On Sunday I made a couple of visits to my patch. Level Lane Play area was first and as I suspected from heavy silence from the dog poo bin overseer/manager that only two of the three assigned three bins had been installed. As council staff were erecting them in December, a nameless man passed by threatened to wreck it as he had objected to its position. I was cross. I had the agreement of the nearest resident who did not object and thus the choice of position should not have caused any problem. So having installed one, the men left and no more was heard. This battle for the bins has dragged on since August. I had meantime identified another site close to the cut through leading to Green Meadows and yet again, my quest for information fell on stony ground. Now, I ‘ve asked Executive Member Nancy Matthews if she can wave a magic wand and get her staff to finish the job. Nancy as been under huge pressure from waste collection complaints but answered at once that she would see what she could do. The one complaint I received regarding brown bin collection was dealt with promptly and …..
The Corporate Resources Meeting was more interesting that I had expected and the Chief Executive played a major part in taking members through the complexities of the forthcoming budget proposals. As I had expected, I did not learn much more about the Early Retirement issue that was up for discussion. Both the elected chair for the meeting and another member closed any debate down, an action I accepted as the press was present. The press is frequently used to get a story out that a member wishes to have published in a round about way, but obviously my story and my concerns of a certain early retirement did not press the right buttons on this occasion. I was chuffed when the Head of Human Resources credited me with pressing officers to bring the costs etc. of early retirements to members’ regular attention. Head of HR graciously agreed that this policy had fallen by the way side and my doggedness had put it back on the agenda once more. I was happy to praise officers in return as I thought our Chief Executive, Colin Everett had displayed a masterful command of the budget brief. He answered detailed and complex questions without …..
The last site visit scheduled for 9th January Planning bus was in Magazine Lane, Ewloe and the matter would be decided by members on Wednesday 11th. It was a mean little site tight against the A55 with its constant roar of traffic, deep in mud in which wallowed 5 inquisitive ponies I felt sorry for the livestock and their conditions and I would have felt even unhappier for young children to live in such conditions particularly when a properly laid out site was available down the hill. A break before the start of the 1300 Planning committee allowed me to pop out and explain procedure to the people who were speaking against the proposal for the residents. I then met the applicant’s agent & my breath was taken away with his gratuitous rudeness to me and to Planning Officers. Yes, he would want three minutes to speak to the first part of the application and yes, he would then want a further three minutes to tell us how we had got it all wrong if we dared refuse the first application. He then threatened all in hearing with how he would take the Authority to the cleaner’s with massive costs. …..
The Council’s been in recess but started up again in earnest on 4th January with a members review of the demolition of Flint Maisonettes. I had spent New Year in a very soggy New Forest doing a fiendish jigsaw; the subject being owls. I’d bought it years ago for a friend who died. It was a total and absorbing challenge and when upon meeting Joan, my wonderful cleaning lady in the New Year, she told me that she had purchased some too years ago as they stimulated the brain! Having spent a week on the puzzle & hardly making an impact on all those almost identical owls, clearly my brain is in serious need of re-stimulating. For the time being owls are definitely having the last hoot! Stormy weather on 3rd January made me delay the return journey as I was just not willing to risk driving in suicide road conditions with 4 dogs in the back of a heavily laden car. Regret I missed the “Call in” but had read the papers and find the timing of this decision very strange indeed. How ever it is argued, it seems that the maisonette residents have been disenfranchised from the Choices …..
I was invited to the Hawarden High School service of Remembrance last Friday, the 11th day of the 11th Month of the 11th year. The event was a deeply moving and poignant occasion. Historic clips of Neville Chamberlains sad pronouncement that we are now at war with Germany, followed by the famous rousing Churchill speech “we will fight them on the beaches and never surrender”set the scene. Then with readings and music interspersed, more clips of life in the trenches, the mud , the battles, the animals struggling to pull huge artillery and all the horrors that came with all wars. The statistics of the dead, the casualties and how many had been affected were staggering and the saddest moment must have been when the list of those who were pupils who had paid that ultimate sacrifice were read out solemnly by serving pupils. The very last name, James Smart stood out on its own. He was the most recent departed boy who had very recently lost his life whilst serving in the RAF. His mother was in the audience as she was a few days later when we paid our respects at the Hawarden War Memorial. Sunday 13th, threatened …..
31st October. The cold that had been building up for days finally began to grow into a real stonker with a irritating cough and much lethargy. Not the best week to manifest itself but got though the site planning visit without problem. The number of members is dropping again and sending apologies is also slipping. I’ve always thought that to see the site is crucial and that was certainly true of Overlea Drive, Hawarden. Redrow acquired the land and had planned to develop it for years having won a the Planning Inspector enquiry. Another hurdle was cleared when it also passed muster from an internal planning panel of councillors so it stayed in the Unitary Development plan. That was partly my fault. I had been gullible and was prepared to support officer’s recommendation that the site was satisfactory and I had not realised politics was also being played. That’s all water under the bridge. The bus rolled up to a field squeezed between an an estate of bungalows and a railway line. Apprehensive residents & local councillors greeted us and led us onto the area to be inspected. The pond, the railway line running down a border, and a footpath …..
Community & Housing Scrutiny Committee met on 14th September and the meeting progressed well without any Executive input. We debated the hard facts of the escalating cost of living and cuts in benefits with more promised. Tenants are facing difficult times and unusually, politics entered the meeting over reduced benefits. Members of this Coalition were accused of wanton cutbacks Others argued it was the result of a toxic legacy of the previous administration that brought the country’s economy to the brink of bankruptcy. With the Press in attendance political show-boating is always irresistible. The real issues, regardless of who is to blame is that tenants face the problem of sliding in and out of work and risk falling behind with rent payments and all those stressful consequences. The “Council’s Million pounds in arrears” on the front page of the Leader made uncomfortable but accurate reading. Despite the challenging climate, Head of Housing, the housing team are putting considerable support into helping families who are falling into arrears or have debt problems. Staff are keen to prevent arrears escalating and and people falling into homelessness. The message is to offer help before the wheel comes off in vulnerable people’s lives. Tenants …..
It took me a few moments to comprehend why my porch floor was littered with envelopes and letters hours after the normal post had arrived. I though the postman had lost the plot and dumped a whole sack of mail into my porch by mistake. As I began to scoop them up and read Cllr A Halford on every one I realised that I was being petitioned over the Council’s proposal to close Argoed High School. I wondered, why me! I am not on the Life Long Learning scrutiny committee and have no responsibility for any one else’s ward. I counted them. 279 envelopes or letters, two of the letters used identical wording. The same hand had addressed the documents to me and names and addresses of the signatories were clear to see. No anonymity in this petition. I was seriously impressed as someone had taken hours to prepare what fell onto my mat. I rang Cllr Nigel Steel Mortimer, my Group Leader and the Executive member for Life Long Learning and asked if he knew what was going on. He thought that every cllr would receive the same as there was a well orchestrated campaign to protest against any …..
The Wales Audit Audit team were present at the Audit Committee meeting on 30th June. I’m not sure they will want to attend again as we bowled them a few tough questions especially on the escalating cost of the ongoing Ombudsman tribunal as £2million is now thought to be what’s been spent so far. “Did the auditors know of such heavy costs and what part were our auditors playing in protecting the public purse in the face of such huge costs?” “We are aware of the case” was the answer but this is always the problem with the Audit system. They cannot intervene until the money’s been spent! The same frustration arose when I was a member of the North Wales Police Authority when the force’s Head of Legal Service was suspended for months. I asked the District Auditor to intervene then as it was clear the case would have to be settled and Mrs Trigger would be awarded costs. I even met him in Cardiff when I was an AM but the meeting reached stalemate. He said he could not interfere. Auditors must wait till the money is spent and then report on the waste and the drain on …..
The Leader of my council( the name I dare not print for fear of further reprisals from my friends in South Wales) dismissed fears over the Coalition in the Flintshire Standard. Responding to suggestions of divisions in County Hall and a possible breakaway by some members the Leader stated that “ we are perfectly sound or solid with our without the particular group!” Cllr Fred Gillmore, who must be congratulated for his recent progress from back bencher to leader of the Alliance group and is now the County’s vice chair was also mentioned in the same newspaper. Now that Cllr Gilmore will be featuring regularly in the press from now on, may I offer a word of caution. It is he who was quoted in the Flintshire Standard in his flat denial of any infighting and “It was a typical council meeting”. “We are all determined to keep making this (Coalition) work”, he said. Hang on vice chair! More disenchanted members may feel this statement is a trifle hypocritical! It is said that you demanded that the New Independents ( the breakaway group whose Leader you yourself defeated by one vote last October) should be thrown out of the ruling …..