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Villagers 1
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where sold in fight to
save their

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illagers have launched a £350,000 £350,000 although pubic funds could help.
Vcampaign to save their pub - saying it One supporter is intensive care nurse Faith
December 2021 Written by the community for the community helped rebuild the community after Covid. Hutchinson-Welch, 49, who worked through
It has a skittles team, football club, a Knit
Covid and said: “This pub has been a life
Where people tell their stories No. 76 www.ilkestonlife.com 50p where sold and Natter group for OAPs, hosts meet- saver after that.
Cheering our readers in Ilkeston and surrounding districts ings of motor scooter lovers and caters for “The social aspect, getting back and seeing
walkers. friends, that has been so good for everyone.”
Fears that Cotmanhay and Kirk Hallam green But locals fear bulldozers will flatten the Derek Chapman, 87, lives on the other side
of Awsworth Lane and has used the pub for
Gardeners’ Inn to make way for homes on
spaces are going to be sacrificed for housing the site, which is in Cossall but only yards nearly 60 years.
from the border with Awsworth.
Our vanishing The building was recently bought by devel- here quiet and talk. I missed that with Covid.”
He said: “Everyone is friendly. You can sit
opers and the pub’s “asset of community
Project manager Arthur Poole, 63, is a mem-
value” was not renewed, despite the efforts
ber of the skittles team and said: “Everyone
of CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale,
uses it as a meeting place. It’s friendly and
which wanted to protect it. Broxtowe Bor-
there are not many skittles teams left.”
countryside ough Council has not yet received a plan- Scooter enthusiast Lee Godfrey, 54, said:
ning application for house building.
“This is not just a pub, it is the heart of the
The council’s leader Milan Radulovic at-
village, a social place to meet.”
When the East Midlands Scooter Alliance
tended a meeting of regulars and told them:
“The only way to protect it in the long term
is to have ownership of it. visits, up to 400 rare machines line up in the
car park.
“There are problems with fighting to have it Paul Aram, 43, is manager of Gardeners
vital meeting on Ilkeston’s future declared a community interest building. It is FC, which plays in the Long Eaton Sunday
A is set to be moved out of town - to Ilkeston side of extremely difficult, the legislation is fraught. League. The club has 30 members and he
“The obvious one is to try and buy it and run fears the loss of the pub would halt plans to
the dismay of opposition councillors. Erewash seems to it on behalf of the community. You could do have a youth team.
It will deal with moves to build houses near that.” He added: “The players meet here and Sue
a nature reserve and in woodland on the be lined up to take Landlady Sue Maxwell, 50, told the meet- puts on food for us after games.”
fringes of Cotmanhay. ing: “That is a really good prospect for us.” At school times, parents use the car park as
Erewash regeneration spokesman Michael the biggest hit Her lease is expected to run out in February a dropping off point for pupils of Awsworth
Powell said they had “nothing to hide” but but villagers are now launching a fund-rais- Primary, to avoid causing traffic jams. Six
the document is unlikely to be ready to ing campaign to buy the pub. It could cost people work at the pub.
discuss at the next meeting. “We should be preserving trees which take
Conservative cllr Powell said: “We are run- carbon out of the air. If they plant new trees,
ning a little bit behind. There is no problem, it takes a generation to become effective.
we have a little more work to do on the “This nature reserve is important for Kirk
report. It is not right to rush it. Hallam. People go there to look for bats and
“This is the one thing ordinary people are other wildlife. Some people fish there and it
most likely to be interested in and there is needs protection from development which
no question that we have anything to hide. would be close by.”
“It is easy to say we should not build houses His worries were echoed by cllr James
in the green belt. In an ideal world, that is Dawson, deputy Labour opposition leader
correct but we are not in an ideal world.” who represents an area near woods which
Kirk Hallam Labour councillor John Frudd may be lost to housing around Cotmanhay.
had hoped the core strategy would be dis- He said that Ilkeston appeared to have been
cussed when the council meets at Ilkeston lined up to provide most of the 6,000 new
Town Hall on 9th December. The next homes which the government says should
meeting will be in Long Eaton in January. come to the borough.
He feared that could deter protestors who Cllr Dawson said: “It is important to make
are worried that a new road and housing sure it is equitable in its distribution and that
estate would harm wildlife on the nearby one community is not disadvantaged.”
Pioneer Meadows nature reserve. He also feared that developers would not be
Cllr Frudd said: “I am very concerned about able to meet the bill for schools and better
the possible delay which the cynic in me roads needed for a bigger population.
suggests could muddy the waters.