Cllr Cliff Roper

Heanor Police Enquiry Office To Close

2012-01-26T18:51:00.000Z

Derbyshire Constabulary has announced today the closure of Heanor Police Enquiry office on 4 February 2012.

This is the first of a series of nine enquiry office closures across the county, which will also include those at Alfreton and Belper. The force hopes to save £500,000 per year.

Green Belt Protection

2012-01-21T23:52:00.000Z

In the wake of this week's majority decision by Members of Amber Valley Borough Council to sell land at Ripley Gateway to Morrisons, I have been asked by members of the public about the British National Party's policy regarding building on Green Belt land.

The Party's 2010 general Election Manifesto states in its key pledges:

The BNP demands an end to the destruction of Britain’s green belt, caused primarily by housing demand fuelled through mass immigration;

and

The BNP will encourage the use of existing “brown sites” for all new building or industrial developments.

In fact, the British National Party is the only truly green party.

The British National Party's 2011 Local Elections Manifesto states:

Halt greenfield development: the countryside is a rural heritage, which we wish safeguarded for future generations.

Rural development creates congestion, noise, pollution, expensive
infrastructure, new roads and raises the risk of flooding – and it hastens the decline of local agriculture.

The underlying reason for new housing – which Con/Lib/Lab/Green/UKIP spokesmen dare not explain, is mass immigration and the growing families of high-birth-rate migrants. This process causes local people to flee from the crime-ridden multi-cultural cities.

Restrict new development to “brownfield” sites and sympathetic infill, excepting in exceptional circumstances, approved by local referenda.

Our desire is to preserve what remains of our counties, hamlets, heritage, traditions and communities.

Halt all windfarm developments, which are inefficient, expensive and a blight on the landscape.

Zero tolerance for “travellers” and their illegal anti-social activities. We shall require their prompt eviction from private and council land where they are illegally camped and ensure they are held financially accountable for their illegal activities.

Grant local people the right to call binding local referenda on local issues, such as major planning proposals - 12.5% threshold of the registered electorate is sufficient to qualify to demand a poll.

In line with the above policies, and consistent with my personal views, I opposed the proposal to sell the land at Ripley Gateway to Morrisons.

Activism In Heanor

2012-01-21T19:11:00.000Z

Following last week's leafleting session on Church Gresley, British National Party activists in Heanor were today joined by colleagues from across Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire as we distributed leaflets to homes in Heanor East and Heanor West Wards.

Road Closure

2012-01-21T06:24:00.000Z

A section of the A608 road, which connects Langley Mill and Heanor, will be closed on 22 January 2012 to allow the removal of the remains of a large tree blown over by high winds earlier in the month.

The road will be closed between 6-00am and 4-00pm to allow the work to be carried out on Church Street near the junction with Grace Crescent.

Trent Barton state that, due to the road closure, buses will not service bus stops between Langley Mill Co-Op and Heanor Market between 6-00am and 5-00pm.

Hall Of Shame

2012-01-20T19:31:00.001Z

The discussion about the sale of land at Ripley Gateway to Morrisons on 18 January 2012 was held in camera, but there is no hiding for those councillors who voted in favour of the sale, as the vote was recorded.

Votes at Council meetings are usually taken by a show of hands, but, if Council approves, individual votes are taken and recorded in the minutes.

Seven councillors, including myself, voted against the sale:

LDCox (Labour)

MBGent (Labour)

BJLyttle (Labour)

JMcCabe (Labour)

JRMoon (Labour)

CRDRoper (British National Party)

P JSmith (Labour)

Eight councillors abstained from voting:

BRAistrop (Labour)

MBennettMBE (Labour)

CEmmas-Williams (Labour)

EHamilton (Labour)

PJones (Labour)

GHParkes (Labour)

KLParkinson (Conservative)

JAWalker (Labour)

Twenty four councillors voted in favour of the sale:

L R Allsebrook (British National Party)

JAnderson (Conservative)

PJArnold (Conservative)

RPAshton (Conservative)

SJBradford (Conservative)

JWBrownMBE (Conservative)

CNBull (Conservative)

AGCox (Conservative)

JACox (Conservative)

GBGee (Conservative)

SAHayes (Conservative)

SBJoynes (Conservative)

AFKing (Conservative)

PMakin (Conservative)

JNelson (Conservative)

JOrton (Conservative)

CJMShort (Conservative)

AGStevenson (Conservative)

DHTaylor (Conservative)

TSThorpe (Conservative)

VThorpe (Conservative)

MTomlinson (Conservative)

ASWard (Conservative)

Councillors D Bowley and E A Bowley were excluded from the debate and vote due to a prejudicial interest, and Councillors GGDolman,JEAGemmell,AMHallandALongdon did not attend the meeting.

Ripley Gateway

2012-01-19T19:18:00.001Z

Amber Valley Borough Council has issued the following press release regarding the sale of Council land at Ripley Gateway to Morrisons:

Morrisons’ proposal to build a new superstore on around seven acres of Council land at Nottingham Road, Ripley, was approved last night. They have signed an agreement with the Council to purchase the land, which still needs planning permission. The planning application for the design of the superstore will be submitted by Developer, Clowes Westerman, who are working with Amber Valley Borough Council to develop a new Gateway to the town, which also includes better recreational facilities and housing.

At the Council meeting on Wednesday 18 January 2012, councillors approved the moves, which will result in plans for the superstore as well as an application for the permanent extension to a Green Flag standard of ‘Greenwich Park’, which will be over 10 acres, retaining the former ‘CISWO’ land. The Developer will also be making an outline planning application for 130 new houses on their retained land, including affordable housing. The agreement between the Council and Clowes Westerman has also been signed.

The superstore would offer about 40,000 square feet of mainly food sales, as well as associated car parking and a petrol filling station. Morrisons would typically employ 350 people (150 part time) at a store of this type.

As part of the scheme, Clowes Westerman will submit an application for a new roundabout and access road close to existing roundabout at the north end of Coach Road. The Council have reserved the right to move the access to the route of the proposed A610 Codnor-Ripley link road.

Councillor Stuart Bradford, Leader of Amber Valley Borough Council said: “ We appreciate the strength of feeling of some about the plans for the superstore but we emphasise that the plans are still subject to the planning process, which will rigorously test the issues raised by concerned local residents such as the impact on the town centre. However, the funding received, as part of the agreement with the developers will allow the Council to realise other ambitions as part of its overall strategic priorities for the future. We have to take a long term view, and I firmly believe that the creation of jobs and the improved road links to Ripley will boost the town.”

The move also means the acceleration of the plans to develop the extension to a Nottingham Road Recreation Ground for the creation of a new Green Flag standard park for Ripley. Work has already started to lay out this recreation ground, and a temporary planning application will be submitted for this use, pending on the outcome of the planning application as part of the Gateway Scheme to make a better Park. The Council is also in talks with local sports clubs to discuss their future accommodation needs. We are also talking to pupils at St John’s Primary School and Mill Hill School in Ripley about the facilities for the play areas and hope to have more detailed plans for this by Spring.

Full Council Meeting Update

2012-01-19T08:04:00.002Z

Last night's meeting of Full Council was again very well attended by members of the public. The public gallery was full, and a large number of people gathered outside were not permitted to enter the building.

Whilst the sounds of a peaceful protest could be heard, members of the public made the most of the opportunity given at the start of council meetings to eloquently make their feelings known about the many proposed developments or proposed allocation of land for housing use.

Objectors to developments at Swanwick, and Hardy Barn in Shipley, were promised the opportunity to address a special meeting of the Local Development Framework Working Group by the leading Tory Group.

Councillors debated Government proposals to introduce a Community Infrastructure Levy. I welcome these moves as, although I do not feel there is any need for more homes to be built in our towns, I feel that if there are, the developers should be made to pay a contribution to improving the infrastructure in the area. New homes mean more residents in an area, leading to further stretching of infrastructure, reducing services to existing residents too.

A good example of the strain new development can put on infrastructure is the proposed allocation of land in the Hardy Barn and Breach Road area at Marlpool and Shipley. A large housing estate could potentially be built there, but with no schools in Shipley, a large number of children would not be able to be properly accommodated by the already full schools in Marlpool. It would be only right that a developer made a substantial contribution to a new school.

Council approved further consultation with regard to the development of the Cinderhill site, as well as the continuation of work towards the sale of the Council's depot at Hands Road in Heanor, and the Council's Central Headquarters in Ripley, including the Town Hall.

I supported a motion asking the Government to reconsider its proposed changes to the Local Government Pension Scheme. Despite the media's pre-occupation with high salaries paid to senior local government officers, the average council worker receives pay below the average level received by private sector employees, and has no more job security nowadays with the high levels of redundancies being made in the public sector.

These low pay levels have traditionally been compensated for to some extent by the provision of a final-salary pension scheme, but now the Government wants to increase employee contributions whilst reducing payouts to the scheme's pensioners. This puts undue pressure on council staff who have already suffered a substantial pay freeze, and could result in many being no longer able to afford to remain members of the scheme, thus putting its future viability at risk.

Finally, after a forty minute adjournment, at around 11-30pm came the decision to sell the land at Ripley Gateway to Morrisons.

Ripley Gateway Land To Be Sold To Morrisons

2012-01-19T00:01:00.000Z

Controversial proposals to sell land at Ripley Gateway for development were finally resolved last night as a majority of Amber Valley Borough councillors voted in favour of them.

Votes were recorded, which means that each councillor's individual vote will be published in the minutes of the meeting. I can confirm that I voted against the sale.

Councillors were not given final details of the sale until 9-45pm and were only permitted a 40 minutes adjournment to study the details.

Of course, even those restricted details were denied to the many members of the public who had again attended the meeting to object, because the Tory-led administration once again decided to hold the discussion in camera.

I had again voted against barring members of the public from the debate.

The development will include a new supermarket for Morrisons, which will still face the further hurdle of attaining planning permission before any building can start.

Further details will be announced in a press release by the Council later today.

Activism In Church Gresley

2012-01-15T06:42:00.000Z

After a short break for Christmas and the New Year, Derbyshire British National Party activists kicked off 2012 with a leafleting session yesterday in Church Gresley near Swadlincote.

I was amongst a team from Amber Valley which joined other activists from across the county to deliver leaflets in support of the campaign by British National Party Chairman Nick Griffin MEP for the British people to be given the chance to decide on Britain's future membership of the European Union in a referendum.

In the October 2007 by-election in Church Gresley Ward for a seat on South Derbyshire District Council, British National Party candidate Richard Fallows beat the Conservative Party candidate to attain second place with a creditable 35% of the vote.

Co-operation between groups within Derbyshire allows Derbyshire British National Party to cover large areas during such Days of Action. Yesterday's distribution of around 3,000 leaflets highlights the efficiency of these operations, which help to make Derbyshire one of the top performing areas in the East Midlands.

Our regular Days of Action will return next week as we spread our message of hope to another Derbyshire community.

Do You Qualify For An Electricity Bill Rebate?

2012-01-12T21:25:00.003Z

The Warm Home Discount Scheme, which was introduced this winter and will run for four years, gives extra help with electricity bills for qualifying people. This help is paid in the form of an electricity bill rebate of £120, and is funded by participating energy suppliers. The rebate is additional to any Winter Fuel Payment and Cold Weather Payments, and does not affect them.

Unfortunately, not all energy suppliers subscribe to the scheme, so to qualify for a rebate consumers need to buy their electricity from one of the following suppliers:

Atlantic
British Gas
EDF Energy
E ON
Npower
Scottish Hydro
Scottish Power
Southern Electric
SSE
Swalec

Customers of the above companies who received just the Guarantee Credit element of Pension Credit on the qualifying date of 11 September 2011 should automatically receive the rebate if they, or their partner, are named on their electricity bill. The Department for Work and Pensions will share limited data with suppliers to facilitate automatic rebates for people in this group.

Other people may also be able to receive a £120 rebate. Each supplier who is a member of the scheme has discretion to award the rebate to a wider range of customers under the Broader Group element of the scheme.

Customers will need to contact their own supplier to check if they are eligible for a rebate. Eligible consumers may include those on a low income with a disability or long-term illness, or those with children, but the actual criteria used will vary from supplier to supplier.

If you were born on or before 5 January 1951 you will also qualify for a Winter Fuel Payment. This is not means tested, but if you have not received one before, you must actively make a claim.

Cold Weather Payments are made when the weather is recorded as having been on average at, or below, 0C for seven consecutive days, or is forecast to be, on average, at or below, 0C for seven consecutive days, in a particular postcode area.

The payments run from 1 November until 31 March each winter, and is paid to most people who receive Pension Credit, and some people who receive Income Support, income-based Jobseeker's allowance or income-related Employment and Support Allowance.

The payments are £25 per seven day period of qualifying cold weather, and will automatically be made to those who qualify.

Controversial Developments

2012-01-12T16:17:00.000Z

The upcoming meeting of Full Council, to take place at 7-00pm on 18 January 2012 at Ripley Town Hall, will again be dominated by controversial building developments.

The Ripley Gateway development is due to be discussed, though yet again the reports have not been made available for the customary five working days before the meeting.

The long-running saga of the proposed development at Cinderhill will once again be raised, as councillors will decide whether or not to hold further public consultation with a view to continuing with development at the site.

Councillors will also be informed at the meeting of the Tory-led administration's desire to sell the Council's Hands Road depot this year, thus enabling the controversial Hands Road development to be built.

Ripley Gateway Shenanigans

2012-01-09T20:12:00.002Z

The public gallery at this evening's meeting of Full Council was full, which shows the strength of public opposition to the proposed development at Ripley Gateway, especially when one considers that the substantive debate was almost certain to have been discussed in camera.

The saga of this development has been one of postponement after postponement, as the decision on the sale of the land by the Council to the developers, originally due to have been made on 28 September 2011, has been repeatedly put off.

Those opposed to the plans, whilst no doubt pleased that the sale hasn't been approved, would no doubt prefer the opportunity to have an open debate on the matter, with a resultant rejection of the sale.

The Tory-controlled Council has sought to keep discussion of the matter secret, and the number of times the decision has been rescheduled leaves the feeling that the Council is playing cat-and-mouse with those opposed to the proposed development.

It must, therefore, have come as no surprise to those in the public gallery when tonight's decision was postponed, this time until 18 January 2012.

On this occasion, the motion to adjourn the decision came from the Opposition Labour Group, though the Tory Leader agreed to support another adjournment.

Although I would like to see the decision expedited, as the only non-Establishment councillor present, I felt that an adjournment was actually the right decision this time, and I supported the motion.

I feel strongly that the decision should be made in the public arena, but as that is very unlikely to happen, then at the very least, those who have been elected to make the decision on behalf of the public should be themselves in full knowledge of the facts.

Tonight's decision would have been made after councillors had had but a few minutes to examine the facts it would have been based upon.

Frustrating though it is for members of the public to now have to make yet another journey to Ripley Town Hall if they wish to show their opposition to the plans, I am sure they would wish that the decision is made after a proper examination of the facts. This matter is far too important to be decided hastily, even if that means the process is drawn out.

Who Are The Real Racists?

2012-01-05T20:28:00.000Z

Dianne Abbott

It beggars belief that Labour's racist MP Dianne Abbott is yet again unlikely to receive any punishment for her latest outburst against white Britons, whilst Emma West faces a Crown Court trial for allegedly making racist comments during a tram journey.

Emma West

Dianne Abbott has a long history of making racially abusive comments, including a 1996 incident in which she insulted blonde nurses who she claimed had never encountered a black person before.

Abbott is not alone amongst Labour racists who have completely escaped censure for their racial abuse. The late Bernie Grant, at the time a Council Leader, said "What the police got was a bloody good hiding" in response to the murder of PC Keith Blakelock during the Broadwater Farm riots in 1985.

Stephen Lawrence demonstrating the 'black power' salute in a photograph that the media usually crop to hide the incovenient gesture.

Meanwhile, this week has seen the conviction of two men for the murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993. It is right that all victims of murder and their families see justice done, but it is a shame that the same resources have not been deployed to ensure the convictions of those responsible for the racist murders of white victims. It is even more deplorable that their names are rarely, if ever, mentioned by the mainstream media, leaving the public unaware of their tragic, needless deaths.

The forgotten victims of anti-white racism

Mine Shaft Inspections

2012-01-03T20:41:00.000Z

The Coal Authority is the Government body which owns abandoned mines in Great Britain. The Authority has responsibility for 171,000 mine entries, of which 50,000 are in urban areas, including 18,000 within the boundaries of residential properties.

The organisation is currently inspecting these mine shafts and adits, and aims to have finished inspecting those on residential land by July 2012.

Many people who have a mine entrance on their land will already be aware of this, but in any case the Coal Authority will write to householders to arrange an inspection. These take around twenty minutes to complete, are completely visual, and involve an inspection of gardens and the outside of buildings.

The Authority will send the householder a written report following the inspection. It is very rare for any remedial work to be necessary, but in most cases the Coal Authority is responsible for the cost of it.

Inspectors will carry identification but their identity can be verified by telephoning the Coal Authority on (0845) 7626848.

The Coal Authority operates a 24 hour emergency service to deal with coal hazards such as open or collapsed mine shafts. In such instances, members of the public should not approach the hazardous area, but should contact the Coal Authority on (01623) 646333.

A True Patriot

2011-12-30T17:43:00.000Z

It is with great sadness that I have learnt of the passing away last night of well-known nationalist Cllr John Ryde.

John was formerly East Midlands press officer for the British National Party and was still serving as a Member of Newbold Verdon Parish Council.

John has made a remarkable contribution to the nationalist cause in our country, and he will be sadly missed.

I'm sure that everyone at Derbyshire British National Party will wish to join me in sending condolences to John's family.

Patient Transport Misery

2011-12-28T18:46:00.000Z

A lot of disabled andelderly people rely on the Patient Transport Service to take them toand from hospital appointments.

The contract for thisservice in Derbyshire was recently put out to tender by East MidlandsPrimary Care Trust and it was announced this month that East MidlandsAmbulance Service has lost the contract. The service will be providedby a private company, NSL Ltd, from early next year.

This change, no doubtdriven by financial motives, will cause uncertainty and distress forthose people who depend on the service.

Unfortunately, it isbecoming apparent that this is not the only change to affect thosewho are amongst the most vulnerable in our society.

It seems that theeligibility criteria for use of the service are now being morerigorously enforced. Whilst it is only right that those who are wellenough to make their own way to hospital do so, rather than usingambulances as a free taxi service, I have received a number ofcomplaints from local residents who have a genuine need for theservice.

It appears that peopleare being put through the unnecessary distress of having theirtransport put into doubt whilst their case is reviewed. This israther bizarre, when one considers that the only criteria aremedical, and transport has to be arranged either via a GP orhospital. Clearly, both are in a position to state whether or not thepatient qualifies for the service, and there is no need to causedistress to vulnerable patients.

I call on thoseresponsible for this state of affairs to consider the impact of theirdecisions on the people that are affected. Unfortunately, our healthservices are being run more and more as businesses, and it is thoseleast able to speak up for themselves who are paying the human costfor this drive from quality to cheapness.

Christmas And New Year Opening Times

2011-12-19T16:43:00.002Z

The Town Hall in Ripley will close forChristmas and New Year at 4.30pm on Friday 23rd December 2011 andre-open at 9am on Tuesday 3 January 2012.

The Town Centre Offices at Alfreton, Belper, Heanor andRipley will close at 12.30 pm on Friday 23rd December 2011and re-open at 9 am on Tuesday 3 January 2012.

The Registrar of births, deaths and marriages at the Register Office in Ripley Town Hallwill close at 1pmon Friday 23 December 2011 and will also be closed on:

Saturday 24th December 2011
Monday 26 December 2011
Tuesday 27 December 2011
Monday 2 January 2012

All refuse and recycling collections up to and including Friday 23rd December will beas normal.There will be no refuse or recycling collections on Monday 26thDecember and collections for the rest of that week will be one day later than usual. There will be no refuse or recycling collections on Monday 2ndJanuary 2012 and collections for the rest of that week will be also be one day later than usual.

The Household Waste and Recycling Centre at Taylor Lane, Loscoe isopen every day 8.30am to 6pm except Christmas Day, Boxing Day andNew Years Day.

Amber Valley Borough Council's out-of-hours contact telephone number for emergencies which are a threat to life or property is (01773) 841414

Christmas Cheer For Breach Road Residents

2011-12-17T10:07:00.000Z

I have been informed that the Planning Inspectorate have rejected the appeal by the developers of land at 120 Breach Road in Heanor against the refusal by Amber Valley Borough Council to grant planning permission for a development of 14 houses at the site.

A planning inspector carried out a site visit on 8 November 2011, but the decision has only just been announced.

The inspector rejected the appellant's claim that part of the proposed site was incorrectly classed as Green Belt land, stating that any objections to this shuld have been dealt with at the time the designation was made.

Further, the inspector felt that the proposed development would harm the Green Belt, in particular affecting the openness of it.

In my statement to the Planning Inspectorate, I contended that the appellant was incorrect when she said that the whole site was within the developed framework of Heanor. I also felt that the land's stated use for equestrian activites did not justify the appellant's claim that the land should be classed as brownfield land. The inspector concurred with this, and further stated that there was no indication of equestrian use, with the land being overgrown with vegetation.

I am pleased that this decision will allow Breach Road residents to continue to enjoy their properties unencumbered by this unwanted development, and I hope it will deter developers from proposing other schemes in this area.

The impact on the Green Belt would have been disastrous, with the proposed development ruining views from not only the Marlpool area of Heanor, but also from Shipley and Cotmanhay.

Christmas Blood Donor Session

2011-12-13T15:42:00.001Z

People across Amber Valley are being urged to show somefestive spirit by giving blood this December. As the Christmasholidays approach and many people are busy preparing for thefestive break by shopping and celebrating with family and friends,it's easy to forget that appointment in the diary to donateblood.

NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is asking people to thinkof hospital patients who rely on vital blood transfusions duringDecember - those receiving life-saving cancer treatments, surgeryand emergency care which continues in hospitals every day of theyear.

In addition to the challenges that Christmas can bring, iflast year's wintry weather repeats itself, blood donations couldfall by as much as 20% over the festive season.

Holly Mason, NHSBT's lead donor relations manager, said:"The arctic conditions across the East Midlands last winterpresented severe challenges for the blood supply, yet blood donorsmade heroic efforts to reach donation sessions. We are now callingon our regular donors to show warm hearts by helping to save livesand making a date to donate this Christmas."

The Next Session is at Ripley JuniorSchool on Saturday 24th of December atthe following times 10:20 - 14:20

Not many appointments have been booked for these sessions.

Most People aged between 17 and 65 can donate for the firsttime, If you can donate up to the age of 70 if you have donatedsuccessfully in the past.

The National Blood Service relies heavily on the goodwill of thecommunity to support blood donor sessions in many ways. Your helpwill be invaluable in supporting the National Blood Service tosupply hospitals with 8,000 units of blood every day.

Free Christmas Parking

2011-12-13T15:37:00.000Z

Once again, Amber Valley Borough Council is waiving charges at it's car parks over the festive period.

Cars can be parked for free at Council-owned car parks between 18 December 2011 and 27 December 2011. Drivers must still comply with rules regarding parking, including those about maximum stays and disabled parking bays.

Ripley Gateway Meeting Postponed

2011-12-13T15:19:00.000Z

The meeting of Full Council which had been scheduled to take place tomorrow night has been postponed and will now take place at 6pm on 9 January 2012 at Ripley Town Hall.

The meeting was due to discuss the Ripley Gateway project, and follows the adjournment of the discussion at a meeting on 2 November 2011.

The rescheduled meeting will not be open to the public. I and members of the Labour Group voted against excluding the public from the debate on 2 November 2011, but it is likely that the lead Tory Group will force through the exclusion yet again at the reconvened meeting.

Can You Believe Your Eyes?

2011-12-12T19:56:00.001Z

It seems that a lot more people in Britain are now waking up to the fact, long known by nationalists, that you cannot believe everything you see on the television.

We are all used to the adage that one cannot believe everything one reads in the newspapers, but a lot of people appear to have a blindspot when it comes to judging the truthfulness of the images delivered to them by television.

It seems that, whilst most people accept that the spoken or written word can be manipulated, they still believe that moving images cannot be altered.

Today's controversy surrounding the BBC's Frozen Planet programme, and it's portrayal of polar bear cubs filmed in a zoo as if the filming took place in the wild, has come as a massive shock to many who simply accept everything they are shown by television broadcasters.

Viewers are not only misled by misrepresentation of where a set of events were filmed, but can also be misled by false indications of when it was filmed, or even more blatantly by the faking of events such that they appear to be natural events, but are actually set-up by the production team.

The real harm of this fakery is when it is used to manipulate news and current affairs coverage. I have personally been interviewed or filmed for numerous current affairs programmes, and the broadcast programmes rarely bear much resemblance to the filming, once editing adds and removes sections in order to follow the particular bias of the producer.

Nationalists usually suffer from misrepresentation by television broadcasters, and this is amplified by the naive belief of many people that anything shown on television must be true.

I hope that from now on, more people will learn to question the things they are told by the media, be it newspapers, radio or television.

Document Processing

2011-12-12T19:23:00.001Z

Following my earlier enquiries about how Amber Valley Borough Council handles paper and electronic documents, I have now received a response from officials.

I have been contacted by a number of members of the public who expressed concerns about documents that appear to have been lost or destroyed, such that the Council is unable to access a copy. The Council's Document Retention Schedule states, for differing classes of documents, how long they should be kept for. It seems that some documents are inaccessible even though a copy should have been retained. Although it is possible that a copy has been accidentally destroyed, good practice would dictate that back-up copies should have been made.

I have also been told by members of the public about occasions when documents have been sent to the Council but officers are unable to locate them.

I have now been informed that, in fact, the Council has no policy covering the making of back-up copies of paper and electronic documents, or the processes for dealing with instances where documents are permanently lost.

I have, however, been informed that there is a set procedure followed with the intention of securing documents received by post.

It has also been confirmed that the Council does not keep statistics for the loss of documents, but I am told that "enquiries regarding documents claimed to have been lost do not happen frequently".

Ilkeston Day Of Action

2011-12-10T20:45:00.001Z

Activists from Derby and Derbyshire joined forces again today in a Day of Action in Ilkeston. I and my wife, Emma, represented Amber Valley as we helped run a stall in the town centre.

The team of Derbyshire British National party activists were highlighting the desire of many people to be given the chance to vote in a referendum to decide whether or not Britain should remain a member of the European Union.

We asked the people of Ilkeston to sign a petition by British National Party Chairman Nick Griffin MEP asking for a referendum on the matter. We received a very positive reception from the people of Ilkeston, and over 300 people signed our petition.

The success of this and other recent Days of Action in Derby and Derbyshire highlights the power of co-operation between neighbouring groups within Derbyshire British National Party. Indeed, activists from Derby and Derbyshire are responsible for collecting half of all the petition signatures collected across the whole East Midlands region during the current campaign.

Missing Documents Update

2011-12-05T20:14:00.001Z

Following my Freedom of Information Act 2000 request for details about any documents lost by Amber Valley Borough Council over the past five years, I have received a rapid response denying my request on the basis of cost.

The law exempts public bodies from providing information requested under the Freedom of Information Act if it would cost more than £450 to provide it.

I have been informed that the cost would 'easily exceed' that threshold. Public bodies use a figure of £25 per hour to calculate the value of officers' time for such purposes, so it would require an officer to spend over 18.5 hours to list such documents as the Council may have lost over the past five years.

Readers will no doubt form their own conclusions as to how many documents the Council has lost over the past five years, but the truth is that it appears that nobody knows the true figure, including officials at the Council.

I now intend to investigate the Council's policies and procedures for making back-up copies of paper and electronic documents, as well as its processes for dealing with instances where documents are permanently lost.

Ripley Gateway

2011-12-05T19:18:00.001Z

A meeting of Full Council will be held on 14 December 2011 at which Ripley Gateway will be discussed.

The meeting is a reconvened meeting following adjournment on 2 November 2011.

The only report to be debated relates to the Ripley Gateway development, and members of the public will be excluded from the discussion.

I and members of the Labour group voted against discussing this topic in camera at the 2 November 2011 meeting, but the lead Tory Group succeeded in outvoting us.

A large number of local residents took the time to attend a demonstration outside Ripley Town Hall on 2 November 2011, though only a limited number were permitted to sit in the public gallery during the meeting.

I believe that this decision is too important to be taken hidden away from public view. It is obviously a matter that concerns very many local residents and their views should be fully taken into account.

Missing Documents

2011-12-03T21:34:00.001Z

A recent report by pressure group Big Brother Watch has revealed that councils in Britain lost personal information on 1,035 occasions a the three year period. Losses and thefts of documents, computers, phones and memory devices mean that thousands of people have suffered a loss of privacy or had their security put at risk.

Derbyshire County Council suffered three incidents, two of which involved the loss of personal information relating to members of staff. The third incident involved the sale of a laptop to a member of the public, with personal information about social services clients remaining on it. The loss was only discovered because the purchaser contacted the Council.

Amber Valley Borough Council told Big Brother Watch that it had not suffered any data losses over the time in question, whilst Heanor and Loscoe Town Council was not asked.

Councils often collect data about members of the public. In some instances, people are required by law to provide personal information to councils, and at other times they provide personal information so they can use essential services provided by local authorities. The public have little choice but to provide personal information to councils, but the consequences of councils allowing this information to fall into the wrong hands can be serious.

Although Amber Valley Borough Council appears to take good care of the privacy of those to whom it provides services, I have become aware of the possibility of other issues relating to the processing of data at the Council.

Data loss is usually taken to mean revealing data to an unauthorised third party, but it can also mean literally completely losing data. All data controllers have a legal obligation to have in place back-up procedures to ensure that the loss or destruction of one copy of a document does not mean the information is lost. Any lost or destroyed documents should be replicated from back-up copies.

However, I have been contacted by members of the public who have concerns about occasions when it seems these procedures have failed at the Council. The Council has a document retention policy which dictates how long documents should be kept for, but it seems that some documents have been lost or destroyed earlier than they should have been.

It also appears that on occasion documents that have been submitted by members of the public upon request by the Council, in order to prove their entitlement to services, benefits or discounts, have gone missing.

In order to gauge the extent of this loss of documents, I have submitted a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to the Council. I asked:

In the past five years, how many documents have officers not been able to locate, which:

1. the retention period of which had not yet expired as defined by the Council's document Retention Policy?

2. members of the public have stated to officers have been sent or delivered to the Council, but officers have been unable to locate?

In each instance please give brief details.

Cllr Peter Bailey

2011-11-30T21:08:00.000Z

I am sure that everybody at Derbyshire British National Party would wish to join me in sending condolences to the family of Cllr Peter Bailey who passed away suddenly on Tuesday.

Peter represented Heanor West ward as a Labour councillor on Heanor and Loscoe Town Council, and was a former Member of Amber Valley Borough Council.

Peter gave up his time to make a positive contribution to the local community and I am sure he will be sadly missed by all, irrespective of party affiliation.

Derbyshire Police Complaint Resolved

2011-11-27T06:25:00.001Z

Yesterday I met with the officer who investigated my complaint to the Independent Police Complaints Commission against Derbyshire Police.

My complaint concerned an incident at a Derbyshire British National Party stall in Matlock Bath on 14 August 2011, at which a police officer asked myself and other activists to identify themselves. My complaint concerned whether the officer acted outside her lawful authority.

With my agreement, the complaint was investigated by an officer from Derbyshire Police under the local resolution process.

The investigating officer apologised for the incident and agreed that the officer should have made it clear that I was not obliged to provide my details. He also acknowledged that we have a right to engage in lawful political activity.

It seems that the police may wish to have a point of contact in the event that they wish to discuss any matters arising from a campaigning event. However, activists are under no obligation to provide such information, and any individual activists who feel uncomfortable doing so should politely refuse.

Derby Day Of Action

2011-11-26T16:49:00.001Z

Today I and my wife joined activists from other parts of the Derby and Derbyshire area for Derbyshire British National Party's Day of Action in Derwent Ward in Derby.

The group of activists delivered 1,850 leaflets to local residents, calling for a referendum to decide whether Britain should remain as a member of the European Union.

We also took the opportunity to talk with local people about issues of concern to them, and we were pleased to once again receive a very positive response.

Complaint To IPCC

2011-11-25T21:53:00.001Z

Following telephone conversations with the investigating officer, I will be attending a meeting tomorrow with Derbyshire Police at which it is expected that my complaint to the Independent Police Complaints Commission will be resolved.

My complaint concerned an incident at a Derbyshire British National Party stall in Matlock Bath on 14 August 2011, at which a police officer asked myself and other activists to identify themselves. My complaint concerns whether the officer acted outside her lawful authority.

Day Of Action

2011-11-25T21:31:00.001Z

It appears that it will be another busy day tomorrow for Derbyshire British National Party as activists from across Derby and Derbyshire converge on another part of our area to spread the nationalist message to the public.

I and my wife, Emma, will represent the Amber Valley area as we distribute leaflets promoting Nick Griffin MEP's EU referendum petition. We also hope to get the chance to speak personally with as many members of the public as possible to discuss any matters of concern they may have.

Industrial Action

2011-11-25T21:00:00.001Z

Amber Valley Borough Council has issued the following statement regarding the public sector strikes planned for Wednesday 30 November 2011:

Industrial Action - It's business as usual at Amber Valley Borough Council.

It's business as usual at Amber Valley Borough Council, with the Town Hall and the four town centre offices in Ripley, Alfreton, Heanor and Belper remaining open. The usual telephone and online payment services will be available. The Council's leisure centres at Alfreton, Heanor and Ripley will be open, and there will be a refuse and recycling collection on the day as usual.

Customers are, however, advised to contact the offices or centres ahead if they plan to make a journey on the day.

The number to contact for any service is 01773 570 222

Paying For Politics

2011-11-22T20:11:00.001Z

At present, political parties in Britain are funded by donations, either from individuals or organisations. Whilst all parties attract donations from their members and supporters, the Labour Party is mainly funded by donations from trades unions, and the Conservative Party by corporate donations. Smaller parties such as the British National Party solely rely on donations from individuals, and are at a distinct financial disadvantage when it comes to funding election campaigns.

The Committee on Standards in Public Life has just produced a report which recommends changes to the way political parties are funded, including restrictions on donations from wealthy individuals, and those from trades unions. To compensate the Establishment parties for the subsequent loss of income, it recommends that political parties be funded from the public purse, dependent upon their electoral success.

These proposals would require the agreement of the Establishment parties, so they may never happen.

It should never be forgotten that the trades unions' donations to the Labour Party are sourced from members' subscriptions. However, individual members have the right to opt out of this political levy simply by notifying their union, though the unions and Labour Party are reluctant for you to know this fact. There are also a few trades unions that do not make party political donations, choosing either to not raise a political levy, or to use it for campaigning on policy matters for the advantage of their members.

It is more difficult to opt out of the corporate donations made by many large businesses to the Conservative Party, other than by taking one's business elsewhere. Shareholders will rarely ever get the chance to vote on the matter either, other than indirectly by voting against accepting the accounts.

The British National Party relies for funding on donations from members and supporters, as it receives no corporate or trades union donations. I feel it is unlikely, should the Establishment parties agree to change the methods of party funding, that they will devise a funding formula that allows the smaller parties to enter their closed shop.

Derbyshire Day Of Action

2011-11-19T20:01:00.001Z

Activists from Derbyshire British National Party joined me and my wife Emma in Heanor today as part of the Party's campaign for a referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union.

The group of committed activists from across Derby and Derbyshire helped us to deliver leaflets asking people to sign a petition calling for the British public to be given a chance to decide whether or not Britain should remain a member of the European Union.

Britain's membership of the European Union prevents the British people from autonomously governing themselves. The vast majority of our laws are now originated from the European Union. Although we are not a member of the Euro-zone, our membership of the European Union means that we are still caught up in the economic turmoil resulting from the inability of many European countries to rescue their debt-ridden economies whilst under the fiscal restraints imposed by their use of the Euro.

The petition was organised by British National Party Chairman Nick Griffin MEP, who says

The Euro crisis is gathering pace every day. Many economic analysts are now openly saying that the coming crash will be even worse than the 1929 disaster that sparked the 1930s Slump.

The whole rotten international banking system that is at the centre of the globalisation rip-off is teetering on the abyss, and the Europhiles' crazy single currency scheme is going to get the blame.

During the Day of Action, we delivered 2,000 leaflets to homes in Heanor East Ward. We also took the opportunity to discuss the matter with local residents and found widespread opposition to Britain's continued membership of the European Union.

Derbyshire British National Party will continue with Days of Action to highlight this and other issues, with activists rotating their activities around its area, which encompasses both the city of Derby and the administrative county of Derbyshire.

'Have Your Say' About Heanor And Langley Mill

2011-11-14T19:34:00.001Z

The Council will be holding a 'Have Your Say' community forum, at 6pm on Wednesday 30 November 2011 at St. Andrew's Church, Station Road, Langley Mill. The session will be in the main church building, not the church hall.

There will be an opportunity to raise any concerns with Cabinet members on a one-to-one basis, followed by a Questions and Answers Session.

The Have Your Say session will be followed at 7pm by a Cabinet meeting. The public will also be able to ask questions concerning any matter that is the responsibility of Cabinet, though this must be pre-arranged, either by contacting the Council at allison.steeples@ambervalley.gov.uk beforehand or by telling the Clerk before the Cabinet meeting starts. Some questions may receive written replies, especially those notified late, and if Cabinet Question Time over-runs, some questions may not be able to be asked within the session, but will still receive written replies.

Free Parking On Remembrance Sunday

2011-11-12T06:14:00.000Z

Amber Valley Borough Council has waived all parking charges in Council-owned car parks from 8am on Sunday 13 November 2011 until the following Monday morning.

Lest We Forget...

2011-11-11T05:36:00.000Z

The Soldier

If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

Rupert Brooke (1914)

For The Fallen

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.

Laurence Binyon (1914)

Fingers Burnt At Futures Housing

2011-10-25T21:00:00.000+01:00

Futures Housing, the parent organisation of Futures Homescape, formerly Amber Valley Housing, has had its fingers badly burnt in a High Court battle with Daventry District Council.

In 2007, Daventry District Council sold 3,000 homes to Daventry and District Housing, which is now part of Futures Housing. Staff from the Council's Housing Department also had their employment transferred to the housing association.

The housing association agreed to pay part of the purchase price of the houses as a contribution of £2.4 million pounds into the employees' pension fund, administered by Northamptonshire County Council.

Daventry and District Housing denied the agreement had been made, and the matter eventually reached the High Court, after the judge at an earlier hearing described some of Futures Housing's witnesses as 'unsatisfactory' and 'not telliing the truth'.

The High Court decided that Futures Housing must pay Northamptonshire County Council the outstanding amount, plus costs to Daventry District Council of around £425,000. Permission to appeal to the Supreme Court was denied.

NATO Force's Hidden Support For Muslim Fighters In Europe

2011-10-01T07:11:00.000+01:00

In yet another example of news that is hidden from the British public by the mainstream media, news is reaching Britain of a months-old dispute in which NATO troops are providing support to Muslim fighters from Kosovo in a border dispute with Christian Serbia.

This report from Russia's RT television network tells of NATO troops threatening to shoot Serbian civilians:

Delves Court Consultation

2011-09-30T16:20:00.001+01:00

On Wednesday, Futures Homescape, formerly Amber Valley Housing, held a public consultation event about their plans for the former Delves Court site on Lockton Avenue in Heanor.

The presentation was held at the same time as a meeting of Full Council in Ripley. It is a rather strange coincidence of timing that this was held at a time when the elected representatives of the community would not be able to attend, but only Futures Homescape know the reason behind this timing.

I did however attend the earlier drop-in session and had an opportunity to view the revised options for the site and discuss them with Futures Homescape representatives and local residents.

Four options were presented, which the public were asked to comment upon. One choice was an earlier plan to build a mixed development of family houses and bungalows for the elderly and disabled, on a site extended to include part of Lockton Avenue Playing Fields. There was another option which consisted entirely of bungalows, and two further options of mixed houses and bungalows.

It was apparent from discussions with Futures Homescape staff that the option comprised solely of bungalows was only shown for comparison and had no realistic chance of approval or funding. Futures Homescape clearly wish to build a housing development for families with a few bungalows tagged on one end.

I am told that the presentation was well attended. The public were told that Futures Homescape was currently unable to obtain funding to redevelop the site, but in any case it would have been commercially unviable to build a site comprising just bungalows.

It is also disappointing that Futures Homescape told local residents that it would not be holding any more consultations with them over the future of the site. Fortunately, any future planning applications will be subject to statutory public consultation anyway.

Build, Build, Build!

2011-09-29T16:17:00.000+01:00

Last night's five hour Full Council meeting was dominated by development matters. There was a large number of members of the public in attendance, and many speakers who urged the Council not to approve reports regarding Ripley Gateway, Ripley Town Hall and the Swiss Tea Rooms at Belper.

The Tory Group wanted to postpone discussion of petitions about the sale of Ripley Town Hall and the development of Ripley Gateway until November, whilst still discussing the original reports on the same issues! Only myself and fellow British National Party Councillor Lewis Allsebrook voted against this postponement. We felt that it was unfair to expect the public to return unnecessarily, and we were aware that fewer people actually would do so, thus lowering the resistance to the Establishment party's plans. A vote against the plans could have stopped them there and then. The delaying tactic, which was approved by the Establishment parties, can only work in favour of their plans.

I and Councillor Allsebrook opposed the plans for the rebuilding of Belper's Swiss Tea Rooms, as we had serious concerns about the decision process, which ignored the wishes of the people of Belper and the Friends of Belper River Gardens that the Lathams design was used. We believe that the wishes of local people should be paramount, but unfortunately this principle does not underpin the voting pattern of the Tory and Labour Groups. Council as a whole forced through the unpopular McNeill, Beechey and O'Neill design.

We also both opposed the continuation of work towards implementing the Ripley Gateway development. This report was approved by a majority vote, but will have to pass many more stages yet before it reaches fruition.

We similarly opposed the continuation of work towards selling Ripley Town Hall and the adjacent offices. This was approved by a majority vote, but again has more stages to pass before any sale is finalised.

We also opposed the sale of land at Bradshaw Avenue in Riddings, though again Council as a whole approved it.

Discussion of the new leisure centre for Belper was postponed until November because final reports were not yet available.

We were pleased to support the progress of a plan for Heanor Town Football Club to take over the management of Charles Hill Sports Complex, which would secure its future. Heanor Town Football Club aim to replace the sports hall with a modern facility and improve the sports pitches.

We were the only councillors to oppose renewal of the Council's membership of the Local Government Association. This costs local council tax payers thousands of pounds per year for little benefit.

We were also the only Members to oppose the automatic objection by the Council to any current or future town and village green applications. Town and village green status protects open spaces from development so that residents can enjoy them for leisure and recreational purposes, but it is clear that the Establishment parties are only interested in building houses on them. This is what I said to Council on this issue:

There are several controversial proposed developments at the moment whichthreaten to encroach on publicly accessible open spaces in AmberValley.

Local residents are used to enjoying these open spaces for leisure andrecreational purposes, and are rightly outraged at threats to suchuse.

This report is simply a kneejerk reaction against residents who campaignto preserve their rights to enjoy these green areas.

It is simply arrogant to assume that we can decide now to oppose notjust current town and village green applications, but also any futureones, about which we have absolutely no knowledge.

In a democratic society, we need to listen to the wishes of nearbyresidents before we remove their rights to enjoy what they alreadyregard as town and village greens.

The requested delegation is far too wide ranging, and members may wellcome to regret granting it should a town or village green in theirown ward be affected at a later date.

Town and village green applications make very slow progress, so there canbe no argument that delegated authority is necessary to expediteobjections.

Given the high profile of these cases, I believe all such applicationsshould be discussed by Full Council before a decision is made abouthow to react to each one.

The report was approved by the other parties.

Derbyshire Police To Investigate Complaint

2011-09-28T15:19:00.000+01:00

I have today received confirmation from Derbyshire Constabulary that they have recorded my complaint to the Independent Police Complaints Commission against the conduct of one of their officers.

The officer approached British National Party members who were running a stall on private land at Matlock Bath in august this year, and demanded that we give her our names, addresses and dates of birth, to be recorded for 'intelligence purposes'. Police officers do not have the legal authority to require somebody to give them such information in those circumstances.

The complaint will now be investigated by the Derbyshire Police's Professional Standards Department.

Labour Infighting

2011-09-27T20:46:00.004+01:00

The Labour Party are very keen to highlight internal disputes in rival political parties, whilst giving the impression that everyone in their own Party is the best of friends.

The world of politics is populated by people with strong opinions who do not shirk away from expressing them very vocally. By definition, people without strong opinions, or who those who are shy of expressing them, do not tend to join political parties.

It is therefore no surprise when members of political parties disagree about policies or internal party management, and most parties are subject to a continual undercurrent of dissent.

The local Labour Party give the impression that they are the only solid, integrated group whilst there are continual arguments amongst the other Groups.

Of course the local Party keeps quiet about their two sitting councillors who left the Party in recent years, but now it has quietly decided it has bigger fish to fry.

It seems that the local Labour Party, upset that their choice for Party leader was unsuccessful, are now engaged in active dissent against the highly unpopular Ed Milliband.

It seems that Amber Valley Labour Party has had its knuckles rapped for attempting to make unconstitutional rule changes, although details are scarce as this is one internal dispute that is not advertised on their website.

It is known that the rebel group of Labour dissenters known as the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy has taken up the cudgel on their behalf, demanding to know why the rule change was vetoed.

The Campaign for Labour Party Democracy states that it '...campaigns for an accountable leadership'.

Breach Road Development Appeal

2011-09-27T20:08:00.000+01:00

Yesterday was the closing date for representations to the Planning Inspectorate regarding the appeal by the developers of land at 120 Breach Road in Heanor.

The developers were refused permission by planning officers to build 14 houses on the site, which would have included building on the Green Belt between Heanor and Ilkeston.

On 28 August I wrote the following to the Planning Inspectorate with regard to the appeal:

ThePlanning Inspectorate
Room3/22
TempleQuay House
2The Square
TempleQuay
BRISTOL
BS16PN

Re:Land at 120 Breach Road, Heanor DE75 7HQ

Dearsir,

Iwish to make the following comments regarding the above appeal in mycapacity as a councillor for the ward in which the land is located. Iam not a member of the Planning Board and took no part in decidingthe original planning application other than to submit comments in mycapacity as ward councillor.

Theapplication relates to what are, in effect, two parcels of landadjacent to each other. One plot of land contains a dwelling andassociated garden, the other is an orchard surrounded on three sidesby fields.

Supportingdocuments provided by the applicant in the earlier application(AVA/2006/1473) for a Certificate of Lawfulness for Existing Usestate that the orchard was used for exercising, riding and schoolinghorses as well as fruit picking. Publicly available aerial images ofthe site show no buildings on the land as defined on the mapsprovided with the supporting statements.

Ido not feel that the use of an orchard for exercising and ridinghorses renders the land sufficiently developed to warrant it beingregarded as brownfield land.

Whilstacknowledging that the plot of land containing the dwelling does lieinside the settled framework of Heanor, it is on the very boundary ofthat area, and I feel that the orchard definitely lies outside thesettled framework. The orchard lies to the south-east of the dwellingand there are undeveloped, open fields in that direction for 2.3 kmuntil one reaches the settlement of Cotmanhay.

Theappellant claims the land is within the frontage of Breach Road. Thedwelling and associated gardens does lie within the line of theadjacent properties, but the orchard, which makes up around 75% ofthe area, is mostly outside the line of adjacent properties andassociated gardens. In excess of half of the total land is outsidethis line, extending past it by up to around 40m.

Theappellant refers to alleged correction of drafting errorsinvalidating the Green Belt boundary in the 2002 Local Plan. However,the current Local Plan was approved by Full Council on 12 April 2006,so any corrected boundaries included at that time would havereflected the wishes of Full Council.

Iwould not consider this development to be 'infilling' within thesettled framework, as, with the exception of the existing footprintof the dwelling, any development would be either in the Green Belt orclassed as 'garden grabbing', whereby dwellings are built on what waspreviously a residential garden.

Itis disingenuous of the appellant to state that the land is surroundedon two sides by housing developments. The plot of land containing thedwelling is part of a street built a considerable number of yearsago, and that plot of land is surrounded by developed areas on threesides, with Green Belt on the other. The plot of land containing theorchard has developed land on one side, the other sides are mostlysurrounded by Green Belt with some parts bordered by residentialgardens.

Theproposed development sits outside the settled framework of Heanor, soit is difficult to understand the appellant's argument that it is ina sustainable position which provides access by means other thanmotor car to a wide range of facilities. The site is, in fact, aconsiderable distance from most of the facilities in Heanor and mostnearby residents use motor vehicles to access them.

Theappellant states that they disagree with the Council's statement thatno tree survey had accompanied the application. They refer to a treesurvey dated 15 January 2011, but this could clearly not have beensubmitted with the planning application, which was dated 26 November2010.

Itis impossible to view the orchard from the public highway, butpublicly available aerial photographs show that it contains asubstantial number of trees, so it is difficult to accept theargument that no trees would be adversely affected by thedevelopment.

Yoursincerely,

CouncillorCliff Roper

New Houses For Old Coppice Side?

2011-09-24T06:30:00.000+01:00

A planning application has been submitted to build three two-bedroom terraced houses on land adjacent to 72 Old Coppice Side, Heanor.

The houses are proposed to be built on land currently occupied by the garages and hardstanding area. Each house will have an off-road parking space and to facilitate this the existing tree and hedge will be removed.

The site is only 140 feet away from the site of a proposed residential home that could be built on the site of the former Country Park Tavern.

Upcoming Full Council Meeting

2011-09-21T20:16:00.000+01:00

There will be a meeting of the whole Council on 28 September 2011, which contains a larger than usual agenda with many items that are of interest to Amber Valley residents.

Council will consider the many objections from local residents to the Ripley Gateway development, with the Tory-led administration asking councillors to confirm the Chief Executive's delegated powers to act towards facilitating the development.

Another controversial issue affecting Ripley residents are the proposals to sell Ripley Town Hall. Councillors will be informed that, although there have been some expressions of interest in the Central Headquarters complex, there have been no offers as yet. There have also been discussions about arrangements for Derbyshire County Council to use some of the rooms in the complex, which comprises of the Town Hall and the modern office buildings adjacent to it.

The administration will also ask councillors to approve the sale of an area of land at Bradshaw Avenue, Riddings in conjunction with an adjacent area of land owned by Harper Ltd. The land is expected to be sold to a developer.

The Conservative administration will also ask councillors to approve a motion that the Council will in future resist all town and village green applications for Council-owned land.

The administration has decided that it wishes to change its mind about leaving the Local Government Association, and will ask Council to approve its continued membership.

There is also good news for the Heanor area, as it appears that the Charles Hill Sports Complex may be rescued. Councillors will be told of negotiations with Heanor Town Football Club which could lead to the Charles Hill Sports Complex being leased and operated by them, thus securing its future.

The Council will also discuss the plans for the replacement of Belper's Swiss Tea Rooms as well as the planned new leisure centre for the town.

The meeting starts at 7-00pm at Ripley Town Hall, and is open to the public.

Obstruction And Obfuscation

2011-09-17T20:22:00.002+01:00

I have received an invitation today from Amber Valley Housing to attend their public consultation event for the redevelopment of the Delves Court site.

Those of a cynical disposition may find it not at all surprising that Amber Valley Housing have chosen to hold this event at exactly the same time as all the local borough councillors will be occupied at a meeting of Full Council at Ripley.

Amber Valley Housing have developed a poor reputation for their minimal consultation with local residents regarding this redevelopment, and this will not have been helped by the timing of the event.

Amber Valley Housing also included with the invitation a factsheet about their properties and waiting lists in Heanor.

These statistics are no doubt intended to reinforce Amber Valley Housing's argument that they need to build family homes on the site to meet demand, in spite of earlier statements that they would seriously consider only using the site for sheltered housing as local residents want.

It is notable that the chart omits any reference to empty bungalows and flats in 2011, even though I am aware of flats that have become vacant in the area this year. Is this because the figures counter Amber Valley Housing's arguments?

There is also a devious misdirection using the statistics for the number of bids and the average number of bids per property for each class of home.

At first glimpse, the figures showing that 200 bids were made for 12 three-bedroom houses over the two-year period 2009 to 2010 looks very alarming.

Of course, further investigation shows that there could in fact have been only 17 people who bid for every available house of that type. Of these 17 people, 12 would have been successful, leaving only five people over two years still waiting for a home.

By definition, priority cases would have been housed firstly under the Home Options scoring system, so those who were still unsuccessful would have been of low priority and certainly not homeless or in cramped accommodation.

Furthermore, over two years, if Amber Valley Housing had made a concerted effort, it could have undoubtedly found five elderly people who would happily give up a large house in exchange for a sheltered home. Many people remain in large houses after their children leave home, and occupy much-needed family homes because they are not assisted to move as they are in other regions.

It is cheaper and more environmentally-friendly to build new sheltered homes and use them to free up family homes than it is to build new family homes.

Local residents should not be persuaded by Amber Valley Housing's charts that there is not enough demand to fill a new Delves Court sheltered housing complex.

By freeing up family homes by assisting the elderly to move into sheltered housing if they wish, Amber Valley Housing could much more cheaply make more family homes available.

Amber Valley Housing need to stop taking the easy way out and find innovative solutions. It is a fool's paradise to believe it is always possible to build one's way out of housing problems, and a better solution must entail examining the sources of the problem.

Amber Valley To Disappear?

2011-09-13T16:01:00.001+01:00

It appears that Tory Amber Valley MP Nigel Mills may lose out if the Boundary Commission's proposed shake-up of Parliamentary constituencies is enacted in its current form.

It is proposed to reduce the number of constituencies in the Derbyshire and Derby City area from 11 to 10. Although the remaining constituencies will all have altered boundaries, it is our constituency of Amber Valley which is due to disappear.

This means that Nigel Mills will face a fight for an alternative constituency if he is even to face a chance of being a member of the next Parliament.

The proposals mean that Heanor will become part of the extended Mid Derbyshire Constituency.

The Boundary Commission is encouraging members of the public to take part in their public consultation on the matter.

New Plans For The Country Park Tavern

2011-09-08T20:02:00.002+01:00

In June 2010 a planning application was submitted to convert the Country Park Tavern on Old Coppice Side into a secure residential institution. The application by Quality Care (EM) Ltd was widely disliked by local residents and, following a public meeting, the application was withdrawn.

In December 2010 the site was bought by Darby Property Trading Co Ltd, a company based in Dublin in the Irish Republic. The company is apparently a new business, only registered on 8 December 2010, and has two directors.

Darby have now submitted a planning application to build a fifty room residential home for elderly people on the site. This will consist of the former public house building with an additional single storey building built on the former car park.

Darby state that they intend to retain the footpath that leads to Shipley Country Park.

It will not be possible to change the use of the building to a secure residential institution without applying for planning permission.

Although it is regrettable that a community facility such as a public house is to be lost, I feel that this is a better use for the site than the previous proposals for a secure residential institution.

Cabinet To Discuss Lockton Avenue Land Sale

2011-09-03T13:19:00.000+01:00

Amber Valley Borough Council's Cabinet is due to discuss the sale of 940 square meters of land to the south-east of the Delves Court site during a meeting at the Strutt Centre, Derby Road, Belper. The meeting starts at 7pm on 14 September 2011 and is open to the public.

Amber Valley Housing had wanted to purchase the land to make the redeveloped Delves Court larger than the original one, but has since said it no longer has an interest in the land.

Council officers are asking Cabinet to give the Chief Executive delegated power to sell the land should Amber Valley Housing or another developer wish to buy it in future.

Cabinet consists of the senior members of the ruling Tory group on the Council.

I have written to officers objecting to factual inaccuracies in their report which Cabinet will discuss.

Land Sale At Lockton Avenue Playing Fields?

2011-08-30T20:17:00.003+01:00

Amber Valley Housing has recently confirmed that it no longer wishes to purchase from Amber Valley Borough Council a plot of land to the south-east of the Delves Court site. The land formed part of Lockton Avenue Playing Fields and would have been used to build a new housing development with a larger footprint than the original buildings.

However, despite these assurances, Amber Valley Borough Council's Cabinet is to be asked to approve delegated powers allowing the Chief Executive, in consultation with the Leader of the Council, to dispose of the 940 square metres of land should there be any future interest in purchasing it.

The Cabinet meeting will be held at 7pm on 14 September 2011 at the Strutt Centre, Derby Road, Belper.

Breach Road Developer Appeals Against Refusal

2011-08-27T20:52:00.001+01:00

A planning application to build 14 dwellings on land at 120 Breach Road in Heanor was refused by planning officers in February following objections from a large number of local residents and representations from myself.

The refusal to grant planning permission was primarily on the grounds that the development would be outside the developed framework of Heanor, and would in fact be on the Green Belt.

It is quite difficult to successfully object to a development, as the odds always seem to be stacked against local residents. However, even if developers are defeated, they can get a second bite at the cherry, by lodging an objection with central government, in the form of the Planning Inspectorate.

The developer for 120 Breach Road has decided to follow this route and has lodged an appeal.

The appellant's main argument is primarily that they contend the land is contained within the developed framework of Heanor and that it is not in the Green Belt. They also claim that a previously issued Certificate of Lawful Use, which was issued by the Council to regularise use of the land without planning permission for equestrian purposes, means that the land has been previously developed, meaning that the proposed development would be brownfield rather than greenfield.

The Planning Inspectorate have deemed that the appeal will be decided by written representations without an actual hearing.

Members of the public are entitled to make representations to the Planning Inspectorate, though any comments made to Amber Valley Borough Council for the original planning application, AVA/2010/1152 will be forwarded to the Inspectorate.

Comments made regarding any previous applications at the site will not be forwarded.

Members of the public can expand on their previous comments or raise fresh planning issues in their representations.

Representations should quote the reference number APP/M1005/A/11/2158361/NVVF, and be sent, enclosing a total of three copies, to

The Planning Inspectorate
Room 3/22
Temple Quay House
2 The Square
Temple Quay
BRISTOL
BS1 6PN

Representations must arrive before 26 September 2011.

Are You Missing Out?

2011-08-27T06:45:00.000+01:00

Are you missing out? I would say the answer is definitely a big 'yes' when it comes to news if you are one of the majority of people who only obtain their news from the mainstream media, namely British television and radio broadcasters and newspaper publishers.

But surely, you ask, there is no need to look elsewhere, as the British media is fair, impartial, trustworthy and covers all the news I would ever need?

Unfortunately, this is not the case. We will all be aware of the recent controversy about phone hacking by newspaper journalists. However, we should all have been suspicious of newspapers long before that, as they tend to follow the political bias of their owners, which is usually left wing.

British broadcasters do not fare much better either. The BBC has long had a reputation for left-wing bias.

The danger is that those people brought up on left-biased news will be subtly brain-washed into left-wing views.

However, there is an even more sinister aspect creeping into modern news media, namely the omission of news stories that contradict a left-wing world view.

We saw widespread coverage of the death of Steven Lawrence. Steven was stabbed in 1993 and, though nobody has ever been convicted, it was declared to be a racist murder by the media. However, in 2004, 15-year-old Kriss Donald was kidnapped, tortured and murdered by a gang of Pakistanis, of whom five have been convicted, but this has never been mentioned in the mainstream media, because their world view is that racism against white people doesn't exist.

Fortunately for those 'in the know' the mainstream media can now be circumvented. A lot of campaign issues are covered by internet blogs that would otherwise never see the light of day if we relied on the mainstream media.

If you wish to find out what is really happening in Britain, an excellent news source is the nationalist internet radio broadcaster RWB Radio which runs a nightly news programme, which is available to listen to again anytime via streaming.

Ironically, another good way to find British and international news which the BBC and other British broadcasters don't want you to find out about, is to watch foreign broadcasters such as Russia Today and Al Jazeera English.

The following video, from Al Jazeera English, shows the recent American riots whcih the mainstream media have hidden from the British public. If you were not aware of these recent American 'flash mobs' as the American ironically call them, perhaps you should change your news sources, and stop missing out!

Gritting Routes

2011-08-26T19:52:00.001+01:00

Derbyshire County Council are proposing changes to the way they grit our roads. They wish to classify roads into primary, secondary and tertiary in order to prioritise the gritting service. There will, of course also be a fourth category of roads which receive no gritting at all, though there will be grit bins available in some areas. Grit bins may be provided by Amber Valley Borough Council or Heanor and Loscoe Town Council in addition to those provided by the County Council.

The primary network would:

be treated during the day and night and would be ‘pre-treated’ before bad weather hits. Gritting would continue 24 hours a day if necessary, as at present;

be made up of around 60 per cent of roads currently on gritting routes – approximately 1,000 miles;

include major roads including all A roads and heavily used B roads, major bus routes, roads linking towns and larger villages and roads outside bus, train, police, fire and ambulance stations and hospitals;

include at least one route into villages and at least one route no more than 500m from schools, where possible.

Roads within residential areas would generally not be included.

The secondary network would:

include around 40 per cent of roads currently on gritting routes - approximately 550 miles;

only be treated in the day with the first run being completed by mid-morning. This would help overcome problems of parked cars getting in the way of gritter vehicles being able to do their job on residential roads at night;

include some bus routes not covered in the primary network, particularly in residential areas, and roads to smaller villages;

include well-used main roads through housing estates and villages;

be pre-treated before bad weather hits, where possible, but primary routes will take priority.

The tertiary network would:

mainly involve external contractors such as farmers clearing snow, but not necessarily gritting, on some roads we don’t currently cover;

include at least one route to isolated villages not already covered on the gritting network;

include roads to some industrial areas and roads to schools not covered on primary and secondary routes.

Derbyshire County Council are currently running a consultation during which members of the public can complete a simple form to give their views on the proposals before a final decision is made.

Starkey And Rap Music

2011-08-24T20:22:00.002+01:00

David Starkey has faced a lot of criticism from the left and liberal do-gooders for his analysis of the recent riots on Newsnight. The main objections to Starkey's comments, apart from the old liberal stalwart of "He's a racist" centre around the supposition that what he calls 'black culture' is just youth culture, naturally followed by young people of all races. It is therefore posited that the culture is only being deemed to be 'black culture' because it has resulted in 'bad' behaviour.

It is interesting to read the following, which is an extract from another Starkey analysis:

David Starkey's comments on Newsnight on Friday 12 August ...repeatedly implied that 'black culture' is synonymous with violence and criminality. He also attacked rap music as violent and said that it glorifies riots.

...You only have to look to the rapper DMX who writes notoriously homophobic music. You will not have to look far to find rampant sexism in rap either.

However, rap music has many positive aspects and some of it paints an accurate picture of the life that many impoverished young people face, which is one of the many reasons that young people have come to love the genre.

The Black Panther Party influenced early hip-hop groups heavily. The Black Panthers were a militant black organisation during the civil rights movement in the US that advocated self-defence against police brutality. The group went as far as to call for socialist revolution as well as community control of the police. Their influence is shown clearly in the music of Public Enemy, 2pac and KRS-One.

People often distinguish between 'political rap' and 'gangsta rap'. Gangsta rap is in many ways reactionary, however it is often simply rebelling against many of the same things as the more political rap like Public Enemy.

NWA were also rebelling against police brutality in the ghettoes. Gangsta rappers like Biggie Smalls talk about the criminal behaviour that people in the ghettoes can get caught up in.

However this is due to the fact that under capitalism, people often feel they have a choice of criminality or going hungry. This is reflected in the recent looting of essential items such as nappies.

When 2pac released his album 2pacalypse Now in 1991, the then US vice president called for the album to be banned. This was because the ruling class feared the consequences of millions of impoverished black youths hearing the message of this album.

The song Trapped deals with police brutality in the ghettoes. Words Of Wisdom is an attack on the racist establishment. The song also encourages youth to read the works of radical black activist Malcolm X. Brenda's Got A Baby tells a tragic tale of a 12 year old girl who falls pregnant and is soon forced into drug dealing and prostitution. At the same time he questions why we need a system that allows this kind of tragedy to happen.

The establishment fears political rap music, worrying that if young people hear the message behind it, they may question the class society that we live in.

If we are to ever move away from poverty, police brutality, slum housing and drug addiction, we have to overthrow this rotten system of capitalism that leads to riots and misery for millions.

The alternative would be a programme of mass job creation as well as building decent quality housing for all.

This is summed up in the Dead Prez song Police State; "Organise the wealth into a socialist economy. A way of life based off the common need. All my comrades are ready we're just spreading the seed."

This appears to make a clear cut case for black rap culture being the causative factor behind the riots. Apparently, black rap is homophobic, glorifies criminal behaviour, and even prescribes a route from poverty for its adherents.

By now, my few left-wing and liberal readers will be groaning at my supposed typical nationalist attitude to black youth culture. As a matter of fact, I have spoken to black people who agree with Starkey, and white people who disagree with him, as well as vice versa, so my belief is that one's own view of this matter is more due to political bias than race, so I can be sure that it will be left-leaning readers who will by now be seething with rage!

However, they may now have to have a cold shower and then sit down with a copy of Marx's Das Kapital, and try to work out what they should be thinking, as I reveal that in fact the above extract is an article written by Wayne Scott of the Socialist Party, in the party's magazine Socialist.

It may be one of many minor parties in the fragmented far left, but the Socialist Party is far better known to people of my generation as Militant Tendency, which was its name before it split from the rump Labour Party.

Those who argue that there is no such thing as black or white culture in modern Britian are either hard-core marxists or 'sheep' blindly following their leftie/liberal masters.

The marxist agenda is to work towards their political nirvana, dictatorship of the proletariat. This nasty situation is indeed a dictatorship, where the ordinary person has their lives and, as far as possible, thoughts, controlled by a few marxist elite.

Dictatorship of the proletariat can only work with a subservient, homogenous population, which means that all ordinary people must see themselves as being equal to all others. Under a dictatorship of the proletariat there will be no black, white, gay or straight, there will just be people who follow marxist dogma, for they will know no other.

This leads us to the current ironic situation. Marxism has always been about the long game, achieving dictatorship of the proletariat at any cost, and by any method. Political correctness is one of those methods, and it strangely works towards homogeneity by highlighting differences, but for a reason. Highlighting minorities is done to make the majority accept them as 'normal', so that eventually they will not be noticed in their midst, at which point homogeneity will have been achieved, leaving dictatorship of the proletariat one stage closer.

It can now be seen why marxists, and those who have already blindly become one of the dictated-to, argue that Starkey is wrong. If Starkey was right, that would mean acknowledging that black culture exists, which would be a retrograde step away from homogeneity.

Realists will realise that there is a range of different cultures, some with black origins, some with white origins. Nationalists believe that all cultures should be preserved, for everyone should be proud of their roots. Of course, 'gangsta rap' is not the sum total of black culture, it is just one culture with black origins. It is not followed by all black people, just the same as not all white people enjoy Italian opera. It no doubt has a place in the World, but nationalists would argue that it should be celebrated in its place of origin, not in Britain where it comes into conflict with the right of the indigenous population to enjoy their lives peaceably.

With his support from across the political spectrum, perhaps Starkey's critics should just face facts and start working positively towards solutions for the social problems facing many of our cities, instead of criticising those who are.

IPCC Acknowledges Complaint

2011-08-20T10:00:00.000+01:00

The Independent Police Complaints Commission have now acknowledged receipt of my complaint following demands by a Derbyshire police officer that I and other British National Party activists give our names, addresses and dates of birth when she called at our stand in Matlock Bath last weekend.

The officer did not have the legal right to do this, but this and other types of police harassment are becoming a regular occurrence throughout the country as the authorities lose the population's respect because they fear more and more people will turn tothe British National Party.

Of course, in a democratic society, people have a right to change political allegiance if other political parties let them down, but in our sham democracy, that right only goes so far. Whilst the West will intervene in Third World countries where opposition parties are not allowed to campaign, in Britain the Government uses subversive tactics to suppress minority parties, whilst appearing to allow free speech.

Harassment of political activists by the police is just one more in a long line of anti-democratic suppression techniques employed by the Establishment, together with preventing political activity on council-owned 'public' areas and manipulation of the mainstream media.

Paul Hilliard Released By Police

2011-08-17T19:20:00.000+01:00

I am pleased to announce that Derbyshire British National Party officer Paul Hilliard has now been released by Derbyshire Police following his arrest early this morning following an argument between neighbours and a black woman in his street last week, in which Paul was barely involved. The matter is still under investigation by the police.

Police Dawn Raid On Derby British National Party Officer's Home

2011-08-17T15:10:00.002+01:00

Derbyshire Police have continued their recent campaign of harassment against local members of the British National Party by arresting one of our number early this morning.

The British National Party website reports:

Police today launched a dawn raid on the home of Derby British National Party Organiser Paul Hilliard, arresting him at 5.30 in the morning.

The excuse for the arrest is that on Sunday there was an argument in Paul’s street between two of his neighbours and a black woman who is notoriously troublesome and loud-mouthed. Paul went out to calm things down and persuaded his English neighbours to go back inside.

As he was leaving his home a few minutes later to go leafleting, the woman was still shouting and, seeing his neighbours coming out of their house again, Paul told them to go back inside. He then went leafleting with his team and thought nothing further of the incident until police told him that that was why they were arresting him this morning.

Paul’s wife was told that he would only be held for an hour or so, but at 11.30, when she contacted the police to find out what was going on, they admitted that they had still not even interviewed Paul.

“It’s an outrage,” says Nick Griffin, who is now in constant touch with Paul’s wife and key officials in the area. “It’s obvious too that it’s just an excuse. Paul and his team are very active in Derby, and the city is tense following the fatal stabbing of a notorious black drug dealer, Johnny Assani, by a gang of Muslims at the weekend.

“We obviously have sympathy with the police as they worry about the difficulties involved in keeping the peace in a city that has been turned into a multi-cultural powder keg by the policies of successive Labour and Tory governments. But they do not have the right to abuse their power in an attempt to silence legitimate and peaceful criticism of those multi-cultural policies by the activist of a completely legal political party. Such police-state tactics are an attack not only on the British National Party but on the entire democratic process for which generations of our bravest and best fought and died.”

Don’t let the PC fascist police get away with it. Call the custody suite at St Mary’s Wharf, in the centre of Derby, on 0345 123 3333.

Complaint To IPCC

2011-08-16T16:53:00.001+01:00

I have today submitted a complaint to the Independent Police Complaints Commission following an incident that occurred when British National Party activists from Amber Valley and Derby set up a stall on North Parade in Matlock Bath.

I don't regularly mention every Party stall on these pages, nor indeed do we often run three such events in three days. However, with five activists being detained by the police on Friday in Ripley, and the same members being amongst those physically attacked by UAF fascist thugs in Derby on Saturday, we decided to show that we will not be intimidated, and so we paid a visit to Matlock bath.

We had already been there for four hours, peacefully selling papers, distributing leaflets and gaining more signatures for our EU Referendum petition, when a police officer decided to visit our stall. She was unhappy that we had not informed the police that we would be there, which we are not required to do.

We were then told that we had to provide our names, addresses and dates of birth, which she said was for 'intelligence purposes'. I take it as a compliment that our exposure of the deficiencies of the current tripartite Establishment political system is hitting such a raw nerve that the police are now desperate to collect intelligence information about our activites.

However, as I feel that this action is exceeding the legitimate lawful authority of the police, I have referred the matter to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

I must emphasise that, as always, the police officer was polite and courteous. We have always had a good relationship with the police officers on the frontline, and it is obvious that the current spate of harassment we are enduring from Derbyshire Police is at the behest of senior officers who are doubtless in league with Establishment politicians who wish to rid Derbyshire nationalists of the right to freely speak their minds.

Manor Pharmacy Boycott

2011-08-16T07:07:00.002+01:00

Following the recent detention by Derbyshire Police of five British National Party activists in Ripley, members and supporters are refusing to shop at Manor Pharmacy.

Although it is not clear who complained to the police about our activists exercising their right to free speech, one member of staff at Manor Pharmacy was keen to take the credit. This anti-democratic fascist stood outside the chemist shouting that she had called the police and she also abused our activists like a true socialist.

It is understandable that nationalists will not wish to use the services of a company which permits its employees to express such political views whilst clearly representing that company. Whilst employers have no right to interfere in employees' political beliefs, most do not allow them to express their views whilst at work.

Manor Pharmacy is owned by W R Evans (Chemist) Ltd. Based in Ilkeston, the company operates 50 Manor Pharmacy chemists in and around the East Midlands. The company also owns the 12 Cox and Robinson chemist stores which operate in the Milton Keynes area. W R Evans also runs two online pharmacies, including Travelpharm, owns the Vet-Medic brand and operates as a wholesale supplier.

Socialists Show Their True Colours

2011-08-14T06:42:00.003+01:00

Socialism is a soft word used by the left to give a friendly image to their hard-line marxist views. Marxists are followers of the political philosophy devised by Karl Marx. Marx is the guiding light behind communism which saw millions of people living in poverty in the economies it wrecked in twentieth century Eastern Europe. There is definitely nothing sociable about socialism, which simply wrecks lives.

Of course, socialism has not just ruined lives through economic blight, as it often goes hand-in-hand with extreme violence. Millions have been murdered or maimed by socialist regimes in an attempt to force unwilling populations to participate in their socio-economic experiments. These atrocities include those of Stalin and Lenin in the Soviet Union, Mao Tse-Tung in China, Pol Pot in Cambodia, Ho Chi Minh in North Vietnam and Kim Il Sung in North Korea.

Socialists will stop at nothing to suppress free speech, for whilst free speech remains it is difficult for them to achieve their goal of 'dictatorship of the proletariat'. Some, with their friendly, welcoming image, will try to trick you out of your right to free speech. They will also try to modify your thought processes by techniques such as the promotion of politically correct speech. This group includes the Labour Party and their friends at the Communist Party of Great Britain.

Other socialist groups simply do not have the intellectual capability for these 'revisionist' techniques, and so they resort to the mainstay of socialism - outright thuggery. These are the socialists who still hanker after revolution, and often indulge in mindless violence and anarchy. This group includes the Socialist Workers' Party and it's active unit, the UAF, often known as 'Unite Against Free-Speech'.

Local activists, including some from Amber Valley, were subjected to assaults by UAF marxists as they peacefully collected signatures for the EU Referendum petition in Derby yesterday.

These pictures show the marxist thugs moments before they launched their violent attack:

Marxists try to intimidate our megaphone man.

Marxists call in back-up.

The assaults were reported to Derbyshire Police, and our activists wouold lilke to thank the officers for their assistance in keeping the peace so they could continue to collect petition signatures. despite the presence of the mindless UAF thugs.

Marxist ringleader quizzed by police.

Marxist thug who is well-known for violent attacks on free speech.

Enoch Powell Was Right

2011-08-13T20:06:00.001+01:00

In the aftermath of the recent riots, more and more people are coming to a realisation that nationalists have known for years - Enoch Powell was right!

Historian David Starkey has caused controversy amongst liberal circles by stating this truth in the BBC's flagship current affairs programme Newsnight, but nationalists have been preaching the same message to deaf ears for decades.

Enoch Powell was shunned by the political establishment after his 1968 speech in Birmingham because even then liberals had closed their eyes to the truth - that immigration was a timebomb waiting to explode.

Even Enoch Powell admitted in an interview in 1977 that he had got it wrong - he could already see that his projections for 2000 were too low, and this was proven to be correct. However, in all other aspects, he correctly predicted the Britain we live in today. If only we had listened!

It is time to give the next generation a chance to heed his words, in the hope that they do not squander the words my parents' generation did:

The supreme function of statesmanship is to provide against preventable evils. In seeking to do so, it encounters obstacles which are deeply rooted in human nature.
One is that by the very order of things such evils are not demonstrable until they have occurred: at each stage in their onset there is room for doubt and for dispute whether they be real or imaginary. By the same token, they attract little attention in comparison with current troubles, which are both indisputable and pressing: whence the besetting temptation of all politics to concern itself with the immediate present at the expense of the future.
Above all, people are disposed to mistake predicting troubles for causing troubles and even for desiring troubles: "If only," they love to think, "if only people wouldn't talk about it, it probably wouldn't happen."
Perhaps this habit goes back to the primitive belief that the word and the thing, the name and the object, are identical.
At all events, the discussion of future grave but, with effort now, avoidable evils is the most unpopular and at the same time the most necessary occupation for the politician. Those who knowingly shirk it deserve, and not infrequently receive, the curses of those who come after.
A week or two ago I fell into conversation with a constituent, a middle-aged, quite ordinary working man employed in one of our nationalised industries.
After a sentence or two about the weather, he suddenly said: "If I had the money to go, I wouldn't stay in this country." I made some deprecatory reply to the effect that even this government wouldn't last for ever; but he took no notice, and continued: "I have three children, all of them been through grammar school and two of them married now, with family. I shan't be satisfied till I have seen them all settled overseas. In this country in 15 or 20 years' time the black man will have the whip hand over the white man."
I can already hear the chorus of execration. How dare I say such a horrible thing? How dare I stir up trouble and inflame feelings by repeating such a conversation?
The answer is that I do not have the right not to do so. Here is a decent, ordinary fellow Englishman, who in broad daylight in my own town says to me, his Member of Parliament, that his country will not be worth living in for his children.
I simply do not have the right to shrug my shoulders and think about something else. What he is saying, thousands and hundreds of thousands are saying and thinking - not throughout Great Britain, perhaps, but in the areas that are already undergoing the total transformation to which there is no parallel in a thousand years of English history.
In 15 or 20 years, on present trends, there will be in this country three and a half million Commonwealth immigrants and their descendants. That is not my figure. That is the official figure given to parliament by the spokesman of the Registrar General's Office.
There is no comparable official figure for the year 2000, but it must be in the region of five to seven million, approximately one-tenth of the whole population, and approaching that of Greater London. Of course, it will not be evenly distributed from Margate to Aberystwyth and from Penzance to Aberdeen. Whole areas, towns and parts of towns across England will be occupied by sections of the immigrant and immigrant-descended population.
As time goes on, the proportion of this total who are immigrant descendants, those born in England, who arrived here by exactly the same route as the rest of us, will rapidly increase. Already by 1985 the native-born would constitute the majority. It is this fact which creates the extreme urgency of action now, of just that kind of action which is hardest for politicians to take, action where the difficulties lie in the present but the evils to be prevented or minimised lie several parliaments ahead.
The natural and rational first question with a nation confronted by such a prospect is to ask: "How can its dimensions be reduced?" Granted it be not wholly preventable, can it be limited, bearing in mind that numbers are of the essence: the significance and consequences of an alien element introduced into a country or population are profoundly different according to whether that element is 1 per cent or 10 per cent.

The answers to the simple and rational question are equally simple and rational: by stopping, or virtually stopping, further inflow, and by promoting the maximum outflow. Both answers are part of the official policy of the Conservative Party.
It almost passes belief that at this moment 20 or 30 additional immigrant children are arriving from overseas in Wolverhampton alone every week - and that means 15 or 20 additional families a decade or two hence. Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad. We must be mad, literally mad, as a nation to be permitting the annual inflow of some 50,000 dependants, who are for the most part the material of the future growth of the immigrant-descended population. It is like watching a nation busily engaged in heaping up its own funeral pyre. So insane are we that we actually permit unmarried persons to immigrate for the purpose of founding a family with spouses and fiancés whom they have never seen.
Let no one suppose that the flow of dependants will automatically tail off. On the contrary, even at the present admission rate of only 5,000 a year by voucher, there is sufficient for a further 25,000 dependants per annum ad infinitum, without taking into account the huge reservoir of existing relations in this country - and I am making no allowance at all for fraudulent entry. In these circumstances nothing will suffice but that the total inflow for settlement should be reduced at once to negligible proportions, and that the necessary legislative and administrative measures be taken without delay.
I stress the words "for settlement." This has nothing to do with the entry of Commonwealth citizens, any more than of aliens, into this country, for the purposes of study or of improving their qualifications, like (for instance) the Commonwealth doctors who, to the advantage of their own countries, have enabled our hospital service to be expanded faster than would otherwise have been possible. They are not, and never have been, immigrants.
I turn to re-emigration. If all immigration ended tomorrow, the rate of growth of the immigrant and immigrant-descended population would be substantially reduced, but the prospective size of this element in the population would still leave the basic character of the national danger unaffected. This can only be tackled while a considerable proportion of the total still comprises persons who entered this country during the last ten years or so.
Hence the urgency of implementing now the second element of the Conservative Party's policy: the encouragement of re-emigration.
Nobody can make an estimate of the numbers which, with generous assistance, would choose either to return to their countries of origin or to go to other countries anxious to receive the manpower and the skills they represent.
Nobody knows, because no such policy has yet been attempted. I can only say that, even at present, immigrants in my own constituency from time to time come to me, asking if I can find them assistance to return home. If such a policy were adopted and pursued with the determination which the gravity of the alternative justifies, the resultant outflow could appreciably alter the prospects.
The third element of the Conservative Party's policy is that all who are in this country as citizens should be equal before the law and that there shall be no discrimination or difference made between them by public authority. As Mr Heath has put it we will have no "first-class citizens" and "second-class citizens." This does not mean that the immigrant and his descendent should be elevated into a privileged or special class or that the citizen should be denied his right to discriminate in the management of his own affairs between one fellow-citizen and another or that he should be subjected to imposition as to his reasons and motive for behaving in one lawful manner rather than another.
There could be no grosser misconception of the realities than is entertained by those who vociferously demand legislation as they call it "against discrimination", whether they be leader-writers of the same kidney and sometimes on the same newspapers which year after year in the 1930s tried to blind this country to the rising peril which confronted it, or archbishops who live in palaces, faring delicately with the bedclothes pulled right up over their heads. They have got it exactly and diametrically wrong.
The discrimination and the deprivation, the sense of alarm and of resentment, lies not with the immigrant population but with those among whom they have come and are still coming.
This is why to enact legislation of the kind before parliament at this moment is to risk throwing a match on to gunpowder. The kindest thing that can be said about those who propose and support it is that they know not what they do.
Nothing is more misleading than comparison between the Commonwealth immigrant in Britain and the American Negro. The Negro population of the United States, which was already in existence before the United States became a nation, started literally as slaves and were later given the franchise and other rights of citizenship, to the exercise of which they have only gradually and still incompletely come. The Commonwealth immigrant came to Britain as a full citizen, to a country which knew no discrimination between one citizen and another, and he entered instantly into the possession of the rights of every citizen, from the vote to free treatment under the National Health Service.
Whatever drawbacks attended the immigrants arose not from the law or from public policy or from administration, but from those personal circumstances and accidents which cause, and always will cause, the fortunes and experience of one man to be different from another's.
But while, to the immigrant, entry to this country was admission to privileges and opportunities eagerly sought, the impact upon the existing population was very different. For reasons which they could not comprehend, and in pursuance of a decision by default, on which they were never consulted, they found themselves made strangers in their own country.
They found their wives unable to obtain hospital beds in childbirth, their children unable to obtain school places, their homes and neighbourhoods changed beyond recognition, their plans and prospects for the future defeated; at work they found that employers hesitated to apply to the immigrant worker the standards of discipline and competence required of the native-born worker; they began to hear, as time went by, more and more voices which told them that they were now the unwanted. They now learn that a one-way privilege is to be established by act of parliament; a law which cannot, and is not intended to, operate to protect them or redress their grievances is to be enacted to give the stranger, the disgruntled and the agent-provocateur the power to pillory them for their private actions.
In the hundreds upon hundreds of letters I received when I last spoke on this subject two or three months ago, there was one striking feature which was largely new and which I find ominous. All Members of Parliament are used to the typical anonymous correspondent; but what surprised and alarmed me was the high proportion of ordinary, decent, sensible people, writing a rational and often well-educated letter, who believed that they had to omit their address because it was dangerous to have committed themselves to paper to a Member of Parliament agreeing with the views I had expressed, and that they would risk penalties or reprisals if they were known to have done so. The sense of being a persecuted minority which is growing among ordinary English people in the areas of the country which are affected is something that those without direct experience can hardly imagine.
I am going to allow just one of those hundreds of people to speak for me:
“Eight years ago in a respectable street in Wolverhampton a house was sold to a Negro. Now only one white (a woman old-age pensioner) lives there. This is her story. She lost her husband and both her sons in the war. So she turned her seven-roomed house, her only asset, into a boarding house. She worked hard and did well, paid off her mortgage and began to put something by for her old age. Then the immigrants moved in. With growing fear, she saw one house after another taken over. The quiet street became a place of noise and confusion. Regretfully, her white tenants moved out.
“The day after the last one left, she was awakened at 7am by two Negroes who wanted to use her 'phone to contact their employer. When she refused, as she would have refused any stranger at such an hour, she was abused and feared she would have been attacked but for the chain on her door. Immigrant families have tried to rent rooms in her house, but she always refused. Her little store of money went, and after paying rates, she has less than £2 per week. “She went to apply for a rate reduction and was seen by a young girl, who on hearing she had a seven-roomed house, suggested she should let part of it. When she said the only people she could get were Negroes, the girl said, "Racial prejudice won't get you anywhere in this country." So she went home.
“The telephone is her lifeline. Her family pay the bill, and help her out as best they can. Immigrants have offered to buy her house - at a price which the prospective landlord would be able to recover from his tenants in weeks, or at most a few months. She is becoming afraid to go out. Windows are broken. She finds excreta pushed through her letter box. When she goes to the shops, she is followed by children, charming, wide-grinning piccaninnies. They cannot speak English, but one word they know. "Racialist," they chant. When the new Race Relations Bill is passed, this woman is convinced she will go to prison. And is she so wrong? I begin to wonder.”
The other dangerous delusion from which those who are wilfully or otherwise blind to realities suffer, is summed up in the word "integration." To be integrated into a population means to become for all practical purposes indistinguishable from its other members.
Now, at all times, where there are marked physical differences, especially of colour, integration is difficult though, over a period, not impossible. There are among the Commonwealth immigrants who have come to live here in the last fifteen years or so, many thousands whose wish and purpose is to be integrated and whose every thought and endeavour is bent in that direction.
But to imagine that such a thing enters the heads of a great and growing majority of immigrants and their descendants is a ludicrous misconception, and a dangerous one.
We are on the verge here of a change. Hitherto it has been force of circumstance and of background which has rendered the very idea of integration inaccessible to the greater part of the immigrant population - that they never conceived or intended such a thing, and that their numbers and physical concentration meant the pressures towards integration which normally bear upon any small minority did not operate.
Now we are seeing the growth of positive forces acting against integration, of vested interests in the preservation and sharpening of racial and religious differences, with a view to the exercise of actual domination, first over fellow-immigrants and then over the rest of the population. The cloud no bigger than a man's hand, that can so rapidly overcast the sky, has been visible recently in Wolverhampton and has shown signs of spreading quickly. The words I am about to use, verbatim as they appeared in the local press on 17 February, are not mine, but those of a Labour Member of Parliament who is a minister in the present government:
'The Sikh communities' campaign to maintain customs inappropriate in Britain is much to be regretted. Working in Britain, particularly in the public services, they should be prepared to accept the terms and conditions of their employment. To claim special communal rights (or should one say rites?) leads to a dangerous fragmentation within society. This communalism is a canker; whether practised by one colour or another it is to be strongly condemned.'
All credit to John Stonehouse for having had the insight to perceive that, and the courage to say it.
For these dangerous and divisive elements the legislation proposed in the Race Relations Bill is the very pabulum they need to flourish. Here is the means of showing that the immigrant communities can organise to consolidate their members, to agitate and campaign against their fellow citizens, and to overawe and dominate the rest with the legal weapons which the ignorant and the ill-informed have provided. As I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding; like the Roman, I seem to see "the River Tiber foaming with much blood."
That tragic and intractable phenomenon which we watch with horror on the other side of the Atlantic but which there is interwoven with the history and existence of the States itself, is coming upon us here by our own volition and our own neglect. Indeed, it has all but come. In numerical terms, it will be of American proportions long before the end of the century.
Only resolute and urgent action will avert it even now. Whether there will be the public will to demand and obtain that action, I do not know. All I know is that to see, and not to speak, would be the great betrayal.

Are White People Becoming Black?

2011-08-13T11:55:00.001+01:00

The BBC were permitted to broadcast the following discussion in which historian David Starkey argues that the recent riots were orchestrated by black gangs and gangs of white youths who followed black culture. Derbyshire Police detained five British National Party activists in Ripley yesterday for distributing leaflets because they referred briefly to 'black gangs'.

Most right-minded people will recognise David Starkey's description of the small but highly visible minority of our youth who have turned to black culture and copied their heroes' actions this week.

Ripley Five Defiantly Continue

2011-08-13T07:09:00.003+01:00

Amy Purdy, Debra Purdy, Emma Roper and Paul Hilliard.

The Ripley Five, who were detained by Derbyshire Police yesterday for handing out anti-riot leaflets, are to continue their campaign today. They will join other campaigners to get the British National Party's Restore Order message across to the public in towns throughout Amber Valley and the East Midlands as part of the Party's national campaign this weekend.

Interestingly, Derbyshire Police issued a terse statement yesterday regarding the five activists' detention:

This may well be technically correct, as the term 'arrest' applies only to certain specific circumstances and the police can only arrest someone for well-defined reasons as laid down by law. However, if the average person saw someone being led away by the police, they would regard this as an arrest.

To be very clear, the five activists were asked to accompany police officers to Ripley police station. One of the activists asked if they had to do so, and was told that it was a request, but if they refused they would be arrested. The Ripley Five decided to voluntarily go to the police station, where they were locked in a room for about an hour. Although at the police station voluntarily, they were undoubtedly imprisoned, as they were unable to leave at will. To describe the situation as "officers simply talking to them" is a little disingenuous, I believe.

I will add that the officers were polite at all times, treated the activists well and even provided them with drinks. It's clear that they were simply doing their job, following orders 'from above'.

The activists were released without charge, and returned to their lawful business of distributing legal leaflets to the people of Ripley.

Freedom of speech is one of the rights that should be upheld by all in a free society. Freedom of speech means allowing those you disagree with to have their say too, and it is a bad day for society when the police are called simply because a group of people are exercising their right to free speech. Those who only permit free speech from those they agree with are the true fascists.

Can Anyone Restore Order?

2011-08-12T16:33:00.000+01:00

Despite the civil disturbances seen throughout Britain over the last week, Derbyshire Police managed to spare the time of their officers to lock up and question five Amber Valley activists for handing out an anti-riot leaflet in Ripley today.

Many will question the priorities of the police, and of the politicians who direct their senior managers. Undoubtedly, any policing misjudgements are policy based, and not the fault of police officers on the front line, who are doing their very best.

We believe that we have a right to question government policies and actions regarding the riots, and the British National Party has produced a new leaflet to continue the debate.

Derbyshire Police Thank Public

2011-08-12T15:16:00.001+01:00

Derbyshire Police have issued the following statement following the recent widespread national disturbances, which thankfully caused little disruption here in Derbyshire:

Derbyshire Constabulary would like to thank the public for its support during a challenging week for policing.

A high visibility police presence has been maintained in key areas in Derbyshire throughout this week in response to the unrest and disorder in towns and cities in the UK.

Derbyshire has not experienced the level of incidents witnessed in other areas but there have been a small number of incidents of criminal damage, arson and anti-social behaviour during the week.

Assistant Chief Constable Dee Collins said: “I’d like to commend the communities in Derbyshire for the response they have had to these events so far.

“While we may not have had any major disorder to date it has needed an intensive effort trying to make sure we stay on top of any issues before they emerge.

“As well as specially trained public order officers we have also had our Safer Neighbourhood teams out later to reassure local people and speak to them directly.

“I want to make a particular mention for the many volunteers, including our own Special Constables, community groups and youth workers who have actively been involved in assisting us this week.

“They have been out on the streets talking to young people and telling us the mood in neighbourhoods and that has been invaluable.

“We will be maintaining the level of visible policing that has been seen in the county this week and I would urge the public to remain vigilant.”

The force has received around a third more calls than the average this week into its Contact Management Centre, many of them from the public passing on information and concerns about potential disorder.
Superintendent Kul Mahay, who is the head of the Force’s Contact Management Department, has been silver commander for policing Derbyshire during this week.

He said: “We really appreciate the calls we have been receiving from the public that has helped build up a picture of what is happening in the county.

“The vast majority of information received has been well intentioned but turned out to be rumour or speculation but we would prefer the public to report their concerns to us at this time.

“We have also received information via social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook and as part of that have received a huge amount of positivity and gratitude from the public about the job we are doing in Derbyshire.”

There were no serious incidents of disorder relating to the civil unrest yesterday or overnight.

Officers stopped searched a group of around 20 youths in Rothesay Close in Sinfin, Derby at around 6:35pm last night.

Three youths were arrested for public order offences while the rest of the group was dispersed using section 27 warnings, meaning if they return to the area they will be arrested.

Elsewhere two teenagers from Brimington have been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit violent disorder.

The 17-year-old girl and 18-year-old man were arrested yesterday and are currently in custody.

Anyone with any information about any of the incidents should contact Derbyshire police on 0345 123 33 33 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Amber Valley Activists Detained Over Anti-Riot Leaflets

2011-08-12T14:57:00.003+01:00

Five local British National Party activists, including my wife Emma, were detained and questioned for handing out the above anti-riot leaflet in Ripley this morning. They have now all been released without charge, and bravely returned to their task of distributing leaflets.

The British National Party website reports:

Five East Midlands British National Party activists have been detained by Derbyshire police in Ripley for putting out a leaflet about the riots. Allegedly, the police objected to the use of the term 'black gangs' on the leaflet.

Derbyshire organiser Paul Hilliard was leading a team of activists giving out the hard-hitting leaflet ‘Britain Stripped of All Dignity’ when they where approached by police officers who asked to see the literature and promptly called in senior officers to ‘take control of the situation’.

The ‘senior police officer’, upon arriving on the scene, detained Paul and the four other British National Party activists, Emma Roper, Debra Purdy, Amy Purdy and Ken Cooper. Our people are currently detained at Ripley Police station, incredibly because two people have complained about the literature.

The country has been devastated by rampaging gangs, looting and burning our cities while the police stood and watched, yet today we have a group of upstanding citizens out campaigning for an end to the rioting, and Derbyshire police have arrested them.

This is the reality of Britain Today! Our society is sick – infected from top to bottom with the disease of Political Correctness and warped values that are held by those in power.

More news as it comes in – Central Party legal advisers and our Chairman are in direct contact with our people and Derbyshire Police.

ARREST UPDATE: Derbyshire police have released all five of the British National Party leafleting team in Ripley without charge. Our team are now continuing to leaflet the town.

Disturbances Continue In Derby And Nottingham

2011-08-10T15:50:00.002+01:00

Last night there was again rioting in Nottingham, including petrol bomb attacks on police stations.

Derbyshire Police claim there were no significant incidents in the county last night, but do confirm reports of disturbances in the Derby areas of Allenton and Alvaston.

British National Party Chairman Nick Griffin has said:

“The authorities have only hours, or at most a couple of days, to get the mayhem under control, or it is liable to spill out into inter-community violence on a truly devastating scale.

“The media are doing their best to cover up the extent to which innocent white and Asian people are being targeted simply because they are not black. Most strikingly, the Daily Mail censored its own website once a higher-level editor spotted the power of the picture they were running of a white woman who had been forced to strip naked by rioters in an act of calculated racist humiliation.

“From grass-roots reports we’re getting from all over London and from Birmingham, the few photos and passing mentions of the issue that have been carried by the media are only the tip of an iceberg. The truth appears to be that hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of people have been brutally mugged, or had their bikes, cars, shops and even homes attacked because they are ethnically British, East European or Asian.

“This is why, unless the authorities stop this now, it is inevitable that the self-defence organisation already seen in the Turkish community will spread, turning what is still at present primarily a giant exercise in shopping with violence into a far more ugly set of racial clashes and full-scale conflict between different ethnic and religious groups.

“The ConDem government are literally playing with fire in believing that the police can get a grip on the situation without the help of proper anti-riot equipment and the army. The liberal Tories now running the country believe that it’s too Politically Incorrect to treat black rioters with the same tough measures as are routinely used against young Republican and Loyalist rioters in Northern Ireland. But this pathetic squeamishness could all too easily lead to people being killed.

“I urge the government and police to stop pussyfooting around and get tough. I urge members of our community, and the significant number of decent and settled members of ethnic minorities who recognise that we speak for the Silent Majority, to stay calm and to stay off the streets unless failure by the authorities leaves them absolutely no choice but to take action to defend their homes, families and neighbours."

Nottingham Riots

2011-08-09T17:06:00.001+01:00

The past three days of rioting in London has now started to spread to other cities throughout the country, including parts of Nottingham, less than 8 miles from Amber Valley.

Despite some incidents of disorder in Sinfin in Derby last night, Derbyshire Police are keen to reassure the public that they are prepared to provide a positive and robust response should it be necessary.

Riots And Public Safety In Derbyshire

2011-08-09T16:46:00.002+01:00

Derbyshire Constabulary have issued the following statement on behalf of the Emergency Planning Team in Derbyshire in response to the disorder in London and other cities in recent days.

Police in Derbyshire are seeking to reassure local communities in the wake of disorder in London and other cities in the UK.

Despite rumours circulated via social networking sites there was no disorder, looting or road closures in Derby city centre last night.

A heightened visible police presence was deployed in the city as a precautionary measure.

Derbyshire Constabulary has committed a number of staff to assist the Metropolitan Police’s operation this morning following a mutual aid request.

And the force is keen to emphasise that Derby County’s League Cup match against Shrewsbury Town at Pride Park Stadium will go ahead as normal.

Assistant Chief Constable Dee Collins said: “We recognise that people will have been following the events in London and other cities and it will be of great concern to them.

“As a result of those we along with some of our key partners are reviewing contingency plans to ensure we’re able to provide a positive and robust response should it be necessary in Derbyshire.

“We rely on the support of our local communities and I would urge anyone who may have any information about potential disorder to let the police know about it.

“There will be a police presence monitoring the football match tonight in Derby as usual and a visible presence will be noticeable in key areas as a reassurance measure. It is very much business as usual.

“We have also provided some staff to the Metropolitan Police and think it is right that we play our part to support the policing operation in London.”

There were a small number of low-level anti-social behaviour and crime incidents in the Sinfin area of Derby involving a small group of youths last night.

These involved a window on a parked police car being broken and a small number of wheelie bin fires.

ACC Collins added: “These incidents were minor and isolated to the Sinfin area and there is no way to know whether they were in any way connected to disturbances in other cities.”

Save Our Greenfields

2011-08-07T12:29:00.001+01:00

I am pleased to see that campaigners against various local developments are pooling their knowledge and working together to oppose plans by Tory-controlled Amber Valley Borough Council and various developers to build over large tracts of our greenfield land.

The Support Our Struggle Facebook page is being used to co-ordinate various campaigns, including those against proposed developments at the Greenwich Playing Fields and Waingroves.

A lot of the same campaigners are also working on the campaign to preserve Ripley Town Hall.

There are also currently campaign groups in Heanor aimed at preserving Lockton Avenue Playing Field and Wilmot Street Playing Field.

Sharia Law Comes To Britain

2011-08-06T21:08:00.001+01:00

The following news clip does not come from the BBC or any other British broadcaster, but from a Russian broadcaster. Many may wonder whether there is a conspiracy of silence on many issues from our left-wing biased domestic broadcasters.

The clip tells of Anjem Choudary's plans to convert one part of London into an Islamic Sharia law zone. This plan is already being implemented, and it appears to be Choudary's desire to roll it out across our country.

This should be of particular concern to residents of Derby, where the hate-preacher is a frequent visitor.

EU Referendum Campaign Comes To Heanor

2011-08-06T16:39:00.002+01:00

I and other Amber Valley British National Party members were joined by colleagues from Derby and Nottingham as we brought the EU Referendum Campaign to Heanor today.

We received the usual friendly reception from Heanor residents. 134 local people signed our petition which calls for a referendum about British membership of the European Union.

We also sold plenty of copies of the British National Party newspaper, the Voice of Freedom.

In support of the campaign by Lockton Avenue residents to have Lockton Avenue Playing Fields declared a town green, I also distributed copies of the questionnaire which residents of Marlpool and Common Side are being asked to complete to support the application.

Ripley Gateway

2011-08-05T21:03:00.005+01:00

Following a popular local Facebook campaign, Amber Valley Borough Council officers have this afternoon released the following statement regarding the proposed Ripley Gateway development in reply to consultation responses received by the Council:

Amber Valley Borough Council

Notice to dispose of Open Space Land at Nottingham Road, Ripley

Statement of fact:

1. Nottingham Road Playing Fields comprise about ten and a half acres.

2. Amber Valley Borough Council owns all of this land.

3. The Coal Industry Social Welfare Organisation (CISWO) does not own this land.

4. Part of the land, about three and half acres, is held by the Council subject to a charitable scheme created in 1977. The plan of this part of the land and a copy of the scheme can be viewed on the Council’s website and at - http://www.ripleygateway.co.uk/thesite.html.

5. The Council is not acting on behalf of CISWO.

6. The Managing Trustees of this part of the land are the members for the time being of the Council’s Recreation and Amenities Committee. They will make the decisions about the disposal of this part of the land.

7. There is a provision in the scheme that the Managing Trustees shall pay over the proceeds of any such disposal to CISWO for application for charitable purposes within the objects of that organisation.

8. There is no agreement between CISWO and the Council.

9. There is no “proviso that any potential loss of land allocated to public recreation and amenity must be replaced at a suitable venue at a nearby location that has a similar allocation of acreage to sports playing fields and public open space”.

10. Clowes Westerman’s proposals to regenerate the land at Nottingham Road as a ‘Gateway’ to Ripley include the relocation and enhancement of the existing park and playing facilities on another site of similar size off Nottingham Road.

11. The proposals include a recreation area at the northern end of the site.

12. The proposals include the development of additional sports facilities at the Pit Top on Peasehill Road.

13. The plans clearly showing these proposals have been available at the public exhibitions, at the public consultation events, and at -
http://www.ripleygateway.co.uk/scheme.html.

14. If the proposals are approved by the Council and by the Recreation and Amenities Committee, and if planning permission is granted, and, in the case of the Pit Top, the consent of the County Council is obtained, there will be a contract between the Council and Clowes Westerman to ensure that the proposals are delivered.

15. There is no contract yet because these are proposals that are the subject of public consultation. The proposals may be reviewed in the light of the representations received as part of that consultation.

16. The land at the Pit Top is not proposed as a “suitable area for the relocation” of the existing park and playing fields at Nottingham Road. It is proposed as an additional sports facility. See 10 & 12 above.

17. The proposal for the relocated park and playing field off Nottingham Road referred to in 10 above includes a skate park facility. This is not proposed for the Pit Top.

18. It is proposed that the relocated park and playing field off Nottingham Road referred to in 10 above will include enhanced facilities so that it can be a venue for Butterley United Cricket Club. There will also be facilities for playing football.

19. It is proposed that the additional facilities at the Pit Top referred to in 12 above will be a venue for Ripley Town Football Club. This included training pitches, a clubhouse and a covered spectators area. It is not proposed as a “football stadium”.

2 August 2011

Tories' Shame Over Bombardier

2011-08-05T15:58:00.002+01:00

It appears that the scandal over the award of the £1.4bn Thameslink rail contract to a consortium headed by Siemens, rather than Bombardier, has hit new lows with the revelation that Michael Queen, chief executive of 3i Group, a member of Siemens's consortium, is a close business adviser of Prime Minister David Cameron.

Cameron's spokesmen deny there is any conflict of interest in the decision which has resulted in the loss of their livelihood for 1,400 staff at Bombardier's factory in Derby.

This shame is further compounded by the failure of any of the county's Tory MPs, including Amber Valley MP Nigel Mills, to sign an Early Day Motion calling on the Government to rethink its decision to award the contract to a foreign company.

Of course, the other Establishment parties fare no better, as Liberal Democrat Ministers also state that the decision cannot be reversed, and Labour bear responsibility for, during their period in government, designing the bidding process that was used.

Ripley Gateway Responses Lost

2011-08-05T15:24:00.001+01:00

There are reports that Clowes Westerman have lost the online responses to their Ripley Gateway consultation.

If you have responded online to Clowes Westerman's consultation about their proposed development of land at Nottingham Road in Ripley, you are advised to remake your comments.

Have Your Say on Immigration

2011-08-05T15:10:00.001+01:00

The UK Border Agency is currently holding a public consultation to review how those who come to the UK to work in Tiers 1 and 2 of the Points Based System for non-EU migrants may be granted indefinite leave to remain, or settle, in the UK.

The consultation form is available online and is easy to complete. It consists mostly of multiple choice questions and only takes a few minutes to complete.

The consultation closes on 9th September.

Short Cuts At Delves Court Site

2011-08-04T20:29:00.001+01:00

Amber Valley Housing's redevelopment of the former Delves Court site has hit further trouble as a contractor is caught taking short cuts.

Demolition contractor G Fry was responsible for the much-criticised demolition of the site, including ripping out a large number of mature trees.

Part of this work included removing a boundary wall across the front of the site on Lockton Avenue in Heanor. This work subsequently led to the edge of the pavement collapsing as the supporting substrata has fallen away either during the works or by subsequent erosion.

The former Delves Court

Amber Valley Housing instructed G Fry to remedy the defect. They claim to have instructed G Fry to use hard core already on the site to underpin the pavement.

However, G Fry defied this instruction and brought material from another site, which they rather ludicrously attempted to use to repair the pavement by pushing it through the fence and placing it around the outside of the fence!

This is not the first time the contractor has caused concern for nearby residents when working on housing projects.

In 2006 G Fry worked on the regeneration of the Tarran estate in Maltby for Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council. It is alleged by local residents that G Fry failed to follow correct safety procedures when removing and storing asbestos, thus putting the public at risk. The contractor was subsequently removed from the site by the Council.

Amber Valley Housing seem to have misjudged the feelings of local residents by ploughing on with the demolition against the wishes of local residents. They are now struggling to find a redevelopment plan that is acceptable to local people, even though residents have made their views known.

The organisation's difficulties at the site will now be compounded if they cannot demonstrate that they are able to select responsible contractors. They must also show a willingness to adequately monitor the work and ensure inconvenience to residents is minimised.

EU Referendum Campaign Launched

2011-08-01T16:21:00.002+01:00

Members of Amber Valley British National Party joined colleagues to launch the Party's EU Referendum Campaign in the Derby and Derbyshire area.

Last Saturday 388 people came to our stall in Derby and signed the Party's petition demanding a referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union.

The campaign is sponsored by British National Party MEPs Andrew Brons and Nick Griffin.

The British National Party is committed to withdrawing the United Kingdom from the European Union. The three main Establishment parties have everything to gain by ever closer links with the rest of Europe. Of course, they do realise how unpopular this stance is, so just before each election, their respective leaders commit to giving the public a referendum on the issue. Readers will naturally be aware of Blair, Brown, Cameron and Clegg making such promises in recent years. These promises have all been reneged on as soon as polling is over.

We expect to roll out the campaign throughout the area, including the towns of Amber Valley, in the coming months.

Ripley Gateway Consultation

2011-07-30T22:18:00.001+01:00

Clowes Westerman, who are proposing to develop an area of land on Nottingham Road in Ripley, are holding a public consultation on their plans.

Amber Valley Borough Council are also holding a consultation on their proposals to sell land to Clowes Westerman in connection with the development. Responses must be received by the Council by 18 August 2011.

It is expected that the Council will make a decision on the sale of the land on 28 September 2011.

The scheme includes plans for a supermarket, housing and the first phase of a new link road to Langley Mill.

Website Upgrades

2011-07-30T20:48:00.000+01:00

It is now possible to subscribe to my website so that you can receive new articles via email. You will receive a maximum of one email per day containing any new articles posted over the previous 24 hours. To subscribe, enter your email address in the form near the top right of the webpage.

Dynamic views have also now been enabled on the website. These make a variety of layouts available to viewers depending on their personal preferences.

Blogger Mobile Templates are also enabled on the website, allowing viewers a better user experience when accessing the website from a mobile platform.

Help For Carers In An Emergency

2011-07-27T19:36:00.001+01:00

Following the introduction of the Department of Health’s New Deal for Carers, a national strategy aiming to improve support for carers through a range of measures, Derbyshire County Council is developing a number of schemes to deliver the New Deal to local people.

An emergency respite care scheme has been set up to support carers providing more than 20 hours of support over four or more days a week.

In an emergency, care can be provided in someone’s home until the situation has stabilised, through a homecare service, sitting service or direct payments.

To speed up responses in an emergency, you can tell the County Council's Social Services Department about the support you provide and what you would like to happen in an emergency.

The department will then be able to arrange alternative support quickly if required.

The department can also issue carers with a Carer's Emergency Card, which is intended to be carried with you at all times.

In an emergency people will know that you are a carer and that someone relies on you. The card will be linked to your details so that if necessary we can arrange alternative support.

All carers should also remember that, whilst looking after their friend or relative, they should also take time out to look after themselves. Derbyshire County Council also offer a carer's needs assessment which ensures not only that you are getting all the help you need in your caring role, but also that you are getting the right personal support and are getting a proper balance in life between caring and the rest of your life.

If Only Tibet Had Oil Fields

2011-07-27T15:27:00.003+01:00

William Hague, the British Foreign Secretary, has announced that Britain will no longer recognise Gaddafi's government, but will instead recognise the Libyan Rebel Council as Libya's official government.

I believe it is a matter for the people of each country to determine through the democratic process who governs them. Gaddafi certainly has no democratic mandate, and if it appears the Libyan Rebel Council has the support of the Libyan people, then it is right to recognise this in the interim period until stability is reached in the country and fair elections can be held.

I may be being cynical, but it has to be noted that the interest in Libya coincides with it's status as a major oil producing country. There may well be some truth in the argument that the British Government is ensuring it is aligned with what it believes will ultimately be the winning side, thus securing future oil supplies.

It is such a shame that, 62 years after the Chinese invasion of Tibet, the British Government has still not recognised the Central Tibetan Administration. This is not a new government such as the Libyan Rebel Council, but it is the legacy government of Tibet, which has continued to function in exile in Dharamsala, India.

I may again be being cynical, but could this refusal to recognise a democratic government, whilst recognising that of it's undemocratic occupying power, be at all connected with Tibet's lack of oil fields, and it's occupier's position as a major trading partner?

The answer is a matter for Hague's conscience, but while he ponders it, the peaceful people of Tibet are still suffering oppression and ethnic cleansing while the World looks the other way, far more concerned about the ~~risk to oil supply~~ far less severe difficulties suffered by the Libyan people.

Oslo And Utoya Attacks

2011-07-23T20:40:00.003+01:00

British National Party Member of the European Parliament for Yorkshire, Andrew Brons, has condemned the massacre in Norway as an “insane and horrific act” and has expressed his deepest condolences with the victims of yesterday’s attack in Oslo and Utoya.

The person or persons responsible for this outrage must be brought to justice as quickly as possible. There can be no justification for such an act under any circumstances,” Mr Brons said.

“No matter who is responsible, this sort of outrage cannot be tolerated.

“If we lose the essence of free debate and democracy, we will be plunged back into the Dark Ages and all that the West stands for, will be destroyed. We dare not let this happen,” Mr Brons said.

AVHL Directors Apologise Over Delves Court

2011-07-23T07:52:00.001+01:00

Following a recent hearing at which a Panel of Directors considered a complaint regarding AVHL's handling of the redevelopment of the Delves Court site on Lockton Avenue, Heanor, the Directors have issued apologies to the complainants and made directions to officers regarding future conduct of the Housing Association regarding the redevelopment.

The Directors criticised failures to respond to complaints within five days, which is AVHL's stated service aim. It was also found that officers were wrong to send letters to people who had signed a petition without sending a copy to the head of the petitioners.

The Directors also apologised for the 'strong' content of a letter of objection sent to Derbyshire County Council regarding the application for Lockton Avenue Playing Fields to become a town green. The letter contained personal criticism of the applicants, which is of course not a material consideration in deciding a town green application.

Officers were also criticised for failing to carry out proper public consultation at the demolition stage of the redevelopment, which led to the felling of several trees. The Directors have directed that officers must carry out full public consultation before the site is redeveloped and that the public must be given 'a real opportunity to influence' the direction of AVHL's plans for the site.

It is disappointing that AVHL has handled this redevelopment in a way that has resulted in local residents feeling left out of the decision process. Local people have made it clear that they would prefer to see sheltered housing in the form of bungalows on the site. AVHL, on the other hand, would rather place family housing on the site, even though this would be more costly to build.

A lot of people find themselves in houses too large for their requirements, usually after their children have left home. At present there are nearly 200 under-occupied AVHL homes in Heanor, so there is plenty of scope for those who wish to move into new bungalows at Delves Court to do so, thus freeing up family homes. This option would be cheaper to deliver and, with it being more acceptable to local people, it would doubtless make faster progress through the planning system.

It is time for AVHL to listen to local residents and work with them, not against them.

Are Foreign Lorries Getting A Free Ride?

2011-07-20T20:48:00.001+01:00

An excellent article by British National Party MEP Andrew Brons has prompted me to write about one of the major problems facing British lorry drivers.

Andrew writes about the iniquitous system whereby British heavy goods vehicles may not be driven in some European countries unless a eurovignette has been purchased. A eurovignette is effectively a short-term tax disc.

In contrast, foreign lorries are able to use British roads entirely free of charge.

When I started driving HGVs in the 1980s this situation was unfair, but did not put an undue financial pressure on most hauliers, as foreign lorries were only permitted to enter Britain to deliver goods brought from outside the country. Foreign lorries were a relative rarity in those days.

The death knell for British hauliers, and even more so, owner-drivers, was the introduction of cabotage with the removal of border controls at the end of 1992 when the EU came into existence. This change meant that foreign hauliers could travel to Britain even with empty vehicles (though always with two large diesel tanks full of cheap European diesel) and pick up and deliver goods within Britain. This gradually put a lot of British lorries off the road for good.

Anybody who has travelled any distance on our motorway network will be aware of the high proportion of foreign lorries nowadays.

A further problem is that even those British hauliers that managed to survive cabotage started to reduce their costs by employing foreign drivers!

It must also be mentioned that a disproportionate number of accidents on British motorways involve foreign left-hand drive HGVs, in circumstances where the driver has moved to a lane on his right and collided with a vehicle already in that lane, mostly due to the restricted vision when moving into a faster traffic stream.

Drivers in right-hand drive vehicles can look to their right to avoid blind spots in their mirrors which reduces the rate of such accidents in British vehicles. Of course these vehicles have a large blind spot on the nearside which affects moving into a lane on the left, but this is into slower traffic and the driver can wait until he is far enough forward of the vehicle he has passed to see it in his mirrors again.

Credit Union To Open In Heanor And Alfreton

2011-07-19T16:56:00.000+01:00

Erewash Credit Union is to open two new branches in Amber Valley.

The new Heanor branch will be open every Wednesday between 10-00am and 12-30pm in the Town Hall, on Heanor Market Place, whilst the Alfreton branch will open every Thursday, between 10-30am to 2-00pm at Amber Valley Borough Council's Town Centre Office.

The credit union already has a branch in Ripley which opens on Tuesday and Friday mornings between 10-30am and 2-00pm in the Amber Valley Borough Council Town Centre Office.

The credit union works as a co-operative run locally for the benefit of its members. As well as being a safe place to save money for special events, such as holidays or Christmas, it also offers small affordable loans. An advisor will be on hand each week to help people open and manage their account and to take deposits or discuss loans.

The credit union offers a means of saving money and a way of borrowing small sums. This is particularly helpful for those who might have been refused credit elsewhere and who may be tempted by doorstep lenders.

Who Cares For The Carers?

2011-07-16T09:23:00.000+01:00

Caring for a friend or loved one who is ill, frail, disabled or has mental health or substance misuse problems, can be an isolating experience, in which it is all too easy to forget about one's own needs. Caring for a relative or friend is demanding and saves the Exchequer billions of pounds per year, as otherwise many of those cared for would have to live in residential care.

Carers who need advice or even just a chat with someone who understands their position can contact Carers UK or the Derbyshire Carers' Association.

Carers who provide at least 14 hours of support per week are entitled to an assessment of their needs as a carer by Derbyshire County Council.

Beware Of Copies

2011-07-16T09:06:00.008+01:00

I would like to remind readers that the only authorised versions of these articles are those published on this website and on my official pages on Facebook and Google+.

Reputable websites will refer to these articles by publishing url links to the original authorised versions. Any versions of these articles appearing at unauthorised locations or using alternative formats may have been edited and thus no longer represent my views

I do not write articles for any other website, even though some claim I am one of their writers, whilst other websites simply plagiarise my work with no acknowledgement.

I am not sure whether such plagiarism should be regarded as flattery, though I tend to feel that it is more a representation of envy that the copier did not have the imagination to write about the subject matter, coupled with an inate laziness that pervades their life which results in a tendency to claim the credit for other people's hard work.

It should also be noted that the juxtaposing of plagiarised copies of my articles with other items on other websites is beyond my control and does not mean that I approve of or endorse any content on those websites.

During the British National Party leadership election, it is a breach of election rules for any Party member to promote or endorse any candidate. It should also be noted that the Party does not permit any members or local Party organisations to run websites claiming to represent the Party.

I wish to emphasise in particular that any articles or other items supposedly submitted by me to, or claims that I write for, any other websites, including those that purport to represent members of the Party or Party organisations, are unauthorised and should be disregarded.

I have no objection to the use of acknowledged, unaltered short extracts of these articles for the purposes of fair comment, though readers should check the veracity of the extract by referring to the original.

Upcoming Changes At Amber Valley Housing

2011-07-15T19:59:00.001+01:00

Amber Valley Housing was created when tenants of Amber Valley Borough Council voted 8 years ago to transfer their homes to a separate landlord. Since then, Amber Valley Housing has extended its operations to include surrounding areas and it has also merged with Daventry & District Housing to form the Future Housing Group.

To reflect the parent Group's name and also to avoid confusion with Amber Valley Borough Council, Amber Valley Housing will shortly be changing name to Futures Homescape.

It is to be hoped that this will make it clearer to tenants who they should contact for various matters. A lot of people confuse the Housing Association's and Council's areas of responsibility due to the similarity in their respective names.

It should be stressed that the services and people supplying them are not changing, and tenants should notice no difference other than the change of name.

Although the official change will take place in September, but the new name and logo will be introduced gradually, so the old name will still be seen for some time.

Tenants will be able to read about this matter in the tenants' magazine The Open Door which is being distributed from today.

Heanor Library To Open Earlier

2011-07-15T16:08:00.000+01:00

Derbyshire County Council have announced that, from 18 July 2011, Heanor Library will open half an hour earlier at 0900. However, the sting in the tail is that the total opening hours will be reduced by an hour!

The new opening hours for the library, which is on Ilkeston Road, will be:

Monday       0900 - 1700
Tuesday       0900 - 1900
Wednesday 0900 - 1700
Thursday 0900 - 1900
Friday     0900 - 1700
Saturday    0900 - 1600
Sunday       Closed

Royal Mail To Close Ilkeston Delivery Office

2011-07-15T15:35:00.000+01:00

Following the loss of Royal Mail's Heanor delivery office a few years ago, it has now been announced that Ilkeston delivery office, which now handles our mail, is to be closed too.

The closure, which is expected to take place in three to five years time, will mean that mail for Heanor will be delivered directly from Derby, though Royal Mail do say that they plan to open a collection office nearby so that the public can collect items that the postman was unable to deliver.

Could You Help Preserve Lockton Avenue Playing Fields?

2011-07-14T15:47:00.004+01:00

Following moves by Amber Valley Housing to build five dwellings on Lockton Avenue Playing Fields as part of the redevelopment of the Delves Court site, local campaigners applied to Derbyshire County Council to register the land as a Town Green.

The application has been accepted as valid by Derbyshire County Council. It is understood that objections to the registration have been made by Amber Valley Housing and Amber Valley Borough Council, and so it is likely that a public enquiry will be held before a decision can be arrived at.

The campaigners need to demonstrate that a large number of people from two local areas, Marlpool and Common Side, use the land for leisure or recreation. To achieve this, they are asking residents from Marlpool and Common Side to complete and return to them a questionnaire about their use of the land.

I urge all local residents to download and print a copy of the questionnaire, fill it in, and return it to the campaigners at 135 Lockton Avenue, Heanor DE75 7ER

Ripley Rail Scheme Put To Bed

2011-07-09T16:11:00.002+01:00

I am pleased to read reports that Network Rail are removing the track from the disused railway at Kilburn, thus putting an end to the proposed re-opening of the line by CES Group Partnership (UK).

The company was led by convicted paedophile Desmond McKinley, formerly known as Patrick Shields. McKinley collaberated on the scheme with fellow Midland Railway Centre volunteers Daniel Baggaley and Michael Rogan.

It would appear that Network Rail will now carry out their original plan to transfer the land to Derbyshire County Council.

Housing Growth Consultation

2011-07-04T20:01:00.002+01:00

Amber Valley Borough Council is launching a consultation called 'Options for Housing Growth' as part of it's Core Strategy planning development process.

Don't Forget Tibet During Chinese Visit

2011-06-23T20:04:00.002+01:00

The visit to Britain this weekend of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, during which he is expected to sign several agreements with Prime Minister David Cameron, should serve as an apt reminder of the plight of the Tibetan people. This gentle race of people is being silently ethnically cleansed from their homeland by China's policy of settling massive numbers of Han Chinese, swamping the indigenous Tibetans.

China invaded Tibet in 1949, killing hundreds of thousands of Tibetans, destroying thousands of historic Buddhist monastries, and imprisoning and torturing thousands more of the Tibetan people. By 1950 China had succeeded in annexing the country, which it has now subdivided, with the so-called 'Tibetan Autonomous Region' actually only comprising a fraction of Tibet.

In 1959 China gained full control after militarily crushing Tibetan resistance, and the Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama fled to India. The Tibetan Government-in-exile continues to this day in Dharamsala, India

Whilst human rights are ignored for Tibetans, western businesses and governments are complicit in this ethnic cleansing programme by helping China consolidate its control, whilst doing little to alleviate the plight of the indigenous people.

Originally populated by peaceful Buddhists and having no oil, the indigenous people of Tibet are left to rot, just like other 'unpopular' peoples like white farmers being massacred in Zimbabwe or white girls being sexually groomed by Asians in Britain.

It is time to remember and support all these cases of the suppression of indigenous people throughout the World, and in particular, this weekend is a time to support the resurrection of a Free Tibet.

British National Party Group On Amber Valley Borough Council

2011-06-22T20:19:00.003+01:00

I am pleased to announce that I have now been appointed as the Leader of the British National Party Group on Amber Valley Borough Council. Cllr Lewis Allsebrook will move to the post of Deputy Leader of the Group.

'Save Ripley Town Hall' Campaign Update

2011-06-18T07:30:00.001+01:00

A petition has now been set up which meets the eligibility requirements of Amber Valley Borough Council such that, should it achieve 1,200 valid signatures, the sale of Ripley Town Hall will be debated at a meeting of the Full Council.

The petition statement says:

Ripley's Town Hall was built in 1880 as a solid statement of Ripley's pride in its independence - Let's show some of that pride & independence again in saying NO! to selling this important part of our Town's heritage The Town Hall belongs to the Residents of Ripley Parish. It belonged to Ripley urban District council which was the parish of Ripley. In 1974 Amber Valley District Council was formed that was the whole of Amber valley. It became a Borough because it was said it would attract business. Do not let the short sighted AVBC sell the Town Hall it Is Ripley's Heritage Our ancestors paid their rates for it, that is why it belongs to the parish of Ripley. Once it is sold it will be lost forever

AVHL Continues To Ignore Substance Of Complaint

2011-06-16T21:16:00.000+01:00

Following the response received to a campaigner's complaint about Amber Valley Housing and it's proposals for redeveloping the Delves Court site on Lockton Avenue, Heanor, the campaigner decided to escalate the complaint to the next stage of Amber Valley Housing's complaints procedure.

The campaigner has now received a reply, which unfortunately still appears to completely avoid the substance of the complaint. The following is a copy of the letter which Amber Valley Housing have proudly distributed to Amber Valley Borough councillors, though I have redacted the complainant's details: