Making the most of Ashfield’s natural delights

MOVES to hand Annesley Colliery back into the hands of the community is excellent news for the Ashfield public.

The iconic colliery sits as a symbol of the district’s once-proud heritage, used by dog walkers and nature lovers and a site that could be used to far greater potential with the right management and financial investment.

As life continues to get more hectic and stressful the need for spots of seclusion and relaxation grows in importance.

Ashfield is currently blessed with a number of excellent beauty spots, including Brierley Forest Park and the vast surrounding countryside. Annesley Colliery could become the crowning jewel.

With correct investment the colliery complex could become a fantastic nature reserve, bringing new tourists and much-needed revenue into the district to ramble and enjoy the wide variety of wildlife who now call the colliery home.

I, for one, hope that this ambitious plan eventually realises its full potential. Let us all hope Annesley Colliery is about to thrive once again.

The progression of Ashfield

AS the so-called credit crunch continues to bite harder and harder many local council authorities are now feeling the pinch and cutting back.

But here in Ashfield, this worrying trend has been well and truly reversed with the successful completion of Sutton’s new £16m Lammas Leisure Centre.

The state-of-the-art building features a ’wishlist’ of fantastic facilities for the district’s budding sports stars and will provide a lasting sports legacy in the area for many generations to come.

The sports centre now sits proudly in Sutton and is a great credit to all involved in the project, who showed amazing vision, drive and determination in seeing the 18-month project through.

And of course the leisure centre will provide a series of positive knock-on effects, helping boost Ashfield’s seriously flagging health levels and give the district’s youngsters something positive to turn their attentions to.

It is only fitting that someone of Dame Kelly Holmes’s national fame will open the centre to the public on the 1st November.

So once again, well done to everyone who helped pull the project off. Let’s hope it is the first of many positive improvements to hit Ashfield in the coming years.