Gedling Eye continues to look back at the highs and lows of 2022 across the borough, continuing with April to June …
You can read our review of January to March HERE
APRIL
A robber who fled the country after stealing around £41,000 worth of mobile phones from a Netherfield store was jailed. Marih Dimitru posed as a customer with another man before threatening members of staff at the now former Carphone Warehouse store at the Victoria Retail Park. Dimitru demanded access to the safe and when it was opened by the fearful staff he filled bin liners with boxed mobile phones. Dimitru and the other man then left via the front entrance with a haul of around 80 phones and fled in a car.
Generous Carlton and Netherfield residents helped send more than 100 bags of vital supplies to Ukraine. Pub-goers made the donations at collection points based at the Fox and Hounds pub on Station Road in Carlton and Netherfield’s Lime Trees nursery and also It’s Inn The Bank pub on Victoria Road.
A Nottingham man’s fishing trip in the middle of the night on the River Trent in Colwick cost him £619 after he illegally removed fish from the river. 37-year-old Piotr Czyzak, of Leonard Street, Nottingham, was found guilty to the offence of removing the fish. He was fined £440 and ordered to pay £135 costs and a victim surcharge of £44.
Colwick residents were advised to keep their windows and doors shut while firefighters tackled a blaze involving 20 tonnes of waste paper. Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service Crews from Carlton, London Road, Arnold, Highfields and Edwinstowe, including the Aerial Ladder Platform, worked to extinguish the fire.
Two extraordinary young people from Gedling borough were celebrated in a special awards ceremony aimed at shining a light on inspiring youngsters from Nottinghamshire. Taona Makunganya won the Bringing People Together Award and Khushi Kaur won the Young Performer of the Year Award at the Live Our Best Life Awards 2022 ceremony, organised by Nottinghamshire Police and held at Nottingham Forest Football Club.
Plans were unveiled to improve the “heavily congested” A60 corridor between Redhill and Nottingham that would see new bus lanes created without being “detrimental” to journey times for car drivers, council documents state. The new bus lanes would be installed at three ‘pinch points’ along the busy road, including close to the roundabout junction with the A614, where large queues form during rush hours.
Thousands of households across Gedling borough started receiving their £150 council tax rebate to help reduce the impact of national energy cost increases. As well as the £150 payment for all residents in bands A-D, the Government allocated Gedling Borough Council with £172,800 discretionary funding. The funding was to be used to award an extra £23 to those households in bands A-D who were receiving Council Tax Support as well as paying £173 to all those households receiving Council Tax Support in properties with a band higher than band D.
MAY
Nottinghamshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner Caroline Henry pleaded guilty to five speeding offences in the space of four months. Mrs Henry, 51, of Giltbrook, was elected as a Conservative commissioner in May 2021 and was responsible for holding Nottinghamshire Police to account and overseeing its spending.
Exlibris, the masked book sellers of Nottingham, marked an end to their 20 years of charity book sales with a final event in Carlton over the weekend. Bob and Chris Cann, the founders of the charity booksale, organised a final sale at their property in Vernon Avenue. The mammoth event ran for three long weekends with the unsold books donated to Books for Good Causes foundation in South Yorkshire and a collection of children’s books will be given to foodbanks. The profits from the final sale went to the local charities WE R HERE and Host Nottingham. The charity also collected tins of vegetarian food from the visitors to hand over to Netherfield Food bank.
A convicted drug dealer who was on the run for four years ago was back behind bars after being caught in Papplewick. Richard Brown was driving a Vauxhall Astra when he was stopped by officers in Main Street, due to the vehicle being insured only to a woman. At the time, officers did not know they had pulled over someone who had been a wanted man since 2018. Desperate to avoid capture, the 30-year-old gave false details but the photo of the person whose details he gave was clearly not him. He had previously been jailed for three years for possession with intent to supply class A and B drugs.
Michael Payne was selected as Labour’s Parliamentary candidate for Gedling. Mr Payne, a Nottinghamshire County Councillor has been Deputy Leader of Gedling Borough Council for 11 years. He was one of six candidates to speak at a hustings event prior to the vote, which was held at Bonington Theatre in Arnold for Labour Party members.
It was announced that a community library in Burton Joyce would receive an upgrade ito turn it into a ‘village hub’. Burton Joyce Library will now be upgraded after Nottinghamshire County Council received £170,000 from the Government and the Arts Council. The library will be refurbished and established as a ‘hub’ for the community.
A number of pubs in Arnold, Colwick and Mapperley offered pints for just 6p in celebration of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. Pub chain Greene King announced that their customers could enjoy an incredibly cheap pint of Greene King IPA at participating pubs if they used a secret codeword. The pub chain offered the 6p pints at 408 of its sites because that was the average cost of a pint during the Queen’s ascension to the throne in 1952.
JUNE
A medal and coins to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee was presented to an Arnold volunteer cop to reward him for his long service. Special Constable Alan Marwood is the force’s longest-serving recipient and has been with Notts Police for 52 years. The volunteer, from Arnold, joined Nottinghamshire Police in 1970 and has policed many different areas in the county, said he was delighted to receive the special commemorative medal. He said: “It’s a very nice gesture. When you take the oath you swear to serve our Sovereign Lady, so the Queen’s been ‘the boss’ for 70 years.
Frontline workers and community heroes from Gedling borough were recognised in this year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours. A charity leader and youth project director were both been recognised for their contribution to society over the last 12 months. Damian Reynolds, from Mapperley, was recognised for charitable services to the Youth Sector and David Wakelin, from Ravenshead, was recognised for services to Young People in Nottingham.
Gedling‘s beacon was officially lit in honour of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. The special ceremony was held during at Gedling Country Park. The event drew a huge crowd with hundreds of residents turning out to see the momentous occasion. The park beacon had only been lit once before and that was to mark the Queen’s 90th birthday back in 2016.
A Netherfield man who was accused of sexually assaulting a young girl in a shop was jailed. Matthew Harrison, aged 32, targeted the child as she was shopping with her father at a store in Mansfield Road, Nottingham, at around 4pm on Sunday, January 16. Harrison, who was working in the store at the time, lured the primary school aged child away from her father under the guise of helping her to find a favourite treat. Harrison, of Kenrick Street, was exposed when the child later told her parents about what had happened.
Eight lucky neighbours from Arnold were awarded a share of £270,000 in the People’s Postcode Lottery when NG5 6RT was announced as the winning postcode. Seven of the neighbours won £30,000, while the eighth landed £60,000, playing with two tickets.
A prolific shoplifter who stole thousands of pounds worth of items from a store in Carlton was locked up. Dean Earl carried out a string of thefts during a stealing spree that lasted several months. The 40-year-old targeted the same Wilko store in Carlton Square, Carlton, on three separate occasions. In total, he walked out with more than £2,500 worth of items.
Vernon Coaker was given the freedom of the borough after serving Gedling for 25 years as an MP. Lord Coaker, now a peer, was awarded the honour at an extraordinary meeting of Gedling Borough Council. During Lord Coaker’s extensive career as the MP for Gedling, he was elected six times and had several high profile government posts including the Shadow Secretary of State for Defence and Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. Lord Coaker has also had roles on an international stage, supporting UNICEF and, more recently, raising the profile of Modern Slavery as a member of the Council of Europe.
Latest figures were published by The Rivers Trust advising that untreated sewage was discharged into the Ouse Dyke for 376 hours in 2021. The data showed there were 218 incidents of raw sewage being poured into the dyke. The main source of sewage into the dyke is the outlet on Burton Road near the Inn For A Penny pub in Carlton. 2021 figures also revealed that a storm overflow on Bonner Lane outside Calverton pumped sewage into Grimesmoor Dyke 37 times for 25 hours, a sewage storm overflow at the Shelt Hill Pumping Station near Woodborough was used 41 times for 791 hours and the emergency overflow at Burton Joyce by the River Trent was activated 51 times for 724 hours during 2021. Severn Trent Water said plans were in place to reduce the use of storm overflows locally.
