Welcome back Tav!!

Nice to see the Wyre Forest Agenda, Tavis Pitt's irreverent weblog is back and running! He has been missed!

Edward Parry Centre, under threat?

Came back from the first meeting of the new Governing Body of Offmore Primary School tonight to find a message from a concerned local resident whose daughter attends the Edward Parry Centre. Apparently staff have been told the centre will close!

I know that ALL Adult Services are under threat because of the mess that is the Tory Controlled County Council Budget BUT no decisions have been made by the Council yet so I will be chasing this tomorrow!

As the Local Member they are SUPPOSED to keep me informed but this is Worcs CC we are talking about!

Chaddesley Corbett Primary School

I don't very often find it necessary to go completely against officer advice at the Development Control Committee but tonight I felt totally justified.

The whole village of Chaddesley Corbett is in the Green Belt so any site for its desperately needed new Primary School was going to be contentious.

For some reason our Planning Officers were persisting in recommending refusal of an application on the only available site and were persisting in seeking to promote a site which is NOT available.

I was pleased to propose approval of the Chaddesley Educational Foundation's application which was seconded by Chris Nicholls (Labour member for Cookley) and was approved unanimously.

Because it is a departure from the District Local Plan it comes back to us for confirmation in December and also has to be referred to Government Office for the West Midlands, hopefully they won't object as a school is one of the few justifications for building in the greenbelt. we will await their comments!

Extended schools planning day

It really should have been billed as a "planning morning" but never mind! Representatives of every school in Wyre Forest and Hagley plus senior County Officers, representatives of the Youth Service, the Police and County Councillors came together at Kidderminster's Gainsborough House Hotel this morning to start to plan the local "Extended Schools Offer".

A hiccup in a mailmerge programme meant that the attendance list had slipped in such a way that for those of us whose surname started with letters comiming after "f" in the alphabet received their own First name and job description but the surname of the person above them in the list! I therefore becam Fran Oates and the Head Teacher of Wolverley High became Kevin Oborski!! Never mind, at least they tried!

All delegates voiced concern that the County, whilst setting up an impressive team of officers to manage the process does NOT appear to be offering any extra money to the schools! We await the budget with interest.

Will the semi-literate, anonymous poster here stop wasting my time!

I have already made it clear that I will delete anonymous and scurrilous postings so will the illiterate, foul mouthed individual who keeps leaving his drivel on this site please go away and play in the gutter where he belongs!

Polish Independence Day

Whilst November 11th is Remembrance Day, and therefore a fairly solemn occasion in the UK it is also Polish Independence Day as Poland regained independence on November 11th 1918. For the Polish Community this is therefore a day of celebration!

On Friday I was privileged to be a guest at the Independence Day Reception at the Polish Embassy whilst on Sunday the Kidderminster Polish Community managed to take part in the Remembrance Day commemorations AND hold a special mass at the Polish Church AND then a late afternoon, early evening Akademia (a mix of patriotic readings, songs and poetry followed by a film and refreshments) at the Polish Club. As KIdderminster Polish Combatants Assoc holds its own Standard and that of the former Worcester Branch we managed to place the Worcester Standard in the Polish Church and then have our local standard carried in the Kidderminster Parade.

Earlier in the weekend the Polish Saturday School held an AGM and elected a new committee. At least 20 parents attended as well as our "new" Polish language teacher, Agnieszka; as she has lived in Kidderminster for 10 years she is the ideal person for the job! 

Remembrance Sunday

Yesterday saw oneof the largest crowds I can ever remember seeing at a Kidderminster Remembrance Day service.

Sadly the new arrangements, forced on us by the Royal British Legion, really do NOT work.

Despite the Civic Parade having left the Town Hall in plenty of time we were left standing in the middle of the ring road adjacent to the War Memorial for 10 minutes so that, by the time we were in place the ceremony was very late starting and the church clock struck eleven in the middle of the first hymn so the 2 minutes silence actually took place at 11.05!!

The arrangements for the wreath laying were chaotic!

The arrangement was supposed to be that ALL Civic wreaths i.e those laid by the Mayor, the Chairman of Wyre Forest, the Leaser of Wyre Forest Council, myself on behalf of the Polish Consulate (and thus on behalf of the Polish Government) and the MP if present (yesterday Richard was at Bewdley) would be laid on the Angel of Peace as usual whilst the ex-service organisations would lay theirs on the war memorial. Previously ALL wreaths had been laid at the foot of the Angel of Peace and a very dignified arrangement it had proved to be.

Yesterday the arrogance of the Secretary of the Legion meant that the Mayor and Chairmen laid their wreaths at the Angel of Peace, with the whole crowd having their backs to them!

John Campion and I were first of all told we had to lay our wreaths on the War Memorial, then he forgot to call us forward so we went anyway and discovered that we were trying to stand wreaths in an area containing a large puddle!

The area behind the Angel of Peace enables Standard Bearers to form an arc and be able to dip their standards in respect. The arrangement continued  BUT now most of the offical parade are standing with their backs to the standards; hardly respectful!

Incompetence continued inside the packed church! Seating really was at a premium but, as usual, 3 side pews, adjacent to the Civic pews were reserved for the Standard Bearers. Unfortunately the Legion Secretary directed the Standard Bearers in the wrong direction after they had handed in the Standards to the clergy and so we had the ludicrous situation that elderly people were standing at the rear of the church whilst there were three empty pews at the front!

The service itsely was superb and it was wonderful to see so many members of the community, old and young, there to pay tribute. Just a shame that one man's stubborn incompetence messed it up for many!