There will be the usual cakes, raffle, gold rush tombola, gift stalls, kids activities, refreshments and hot jacket potatoes for lunch. Also the back room will be chock full of bargain nearly new children’s clothes, toys etc!

Donations of nearly new kids stuff welcome (if you want 50% back then just label with your name and a price).

Be great to see you there!

See the flier for more details here

4th November 10.00 am Soul Breakfast (Christingle) - To be held in Church on this occasion. Light refreshments will be served.

11th December 5.30 pm Candlelit Carol Service in Church, followed by refreshments and raffle in the Church Hall. Please note there is no morning service on this date.

18th December 10.00 am Contemplative Communion

24th December 11.30 pm Holy Communion Midnight Service
25th December 10.00 am All Age Holy Communion Christmas Day

St Paul's Church Website

Following two separate days of auditions for this year's panto, we are delighted to announce that we have a full complement of actors, including some new faces, to enable us to produce a full version of 'Humpty Dumpty' (if you remember, last year's production had to be cut down to 'Snow White and the Three Dwarves'!). Rehearsals have already started, and the actual dates of the performances will be announced soon, but we're hoping to build on last year's success and run for three nights instead of just two.

To help raise funds for the panto, we will be holding some quiz evenings in Chester Green, the first of which will be on Friday, 7th October, in the Coach and Horses, Mansfield Road. Other dates/venues will be announced later. Because of the format of the quiz, we will need small prizes for these evenings, so if you can donate anything (unwanted Christmas/birthday gifts, a spare bottle of wine - if there is such a thing! - for example), we would be really grateful. Donations can be left with Mick, the landlord of the Coach and Horses, or at Isobel the Florist's, so many thanks to them for that support. We plan on it being a slightly different quiz night, so come along and have some fun as well as helping to raise money. The quiz will start at 8pm.

There are still some places available for this FREE 'Learn to Sing in Harmony' one-day course at Chester Green Community Centre on Sunday 16th October from 10am to 4pm.

The City Council has started replacing lighting in Chester Green, again.   We have been fighting to get conservation area style lighting across the whole of the conservation area (the type already installed on Chester Green Rd and shown on the right, below), but it seems that the Council will not do it stating it wasn’t possible due to the funding savings [cuts] that must be made.  Clearly we, as residents, are not afforded the same option when replacing, or upgrading parts of our dwellings in the Conservation Area, so we are fighting to force the Council to do the same.  The current Plans can be seen below, with the full PDF available from HERE.  

The cycle sessions at Darley Fields are designed to be a fun, relaxed and enjoyable way to help you cycle more. Whether you’ve never ridden a bike, haven’t cycled in years, cycle a little but would like to gain more confidence, or are a regular cyclist looking for people to cycle with; we have a session to suit. You don’t need any specialist equipment to take part; you don’t have to wear lycra and you don’t even have to own a bike as we can provide that for you. Sessions are open to individuals and community groups.

All sessions are led by fully qualified instructors who will be on hand at all times to give you all the advice and encouragement you need. Best of all, sessions are completely FREE.

As I'm not updating the site very successfully, I'm going to open up posting to members of the site. If you're interested in posting updates to the site, join the site and post a comment stating your interest, and I'll add you as an author!

Google Street map has taken pics of Chester Green. See if you can spot anyone you know! An example is below!

View Larger Map

...can be found here.  The police are still after information about the attack, and can be contacted on 0345 123 3333 (the non-emergency number).

As most will have already heard, a serious attack occurred late Saturday night/early Sunday morning in the car park off city road in Chester Green. Currently, a 25 year old man is being questioned by police, but the 19 year old girl who was attacked is still critically ill in hospital. A 19 year old man was also injured in the attack. More details can be found at the evening telegraphs website, here. Lets hope the man the police have in for questioning is the guilty party....

There has been a number of incidents of cars being broken into in the last few weeks in Chester Green and across handyside bridge in the five lamps area. Please make sure that no bags etc. are on show in your cars, and please report any suspicious people hanging around cars at night! The police's NEW non-emergency number is 0345 123 33 33.

I'm sorry to report that Gypsies have, yet again, broken down barriers in order to gain access to Darley Fields car park off Old Chester Road. The park rangers have informed the police. Let's see how much of a mess they make of Chester Green this time..... :-(

Aida engineering have submitted a planning application for the site of the Bliss factory on City Road to build 27 houses and 129 apartments up to 6 storeys high on the flood plain close to the edge of the river derwent.

Please could you spare 5 minutes to drop in to the -

Chester Green Community Centre
Old Chester Road
On Saturday 17th january 2009 Between 11.00am and 3.00pm

The Little Chester Residents Association need to hear from you so that we can represent your views to the city council.

Aida gave their plans to demolish the foundry building (apart from the front facade) and build 166(!) dwellings on the land on Christmas eve.....I can only imagine that they chose this date to hopefully get it through without anyone having time to question it.

The residents association are having a meeting on 5th Jan to discuss the proposals, but please post any comments here on the website.

I'll not comment on them until after the LCRA meeting!

The plans can be viewed here and here.

Today, some residents of Chester Green received the following letter from Hopwood regarding a public consultation about new plans for the Aida Bliss factory on City Road (which used to be known as the Union Foundry).

Dear Resident,

Public Consultation: Union Mills, Chester Green.

We are holding a public event to present the plans for restoration and redevelopment of the Union Mills, Chester Green.

The views of local people are very important to us, and we would like to invite you to attend the event, to see for yourselves the plans for the area and give your views on them.

The plans propose the restoration of the frontage of the foundry building and a new lease of life for the site with sympathetically designed, high quality town houses and apartments.

The event will be held at St. Paul's Church Hall, Seale Street, Chester Green.

Thursday 6th November: 12 - 8 pm
Friday 7th November: 12 - 5 pm
Saturday 8th November: 9am - 1 pm

We look forward to showing you the proposals and hearing your views.

Karen Bateman
Event Organiser

Hopefully their claims of 'sympathetically designed' plans are true, although it seems dissappointing that even more apartments are planned for this conservation area!

The more people that turn up to these events the better, so please try and be there to give your views!

Hopwood can be contacted at enquiries@hopwood.co.uk and their website address is www.hopwood.co.uk although it must be noted that this is a PR agency and NOT the developers involved in the project (note that the developer is not named in the letter....)

Attached to this post is the latest newsletter for St. Pauls Church here in Chester Green. Have a look to see all the things that go on in our local church! (The newsletter will open in a new window) - St. Pauls Newsletter November 2008

I'm pleased to announce that I've managed to put the forum back up, and port all the old posts across..... I'm starting to get to the bottom of how it was hacked, so hopefully, I've managed to fix that....fingers crossed!

The public meeting at St. Paul's Church Hall on the 21st October to discuss the Environment Agency's strategy to manage future flood risk was well attended by local residents.

Tim Ive and his three colleagues from the Environment Agency gave presentations covering a wide range of issues, including existing defences, climate change forecasts, local archaeology, flood warning awareness, upstream land management, development and planning issues and a "Blue Corridor Vision".

The "Blue Corridor Vision" would involve aligning defences to a new line through Chester Green and Derby City Centre, to provide increased protection and a wider area for water to move through during a flood.
This would reduce the height to which defences need to be built, would have no adverse impact on water levels upstream and a smaller impact on water levels downstream. This option would have environmental benefits including improved access to the river and opportunities for a more natural riverside. However, close consultation and co-operation with Derby City Council and other agencies would be required to implement it.

It was evident from some of the questions raised that there was some confusion over the "Blue Corridor Vision" and some frustration that specific details of the location of new flood defences were not available.

Tim Ive responded by explaining that this first stage of the consultation process is about agreeing the general principles of the strategy and they would be consulting on more detailed proposals at a later stage. Tim also confirmed that the Environment Agency would hold a surgery at
St. Paul's Church Hall on December the 4th, so residents can discuss concerns on a one to one basis.

Tim has responded since the meeting to say "On the timetable issue, once the consultation has closed down on the 10th December, 2008, unless we get major objections, we will submit a formal business case next Spring, but this will take time to get approval, hopefully next summer. If that is approved, then we would be looking to develop specific projects. So it is possible, but not certain, that towards the end of next year we would be consulting on more detailed proposals".

If you would like more information from the Environment Agency on this subject - Call them on: 08708 506 506 (Mon-Fri 8-6)
e-mail: enquiries@evironment-agency.gov.uk
website: www.environment-agency.gov.uk

The flood management consultation meeting last night was extremely well attended. The environment agency presented there material well and there were some moments of heated debate. We'll try and produce a little report documenting the gist of the meeting for those that couldn't make it...watch this space!

Chester Green will soon be getting a playgroup. It is planning to start Easter, 2009, and will be run from St. Pauls Church Hall. So far the (rough and subject to change!) details are:
- It will run three days a week...
- ...from 8am to 4pm
- it will be run by qualified and experienced staff
- staff will be able to deliver the Early Years Foundation Stage

A Christmas Fair fund-raising event will be held in St. Pauls Church Hall on Saturday, 6th December, at 2pm where there will stalls, tombola's, refreshments and all manner of fun, games and last minute pressie ideas!

Donations (in any form - toys, labour, fences, equipment etc.) are very welcome! Email info@littlechester.org.uk with offers!

For more details, watch this space!

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