So that's it. Bassetlaw is to be swallowed up by Sheffield and co-opted into the Northern Poorhouse, sorry Powerhouse.

 

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/oct/01/sheffield-area-expected-become-second-northern-powerhouse

 

I'll declare an interest here - I have a lot of family in Barnsley, and they hate the filthy stinking city of Sheffield with a passion. They'll be devastated. But really the problem is that a couple of small Notts towns would become a backwater of a large city instead of being served by Notts County Council, which is more suited to their needs.

 

I'll just have to dig out my flat cap.

I've never actually heard of the town, yet it seems common for Nottinghamshire to just surrender it's towns and villages.

I'm not a fan of Sheffield either, having visited for football matches - the city feels very rough and pretty dark. I'm not exactly sure why this is even happening, I read the opening part of the article and almost fell asleep.

Is Nottingham destined to always be considered a small city?

Bassetlaw is the district of North Nottinghamshire containing Retford and Worksop. It has a population of 100,000 and is mostly pretty rural. So being swallowed up by a huge new authority serving over 2 million people, with entirely different problems and priorities, is probably not a good idea.

Why is this happening? Worksop is very much Nottinghamshire.

Just bizarre.

I can see where they're coming from. I mean, the bulk of Bassetlaw is closer to Sheffield and Lincoln than it is Nottingham. I'm not sure how well it's being administered under Notts County Council though, but a change like this will cost millions to switch over all the various functions (police, ambulance etc) so hopefully they'll have thought it through.

Someone needs to dig out a map, mind you, I have a very, very old boundary map at my parents.

Fight, fight, fight!! I haven't taken my medication today.

I know quite a few people who live over that way from my time working on the local papers in that area and to be honest I think the people around there have more of an affinity to Sheffield than they do to Nottingham, they shop there, work there, have leisure time there etc., simply because it is nearer than Nottingham. Football supporters in the area support either Sheff Utd or Wednesday not the Nottingham teams.

The people I know in Worksop have more of an affinity to Sheffield, but that's not the point. Retford and Worksop are IN Nottinghamshire. The distance to Nottingham is neither here nor there, NCC doesn't serve the city of Nottingham. And Retford at least is further from the county boundary than Nottingham is.

 

The trouble is that these towns would be removed from a council serving other similar towns and dumped in a massive authority together with Sheffield, Rotherham and Doncaster. The same is true of Bolsover. This Northern Poorhouse will probably serve upwards of 2 million people.

 

I've also heard from a good source that Bassetlaw will be a kind of silent, partial partner and will not be able to vote for the mayor. The more I hear it, the more bizarre it gets. If the government really wanted to invest in deprived cities, surely it can do so without trying to circumvent democracy in this way.

 

By the way, I know as many F*rest fans from Retford as I know Wednesday fans. There were a few Sheffield United fans too. For some reason I know a lot of Spurs fans too, but that was probably the Gazze/Lineker effect when we were growing up.

Refford and worksop are well known, but do have alot more rural areas than Nottingham itself. I don't know the ins and outs of this, but there will be people happy with it and people unhappy with it.