South Derbyshire is famous for its world-class businesses.

Recently I visited Star Micronics GB in Melbourne to meet the company's managing director Bob Hunt and see the computer controlled machines which are manufactured in Japan and sold in the UK and the Republic of Ireland.

This company fits alongside many other multi-national companies locally, at Burnaston the District boasts Toyota's global production centre for the European region. South Derbyshire's Dove Valley Business Park is home to JCB's diesel engine manufacturing plant. Swadlincote is the base for Extec which creates mining and demolition equipment.

Commercial enterprises in South Derbyshire are not limited to just a few major areas. Throughout the District, South Derbyshire offers the right mix of talented people, major road networks and a great environment for a balance between work and life so that businesses are choosing South Derbyshire as their ideal base.

We are committed to developing and expanding our local economy. We want to increase private sector inward capital investment by 1% this year. We want to encourage companies like Star Micronics to grow in our District, which is indeed one of the fastest growing in the East Midlands.

Soon we will launch our Economic Development Strategy which will show our drive to develop businesses in South Derbyshire for the benefit of our people and our industries. One of the key factors in expanding our local economy is education and skills. The Council itself is committed to developing young people through its modern apprenticeship scheme. I am pleased that Star Micronics has an apprenticeship scheme with one success already and that it is to employ a second young person later this year.

Love Parks week 2008

To celebrate Love Parks Week 2008, on the 17th of June I joined children from Eureka Primary School and Rosalind Allen of Groundwork Derby & Derbyshire to discover the treasures in Eureka Park.
Love Parks Week is an annual campaign promoting parks in Britain. This year it is highlighting parks as places for children to exercise.
As well as helping the youngsters from Eureka Park develop a love of nature, Groundwork Derby & Derbyshire is working with our Council to develop plans for the park.
Everyone loves parks. They are green oases in our towns where you can escape from the hustle and bustle of daily life and lower your stress levels. Parks are places where children can let their imagination take over and spend time with nature and exercise for free in the fresh air.
At Eureka Park Rosalind Allen was involving youngsters in mini-beast hunts, showing them how to identify trees and organising an orienteering exercise to get them to explore the park. The children from Eureka School were fascinated with everything Rosalind explained to them. They were particularly good at leaf rubbing and made some great pictures. It was lovely to be with them.

Visit to Westminster to attend the All Party Parliamentary Local Government Group

I received an invitation to attend the All Party Parliamentary Local Government Group in Committee Room 12 in Westminster. It was chaired by Clive Betts MP and had two main speakers Minister of State Michael Wills MP and Professor John Stewart from Birmingham University.

The main speech was about new legislation the Government are planning on putting before Parliament. A Bill of Rights and Responsibilities. We are a Nation that actually does not have a Bill of Rights, we rely on Common Law and the Magna Carter.

Warning to illegally parked drivers

From the autumn there will be council traffic wardens in South Derbyshire to stop selfish motorists parking where it's not allowed.

There will be a seamless change from police wardens on the street to wardens working for your local authority. The traffic wardens will have the same powers to stop people parking on double yellow lines and in no waiting areas. They will stop those reckless people who park on the zigzags outside schools which are there to protect our children. They will also fine those people who take over disabled drivers' bays and deny the spaces to those who need them.

This new service is being provided across Derbyshire by the County Council and District Councils working together for their local residents. A specialist contractor will be policing the whole county.

I have had so many complaints about people who park in disabled driver’s bays without a blue badge. There's a reason for parking restrictions but some people think that the laws don’t apply to them. They might decide to change their anti-social behaviour when they are faced with an on-the-spot fine.

Our Wardens are already cracking down on people who park in disabled driver’s bays without a blue badge. We’re giving them warning notices to encourage them to have a conscience and to think of other people. Come the autumn if they don’t feel it in their hearts, they will feel it in their wallets.

Goseley Estate MUGA

I am so pleased our Council is creating something for children to do over the long summer holidays and in the coming years. We promised to provide four new youth facilities for young people. Two are opening later this month and the final two are now being built.
Work began last week on multi-use games areas at Salisbury Drive recreation area in Midway and at Mount Street recreation area on the Goseley Estate in Hartshorne. The work will cost £152,000 and has been funded by Sport England, though its Community Investment Fund, the Safer South Derbyshire Partnership and Hartshorne Parish Council.
Having built two multi use games areas at Overseal and Woodville, work at Midway and on the Goseley Estate has started. We opened the new play area at Salisbury Drive last month and promised an area for older children.
These multi use games areas, known as MUGAs, provide a hard surfaced, all-weather playing area with goal ends and markings for a variety of ball games, such as five-a-side, tag rugby, netball, basketball and kwik cricket. During the summer holidays there will be coached sessions from the Council’s Sport and Youth Development team.

The MUGAs are being built so that young people have more healthy and active things to do.

Newhall Centre 5* Certificate

On Tuesday 10 June I presented Cheral Eidukas, Manager of the Newhall Centre and also members of the Centre with Council's Five Star Certificate to mark National Food Safety Week. This Certificate shows star ratings for organisations which provide food including cafes, shops, schools and clubs.

The South Derbyshire way is to make life better for everyone. The Council are giving ratings to all organisations which provide food ranging from five stars to no stars. If they don’t make the top rating, the Council’s Environmental Health Officers will provide help and advice so they can be amongst the best.

Everyone benefits. The organisations have staff who look after food correctly. The people of South Derbyshire have more top standard places to eat. One of our aims is to make the District healthier and this is one way of us achieving this together.

Derbyshire County Council’s Newhall Centre is helping people in the community. Its five star café based in its garden centre not only provides refreshment for local people, it also offers training for adults with learning disabilities.

Blooming Marvels is a garden centre with a café which is available for the whole of our community. Blooming Marvels is run and financially managed by adults who have learning disabilities who are developing skills to become ready for work. People are getting skilled not only through work experience, but also by attending courses such as food hygiene, computer and customer service skills.
picture shows me with Cllr John Lemmon presenting Cheral Eidukas, Manager of the Newhall Centre and also members of the Centre with the Council's Five Star Certificate

Castle Gresley and the Designated Public Place order

A momentous, historic day. I went to Castle Gresley to meet with local Parish Councillors and concerned residents to talk about the first ever DPPO placed in South Derbyshire.
This has caused great interest in the media with Radio Derby, ITV Central News and the Derby Telegraph running pieces on it.

For years the locals have had to put up with Adults Behaving Badly so after consultation our Council passed the first ever DPPO. In this specific geographic area around Arthur Street play ground, part of Linton Road by the parade of shops and part of Bass’s Crescent that backs onto these places any Adult misbehaving with Alcohol can now be apprehended by the PCSO’s and Police. £50 Fixed Penalty Notices can be given, the alcohol removed and if the bad behaviour carries on they can be arrested by the Police, removed, charged and face increased fines of up to £500, with stringent Bail conditions whilst they await trial.

The locals have been calling on the Council to do this for years. The legislation that we have used came into force in 2001. Yet again it has taken our new Conservative Administration to actually take action.

Speaking to residents and shopkeepers the relief that they had finally been listened too and action taken was palpable.

I thank the police and the council staff for getting the paperwork in order and particularly PCSO Dave and local PC Debbie for their future action.
South Derbyshire is a safe place to live but we will not hesitate to use every piece of legislation to crack down on the few mindless people who ruin it for others.

Sustainable Communities

I went down to London (by train) for a Conference to listen to the experts about Sustainable Communities. It was a packed day. Iain Wright MP Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Communities and Local Government kicked us off followed by an interesting talk by Shaun McCarthy about the Olympics. He is the Chair of the Commission for a Sustainable London 2012. I was able to tell him about the 19 special ‘green’ elements to the new Leisure Centre being built in South Derbyshire, helped along by a grant of over £400,000 from Sport England for badminton – making us ready in 2010 to train for the 2012 Olympics. He was impressed that we had opted for the green option in SD. Sustainable Olympics is us.

In the afternoon a couple of sessions stood out. One an excellent speech from Anders Franzen the Head of Planning and Development form Vaxjo – the ‘greenest’ city in Europe. They were particularly successful because they had introduced waste into heat exchangers and used hydro-electric power. Practically nothing went to landfill so no landfill tax to pay and between the two sources over 80% of their electricity was generated locally with minimal CO2 emissions. His story was truly inspirational. The Council is of course run by the Conservatives and has a high proportion of women Councillors!

The other session was about the demise of Regional Assemblies and changes to Regional Development Agencies and how this would affect us here in South Derbyshire. An array of Civil Servants were lined up to explain how they were implementing government policies. As so often happens what others might think is a good idea on paper, particularly for Unitary and the City Councils just turns into a complete muddle for us Shire Districts. I am keeping a very watchful eye on this. Expansion of the economy in SD is a priority for us and anything that knocks us off course or makes things more difficult will not be welcomed. The Civil Servants certainly left with my thoughts ringing in their ears. I wait and see how this unfolds.

New super-hospital

I was given a behind the scenes look at Derby's new super-hospital as the development enters its final 12 months of construction work.
As part of a special guided tour at Derby City General Hospital
As you can see from the photo I was shown the new amazing helipad.

I was also shown the hospital's state-of-the-art pharmacy, boiler house and main hospital plant room. Anyone who has had reason to use our hospitals probably doesn’t give a thought to how the place is kept warm or the electricity is kept running. It has been a fascinating opportunity for me to see behind the scenes how the place buzzes.

At every stage of the tour I was struck by the integrity and devotion of the staff involved with their bit of the enormous jigsaw that makes the hospital work.

The super-hospital development is on target to be completed next Spring and over the next 12 months, as building work finishes, services will begin to be moved over from the Derbyshire Royal Infirmary.

The final move will involve a middle-of-the-night operation to take the Accident and Emergency Department from its current location at the DRI to its new home at the City General.