Guest columnist: Opposition to children's ward closure is growing by the day

So far, it has more than 10,000 members and is growing by the day.

As the leader of Bassetlaw Council, I have pledged to support the campaign in any way I can and will also be attending the public meetings that have been organised for Retford and Worksop tomorrow (Saturday).

If you live in the Kilton area of Worksop, you may have already seen a fantastic new play area starting to take shape next to St Augustine’s School.

It has taken years of campaigning by ward councillors from both Bassetlaw and Nottinghamshire County Councils, the local community and St Augustine’s School, to make this happen.

And it’s an exciting prospect for local children to finally have a play area close to their homes.

As a council we value the importance of promoting healthy and active lifestyles and this £145,000 joint project between the district and county councils is just one way of enabling young people to be active in an engaging and safe environment.

I’m sure it will be a great asset to this community for many years to come.

Finally, encouraging more residents to recycle is another priority for the council, which is why we are about to launch a new green waste collection scheme in March.

More than 2,350 residents have already paid their £30, which gets them a new ‘brown’ bin and fortnightly collections of their garden waste between March and the end of November.

There is still time to sign up to the scheme and we hope to have more than 3,000 people ready to start recycling their garden waste before it is launched in just a months’ time.

You can find all the details on our website at www.bassetlaw.gov.uk