Allotmenteers

Apart from being an excellent form of exercise for people of all ages and a decent form of socialising to boot allotmenteers get not only the satisfaction and achievement that comes with reaping a successful crop they get to eat the freshest, tastiest organically grown (hopefully) vegetables available.

The photograph above is of the allotments on Greenmoor road and is taken from the other side of the canal.

Throughout the borough of Nuneaton and Bedworth there are allotment associations run on a volunteer basis.  Some of them have spaces whilst others have a waiting list but the surest way of finding out is to go down to your local allotments (particularly on a Sunday) stick your head over the fence and ask how to contact the secretary.  A conversation is bound to follow from which you are only in danger of learning something.

I include this link to the Allotmenteer blog for those amongst you who have an interest.  I particularly like this bit that the author writes about himself: -

I know I have a lot to learn – and keep an open mind – hoping that one day I’ll have a plot that will turn heads. I have some very competent teachers around me – both in my job – but also on my allotment site.

I like people who are willing to learn.  I hope that I always will remain so myself.  To close ones mind is self denial of improvement.

Technorati Tags: allotments,allotmenteers,nuneaton and bedworth borough council,bedworth,organic,environment

Local news roundup.

I do not feel like doing a specific blog post at the moment so I am going to take a quick tour around some of the local news stories.

Over on the BBC website there is a story about a boost to rail links between Felixstowe and the Midlands.  The best bit for me is: -

"Network Rail’s plans will see an increasing share of freight traffic handled by the railways, reducing pressure on congested roads such as the A14.

Taking freight from the roads and developing a strategic rail network has got to be a transport priority for any Nationalist transport strategy.  Should have been for the parties of the past  but sadly was not.

The George Elliot Hospital recently had to ban all visitors for five days because of the spread of the winter vomiting bug.  This caused much upset for patients and family members alike and I do wish that inconsiderate visitors who have colds would stay away.  It is too easy to blame the hospital when the problem walks in through their front door.

There is a big hoo-ha at the moment within the council house about the plans of the Conservative cabinets of both Nuneaton & Bedworth and Rugby Borough Councils to share senior managers.  Publicly they are saying that there are no plans to merge the councils and that this is merely a financial saving.  I disagree!  The current chief executives of the two councils are seldom in the same meetings at the same time.  Why would they be, they have separate councils to run?  The incumbent of the joint management team would have to make choices as to which borough they were going to represent on a daily basis.  The identities of the towns would be threatened as well.  the people of Bedworth already feels that their town is sidelined in decision making and that it is virtually pointless them voting.  This decision, if it is followed through, will only make this alienation worse.  Bedworth would be seen as a dot on the map between Nuneaton and the motorway.  I have been against this since I first heard about it and will remain so unless some resounding counter argument can be brought forward.

If you know the heartless bastard that stole the bike belonging to kidney transplant youngster Kieran Pocock whilst he is recovering in hospital please shop them right now!  The crimestoppers number is 0800 555 111.  Let’s show this scum some public humiliation!

the Play Rangers is a scheme within the borough that works well.  The Conservatives brought it in as part of their budget last year.  i voted against the Conservative budget last year and if you are interested in why I offer you this blog post.  The play rangers was a good idea though and I have praised/pushed it in committee as and when possible.  Cllr Nick Grant (Conservative) says that both parties are supporting the scheme now.  He has conveniently sidelined the British National Party on this occasion even though the recommendation to make the Play Rangers a budgetary growth item he refers to in the paragraph directly above was proposed by my good self.  The story can be found here.

 

on Barpool ward I am continuing with my self imposed continuous program of surveying both garage sites and green spaces for problems and reporting them as they arise.  If you live in Barpool ward and wish to raise any issues with me please feel free.  My contact details are available on the council website and on the contacts page of the Barpoolward blog.

Universal Debt Collection – Debt collection scam

There is a debt collection scam doing the rounds in Nuneaton at the moment.

Universal Debt Collection is sending out very poor quality letters asking people to ring them about an “important unresolved issue”.  Obviously with the letter being headed as a debt collection company vulnerable people are going to be worried and ring the number.

The universaldebtcollection.co.uk website does not exist and a Who Is search shows that the domain name is owned by a website design company based in Manchester called Unicom though not at the address that Universal Debt Collection are claiming.

If you have received one of these letters I ask you to bear in mind the following:

1. The printing quality is very poor.
2. There is no specific debt referred to.
3. The website for the company does not exist.
4. No legitimate debt collection company that I know of would use a PO Box as their main business address.
5. The telephone number has been on the receiving end of complaints about bogus debt collection for Unicom.

Universal Debt Collection is a scam!

Do not be taken in by these con artists.  I urge you to report any scam to the Office of Fair Trading, your local Trading Standards Department or ConsumerFraudReporting.org

Technorati Tags: universal debt collection,debt collection scam,letter scam

Busy days

So far this week I have made contact with the press six times on three different stories.  Hopefully some of that will make its way into the different newspapers over the coming days and weeks.  I am not going to try to keep up with my press releases in detail on this blog any more because that quantity of press release posts would become a little boring.

Suffice it I hope that you know that both as a Borough Councillor and Prospective Parliamentary Candidate I am keeping the local press up to speed with opinions on relevant stories.

Paperwork for meetings is a delivery that I am pleased comes in advance.  As a sole member I have to plough through the whole thing alone and am not able to disseminate/discuss the report or ideas/questions that come from it among a group as the other councillors are.  This is a situation that I hope will be remedied on May 6th.

For now I am facing 126 pages of reports for a Social Scrutiny Meeting next week.  Evening reading if you will.

I was in the council house for an Appeals committee hearing yesterday.  Not a thing that I can tell you about that because by definition it is about private matters.  It was nice for me to be able to take a turn in chairing one of these meetings.

Being a councillor is never dull and I have received a bulletin from the Nuneaton Civic Society through the internal mail.  Always well worth a read.

Technorati Tags: press release,prospective parliamentary candidate,appeals committee,social scrutint panel,nuneaton and bedworth borough council

Freedom of the Borough – Royal Regiment of Fusiliers and Queens’ Gurkha Signals

I have not been given this date from within the council but rather from a different but reliable source.

The information that I have is that the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers and the Queens’ Gurkha Signals are to be granted the status of Honorary Freemen of the Borough in recognition and grateful appreciation of the eminent service which these Regiments have rendered to Queen and Country and to the Borough over a period of years.

The Freedom of the Borough ceremony is due to take place on the 12th of September 2010.

I was one of the few opposition councillors who actually bothered to remain long enough to vote for this last year in a full council meeting and I am very pleased that I did.  Having these two regiments connected to the borough is something that I am proud of and I hope that you are too.

Technorati Tags: freedom of borough,nuneaton and bedworth borough council,royal regiment of fusiliers,queens gurkha signals,honorary freemen,full council meeting

Internet connection

I am struggling at the moment for an internet connection and cannot get an engineer out until early February.

I an finding it very frustrating not being able to update you but will get posts on here intermittently as I am able until full connection is resumed.

Technology is wonderful then it breaks!

Irresponsible press

I am sick and tired of the way that the press of this nation view the people that buy their newspapers.  These people are by definition local residents.

This is only today’s example but it will do nicely to illustrate the point.

The Coventry Telegraph is taking a swing at Nuneaton today in my view.  They have posted a story about a three year old YouTube clip of a fight that took place outside a nightclub in Nuneaton in 1996.  The story is titled, “Night out in Nuneaton”.  Great!  What a fantastic way to represent the borough.  I am outraged by this slur on the character of the town.

This is the epitome of lazy brain dead journalism!

If you have just one moment to spare for a search of YouTube with the town’s name as your only search term and refine the search by hits you will find that this is the seventh most popular video and with a paltry score at 36,000 views over three years compared with footage of a wildlife sanctuary with 90,000 views over two years.  Come on Martin Bagot of the Coventry Telegraph.  You can do better than this!

Social Scrutiny Panel

Last night’s Social Scrutiny Panel meeting was rather interesting.

Firstly we had a call in.  Always interesting these and only the second in my time as a councillor.  The first being the grounds maintenance contract.

The call in by the Labour group (for those who are not local) was in three parts two of which were not allowed to be debated because the proper officer had decided that they were not subject to call in.  Initially there was some protest on this point and I must say I agreed with the Labour people here.  The chair was quite correct in that as the constitution of Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council is written at the moment the debate would be limited to the single item that had been approved.  i agree that the opposition parties should be able to call in any damn thing that they see fit for scrutiny.  This was not something that we were able to vote on at the meeting unfortunately.  It is a constitutional matter and one that I look forward to seeing (for I am sure that I will) at a future meeting of the standards committee.

Other subjects on the agenda were the Community Cohesion Strategy and reports from the Nuneaton Museum and Art Gallery and the Play Rangers.

The Community Cohesion Strategy report was presented and was I must say far more interesting than the debate on the now limited call in.  Good work has clearly been done on this strategy from definition right through to monitoring outcomes.

The management and staff of the Museum and Art Gallery do far more than simply occupy a building in Riversley Park.  Visits are up by 27,000 on the previous year.  This is excellent work on behalf of the management and staff.  The staff have many more ideas for the future of the Arts in the borough but with the post of Arts Development Officer being frozen currently due to budgetary constraints these cannot be progressed, or at the very least it is incredibly difficult for them to do so in a more limited manner than they would wish.

The panel passed a motion to recommend to cabinet that the position of Arts Development Officer be thawed out as it were at the next budget.  The effects that this department has throughout the borough I do not have time to go into here unfortunately.

The Play Rangers scheme reported their successes to the panel and faced questioning as had the others.  The panel passed a motion to recommend to cabinet that the Play Rangers be included in the next budget as a growth item and this was tied in with the work currently being done by the Health Inequalities Working Group which I am also on.

There was a little political intrigue at this meeting.

The scrutiny panels are supposed to be non political.  Politics is left at the door.  Now being a realist and as the subject matter discussed is far too important for petty playground spats and the making political of points I usually refrain from proposing motions.  I take a full part in debate and suggest wordings and I always vote but I do not actually propose motions that often.  The reason is self evident.  Politics should stay at the door but the members from the other parties by and large cannot help themselves.

last night with the play rangers debate every member still in the committee room was in agreement that this request should be put forward but no-one was doing it.  So I did!

The room went quiet.  The motion was clarified and a seconder was sought.  Bearing in mind that every member in the room agreed and had already said so the Chair seemed quite perplexed that no-one would second the motion so he seconded it himself to prevent the motion falling.  The vote was taken and from the six members in the room three voted for the motion with non against and three abstentions.  If the motion had been allowed to fall the play rangers would not have been put forward to cabinet for consideration as a growth item for the forthcoming budget.  I am in a frustrating position quite regularly in committee and bite my tongue for the good of the people.  It is a test of character and sometimes, as on this occasion, quite frustrating.  I never allow politics to get in the way of the best decision for the people and vote accordingly.  I have voted with both ruling and opposition parties though obviously not at the same time.

Technorati Tags: uk politics,nuneaton and bedworth borough council,social scrutiny panel,health inequalities working group,play rangers,community cohesion strategy,museum and art gallery,labour party,conservative party,arts development officer,recommendation to cabinet

Health Inequalities Working Group

Every council has a scrutiny function and within Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council I sit on the Social Scrutiny Panel.  This provides me with plenty of opportunities to take part in working groups.  I have been on several working groups since being elected and they are all important but the Health Inequalities Working Group that I am currently contributing to particularly interesting because Barpool Ward is in the top quartile of Super Output Areas in the country on many areas and the top ten percent in some.

Within the council and with our partner agencies we often talk about narrowing the gaps between standards in the North and South of the county.  I have seen plenty of evidence in scrutiny meetings to show that the gaps are substantial.  Not that there is any cause for complacency anywhere.

There is only a small amount of money available to the working group and we are to take action to target a specific (as yet undecided) area of the borough as a test area.  While carrying out the work we will record evidence of improvements for use as supporting evidence for funding applications to expand on the success and develop further actions.

This may all sound too non-specific and pie in the sky for some but it is through the accurate mapping and consultation with health partners that we are undertaking at the moment that good community projects are born.

I personally have a feeling that something good will come of this work.

Technorati Tags: nuneaton and bedworth borough council,barpool ward,social scrutiny panel,working group,partner agencies,health,health inequalities working group

Computer Catastrophe

I have had a computer meltdown at home so I am presently configuring this laptop with everything that I need to function properly.

You do not realise how much software you use every week until you lose it.

Not the happiest Nationalist this morning but hey, worse things happen all of the time.