County Lib Dems have got it right

Without wishing to over-egg the cake or become too tedious and repetitive on the proposed County Council spending plans and the significant cuts they are planning, I was pleased to see that Liberal Democrat leader Jason Zadrozny agreed with me, not only on the need for an increase in council tax but also on a very modest redistribution of the wealth at the same time.

Coun Zadrozny said that his party advocated a freeze for properties in tax bands A and B  but an increase of 1% for band C, 2% for band D and so on. He said: “It’s the wrong time to freeze council tax because it creates a problem further down the line.”

Allowing people to keep more money in their pockets (the justification for the Tory council tax freeze) when this means, ultimately, that many of their public services will be cut or reduced makes no sense to anyone apart from Kay Cutts.

A taste of things to come?

I’m grateful to the Reverend Rushcliffe for highlighting another planned Tory cut, this time to transport services in the north of the county.

Two things strike me most about the Conservative administration at County Hall. One is that they are almost a caricature of all that is worst about the Tories (and there’s plenty to choose from), even having their own Thatcher in the form of the cold and calculating Kay Cutts.

The other thing is that they are acting out a scenario in the county that we will surely see nationwide if Cameron and friends are elected next year: An assault on the most vulnerable in our society driven by the same old Conservative ideals of looking after the rich and punishing the poor by cutting the services they need most and can’t afford to pay for.

Catalyst for change or artistic apartheid?

The New Art Exchange in Hyson Green has recently won another award, scooping a design ‘oscar’ in RIBA’s 2009 awards. Coming on the first anniversary of the opening of this impressive building, it must be very good news for those associated with the project.

However, the New Art Exchange is much more than an iconic building. It is also a showcase for African, Caribbean and South Asian art; one of the only such facilities in the country. It is also meant to be, in the words of the Evening Post: “A catalyst in the regeneration of Hyson Green”.

New Art Exchange: Jewel in the crown or sore thumb?

“This ’striking black cube’, says the Evening Post (quoting, I suspect, from RIBA), “is built in tough black engineering brick with an arrangement of multiple windows enabling local people to see much of the activity going on inside. In turn, people inside have views looking out at all angles, connecting them to the streets outside, helping to forge stronger links with the local community.”

And the RIBA judges said: “The challenge was to bring together two rival arts organisations, one Afro-Caribbean (sic) and the other Asian. The building has clearly established a lively exchange and collaboration between the two communities.”

But are any of these things true… or does the New Art Exchange actually represent a sort of cultural apartheid where black art is consigned to a ghetto gallery in one of Nottingham’s most deprived and disadvantaged areas with the more mainstream – and probably mainly white – art  being showcased at the much higher profile Nottingham Contemporary, due to open next week in the city centre?

In an area with huge cultural diversity but where the majority population is still white, has the New Art Exchange actually helped to forge stronger links within the community or acted as a catalyst for regeneration?

 There have been some very impressive exhibitions at the NAE and it is certainly being used and visited by more people, both local and from other parts of the country (and, apparently, from other parts of the world). But has it really brought about the sort of economic or social change in Hyson Green that the investment of large sums of money by organisations like the Arts Council, Nottingham City Council, Greater Nottingham Partnership, East Midlands Development Agency and New Deal for Communities were intended to stimulate? More importantly, is it really capable of doing so without being part of a much more cohesive and properly planned strategic development of the area, which it doesn’t really seem to be?

And has the NAE, in the words of its director, Skinder Hundal in an interview with Nottingham Visual Arts succeeded in bridging the gap between Hyson Green and the wider city and in making the venue relevant to local people?

Nottingham Contemporary: Will the NAE be an equal partner or poor relation?

Mr Hundal told NVA: “It is important that local people engage with us as a venue: the venue undoubtedly needs that local engagement in and with local communities.  But the wider Nottingham community is absolutely important as well.  Essentially we are looking to connect greater Nottingham with the inner city, and beyond that we want to look at the huge issues facing the world community.  It is important that greater Nottingham engages on a real level, to connect the mono-cultural with the diverse-cultural, so that there is a shared value base between young people, old people, families and different communities.”

He went on: “We’re conscious that we want to represent unheard voices, culturally diverse expression, and we’re also conscious that – being based in this location – we reflect as best we can the cultural diversity of the location.”

Many would say that this is art-speak; cultural gobbledegook mixed with regeneration rhetoric and jargon that will mean little to people in Hyson Green where most are still poor and more pre-occupied with crime, litter, anti-social behaviour and urban decay than they are with ‘culturally diverse expression’.

Which is not to say that art and culture are not important in people’s lives; of course they are. But this is a gallery specifically dedicated to ethnic minority art in a poor area on the edge of the city, facing, I would argue (despite Mr Hundal’s talk of co-operation) competition from Nottingham Contemporary and trying to convince a relatively small potential audience that the New Art Exchange is not only relevant to their lives but can actually improve them both materially and spiritually.

The building is iconic and the project ambitious but awards for architecture will not be the measure of the NAE’s success. The genuine engagement of the people of Hyson Green and of Nottingham will be and the degree to which such a facility can enrich and improve their lives. And if this doesn’t happen, it will be hard to defend the whole project against the allegation that’s it’s just a cosy, self-interested indulgence for the local art glitterati and a high-profile and expensive way for the public funders involved to demonstrate their equal opportunities credentials.

County cuts driven by Tory dogma

One statement in the reporting of the planned £85m cuts in services by the County Council administration sums up what it’s really all about.

Mrs Cutts and her acolytes want to make good on a Conservative manifesto pledge to freeze council tax next year at a cost of £9m.

Kay Cutts: This is jolly good fun. What shall we close next?

The obvious question is why? And the obvious answer is that it’s all about Tory political dogma, encouraged, no doubt, by Mr Cameron and their national Conservative masters who expect to be in power after the general election next year.

In the face of criticism by Ofsted of their child safeguarding role and the widespread condemnation of their plans to almost wipe out services to the disabled and elderly in an effort to balance their budget, you would expect the County Council to look at the other side of the balance sheet – their income – and consider ways in which this could be increased to reduce the impact of any cuts.

Nottinghamshire contains many very affluent people as well as considerable numbers of those who are relatively well-off. The boroughs of Rushcliffe, Gedling and Broxtowe are home to many of our wealthiest residents. And even those not living in the manor houses and barn conversions of Screveton, Car Colston and Willoughby-on-the-Wolds are still likely to be much better off than most city residents.

So, in the face of such a financial crisis, why cling to a promise not to raise Council Tax? Why not make people pay a reasonable amount for decent public services, particularly those who could afford to pay more than they do now?

The truth is inescapable. True to form (despite Mr Cameron’s attempts to convince us that they’ve changed) the Tories will always look after their own. So the people who will suffer most as the County Council swings its axe, are those least able to protest or fight back. The old, sick, disabled and those council staff delivering front line services which Ms Cutts considers are unnecessary and expendable.

My guess though is that she will still be able to afford to keep her horses and is already planning her retirement to a private residential home in the green and pleasant countryside of the Vale of Belvoir.

Perhaps, for all our sakes, she could bring those plans forward and go now…

Don’t want to say I told you so but…

I wrote a post on Tuesday evening (see below) bemoaning the lack of accountability, transparency and honour amongst Nottingham City councillors in which I cited what I considered to be three prime examples of where various public servants had fallen short of what we are entitled to expect of them.

One of these was Councillor Hassan Ahmed. Yesterday it appeared that he had been arrested in connection with an assault and sexual assault on a woman in July. Today it has been revealed that Councillor Ahmed was actually arrested shortly after the incident but the City Council kept this quiet and he has continued in his roles as both a local councillor and portfolio holder for employment and skills.

Obviously, Councillor Ahmed is innocent until proven otherwise but, in any other arena of public life (and probably in the private sector too), someone accused of such a crime would have stepped down from such an influential position until the investigation was concluded or would have been told to do so by his leader. 

The fact that Councillor Ahmed chose not to do the honourable thing and that City Council leader Jon Collins allowed him to continue as portfolio holder, must raise serious questions about the judgement of both and about the transparency – or lack of it – with which our local authority operates.