It’s time that renters organised and start to press for the improvements in housing that they need.

Rising rents and changes to housing benefit mean that renting is becoming less affordable. Changes to Housing Benefit implemented by the government mean that an estimated 2500 affordable homes may be lost. New tenants can typically expect to pay a lettings agency a deposit, the first months rent in advance, and administration fees. Locally, the renting website RentRight says that average rent in Norwich has gone up from £560 to £638 (12%) between November 2011 and January 2012 alone. Even after this, there can be costs for renewing a tenancy, changing it, or even administering the government bond deposit scheme (which is meant to protect tenant deposits from unfair deductions). Costs have got to the stage that a poll commissioned by the charity Shelter recently revealed that 34% of tenants have cut back on food costs to pay rent, and 22% cut back on gas and electricity.

The condition of private rented housing is also an area of concern. Work done at the University of York concluded that around 41% of private rented accommodation let through agencies were ‘non-decent’ according to the Decent Homes Standard. The average home provided by a local Council or a Housing Association scores around 70 out of 100 on its energy rating. In the private rented sector, this is closer to 50 out of 100 with many homes falling far below that average. In October 2010, the owners of flats at Earlham House were prosecuted for providing excessively cold accommodation.

So what could a renters organisation do about this? Firstly, knowledge is power – by sharing information about good and bad lettings agents and landlords, tenants can know which housing is too good to be true. Secondly, it can put pressure on the Local Council, representatives, and MPs to bring about policy changes to improve housing conditions and security; and enforcement against negligent landlords and lettings agents. Good landlords and lettings agents should welcome these developments as tenants with a better relationship with their landlord will be more likely to pay their rent on time, keep housing in a good condition, and landlords will be better informed as to their obligations.

Start-Up Masterclass is holding events throughout the year, helping young companies get off the ground and creating local jobs for the future.

At next Monday’s event, I’ll take entrepreneurs through the legal pitfalls to avoid at the John Innes Centre.

One of the biggest issues that startups face is coping with the legal aspects of setting up and running a business.

From the outside this can look pretty arcane and frankly a bit dull but it needs to be handled correctly or you risk facing major problems as your company develops. Whether it is protecting your idea or structuring your business to minimise risk, these are all decisions that need to be researched and thought through when you begin.

The law is also one of the areas where businesses often struggle most to find impartial, non-technical advice that sets out the options tailored to their own needs. And while the web can provide background information, nothing beats a face-to-face conversation that allows you to ask (and get answers to) your individual questions. Every business is different.

With BusinessLink moving solely online, there’s even less free advice available, hence this month’s Norfolk Startup Masterclass session focusing on How to avoid awful muddles and other legal nasties. To be held from 6pm on January 16^th at the John Innes Centre, I’ll go into more detail on the legal decisions you need to take at all stages of the startup lifecycle.

Without giving too much away, it comes down to what I call the 5 Rs – questions you need to ask yourself when setting up:

• Risk – how much am I happy with?
• Responsibilities – who am I responsible for? What are my obligations?
• Rights – What are my rights?
• Rewards/Return on exit or otherwise – What am I looking for?
• Relationship with others, particularly stakeholders and employees – How will these be managed?

Aimed at early stage businesses and those looking to launch into startup life, the session will give an introduction to what you need to think about and the options out there. Sign up online for the event and see the whole programme for the year.

Norwich City Council is failing to give local people a real say on the big spending issues the city faces.

It needs to save £4.6 million from its budget but consulted the public on just a fraction of specific savings and ignored many important issues.

As the new leader of the Liberal Democrats on the council, I will outline where we think savings can be found in City’s finances.

As the nation faces up to dealing with the massive hole in the public finances left by the Labour government, local councils are having to play their part too. However here in Norwich, the Labour-run City Council has spent public money on paying consultants to design a questionnaire on cuts for residents. But their survey only asks the public for views on a fraction of the savings they need to make.

The council’s consultation is not fit for purpose. The questionnaire is a flawed document that only gave the public a say on certain handpicked issues. It ignored the real questions over the salaries of senior management at City Hall, the council’s expensive communications team, and the £1.6 million bill for private consultants.

The consultation gave people a say on saving £9,000 on litter bins, but it didn’t give the public a say on the Chief Executive’s £125,000 salary. It also failed to give people the opportunity to outline their own ideas for savings. It was a tick-box exercise masquerading as a genuine consultation.

As opposition Liberal Democrats, we have launched a consultation outlining our savings plans, which include cutting senior management pay by £339,000, cutting the council’s £398,000 communication budget by 50% and plans to share back office services with other local councils.

It also provides the opportunity for people to come up with their own ideas for savings. We were so disappointed with the council’s effort that we drew up our own consultation. Unlike the Council we did not employ, at the taxpayers’ expense, a private company to do it for us. You can find the alternative consultation online or call 01603 627681 for a paper copy.

This autumn saw the opening of Yo Sushi at Chapelfield, a new healthy take-away on Lower Goat Lane and new estate agents on Unthank Road. In 2012 there are more projects planned including a new Jamie Oliver restaurant and a multi-million pound investment off Hall Road.

It’s these stories that have generated the most comments, leading to our new regular feature on businesses in the area, called “5 things you didn’t know about…” This month we featured Moorish, the only place you can buy falafels in the city.

News that Unthank Road was to gain another estate agents, albeit with a twist, was met with groans of “not another estate agent”… but also praise that someone was trying out something new.

And a multi-million pound investment by Asda off Hall Road also attracted attention. Despite generating 300 jobs and revitalising a disused shoe factory, for some this is a lost opportunity: “This is a supermarket box with other freestanding units, much cheaper to build, an inferior scheme. Previously there was a new district centre, now its retail shed to be set in a car park. Credit crunch regeneration on the cheap.”

Then there was the sudden closure of a popular cafe/ restaurant on Unthank Road. Our Facebook page was full of comments. Many were sorry to see it go: “R.I.P. 103 and goodbye to the lovely Brendan and Sam- we loved your cooking and you – Well done for opening such a great venue and serving us delicious food.”

Looking ahead to 2012, there was a plea that the up-coming Norfolk and Norwich Festival should return to more classical music. Sparked by an article on this year’s Sax Massive, which saw nearly 200 local saxophone players perform outside The Forum, one reader said: “Involving the “public” has a place in the festival. However, I hope the new director gives renewed emphasis to programming classical and jazz music, which although well supported in previous years have more recently been in danger of become token events, many of which of the more “crossover” music variety.”

Meanwhile Norwich could gain its own Local TV channel within two years. One group interested in bidding for the licence staged a three week trial to test out what viewers might want…, raising questions such as “Do young people tune in anymore or are we more interested in bite-sized, on-demand video?”

We welcome comment on any story, opinion piece or feature we run on South Norwich News. Comments can be posted on the site, on Facebook or via Twitter.

Almost 10,000 people have signed a petition to save the school.

As we gather in protest, there’s hope that a last minute, unprecedented offer might make a difference.
Last month it came to light that a secretive and clandestine ‘review’ had taken place, without the knowledge or input of any of the academic teaching staff, or anyone in the School with the exception of the acting head of music. The review took place in 2002. But the authors of the 2002 report, Professors Robert Pascall and Richard Middleton have been outraged by the way in which their work was used:

“This is most dispiriting. Not least because the gist of our 2002 report was that the future for Music could only be decline or investment, and we strongly recommended investment. Clearly this course was not followed; the result is predictable (and the misuse of our report very irritating). The new review follows a familiar model where a department is set up to fail, by a pattern of university (in)action, and then the victims are held responsible; the plodding jargon merely exacerbates the insult.” – Professor Richard Middleton

Since the announcement of closure was made, the School of Music has received statements of support from countless academics, musicians, celebrities such as Jools Holland, Brian Eno, Dave Ronwtree and Coldplay, alongside many members of the general public locally, nationally and internationally. A petition undertaken online and on paper has raised almost 10,000 signatures. It has been incredible and touching to see how valued the School is across the globe.

Our Silent Protest this morning will demonstrate the power of music and symbolise the loss it would be to the university should they choose to follow through with the findings of the review. A second rally and march will take place from 12.30pm, with speakers and music contributing to what we hope to be an upbeat affair. Follow details on our Facebook page.

Our last hope is that the University will take up an offer made in the eleventh hour.

In addition to words of support, the School, and indeed University, has received an extremely generous and unprecedented joint offer from the Royal Musical Association (RMA) and the National Association for Music in Higher Education (NAMHE) who would like to send in a team of four academic subject specialists who have proven track records of running financially successful music departments to properly and transparently assess the School and formulate an appropriate plan of action should they find that, in fact, the School should be kept open. This offer is being made at no cost to the University.

But it’s often difficult to know where to start for would-be entrepreneurs – you may have a great idea but the whole process of creating and growing a startup can be extremely daunting.

Now a new programme is helping innovation flourish, which launches with a free event next week.

A broad alliance of regional partners has come together to create the Startup Masterclass programme.

It aims to encourage and support the growth of early stage companies by providing them with access to the skills and inspiration they need. Combining events, mentoring, web-based training materials and access to an online community, the plan is to create a culture and environment for innovation.

Ten events will be held in Norfolk, with the programme’s free launch event, Survival Stories from the Startup Jungle, taking place on 14^th November 2011 at the Hethel Engineering Centre. This interactive session features a panel of successful entrepreneurs who will share the decisions they’ve taken along the startup journey and explain the pitfalls and rewards of launching an innovation-based business.

Funded by a grant from ideaSpace Enterprise Accelerator the programme has been organised with the support of the Hethel Engineering Centre, Norwich Research Park, Norfolk Network, Easton College and EPIC.

Additionally, startups in Norfolk will benefit from 30 entrepreneur bursaries, courtesy of EPIC & Hethel Engineering Centre (Norfolk County Council) and the John Innes Centre. Each partner is funding 10 bursaries in their respective fields of creative and digital media, engineering and manufacturing and life sciences.

So whether you are involved with a start-up or thinking about creating an innovation based business find out more information online and sign up for the first, free event on the 14^th November.

Norwich has been identified as one of 65 cities in the UK which will be getting some form of Local TV.

It was a chance to see what could be achieved with a young talented team in a live situation. Here’s what we found…

Week 1:

Began with a brainstorming session. What types of ideas should we focus on, who would watch them… what was achievable?.  The look and feel of the brand was achieved extremely quickly.

All the ideas were short form, mostly 3 minutes and under. Soon we’d come up with some simple ideas such as The ‘Taxi Rant’, ‘What are you wearing?!’, ‘Giz’ a job’ which had appeal and could be done on a daily or weekly basis.

Week 2:

Press releases, meetings with local media moguls (including South Norwich News) and a social media campaign got under way. We got noticed.

Our stint in the Forum for ‘Sixty Second Soapbox’ had over 50 members of the public venting their spleen. We doorstepped Alan Partridge and  secured an exclusive interview with Adam Buxton. The number of hits on our website were increasing day by day. Overnight, the look and feel of our site went from a student project to a professional,  smart layout.

Week 3:

It was important that we attempted something big.  When we discovered that the official ‘John Peel Day’ fell on the last Thursday of the project,  it seemed only natural that this was what we needed.  As a fan of John Peel and having worked with him, this was the perfect opportunity to start some of the John Peel projects we had been discussing with John’s family. With less than 36 hours to put it all together, the pressure was on everyone to arrange an event to take place outside the Forum.

We were overwhelmed by the response and despite most of the production team being too young to remember him,  they did a fantastic job.  Once again ITV picked up the story and this time BBC Radio and the Evening News ran articles.

Looking back I cannot help be proud of what has been achieved in such a short period of time.  My biggest regret is that more people did not hear about what we were doing or visit the site.

It clearly shows that despite trying hard with social media, there’s a lot to say for traditional marketing and getting out onto the street to make people aware of things.

I’m also conscious that politics are at play here.  Archant are one of several companies who have bids in with the government to provide Norwich TV and much of the BBC, perhaps unsurprisingly, kept their distance.

What I believe we have shown is that, as and when Local TV comes to the city, it could be run as a student project, mentored by professionals in the industry.  Whether that is in conjunction with one of the universities or colleges, or as its own project, remains to be seen.  Anyone interested in joining in?

Coming from a background of plant research at the John Innes Centre (JIC), I argue that with the world’s growing human population, this branch of science is crucial to our long-term survival.

Two local scientists – Professor Giles Oldroyd from the JIC and Professor Jonathan Jones of the Sainsbury Laboratory – recently joined others in their profession in signing a hard-hitting letter, arguing the brightest students should be aspiring to join them. How they do this is included in a list of 100 important questions that urgently need to be addressed by the next generation of plant biologists.

These include:

• How do we feed our children’s children?
• How can plants contribute to solving the energy crisis?

In order to address these issues, we need to get the best young minds engaged in researching the role plants play in food security, climate change and fossil fuel replacement. We need to ensure that the knowledge we have is effectively transferred into solutions to cope with the future. A diverse range of expertise in plant science is needed to make this happen.

And yet, at what could be the greatest hour of need, the plant scientist could be something of a dying breed. Schools are not picking up on the most interesting or relevant areas of plant science, discouraging young people from studying the subject at university. The once respected term ‘botanist’ is now almost totally lost.

Training the next generation of plant scientists is central to the mission of the Norwich Research Park institutes, but elsewhere plant science departments at universities are being squeezed, even closed.

The authors of the letter say: “Everyone knows that we need doctors, and the idea that our best and brightest should go into medicine is embedded in our culture.  However, even more important than medical care is the ability to survive from day to day; this requires food, shelter, clothes, and energy, all of which depend on plants. Plant scientists are tackling many of the most important challenges facing humanity in the twenty-first century, including climate change, food security, and fossil fuel replacement.”

Among them, the plan to merge two of Norwich’s faith schools… and Jamie Oliver’s new restaurant in the Royal Arcade.The start of the new school year sees a number significant education stories for people living in south Norwich.

Plans to merge St John’s RC Infants with St Thomas More RC Junior school onto one site on Jessopp Road, co-incides with funding cuts, which means children at faith schools no longer have buses to bring them to school. Questions are being raised about the impact of traffic on local roads – and whether subsidies should be continued.

Norwich has become the home to one of the country’s first Free Schools, with the opening of the converted Aviva building on Surrey Street. The visit by the prime minister, where he delivered a keynote speech on education reform, sparked comments on our Facebook page, from people unhappy about the changes he’s proposing.

Traffic problems, which could be made worse on cut-throughs between Earlham and Dereham Roads, have prompted angry comments from local residents, who say the council isn’t listening to them. One resident described the situation as a “Mexican stand-off between drivers refusing to budge” on streets like Alexandra Road. Some ward councillors are pushing for a workshop to be held with local residents to review the latest plans to the Dereham Road junction, which we will bring you the latest on, if a date is fixed.

And Jamie Oliver’s new restaurant has also caused a stir. One reader commented: “Seeing the city cooing over the prospect of some guy off the telly having minimal involvement in yet another restaurant is fairly disheartening.” Another wondered if closing Waterstone’s was a sign of the times for all bookshops: “The impact of Amazon/Kindle must be being felt in the bricks & mortar bookshops. I think Jamie Oliver coming to Norwich is great news, it will be a great location too. Hopefully, the Waterstone’s folk will be offered redeployment.”

We welcome comment on any story, opinion piece or feature we run on South Norwich News. Comments can be posted on the site, on Facebook or via Twitter.

From today, faith schools will no longer receive subsidies to pay for school buses.

In south Norwich, which is home to two Catholic schools, this raises issues for the wider community in terms of congestion.

The decision to cut a discretionary subsidy for faith school transport was made earlier this year, saving Norfolk County Council £220,000 a year. Alison Thomas, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services said at the time: ”We recognise that this will have an impact on families who choose to send their children to faith schools but difficult decisions have had to be made in the light of the most challenging budget in our history.”

Parents at two local Catholic schools learnt just days ago that a school-run shuttle service has also been scrapped, serving St John’s RC Infants on Heigham Road and St Thomas More RC Junior School on Jessopp Road. Rachel Everett, a school governor said: “Parents are really stuck now, coming from around and outside the city, but who have children at both sites.”

A last minute meeting was held earlier this week, where parents asked for help from their local councillors and their MP.

County councillor, Marcus Hemsley (Green, Wensum) raised their concerns: “I’ve been told the council has no money and that they’d have to take money from somewhere else to fund it. You’ve got the situation where parents will be putting 4 year olds in taxis until they think about different solutions.” In a statement, Alison Thomas added: “In the current climate, where resources are scarce, we are not in a position to carry on using other parents and taxpayers’ money to subsidise travel to faith schools, which is a parental preference.”

But removing subsidies for faith school transport will impact on the wider community on what are already congested roads, as more parents are forced to come by car. Marcus Hemsley added: “Losing the buses will have a knock-on effect on residents.”

Later this month, two public meetings will be held on plans to move the two schools onto one site from as early as next September. Jessopp Road residents have already raised concerns with local councillors about speeding and congestion during the school run. Both schools – and the local authority –  need to take this opportunity to work with the local community to find a solution, both to the congestion created by losing the school buses… and in the longer term if the two schools merge.

Public meetings: 20th September at 7.30pm at St John’s RC Infant School  and on 21st September at 7.30pm at St Thomas More RC Junior School. The consultation period will end on 14th October 2011.