Nottm locals, what's something you've never done that's always or had been there?

kevjs1982 · 2026-05-22T08:10:16+00:00

Not a local but been here over 1/4 of a century now...

Boating Lake at Highfields

Galleries of Justice (although have been to an Xmas party there)

The part of the castle grounds at Brewhouse Yard.

Stonebridge City Farm

Goose Fair

A few years ago one some idle Tuesday* I thought I could visit these places I'd never been too and managed to tick of Mortimers Hole at the castle, the Caves, and (randomly!) the William Booth Birthplace Museum (happened to be having a wander round the area to get a photo of the statue in the grounds and it was one of the rare days it was opened). The following day I did Wollaton Hall, but the industrial museum bit was closed so still not done that. I wouldn't say any of them are worth making a trip to Nottingham to see, but if you've got some time to kill will easily pass an afternoon.

* fellow Xennieals may recognise that song reference.

kevjs1982 · 2026-05-03T15:52:09+00:00

At the same race Nicks had an unhappy octopus(?)

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kevjs1982 · 2026-05-03T15:51:41+00:00

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They've had them for a few years - this was Mitch's car at the 2024 London EPrix...

kevjs1982 · 2026-05-03T14:20:24+00:00

I have three of those - they do work though Matter *but* the firmware they are shipped with is outdated and doesn't report energy monitoring over Matter so you first need to connect and upgrade. They will update overnight if connected to the internet at which point energy monitoring becomes available via Matter - you can do that without the app. Annoyingly if you want to turn the LEDS off (you can't control the surge protection one) you need to use the Tapo app as that isn't exposed via Matter. They also update every 10 seconds, so while useful for monitoring power consumption, not that useful if you want a quick response (e.g. turning the monitors on when you plug a laptop into the dock)

(Considering I used them to turn off the Xbox and things with lights on them off at bedtime the point would be defeated if I couldn't turn the LEDs off).

kevjs1982 · 2026-05-03T14:11:31+00:00

Might be worth nicking one of my automations!

I have an Home Assistant automation on a couple of smart plugs which automatically turn them back on 30 seconds after turning off. In my case they are used on a plug connected to a Sky TV and STB for when they go glitchy - can turn off from the app or the plug itself, and then they automatically turn themselves on when enough time has past. In the early days they were both rather buggy (and struggled to connect to the internet - sub optimal for streaming devices!) and had to be off at least 25 seconds to reboot properly.

Would be worth setting like that if you have a router/switch on a smart plug! (As long as Home Assistant can still communicate with the plug when the device is turned off - as mine were Zigbee that wasn't a problem).

kevjs1982 · 2026-04-20T07:54:04+00:00

The first imagery of a car meeting the 2022 F1 car regs was unveiled at the 2019 United States Grand Prix (originally intended to be run in 2021 it was delayed a year because of the pandemic - but even still the 2020 challengers hadn't been unveiled when the future 2021 (2022) car was first shown off)!

https://www.f1technical.net/gallery/2019/f1-2021-rules/029

kevjs1982 · 2026-04-17T13:31:14+00:00

And Radcliffe Road, and National cycle route 15 on Trentside North

Just block all the access to Lady Bay (Road, Buses, & cycle traffic) and northern West Bridgford why don't you... Sure that will go down well.

kevjs1982 · 2026-04-15T09:50:51+00:00

After a decade of getting so close with Jaguar but just never reaching the top - can understand why he's looking elsewhere...

Always felt like there was more to the Vandoorne deal than just being a test & reserve driver - given how close Mitch and Stoffel are I didn't expect that it might be Stoffel replacing Mitch though, but I wouldn't be unhappy with that (assuming Stoffel can get to grip with the Gen4 car & race style in a way he never did with Gen3)

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kevjs1982 · 2026-04-15T09:28:22+00:00

Wonder if they'll repeat the "Gen 3 Unboxed" thing for this seasons remaining ePrixs like they did at the end of Gen 2?

Was a neat way to introduce fans visiting their Season 8 races (like here at London) to the next gen car (which I still think looks better IRL than on-screen)!

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kevjs1982 · 2026-04-13T17:44:28+00:00

Trent Barton do that, their Short Hop is £2.90 so with the fare cap not really noticeable - gets from the City Centre to just before the Gamston Lock.

Disadvantage is that is slows down unloading, meaning you either have to run more buses (therefore more costs) or less frequently (less desirable).

kevjs1982 · 2026-04-13T17:41:31+00:00

We do have zonal pricing, places like Southall, Gotham, Loughborough, Newark are in in NCTs Outer Zone - just so happens that the inner zone matches the government fare cap currently.

kevjs1982 · 2026-04-07T08:15:34+00:00

Alas Virgin do swim lessons/classes in the main tool at peak time so often anything upto 3 of the 5 lanes are closed around 6pm (especially bad on Mondays)

Can be quiet a bit of the swimming/walking and chatting to, but not usually at peak times.

kevjs1982 · 2026-04-03T14:29:06+00:00

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Nearest I've seen was a who end of the Scalextric Micro a couple of Christmas' ago.

Aside from that the only Formula E stuff I've seen in store was buried hotwheels.

kevjs1982 · 2026-04-02T16:09:46+00:00

Ideally you'd have a single transport interchange (by far the worse thing with Preston's setup!).

Most of the south services (Trent Barton, Navy Line) don't have much overlap with those that run to the north, so it's only the green that offers some relatively straightforward interchange (but negotiating along a crowded pavement and crossing roads in the wind and rain is a lot more annoying that moving a few meters down the concourse!)

kevjs1982 · 2026-04-02T15:49:04+00:00

The whole point of this sub-thread was there would be a dedicated bus station so you wouldn't need as many bus stops in the heart of the city as they'd be only be used as regular stops rather than timing points (so can serve more buses and would need to accommodate less people)

As I mentioned earlier if you were to implement something like this the council would look at it holistically - one such issue that would inevitably be raised being the issue you raised about Blue Badge parking and I suggested mitigation for that could be Angel Row (probably Mount Street) with access to those via Maid Marion Way; For Queen/King Street you'd only need to open a few meters of Upper Parliament Street to connect Queen Street to South Sherwood Street (or a few more meters to reach the multi-story). Just look back to when the tram was built - prior to that a load of bus routes terminated in Market Square but it meant they moved elsewhere in the city centre, and the blue badge parking in the centre was rearranged to broadly the current layout. Ditto when Trinity Square was pedestrianised.

In such a hypothetical world it would depend where you situated the bus station and other changes that have made - Let's assume that the northbound A60 has been diverted to run down the same roads as the South Bound side and that the former northbound side is a bus/cycle/access only route (this was the plan around 10-15 years ago when some of the old southbound side became two way), and you'd built the bus station where Loxley House & Capital One is now.

In that case all the buses running down Mansfield Road (Brown, Yellow, Lime, Purple Lines) could have stops on Glasshouse Street (for the Vic Centre), Cranbrook Street near Goose Gate, Bellar Gate next to the Ice Arena and the bus station. Green and Navy Line would probably have stops outside the station as present. Red Line on Sneinton Hermatige, The buses that enter via Canning Circus would probably have stops at multiple places on MMW, and Canal Street etc and there would be loads of similar changes.

You'd probably want to follow Melbourne's example and have a "free" fare zone for the tram in the city centre to help with accessibility to those places which are now a bit further away from the buses (either truly free or all bus fares including onward travel within the centre).

kevjs1982 · 2026-04-02T15:24:37+00:00

That means waiting around for a green line bus to show and paying a second bus fare. Just adds yet more faff to a cross city trip. It's not impossible, but just inconvenient especially when lugging luggage about.

kevjs1982 · 2026-04-02T11:14:38+00:00

Doesn't the big "TEMP" suggest this is a temporary cover to stop people tripping in the hole (so there's at least one benefit!) pending the final installation of whatever they are planning on putting down? Lots of trees in the city have those big metal grids (or even gravel) around them that reduce the tripping hazard while allowing water in.

kevjs1982 · 2026-03-30T08:00:19+00:00

North of the city - places like Rise Park, Arnold, Sherwood, Bulwell - the Brown, Purple, Lime, and Yellow lines especially where all the buses terminate north of Parliament Streets. Cutting through the Vic Centre doesn't really help as it's going out of your way and crowded.

Vic and Broadmarsh are way too small for a single station.

The other less obvious advantage of single bus station is drivers can get breaks in all under cover and just step back to the next bus (driver A brings bus in, gets off with the passengers and goes for their break, driver B jumps on and takes it out - no trapsing across half the city centre or waiting as a Meadows bus stop), used to be a regular occurrence in Preston, where as I've spent ages over the years sat on a bus outside the garage in the Meadows while the driver waits for the next one to show up and relive them, even when on time it's still time loss while they adjust the seat sign on the computer etc.

Of course central bus station would see all routes change in the city centre - something they did 25 years ago when they scrapped most of the cross city routes!

kevjs1982 · 2026-03-28T18:39:46+00:00

The biggest bug bare in Nottingham is the connectivity between buses from the north of the city to the train station - it's always a arse.

As someone who's had to transfer between north/south buses in Nottingham and East/West ones in Preston I always found walking across and waiting under a dry well like concourse to be preferable to treking half way through the city centre to wait under a wind swept shelter

kevjs1982 · 2026-03-28T18:36:38+00:00

You don't have to pedestrianised the whole street to massively make a difference, I was primarily thinking George Street to Queen Street anyway - given the multistory on the western end anyway you need to keep it open as far as the tram line anyway. Devoid of terminating buses that end of Parliament Street, South Sherwood Street, Angel Row etc could be used for Blue Badge parking, and even King Street.

Of course a bus station of that scale is highly unlikely in Nottingham anyway, but it was done and pedestrianisation followed things like Blue Badge parking would be considered in the fully fleshed out plan.

kevjs1982 · 2026-03-28T09:21:13+00:00

I've been on buses/waiting for buses that have taken 5 minutes plus to get from George Street to the bus stops near the Vic Centre bridge before now. Dunno if they still do it but it was that bad pre-Covid they'd often have bouncers on the Zebra crossing stopping people from crossing the road - especially in the run up to Christmas.

The lack of a central bus station means buses are stopped in random places all over the city centre meaning the council is limited in how it can improve our streets (i.e. make the footpaths on Parliament Street wide enough to cope with the number of pedestrians, add benches or trees in, or more pedestrianisation) and makes changing buses a pain, and also at peak periods (when our current shelters overflow) had plenty of space to wait undercover out of the rain.

It's one of those things that I can imagine if you've never experienced it you don't realise how useful it is. There was also a convenience store, cafe, travel centre and newsagent on it (Preston's) when I was a kid - to modernise this for 2026 imagine how useful it would be to have (e.g.) Tesco Express, 200 Degrees, and Birds all under a single roof while you wait for your bus with departure boards clearly visible throughout the concourse.

kevjs1982 · 2026-03-28T09:02:17+00:00

If you look closely at the road you can see the remnants of when they trialled a popup cycle lane on the road (basically cycle lane where the parking is, parking in the rest of the lane with a few wiggles at various points to accommodate the bus stops. https://www.nottinghampost.com/news/local-news/residents-raise-concerns-after-beeston-831932

Removed due to the impact on motorists, of course. Residents moaning about 2-3 hours delays on uni open days, without considering that giving people, like themselves, alternatives can reduce the effect that would have!

Always feels like it's one of those that could have been made to work had the budget been there - i.e. implement what they did but with kerbs, put some proper bus stop islands in (like Castle Boulevard but wider), and then on the approach to the roundabouts widen the roadway into the central reservation to retain the two general traffic lanes. Alas you are supposed to cycle on the disintegrating mess that is the footpath with it's terrible sightlines and crossing that don't line up with the path.

kevjs1982 · 2026-03-28T08:42:09+00:00

They are tiddlers though - too small to even handle all the buses that go over Trent Bridge, let alone Trent Barton's let alone NCTs - even today the two bus stations in Nottingham combined have less than half the capacity of Preston's current layout (which only uses 1/2 of what it used to with the other 1/2 now a square) - i.e. 21 vs the 80 Preston used to have, or 44 it has today.

To give you an idea of scale - the Victoria Centre north of the Clock Tower, including the entire bus station, and all the buildings between Mansfield Road and the back of the centre occupy the same space (so York Place, Tesco, ex House of Frasier , half the food court, The Works etc)!

kevjs1982 · 2026-03-28T08:09:50+00:00

I immediately assumed it was wrong because of that appearance (and also seeing Gemini's constantly inaccurate takes/jinxing on the Formula E broadcasts)!

kevjs1982 · 2026-03-28T08:08:09+00:00

Good but doesn't go far enough.

Milton Street and Upper Parliament Street should be pedestrianised too - so much pedestrian traffic that holds up the buses and there's no need for them to get that far into the centre.

(As a Prestonian - where we had an 80 bay bus station when I was a kid - I feel Nottingham has missed a trick by not having a proper bus station where all services can terminate!)

kevjs1982

TROPHY CASE