Last Wednesday saw another successful round-table meeting with Ashfield District Council Leader, Jason Zadrozny, at Ashfield District Council and local business people.
Lots of issues were discussed and we’re grateful to Jason for joining us and for answering questions raised.  Thanks too go to Rob Mitchell, CEO of the Council and Carol Cooper-Smith, Interim Service Director- Place and Communities for their support and contributions.
Jason wanted to share good news about some of the issues raised during the meeting and what’s being done by the Council.
 
The spring  Clean round Ashfield
Our first Spring Clean took place in May 2018 and we offered skips, flying skips and a free bulky waste collection. Residents all over Ashfield took part and threw away 82.5 metric tonnes of rubbish – equivalent to 17 fully grown elephants.  We were delighted to see that 99.9% of all rubbish was recycled.
Because of the success, we’ve just run another Big Spring Clean over February, where we invited residents to clear out their homes and sheds and leave additional black bags alongside their bins; as well as flying skips and free bulky waste.  We await detailed tonnage figures for this, but we had over 3,100 requests for free bulky waste collections.
We had lots of community input, including welcome contributions from business people from Kirkby Rotarians and we were delighted with their support.  The Administration intends to run a Spring Clean every year.
The development of the Heritage Centre at Kings Mill
We have secured funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund for Kingsmill reservoir and in a few months’ time, we’ll be able to announce some really exciting news about leisure facilities. It’s a principal leisure destination for Ashfield and the plans will create a modern leisure and visitor attraction.
News on the horizon about a possible use for Summit Park
After years of patient negotiations by the owners and support from ADC, we have received a planning application for a huge investment on to Summit Park. We are unable to announce the name of the occupier, but the development will be around 1.5m sq ft and will create around 1,800 new jobs (and business rates). Once we know the end occupier, we will seek to work with them to ensure that Ashfield residents can fill as many of the jobs as possible.  It’s great economic news for the District.
The new 4 screen cinema at Hucknall
Another recent welcome investment is into the iconic Byron Cinema building in Hucknall, which was bought by an private sector company just before Christmas 2018; amongst other things, they refurbish and bring old cinemas back into use.  They intend to reopen as a 4 screen by Christmas, which is great news for the residents of Hucknall.  This will really benefit the night time economy of the town centre and we hope that the economic benefits will also be felt by other businesses on the high street.
The new conservation zone at Hucknall
We believe that Hucknall town centre has the feel of a market town, with some impressive architecture and is therefore worthy of protection. After an extensive public consultation, Cabinet approved the establishment of a Conservation area for Hucknall town centre at its meeting on 11 March.  This will enable the conservation and enhancement of the special historic and architectural interest of the defined area around the town centre.  Designation will provide controls over the demolition of buildings and structures and the Planning Department will be able to exercise greater control over the design of new buildings, structures and extensions and the materials which are used. There will also be protection afforded to trees which were not previously protected.

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