Facial Recognition, Call To Ditch First Class On Trains, School Place Shortages & More
Good morning readers, its another Wednesday already !
We have another full newsletter for you today so it's that time again - grab a brew and dig out the chocolate hobnobs.
Todays thought for the day ... “Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.”
~ Norman Cousins
Enjoy the read, please email us if you have a story for us and have a great day wherever you are in Bassetlaw.
Justin Doddy, Editor
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Operation Pernicious strikes in Worksop
Officers from Nottinghamshire Police have taken further action to tackle antisocial bike riding in the Worksop area as part of Operation Pernicious.
Following reports from local residents about bikes being ridden in an antisocial manner around Osprey View, Costhorpe, officers carried out enquiries which led to a number of bikes being seized from an address using Section 59 powers.
The operation sends a clear message to those causing disruption in the area – if you're riding irresponsibly and causing concern within the community, police will take action.
Nottinghamshire Police say they remain committed to tackling antisocial riding and responding to issues raised by local communities.
Officers have also thanked residents for continuing to report incidents, with information from the public playing a vital role in identifying offenders and helping to keep neighbourhoods safe.
Credit: Nottinghamshire Police
Notice Of Vacancy In Office Of District Councillor
Bassetlaw District Council have announced a vacancy in the East Markham Ward following a resignation as follows:
East Markham Ward Notice Is Hereby Given under Section 87(2) of the Local Government Act 1972 that a casual vacancy exists in the office of Councillor for the East Markham Ward due to the resignation of Councillor Gary Dinsdale.A by-election to fill the vacancy will be called within 35 days (computed in accordance with the provisions of the Local Government Act 1972) if two electors for the Local Government Area make a request in writing that an election be held to the Returning Officer at the address below.
Dated: 28th July 2026.
David Armiger, Returning Officer, Bassetlaw District Council, Queen’s Buildings, Potter Street, Worksop, S80 2AH.
NOTTINGHAMSHIRE: Risk some school pupils could be left “totally without” a school place next year
By: Lauren Monaghan
There is a risk that hundreds of Nottinghamshire pupils could be left without a school place in their local area following “significantly less” funding from the government.
Nottinghamshire County Council has highlighted a concerning picture for how many secondary school places will be available from September 2027.
In a cabinet report from July, the authority says its pot of money from the government that goes towards ensuring it can provide enough school places in the area is”significantly less” this year, leaving it in a vulnerable position.
Councils rely on government funding to support their school expansion projects, where authorities submit current pupil projections based on planning area to the Department for Education (DfE) each year to help these decisions, but funding settlements are made over several years and do not always align with the current needs of an area.
Between January 2018 and January 2026, the number of year seven pupils in Nottinghamshire increased by 10 per cent, from 8,703 to 9,578, and recent projections suggest this demand is “likely to remain high” until slowly declining from the 2029 to 2030 academic year.
The council has already made moves to help with this high demand, creating 1,700 additional secondary places since 2022, assisting an extra 303 year seven places opening up for 2026 to 2027 within existing school buildings and by pushing forward with school building projects set to “boost” secondary school capacity for 2027 to 2030.
But now, the authority is having to “pause” these projects across Serlby Park Academy, Carlton Academy, South Nottinghamshire Academy and Lady Bay Primary School – worth over £10 million – due to the authority not having the money available that it had anticipated.
Due to the reduced funding, striking figures from the cabinet’s report currently suggest approximately 28 year seven pupils in the county could be “totally without” a school place in September 2027, with “similar shortages” anticipated for the following two years.
The authority says in September 2027 and September 2028 there will be an “insufficiency” of school places in Hucknall, Worksop, Harworth,
Retford, Broxtowe South, Carlton, Mansfield, Warsop, Rainworth, East Leake, Rushcliffe East and West Bridgford, which could result in around 338 pupils having to be transported out of their local area to access a school.
Speaking in July’s cabinet meeting, Councillor Rory Green (Ref), cabinet member for children and families, called the halting of the projects a “sensible” decision and means the authority is not “just walking blindly” into them without the needed funding, adding: “A pause means ‘pause’, it doesn’t mean ‘no, never again’.”
Cllr James Walker-Gurley (Ref), cabinet member for Economic Development and Asset Management, said “there’s nothing to panic about right now”, saying:
“In September next year, we may potentially fall short of places, so that gives us the summer holidays next year as well to get everything ready, so we are being proactive.
“We’re working again as members to lobby MPs, we’re doing everything we should be in a proactive manner.”
Council leader, Mick Barton (Ref), has written to the Secretary of State for Education to lobby for more government funding to ensure the building projects to increase secondary capacity can get back on track, to help avoid shortfalls in pupil places coming to fruition.
He wrote:
“The current position in Nottinghamshire is that the cost of required places across the county is presently outstripping the available funding. We expected a further allocation of Basic Need funding this year which was not forthcoming.
“If left unaddressed, the downstream effects could see impacts on the sufficiency of school places, with fewer parents obtaining their first preference school for their child.
“We have been in dialogue with your officials about funding but this is yet to yield results… I would point out that we have an excellent track record in school building and refurbishment, with a valued and experienced team and supply chain.”
In a statement to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Wayne Bexton, the council’s Director of Economy, Environment and Assets, said: “This year we did not get a further allocation of funding as expected, therefore we currently do not have the funding available to complete five projects at four schools/academies we had planned, worth over £10 million.
“We have no other option than to put these [expansion] projects on hold. These four schools/academies now face uncertainty about sufficient school places for local children and families in 2027/2028.”
Dr Orlaith Green, the council’s Temporary Director of Education, Learning and Inclusion, said the authority is “urgently lobbying” the government for funding.
She said:
“We have made the relevant schools and academies aware of the situation and recommend they write to their MP and Department for Education to describe the impact this could have for their schools, pupils and wider community.
“In Nottinghamshire to date, we have a strong track record providing school places, with the majority of families being offered their first choice school place each year – we want to do everything we can to ensure this continues.
“We remain ready to deliver all these projects if and when funding is made available to us.”
The Serlby Park Academy project in Bircotes was planned to provide an additional 50 secondary school places and the Carlton Academy expansion was due to deliver an extra 40 year seven places for 2027 to 2028 onwards.
In Rushcliffe, an extra 30 temporary year seven places were secured at South Nottinghamshire Academy for 2026 to 2027 and 2027 to 2028 to enable the school’s published admission number (PAN) to admit 180 children, up from 150.
According to documents,”this should have led to a permanent increase for 2028-2029 but the expected additional places will not be available” and the expansion at Lady Bay Primary School will also be put on hold.
The government’s allocation to the council was £76.7 million from 2023/24 through to 2027/28, where the forecast was based on data the authority provided on pupil projections until September 2028.
In Spring 2027, the DfE is due to bring forward its next funding allocation to help local authorities supply sufficient school places going forward, where any council projections will be taken into account.
The DfE was contacted for comment but did not respond at the time of publication.
‘Open the fancy seats’: Mayor says EMR should ditch First Class until trains stop being a total disaster
By: Laura Wilde
A mayor has called on East Midlands Railway (EMR) to temporarily scrap First Class designations while ongoing reliability and maintenance problems impact its train fleet.
South Yorkshire’s Mayor, Oliver Coppard says he wants the firm to open up all carriages to passengers equally, so no one is left standing in overcrowded trains while seats remain unused.
The call comes after EMR announced significant service reductions on routes linking Sheffield with the East Midlands and London, following ongoing reliability and maintenance problems impacting its train fleet.
The disruption has led to cancelled services, shorter trains and increased chance of overcrowding for passengers travelling into and out of South Yorkshire.
Although train managers do have the option to declassify first class carriages when trains are busy, Coppard wants EMR to introduce a blanket agreement across all Intercity services, to help tackle overcrowding while the operator continues to run fewer services.
Coppard said:
“Because of the problems on EMR, too many people are facing cancelled trains, overcrowded carriages and longer journeys because of problems completely outside their control.
“At a time when too many passengers are being left standing, squeezed into carriages and crowded around doors and toilets, it simply makes sense for the whole of the trains capacity to be used as a matter of course.
“For as long as EMR are operating a reduced timetable, they should make every seat available by declassifying their First Class carriages. We all have a right to expect a safe, comfortable and dependable journey when we travel by rail.
“Until services are back to normal, common sense should prevail. If there are empty seats available in First Class, people should be able to use them.
“Protecting the profits of EMR can’t be a good enough reason for them not to take a sensible, pragmatic decision that would give more people peace of mind.”
An East Midlands Railway spokesperson told The Business Desk:
“Train managers on board already have the authority to declassify First Class where operational circumstances warrant it, exercising professional judgement based on real-time conditions such as disruption and crowding.
“That operational flexibility provides an effective and proportionate response, without the need for permanent declassification.”
Our three interesting facts for today ....
In the 15th Century, the Swiss Army used flutes for signalling
Brahms took 22 years to write his first symphony
Turkish schools no longer teach evolution.
Helping people communicate better though Makaton
When Kelly shared her idea of creating short Makaton videos, the aim was to make it easier for people to learn everyday signs in a simple and accessible way.
Supported by Senior Commissioning Officer, Rhiannon Miller, Kelly turned that idea into a reality, through 'Sign and Shine' - a YouTube series of short videos featuring songs and practical everyday signs to help people learn Makaton.
Kelly, who attends the community choir in Mansfield, where songs are signed in Makaton, said:
“I like Makaton because I enjoy learning the songs and teaching people Makaton as well.
"I’ve used Makaton since I was in primary school because I had a friend who had Down’s syndrome and she used Makaton, so I wanted to be able to communicate with her”.
A huge well done to Kelly and Rhiannon for bringing this project to life and creating a resource that will help more people learn Makaton and communicate with confidence.
Find out more and watch the Sign and Shine videos
https://orlo.uk/sign_and_shine_BLkWx
Police deploy facial recognition technology to help identify criminals and safeguard vulnerable people
Nottinghamshire Police will be deploying facial recognition technology to identify criminals and safeguard vulnerable people.
The technology will be built into a marked police van, which has a 360-degree dual camera system, enabling officers to cover a large area.
Officers will create 'a watchlist' of those suspected of serious crimes, which could include robbery, burglary and sexual offences.
The technology will alert officers once it identifies one of the individuals on the list, with officers then engaging with that individual to assess whether further action is needed.
The technology has been used across other forces and is an additional tool to keep the city and county safe from criminality and to protect vulnerable people.
Detective Superintendent Will Henley, who is leading the project, said:
"If you aren’t entering the city or county to commit crime then you have nothing to worry about. This new technology is not interested in tracking your movements.
"This technology is designed to identify those faces we have inputted into the system who are wanted for crimes or in need of safeguarding such as locating missing people.
"The technology will always be used fairly and proportionately to the area it is deployed.
"This will not replace police officers. This technology will work with them to ensure we have the best chance of identifying those causing the most harm to your local community.
"It will be the police officers who make the decision not the technology on the next actions to take. This is very much an intelligence tool.
"To reassure the community, as we know the technology has raised concerns in other parts of the country, the software erases every facial scan within seconds if no match is identified, so nothing is retained.
"Our view is very simple - why would we not use this innovative technology to find offenders and protect the public from becoming potential victims of crime?"
How does it work?
The marked van is situated in a public place. A facial recognition camera on this van is scanning the faces of people as they pass by.
The camera compares people’s faces against a unique list of police images we have submitted into the system, which we are calling our watchlist.
The technology takes measurements of facial features, such as the distance between the eye and the length of the jawline to create a unique set of biometric data.
Those wearing face-coverings to disguise their identity and evade arrest can still be identified.
The technology will alert a police officer on the ground of a potential match.
A police officer will then review the match and approach the individual. If they are not the individual, then there will be no further action.
The marked van also works as a deterrent and will hopefully prevent further criminality from occurring when it is deployed across our neighbourhoods.
When will you use this technology?
Facial recognition is intelligence-led, and the public will always be notified in advance of its deployment.
The watchlist will be updated for every deployment.
For example, there may be banning orders in place for certain individuals not to enter a particular area such as the city centre.
We may upload their images onto our system to make sure they are not breaching their order.
Why do we need to use this technology?
Facial recognition is just another tool to fight crime.
It will be used to reassure the public, identify people suspected of criminal activity or those who have outstanding warrants.
It is also used to protect the most vulnerable people in our communities, for example, locating missing people or those who need to be found urgently due to their vulnerabilities.
Officers will still be briefed daily about potential criminals who remain at large or might be involved in a particular crime. This will continue including the traditional methods of finding them. This technology will only complement this process.
It is not the computer saying ‘yes or no’ when an alert is issued. The officer on the ground will still need to carry out the relevant checks.
This is still about officers making the decisions and not the technology.
Is the technology accurate and what will you do with my image?
It is lawful for police to overtly deploy facial recognition, which has gone through rigorous independent testing.
We understand how to operate this software, so it does not discriminate on the grounds of gender, age or race.
The facial recognition vans have clear signs on the outside and there is also signage in the area to tell people it is being operated.
There are also operational staff on the ground to monitor alerts and speak to the public if they have questions about the technology.
The results of our deployments will be posted on our website.
None of the facial recognition scans are stored and will be deleted within seconds.
Content courtesy of Nottinghamshire Police.
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Have a great day and I look forward to seeing you read our next newsletter.
Justin Doddy, Editor
Bassetlaw Today
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