County incompetence!

There are times when I really doubt where some part of the County Council were when the brain cell were being handed out!!

Two weeks ago County Highways totally resurfaces part of a garage site and parking area in Gray Close; an area which is about to be dug up as part of the new housing development and new shopping precinct at Longfellow Green, thus wasting thousands of pounds of our money!

Today I had an e mail from the same Highways Dept explaining that the delay in putting in the agreed double yellow lines at the Ashdene Close/Tennyson Way junction is because they have run out of money under that budget heading!!

In December 2006 they carried out a consultation on this site. Because Mike, who was the County Councillor, died in Feb 07, before they had completed the order, they said they had to reconsult when the new County councillor was in place.

Graham was elected in March 07. When they STILL hadn't started the reconsultation at the end of May 07 we complained. They redid the consultation last summer/autumn and NOW they have no money to publish the final order and intall the lines!! They really are a joke!

Holocaust Memorial

Today's ceremony at Kidderminster's Holocaust Memorial was very well attended and very moving.

The Chairman of WFDC and Mayors of Kidderminster, Stouport and Bewdley were joined by community representatives from across the district.

Prayers were offered by Canon Owain Bell (St Marys), Fr. Tom (St Ambrose RC), Rev Mary Austin (Trinity Methodist), Mr J Szauman-Szumski (Rep Polish RC Church, Our Lady of Ostra Brama) and Dr Baron Mendes da Costa (Rep Jewish Community).

The Head Girl and Head Boy of King Charles1 School laid a wreath of white flowers to remember all the children killed in the Holocaust and then all the other children present laid flowers before the adults who were led by the Civic Dignatories.

We are very grateful to the Standard Bearers from Kidderminster Royal British Legion, Royal Naval Assoc and Polish Ex-Combatants Assoc who attended with standards.

Super Celebration Event

Last Night I was privileged to be one of the Award Presenters at the Oldington and Foley Park Pathfinder Oscars at Kidderminster Town Hall.

It was a super event, ably compered by John Paul Campion at which community representatives of all ages received recognition.

Well done everyone!!

Hazel Blears offers "New Deal for Kidderminster"!!

"In a speech to the New Local Government Network she announced 'community contracts' between local communities and their council that are to be piloted in twelve areas across the country in Sunderland, Gateshead, Barnsley, Oldham, Lewisham, King's Lynn, Blyth, Kirklees, Brighton, Manton, Kidderminster and London's South Bank."

Note she says KIDDERMINSTER, not WYRE FOREST!!

This appears to mean residents in Kidderminster can get a series of Special Deals out of the "Town Hall"!! I assume that means from WFDC!

Who will pay for our privileges?

We want a Kidderminster Town Council! Then we in Kidderminster can choose to pay for extra services AND provide and control them!

What Hazel Blears appears to be giving us is a privileged position within Wyre Forest which MAY have to be paid for by EVERY Wyre Forest Resident!! That would NOT be fair on Bewdley or Stourport or the Rural Area!

It is interesting though'.... earlier tonight OCAG was debating the possibility of setting up a Community Land Fund and taking over the maintenance of Borrington Park from WFCH. Perhaps we should take over some WFDC services locally, in return for the Council improving specified services for us!!

This is really interesting, I need to do some solid research!!

Special Development Control Committee

Councillors have just been informed that there will be a Special Meeting of the Planning, Development Control Committee on March 4th to consider the Tesco Application in Stourport. Venue to be confirmed.

I hope it's in the Civic Hall.

Weaver's Cottages

Wyre Forest Community Housing have put in a planning application for "Listed Building Consent to Demolish" these listed "slums"! Sorry if that is an emotive word but it is what they are!

I'm sorry if emotive language upsets the sensitivities of the "Save every bit of our heritage whatever the cost" Brigade but occasionally a bit of reality needs to kick in.

Back in the 1920's or so somebody put a stucco like rendering on them!

The current planning consent requires Community Housing to turn them into units of accomodation BUT their "listed status" means that, although additional facilities can be added at the rear, the internal layout MUST be preserved.

The Housing Corporation requires new Social Housing to be built to lifetime homes standards; that cannot be achieved with these properties.

The agreement between the Housing Company and WFDC means that the Company is liable for the first £220,000 of expenditure with WFDC having to cough up for everything above that. That means around £300,000 of OUR money being spent on them!

These structures are so unsound that it is impossible to get into them to do a total estimate of costs but the current figure is that it will be in excess of £500,000 to produce units which will be hard to let right from the start.

We have a shortage of social and affordable housing in Wyre Forest. Spending this sort of money on these properties is not the way to solve that shortage.

The Horsefair, Broadwaters and Greenhill Partnership agree with the Company as they want to see REAL regeneration in the Horsefair!

Before anyone asks; Avoncroft Museum are NOT interested.

I know that there are those who will campaign against this application (and because I have an "interest" as Chair of WFCH I will not be involved at Planning) BUT, if people really want to save the cottages then they'd better get out there and fund raise to buy them because to oppose and force PUBLIC money to be wasted in this way would, in my humble opinion, be pretty irresponsible!

If there is a benefactor out there who wants to splash his/her cash about then please come forward!

Celebration Event!

I've just come back from a super celebration! As a local Councillor I was asked to unveil a painting to celebrate the first year of operation of the Offmore Community Centre as an Adult Learning Centre run by the County Council's Learning Disabilities Team.

It a really good use of the centre and everyone was saying how welcoming the local community had been to them.

Congratulations all round!

Congratulations, St.Ambrose's Pre-School!

We have been told that Ofsted has described St.Ambrose's Catholic Pre-School as "Outstanding"!

We are not surprised but congratulations to everyone involved; it's a well deserved description!

Express and Star get it wrong.....AGAIN!

It was only a week or two ago that the Express and Star printed a front page story which suggested that the council was going to pedestrianise the part of Blackwell St. in front of the Swan Centre!

Tonight on page 11 with the headline "Families braced for flooding nightmare" they have a picture cationed: "Houses in Tewkesbury, Worcestershire, where the rivers Teme and Severn flooded".

As a Worcestershire County Councillor I should like to point out that we are NOT submitting a takeover bid, Tewkesbury remains where it always has been, firmly positioned in Gloucestershire!!

And what is MORE, Tewkesbury is, of course, at the confluence of the Rivers Severn and AVON ( not the Teme)!!

There was a time when journalists were expected to show a bit of knowledge!!!

Radiotherapy decision; no real surprise!

The decision that the proposed Three Counties Radiotherapy Centre will definitely NOT be sited at Kidderminster Hospital is not really a surprise.

We understand, emotionally, why people signed a petition in its favour but realistically, with our very poor transport links it always was a complete non-starter; after all WE complain about currently having to go to Wolverhampton; how would people from rural Herefordshire get to Kidderminster?

Much as we don't like centralised services, Worcester probably would be the best option!

New Mayor and Deputy chosen.

At tonight's meeting of the Kidderminster Charter Trustees it was unanimously decided that Tory Councillor Marcus Hart should be the next Town Mayor of Kidderminster and that Cllr. Howard Martin (Health Concern) should be the next Deputy Mayor.

Pretty poor show from Labour and Health Concern's Leadership

Councils have, by law, to produce a long-term (3 to 5) year, Corporate Plan.

The Wyre Forest Corporate Plan is now being reviewed.

A Task Group of members of the Corporate Services Committee, Chaired by Cllr. Graham Ballinger, has already had 2 meetings, starting the review process. Today ALL members of the Council were invited to a workshop, facilitated by representatives from the Audit Commission, which started the "in depth" process, so that we can actually develop new aims and priorities for the next three years.

ANY Political Group on the Council that intends to play an active part in the development of Wyre Forest over the next few years needed to ensure that it sent senior councillors to this important meeting.

The Tory Group sent a cross-section of Cabinet and back bench members, Graham Ballinger, Siri Hayward and I represented the Liberal Group, Pete Dyke (50% of the Lib Dem Group was there); but.............Cllr. Howard Martin, Leader of Health Concern, is a member of the Task Group supposedly reviewing the Corporate Plan so, one would have assumed he would be there, OR, at least represented by a few Senior colleagues, after all HC keep telling us that they are the main opposition on the Council; so who WAS there from the 10 member Health Concern Group? Just 2 inexperienced, fairly new backbenchers!!

And Labour? Not a single Labour Councillor BOTHERED to attend!

This is no way to represent the electorate.

A tragic accident

We send our condolences to the family of Police Community Support Officer, James Price.

James, who was a PCSO in Bewdley was tragically killed in a road accident near the Ramada Heath Hotel on Saturday morning as he drove to work.

We know that he will be missed in the community he served.

Northern Rock.

It looks as though the Government are gearing up to Nationalise Northern Rock, at least for a short time.

It is probably the best way to protect the massive public investment which has been made on our behalf!

As long as they don't let Peter Hain anywhere near it!!

I realise that fighting internal Labour Party elections is a heady business, but forgetting to declare over £100,000 collected by your campaign team is not exactly a good "reference" for the Minister in charge of the Government's largest spending department.....and spending that much money on an election campaign and then coming in 5th out of 6 candidates doesn't exactly give confidence in his idea of value for money!!

When I knew Peter he was a Young Liberal, and quite good fun; now he comes over as a boring, self-opinionated, pompous  ----!

Cats!!

The trouble with cats is they love sitting on warm surfaces, laptops are warm.......everytime I leave my office my elderly lady "Kibble" comes and sits on the keyboard whilst "Tadek" comes and sits on my chair!

And late at night, little Malgi sits and stares at me until I go to bed!

They are very comforting to be with though!

They say you are either a dog person or a cat person; I'm a definite cat person, as was Mike!

Dogs come when you call them, cats take a message and get back to you later, or so they say; but, since Mike died, every moment I've spent in the house at least one of the four "monsters" has been within a few feet of me!! (Mind you having a bath with an enormous tabby who steals bath sponges and soap and then tries to drink the bathwater can be an "interesting" experience!

WOW! I've won the lottery!!

Don't need to start packing for that World cruise yet though.....I've won....

...£10!!

Still one can always dream!!

Bewdley, Holocaust Memorial Tree Planted.

This morning I was honoured to be asked to be the key speaker at the planting of a Red Oak as Bewdley's Holocaust Memorial Tree at the Northwood Lane Recreation Area. Guests included the Mayor and Mayoress of Bewdley and Dr. Richard Taylor MP.

Fr. Jan Gora, from Our Lady of Ostra Brama in Kidderminster said a prayer as did a member of our local Jewish Community.

My thanks got to Bewdley Town Council, and in particular to Paul and Carol Gittings for organising this lovely event.

Sadly I couldn't stay for a cup of coffee as Wyre Forest Sheltered Housing Board had a whole day training session and I had to return to Foley Grove.

It was a brief but moving ceremony.

Polish pupils survey

A break from British Politics!

I am sending a survey form to every School in Worcestershire asking for information on numbers of new migrant Polish pupils on roll and their language support needs.

This will be used to support the efforts being made by the Polish Embassy to assess the true numbers of pupils involved.

I will send a stamped envelope to the schools as they shouldn't be asked to pay for my survey!

Primary aged children with no acceptable school place?

At County Council yesterday I asked a question of the Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Families about the much needed review of PANs (Pupil Admission Numbers) in Wyre Forest. This was promised to the former Wyre Forest Project Board. I was intially told that No School had asked for a PAN Review. This is untrue as Offmore Primary has already asked for both its PAN and Catchment area to be revisited.

I am now hearing that, not only do local Primary Schools (i.e. East of Kidderminster) all have waiting lists but some parents are keeping young children at home because they cannot get them into a school which is an acceptable distance from home.

I am now writing to the Cabinet member and Director of Children's Services asking for full details.

Liberal Group Budget amendments agreed.

After a hectic day with county and district meetings we ended up with a group meeting at which the Wyre Forest Liberal Group agreed a couple of amendments we will put to the District Council budget!

Now back to printing the next round of Focus leaflets!

Hey Ho! No peace for the wicked!!

County Council Meeting

Today's meeting of Worcestershire County Council, as usual, achieved little of use to residents of the county; BUT a few cans of worms were opened.

Questions on the Annual Report of the Leader of the Council, Dr. George Lord led to some interesting information:

In response to my question he admitted that there is now NO guarantee of funding for the promised new Secondary Schools in Wyre Forest and, even if we do get the funding, if the current "shower" are still in Government they may try to force our schools to become Academies (and thus remove all local authority influence) as a prerequisite of getting the money!

Dr. Lord also admitted that he favours an incinerator somewhere in Herefordshire or Worcestershire as an answer to the serious problems the County has in dealing with waste disposal! (I am sure that all of us who as members of SKI - Stop Kidderminster Incinerator, successfully defeated the earlier proposals for the Incinerator on the British Sugar site will happily support any other community where they try to dump such a scheme!).

We agreed a process for holding joint Health Scrutiny exercises with other affected authorities, a process which will commence very quickly because of the proposals from the Coventry and Warwickshire Mental Health Trust who are currently consulting on the future of the Lea Castle Hospital site.

Full Council meetings are getting more and more pointless, few decisions are ever put to the vote; the Cabinet system, whatever else it is in terms of efficiency, is not democratic!

You CANNOT always believe what you read in the papers!

Anyone who read yesterday's Express and Star, front page, could well have come away with the impression that the Council intended to pedestrianise the bottom end of Blackwell St. outside the Swan Centre!!

OOPS!! No the paper got it wrong!

Tonight's meeting of the Community and Regeneration Overview and Scrutiny Committee was considering a scoping paper on Kidderminster Regeneration, which will now go out to public consultation.

One of the possibilities is to create a new link from Churchfield through to the Ring Road to allow the pedestrianisation of the part of Blackwell St. ABOVE the Ring Road, from the Ring Road island to The Horsefair. This is the area which is an Air Quality Monitoring Area because of the nitrous oxides pollution there!

I do wish journalists/sub-editors would THINK before they print!

Excellent Greenhill PACT Meeting

Despite a bitterly cold evening there was a good turnout tonight at the Greenhill PACT meeting.

Successes which were reported included a real reduction in drug dealing nuisance in the Offmore Road area following a couple of successfully served arrest warrants.

Residents also applauded the use of plain clothes Police in Unmarked Cars who are increasingly patrolling the area at night in the fight against anti-social behaviour and vandalism against cars and property.

The planned County Council resurfacing work on Offmore Road and Leswell St. was also welcomed.

Ongoing PACT Priorities are:

Dog mess on local pavements,

Anti-social behaviour in St.George's Terrace

Damage to vehicles, Offmore Road area

Speeding on Chester Road North

Distraction burglaries

Shortage of space in local Primary Schools.

It was agreed that a press release should be issued, highlighting the successes of the PACT.

It was agreed to invite a representative from WFDC Street Scene to the next meeting which is on Monday March 31st at the Polish Club, St. George's terrace.

Thank you Mr. Mayor

It was lovely to see Kidderminster Town Mayor, Cllr. Mike Shellie with his daughter Caroline as Mayoress attending the Polish Community Oplatek dinner as Guests of Honour last night.

At what must be a very difficult time for the family they were given a really warm welcome. "Old friends" Charles and Jean Talbot and Fr. Douglas Lamb were also among the guests as were the Chairman of SPK (Polish Ex-Combatants Assoc.) GB and his wife.

It was a super evening so some of us are a little "fragile" this morning!