SusanGaszczak

I have always pondered over what my ethnicity is when filling in forms. I was born on Teesside, my mother is Scottish, my father English, my great grandfather Irish, my great great great grandmother Spanish. I have a Polish surname by marriage and spent my early years growing up in Germany.

Am I White English? No, not really. Am I White British? No, not really. Am I White European? Well that is rarely an offered option. So the option left open to me is White Other - an option I have ticked for many years. Until this week I have always been happy with that.

Why the change? This week I have been called by both Channel Four and The Times to ask if I can do interviews on being both Polish and a County Councillor!

Will this make me tick White British in future? No, as I am White European.

Last night whilst at one of my five parish councils we were all informed that because of the lack of clarity in how grants will be paid to the police authority they are changing how the PCSOs are allocated.

This is really disappointing - my parish council had made a policy decision that they felt high visibility community policing was the way forward. I felt they made the right choice. Vandalism, noise, teenage squabbling often leading to assault, graffiti have all reduced. Community safety and feeling safe have increased.

Our PCSO was easily contactable as the parish paid for a mobile so that residents could contact her directly. Only 10 days ago I personally was really pleased that I was able to get in touch with her as my son was assaulted on his way to the shops.

She has been amazing; the kids respect her - she even at my request started travelling on the school bus because there were safety issues. I am not saying it is just kids that cause problems but it is where I can really see she has had a fantastic input.

What has changed? Government as usual has not been clear as to how, and if, they will continue to fund their three year project that ends in April 08. The police authority though has decided to make changes to the scheme 6 months before the funding runs out. Our PCSO will now be placed where there is an area of need within the large community safety team area. Not within the parish that she was paid to be in.

The matter gets worse as the county council (soon to be disbanded pending possible judicial review) has set up a ‘Community Safety Initiative' giving Parish and Town Councils large amounts of money to fund initiatives to make people feel safer in their own homes. 69 of 120 parish councils say they would like to part fund a PCSO for their parish or town. They will be very disappointed and frustrated.

I read last week's blog entries on school meals with interest. Knowing that school meals have been slated so much in the press I was really pleased when the councils contractor providing meals decided to leave the contract early. A new supplier had to be found - hopefully a better supplier. Of course being in opposition means I was unable to take the decision as to which firm were employed but I was allowed to be involved in the process.

Early on I asked officers to be looking for child friendly food, that healthy could actually be fun. They organised a day of us interviewing the candidates and seeing what their ideas, menus and ethos was like - personally I would have liked to have tasted the food too but it was not possible. We really scrutinised the menus hard and were pleased with the recommendation we put to the executive.

The company started feeding children in 175 schools last week, and although there have been some teasing problems I have to say how pleased I am as a parent. It is healthy, fresh, organic, mainly cooked on the premises, 'home cooked' food. My children have come home from school raving about having yummy food - also I have a menu stuck to my fridge so that there is no chance of feeding them the same twice in one day.

Jamie may have struggled with making it 'Pukka' but actually all he had to do was make it normal... 

On a recent trip to Europe to visit an old school friend I accompanied her to the supermarket. The first thing that struck me on entering the store was the fruit and vegetable counter - not a single product wrapped in plastic, when my friend selected her vegetables she put them in bags she had brought with her.

The drinks aisle had crates of drinks. Each bottle has a monetary value so you bring your empties back to store before you buy more, you would not dare to throw one out and the crate gets used time and time again.

The meat counter was a staffed counter rather than a fridge of prepacked boxes. There was some prepacked cold meat because this has a longer expiry date than the counter food but she explained that very few people used it.

The other very noticeable difference was at the checkout - not a plastic bag in sight! You unload the shopping, pay for it, put it back in the trolley and then take it to your organised car and put it in the boxes in the boot.

So, why do supermarkets here insist on putting everything they can in a big of plastic or cardboard?