Mark Spencer’s MP column: Hucknall is a great town and does not need to become part of Nottingham

Quite frankly I think we have a great town and I do not want it to become just another suburb of Nottingham, Hucknall should remain an independent town and community in the Ashfield District.

We have seen big urbanisation in recent years all over our country, towns and cities are expanding and growing, our local Councils continue to put pressure on the Green Belt.

As someone who has lived in this area all my life I want to protect our local communities and ensure that local people have their say on issues that affect them.

Now with my recent campaign to help Hucknall’s High Street as well as the great work that the Byron Project are doing to renovate Byron Cinema and the I Love Hucknall campaign, it would be a terrible shame if Hucknall then lost its independent community spirit and just became another arm of Nottingham City.

It is community projects such as Byron that show how much pride we as local people have in our town.

We have excellent transport links with Nottingham city already so I am yet to hear the benefits for Hucknall of being absorbed into Nottingham City Council.

I think we risk eroding our local identity and taking decisions about Hucknall’s future to Nottingham City Councillors instead of local Councillors.

Coun Battlemuch wrote recently, “That’s why I think we need a greater Nottingham council”, he went on to say “Why does this matter? Well, money matters and the city needs it for a variety of reasons”

I disagree, I don’t think we need to have a ‘Greater Nottingham’ at all and I don’t want Hucknall to be a part of it, yes money does matter but he is talking about our money, that will be Hucknall’s council tax payers! Our council tax money he wants to be spent improving Nottingham city rather than spent on our own town.

Coun Battlemuch says if you are from Hucknall you tell people you are from Nottingham, well if I walk up and down Hucknall High Street near my office and ask people where they’re from I guarantee they will say HUCKNALL.

Mr Battlemuch added, “I hope my party will grasp this nettle when hopefully we win the next election. I for one will be arguing just as loudly for them to do so.”

Well it’s clear what Labour’s agenda is, let’s have one enormous Nottingham. This is certainly not an opinion I share!

However as your Member of Parliament my job is to represent your views, my opinion doesn’t matter and nor does the Labour party’s, what matters is what the people of Hucknall want.  I want to know what Hucknall residents think about this idea of moving the boundaries of Nottingham City to include Hucknall.

I have decided to send a survey to every house in Hucknall over the next few weeks asking just that, I want to know what you think and then the results can be made public and sent to Nottingham City Council to show them what the people of Hucknall think about the idea. I would be very grateful if you could complete my survey and send it back to us using the prepaid envelope.