council plans to close Victoria Leisure Centre first emerged in 2008 and generated considerable public opposition. Although campaigners were unable to prevent the closure, they did manage to get the council to promise to keep it open until 2011 and agree to build a (very expensive) new leisure facility on the site. Campaigners are concerned that the council may now go back on both promises leaving the community without a leisure centre.

On the newswire: Council does the dirty on the Save Victoria Bath Campaign | 2008: Victoria Leisure Centre Public Meeting to Oppose Closure | Save Victoria Baths from closure, Demo at the Council House | Council propose to shut Victoria Baths, Sneinton | City Council intends to Close popular leisure facility

Previous features: Credit crunch hits Notttingham | Nottingham City Council: Mired in Corruption | Council Under Fire From Campaign To Save Leisure Centre

Links: Save Victoria Baths | Petition | City council: Budget consultation

"This is a very sad day for the residents of Nottingham, a sad day for democracy and a sad day for our environment".

Jon Beresford, spokesman from Nottingham Against Incineration & Landfill (NAIL) is not impressed. Local residents and NAIL have been fighting plans to expand Nottingham’s Eastcroft incinerator for the last 4 years. Democracy has been given a severe blow when the government recently over ruled Nottingham City Council and given the green light (or not so green) for Waste Recycling Group’s Planning Application to expand the facility and pollute our environment with more toxic substances and global warming gases.

The government has given the go ahead suggesting that the third incinerator will help fight climate change. "This will help fight climate change no more than building a third runway at Heathrow" argues Beresford. "This throws the governments Climate Change Policy into complete nonsense". Waste Recycling Group, owners of Nottingham’s Eastcroft incinerator originally applied to incinerate an additional 150,000 tonnes (250,000 tonnes total) of waste a year by building a third line in Nottingham City Centre.

Latest: Eastcroft, the end of the campaign?

Video: The NAIL film (10 min. various formats) | NAIL Slideshow (avi 9M)

Feature articles: Planning Officer Recommends Rejections of Incinerator Expansion | Council backs off from incinerator expansion decision | Incinerator Public Meeting - Public Bodies pull out! | Nottingham Against Incineration and Landfill campaigners hand in petition | Planning Officer insists on wider public consultation for incinerator expansion | Campaigners meet Environment Agency over incinerator | Sneinton's Rubbish Day Out 1 - The Days Events | NAIL campaign 'banner drop' at Sneinton Boulevard | NAIL campaign hammers on... | The air that we breathe...

Links: NAIL Website | Waste Recycling Group | View planning application

Nottingham City Council were under fire this week from campaigners trying to prevent the local authority from closing one of the city's oldest and most cherished public services, the Victoria Baths leisure centre. A move to rush the closure this spring has been greeted by uproar from local residents, who gathered for a protest at the Council House.

Over a hundred people mounted a vocal and insistent protest that the recently announced intention to force the closure is unacceptable for the residents of St Anns and Sneinton. Dozens of children from William Booth infant school, one of the schools who regularly use the pool for swimming lessons, bore placards they had drawn and coloured, and chanted 'we want swimming!'. The next demonstration is planned for Saturday 1st March, 11.30am in Market Square.

Reports from the 17th February demonstration: audio | video

More audio: Featured in #2 'the March Show' on Riseup Radio | Public Meeting 1st March

Photos: Victoria Leisure Centre Public Meeting to Oppose Closure | Save Victoria Baths from closure, Demo at the Council House | Council propose to shut Victoria Baths, Sneinton

Articles: Council propose to shut Victoria Baths, Sneinton | City Council intends to Close popular leisure facility

Links: Save Victoria Baths! Campaign | Sign the online petition | 1st March poster | City Council online consultation

Campaigners representing “Planning Disaster” [1], a coalition of Britain's leading environment organisations, today drew up a spoof planning notice for a new nuclear power station to be developed on the current site of Nottingham Forest Football Club. The action was to highlight the Government’s proposed changes to the planning system.

The current planning system allows people to be part of the decision making process. They can have their say on proposals for major developments such as new roads or nuclear power stations. But reforms proposed in the Government's White Paper on planning will remove the public's democratic right to challenge projects at public inquiry. Planning decisions will also be taken out of the hands of accountable politicians and handed over to an unelected, unaccountable new body called the Infrastructure Planning Commission.

Links: Planning Disaster Coalition | Nottingham FOE | Planning for a Sustainable Future: White Paper: website or PDF | House of Commons debate on the issue on 21 May 2007

Defend the NHS! March and rally - Sat 23rd Sept - 11am Forest Recreation Ground (assemble 10am) Nottingham.

This year the East Midlands faces 5,000 job losses (with 1,200 to go in Nottingham), £200 million worth of cuts, the sale of NHS Logistics, hospital ward closures, a review of NHS Direct and Patient Transport Services, and operations undertaken by private health firms run solely for the profit of shareholders. We say it's time the Government stepped in to stop thee cuts and end privatisation of our local NHS. Join us!

Links: Unison website | Download flyer | UK Indymedia health topic page | NHS England | Download 'Nottingham Trade Union Solidarity - Issue 5' | Mischief Makers build giant syringe in support of NHS march on Saturday

On Saturday 3rd December, a community day was held in Sneinton, Nottingham, to raise awareness of the proposed expansion of the Eastcroft incinerator and promote recycling through fun and games. Sneinton's Rubbish Day Out was an event organised by the local community and the NAIL campaign.

The last few months, both Nottingham and Mansfield have been the scene of protests against incinerators. Local residents in Nottingham took to the streets back in May after they learned Waste Recycling Group Ltd [WRG] are planning to expand the existing incinerator. The latest is that the recycle company have now submitted their planning application. Also Mansfield has a new campaign group: Mansfield Against Incineration (MAIN). Recently, at a public meeting, attended by over 300 people, Mansfield MP Alan Meale gave his support to the group, saying he 'shared many of the worries'. Various public meetings have been held, after residents found out the proposal to build a mixed waste burning unit at the Crown Farm Industrial Estate, Forest Town, Mansfield. The campaign groups are supported by Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, The Green Party and CABS (Clean Air for Bakersfield and Sneinton).

Links: Website Nottingham Against Incineration and Landfill, (NAIL) | Website Mansfield Against Incineration, (MAIN) | Download MAIN Petition | Download MAIN Campaign Update | Local Friends of the Earth Group | Previous action against incinerator in Nottingham