Proposals for a new care home on land at the former Bartram Mowers site, Bluebell Road, Eaton, have been presented to the local community as a first 'informal' consultation. LNT Care Developments are proposing a purpose built dementia and residential care home with 66 beds using the footprint of the former Bartram Mowers building. 

Eaton Councillor Caroline Ackroyd attended the presentation with other residents from the immediate area and heard how the 3 storey care home would be managed and the resident amenities that would be on offer, including a hair salon, cinema, library and garden space.

See what Cllr Brian Watkins had to say about the proposal on social media:

Transcript

0:00
Hello, there is a new planning application in place to build a new 6- person care centre just in front of me, here, in Strawberry Hill Gardens on the site of the old Bartram Mowers Garden Centre.

0:17
The building that's going to be constructed should be a three-story building.

0:22
Obviously your Liberal Democrat councillors are concerned to know the views of local residents living around here, most of whom are elderly.

0:30
We are particularly concerned that in terms of the access to the new site where I'm standing on now, that we have measures to have a 20 mile an hour speed limit along here to ensure that the traffic moves along safely.

0:50
And then behind me here is Bluebell Road, and obviously with the likelihood of an increased volume of traffic, I think we have to realise that there is a cycle path that runs from Eaton Village to the university and we have to have some measures in place to warn motorists leaving the site that there may well be cyclists or pedestrians passing by.

1:23
So these are the sort of things that certainly we, as Liberal councillors, would want to make sure are put in place if the planning application is passed and we will certainly do our best to ensure that that is the case.

A proposal will soon be put before South Norfolk District Council to build a data centre opposite Ipswich Rd’s Tesco, near scenic beauty and wildlife in the Yare Valley. This would be one of the UK’s largest data centres. Many people are concerned, and a protest was staged outside City Hall. Lib Dem city councillor James Wright attended this protest and says:

Lib Dem county councillor Brian Watkins lives just ten minutes from the proposed site and says:

See what our team had to say on social media after attending the protest at City Hall:

Transcript

0:00
Right, we're here in Chapelfield Gardens.

0:04
We're towards the end of the AI data centre protest.

0:08
We've come here from City Hall.

0:10
The drums have now finished.

0:11
There's an opportunity to say a few words:

0:13
As for City Hall, we heard people speak passionately about why they felt this data centre was not a good thing.

0:19
We heard about heat, we heard about water usage, we heard about diesel generators, and from our position, it's the wrong thing in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Disabled bus passes in England will soon be eligible for use at all times of day after extensive campaigning from Lib Dem MP Tom Gordon. Previously, there were time restrictions in man areas, which often prevented disabled people from getting to work or university.

When this matter was originally put before Parliament last year, Labour MPs — including Clive Lewis, the MP for Norwich South — voted against it. However, the government have since decided that this change will take place after all. The prime minister says that it has been ‘good to work with you [Tom Gordon] on this’. Lib Dems are holding the government accountable.

Marlowe North, diversity officer for Norwich Lib Dems, says:

See Marlowe talk about what this change means for disabled people on our social media:

Transcript

0:00
A big win in the news recently.

0:03
It's been announced that disabled bus passes in England will soon be eligible for use at all times of day, where previously there were time restrictions.

0:11
This change was put forward last year by Lib Dem MP Tom Gordon, but at the time was voted down by government MPs: including Clive Lewis, who represents Norwich South. 

0:20
Public transport supports disabled people to work, to study, and to engage in social life, and making bus passes 24 hour is a common-sense policy that we're very proud to support.

0:29
It's really wonderful to hear that these harmful, ridiculous time restrictions will be scrapped after all.

The £2,000 per councillor per annum was cleared by the Green Party Cabinet on 29th July to come into effect almost immediately. The scheme will run for an initial year and then be reviewed with a view to continuing thereafter.

The idea was part of a budget amendment put forward earlier in the year by both the Green Party and the Liberal Democrats and voted through by Labour. Liberal Democrat leader on the City Council James Wright said:

See what James had to say about this on social media:

The budget which county councillors receive to spend in their areas on small highways items, environmental projects, and community initiatives has been scrapped by the new Reform administration. 

This is supposedly a cut to save on the overall spending for Norfolk County Council this year, but with the fund in question totalling less than £1m in an overall highways budget of £57m, its loss will merely be a drop in the ocean in terms of the deficit. But the loss to local communities in Norfolk could be very large indeed. Local councillors and community groups are often the best people situated to make judgements on the sort of improvements an area needs most, rather than civil servants at County Hall. Your Focus team have on several occasions in the past been able to use this budget to make positive changes in south Norwich, and we worry that a more centralised system will crowd out community voice. 

For example, the fund has allowed Eaton’s county councillor, Brian Watkins, to spend money on purchasing a SAM sign which has been used to monitor speed levels at various locations in Eaton Village during the past three years.  

Hear what Cllr Watkins had to say about the abolition on social media. 

Two years ago, the City Council agreed to implement a Lib Dem initiative calling for the introduction of a tourist information centre in our city.

Information centres can be a valuable resource to the people who visit our fine and historic city, helping them during their stay and promoting local attractions and businesses. Norwich generates millions each year from tourist income, and the City Council should be taking full advantage of this to support the tourism economy here. In cities like Lincoln and York, tourist information centres have been very successful and also function as gift shops, bringing in extra income for the city and providing jobs. 

But it’s been two years since this proposal was agreed upon, and seemingly nothing has been done to put this plan into action. University ward Lib Dem spokesperson James Hawketts will be bringing a question to the city council, to ask why nothing has previous happened to bring this about, despite it being previously agreed, and to ask what the new administration’s plans are for implementing it. 

A tourist information centre in Norwich would be a brilliant step in supporting the wealth, jobs, and cultural value generated here in our fine city. We hope that the Green Party now in charge at City Hall will see this and act on the agreed proposal.