Newcastle under Lyme Council

Here are some of the Staffordshire stories being covered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service:

• Taxi drivers are facing new council charges in Newcastle-under-Lyme including £43 to change the colour of their cab
• The rainbow flag will be flown by Cannock Chase Council next month, five months ahead of the area's first LGBT Pride event
• Full meetings of Cannock Chase Council could start two hours later in the future to make them easier for councillors with work and other commitments to go to

BBC

A community group says it will "work even harder" to get a leisure centre reopened after getting council backing.

BBC

Kidsgrove Sports Centre closed in 2017 due to increasing costs, with Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council at the time saying it needed £2.4m spending over seven years.

But a number of people weren't happy at the move and set up a group to look at reopening part of the facility, but not the swimming pool due to costs.

This week, the council backed new proposals which included a "phased" reopening of the pool as estimated costs of £3.26m were lower than originally thought.

The authority's now setting up an all-party panel to make a formal recommendation on reopening the centre to the full council.

Thousands of solar panels are going to be built on fields around a university to generate power for students.

Keele University

Keele University's been given planning permission for the solar farm and two wind turbines by Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council.

The authority said the benefit of the scheme, which would provide power for halls of residence and teaching facilities, outweighed the harm to the green belt.

The university hasn't said when work will start on installing the 26,000 solar panels, but says it's part of its plan to be carbon neutral by 2030.

Auditors have refused to sign off the annual accounts for Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council, after discovering "fairly big errors" in the authority’s financial data.

Grant Thornton told councillors it had discovered an increased pension liability of £2.3m, and concerns about the valuation of some properties.

Getty Images

The auditors said one of the issues had been the retirement of a senior council finance officer, who had been doing the job for five decades and held a lot of information "in his head".

There were some fairly big errors in these accounts and we are working through them with officers. We think the working papers need to be strengthened so they are clearer as to how the accounts work.”

Plans to revamp taxi licensing by a council have been watered down after pressure from drivers over the cost.

Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council

Among the changes wanted by Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council were for all new taxis to be electric, to help reduce emissions, and only allowing vehicles under four years old to be registered for use as taxis.

But firms said the changes could increase costs for customers and lead to a mass exodus of operators looking for "friendlier" boroughs.

This week, the council agreed to abandon the requirement that all new vehicles must be electric and will allow them to be up to seven years old.

It also scrapped a proposed penalty points system for driver indiscretions.

Taxi drivers will be forced out of a town if a new licensing policy's introduced, according to local companies.

BBC

Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council's drawing up the fresh policy which includes new rules for vehicle testing and a cut in the age limit for vehicles.

But firms have said the changes could increase costs for customers and lead to a mass exodus of operators looking for 'friendlier' boroughs.

The council's said it's listened to feedback from the taxis and made changes but believes its first priority is keeping passengers safe.

The authority's licensing committee meets this evening to agree any further alterations to the proposed policy.

A council's admitted it could take years to set up an official transit site for travellers.

BBC

It comes as one group of travellers who were evicted from Wolstanton Marsh, Newcastle-under-Lyme, yesterday have moved to a nearby patch of open land in Clayton.

The council and Staffordshire Police said they were working on getting another court order to move them on.

But, overall, the borough council has said it's faced local opposition over any plan to find an official site for them.

We have the 'nimby' problem, not in my back yard. I identified a site near to where the existing, permanent travellers site is up at Keele but up in arms and it was far away from people but no. Not in my back yard."

A new security policy is being introduced at a college in Staffordshire in an attempt to prevent knife crime on campus.

Google

Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council says £1,000 has been given to the town''s college to spend on metal-detecting "knife wands" which will be used for random checks from September.

It comes as 708 knife crimes were recorded last year in Staffordshire by police - up 6% on the year before.

Students and staff at the college have told BBC Radio Stoke it'll make them feel safer knowing searches are taking place.

Nearly 2,000 people have signed a petition calling for a local fish and chip shop to be saved from being bulldozed.

Google

Dave's Fish Bar has been based in Knutton, Newcastle-under-Lyme, for more than 70 years but its lease is due to expire on Viggars Place.

Landowners Aspire Housing had submitted plans to knock it down and replace it with housing.

However, one of the workers started a petition against the proposals and 1,800 signed it before it was submitted to the borough council.

Now, Aspire says it's willing to speak to the owner about the chip shop's future as it respects the views of local residents.

Taxi drivers who brought a town centre to a standstill this week won't hold any more strikes, a council says.

BBC

Both private hire and black cab drivers came together yesterday afternoon and slowly headed past Newcastle-under-Lyme’s bus station and the borough council’s base at Castle House, Staffordshire.

They were protesting at proposed changes to taxi licensing which they say could lead to increased costs for them, which would be passed on to passengers.

However, today the borough council says it will take into account all their responses to the consultation, adding that, following "positive discussions", the taxi trade won't carry out any more protests.