It is a great scheme, completed just as the market was disintegrating. That they sold just 17 apartments out of 128 was likely to cause some financial issues. It turns out that the Bank are owed £36m – and the prospect of them seeing all of this have all but evaporated. Estimates suggest they might get £20m back. Ouch.

As the market turned the developer let them as best he could and last week there were 99 currently let, 17 were sold, two have been converted into a gym and the remaining ten are either vacant or incomplete.

I had a look around the scheme around three years ago – it was (and is) an impressive place. The quality of the finishes was top quality. There were themed units – Paul Smith, Hugo Boss and others. The views from the apartments was quite spectacular.

But my biggest problem with the apartments was the location. The access was relatively poor through the industrial heartland of Nottingham. Of course, it wasn’t meant to be like this. The development was intended to be part of the major Waterside redevelopment zone. But it got developed ahead of it’s neighbour – which remains vacant today. And so it became a bit of an isolated scheme – which really did need the connection closer to the City.

The location, coupled with the collapse of the property market meant that there were few of us who could see anything but problems with the scheme.

It seems to me that this really was a great idea, just ahead of its time – which is a great pity. Hopefully as Waterside adjacent gets developed (it will) this scheme will eventually come good. In the meantime, the Bank look like they may be licking their wounds…

The Club has grown significantly in the last couple of years. There are now 158 members (up a third) – and last year 23 events were held. I went to quite a few (and was at the heart of the MIPIM one!). The Club met with around 1200 people at these events in the year. That’s a good reach!

Of course it’s not all parties! The Club have become the organisation who can mobilise a group of people if the City get enquiries from companies looking to come to set up shop in Nottingham. In the year they helped with 149 enquiries. Sadly we didn’t land Standard Chartered or the Green Bank, but it wasn’t for lack of trying.

The club work alongside the Invest in Nottingham Team at the Council. And this is perhaps the way forward. As Public Finances continue to get squeezed it is going to fall to the private sector to help. I think we are at the start of that road. It takes time for the Council to get comfortable with getting into bed with the Private sector.

One of the big issues is that we often disagree with them (you already know I do!). But I see no reason to apologise for that. Paul Southby, Chairman of IINC put it succinctly – “we don’t have to agree with the Council all of the time, it’s healthy to have a debate. It is a part of a grown up relationship to disagree”.

So what about 2012/13? The club have set some goals – it still focusses on the growth points – Bio-Medical, Green technology and the digital and creative classes. But the key one for me is the City Centre. We must make sure that the City doesn’t slip further in retail tracings! But that’s a very big subject!

Transport Secretary Justine Greening announced the controversial HS2 high-speed rail project was approved earlier in the year. Well, the first phase was. This was the line from London to Birmingham. The second phase will then form a ‘Y’ shape and he’d from Birmingham to Leeds. There has been a lobby for a stop in Nottingham.

Or more precisely between Nottingham and Derby – close to the motorway and somewhere near the end of the tram line. All roads point to Toton? It’s a logical place, unless you support the East Midlands Parkway Station on the A453.

Recommendations to ministers about this future extension should be made to ministers by the end of the year. So we have some time to wait for the outcome.

But I have it on good authority that Nottingham may not now benefit. I have been told that the line may well go to the west of Derby. There is current infrastructure there and the right noises are not being made to the Government. It was suggested to me that HS2 might get a spur at a later date to Nottingham.

This would be disastrous in my view. You cannot get an official response as the whole project is shrouded in mystery and secrets. But there seems to be a slightly different mood in the City. It will be a real headache if the line doesn’t benefit us at the first cut. We need to up the campaign!!

I will do a little digging to see what I can find out…

I have played for many years – and became an England Squash qualified Coach back in 2001. These days my knees are likely to shorten my career! It’s a hard game on the joints.

There was a travesty when Squash was not chosen as an Olympic sport either this year or for 2016. The problem is that it’s not a great spectator sport – although the introduction of glass walled courts have changed that. You really have to have played to appreciate good play.

The British Open is currently being hosted at the O2 in London. It’s the Wimbledon of Squash – and we currently have the world number one and two – James Willstrop and Nick Matthew. I have seen both of them play at Nottingham’s Squash Club. There aren’t many sports Where you get to see the World number one or two play? Sadly the sport has been declining in numbers for many years – which is a great pity.

We have to encourage kids to play.

And one such ‘kid’ was my youngest son Jak. He played from the age of six and then had a gap after picking up a number of injuries. But starting back a couple of years ago, his game has come on – to the extent that he won the Club Championships – Group C at the weekend. The final was hard fought, but he shone through. Apologies about the quality of the image! But you get the picture – Jak’s on the left.

I think his coach during the game is still awaiting the champagne…

Well done Jak!

The event was held under Chatham House Rules – so I can’t divulge the full details. However, it was a fairly robust and challenging discussion.

My views are fairly well known about Nottingham now. I think we don’t punch above our weight. I think we under-achieve. And to some extent I’m of this view because I believe that we have got bogged down in small minded politics. We do have some good things – and there are good things in the pipeline. But I’m restless about where we are going. I worry that we are slipping back.

I travel around a lot and I see other places pushing forward. Nottingham has to find itself again. There is a rich seam of talent here – and that needs to be given a voice and an outlet.

We are going to arrange another Nottingham based Dinner as the follow up is all important.

What became clear at the end of the two hour session were that there were some themes that people were passionate about:

1. Nottingham needs a story. Be it Robin Hood or sustainability or that we are easy to deal with. Our identity his not clear.
2. The power of education is all. Our Universities and Colleges are critical to the success of the city now and into the future
3. Sustainability is a given – but must pervade everything the City does.
4. Retail is king – we must keep improving and the Broad Marsh / Victoria Centre debate needs to be resolved.
5. Jobs and social cohesiveness will become more important. We have to head off the riots and disenchantment.

I look forward to the next Dinner. Hopefully some good will come from this – and all of Nottingham can benefit.

I have also had a number of discussions in the last week about where we are at with the City – and our place in the UK. Granted the city is a ‘Core City’, but I’m not sure what this really means.

When the prospect of the High Speed Train 2 first emerged as a possibility – and more so that there might be a stop at Nottingham, I thought this was a great idea. It allowed us to connect with London (and beyond). My view then, as now, is that London is rather important to us. I do quite a lot of business there.

Of course London is in the ascendency – particularly this year – the summer sees the Queens Diamond Jubilee then in July the Olympic jamboree comes to town. Later in the year the tallest building in Europe will open – The Shard nears completion now and has become a real landmark on the skyline. It has provided some excitement.

I’m not sure where that puts us.

We do still have some great things – as I have blogged about before. But where is the financial services sector? Where are the Olympics? Where are our ‘Shards’?

We need a new focus. We need to make sure that we can compete with the other major Cities – Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham et al. We have to – as I think they are, in some cases, overtaking us. We can’t be complacent. That only has one certain result – and it won’t be good.

The first thing we need to do is re-examine the shopping. We need Broadmarsh to happen. It has to happen before we extend the Victoria Centre north. We are slipping down the rankings on the shopping indices. Then we need to make development easier to do in the City _ I do believe this has started, with the introduction of a new Director of Development. But it needs to keep momentum – and we need people to know about us. We also have to crack down on crime. We have too many headlines of the wrong sort.

If we do a few of these things it will be a start. But we shouldn’t underestimate the task ahead. It’s no good saying we have ambition – we need to demonstrate it.

28320 people voted to keep arrangements as they are now – 20943 voted in favour of changing the council being run by a Mayor elected by voters – giving a majority of 7,377 to the ‘no’ vote. The split was approximately 57% for and 43% against. The turnout was 23.9% of all eligible voters.

Nottingham was one of the ten largest cities in England chosen for potential change. As it turned out nine out of the ten cities chosen had a ‘no’ returned. Just Bristol agreed – and they will hold an election in the Autumn. In Doncaster they chose to keep their Mayor who was appointed first in 2001.

So what went wrong?

Regrettably the debate didn’t really start. The present Labour Leadership in Nottingham ran a negative campaign which was really a lost opportunity. There were no details behind their headlines. Some of the tactics (such as the racist leaflet) were below the belt. The £1m cost was never justified – and was just political spin in my view. To that end it worked.

But in my various conversations over the last few weeks with the business community at large the anecdotal evidence was that Nottingham needs a change. The business community don’t get a vote! But they do shape and influence the City. I never met anyone who said it was a waste of money.

I am still of the view that this is a good place, but it’s not great. Nor is it as good as it could be. We are in danger of become more marginalised – especially as the current leadership continues to fight Government.

I have heard too many negative stories in the last few weeks. One London Developer said to me, “you have no idea how difficult it is to invest in your City”. Word gets around and this is not good.

We need to wake up and smell the coffee. A win it may have been, but it wasn’t a whitewash. I hope that the Council take notice that there is an undercurrent – and it’s not in favour of the way things have always been.

Time to drop the Mayor story from here, but not the sentiments. Nottingham needs change to make change.

Gillray first – he was a satirist in the mid 19th century who drew and hand coloured caricatures of the rich and famous. A sort of pre-cursor to the paparazzi! The pictures show the sort of issues faced in the day – expensive wars, MP’s inappropriate use of funds and celebrity gossip! It could well have been 2012? Funny how some things don’t change!

But then Rottenberg, who was at the launch party. Born in 1976, she has lived in New York and the work is video based, shown in specially built enclosures – intended in some ways to make you feel claustrophobic. Much of the subject matter seems to be women workers – doing repetitive tasks. Some have an adult theme!

I enjoyed the Gillray prints – the detail is amazing and there is humour in some of them.They provide an interesting social commentary of a different but similar time. The Rottenberg I found a little more challenging – but didn’t really have time to study and watch the videos in great detail. I need to go back to have a better look.

What was evident was the interest in the show. The preview was as busy as I have seen it – and there were some new faces in the crowd – which was good to see.

We do sometimes underestimate the importance of the Nottingham Contemporary – it was one of my key ingredients when I was talking about what the good about Nottingham, I think it remains so.

I might not always like the art, but I do think it raises our profile and makes people think. If it does one of those two things then some good has come…

And last week I went to the Brooklyn MOMA PS1 Exhibition where one of the installations was two (live) cats in a room – now that is challenging my interpretation of art – video / prints are much more mainstream!

The Police were great – as they were when we had some bikes stolen earlier in the year. The SOCO man unfortunately couldn’t get fingerprints – I was all for DNA test, but it seems that they only really do this when there’s a murder. Attempted break-in is some way from this apparently.

One of the things that we must get sorted out as a City is crime. Although the statistics can tell you anything you like, the reality is that we still have a crime issue. Most big Cities do.

The Police were quite candid. They usually know who the ‘usual suspects’ are. The problem is evidence. But more than this, the real problem is the ‘punishment’. Which, if meted out, is usually a ‘joke’. So the criminals know that if they get caught the Courts are not going to do much with them. A telling off or slap on the wrist is what they can expect.

Unfortunately many of the cases simply don’t get to Court – the costs of doing so are expensive and if there’s at the slightest hole in the evidence then the case will almost certainly fail. So, rather than take a case with lost so circumstantial evidence and ‘known’ bad boys, it’s waste of time. So the criminals just carry on – taking yours and my stuff (although they didn’t this time).

We surely have to get to a point where there is an effective deterrent. It needs to be short and sharp.

When I came in one night there was a reality TV show on about the Police. They had chased two bad lads across a field and trapped them in a copse. The Police helicopter found them with it’s heat seeking camera and a dog team were dispatched. Despite warnings the dogs were sent in and quickly retrieved the two – who were seen bleeding where the dog had bitten them. they were complaining bitterly about being mauled. The interesting comment was that the bite (which clearly hurt) was probably the worst punishment they would get!

A short sharp bite might make them think twice?

We have had some amazing meals over the years – in all sorts of places – New York, Boston, Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Malmo and Hamburg to name but a few! We have also ‘done’ most of Nottingham’s too – Harts, World Service, Jamie’s and Carluccio’s!

It was apparently Nick’s turn to treat me – and he offered the Tamatanga Urban Canteen in The Cornerhouse. I have to confess I hadn’t heard of it. It’s not a part of town I tend to go.

In the heavy rain I arrived and he was already perched on one of the massive tables – which you share – I figured this was a canteen!

He recommended the food – we did Thai food – a main dish, rice and lots of smaller dishes. And a bottle of coke.

I was pleasantly surprised, the service was great – quick and efficient. The food was amazing. And incredibly – it was around £15 for us both!

I was reminded when we were sat there about one of the key findings of the work we did for the sheriff’s Commission back in 2009 – food featured highly in world-class attractions. One of the best meals we had was in the Farmers Market in Los Angeles – where it was cheap but really good quality.

Well done Tamatanga!