A HUGE amount of rubbish, including rotting food, dumped in a Normanton street has prompted more criticism of Derby City Council for cancelling bin collections between Christmas Day and New Year.

The waste was piled up and removed from Middleton Street by the council's Streetpride service at midday yesterday but people living nearby said it had been building up for a week.

 Councillor Asaf Afzal, cabinet member responsible for waste collection, said people should not blame the situation "entirely" on the lack of collections and said the move was made to save £100,000.

He said: "Other areas in the city managed to cope without mess spilling on to the streets.

"We are aware of the on-going issue concerning fly-tipping and littering in Normanton and surrounding areas and we continue to engage with the community and encourage them to be considerate when it comes to getting rid of their waste."

However, one man has come forward to say there were also problems in London Road, Alvaston.

Alex Kosnowenko, 56, of London Road, said: "The black bins were full to overflowing, resulting in wind and wildlife raiding the open bins and distributing rubbish on the streets."

He added: "Even someone from Mars could ascertain that the bins would fill up a lot quicker over this period."

Shelley Humber, of Violet Street, which has a junction with Middleton Street, said the rubbish there had been building up over the course of a week.

She said there was often a fly-tipping problem in the road but that the lack of bin collections made it worse.

Miss Humber said: "There was food in the bags and animals were ripping into them. You could see bones from Christmas dinner carcasses."

She is a member of Normanton Empowerment Team which is battling against fly-tipping and litter in the area.

Another member, Normanton landlord Dawn Gee, said: "I believe the waste wouldn't be there had the bin collections taken place as normal.

"It was unfair on decent, responsible people in the area that they had to live with this rubbish."

The council needs to save millions in the face of cuts to its grants from the Government, inflation, and new pressures on its budget.

Meanwhile, Streetpride yesterday had to collect two fly-tipped sofas and a mattress that had been dumped in Almond Street, Normanton, yesterday – rubbish which James Fitzpatrick, of nearby Stanton Street, said had built up since Christmas Eve.

The city council, Derby Telegraph, and the empowerment team are pushing for a change of law to make it easier for the authority to prosecute for fly-tipping.

David Eshelby, 60, of Almond Street, said: "If you had a high-profile prosecution of someone who has fly-tipped a lot, I think it would put people off but perhaps people shouldn't be prosecuted if it's just one lapse."

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter

MORE than 2,000 Derby families, with problems ranging from crime, truancy, domestic violence and unemployment, are to benefit from £3.8 million from the Government.

The city was chosen for the Whitehall cash after transforming the lives of 475 troubled households  under an earlier version of the  programme.

And the news has been hailed by one Derby mother, who said that the scheme had "worked miracles for me".

The woman, whose young son ditched school while she battled alcoholism, said she was delighted that the scheme which turned around their lives would now help thousands more Derby families.

She and and her teenage son were among 475 households whose lives were improved by the city council's "priority families" programme.

Now that scheme has been selected for a major expansion, with 2,110 families to benefit from help worth up to £3.8 million of Government money over five years.

The Chaddesden mum, who does not want to be identified so that she can put her chaotic past behind her, said: "The scheme worked miracles for me.

"My family worker never judged me, never looked down her nose at me. It's changed my life."

Starting this month, a team of 12 dedicated family support workers will be helping a new wave of troubled families.

These will have problems such as crime or anti-social behaviour, truancy, unemployment and domestic violence.

A total of £1,800 will be available to spend on each family for things like counselling, mental health support and parenting lessons.

The 34-year-old mum said she was unemployed, drinking too much and in legal trouble, when concerns were raised about how her lifestyle was affecting her son.

The teenager, whose parents are separated, said: "I couldn't go to school without worrying about what my mum was like and how my mum would be when I got home."

Council social workers were first told about the situation by the grandparents on the son's father's side.

The mum said: "I was drinking a lot and that was affecting my lifestyle and my son's.

"His attendance at school and behaviour was suffering. I was angry when I found out what had been said [to the council] and worried.

"You instantly think they are coming to poke around your life and might even take your kid away."

A social worker assessed the family and decided they were a case that could be helped by the priority families team.

The service is provided on a voluntary basis – but the mum knew that the situation needed fixing and agreed to use it.

Shortly after that, she was at her lowest ebb, having been evicted from her home. Her son was living with his grandmother.

But the programme quickly began to take effect, thanks to a dedicated family support worker giving her help finding a Derby Homes property, and bringing in parenting support through the charity Nacro, which helps rehabilitate offenders.

The mum and her son were given one-to-one support to build their confidence.

The social worker said: "A lot of the time we were just having a chat. "We'd talk about any issues she was having at that time. It was a case of encouraging her to keep going to the job club, for example."

Meetings were held between social workers, probation officials and the son's school to discuss issues.

Now the pair live in a well-kept home. She works in retail in the city centre, and he is attending school much more often.

The mum said: "I've got my dignity back. My son is happy. That's all that matters."

Since the first phase of the scheme began in April 2012, the council's priority families team has worked with 660 families, of which 475 successfully had their lives "turned around" by October last year.

This meant, for example, that a child with truancy issues would have achieved more than 85% attendance in school and no more than two fixed-term exclusions over three consecutive terms.

The council is continuing to work with the families with which it has not yet been successful.

In this first phase, local authorities were paid up to £4,000 per family for the work on a "payment-by-results" basis.

The next phase will see council's get paid £1,000 up front per family and then receive £800 once a family's situation has been improved.

The authority was selected to be an "early-starter" for the next phase after ranking among the top councils in the country for success in turning around families.

Spooky goings on in a Derby building have been investigated by a special team. Swadlincote Paranormal Investigations, headed up by Steven Griffiths, who features on TV show Living with the Dead, spent the night investigating the former Derbyshire Building Society premises in Full Street. Mr Griffiths is pictured with (from left) Lianne Whiting, Chris Stevens and Richard O'Connor. The building had been unused since 1996, until Combat Ready Airsoft recently took on the building for CQB Games and staff have reported strange goings on, including odd noises and doors opening by themselves.

DESPITE unusually mild temperatures forecast for the end of the week, it could still feel quite chilly because of high winds.

Temperatures could rise as high as 13C on Friday and Saturday but rain and wind gusts of up to 50mph will make it feel colder, said a spokesman for the Met Office.

However, temperatures all this week are "fairly respectable for the time of year", said Mark Wilson of the Met Office.

Last night was expected to have the coldest temperatures for the week, with temperatures dropping to 1 to 2C in Derby and perhaps below freezing in rural areas.

Today is forecast to have a cold start but with some sunshine.

Mr Wilson said: "Through the afternoon it will gradually turn wet and windy."

He said the rain was likely to continue through into the night, but could be patchy.

"Thursday will be a quieter day, generally dry with some sunny spells, although generally quite breezy," he said.

But on Friday, the weather is set to turn wet and windy, with gusts possibly reaching 50mph, continuing into Saturday.

Mr Wilson said: "Temperatures throughout the week stay a bit above average but by Friday it turns very mild for this time of year. On Friday, highs will be 12 to 13C but it won't feel that mild because of the strength of wind and rain around."

He said it looked like it would remain unsettled into next week.

Burton forecaster Paul Carfoot said Wednesday would be windy, with some brightness early on, but cloud cover was expected to increase as the day went on.

He said it would be milder, with highs of 7 or 8C and the wind would be strong from the southwest.

"Expect rain overnight, clearing before dawn," said Mr Carfoot.

He said Thursday, after rain overnight, would be a bright day with showers, with some moderate wind from the west.

He forecasted that the showers would clear overnight, with temperatures dropping to 2 C, with a ground frost in places.

Mr Carfoot said there would be some brightness on Friday but it would turn cloudy and windy, with some drizzle in places and very mild, with a high of 12C.

Mr Carfoot said: "The wind will be strong, possibly gale force at times. It will be cloudy, windy and mild overnight, some showery rain towards dawn and a low of 10C." He concluded that the outlook for the weekend was "bright, windy and blustery with showers".

IN her letter "Cuts due to the Tories" (January 3), Anne Johns asks whether Mr Hotter has read the newspaper in the last five years, with regard to his previous letter when he had asked: "Why is it that Derby City Council is always cost-cutting when other councils seem to manage their cash flow?".

The timing of Anne Johns' letter was brilliant, coming only days after we read in this paper that our hard-up, bellyaching, whingeing council has just spent £6,000 on three bicycle pumps in the city "£6,000 for three bike pumps leaves some feeling let down" (December 31).

She then goes on to say "The council has held extensive consultations with its electorate about where priorities should lie". Priorities ? I don't think that anyone on the council knows the meaning of the word.

Barely a week earlier we had a few inches of snow causing the usual chaos.

Perhaps in future if it has a spare £6000 the council should put it to one side and use it where it would be more appreciated.

On the same page of the same edition, we had Saros Kavina bestowing on us a few kindly words his father had said to him about showing "kindness and compassion towards our fellow human beings".

I hope that would include members of UKIP and their supporters or other people that Mr Kavina often criticises on this page.

S Radford

Rowditch Avenue

Derby

Staff at Derby Theatre are celebrating a box office record-breaking Christmas.

A Christmas Carol, which finished on Sunday, January 4, and Hansel and Gretel, which ran until December 29, proved hugely popular, playing to more than 25,000 people during their runs.

Plus One, the citywide ticket donation scheme to provide children in care and their foster families with free tickets to experience live theatre, film, dance and workshops in Derby, also benefited during the run of A Christmas Carol.

After each performance, bucket collections were held outside the auditorium doors and collections attracted donations amounting to more than of £12,500.

Raynesway recycling centre was given more than 150 Christmas trees yesterday to be turned into compost. Pictured is duty manager Richard Wildman loading up one of the trees. The traditional date to pack away the tinsel and baubles is Twelfth Night, which according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is the evening of January 5, although many people count from Christmas Day, making Twelfth Night the night of January 6.

HOSPITAL bosses have spent more than £70,000 over the past four years on funerals – because relatives could not be found or were unable to foot the bill.

The trust which runs the Royal Derby and London Road Community hospitals usually pays £1,100 for a funeral if a friend or relative of a deceased patient is unable to pay or no family member can be traced.

Since April 2010, 71 funerals have been paid for by the city's hospitals trust, totalling £73,754.26.

The figures were released by the NHS trust under the Freedom of Information Act.

Cathy Winfield, chief nurse and director of patient experience for Derby's hospitals, said: "In the event of a patient's death at one of our hospitals, we are obliged to ensure they receive a dignified, respectful funeral.

"If there are no family members present at the time of death, we will make all reasonable attempts to contact any relatives to inform them of the death and discuss funeral arrangements.

"Sadly, if no relatives can be traced, or if those who are contacted are not in a position to fund the funeral costs, we will make arrangements for an appropriate service to be held."

Under the 1984 Public Health Act, local authorities are obliged to carry out funerals in cases where there is nobody else to make the arrangements or meet the costs.

But councils do not normally undertake funeral arrangements if the person died in hospital as, under these circumstances, it is the hospital authorities which take responsibility.

The figures show that, between the financial year of April 2010 and March 2011, 15 funerals were paid for at a cost of £14,328.26.

The same number of funerals were paid for over the same period between 2011 and 2012 but the cost increased to £16,711.40.

From April 2012 and March 2013, it cost the trust £23,579.60 to foot the bill for 23 funerals.

But, between April 2013 and March 2014, the figure dropped to £19,135, as Derby's hospitals paid for 18 funerals.

The trust confirmed that, of the 71 funerals, 69 of these were cremation and two of them – both between 2011 and 2012 – were burials. It is not known why these two were different.

And the trust also said the funerals took place in either Markeaton Crematorium or Nottingham Road Cemetery.

The Derby Telegraph has previously reported how the cost of a funeral can cover coffin, gown, hearse, services of a funeral director, cremation or burial fees and a chaplain to carry out the funeral.

A yellow weather warning has been issued for Derbyshire this Saturday with wind speeds of 60 to 70mph expected to rip through the city.

Despite the strong gusts, it is expected to be a mild day with highs of up to 12C.

A Met Office statement said: "Another very vigorous depression is likely to run quickly eastwards, passing to the north of Scotland on Saturday.

"This is expected to bring very strong westerly winds to many northern and central parts of the UK on Saturday.

"Gusts of 60 to 70mph are likely quite widely. The winds should gradually ease from the west later in the day.

"The public should be aware that that disruption to transport and possibly power supplies could occur."

FOLLOWING the ice and snow we had at the end of December, it's made me wonder do people who live off a main road, and on a non bus route, pay the same council tax as those who do?

Well I reckon we do, which is wrong. During the week of the icy weather we never had our street gritted, which was dangerous as I live on a hill.

Also that week we never got our refuge collected as the truck could not get down the street. I bet if I didn't pay my full council tax, the council would soon say something.

A B Hudson

Fletcher Street

Heanor

LAST year was a good one for the property price market and buyers and sellers. Renting was also a good option, as tenants saw no or small rises in rents over the year, around £5 to £10 per month.

The latest data from the Land Registry shows prices continuing to recover to their 2007 heights, but it's going to take a while. We saw 4% to 6% house price rises from 2013 to 2014, which meant buyers had a good incentive and sellers could move on with a bit extra in their pockets.

However, most Derbyshire property prices are still 11% lower than 2007. But I have been looking at the "sold property price" data and am amazed at the huge difference in price changes when it comes to individual properties and areas – proving that averages can be misleading, even at a local level.

Looking at the last 25 flats sold in Derbyshire, seven sold for less than they were bought for, even ones which were bought as far back as 2003. And yet, six sold for more than they were bought for at the height of the market around 2007.

Researching detached homes, some are selling for more than they were in 2007, by around 5%, but most seem to be selling on a par, with the odd exception where work may have been done to add value. It's a similar picture for terraced homes.

Looking to 2015, it's a tough year to predict. Consumer confidence is very important as without it people aren't keen to buy. Good news about jobs and the economic growth will boost confidence, making people more likely to buy and sell, but on the other hand we have the election coming up and, depending on policies around "discounted homes" for first-time buyers or increased taxation which could affect buy-to-let investors, this could either encourage people to move before May or they may decide to wait until afterwards.

One issue which is likely to continue is a lack of stock. Because prices haven't increased that much, it's difficult for people to move up the ladder as they haven't gained any extra equity, so they will have to rely on savings as opposed to price growth to fund the next move. Another reason for fewer properties coming onto the market is because we are living longer and staying in our homes for much longer, too. Figures suggest the long-term average stay in a property is 15 years, which fell to around eight years in the late-1980s but is now up as high as 25 years.

On the finance front, with the Bank of England being given more power to restrict mortgage lending and the likelihood of an interest rate rise this year or early next, the cost of owning a home is likely to rise, so this could put people off buying and restrict what they can borrow.

And it's because of these major changes to our property market dynamics that, even though forecasters are predicting smaller rises of 2% to 3% for the East Midlands, what happens to property prices will be extremely individual. You can rely on your local estate agents and RICs surveyors to offer expert help when you need to know what a property is worth.

MORE than 1,000 signatures have been collected on a petition by campaigning parents who are trying to save a Derby nursery school from closure.

Derby City Council is consulting on plans to close Castle Nursery School and save £100,000, despite it being judged to be "outstanding" during its last inspection.

The city council says that the nursery school in Copeland Street is under used but governors and staff are currently compiling evidence that challenges the facts and figures.

A nursery campaign spokesman said: "The council has not been promoting this nursery at all and many parents will not be aware of its existence, so we are putting forward proposals to increase the number of children attending the nursery.

"Also well as being judged 'outstanding', the school has been commended by Ofsted for the way it educates children with additional needs."

As part of the campaign, the nursery school has organised an open morning tomorrow, between 9.30am and 11.30am.

The spokesman said: "We feel the open event will give people a chance to see what the nursery school has to offer and it will be an opportunity to attract new children to this outstanding nursery school.

"Families from all over Derby are welcome, especially anyone working in Derby city centre or Pride Park, for which it is ideally placed. We can now take children when they are aged two, in the term in which they turn three years old."

As well as parents and children being able to look around the nursery school, there will be activities including free face painting.

Amanda Fuller is one of the parents who feel the closure of the nursery would be a big loss. She said: "My son, James, who is autistic and has learning difficulties, was extremely lucky to secure a place at the nursery school in 2007. It was with great sadness that parents learned of the city council's decision to consult on closure in July 2015.

"We can't let a provision like this disappear without a fight."

Gill Hall, of Alvaston, previously had two children at the school and is still involved there as a helper.

She said: "We are sure that more parents would send their children to the school if they realised it was there and so we want its profile to be raised. With new homes due to be built near the school, it seems premature to think of closing it now."

Councillor Fareed Hussain, city council cabinet member for children and young people, said: " The viability of the nursery is a concern due to low numbers on roll over the last eight years, with only 17 children currently attending the nursery, which can accommodate 80 children."

The consultation continues until January 12, with the results being reported to the city council cabinet at its meeting on February 18.

VANDALS have targeted a children's play area at Etwall Cricket Club.

A wooden post set in concrete was unearthed, netting torn down, play equipment damaged and tipped over and holes smashed in the fencing as the vandals forced their way into ground in Church Hill.

Chairman Keith Cheetham said: "It's just mindless vandalism and so frustrating. We try to provide facilities for families to enjoy, but this area has just been destroyed. Now we have to start all over again, and of course it will cost money that we had earmarked for other projects."

"We try to provide facilities for families to enjoy, but this area has just been destroyed."

Club committee member Martyn Sutton said: "We are so angry and frustrated that the play area has been ruined. It is beyond belief why anyone would wish to wreck a facility for children."

"As a club we have to work hard every year to raise every penny and we are dependent on volunteers and donations for funds to provide a facility for the local community and to ensure cricket can be played and enjoyed in Etwall.

"Over the last few years we have tried to improve the environment for all the family to enjoy while cricket is being played.

"We now need to work out how we can buy a new climbing frame. It will be difficult to raise additional funds but I am sure, as a club, we will not be beaten and we will keep working hard as it is so beneficial to the cricket club."

WHEN the Maxfield family embarked on a quest to find their dream home in a peaceful Derbyshire country setting, they never imagined their journey would take them to a leafy enclave… just five minutes from Derby city centre.

"We had no idea we would end up living in Littleover as we considered it too close to town.

"Yet here we are in a quiet, private road, a little oasis we didn't realise existed. We have nearly an acre of garden, we aren't overlooked and we even have the gravel drive with cobblestones that we always dreamed of," beams Sherill Maxfield.

Keats Avenue is where Sherill and husband Ian, both 47, now have the home they have always longed for. It's a detached 1920s mock-Tudor house that they have sympathetically transformed into a magnificent brick and oak-timbered Cotswolds home.

"Although it's very tranquil and has a feeling of being quite countrified here, it actually takes us only five minutes to drive into Derby and just ten minutes to walk to our great local shops in Littleover," Sherill tells me when I arrive to see their fabulously remodelled property.

The total cost of the project has been roughly £1 million but to the Maxfields it has been worth every penny.

Both originally from the West Midlands, Sherill and Ian are a friendly, down-to-earth couple who moved to Derby 14 years ago when Ian was relocated here for his job.

Wolverhampton-born Ian now runs his own successful communications company, Collstream, at Derby's Pride Park – a firm that recently won the Derby Telegraph's Small Business of the Year award.

Sherill, Ian and daughters Zoe, 25, and Ally, 22 – along with the family's pet Chihuahua, Charlie – moved into their new home last August, following a year-long rebuilding programme. They previously lived in a detached modern house in Hilton.

Their new four-bedroomed home has been extensively remodelled and extended since the couple first bought it for £690,000 in June 2013.

The transformation has cost them an additional £300,000, resulting in a fabulous family home that would grace the pages of any upmarket glossy homes magazine.

Says Sherill, originally from Bromsgrove: "It would probably have cost us less to demolish the property and start again but pulling it down seemed wrong to us. We wanted to recreate it in the spirit of the original design. Basically our idea was to work with what we had got and retain lots of the house's original character and quirks."

What they have ended up with is a much larger property, still in mock-Tudor style but now combined with the mellow feel of a traditional Cotswold timber-framed house, which was always Sherill's vision.

To carry out the building work, Ian and Sherill hired Derby-based builder Richard Davoll, who has a company called Grazehurst.

Sherill gave up her job as a flight attendant with Thomson Airways to oversee the project and do the interior design, which is contemporary, elegant and sophisticated, with soft, muted, easy-on-the eye colours.

Of Richard Davoll, she says: "He's a very talented and creative builder who worked on the design with us. We had a vision of what we wanted and he got it straight away."

The enlarged house has four spacious bedrooms, a large family bathroom, two en-suite bathrooms, a stylish downstairs cloakroom and a dream kitchen to die for.

In the latter, custom-made fitments painted in Farrow & Ball's Tewkesbury Stone provide great character, while a set of folding glass doors give a panoramic view of the patio and garden.

At the far end of the room is a 'snug' area where the family can chill, chat or watch TV in front of a wood-burning stove.

Leading off from the kitchen and separate utility room is what Sherill describes as "Ian's hidey-hole".

Showing me his golf simulator room, she laughs: "Ian enjoys golf but not in the rain and cold, so when the weather's bad he comes in here to have a bit of a knockabout."

The main entrance to the house is via a set of imposing oak double doors with a stone surround, keeping faith with the property's original Tudor-inspired design. The doors lead into a spacious square hall with an impressive oak staircase that sweeps up to the fabulous first-floor galleried landing.

The family's comfortable lounge is accessed from the hall, along with Zoe and Ally's very own "media room". A vast wall-mounted TV is the focal point of this grey, silver and sparkly black den, luxuriously carpeted and furnished with squashy red leather sofas.

"This is where Ally and I watch our junk telly," laughs Zoe, who works as a travel agent in Derby.

Her sister is following in the family travel tradition, having just landed a job with Emirates Airlines.

There are many state-of-the-art features in the house, including creative lighting and underfloor heating which can be operated via apps on the couple's mobile phones.

So far they have not thought of a name for their house. "It didn't have a name when we bought it although years ago it was apparently called Lavender House. As we have lots of bluebells that come up in the spring, a friend has suggested calling it Bluebell Lodge, but we haven't made our minds up yet."

Looking back three years ago to when they first began searching for their dream home, Sherill and Ian say their wish list was for a house with "a big garden in a semi-rural location, that was not overlooked."

"We didn't feel ready to live out in the sticks a long way from shops and amenities because that would have been too isolating," says Sherill.

"But we never thought of Littleover as it's so close to Derby. Yet when we found this house in Keats Avenue, it just seemed like a little oasis.

"We love this street, the neighbours are nice and it's so quiet. Neither of us would want to go back to the West Midlands now. We both feel Derby is the place to be."

See today's property pullout for a selection of hundreds of homes to buy and rent.

A RUSSELL Watson fan who could not see the top tenor when she went to see him in concert has thanked the Derby Telegraph for helping her get a refund.

Diane Carrier said she and her husband, Jack, left the concert at Derby Cathedral after 10 minutes, having found they had seats at the end of two pews, one behind the other, directly behind a stone pillar.

They left after ten minutes and have been seeking compensation from promoter SJM Concerts or Ticketmaster, the firm from which Jack bought their £126.50 tickets as an early Christmas present to her.

SJM's customer services team has written to them denying culpability for what had happened.

It offered Diane and Jack two complimentary tickets for another show it promotes but the couple rejected this.

Derby Cathedral also insisted it was not at fault, having e-mailed the couple saying there were "other complaints of a similar nature at this event, all from people seated in top-priced seats in the gallery".

Ticketmaster previously said it was not aware that the seats would not have a view of the performance area and, had it known, it would not have sold the tickets.

Now it has written to the couple again. It said: "In a situation like yours, we would usually speak to venue and event organisers, and in turn they would advise us on the appropriate action to take. The event organisers made the decision to contact you directly to resolve the issue, but it is clear from your previous e-mail that you are unhappy with their offer.

"On this occasion, and as a gesture of goodwill, we would be willing to offer you a refund of the ticket and postage charge."

Mrs Carrier, 55, of Repton, said: "I do feel that having the backing of the Derby Telegraph did help.

"I think it proved I was serious and not just complaining and doing nothing about it."

She said that she still wanted "guaranteed front row tickets" for a Russell Watson concert from SJM.

Another, fan of the tenor affected by the seating issue was Brenda Bentley, 82, of Dunnicliffe Lane, Melbourne, who went with her daughter after tickets were bought for them by her son-in-law.

She previously said: "We stayed because he did sing beautifully but we saw absolutely nothing.

"I don't know why those seats were available."

Mrs Bentley said yesterday: "SJM have told us they would never knowingly sell tickets for seats where people couldn't see.

"We haven't been offered money back."

The gig was on December 1 in front of a full house of 600 people.

A DERBY secondary school has been told it "requires improvement", despite being given top marks for maths and its Skills Academy sixth form.

Inspectors visited Lees Brook Community School last month and decided that it needed to improve to be rated as "good" – a grading it was given during its 2011 inspection.

Head teacher Phil Dover said: "We are disappointed that the school has slipped from 'good' to 'requires improvement' but it was not altogether unexpected given the fall in exam results over the last two years.

"English in particular has been affected two years running by circumstances outside the control of the school, including national changes to the curriculum.

"But I am very pleased the inspectors acknowledged the improvements evident in English that we are sure will bring improved results this summer.

"Equally, we had already started working with other subject areas that the inspectors have identified and some changes have been put in place."

The inspectors, from the Office for Standards in Education, said that teachers need to set work that is hard enough to challenge the most able pupils and that progress in geography, science, history and modern foreign languages requires improvement.

Their report also said that the governing body has not always applied procedures correctly when responding to complaints and recommended an external review of governance should be carried out.

But they did praise provision for students' personal development and for their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and said it was "good".

They added that pupils "make outstanding progress in maths" and "attendance is improving and the number of students who are excluded is falling".

It has been a busy year for the Chaddesden school, whose staff and pupils moved into a new building in November.

Mr Dover said: "We accept that some teaching needs to improve and believe that now the school has settled into the new building, this is an area where we will see rapid progress. The inspectors acknowledged that we know what is working well, which is reassuring.

"Having had nearly two years of disruption while the new school was being built, we are confident that the plans we have already put in place for improving those areas identified in the report will be effective."

Mr Dover said he was pleased that the report noted that around the school, "our students are courteous and friendly towards each other and towards adults" and that many talk happily about how much they enjoy school and about their work and ambitions.

Mr Dover added: "The governors and I have acknowledged the need for any complaints to be followed up quickly and they will welcome an external review of this aspect of leadership and management. They have already put in place new procedures to improve how complaints are dealt with."

TWO accidents in Derby are causing traffic problems in the city.

A crash between a car and a lorry on the A38, between Palm Court Island and Markeaton Island, has closed one lane on the southbound carriageway.

Another accident a short distance away has added to the congestion.

This crash happened at the crossroad junction with Burton Road. Police said the collision involved a bicycle and a car. A force spokesman said the female rider of the bike was not seriously hurt.

Both accidents happened shortly before 8am.

In the first incident near Markeaton Island, the driver of the car sustained minor injuries.

At 8.25am, police said one lane remained closed to enable the vehicles to be recovered.

Both incidents have now been cleared.