In this issue

Save the Puppet Theatre!
Petition to upgrade footpath
Ruth Makoff selected for Wensum Ward
News in brief

Save the Puppet Theatre!

The future of Norwich Puppet Theatre has been left uncertain following the withdrawal of the £60,000 annual grant from the Arts Council for England. The theatre, which educated and entertains 10,000 people each year, needs £180,000 annually to run. This is made up of income from shows and grants from the City and County Councils as well as the grant from the Arts Council.

At the last full City Council meeting, Green Councillor Adrian Ramsay asked what action the City Council is taking to help the Puppet Theatre survive. He was told that senior councillors and council officers are in behind-the-scenes discussions with the people running the Puppet Theatre about how to try to put it back on a firm financial footing. The Green Councillors also responded to the Arts Council consultation to support the case that the Puppet Theatre grant should not be cut.

Councillor Stephen Little, Culture Spokesperson for the Green Party City Councillors, said: "The Puppet Theatre is a crucial cultural facility that deserves full support. It is disappointing to say the least that the Arts Council has withdrawn its grant. The County Council has given the theatre extra money to help in the short term and I hope it can use that breathing space to find enough ongoing income to survive in the long-term."

Photo: Green Councillors Stephen Little, Adrian Ramsay and Bob Gledhill at the recent Save the Puppet Theatre march.

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Petition to upgrade footpath

Ruth Makoff (left) and the Wensum Green Councillors have been visiting residents in North Earlham to collect signatures for a petition. The petition calls on the City Council and NELM Development Trust to upgrade and regularly maintain the popular footpath that runs from Tollhouse Road to the old Bowthorpe School site. The footpath currently often gets overgrown and muddy.

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Ruth Makoff selected for Wensum Ward

The Green Party has selected Ruth Makoff as your candidate for Wensum Ward at this year's local elections on 1st May. Ruth lives on Dereham Road and is a postgraduate student at UEA. Ruth has been an active member of Wensum Ward Green Party for over a year now. She has visited residents across the ward and helped the Wensum Councillors take up local issues of concern.

The Green Party holds all three City Council seats for Wensum Ward and a total of ten seats at City Hall. The Green Councillors form a large opposition group to the Labour administration on the City Council. Adrian Holmes, whose Wensum Ward seat is up for election this year, has decided to seek re-election in neighbouring Mancroft Ward where he lives. Adrian remains a Wensum Ward Councillor until the election.

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News in brief

The City Council Planning Committee has deferred a decision on an application for 24 flats to be built on a piece of land at 349A and 349B Dereham Road, behind Waterworks Road. Councillor Rupert Read and local residents (pictured right) worked together to highlight that the proposals were too dense and not in keeping with the surrounding area. The deferral allows time for a more appropriate revised application to be developed.

Councillor Tom Llewellyn recently helped to get a new cul-de-sac sign installed at Tollhouse Road. Tom reports that other local issues he has recently helped to resolve include: a dangerous railing on Dereham Road by the Jex Road entrance has been fixed; a muddy footpath on Sweet Briar Road has been adopted by the City Council for resurfacing; the City Council will in future also maintain an overgrown alleyway behind 142 Jex Road.

Neighbourhood surgeries are being held each week for residents to speak to Council housing officers and neighbourhood wardens about issues of concern. There is a surgery at Cadge Road Community Centre each Tuesday between 1pm and 3pm and one at Colman Road Library each Thursday between 2pm and 4pm.

The County Council has agreed to 21 innovative recommendations from a working group looking at ways it can reduce energy usage. Chaired by Green Councillor Andrew Boswell, the group investigated energy saving across buildings and services - to save money and to help plans to cut the Council's carbon footprint by 25% over five years. Green Councillors at City Hall have been pushing for over a year for a similar working group to be set up there. A Green Party motion calling for year-on-year reductions in emissions from Council buildings and services was passed in January 2007 but, at the time of writing, the Labour administration still seems to be stalling on setting up a working group to oversee this process.

The County Council is conducting a review of special educational needs (SEN) schools which could result in a reduction in the number of SEN places available in the Norwich area. Green Councillors are working with parents at Parkside School to press for an increase in the number of SEN places and for the successful models of SEN schooling, such as that at Parkside, to be retained.

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Published by Tom Dylan, 123 St Leonard's Road, Norwich, NR1 4JN
on behalf of Wensum Ward Green Party, 17 Merton Road, Norwich, NR2 3TT