👋 Ay-up neighbours!
On 26 August, our Community Interest Company (CIC) will celebrate its first birthday. We thought we’d mark the occasion by having a look at some of our recent small wins.
Major objectives such as improving the rain gardens, reducing vehicle speeds in the area, improving the safety of the Mansfield Road junction and ridding the Dales of weeds are difficult and take time, not least because they require active participation from organisations such as the police and the council. While it sometimes feels frustrating that these projects are still ongoing, we shouldn’t lose sight of the many smaller wins we’ve been able to achieve in the meantime. Many of you, our members, regularly tell us what a difference our volunteers are making to the area, something we should definitely be celebrating!
Weeding, putting up signs, repainting street signs and litter-picking may not feel like major achievements, but they help keep our area attractive, benefiting everyone who lives here and helping to protect local property values.
So, without further ado, here are our…
Small Wins
🛑 It’s (Another) Sign
In addition to the Neighbourhood Watch signs we put up back in July 2025, we’ve put up some signs welcoming people to Sherwood Dales and providing a link to our website. We currently have one at each end of Ribblesdale Road, one on Bedale Road and one by the alleyway leading to Valley Road. We have two more which we plan to put up at the entrances to Larwood Grove and Weaving Gardens/Spinning Drive.
Have you noticed the new signs? If so, please tell us what you think of them in the comments below.
🔄 Borrow, Buy and Sell
Our Facebook group has always had a Buy and Sell page, and thanks to a suggestion from Jo Fairbrother, one of our Bedale Road Street Champions, our WhatsApp community now also includes a Borrow, Buy and Sell group. This gives neighbours another way to lend, borrow, buy, sell or give away useful items, helping people save money and keeping things out of landfill.
When using these services, please be mindful of our selling and gifting guidelines. Any lending or borrowing arrangements should be agreed directly between the people involved.
On a related note, we still have some Street Champion volunteer roles to fill. Please take a look at our People section to see which are open and let us know if you’re interested in helping out.
⚡ Some Bright Spark
We’re grateful to National Grid for taking our concerns about youths climbing on the roof of the electricity substation on Weaving Gardens seriously. We were concerned that somebody could be seriously hurt. As a result, they’ve fitted an extra fence to make it harder to get on the roof. If you do notice people up there in future, please do let us know.
📰 Hot Off the Press
Hopefully you will all have received your copy of the Daley News – Volume 2 through your doors at the start of August, along with an important survey about the Mansfield Road junction, a quiz about our website and a booklet about Thriving Nottingham.
Please note that the closing date for the survey and quiz is the 31st August, so please get those back to us ASAP. The more responses we receive, the stronger the evidence we can present to the council about the dangers of the Mansfield Road junction. You could also win a £25 gift voucher by achieving the highest score on the quiz.
🖌️ Another Lick of Paint
We recently gave the service box near the bollards on Ribblesdale Road a much-needed lick of paint. We hope you agree it looks a lot better now.
In Other News
👮🏼♀️ Nothing to Report?
While we mentioned in the Daley News – Volume 2 that crime numbers appear to be low in our area, our various street WhatsApp channels often tell a different story. Recently we’ve had a lot more reports of speeding cars, vehicle break-ins and general antisocial behaviour.
We want to reiterate the importance of reporting these incidents to the police and sharing the information with us via our report page. If incidents aren’t reported, the police may assume that everything is in good order in the Dales and prioritise other areas.
We have met with the local police and plan to do so again soon. Having crime figures to discuss with the sergeant will help us identify any areas that might need attention.
📋 Results of the Second Daley Survey
Thank you to everyone who completed our recent community survey.
There was strong support for welcoming our neighbours on Weaving Gardens and Spinning Drive into the group. Interest in an annual Sherwood Dales discount card was almost evenly divided, with £10 the most common amount suggested by those interested. There was also some interest in community-organised theatre trips, although not enough for regular trips at present. We will continue organising meet-ups for the pub quiz and jazz nights at The Vale Hotel; please check our events page for upcoming activities.
There was little interest in paying for printed newsletters. However, online surveys naturally under-represent people who prefer printed information, so we plan to continue delivering printed copies of Daley News while distributing most other updates through our website, email, WhatsApp and Facebook.
🗳️ Neighbourhood Watch Nomination
We were delighted to receive an email from Neighbourhood Watch telling us that a neighbour had nominated us for the Volunteer Recognition Awards 2026. While our community group is still very much in its infancy, we were humbled by this recognition of the hard work contributed by all our volunteers. Thank you to the kind person who nominated us. We’ll let you know whether we make it through to the list of ten finalists.
📣 Brilliant Basics
Nottingham City Council is inviting residents to help improve four everyday services through its Brilliant Basics programme:
- Tree Services
- Planning Process
- Unkept Gardens
- Anti-Social Behaviour
If you have used—or have an interest in—any of these services, you can volunteer to join a project group and help shape how they work. Your feedback will help make council services easier to access and better suited to residents’ needs. Please complete the Brilliant Basics project group sign-up form to register your interest.
🎁 Wrapping Up on our Birthday
We hope you agree that the small wins above, and our Neighbourhood Watch nomination, are the perfect way to celebrate our first official birthday. You can take a look at a timeline of everything we’ve done to date on our achievements page.
🦆 Tarrah for now, mi ducks!
Rob and Steve – Co-Chairs
P.S. For those with an interest in history, Rob and Steve first met to discuss the formation of a community group on 24th April 2025!
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