Work on a £450,000 revamp of Carlton Square has begun following the approval of contractors and confirmation of an successful external funding bid.
Gedling Borough Council has confirmed that Lindum Group is the appointed contractor to revitalise the shopping centre car park and pre-construction works have now begun on site.
This coincides with the announcement that the D2N2 will provide £350,000 to the project from its Local Growth Fund through the locally managed N2 Town Centre Programme.
The D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) is one of 38 LEPs across England. D2N2’s private sector-led Board represents business, local authorities, skills and training providers, and voluntary and community organisations. It promotes economic growth and jobs creation in Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire; using UK Government and European funding.
Works will include a new entrance to the car park from Burton Road and a new car parking layout in the northern car park, including identified spaces for electric vehicle points.
PICTURED: Steve’s Bar owner Stephen Charles behind the bar at his new venue in Carlton Square
There will also be safer and improved access between the car park and shopping area including a new pedestrian route to the shopping centre from Burton Road. HGV traffic will also be separated from visitor.
Stephen Charles opened a new bar at the shopping centre on Saturday and said the improvements can’t come soon enough.
Mr Charles told Gedling Eye: “The council’s plans are what drew us to Carlton Square.
“When the work is completed it’s going to look really good and it was one of the main factors in us opening up here.”
Young people in Gedling borough are being warned about the dangers of playing near open water as the summer holidays approach.
Families are also being urged help to drive home the risk of drowning if children enter the water, as emergency services, local councils and water charities team up to prevent tragedies in rivers, lakes, canals and ponds across the borough.
The plea comes after neighbourhood policing teams covering Gedling supported a water safety week of action led by Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service over the last week and say they will continue to push the message throughout the summer holidays.
Partner organisations engaged with families to raise awareness of water safety, with educational sessions around Holme Pierrepoint National Watersports Centre and Colwick Country Park.
Among the other organisations working together to help keep people safe around water this summer include those within Nottinghamshire’s Water Safety Partnership, the Canal & River Trust, Gedling Borough Council, the Open Water Education Network (OWEN) and Colwick Park.
Experts say around 44 per cent of accidental drownings happen between May and August and more than 46 per cent of people who get in trouble in water, never even intended to be in the water.
Bryn Coleman, area manager at Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service, said: “Although being in and around water can be fun, it can also be extremely dangerous.
PICTURED: Colwick Country Park (IMAGE: Gedling Eye)
“Even when the weather is warm, it doesn’t always mean the water is. Immediately after jumping or falling into water your movements are likely to be impaired due to the cold, and it is likely you will be gasping due to the shock of the temperature.
“This summer we urge you to be safe around water, as fun can very quickly turn into tragedy.
“We ask that if you see someone in water, that you don’t go in after them. Call the emergency services and encourage the casualty to float.
“Having What3Words downloaded is also beneficial, as it will give the control room the exact location of an incident, which helps especially with incidents involving water.”
Inspector Chris Pearson, who heads up Gedling’s Neighbourhood Policing team, added: “It is really important that people stay away from open water as we don’t want families to suffer the devastation of losing a loved one.
“We are urging people to stay safe over the summer by making themselves and their children aware of the dangers. When the weather is warm, it’s tempting to jump in to cool off, but this can endanger your life and the lives of others if they then enter the water to help you.
“Water can be deep, unpredictable and contain hidden dangers. There are still lots of things to do safely near open water sites. We don’t want to spoil anyone’s fun or discourage people from enjoying the activities some sites provide – but please be safe and stay out of the water unless you know the site is properly supervised and there is adequate rescue cover.”
To read more about water safety on Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service’s website visit Your Safety (notts-fire.gov.uk)
For more information about the Open Water Education Network (OWEN) visit their website here: https://owen7.org.uk/
A school in Gedling is one of 14 to benefit from funding which will be used to improve, upgrade, and replace existing facilities, with several schools in the county becoming more environmentally friendly due to new heating systems and better insulation.
Carlton le Willows Academy is one of 14 different primary and secondary schools that will receive funding for improvements after successful bids from the government’s Condition Improvement Fund (CIF).
The CIF is an annual bidding round where eligible schools can apply for funding so they can improve or expand their facilities.
The school will getnew windows and heating system
Councillor Sam Smith, vice chair of Nottinghamshire County Council’s Children and Young People’s Committee, said: “I’m very pleased that schools in our county have been able to secure this extra government funding. It’s great news for schools in Nottinghamshire, and it means better facilities for our children and young people.
“Many of these new projects will mean our schools will become more environmentally friendly, using more efficient and sustainable heating systems and better insultation.”
A national card and gift shop giant has opened a new store in Netherfield.
Cardzone, which owns stores and brands across the UK, including Hallmark, Paper Kisses and Home & Fragrance, is opening a new store at Victoria Retail Park.
As well as cards, they sell a variety of gifts, gift wrap, candles, confectionary and more. Cardzone is also one of the largest retailers of Thorntons and Yankee Candle in the UK.
PICTURED: Victoria Retail Park
The new store will open in the former Carphone Warehouse unit at the popular shopping destination, which closed for good back in March 2020.
Cardzone have been rapidly expanding during 2021, with plans to trade from 185 stores by the summer, with plans to open one or two stores a week from April until the end of June.
A new bar in Carlton is preparing to welcome customers for the very first time this weekend after previous opening plans were scuppered by Covid restrictions.
Steve’s Bar, which is a brand new venue on Carlton Square, was originally due to open in May but this got delayed by a month when lockdown restrictions affecting indoor hospitality were extended.
Now, after months of waiting for restrictions to ease, owner Stephen Charles will finally see his dream of running his own bar become a reality when he opens on Saturday (June 26).
Mr Charles took over the lease for the unit at the shopping destination at the start of the year and has now put his own mark on the place. It had previously house the Elhairgance hair salon which closed in 2020.
He told Gedling Eye: “It’s been a year in the making from planning to signing the lease and opening. We had initially planned to open in May but due to Covid it was just impossible. But it’s great we can now welcome people.”
Mr Charles is now hoping the whole community will get behind the new venture which he thinks will breathe life into Carlton Square before its revamp later this year.
PICTURED: Builders are putting the final touches to the interior of the new bar which opens on Saturday (PHOTO: Gedling Eye)
“I’m hoping our venue will be embraced by the community,” he said.
“It’s somewhere to come for a drink with a friend and also a coffee during the day. We’ll be running quizzes and also bingo on a Friday night – starting next week. There’ll be live entertainment every Saturday night and we also hope to offer karaoke and a disco soon.
“We don’t just want the bar to be for young people or old people, we want it to be for everybody.”
The bar hopes to cater for all tastes with the drinks on offer.
“We’re doing real ales, spirits and gins. I’m quite a fan of gins so offering that is important!
“We do quite a few vodkas also. We hope to extend our wine list over the coming months.
“The main drinks we have going through the pumps is Shed Head, which is a pale ale, Poretti, Sam Miguel and Somersby Cider.”
Mr Charles said the new redevelopment plans for Carlton Square by Gedling Borough Council should help boost trade.
Changes planned include a new entrance to the car park from Burton Road.
There will also be a new car parking layout including identified spaces for electric vehicle points and improved disabled parking spaces in the southern car park.
New planting and boundary treatments will be added along with new paving and improved access between the car park and shopping area.
There will be a revised siting of payment machines and lighting too.
Mr Charles said:”The improvements can’t come soon enough.
“The council’s plans are what drew us to Carlton Square.
“When the work is completed it’s going to look really good and it was one of the main factors in us opening up here.”
Steve’s Bar officially opens on Saturday, June 26, but the opening night is fully booked.
The Mayor of Gedling was this week invited to a new £10m care home to officially welcome the first residents to the area.
Cllr Sandra Barnes along with mayoral consort, Peter Barnes, paid a special socially distanced visit to Rivendell View for an exclusive tour of the brand new state of the art facilities available to residents at Rivendell View, on the Rivendell estate off Colwick Loop Road.
Facilities including a plush cinema room, a luxurious Sky Bar with far reaching views, a vintage tearoom complete with balcony area, hairdressing salon and airy botanical garden rooms leading onto spacious landscaped gardens.
To commemorate the visit, The Mayor planted a green apple tree in the garden for future residents to enjoy once it begins to fruit.
Councillor Barnes was particularly interested in the teams’ commitment to combatting loneliness in older people, as the care team explained how the dedicated Activity Co-ordinators will provide a varied activities and social calendar that is tailored to each resident’s interests and hobbies with the aim of helping them make new friends within the home.
PICTURED: The Sky Bar at Rivendell Care Home
Speaking after her visit, Councillor Barnes said: “I was thrilled to take a tour around the facilities and very proud to be able to plant a commemorative tree, I wish the whole team luck as you begin to welcome new residents.
“During the tour, local children from Netherfield primary school presented the Mayor with hand drawn cards depicting people from all over the community coming together. In the future, Rivendell View hopes to host many intergenerational events where the pupils will be able to make friends and learn from the residents and their rich life experiences.
Regional Director, Allison Boyle, said: “It has been wonderful having Cllr Barnes visit our beautiful home
“The tree Cllr Barnes planted is a fantastic addition to the home and is a great way to represent how Rivendell View will grow and develop into a blossoming part of the community.”
Rivendell View is due to welcome its first residents in the next couple of weeks.
You can also keep up to date with the home via the Rivendell View official Facebook page @rivendellviewcarehome.
Gedling borough residents are being warned of a new Post Office parcel scam doing the rounds in the area.
The Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) has uncovered evidence of people locally being targeted by the new scam that claims that the recipient’s parcel delivery failed and was returned to a Post Office depot.
The text contains a link to a fake website created to look exactly like an official Post Office platform.
The website asks the target to enter their postcode and personal details supposedly to identify their closest depot and reorganise the delivery.
The information requested includes the full name, address, date of birth and phone number. The information provided is sent directly to scammers who might use the information to commit many different kinds of identity fraud.
CTSI understands that someone who put their details into the bogus Post Office website lost £80,000 after fraudsters were able to pass their bank’s security checks by using the personal information the victim provided on the phoney Post Office website form.
These Post Office scam messages come after a series of related delivery scams which use Royal Mail, DPD, Hermes and other delivery company branding. CTSI is raising awareness of this scam during Scams Awareness Fortnight, an annual public information campaign led by Citizens Advice.
CTSI lead officer, Katherine Hart, said: “This Post Office scam is far more insidious than a similar scam which involved Royal Mail.
“While the Royal Mail scam explicitly asks for a payment to reorganise a delivery, at no point does this happen in this Post Office version making the communication less suspect and potentially more likely to be successful. Scammers could use the information to gain access to bank accounts and other important personal accounts.
“With the pandemic leading to a significant rise in online shopping and deliveries, it is vital that the message about the potential dangers of these scams are shared as far and as wide as possible, especially during this Scams Awareness Fortnight.”
For consumer advice, please call the Citizens Advice Consumer Helpline on 0808 223 1133
The public is encouraged to join Friends Against Scams. This initiative aims to protect and prevent people from becoming scam victims by empowering them to stand against scams.
It was touch and go whether Chewie and his littermates would survive after they were rescued from a van in Nottinghamshire having been imported from abroad.
The trio of Yorkshire terriers were among 11 puppies found in the back of a van in Carlton, Nottinghamshire, on 2 March by Nottinghamshire Police. They were in cramped, dirty conditions, desperate for water and eight of the pups soon tested positive for a highly contagious and deadly disease called parvovirus. Six sadly died but the three Yorkies and two spaniels pulled through thanks to round-the-clock care by RSPCA staff at Radcliffe Animal Centre.
Chewie – originally called Topaz – was given a clean bill of health and was rehomed to Elizabeth Morgan and her family at the end of March. He now lives a life that’s a far cry from his early experience, being imported from Ireland to be sold on as part of the illicit puppy trade, said to be worth tens of millions every year.
Chewie and the puppies he was rescued with are just one of an estimated thousands of shipments of puppies that come into the UK from overseas to feed the dog market here. Generally, many of these puppies will go to unsuspecting members of the public who believe they’re buying a puppy who has been bred by a loving family in the UK but many have in fact been born into awful conditions on European puppy farms, taken from their mothers too young, and transported thousands of miles where they can easily pick up and spread potentially life-threatening diseases and viruses.
It’s stories like Chewie’s that sparked the RSPCA’s #ForPupsSake campaign which called for a crackdown on puppy imports, something the Government committed to investigating as part of its Action Plan for Animal Welfare, unveiled last month. The number of dogs being commercially imported surged by more than 50% during lockdown as the demand for puppies soared in the UK. Statistics released by APHA showed the number of dogs imported into the country from the EU for commercial reasons had increased by 52% from 39,562 in 2019 to 60,190 in 2020; while the number of imports just from Romania increased 67% from 19,489 to 32,525 and now represent more than half (54%) of all EU imports. These are the
legal, recorded imports and are expected to be just the tip of the iceberg.
Radcliffe manager Ella Carpenter said: “Chewie and his siblings were incredibly lucky to stay healthy and survive when the puppies they were with fell so ill so quickly. However, they’ve still been scarred by the frightening and confusing experiences they’ve already had in their short lives.
“All three were very anxious and nervous when they were with us. We find this is often common for pups from puppy farms and those that have been smuggled into the country as they’re often taken away from their mums too early, missing out on important socialisation opportunities during their first few months of life.
“Luckily, Chewie and his brother and sister – Opal and Emerald – have been adopted by wonderful families who will show them all the love they have so far missed out on.”
Chewie – now thought to be around eight months old – is settling into his new life well. Elizabeth said: “Chewie is still timid of certain loud noises and sounds and he’s utterly terrified of carrier bags so we wonder if he’s maybe been put inside one at some point in his previous life. Now he’ll run away and hide if he sees one.
“Other than that, he’s a normal, happy little puppy. He’s very playful and loves interacting with us all. He was initially quite timid when out on walks but he’s getting more and more confident with every day that goes by and now he likes to stop so everyone can say ‘hello’ to him and give him a fuss. It takes us ages to get anywhere!
“The support we’ve had from the team at Radcliffe has been amazing and we feel so incredibly lucky to have Chewie in our lives. He may have been lucky to survive his ordeal, but we’re lucky we got the chance to bring him home. And now he’ll never know anything but love and security for the rest of his life.”
Aldi said it is looking for freehold town-centre or edge-of-centre sites suitable for development.
It said each site should be around 1.5 acres and able to accommodate a 20,000 sq ft store with around 100 parking spaces, ideally on a prominent main road and with good visibility and access.
Ciaran Aldridge, national property director at Aldi UK, said: “We have been investing in Britain for more than 30 years now, but we know that there are still areas that either do not have an Aldi at all, or that need another store to meet customer demand.
“Shoppers are increasingly looking to get unbeatable prices on their weekly shop without compromising on quality. That’s why, more so than ever, we’re keen to explore all opportunities to open new stores across the country.”
The borough towns and villages appeared on a list of areas across Nottinghamshire they revealed they are targeting:
