Friday 10 September 2010

We're back!

It's been a few months since our last posting but we think it is now time to start up again and let you know what's been happening.
Sadly Sue lost her seat in May, this being due to the increased turnout for the GE. Although we lost Longbridge at the GE by approx !000 votes Sue only lost by 117, a built in majority of nearly 900. In other words, if there had been no GE Sue would have walked it. Sue has received a tremendous amount of calls and e-mails from people expressing their disappointment at the result and she has been very grateful for them all but as you will see it's "never say die".
Since then Sue has undergone her postponed Hip-replacement and has recovered well, so well in fact that she has become a Parish Councillor in Frankley to replace the veteran Sid Grey OBE who gave such massive service to the people of Frankley. He will be a giant act to follow.
The big news of course is the Papal visit to Cofton Park. As soon as Keith heard the news that the Coventry site was in site he started ringing everyone he could think of to lobby for the park with it's connection to Cardinal Newman, not that he is claiming any credit of course. The park was the logical replacement.
We have made a couple of visits to see the construction project and very impressive it is too. On the first Saturday we went they had started to put down aluminium roadways for all the vehicle movements needed and had installed the shell of the canteen. They will be feeding approx 200 people at the height of the work and apparently the food is excellent.
On our second visit a week later the stage and the 2 stands for the 2000 strong choir were in place and roadways had been laid for vehicles to carry equipment all over the park. The beauty of the roadway is that it will support the heaviest trucks without damaging the ground. After it is taken up the grass greens up after a short while. Any damage that is caused will be indemnified by the Catholic Church. More as it gets nearer the visit. We will put up some photos for you to look at.
Keith has been quite busy with the visit, he is the local lead on this and was interviewed by BBC Midlands Today and also did a telephone interview with Shine Radio. The BBC interview took about 3/4 of an hour of film  for about 15seconds of broadcasting. So much for Andy Warhol.......