On December 9th last year I went very public with my criticism of Nottinghamshire Police, by asking the Prime Minister in the House of Commons to intervene and shift police to our area. One month on and 84 police officers are to be redeployed to the North of the County. I am pleased that this pressure, from me and others, has paid off and that we are getting the police numbers that we need. I am also demanding that fighting anti social behaviour be made a top priority for these officers.

I proposed a resolution in Parliament a week ago to ban the extremist group Islam4UK. They are behind a number of disgraceful protests in recent times including the suggested Wootton Bassett outrage. I had already supplied a dossier of information on why they needed banning. I am pleased to report that Government on Tuesday agreed to my proposal and Islam4Uk was banned this week.

We have our worst winter for a century, Australia had its hottest day since 1902. We seem to have lost our ability to cope. A pair of good boots and a shovel were the response to snow when I was a kid and I cannot recall a school ever closing for snow. Of course teachers and even some pupils now travel long distances, but I think we need to redevelop some traditional English resilience.

The council workforce has been doing its very best in this recent cold spell and this shows the value of having a motivated staff force. I do not believe that staff will show such commitment to private contractors, nor will they have the additional sense of public duty that we have seen recently. Well done to council employees and lets see no more privatisation of your jobs.

This Friday I have called a public meeting to be addressed by Worksop Town Football Club, the local community and others on the refused planning application for 1,000 jobs and new sports stadium (7pm at The Crossing, in Worksop town centre). All are welcome. We need these jobs in Worksop and we need our football team returning to the town.