Police are urging motorists to be vigilant after overnight catalytic converter thefts in Arnold and Mapperley.
The warning comes after two thefts in the early hours of this morning (Thursday, July 8).
At about 12.45am a car was targeted in Greendale Road in Arnold.
The victim was woken up by the sound of a cutting tool. He then saw men in dark clothing leave the scene.
Also just after 1am it was reported a group of men in Westmoore Close in Mapperley had attacked vehicles with power tools before stealing catalytic converters. The caller had heard the sound of sawing and a car being jacked up.
Inspector Amy English, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: “Officers are working hard to investigate these offences and I’d ask anyone who was in these areas who saw anything, or anyone who may have captured CCTV or dash-cam footage, to please get in touch with us.
PICTURED: Catalytic converter
“While we have upped our patrols in affected areas we are urging people to be vigilant and if they spot any suspicious vehicles or people in their area to report it to us on 101. If a crime is in progress call 999 immediately.
“If you see any suspicious activity try to obtain as much information as possible, including any vehicle registrations.
“Criminals involved in this type of offending will target cars at any time during the day or night so if you see someone acting suspiciously under a vehicle, please report it.
“We’re also urging residents to be vigilant and make it as difficult as possible for criminals to target their vehicles. Where possible ensure your vehicle is parked on your driveway or in your garage if you have one. Alternatively, ensure you are parked in a well-lit area.
“Having an alarm and immobiliser fitted to your vehicle is also an effective way of deterring criminals.”
Anyone with any information about the overnight incidents is asked to call Nottinghamshire Police on 101, quoting incident number 924 of 7 July 2021.
If you see any suspicious activity in your area please report it immediately by calling Nottinghamshire Police on 101. If an incident is in progress call 999.
A Mapperley man has been jailed for a “vicious” hammer attack that left his parents in hospital with serious injuries, leaving one with lasting brain damage.
Joseph Chattaway, 25, repeatedly struck his mum and dad with a hammer in an attack that sent shockwaves through the local community in August last year.
Chattaway fled the scene and sparked a seven-day manhunt that saw the force helicopter, drones and foot patrols searching for him.
The large-scale investigation led to his arrest in Staffordshire on August 14, 2020.
Nearly a year later, Chattaway’s father is still being treated for a brain injury. His mother was discharged from hospital in August last year.
Having initially been charged with attempted murder, Chattaway pleaded guilty to two counts wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm at a hearing on 16 March 2021.
He was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison at Nottingham Crown Court today (Thursday, July 8, 2021).
PICTURED: Nottingham Crown Court
Detective Inspector Pamela Dowson, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: “This was a shocking and vicious incident that a massive impact on the victims both physically and mentally.
“It has been an incredibly difficult time for the family involved and we have worked closely with them to ensure that they have been supported by specially trained officers throughout the investigation.
“A large-scale policing operation was launched to find Chattaway as we were concerned for his safety. Thankfully he was found and we are satisfied that justice has been served as a result.
“We know how difficult this has been for the victims, who have asked for privacy during this difficult time – we expect this to be respected.
“Communities can be reassured that we work tirelessly to investigate violent crime when it happens and will always look to take appropriate action.
“If you are a victim of or witness violent crime in your local area, please contact Nottinghamshire Police on 101 or in an emergency, dial 999.”
Neighbourhood Policing Inspector Chris Pearson, who covers Mapperley, has praised officers and detectives for their work to find Chattaway.
He said: “This case was an incredibly shocking for the local community who were understandably concerned about the attack.
“That being said, officers in the local area worked hard to reassure residents and ensure that patrols were upped in the area while we searched for Chattaway.
“Throughout the investigation, the community were patient and understanding and I would like to thank residents for their cooperation throughout that period.
“This really was a good example of how policing departments work together to achieve a goal and I welcome today’s result.”
Police in Arnold have issued a warning to residents following reports of suspected rogue roofers operating in the area.
Arnold’s Neighbourhood Policing Team were called out following a suspicious incident where two males in a van have attended a female’s home, ‘completed’ unknown work on the roof and then demanded £800.
Police say the males identified themselves as working for ‘Vintage Roofing’ and were seen driving a dark-coloured van.
They have then told the female to attend the bank for the cash and they would return to collect it.
A police spokesman said: “Although the female was shown ‘before’ and ‘after’ shots of her roof, we can’t confirm this was even her roof.
“The first thing they told the victim was that they were ‘on Google’. When officers have searched the company on Google, they are listed as a business but have no contact details listed – this instantly raises suspicion.
“Please keep an eye out for these guys! Even if a company is listed on Google, look closely to make sure it’s legitimate as anybody can list a company on the internet. If you require work doing on your property then you should contact the companies yourself.
Never buy products or services from door-to-door sellers, take a leaflet and do some research before agreeing to any work being done.”
Officers ae now appealing for information following the incident.
The spokesman added: “If you have any information regarding the above males and vehicle or think you may have cctv, please contact us on 101 quoting incident number 0439_080702021”
Gedling Borough Council says it has distributed around £25.1 million to support local businesses facing financial difficulties during the pandemic.
The local authority discussed its achievements but also its difficulties during the coronavirus pandemic at a cabinet meeting held on Thursday, May 8.
It said that out of 96 actions it had included in its plan it has managed to complete 90 of them over the last year.
The council said construction work had started this year to transform the long-awaited Arnold Market Place as well as Carlton Square improvement scheme.
A ‘landmark’ market building will be built between the Methodist Church and King George V park in Arnold and will comprise of units designed for small and independent businesses.
A new public space will be built near the new building which will retain the 24 market stalls with an opening date of Spring 2022.
A memorial stone dedicated to those residents who have tragically lost their lives due to Covid was also unveiled.
But concerns in missing targets over the amount of new homes built in the area and getting people out of temporary accommodation were addressed.
The council said additional new homes for this year was 310, which was lower than the 480 anticipated.
The Council say they handed out over £25m during the pandemic (PHOTO: Neil Slack Photography)
Currently people also remain in temporary accommodation for 20.9 weeks against a target of 15 weeks, with the department still “experiencing high numbers of households in priority need presenting as homeless”.
The cabinet heard how six large families, with three plus children, were living in temporary two bedroom flats/three bedroom houses. This has now reduced to four families.
The report states: “Unfortunately, the number of two or three bedroom social housing becoming available has declined and it is not proportionate to the demand for permanent housing, meaning families continue to be placed in temporary accommodation.
“However, better news is that the house construction market has now restarted, meaning the numbers of affordable properties in Gedling will start to increase again during 2021/22.”
Councillor Michael Payne, deputy leader of the council, told the meeting: “I think if you look – we have faced the worse public health crisis since World War II and to get a record sheet like the one we have heard is pretty remarkable.
“The areas of concern are areas of concern but can be understood within the wider context. We know house building has been put on hold early on in the pandemic.
“I think what should not be lost is that the borough continues to be a place that has brilliant green infrastructure. People’s parks and town centres will have been their world because they have not been able to travel any further.”
Councillors fear Gedling Borough Council could come under a cyber attack, putting residents’ information such as Council Tax details at risk.
The local authority discussed the ‘increased threat’ of a cyber attack at its cabinet meeting earlier today (Thursday,8)
This comes after cyber thieves believed to be from Russia attempted to hack into Broxtowe Borough Council’s computer systems in February to try to steal personal information.
The system’s firewall held the thieves at bay and no personal details were accessed.
Gedling Borough Council said “there continues to be an increased threat of a cyber-attack which, if successful, will result in a significant impact on the council’s customers, staff and reputation”.
The council said it has a number of measures, including a Data Security Group, now in place to ensure thieves can’t successfully strike as an attack could prevent the local authority being “unable to deliver vital services to customers”.
The threat was discussed at a council meeting earlier today (PHOTO: Gedling Eye)
In 2020/21, the council has recorded 44 data breaches/incidents by council officers.
No breaches were reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office as after investigation none of the breaches identified a risk to the rights and freedoms of an individual.
The report to cabinet states: “The breaches reported have been minor in nature and have largely been borne out of clerical error, for example the wrong addresses typed into systems which generates mail to the wrong address.
“Staff have been reminded to check address details or update changes to addresses before sending out mail.
“Every incident is thoroughly investigated and wherever necessary, measures are put in place to reduce the risk of further incidents. No systemic failures have been identified.
“There has been one incident where council equipment has been lost, being a mobile phone, but the risk of information loss was low and the device was not connected to the network so presents no ongoing risk.”
The report said there were no successful cyber security incidents involving malware or hacking in 2020/21.
However, the council said it continues to be subject to “a large number of attempted phishing attacks which are stopped by a combination of technical controls and staff vigilance”.
The council said: “Unfortunately during the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been an increase nationally in the number of phishing attacks relating to Teams, Zoom and Covid-19 and as a result additional guidance has been provided to officers and members.”
The owners of the Haunted Museum have today announced they will be making the move into Nottingham city centre after being forced to leave their Mapperley home last month.
Museum owner Steve Wesson told Gedling Eye the old cinema that housed the museum on Woodborough Road was beyond repair and they were seeking a new home somewhere in the city.
Mr Wesson told Gedling Eye at the time: “The old Majestic Cinema has been a amazing building for us and is such a shame we now can’t carry on there for many years to come.”
But today there was good news with the attraction announcing on their Facebook page they will be making the move into the Hopkinsons antiques and arts building on Station Street.
The collection will now be housed alongside other oddities at the museum in the basement at the city centre venue.
In the post, Mr Wesson wrote: “Hopkinson is only a short walk from the city centre and located next to the train station and tram stop for easy visiting.
“Not only does Hopkinsons have their own resident ghosts but you can now visit with us at the Haunted Museum that will be located within the large basement area.”
“We will be opening 7 days a week from 11am – 8pm.”
The Haunted Museum first opened in Mapperley back in 2018 by paranormal investigator Mr Wesson and wife Marie, who put their spooky collection of artefacts on display to the general public.
Included in the macabre collection was a morgue fridge from Denbigh Insane Asylum in Wales, a 400 year old skull belonging to someone who fell victim to the plague and Thomas – a doll made from a dead husband’s bed bandages in the 1970s.
A charity project helping vulnerable children and young people in Netherfield is getting ready to move to its new home in a former doctor’s surgery building.
The Netherfield Forum is setting up the former medical site as a new hub for all its support and activities for vulnerable young people in the community after acquiring the building from Assura, the primary care property specialist which built the replacement Trentside Medical Building on Meadow Road last year.
The forum is the umbrella organisation running both the St George’s Centre and the Loco Centre, which operates in the Methodist Church. The charity was struggling to operate from both sites due to leasing costs and the distance between them but with the old Netherfield Surgery building being in close proximity to St George’s Centre, the Netherfield Forum was given the opportunity to have both operations working much closer together.
PICTURED: Young people from Netherfield check out the former medical centre which will become a new hub for children and teenagers based in the town
Tina Simpson, Treasurer for the Netherfield Forum said: “Everyone in the community is delighted that we can complete this move. While this was progressing, we were still offering £1 meals and operating a foodbank and to be able keep that going whilst getting this new building for us, it just makes me feel so proud of our whole team.”
Some minor building work is needed to help make the space suitable for the Netherfield Forum, which is being carried out by volunteers, local businesses and with help from Assura and its contractor, Key Construction. Once open, the site will benefit around 500 local children and young people.
Tina Simpson added: “We’ve got lots of young people involved and different groups including dance groups, karate and groups for children with disabilities and everyone is really excited. They all can’t wait for us to make the minor internal changes to change the building to fit the needs of the young people.”
“We work with the groups which means we can keep hiring costs down for the venues and because it’s a high deprivation area, it means families of these children have access to these wonderful activities at a much more affordable cost and it enables the children to have all of these experiences – which is what it is all about.”
Andrew Cooper, Assura Senior Development manager, said: “We are so proud to have been able to help the Forum make this happen – I can’t think of a better way for this community building to now have a new lease of life. It will continue contributing to the health and wellbeing of local young people for many years to come and that’s a very special thing.“
Documents released by Inspire, the organisation that runs Nottinghamshire’s libraries, have confirmed exactly how much libraries and centres across Gedling borough received in Government grants during the pandemic.
The organisation was hit by more than £1.6 million in losses related to the pandemic but received Government grants.
Inspire, the independent charity responsible for managing the services, estimates the financial implications from Covid-19 were around £1,636,000.
This includes a slump in income of around £780,000, with the charity saying it could take until the end of the current financial year to completely recover.
The income losses come from services including libraries and archives, music teaching, education library services and adult learning fees, all of which were halted by the first lockdown in March 2020.
The charity estimates it has incurred a further £334,000 in additional costs, including making buildings Covid-secure and deploying ICT to enable staff and students to work from home.
In the remaining part of the financial year, additional income losses of £236,000 and further fees of £286,000 amount to an expected £522,000 hit before April 2022.
However, the organisation has revealed it managed to maintain its finances by applying for Government Covid grants to bring in lost income.
Since the start of the pandemic, the charity has received £506,000 from the job retention (furlough) scheme, helping to ensure none of its 688 staff faced redundancy.
It also received more than £1 million in Government business grants spread across its libraries and community arts centres, supporting with implementing Covid safety measures.
This includes £702,340 from the retail, hospitality and leisure grant, £168,900 in business rates relief and a further £163,342 from the restart grant.
It means, overall, thanks to the Government support, the organisation has only been hit with losses of around £95,000 since March last year.
Speaking on the financial pressures experienced by Inspire, the charity’s chief executive Peter Gaw described the pandemic as a “perfect storm” of lost income and extra costings.
He said: “We have quickly remodelled our budget to look at what the impact of Covid is on our finances.
“Our aspiration was to mitigate the potential of having to make staff redundancies or a reduction in services, and so we took advantage of Government retail and leisure grants, the business rates holidays and the job retention scheme.
“What we’ve been really careful to do is to make sure we only drew on funding that would meet our financial pressures, pressure caused by lack of income, the additional costs of making our sites Covid-secure, buying hand gel, PPE, screens and extra cleaning.
“It’s a perfect storm of income reduction and extra costs. We were careful and our board have been focused on balancing out.”
Libraries across Nottinghamshire began reopening their doors in July 2020 following the first lockdown, operating at reduced capacity and opening hours.
However, the organisation made adjustments to offer altered services – including moving its archives online and using technology to reduce face-to-face contact.
Mr Gaw confirmed many services are expected to begin operating at full capacity from September.
He said: “Our ambition is very much starting to return our opening hours and delivery services back.
“Over the last couple of weeks, especially given the quarantining rules of books has eased, we have been able to expand opening hours where we can.
“There are practicalities because we need to make sure we’re operating alongside whatever restrictions are in place, but our aspiration is to do this.
“Our ambition is that by September we will be fully operational, but most of our libraries have got increasing levels of opening hours.”
Inspire have now confirmed exactly how much each of its libraries and centres across Gedling received in Government grants during the pandemic.
An Arnold mum of two is encouraging others not to neglect their vision after her eyesight was saved following an eye test at Specsavers in the town.
Karen Stubbs, 42, visited the opticians on Front Street when she realised she hadn’t had an eye test in years.
“As a parent, you get so preoccupied with your kids’ needs, you forget about yourself,’ she said.
“I thought I needed to focus on my own health a bit and booked an eye examination.’
“I had noticed that my eyesight was getting a little worse and I had started getting migraines but I didn’t think it was anything serious.’
When Arnold Specsavers optometrist, Adila Khokhar, examined Karen’s eyes, she discovered the early stages of a potentially sight-threatening condition. Using a viewing microscope for the eye called a slit lamp, Adila could see that pressure may be building up inside Karen’s eyes.
PICTURED: Specsavers optometrist Adila Khokhar
Karen was referred to the eye clinic at the Queen’s Medical Centre (QMC), where she was treated with laser surgery to relieve the pressure at the back of her eyes. Without treatment, the condition could have led to closed-angle glaucoma and loss of sight. She has now been discharged from QMC and just needs annual checks with an optometrist to monitor the condition.
“I really want people to know that they should be getting regular eye examinations, even if their vision seems fine”, said Karen.
“Just over a year ago, I had no idea there was anything happening to my eyes. Now that I know, I’ve been able to warn my brother and kids that it’s something they need to watch out for, as it can be hereditary.”
Glaucoma is a progressive eye condition that can happen when naturally-occurring fluid inside the eye does not drain properly, causing a build-up of pressure which damages the optic nerve. There are two main types – chronic glaucoma, which develops slowly with subtle changes to vision, and acute glaucoma, which can develop rapidly eventually leading to a painful build-up of pressure in the eye.
Although it often affects both eyes, in a lot of cases it can be symptomless until it has already damaged your sight, so regular eye tests – and making sure that you follow your treatment plan if diagnosed – really matter.
Optometrist director at Arnold Specsavers, Vineet Nehra, said: ‘Karen’s story shows just how important it is to have a routine eye examination. We were able to see the early signs of this condition so that Karen could get the treatment she needed. If it had been left untreated it could have led to acute glaucoma and permanent loss of sight.’
Fire crews have rescued a teenager from the River Trent in Stoke Bardolph.
Crews from Carlton, London Road, Newark and Highfields attended the incident.
The rescue took place on Stoke Lane near the Ferry Boat pub this afternoon at 3pm.
A 14-year old is now in the care of East Midlands Ambulance Service following the rescue.
Station Manager Jonathan Wilson said: “Firefighters entered the water and used throw lines, forming a circle to stop the teenager from being swept away into the fast-moving water of the River Trent.
“This incident is a reminder of the dangers of open water. “Even if the water is shallow or looks inviting in the warm weather, this can easily overpower even the most confident swimmers.
He added: “If you see someone struggling in water, we ask you not to enter the water. Encourage the casualty to float and call 999.”
