Postmen in Carlton will be bringing smiles to customers cooped up in quarantine when they do their rounds in fancy dress this weekend to help raise cash for an NHS ward who treated a colleague with coronavirus.
The fundraiser is the brainchild of postman Simon Stevenson, who has already been spotted making his way across the borough delivering mail as Superman. He has now persuaded others at the Carlton Post Office depot to also ditch their uniforms and carry out their rounds in costume this Saturday.
As well as raising a few smiles, the post office workers taking part in the fancy dress rounds also hope to raise funds for the ward that treated their colleague in the QMC.
Simon Stevenson has been carrying out his rounds as Superman over the past three weeks.
Mr Stevenson, who lives in Gedling, said “We are doing the rounds in fancy dress on Saturday to put smiles on people’s faces during these tough times and try and make people a bit happier.
“We also want to raise awareness and funds for the NHS, who did such a great job looking after one of our colleagues who got coronavirus recently. He’s been in the QMC for a month, but has now pulled through. We now want to give something back for the care and support he received.
A youngster from Mapperley is set to take on the challenge of climbing Everest from the comfort of her own home.
Eight-year-old Evie Andrew is to embark on the climb of a virtual Everest using the stairs in her house, starting on Friday.
During the three-day challenge, Evie will have to climb up and down her stairs 350 times to help the team of 12 youngsters, who are all aged between 6-8, hit the total required, the equivalent of climbing to the peak of the mountain at 8,848m.
PICTURED: The children taking up the virtual Everest climb using their stairsPICTURED: Evie Andrew sat on her stairs at home
The money raised from the climb will go to the Missing People charity, who have seen a rise in cases since the outbreak of Covid-19.
Helen Alves works for the charity and it was her son, Spencer who came up with the idea.
She said: “Spencer came up with the idea as a way to raise money as well as keeping fit while he can’t play with his friends. The children are seeking sponsorship and are very excited when they get on donation on their page.
“Missing People have seen a rise in cases since Covid-19 and lockdown has stopped people going out and home is not always the safest or easiest place to be for people.
Police have arrested three men after a supply of drugs and weapons were found during a search of a vehicle in Carlton Hill
In the early hours of Monday morning (April 20), a team of Nottinghamshire Police Special Constables were on patrol when they sighted a vehicle acting suspiciously in the Carlton Hill area.
The vehicle was stopped and searched, along with the occupants of the vehicle under the Misuse of Drugs Act. During the search a large amount of cannabis was discovered, along with a quantity of cash.
Police recovered a supply of drugs from a vehicle stopped in Carlton Hill (IMAGE: Notts Police)Police recovered money from a vehicle in Carlton Hill (IMAGE: Notts Police)
An offensive weapon was also located in the vehicle, whilst it also transpired that the driver of the vehicle was uninsured.
A 24-year-old male from Bestwood Park and a 39-year-old from Carlton was arrested on suspicion of possession of controlled drugs with intent to supply.
A 35-year-old male from Carlton was also arrested on suspicion of possession of controlled drugs with intent to supply and for possessing an offensive weapon.
A police spokesman said: “All three men remain in police custody where they are expected to be interviewed in relation to the offence.”
A 36-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life after a vehicle fire in Carlton.
Officers from Nottinghamshire Police were called just before 5.30am on Saturday (18 April) to a report of a car on fire in Claygate.
The car was parked in a driveway and the fire spread to a house. No one was injured in the incident.
Police have now made an arrest following a vehicle fire in Carlton
Karl Holm, 36 of Cottage Meadow, Colwick has been charged with arson with recklessness as to whether life was endangered.
He was also charged with criminal damage relating to an incident in November 2019, as well as driving whilst disqualified and driving without insurance.
He will be appearing via a live link at Nottingham Magistrates today on (April 20, 2020).
Detective Sergeant Lauren Morgan said: “We would like to thank both Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Fire Investigation Officers, who worked tirelessly this weekend. They did a fantastic job and we are pleased with the result.”
Two men have been arrested on suspicion of aggravated burglary in Arnold.
Officers from Nottinghamshire Police were called just after 5.40am today (April 19) to a report that three men had forced entry to a house in Stanhope Crescent, Arnold, and made threats to the people inside. One of the men was reported to be carrying a knife.
No one was injured and nothing was taken from the house.
A 36-year old man and a 31-year old man have been arrested following the incident.
A 17-year-old boy has been sentenced to two years in detention and will have to complete a training order after pleading guilty to seven robberies – including one in Arnold.
The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, stole items including money and a PlayStation from a number of victims in Arnold and Nottingham city centre.
The seven incidents happened in March 2019 and August 2019, in which all the teenager approach the victim and threatened them with violence.
A man had a rucksack including a PlayStation stolen whilst on a bus, whilst a phone was stolen from a man on King Street in Nottingham in August 2019 after the boy asked the victim to use it to make a call.
PICTURED: Arnold Town Centre
The teenage boy was convicted following officers trawling through CCTV footage within Victoria Centre and from inside the bus.
Detective Constable Ryan Atkin who lead the investigation said: “We are happy with the result and we hope that the victims are given some sort of closure as these incidents aren’t very pleasant.
“We hope the teenager can reflect on his actions and hopefully turn his life around after the time in detention.”
None of the victims suffered any injuries in any of the incidents.
The boy was sentenced on 6 April 2020 at Nottingham Crown Court.
Neighbourhood Sergeant Mike Ebbins said: “Our hope is that these new bikes will allow us to cover a larger area in a shorter time and most importantly, be able to engage with more of our residents.
“We’ve already had comments from people that it’s great to see officers back out on bikes. It’s a really good bit of kit – I don’t think many forces have bikes like these.
“It’s fantastic to be able to reduce our carbon footprint, so that we can protect the environment while we’re protecting the community.”
Councillor David Ellis, Portfolio Holder for Public Protection at Gedling Borough Council said: “This is a great initiative by Nottinghamshire Police and we’re very pleased to see that they are doing what they can to reduce their carbon footprint whilst becoming more visible to residents.
“One of the council’s priorities is to create a more sustainable environment in the borough and actions like this make an impactful contribution.”Police
Gedling Borough Council will receive a share of another £1.6 billion in additional funding to help with the response to the coronavirus pandemic, the Local Government Secretary has announced.
This extra £1.6 billion takes the total given to councils to help their communities through this crisis to over £3.2 billion, an unprecedented level of additional financial support in recent times.
The funding will mean councils can continue to provide essential services and support to those who need it most.
This includes getting rough sleepers off the street, supporting new shielding programmes for clinically extremely vulnerable people and assistance for our heroic public health workforce and fire and rescue services.
The funding will also mean councils can provide vital services including adult social care and children’s services.
This announcement follows an initial £1.6 billion given to councils last month which supported the work they have done to free up vital hospital beds and deliver essential supplies to the vulnerable.
This has also helped get rough sleepers off the street and so far over 90% of those on the streets at the beginning of the crisis and known to local authorities – have been offered safe accommodation.
Gedling leader John Clarke, left and deputy leader Michael Payne, right had written to Boris Johnson last week (Credit: Joseph Raynor)
Additional funding announced today will mean councils will be able to continue to support the most vulnerable people on the streets during the pandemic, deal with immediate pressures and provide additional support across a range of vital services.
In his letter, the Local Government Secretary called them the “unsung heroes” of the coronavirus response who are helping to keep the country moving by ensuring vulnerable people receive the care they need and essential services continue.
Local Government Secretary Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP said: ”Today’s announcement of an additional £1.6 billion of new funding to councils means we have now provided them with over £3.2 billion during this pandemic.
“I promised local government would have the resources they need to meet this challenge and today demonstrates my commitment to doing just that. We stand shoulder to shoulder with local government and my priority is to make sure they are supported so they can continue to support their communities through this challenging time.
“Up and down the country council workers are the unsung heroes as we tackle this virus. They are in the front line of the national effort to keep the public safe and deliver the services people need. Never has this been more important and we are all rightly grateful for everything that they are doing.
“This new funding will support them through immediate pressures they are facing to respond to coronavirus and protect vital services.”
Councils will also be allowed to defer £2.6 billion in payments to central government, and £850 million in social care grants will be paid up front this month in a move aimed at helping to ease immediate pressures on local authority cash flows.
The majority of primary school starters in Nottinghamshire will be going to one of their preferred schools this September, with 92% of parents securing their first-choice placement.
More than 9 out of ten (8204) Nottinghamshire parents have secured a place at their first preference primary school for their children in September 2020. This indicates a slight decrease in the percentage of parents receiving an offer of their first preference compared with last year.
Nottinghamshire County Council has today (Thursday 16 April) contacted 8881 Nottinghamshire parents to let them know which school their son or daughter will be attending this September. A further 745 applications were received from residents outside of the county for primary school places within Nottinghamshire.
Over 98% (8742) of Nottinghamshire residents were offered one of their preferences. This year has seen a decrease in the number of parents making more than one preference, compared to last year.
Thirty five per cent (3115) of parents made only one preference.
In total, 1.6% of applicants (139) received alternative offers – where applicants are offered a place at a school they didn’t include on their application. 58.3% (81) of these parents only stated one preference.
Of the 745 applications received from residents outside of Nottinghamshire for primary school places within the county, 317 were allocated places (42.6%)
The County Council said it had done all it could to try and ensure that parents send their child to a school they wanted.
Councillor Philip Owen, Nottinghamshire County Council’s Children and Young People’s Committee Chairman said:
“The situation is encouraging as over 92% of Nottinghamshire parents secured their first preference and the majority of parents will be getting a place at one of the schools for which they made a preference.
“I am pleased that every child in Nottinghamshire, whose parents applied before the deadline, will have a primary school place in September 2020.
“The County Council has worked hard in recent years to respond to the increasing demand for primary school places.
“Late applicants can be assured that a school place would be available for their child in September 2020. The waiting list applies to all on-time unsuccessful applications, late applications and changes to preferences.
“Unfortunately, popular schools will always be over-subscribed and whatever the admissions criteria are for those schools, the likelihood is that there will be some disappointed families.”
Parents have the right to appeal about their child’s school place and all appeals are wholly independent.
Below is the full letter from Gedling Borough Council leaders, Councillors John Clarke and Michael Payne, to Prime Minister Boris Johnson. It is titled ‘Covid-19 funding for local government – The UK’s 4th emergency service’
Dear Prime Minister
Further to our letter of best wishes on 6 April we are pleased to see you are now making a speedy recovery and wish you the very best in returning to full strength and getting back to Downing Street.
Gedling Borough Council is proud to be playing its part in the national effort to beat Coronavirus – just as in every other council across the country, our staff have shown heroic dedication, compassion and fortitude in the face of this local, national and global emergency; often putting themselves at risk in order to care for the elderly, shield the most vulnerable, continue to collect the bins, provide vital support to local businesses and house the homeless. Alongside our NHS, council staff are serving on the frontline of the fight against Coronavirus – they’re the UK’s fourth emergency service and should be recognised, respected and rewarded as such.
In a few short weeks our colleagues at Gedling Borough Council have worked flat out to muster over 500 volunteers locally, make direct contact with thousands of vulnerable people across our borough, help raise £25,000 from residents to support our local food banks, as well as establishing a council-led Giving for Gedling Humanitarian Centre with our local churches and food banks, which has become a super food bank and distribution centre ensuring food and vital supplies are delivered to everyone who needs our support.
Our staff have also built and administered a system that has paid out nearly £7m in Business Support Grants in less than 10 days – meaning several hundred local businesses have already received the financial support they so desperately need.
Gedling leader John Clarke, left and deputy leader Michael Payne, right. (Credit: Joseph Raynor)
Our frontline staff have ensured the bins are still collected each week and the streets are kept clean, they’re sorting out benefits for the hardest hit, keeping roofs over people’s heads and have helped take rough sleepers off the streets. And sadly, as a burial authority, we are working closely with the Local Resilience Forum to ensure victims of this awful virus are laid to rest in a dignified manner.
We’ve worked closely with your colleagues across Government throughout this crisis, particularly with the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government. On several conference calls with MHCLG the Secretary of State, Robert Jenrick MP made it very clear that councils should not delay on Coronavirus spending and taking necessary action to tackle the virus, an approach local government fully supports. The Secretary of State specifically stated that the Government ‘will be supporting you and ensuring the money flows to you.’ He also made it clear we ‘should spend whatever it takes, the Government will reimburse you’. It is deeply concerning that in the last few days the Secretary of State’s approach and tone has shifted significantly, now claiming local government must ‘share the burden’ of this crisis. Let us be clear, councils cannot continue to maintain vital public services, protect the most vulnerable, care for the young and elderly and act as our nation’s fourth emergency service in tackling this crisis by operating on goodwill or fresh air alone.
You rightly told us to do what it takes, and you would back us. Now we’re asking you to deliver on that promise. We need certainty, not uncertainty, leading to insolvency.
After a decade of cuts to local councils, and a heroic effort by councils to do what has been necessary in the last few weeks, this backtracking on clear promises to recompense local authorities constitutes a real slap in the face. A failure by the Government to reimburse councils for additional expenditure, loss of income, loss of Council Tax/Business Rates and foregone savings as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, would be a betrayal of local government’s army of key workers who have kept our communities and this country going through the most challenging of times.
The cost of responding to and tackling the Covid-19 pandemic for councils has been immense and without Government honouring their promise, the impact will be crippling. The financial cost to our own council has already been over £960,000. In just one month we have accumulated £128,000 of additional expenditure – £22,000 of which has been for tackling homelessness and £106,000 towards providing food supplies and support for the elderly and most vulnerable, purchasing PPE for our frontline workers, including our refuse collectors and on foregone efficiency savings. We are also suffering from a loss of £832,000 of income in this month alone, a figure likely to be repeated month-on-month for the foreseeable future. To put this in context the £960,000 cost to Gedling Borough Council in just one month equates to 8.2% of our council’s net budget for the entire year.
The £1.6bn Coronavirus funding allocated to local government thus far is welcome but goes nowhere near far enough to assist councils in dealing with the impact of this pandemic. Our own council’s share of that funding was only £54,000, which is barely 6% of the cost of this crisis for our council in one month alone.
We’ll continue to do all we can to maintain business as usual, support the most vulnerable and local businesses, and give the Government the breathing space needed to help beat this virus. To do that we need you to urgently deliver on the promise made to reimburse councils for the cost of this crisis. Anything short of that risks councils like ours being forced to issue P45s to the heroes that are helping local communities and our country beat this indiscriminate virus.
