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Brave MP Nadia Whittome who represents Mapperley reveals mental health battle and will now take time off to recover

Gedling Eye Reporter
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Brave MP Nadia Whittome who represents Mapperley reveals mental health battle and will now take time off to recover

Nottingham East MP Nadia Whittome is to take ‘several weeks off’ from her duties as she faces an ongoing battle with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

In a statement, the MP, who represents parts of Mapperley, said: “Over recent months, I have been battling some persistent health issues. Until now, I have been attempting to manage them alongside continuing with my full time work as an MP. Unfortunately, it has become clear that this is not feasible and I have been advised by my doctor that I need to take several weeks off in order for my health to improve. 

“I feel it is important for me to be honest that it is mental ill-health I am suffering from – specifically post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). One in four people will experience mental health problems each year, but there is still a great deal of shame and stigma surrounding it. 

“Through being open about my own mental health struggle, I hope that others will also feel able to talk about theirs, and that I can play a small role in creating greater acceptance and facilitating healthier discussions around this issue. 

PICTURED: Nadia Whittome

“My decision to take time off has been an incredibly difficult one to make. Representing Nottingham East is the greatest honour of my life and I am very sad to have to step back for a little while. I am thankful for the understanding and kindness that Keir Starmer, Jenny Chapman and the Labour Whips have shown and their support in enabling me to take this course of action.

“While I am away, constituents should continue to contact my office as normal. My fantastic staff team will still be there to support you with any issues you may have. 

“I cannot wait to come back to the job I love, representing the community that means so much to me.

“Thank you in advance for your understanding.”

Labour Party leader, Keir Starmer praised the MP for raising awareness of the condition.

He said: “I wish Nadia all the best and hope she gets well soon. I respect Nadia’s bravery in speaking openly about her mental health and I look forward to welcoming her back to Parliament.”

Mark Winstanley, chief executive at Rethink Mental Illness, said: “The enduring stigma surrounding mental health in the workplace can be hugely damaging, preventing people from accessing support and leading them to prioritise work over their own wellbeing for fear of judgement.

“Being signed-off from work for poor mental health is not a sign of weakness, but a recognition that wellbeing should always be a priority. We welcome Nadia’s openness around her diagnosis and wish her well in her recovery.”

Knife seized and arrests made after car stopped by police in Porchester

Gedling Eye Reporter
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Knife seized and arrests made after car stopped by police in Porchester

Police have made two arrests after a knife was found during the search of a car in Porchester.

Response crews on patrol stopped a vehicle driving erratically in the Wells Road area at around 23.10pm on Saturday (May 22).

They searched the car and found a knife in the driver’s foot well. Two men were arrested on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon and driving without insurance. One of them was also arrested on suspicion of possession of cannabis after a search in custody.

Nottinghamshire Police Inspector, Ben Lawrence, said: “We won’t tolerate knife crime in Nottinghamshire and are actively working to drive down this type of offence and take these despicable weapons out of our communities.

“We work with our two dedicated knife crime teams and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our partners and communities, to tackle knife crime, raise awareness of the dangers of carrying knives and rid dangerous weapons from our streets.

“Every offence is one too many and we will continue our joint efforts to drive down knife crime even further in Nottinghamshire.

“We continue our relentless efforts to tackle this issue which can have a devastating impact on so many people and work collaboratively to prevent people from becoming involved in knife crime in the first place.”

Great British Railways announcement: What it means for passengers in Gedling borough

Adam Toms
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Great British Railways announcement: What it means for passengers in Gedling borough

The Government has announced a new publicly owned body to manage the U.K’s railways – excluding Northern Ireland.

The move comes 28 years after the privatisation of British Rail by John Major’s government in 1993.

A statement from the Department for Transport announced that the new authority will

  • “Integrate” national railways
  • Own the infrastructure (such as stations, rails and bridges)
  • Collect revenue from fares
  • ‘Run and plan the network’
  • Set “most fares and timetables”

Despite this substantial reclaim of state autonomy within the sector, private companies will retain influence.

They will negotiate contracts and “operate most trains to the timetables and fares it specifies”, incurring penalties if not.

This is similar to the existing system used by Transport of London.

A more centralised administrative system will include

  • “Flexible season tickets” with shorter terms of 28 days
  • “More convenient Pay As You Go, contactless and digital ticketing on smartphones”
  • A new “GBR website will sell tickets”
  • A “single compensation system for operators in England”
East Midlands Regional
East Midlands Railway own the East Midlands franchise

How many will actually utilise this system remains to be seen as effective services are already used by passengers via various independent mobile booking and tracking apps.

Private operators in the East Midlands currently include

  • East Midlands Railways (Abellio)
  • CrossCountry
  • Virgin

Their parent companies will now likely seek contracts within the new national system.

Andy Bagnall, Director General of the Rail Delivery Group, local operator East Midlands Railway an associated member of which, has said that “Train companies have long called for many of the reforms in this white paper”.

Getting the detail right would ensure “improve[d] journeys,… independent oversight and clear accountability, and… a new set of fares which are simpler and more value for money”.

“Train operators”, he said, have “called for a guiding mind and Great British Railways will help to bring the whole industry together”.

“Crucially, it needs to allow operators to put their customers at the absolute forefront of decision making.”

“Flexible tickets for commuters and more pay-as-you-go are good news for passengers”, and “We welcome the commitment that new passenger service contracts will allow room for local train companies to use private sector expertise to respond to what their customers want”.  

The Labour Party released a similar plan for “Britain-wide integration” in 2020.

It called for

  • “One network, One timetable”
  • “London style ticketing system across the nation, delivering contactless payments and… zonal rail, fares”
  • ‘integration between train services and infrastructure management’

A crucial difference between the plans, however, is the role of private firms.

Labour’s plan would have given ‘Devolved Transport Authorities’ “powers to set up penalty-incentive contracts with the nationally- owned rail company”.

Today’s announcement sticks with private companies instead.

The Government claims that overall passengers will save money on national routes.

  • Over £250 from Woking to London
  • Over £200 from York to Leeds
  • Over £60 from Southampton Central to Winchester
  • Over £160 from Stafford to Birmingham
  • Over £220 from Liverpool to Manchester

Whilst “Three day-a-week commuters could save:” 

  • Over £220 from St Albans City to London
  • Over £120 from Bromsgrove to Birmingham
  • Over £90 from Weston-Super-Mare to Bristol Temple Meads
  • Over £330 from Chelmsford to Stratford

WhatsApp warning to Gedling borough users over scam that allows criminals to access your messages

Gedling Eye Reporter
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WhatsApp warning to Gedling borough users over scam that allows criminals to access your messages

WhatsApp users in Gedling borough are being warned about a shocking new scam which has seen people locked out of their accounts.

Users are being tricked into handing over a six-digit “verification code” which hackers have then used to steal their account and attack their contacts in the same way.

The scam starts when a hacker gets access to another WhatsApp account which will have you listed as a contact.

They will then pose as your friend and send you seemingly normal messages.

However, around the same time you will receive a text message or email from WhatsApp with a six-digit code.

This is because the attacker has requested the code from WhatsApp while pretending to be you.

The person posing as your friend will then claim they have sent the code to the wrong account and ask you to help by sending it to them.

Victims will reportedly receive a message, seemingly from their friend, which says something similar to: “Hello, sorry, I sent you a 6-digit code by mistake, can you pass it to me please? It’s urgent?”

This six-digit code is only ever generated when you are trying to log in or make changes to an account.

If you do send the code, the attack will be successful and the hacker will gain access to your account.

Peter Gibbs from Carlton alerted us to the scam.

“I nearly fell for this,” he said.

“I believed I was genuinely chatting to an old friend of mine that I used to work with. It’s clever.”

To protect your account, never give your six-digit code out to anyone else, under any circumstances.

You can also set up two-factor authentication which will require a pin number to log into your WhatsApp account.

Councillor raises complaints about lack of GP appointments across Gedling borough with Notts health boss

Gedling Eye Reporter
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Councillor raises complaints about lack of GP appointments across Gedling borough with Notts health boss

A councillor representing Gedling on the county’s health board has complained to NHS bosses about the lack of GP appointments available across the borough.

Councillor Henry Wheeler said he contacted the Nottinghamshire and Nottingham CCG following a ‘large amount of complaints’ from residents saying they can’t get appointments, treatments or check-ups at surgeries across the borough.

Joe Lunn is the Associate Director of Primary Care NHS Nottinghamshire and Nottingham CCG and responded to patiets’ concerns.

“Demand for General Practice appointments is currently extremely high,” he said.

“As people come out of lockdown, confidence to access services is growing and many practices are seeing more patients now than they did before the start of the pandemic.  This contributes to the comments being made by patients in relation to accessing services. 

“Latest activity data for Nottingham and Nottinghamshire CCG for March 2021 shows that there were 534,353 GP appointments undertaken. 55% of these appointments were seen face-to-face and 51% were seen on the same day or next.  This does not fully capture the scale of work being undertaken by our general practices on behalf of patients as this is information only reflects appointments.”

Mr Lunn was asked about problems with phone system being used to book appointments, with many being on hold for long periods of time.

He said: “A large number of our practices across the borough use a Mitel Phone system which is supported by our Health Informatics Service. I have liaised with them in relation to the points raised and they will look to ascertain with the system provider whether there are any issues with the system.

Mr Lunn was asked to respond to complaints from patients with long-term conditions were having to go without medication and check-ups due to lack of access to a GP.

He responded: “General Practices have remained open to meet the needs of patients throughout the pandemic and are working extremely hard to ensure that patients with long-term conditions and those needing on-going care continue to receive the care they need. 

“There are local schemes being developed to support patients with long terms conditions remotely such as BP@Home (Blood Pressure) monitoring patients.”

Mr Lunn said that practices were still working hard to provide the best service possible.

He said: “Patients will continue to be assessed and treated as they present to General Practice as they have continued to do throughout the pandemic. General Practices are for the majority of patients the first point of contact for accessing care and support from the NHS, across Nottingham and Nottinghamshire all practices are focused on delivering the best care possible for them.

Following the response from Mr Lunn, Mr Wheeler called for more action to resolve the issues around appointments.

He said:  “Crucially in order to sort patient care issues out locally, we need an NHS rescue plan that sees patient care prioritised locally in the recovery from the Covid Pandemic, so people don’t have to wait weeks and in some cases months before getting an appointment”.

‘It can’t be right that 14.5 million live in relative poverty and 4.3 million of them are children,’ says Lord Coaker in maiden speech calling for fairer society

Gedling Eye Reporter
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‘It can’t be right that 14.5 million live in relative poverty and 4.3 million of them are children,’ says Lord Coaker in maiden speech calling for fairer society

Baron Coaker of Gedling has made a personal pledge to do ‘all he can’ to create a fairer, more equal society.

Making his maiden speech in the House of Lords, the Labour peer said: “It cannot be right that 2.5 million people are having to use food banks, 980,000 of these going to children.

“It can’t be right that over 6 million people depend on universal credit to survive.

“It can’t be right that 14.5 million live in relative poverty, 4.3 million children.

“It can’t be right that where you live still determines your life expectancy, your health, your educational outcome.

“It can’t be right that the richest 1% have almost a quarter of UK wealth.”

Lord Coaker said the pandemic has shown that the State can act quickly if required.

Vernon Coaker House of Lords
PICTURED: Vernon Coaker was welcomed to the House of Lords earlier today

He said: “If the pandemic has shown us anything, it is the power of the state, both local and national to act swiftly and decisively for the benefit of all communities in every region.

“So, I say this, why does the state not act with the same level of urgency now for the sake of our communities?

“I do not want in 30 years time for another peer to be raising the same issues of poverty and inequality about our communities as I am today.

“So, my task will be, through the vehicle of the Labour Party to play my part however small, in saying that my vision is ‘it does not have to be like this’. The state needs to act and that is how this Queen’s Speech will be judged.”

Hope and a vision is what people want. As the great Romantic poet Shelley said. “To hope until hope creates from its very own wreck the thing it contemplates”.

“So, my hope, my vision, is to do all I can for a fairer, more equal society.

Baron Coaker concluded: “My Lords the power of our words needs to ring out across our nation. The dream of a better future is one we have to make a reality.”

Speeding drivers in Carlton and Linby stopped during police road safety mission

Gedling Eye Reporter
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Speeding drivers in Carlton and Linby stopped during police road safety mission

Police stopped ten drivers for speeding as part of a road safety operation focusing on speeding in Carlton and Linby.

As part of the Fatal5 week of action, the Operation Reacher and Gedling Neighbourhood team carried out the speed checks during their patrols of the borough earlier this week.

A police spokesman said: “Responding to community requests, officers first went to Wighay Road in Linby to do speed checks in the 30 zone.

“Four drivers were issued with a traffic report for speeding and one for no MOT.

“The teams then moved onto Southdale Road in Carlton where six more drivers were issued with traffic reports for speeding.

“Then just before we finished for the day a Transit was seized as the driver had no insurance and only a provisional license.”

Man arrested after pensioner is ‘shoved’ during burglary in Arnold

Gedling Eye Reporter
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Man arrested after pensioner is ‘shoved’ during burglary in Arnold

A man has been arrested after a pensioner was ‘shoved out the way’ during a burglary at her home in Arnold.

Police yesterday (May 18) arrested of a 32-year-old man, following intelligence received relating to a break-in in Furlong Street on Saturday afternoon (May 15, 2021).

An elderly woman was shoved out of the way by the intruder who stole her television, among other items. 

The arrest is part of a burglary clampdown by Nottinghamshire Police.

Detective Chief Inspector Nick Waldram, the force’s burglary lead, said: “Our success in reducing burglary across Nottinghamshire is very much reflective of the hard work of our officers and police teams day-in, day-out, to tackle this issue which remains a priority for the force.

“As well as taking robust action against offenders we are also continuing to doing lots of preventative work in our communities to ensure residents and businesses can take steps to protect themselves from falling victims to burglars and to ensure crime remains low as we come out of the Covid-19 lockdown and work our way through the roadmap.

“We understand that burglary is an incredibly intrusive crime, but coming face to face with an offender makes it even more traumatic.

“I want to reassure people that we treat all reports extremely seriously and we will investigate offences, support victims and continue to work tirelessly to bring offenders to justice.”

Council seeks Gedling borough residents’ views to help improve support for thousands of renters

Gedling Eye Reporter
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Council seeks Gedling borough residents’ views to help improve support for thousands of renters

Tenants are being invited to share their stories about renting properties in Gedling borough.

Gedling Borough Council and campaigning body Generation Rent want to hear from private renters in the borough to identify ways the council can work with residents in rental properties and increase awareness of their rights and responsibilities.

The project is the first of its kind in Gedling borough, and will be piloted in Killisick, Netherfield, Colwick and Newstead. 

There are thousands of privately rented homes in Gedling, and whilst most are in good condition, the council say there are some where repairs or essential improvements have been neglected and a minority where criminal landlords rent out homes that are unsafe to live in. 

Councils have powers to tackle unsafe homes, but according to the Survation Poll 2021, commissioned by Generation Rent, 46% of private renters are unaware of this and therefore don’t always report issues that the council can help with. By listening to the different experiences of private renters through the project, the council aims to gain a better understanding of the key issues private renters are facing. 

To_Let_stock

To launch the consultation, the council has partnered with Generation Rent, the national campaigning body for private renters. Residents who rent properties in Killisick, Netherfield, Colwick and Newstead can now take part in the survey at www.gedling.gov.uk/generationrent to let the council know about their experiences of renting.

The first phase of the consultation runs until June 21, 2021.

A second stage will follow the survey later in the year and will include holding focus group discussions and forums with private renters.

This project is part of a larger nationwide project that has been launched by Generation Rent with funding from the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust. Generation Rent is partnering with six local authorities across the United Kingdom including Dundee, East Suffolk, Newham, Newport, and Wiltshire in addition to Gedling Borough Council. Generation Rent will work with each council to develop best practice models for private renter engagement.

Leader of Gedling Borough Council, Councillor John Clarke said: “One of our key priorities is to ensure that there are good quality homes available to rent across our borough. We’re already working with landlords on this through our Selective Licensing Scheme, but it’s vital that we also engage with residents who are renting these properties, to get their views and plan how we can improve our services for them.

By working on this project with Generation Rent, we’ll be able to find out more about the experiences of private renters, including how the difficulties of the last year has impacted their lives and health. We want to give a platform to these renters to find out more about what we can do for them and continue to follow our ethos of Serving people, Improving lives.” 

Alicia Kennedy, Director of Generation Rent said: “We look forward to working with Gedling Borough Council on this new project. So few private renters are aware of the rights as private tenants, but we hope that by putting in place formalised structures for engagement between private tenants and the council, private renters will have an opportunity learn more about their rights and have their say.”

Buzz stop: Beekeeper sorts out swarm of bees who set up home outside surgery in Netherfield

Gedling Eye Reporter
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Buzz stop: Beekeeper sorts out swarm of bees who set up home outside surgery in Netherfield

A huge swarm of bees has caused a buzz in Netherfield – after setting up home outside a doctors’ surgery.

Luckily, bee expert Alec Thompson was on hand to suppress the swarm who had placed themselves outside the new surgery on Knight Street.

PICTURED: The swarm of bees at the Netherfield Medical Centre (PHOTO: Trentside Medical Group/Facebook)

Staff were also quick to react to the situation, guiding patients around where the bees were.

Mr Thompson quickly created a ‘new home’ for the bees.

He said: “They are now thinking this is their new home. I’ll wrap them up and take it to their new home, where I live”

Well done, Alec!!

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