Police Commisioner visits Rotary

Two months into his new role, Paddy Tipping gave a fascinating account into his responsibilities and vision for the task ahead in the next three and a half years at the latest meeting of Hucknall Rotary Club.  The biggest change in Police legislation since the days of Robert Peel resulted in Mr Tipping being elected as Nottinghamshire’s First Police and Crime Commissioner.  Coincidentally both Paddy and Robert Peel attended the same school, Hipperholme Grammar School in Halifax (though not at the same time!)

 He was fully aware, that although he was elected, there was a poor turn-out for the elections which suggested public apathy towards the job which was something that Paddy was keen to overcome by talking and engaging with the public.  Nottinghamshire’s turn-out of 15.8% was above the national average.  Paddy discussed some of the factors including the impossibility of trying to canvass all 800,000 households in Nottinghamshire comparing this against 42,000 households that would have been canvassed in the Sherwood constituency.  The election had taken place on 15^thNovember 2012 and Paddy took office at County Hall on 22^nd November.  In his first week of office, his department received more letters than were received in the last year by the old Police Authority.

The Police & Crime Commissioner role had three main functions:

1)      To produce the Policing Plan

2)      To set the Budget

3)      Had the power to recruit or dismiss the Chief Constable

Paddy spoke about how the Policing Plan worked and some of the various schemes he was implementing as Commissioner.  Paddy then explained how money had been saved within the Budget by making better use of the resources available.  A big announcement was being made tomorrow (30^th January) and this would include Paddy’s election manifesto of creating more PO/PSCO within a manageable budget.   A police officer cost £ 40,000 whereas a PSCO costs about £ 20,000.

More details call be found online:

http://www.nottinghamshire.pcc.police.uk/Home.aspx

During his term of office, there are three particular areas that Paddy wants to see developed

a)      A Sensible Alcohol Policy which would help reduce alcohol-related crime but also offer treatment to offenders

b)      To improve Crime reduction strategies for young people

c)      Networking with communities and local organisations as every often, local people can tell you about the problem areas and also able to offer solutions. Such network would create a climate a trust.

Paddy said that when resources were tight especially, effective policing was looking to prevent crime rather than just chasing criminals in order for us to have the better, safer, cleaner places we all want to bring up our families in.

Paddy then took questions from members and one of the answers which concerned the re-introduction of the horse section.  To bring back the horses now would cost £ 420,000.

President Ian Young thanked Paddy for an insightful and fascinating evening and members applauded in the usual fashion.

 Tweets

Paddy‏@PaddyTipping

Hucknall Rotary Club meet in Linby but they still have the town in heart. Great discussion pic.twitter.com/Ujh4OI7L

A magical evening at Ruddington

Ruddington is a quiet village located a few miles outside of Nottingham and it's here that the Rotary Club of Keyworth and Ruddington meet every Monday evening.   They meet at the Country Cottage Hotel which is a Family run Hotel based in Ruudington village.

http://www.thecountrycottagehotel.co.uk/

I had been invited along as speaker for the night as some members had learnt of my pastime of performing magical illusions.  They had advertised it as a Magic Night and I hope that the members present subsequently thought the evening was just that.

I received tremendous hospitality and enjoyed the fellowship of the meeting. President Grenville Turner and his fellow rotarians made me feel extremely welcomed.

Coming of Age

On Saturday night, I attended the 18^th Charter Anniversary Dinner of the Sherwood Sunrisers.  The Rotary Club of Sherwood Sunrisers  meet usually at 7am, but I am pleased to say that their Charter was at a more civil hour!

It was an excellent evening.  The meal and company was superb.  I was sat next to Andy Foreman of RC Newark and we joked that we knew each other via facebook quite well as we both are trying to fully utilise social media to promote Rotary!

As we arrived accomplished young pianist David Somers entertained us admirably.  During the formalities, DG Dave Ashley presented Rtn. Eddie Woolrich with the Paul Harris Fellowship (the highest accolade in Rotary) and the President of Sherwood Sunrisers, Kevin Brown, presented the Lord Mayor of Nottingham, Leon Unczur, with a donation to the Mayor’s charity.

Afterwards, we listened to the singing talents of Caroline Budden accompanied by Saxophonist Dave Williams.

Should have gone to Specsavers

The latest visitors to Hucknall Rotary Club’s weekly meeting were the Hearcare team from Specsavers.  Rotarians discovered that Specsavers not only looks after eyes, but can help with hearing too.  After listening to a presentation delivered by Chris Oxley about how the ear works and how hearing loss occurs, members participated in a fun quiz which showed how much they had learnt from the talk. 

The quiz, in a ‘Connect 4’ format had the Hucknall Rotarians split into two teams for the multiple choice answers that were offered.  The red team’s PP Ivan Manning gave an answer only to be overruled by the rest of his team.  When Ivan’s response turned out to be the correct option, cries of “I told you so,” could be heard in London!  When the red team got their second question wrong, Ivan took advantage of the transfer window and joined the victorious yellow team.

Afterwards Chris and his colleagues, Matt Baker and Janet Archer offered hearing loss tests and advice to the club members.  One in six adults in the UK experiences some degree of hearing loss. For most people, hearing begins to deteriorate from the mid-thirties. It usually develops slowly over time and because of this you may not realize that it is getting worse. This is because the small, sensitive hair-like cells within the inner ear get worn out over the years.  When this happens you don’t simply go deaf, but it becomes more and more difficult to understand sounds clearly, particularly speech, and that can be even trickier if there is background sound.

Modern digital hearing aids are designed to identify and amplify speech sounds while suppressing background noise so with the right advice, practice and prescription most people find they can hear well again in most if not all situations. The sooner you take action the better the results will be.  If any reader is concerned  about your hearing, please contact Specsavers  and  book a test with one of their  qualified hearing professionals

Festive Highlights

December was an incredibly busy month with many highlights.  In Hucknall, the Rotary Club are the organisers on the largest Annual event that takes place in our community.  A lot of hard work with Rotarians giving large of their vocational skills and time to ensure that the Carnival (which incorporates the switching on of the Christmas Lights) is a huge success.  The  Carnival always takes place on the first Wednesday of December.  In the last three years, this day has also seen the launch of the Christmas Tree Festival (which runs from the first Wednesday to the following Saturday) and is proving to be a very popular attraction.

The winning tree from Herbert Buzzard Court
 

With the exception of Tuesday evenings, Santa’s Sleigh tours the streets of Hucknall bringing great festive cheer along the way every night in December.  On Friday mornings, all day Saturday and Sunday, The Sleigh stood at prominent positions in the town.  Even the rain didn’t deter Santa and his helpers!

The Rotary Club still held their regular weekly meetings on Tuesdays evening.  One night was our Christmas Dinner Party at Oakmere Park Golf Club where we were richly entertained by a suberb Magician, Paul Grundle.

The last meeting of the year saw the club enjoying a turkey dinner at our regular meeting venue, The Horse & Groom.  After the meal, a party of Rotarians then went to Annesley Lodge residential home and saw Christmas Carols to the staff and residents,