Last night we were all at Frankley Community High School for the Housing Liaison Board at 6pm. This all went quite smoothly, the figures for repairs and the Housing statistics were very good. The only disappointment was in the gas repair figures. Last year our contractor JD Heating, which was very successful, was taken over by a company called Eaga Heating. This is a very large company with contracts across the country. During the cold weather we have been inundated with people without heating or hot water and who could not get through or could not get a service. We were kept extremely busy trying to sort all this out. Needless to say our concerns were passed on to Cllr John Lines (Cabinet Member for Housing) and the contract has been ended. A new contractor will take over on the 1st of April. They are holding a Jobs Fair for heating engineers and when we find out the details it will be put on this site and on Keely's website.
At 7pm it was into a different room for the Longbridge Ward Committee. There we had a presentation on the plans for the refurbishment of the Frankley Shopping Centre. This centre has been looking very tired for some time although most of the units are let and the Costcutters is successfully attracting customers to the centre. The plan is to open the area up and make it brighter and more attractive. This will start about June. The money has been in place for about 2 years and the wishes of local people for it to be done has been there even longer.
Another presentation was about the "YES" Group which came out of the Frankley Summit. You may remember we gave £10.000 from the Community Chest to young people and let them get on with it. It is no good us telling them how to spend it, we have to trust them to use it wisely. Thankfully they are doing a great job and we want the scheme to continue and expand to bring in even more young people.
Checking the numbers for yesterday it appeared 19 people viewed the site but no-one clicked on the adverts. We can't believe they were all Labour trolls so come on people, click on the adverts and raise money for Keely's campaign.
Today Sue is at Forestdale School and then on to a meeting with the local Police Inspector, this evening she will be at a Governors meeting at Colmers J & I and then on to meet Keith & Keely at Frankley High to discuss the future of the school.
Thursday, 25 February 2010
Wednesday, 24 February 2010
Budget meeting
Yesterday was the full Council meeting to discuss the budget. The meeting is dedicated to the budget and nothing else although the Lord Mayor does allow some leeway.
Once again the Labour Group failed to present an alternative budget. This is their chance to say what they would do differently to the partnership but once again they failed in their responsibility to the electorate. Instead they moved an amendment asking for the budget to be delayed so that the Co-Ordinating Committee could have a look at it line by line. As the budget has to be signed off very shortly this would have been extremely difficult for a committee that meets once a month and usually has a full agenda. This was merely a device for the Labour Group to say they had tried to do something.
Sir Albert Bore started by saying that Mike Whitby had said in his speech that there would be no compulsory redundancies. This was repeated by at least 5 more of the comrades and in his closing speech Mike accused a Labour member of lying on this point. What Mike actually said was that every effort would be made to avoid CR through natural wastage, not filling vacancies and moving people into other jobs. There is an annual turnover of about 4,000 employees per year and there must be scope for some people to retrain etc.Last year we lost about 1500 full and temporary jobs with very few CRs. However, try as we might, there could be no guarantee that there would be no CR.
This is a typical trick that the comrades use. They say someone has said something and then accuse them of breaking their word later.
Ken made a good speech as the Deputy Chairman of the Housing & Constituencies Overview & Scrutiny Committee whilst Keith presented 2 petitions on behalf of St. James School & Our Lady of Perpetual Succour Church parishioners calling for yellow lines on the junctions of Leach Green Lane.
Some of you will know that we are wary of what we put on this blog as the opposition keep a close eye on Conservative blogs to find out what is happening. One trick is to see an issue on a blog, get a few of their cronies to sign a petition and when the issue is dealt with claim credit for getting action.
Sue had a difficult day as she has an advice centre at FrankleyPlus Children's Centre on the last Tuesday of the month. This meant being at the Council Meeting at the start, going to Frankley and coming back for the rest of the meeting. It was a good job she did as 3 people turned up and Sue would not have wanted to let them down. This meant Sue had to get permission from the Chief Whip to do this and managed to get back for 4pm.
There was supposed to be a "Noisy" demonstration in Victoria Square during the meeting but not a sound was heard. Cllr Deirdre Alden took a look and counted about 100 people out there. On the BBC Midlands new this morning they showed a very tight shot looking packed with people but when they showed an aerial shot (very briefly mind, don't blink) there was less a crowd, more a group.
By the way, if you want to help out with election expenses, when you visit this site please click on the adverts at the top of the page. This pays small amounts of money which goes into our Election Account. Labour trolls are excused.
Many Thanks.
Once again the Labour Group failed to present an alternative budget. This is their chance to say what they would do differently to the partnership but once again they failed in their responsibility to the electorate. Instead they moved an amendment asking for the budget to be delayed so that the Co-Ordinating Committee could have a look at it line by line. As the budget has to be signed off very shortly this would have been extremely difficult for a committee that meets once a month and usually has a full agenda. This was merely a device for the Labour Group to say they had tried to do something.
Sir Albert Bore started by saying that Mike Whitby had said in his speech that there would be no compulsory redundancies. This was repeated by at least 5 more of the comrades and in his closing speech Mike accused a Labour member of lying on this point. What Mike actually said was that every effort would be made to avoid CR through natural wastage, not filling vacancies and moving people into other jobs. There is an annual turnover of about 4,000 employees per year and there must be scope for some people to retrain etc.Last year we lost about 1500 full and temporary jobs with very few CRs. However, try as we might, there could be no guarantee that there would be no CR.
This is a typical trick that the comrades use. They say someone has said something and then accuse them of breaking their word later.
Ken made a good speech as the Deputy Chairman of the Housing & Constituencies Overview & Scrutiny Committee whilst Keith presented 2 petitions on behalf of St. James School & Our Lady of Perpetual Succour Church parishioners calling for yellow lines on the junctions of Leach Green Lane.
Some of you will know that we are wary of what we put on this blog as the opposition keep a close eye on Conservative blogs to find out what is happening. One trick is to see an issue on a blog, get a few of their cronies to sign a petition and when the issue is dealt with claim credit for getting action.
Sue had a difficult day as she has an advice centre at FrankleyPlus Children's Centre on the last Tuesday of the month. This meant being at the Council Meeting at the start, going to Frankley and coming back for the rest of the meeting. It was a good job she did as 3 people turned up and Sue would not have wanted to let them down. This meant Sue had to get permission from the Chief Whip to do this and managed to get back for 4pm.
There was supposed to be a "Noisy" demonstration in Victoria Square during the meeting but not a sound was heard. Cllr Deirdre Alden took a look and counted about 100 people out there. On the BBC Midlands new this morning they showed a very tight shot looking packed with people but when they showed an aerial shot (very briefly mind, don't blink) there was less a crowd, more a group.
By the way, if you want to help out with election expenses, when you visit this site please click on the adverts at the top of the page. This pays small amounts of money which goes into our Election Account. Labour trolls are excused.
Many Thanks.
Friday, 19 February 2010
Thursday, 18 February 2010
Labour letting people down.
News today that due to reductions in public expenditure Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has to save £30million resulting in the loss of up to 200 beds in 2 hospitals. The Chief Exec has said it is all right because he knows they are inefficient and they don't need the beds anyway.
Labour letting people down
This is a quote in the Metro News today attributed to Yvette Cooper (Mrs Ed Balls).
"The continuing growth in the number of long term unemployed shows that Labour is failing to support the people who need their help the most. Unless Ministers wake up and stop treating these people like a statistic we risk losing a generation to a culture of worklessness".
"The continuing growth in the number of long term unemployed shows that Labour is failing to support the people who need their help the most. Unless Ministers wake up and stop treating these people like a statistic we risk losing a generation to a culture of worklessness".
Chinese New Year
Last Sunday Sue & Keith were at the Arcadian Centre at the invitation of the Chinese community to celebrate the Chinese New Year. This was again a stunning series of displayed which were enjoyed by everyone there.
It may be a victim of it's own success as the crowds became too large to get into the centre and a lot of people had to wait outside until someone else came out. It may be that a change of venue is needed.
It may be a victim of it's own success as the crowds became too large to get into the centre and a lot of people had to wait outside until someone else came out. It may be that a change of venue is needed.
Monday, 15 February 2010
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