Tag Archives: Nottingham City Council
The leaves haven’t quite fallen from my trees yet and the grass still grows. The garden will need it’s winter tidy in the next couple of weeks – usually just before Bonfire Night! Then we can lock the garden down ready for the dark nights and grey days – for it all to start again next Spring.
A couple of years ago I was bemoaning the fact that we had three bins – and I know I’m lucky as some people have many more (unsure of the collective noun for bins – a Laden perhaps?). But we have grown used to the bi-weekly collections – even if I do have to check the colours of bins out on the road before I commit to traipsing mine out in the dark of night.
A couple of weeks ago I was astounded to find the Government suggesting they would re-introduce weekly collections at a cost of £250m. This is madness. Just after we have got in the habit of separating the stuff and living with longer collection gaps.
But more mad is that the City Council have decided I don’t need my garden waste collecting between 28 October and sometime unspecified day next April! The good news is that I can drive the waste to the recycling centre in Lenton. That’s certainly “green”!
I can only assume that this is part of the massive cost cutting exercise going on. The cuts are fine but, in this instance, rather misplaced. It’s a backward step. And one I don’t “get”. Am wondering if I should put the leaves in the green bin, after all they were the same colour at one time?
PS If this gives you the impression I am a gardener, I’m not.
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3 comments | tags: business, City Council, Compost, Environment, Fortnight, Garden, Green waste, Nottingham City Council, Recycling | posted in Nottingham
As the evenings draw shorter, we start to plan for 2012. And high on our calendar of ‘events’ for the firm is MIPIM, the annual property show in Cannes – I have stopped counting how many times I have been.
A sneaky picture of me working in Cannes taken by Lisa Pilkington from the Estates Gazette
The planning has started for Team Nottingham to have a persence again. The City Council still have no funding to allow represntation of the City on this world stage – so the private sector remain in the seat. We do get great support from Invest in Nottingham.
It looks like we may have some new sponsors this year. This is great news as it allows us to raise more funds and have better events. Last year we had two – which were really well attended. More sponsors also means more help and support.
As the economic situation seems to worsen, MIPIM becomes more important. It is all to easy to slash marketing budgets in tough times – but not everyone has. We need to keep Nottingham firmly on the International map. We have done this in the past, but I have a view which says that if you miss one or two years that could undo all of the good work we have done before.
MIPIM represents a massive networking opportunity. Key players, decision-makers and influencers are all there. We have done well in previous years in getting these people to our get-togethers.
We also feed off our other sponsors. The name of the game is making contact with as many people as possible.
My colleague, Matt Hannah, once said that he wished it were in Blackpool – not Cannes. I’m not sure I agree with that – a bit of sunshine, some gleaming yachts and a glass of champagne or two wouldn’t be quite the same on the Mersey Riviera? And we do work as I can prove here.
Obviously I am joking about the champagne – in these tough times it is more likely to be lager…
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1 comment | tags: Cannes, City Council, England, MIPIM, Nottingham, Nottingham City Council, Nottinghamshire | posted in Business, MIPIM 2010, Nottingham
On Monday Nottingham hosted another showcase event for potential investors. It was Invest in Nottingham day!
Last week at Downing Street a couple of our national clients commented on how good it was to see Nottingham promoting ourselves. One in particular, who does work in Bristol, suggested we were miles ahead of them. But that is no reason to pat ourselves on the back – we need to compete with other cities – Birmingham, Leeds and the like.
I was able to to attend two of the ‘events’ n the day – the lunch at Nottingham Trent University and (another) visit to Antenna.
The lunch, sponsored by Westfield, was really well attended and the keynote talk by David Greenaway, VC at the University of Nottingham was particularly well received. David is passionate about Nottingham – and outlined the impact the University has on the City. It has a turnover of £530m, but its economic impact is estimated to be £1bn each year. Their ground breaking work with the MRI scanner was mentioned (I learned for fly many years ago with Sir Peter Mansfield) but latterly there is much excitement about the new early cancer detection test. This is currently being trialled in the USA and the signs are apparently encouraging.
It was also apparent that our two Universities have a wider impact on the City. They contribute to the health and well-being of the place. They help in developing skills and adding to the arts and culture. Of course latterly they are making a global impact too – with the new campuses in Ningbo and Malaysia adding a student cohort of 8,500.
We still have some great stories to tell about Nottingham – but we mustn’t rest on our laurels. We have to keep pushing for the High Speed Two train and the widening of the A453. Our tram extension will be great news. The extensions of Broad Marsh and Victoria Centre will help too.
We have to keep these stories alive.
I was reminded of an old adage during the talks – it’s better to travel than to arrive. And this surely must be a moniker for us. Lets keep travelling… onwards and upwards!
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Leave a comment | tags: Antenna, David Greenaway, England, Invest in Nottingham, Inward Investment, Nottingham, Nottingham City Council, Nottingham Trent University, Nottinghamshire, University of Nottingham, Victoria Centre Nottingham | posted in Business, MIPIM 2010, Nottingham
Shane Meadows is making a Christmas special which will show over three consecutive nights on Channel4. I blogged about the film before – here.
I have seen a bit of it. Well, a tiny bit.
I was at Antenna on Friday night – having a look around Nottingham’s best kept secret. Home to the Nottingham creative industry. And the sound-track is being finished at Antenna – in their high tech Dolby studio.
I had never quite anticipated the complexity of how sound tracks are edited. In essence every sound you hear (ticking clock, music, fork hitting plate) is split out into a track and ‘cleaned up. There were 132 tracks to the 10 second segment I saw. This allows over-dubbing in different languages. Even the music (Driving Home for Christmas – Chris Rea) was played through a filter to make it sound like a radio.
I was very impressed. And like most things, you have no idea what goes on behind the scenes of a film. You do start to realise whey everything is so expensive. The man hours required to de-contruct and then re-construct just the soundtrack is amazing.
So I am looking forward to seeing the mini-series – having seen a (tiny) sneak preview. And I will, from this point on, appreciate what has gone on behind the scenes to make a film.
If you get the chance to go to Antenna – do go. It really is a jewel in Nottingham’s crown. It is a hot bed of Nottingham talent.
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1 comment | tags: Christmas, England, Nottingham, Nottingham City Council, Nottinghamshire, Shane Meadows, This is England, This is England 88 | posted in Business, Nottingham
Last night I was in Downing Street. Actually, to be precise I was in 10 Downing Street, home of David Cameron and office of the First Lord of the Treasury. Although I asked whether the boss wanted to come out to play – it seems he was a bit busy in Tripoli of all places.
I knocked but there was no reply....
We were there with Nottingham City Council who had been invited to look around to see some of the art that is hung in several of the 100 rooms that make up the pad. It is vast.
I can now include on my CV that I have spoken, albeit briefly, at No.10 Downing Street.
The ‘house’ was originally three and built in 1735 – although there had been houses there before. Its blue brick facade and front door must now been one of the worlds most famous icons. And its many residents have that honour too – Churchill, Wilson, Heath, Thatcher and Blair. The pictures are on the stairs as they tell you they are quite small black and white prints. Maggies eyes do follow you…
It is an impressive place. I had a quick check around and couldn’t see any structural problems. It has also been pretty well maintained. A couple of places I thought could do with a lick of paint – and some of the colours aren’t my choice – the leopard skin ceiling would have to go if I lived there. But I wasn’t there for the survey – this was about art…
There are nine pieces of Nottingham owned art there for the next couple of months – including the Lowry from the Castle. We are lending them to the PM, I think he may be a bit hard up. They look great – and it’s impressive that world leaders are wandering past these Nottingham owned pieces every day. We’re glad we can help.
The art may be priceless, but we dd ponder the value (thats what we do after all!). The consensus seemed to be £100,000,000… but I think we were guessing! I have put a board up – and I’ll let you know how it goes….
Update : A good story on our visit in the Nottingham Evening Post – here
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1 comment | tags: 10 Downing Street, David Cameron, First Lord of The Treasury, London, Margaret Thatcher, Nottingham, Nottingham City Council, Tracey Emin, Tripoli | posted in Business, Nottingham
I can’t believe it is 12 months since I first went to Shanghai – a year ago I visited the City with Nottingham City Council and The University of Nottingham. I spent a fascinating few days with the University at a conference aimed at Sustainable Technologies. I also got to see the World Expo – which was fascinating.
One year on and we hit Istanbul. I have been invited – and this time I am speaking at the SET (Sustainable Energy Technologies) conference.
I have written a joint paper which addresses the question of whether green property attracts premium prices*. It’s not an easy question for various reasons. The paper is lengthy and can’t really be published in a blog post. You would fall asleep! I will though, after the conference ends, put it on its own ‘page’ on this site. I would welcome comments and observations. I don’t expect the findings to be popular!
I am in Istanbul this morning where the conference starts today and, assuming the technology works, I’ll do some updates on anything interesting I come across.
We also get a chance to see some of Istanbul after the conference ends – I am looking forward to this. I’m told that this is one of the most photogenic places in the World – so you may see some images… I’ll try to limit it to twenty images (which I guess will be as difficult as my attempts in Nottingham over the last few weeks – see here).
The one thing I won’t be doing is Turkish Delight – which ranks alongside Mushrooms as food of the devil in my book.
If it goes quiet, you will guess that I can’t work the Turkish wi-fi!
*PS – the answer to the question is no for commercial property and yes for residential… in Nottingham at least!
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Leave a comment | tags: Green building, green technology, Istanbul, Nottingham, Nottingham City Council, paper, SET, Shanghai, Sustainability, Turkey, turkish delight, University of Nottingham | posted in Business, Green stuff, Nottingham, Shanghai
I suspect it was the worst kept secret in Nottingham. On Sunday Wollaton Park played host to Splendour 2011 – a mini festival – which i blogged about yesterday! You can rely on me being at live music events if they are half a mile from home! But previously there was a different use…
For three weeks last month Wollaton Park was closed. Although built for the Willoughby family – local wealthy mine owners they had to make way for the caped crusader. The Hall became Batman’s home! Film crews and film stars were variously seen wandering around the area – frequenting the local watering holes principally it seems. The local kids (including my own) took it upon themselves to sneak in and have a look at what was happening. Wollaton Hall might be able to keep the Deer in but I’m not sure it can keep the locals out!
The funny thing was that this was all kept secret! Not a great secret, but there was no information – I guess for fear of the ‘fans’ all turning up?
But what was perhaps more surprising was that Nottingham didn’t make more of it. I am not sure why, after the event, we weren’t shouting the story from the rooftops. Surely this is a great coup – and we should now be adding this to our list of tourism offers?
Come and See where Batman actually lives!
Sadly Nottingham seems to have got embroiled in the ‘how much did they get’ story. The figure for the filming is ‘commercially sensitive’ so it can’t be revealed. It is not as much as £1m apparently. But who cares what the figure was? Surely we should use the publicity to get visitor numbers up (although we might have to improve the cafe). And then we should celebrate that the Council got The Great Hall and Entrance Hall redecorated and re-gilded for free. A number of windows at the back of the property were specially wood-grained, and a new carpet is currently being woven for the Salon, to replace the old 1980s carpet, which was removed for filming.
This is a positive story – let’s use it?
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Leave a comment | tags: Batman, Filming], Nottingham, Nottingham City Council, Wollaton, Wollaton Hall | posted in Business, Grumpy Old Man!, Nottingham
It was a pretty safe bet that I would find myself at Splendour 2011 last night – as it was held about half a mile from my house and Feeder were playing…
Debbie Harry belts them out
We didn’t get there early as Eliza Doolittle was the only artiste worthy of the long journey to the Wollaton Park (home of Batman). She wasn’t that great – she lacked stage presence and seemed really slow to get going. The prospect of an hours wait before Debbie Harry was a bit frustrating.
However when she did come on stage with a very cool platinum blonde wig and then played the hits – Hangin’ on the Telephone, Sunday Girl, Call Me, Atomic, Heart of Glass, Dreaming and Union City Blue. We didn’t get a whole heap of new songs (which she has done in the past when I have seen her – thankfully!) Nor did we get Denis or Touched By Your Presence Dear…
Feeder at Wollaton Park 2011
Although I did see a bit of the Scissor Sisters (three songs) the stars of the show were Feeder. They were brilliant. They rip through a set of hits. Comfort in Sound, Insomnia, Feeling in Moment, Just the Way I’m feeling, Buck Rogers, Lost and Found and Just a Day. They play it loud – and I had the pleasure of watching my two son’s crowd surf and be unceremoniously thrown back out… It was a good job I was there to hold their glasses and ‘phones!
For the first time this year at an outdoor gig I haven’t got wet! The sun shone on the Park.
Not a bad gig for Nottingham – and it was good to see so many kids there (who got in for free). At least they didn’t have to suffer the £3.75 for a tin of lager….
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6 comments | tags: Buck Rogers, Debbie Harry, Feeder, Grant Nichols, Heart of Glass, Nottingham, Nottingham City Council, Splendour 2011, Sunday Girl, Union City Blue, Wollaton, Wollaton Hall | posted in Nottingham
As you will know if you follow my blog regularly I was heavily involved in Nottingham’s presence at MIPIM 2011. We went on a budget, punched well above our weight and by all accounts enjoyed success as a group of private sector firms doing their bit for the wider benefit of the City.
We had our post-MIPIM post-mortem last week at Nottingham Contemporary. I think I can now give tours! After the tour we settled down for a meal in the cafe and had a chance to reflect on 2011. By all accounts the firms who put their hard earned cash into the event were pleased with their investment. The cocktail party in Cannes was regarded as the best event – we had a very good turnout – and the quality of guests was really high. There were some excellent networking opportunities.
Although much of what we do is ‘slow-burn’ there were some success stories. One of the partners in Team Nottingham is quoting for work worth a six-figure sum as a direct result of a meeting at MIPIM. That is money coming into Nottingham. It could have gone elsewhere.
I have met two potential investors and developers as a direct result of MIPIM – and hope that one of them may pursue one of Nottingham’s biggest regeneration challenges.
What was really interesting was the commitment now for 2012. Everyone is in from the private sector. All of the private sector partners felt that the time,, money and effort added a positive to their business. We don’t have to justify that to anyone other than ourselves. The public sector have more of a challenge – in demonstrating ‘value for money’. I doubt that their position will have changed – but their presence is essential. The private sector may well need to pay for their attending again.
So it looks like the work to build on the success of the last few years will need to start all over again. March 2012 seems a long way off, but it amazing how quickly time flies…
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2 comments | tags: Cannes, French Riviera, Investment, MIPIM, Nottingham, Nottingham City Council, Nottingham Contemporary, Private sector | posted in Business, MIPIM 2010, Nottingham
I have been a Director of Nottingham Regenration Limited for the last few years. I have really enjoyed my time on this local Board. But times have changed.
We had hoped to convert the Company into a Economic Development Company (like at Leicester) but the politics changed and these organisations fell out of favour. The election nailed the lid down of the coffin on that proposal.
The major funding partners (emda, Nottingham City Council and the Housing and Communities Agency) also went through some significant changes. It became clear that NRL was moving towards a new era. And to shift into a new gear it was agreed that the Board needed to step down and slim down (no cheap gags there!). So we all resigned a few weeks ago.
NRL will carry on – in a new form. It is now based in Loxley House and will continue to work closely with the City Council in trying to encourage investment and development in Nottingham. NRL were at MIPIM 2011 and they did a fantastic job of promoting the City. It remains a very important local company – ably headed up by Mike Taylor. The team are really talented and grasp regeneration fully. They are well placed to make sure Nottingham still has a regeneration agenda.
The finances of the Company are such that it probably has sufficient funds to carry on for a few years – this was an essential part of the decision to change the Company. And in the current climate this is a pretty good legacy.
I sincerely hope the Company prosper, grow and continue to influence the regeneration of Nottingham. That agenda needs to be pushed even in a tough economic climate. Perhaps more so?
But my involvment in NRL hasn’t completely ended – there will be a forum for like-minded and interested professionals around the City to act as a sounding board for schemes. In some ways this is why I joined the Board – to lend my experience and expertise in property schemes across the City.
So it’s not really ‘goodbye NRL’, it’s ‘welcome to a new era’.
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Leave a comment | tags: Loxley House, MIPIM, Nottingham, Nottingham City Council, Nottingham Regeneration Ltd, NRL, Prospect Leicestershire | posted in Business, MIPIM 2010, Nottingham
