So who started all of this? It's the time of the season...

March is "Noodle Month" (including pasta) and also "Talk with your teens about sex month" and "On-hold" (as is telephone) month!

The first week in March is also "Procrastination Week" which bodes extremely well for politicians everywhere.

Meanwhile March 1st is "Pig Day". Celebrate as you will...

Baldwin Road...

...is a very pleasant residential road. So why can't the County Council maintain the trees...

...and why can't the County Council sort out the pavement where trees have been removed before someone breaks their neck...

So the County Council is managing to control skips...

No it aint! Get it sorted...

Steps in Edinburgh Close...

The handrail needs sorting. Rob and Fran are pushing for action...

Get it sorted...

Who is responsible for the steps by Meat Save in Broad Street. Someone needs to get them sorted!

"Campbell snubbed"

...says Sunday Mercury front page story. The real story shouldn't be that Council's are NOT taking up places on a £250 a head course to hear Alistair Campbell on how to handle a "cynical and disinterested media" at a posh Sutton Coldfield Hotel. The story should be why does any half wit think that any Council would be interested in the first place.

However, The Sunday Mercury do say that the organisers, LG Communications, are publicly funded. They say "Mr Campbell is being paid £10,000 of taxpayers money for the seminar".

We have carried out a little investigation and here are our findings:-

So who are LG Communications? Well according to their web site:

LGcommunications (formerly the Society of County and Unitary Public Relations Officers) LGcomms represents local authority public relations and communications teams across the United Kingdom. It brings together senior PR and communications professionals working for principal councils.

Like other local government professional associations, our main purpose is to provide a forum for sharing ideas and experiences and to promote best practice. The association provides a voice for members on issues that affect the service we provide.

Interestingly they appear to be sponsored by The Northcliffe Press!

Is Worcestershire County Council a member? Apparently not!

Is Wyre Forest District Council a member? Apparently yes!

Do we want to know what is going on? Sure as Hell we do!

Cannabis Cafe raid...

Yes, in the Horsefair. We wish we could link to Sunday Mercury story but they don't make it possible.

No reform to Council Tax yet...

...says Blair!

Borrington Road Update...

The hopelessly delapidated changing rooms block on the playing fields should be demolished within a few weeks.

The Offmore Comberton Action Group has almost £100,000 pledged in grants and is just waiting for final confirmation of a further £100,000 matched funding to bring the total to about £200,000.

As soon as the money is confirmed Wyre Forest Community Housing are geared up to start work straight away.

The project includes play area, ball park, skate board facilities, leisure areas, nature reserve and dog walking area.

Express & Star adds on March 1st...

Changing rooms face bulldozers

Dilapidated former changing rooms at disused playing fields in Kidderminster are expected to be knocked down "within weeks," a councillor said today.

Booze ban cuts crime by more than half...

Says Express & Star story (to which we cannot link directly because thay insist you 'subscribe' before you can access stories). They report...

A booze ban in parts of Bewdley has helped play a vital role in slashing violent crime in the town, a report has revealed.

Bright sharply cold morning...

...perfect for delivering 'Focus' Newsletters in Broadwaters!

Fran broke off to open the multi-cultural diversity celebration organised by Wyre Forest Community Housing at the Salvation Army Hall in the Horsefair - lots of events going on, big turn out and excellent food!

Lunch in the Hare & Hounds then most of my colleagues headed off to the diversity celebration leaving me to get on with Ward work correspondence.

Broadwaters Focus...

Get the latest on Council Tax increases and local services and issues right here! The latest issue hits the streets Saturday morning! Get up to speed right now!

And snow!

Wow! Snow in Kidderminster on Polar Bear Day!

How are you celebrating Polar Bears?

With the 27th February about to dawn we wish a happy "Polar Bear Day" to one and all! Does anybody know what exactly is the proper way to celebrate the day? Failing any expert advice I think it's off to the iced vodka!

Those detailed figures...

The detailed figures on Council Tax Bills in Wyre Forest from April work out like this.

On a Band 'D' property the County Council share of the bill will be £824.52 and the Fire Service Bill will be £60.21. That is up from a combined bill last year of £822.35 when they were billed in together.

The District share of a Band 'D' bill goes from 160.13 to £168.04 while the West Mercia Police bill goes from £119.80 to £137.69.

The Kidderminster Charter Trustee Bill is up 1p from £3.73 to £3.74.

So the total Band 'D' bill in Kidderminster is up from £1106.01 to £1194.20.

Band 'A' in Kidderminster will be £796.13 (£737.34), Band 'B' £928.82 (£860.24), Band 'C' £1,061.50 (£983.13), Band 'D' £1,194.20 (£1,106.01), Band 'E' £1,459.57 (£1,351.79), Band 'F'  £1,724.95 (£1,597.58), Band 'G' £1,990.33 (£1,843.35), Band 'H' £2,388.40 (£2,212.02).

There is a slight variation across the District depending upon which Town or Parish you are in. Band 'D' bills will range from £1,190.46 in Ribbesford to £1,209.66 in Stourport-on-Severn. The Bewdley Band 'D' bill is £1,204.36.

Pensioners and Council Tax...

Several phone calls today - all of them heart rending - from pensioners who are worried and in some cases frightened by the Council Tax increases. There has got to be some sort of initiative from Government to protect pensioners from the impact of these increases. Action is long overdue.

Dog mess...

Lots of complaints about dog mess on the pavement in Wordsworth Crescent along the side of the Masefield Gardens flats away from the School. Dog owners please, please....

Farfield Parking...

We are getting complaints about car parking by rail users in Farfield. Let us know if you are having problems.

Wimmins Lib...

The "Wimmins Lib" Team (Cllr Fran Oborski, Cllr Rachel Lewis, Constituency Party Chair Louise Taylor, and Broadwaters Focus Editor Mandy Poole) came about halfway down the field in the Quiz Night in support of the Kidderminster War Memorials Trust at the Town Hall tonight. They did well on food and drink and flopped on sport. No surprise there then!

Still on Council Tax...

The Express & Star reports it like this...

Tax wrath as police take lion's share

Council tax bills in Wyre Forest will rise by more than £7 a month from April - with nearly 30 per cent of the rise going to fund West Mercia Police.

People are strange...

Well the Wyre Forest District Council budget for 2004/04 went through tonight on the votes of Health Concern and this Liberal Group.

No pacts, no deals. We simply ended up coming to the same conclusions about the financial situation in which we find ourselves.

And the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat Groups on the Council? What did they do? They talked a lot but when it came to the final vote on the budget - they just abstained!

Council Tax Increases...

The Wyre Forest District share of the Council Tax Bill will increase by 4.9% from April 1st this year. The Worcestershire County Council share of the bill goes up by 5.1% while the West Mercia Police bill goes up by a staggering 15%.

The total increase looks like 7.9%.

Scroll down to Cllr Mike Oborski's contribution to the Wyre Forest District Council Council Tax debate tonight to get our fix on the whole issue...

Mike secures £20,000 extra for Borrington Road project...

In the course of the Wyre Forest District Council Budget Debate Liberal Finance Spokesman Cllr Mike Oborski secured an EXTRA £20,000 capital (that means it does NOT affect your Council Tax bill) towards the Borrington Road Playing Field project which will deliver a massive play area, ball park, skate board facilities, nature reserve and dog walking area serving the whole of the East of Kidderminster.

The total project looks on course to meet its £200,000 target. Keep your fingers crossed!

Budget fixing Council "bits and pieces"...

Tory Leader dead in the water...

Tory Leader Cllr Stephen Clee was dead in the water - with a Budget amendment tabled without warning at the last minute on the night of the meeting - when Liberal Leader Cllr Fran Oborski pointed out that just a week ago in the County Council Budget Debate at County Hall Cllr Clee had attacked the Lib Dems with this truly resounding declaration:-

"It is unacceptable for any group to put an amendment on the table at Council when they have not had discussions about it with the Leader of the Council to try to get their ideas taken onboard."

Whoops! What is sauce for Lib Dems at County is sauce for Tories at District!

Total Tory Breakdown..

Tory  problems got worse as they couldn't coherently explain what they were cutting to make the savings to pay for what they wanted to put into the budget.

We hope that you can follow so far.

Things reached a climax when Tory Leader Cllr Clee explained how he was cutting spending on the Council Newspaper only 'Wyre Forest Matters' is NOT the Council Newspaper it is in fact the Community Strategy agreed by lots of local organisations - and which the Tory Group Leader (Cllr Clee's boss) at County Hall, Cllr George Lord, has described as the best in the County! 

Why were they born so beautiful...

The Lib-Dem Group didn't propose any Budget amendment and then abstained on the vote!

Why were they there? What do they do? Does anybody know?

Altogether now...

"Why were they born so beautiful, why were they born at all. They're... ..."

Graham on form...

Liberal Councillor Graham Ballinger was on good form demanding action on litter in the streets and in a seering indictment of the Police Authority for delivering a rocketting bill without improving services.

The boring bit...

Liberal Finance Spokesman Cllr Mike Oborski told the 25th February Budget fixing Meeting of the Wyre Forest District Council...

As you will be aware today is Ash Wednesday—a time for penitence and confession when our heads are marked with ash so that we will not be confused with those who are marked with the number of the beast.

So this seems an appropriate time to confess that I have supped with the Leader of the Conservative Group and also, separately I hasten to add, by candlelight with the Leader of the Council - but alas not at the crossroads at midnight. On both occasions I took a metaphorical long spoon!

Chairman I want to lay down a series of markers and reservations about the financial state of this Council and I hope that they will be taken seriously.

Firstly, I want to comment about the overall financial context in which we are operating.

In paragraph 5.4 on page 81 The Head of Financial Services warns that “The Council will need to seek a long term solution to the high proportion of expenditure funded out of Reserves”. Indeed, the projected gap in 2006/07 between income and expenditure to be funded from reserves is now estimated at £1.5 million.

Yes, I know that we have always used reserves to bridge the gap but as we increasingly tighten our financial regime the possibilities for alternative action are diminishing and we may not enjoy the windfalls of recent times which may have induced a false sense of security.

We also know that the implications of the actuarial review of the pension scheme will hit home in 2005. Whether that comes home at more or less than 4% in terms of increase to this Council will be of profound significance to our future finances.

In addition there is the matter of our £535,000 “pool” contribution imposed by Central Government to guarantee minimum levels of support to other authorities. What we will see back from that is both crucial and unpredictable.

In the wider world it is clear that the general public and particularly the elderly, have—quite understandably—totally lost patience with Council Tax Increases. While we know that we are driven towards a 5% increase by the total impact of wage inflation, government imposition and changing consumer demand all the public know is that Council Tax is going up higher than their incomes.

At this point one should note that the actual increase is 7.9% because while the District comes in at 4.9% and the County at 5.1% the Police are demanding a 15%. Chairman, we had better see something for it! Just a few years the Police bill was 44% of the District Bill. It is now 82% of the District Bill.

7.9% is too high and although it is not our fault we had better realise now that nobody is going to accept this sort of level again next year.

Secondly, there is a batch of local issues facing this Council.

There is the overspend in the current year of £100,000 and in a full year of £250,000 on the introduction of the kerb side recycling scheme. Chairman, it is out of control. It needs sorting.

And can I say Chairman that we note the carefully chosen wording at the top of Appendix 2 where it states “APPROVED IN PRINCIPLE”. That of course means that in reality there isn’t a brass farthing to do any of them and one has to wonder whether most of them will ever happen.

In particular, the drive to 99% recycling is financial madness.

Any voting for any budget by this group tonight should not be taken as committing us in any way at this time to any specific item in Appendix 2—desirable though many of them are. We will have to see if the money is there later on in the year before we agree to anything. To say anything else is dangerous and misleading.

Then there is Duke Place. I gather that we are looking for a new name for the building. I have a suggestion. Let's call it "Howard's End". What exactly is happening about the disposal of Land Oak House? More importantly what is happening about the surrender of the Vicar Street lease? I gather that the current politically correct expression is that it is “proving difficult”. I suspect it is much worse than difficult. If that goes belly up we will have to find another £100,000 per annum for the duration of the “difficulty”

There is also the matter of car parking. I know there is a review coming. It had better be good. There are a lot of unhappy car park users out there. I gather that income is running at £20,000

less than predicted but I accept that there is still lots of water to go under the bridge on this one.

Chairman, these concerns and reservations are real, they are serious and they need to be tackled.

However, they are not going to be tackled by short term gimmicks. They need to be addressed seriously and common sense dictates that that is now only likely to happen in the aftermath of the June elections.

We also have to take a balanced view. There is also much to welcome in the proposed budget. The highlight is undoubtedly the drive to secure £2.04 million capital for affordable housing.

The continued funding of Bewdley Museum is very welcome but the long term future of the Museum has still got to be secured!

The “manoeuvre” to assist the funding of the neighbourhood wardens is also very welcome. Funny how that tactic was “immoral” a year ago but is now perfectly acceptable.

Chairman, when I had my candle lit lunch with the Leader of the Council I handed over a list on the back of the proverbial envelope of items which we wanted to see addressed in the Budget. We are happy that these have all been taken on board: the Brinton Park Skate Board project; the funding for the Old Pals Shelter, assistance for Dial-a-Ride; support for Forest Dog Reescue and of course additional funding to tackle litter and street cleansing.

In particular we have got to get a grip on the street cleansing issue. It is a matter of enormous and justified public concern and there is an enormous amount still to do.

On balance for the reasons I have explained - and with the reservations I have explained — we intend to vote for the budget but with one amendment.

The Offmore Comberton Action Group has secured massive funding towards the development of the Borrington Road Playing Field site at a multi functional resources. It will have a massive play area, a ball park, skate boarding facilities, a nature reserve and a dog walking area. There is massive public support and involvement in the project for which Wyre Forest Community Housing is providing the site, acting as the development facilitator, picking up the long term maintenance bill and providing a major slice of the capital.

In total we are heading towards a total package of over £200,000 funding from a variety of sources for a project that embraces all age groups and sectors of the community on the east of Kidderminster.

We believe that the Council should be contributing to this scheme and we are moving a capital contribution of £20,000 which will particularly assist in ensuring full inclusion features and facilities for disabled youngsters.

I move the amendment and I urge Council to support the budget with the amendment.

Last page...

Has it occurred to you that there must be a "last" page on the internet?

Worcestershire County Council Ward Boundary Review...

Well here are the recommendations for the whole County and the map of the Wyre Forest proposal.! The latter is a huge file by the way. You can find the whole shooting match with all the other maps for the County at the official site - but it's pretty heavy going as a site.

Let us know what YOU think.

What do WE think? Well...

Binned...

I was phoned by a very nice guy yesterday. He's doing all the recycling but at the end of the day there is just too much left for the fortnightly wheelie bin collection to cope. So he is backwards and forwards to the tip. He asked the Council if he could have two bins or a larger bin. No he can't. There is only five of them and none of them are under three. There was really nothing I could say to him. He was also puzzled as to why they constantly refuse to take some carboards marked as suitable for recycling when they empty the recycling boxes. It's all so stupid.

Off topic...

With all the fuss about the possibility of the UK being flooded by zillions of rapacious Central Europeans on May 1st yesterday's publication of the Institute for Public Policy Research paper "EU enlargement and labour migration an ippr Fact File" went unnoticed. Why? Well it isn't wild speculation so it isn't what the tabloids want. It makes pretty interesting and very, very different reading though.

Greetings...

As "Hypertension Awareness Weeks" fades gently into "Friendship Week" Iceland celebrates Bolludagur (Bun Day) today and tomorrow is Sprengidagur or "Bursting Day" when they consume Saltkjot og baunir (salted-meat and peas) to the point of bursting. Don't say you never learn anything from this site!

Loss of public confidence...

We recently commented on yet another huge rise in the Police share of the Council Tax to the effect that it is high time we saw something for our money.

In Offmore and Comberton relations with the Police have never been better but elsewhere things are not so good.

In the last few days I have received several unsigned letters of which this is typical:-

It's getting even better...

Somewhere down below I posted...

"Is it (a) legal, (b) desireable, (c) sensible, (d) illegal, (e) bonkers for an elected District and / or County Councillor to become the Clerk of a Parish Council within that District / County Council area? We think we should be told."

Now of course I did have a case in mind. We hear on the grapevine that a local Tory Councillor (please correct me if I'm wrong) has done just that.

Well, another Tory Councillor has added the following "comment" to that original posting and the capital letters are his not mine:-

"ITS A DISGRACE IF NOT ILLEGAL!!!!! TO SAY NOTHING ABOUT UNBELIEVABLE THAT ANY ONE COULD SERIOUSLY CONSIDER SUCH A POSITION!!!!! I THOUGHT IT WAS 1ST APRIL WHEN I READ THIS!!!!"

Further developments are awaited with interest.

And a very hot welcome to Labour County Councillors...

...After our welcome (see below somewhere) to visiting Wyre Forest Tory District Councillors I found a "comment" chiding me for never welcoming Labour County Councillors!

After last Thursday's Meeting at County Hall I'd come away thinking that all the Labour members had actually joined the Conservative Party (and that Cooperative Party members had joined Sainsburys!). They were so busy praising the Tory administration and voting with them! As I've commented somewhere below it was all like the final paragraphs of Orwell's "Animal Farm"!

So apologies and an extremely hot welcome to all visiting Labour County Councillors!

Getting serious...

Wow! If you read the next few stories we really are in serious mood at the moment. Well, that's the way it goes!

Fire Brigade Costs...

I'm a member of the Fire Authority but I didn't make it to the meeting that decided what they would be adding to your Council Tax bill. I spent that day running around in increasingly diminishing circles trying to sort out the Borrington Road Playing Fields project  but that's another story.

Had I been there I would have voted for the increase. Why? It is simple. It is needed. The Brigade has been dangerously underfunded and that cannot be right.

In actual fact the Fire Service bill is currently only 3.7% of the total County Council Tax Bill so this increase will NOT knock a huge hole in your pocket.

The Worcester Evening News reports...

Tax rise in bid to halt brigade cuts