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Fenby Field

Tucked away behind Heslington Lane, Grants Avenue and Danum Rd there is a field that has never been built on, surrounded on all sides by houses. In the eyes of a developer, a nice juicy 'brownfield' site, but for local people and wildlife it is a green lung that helps to make York the kind of place they like to be in. It is known as 'Fenby Field' as it used to belong to Mr Fenby before it came into the councils care early in the 20th century. For years it was a playing field for a local school, but then they stopped using it. Local people got together and decided it needed a bit more wildlife, so some bushes were planted and a 'Friends Group' set up.

 However once more it started to attract youths wanting to drink and smoke and the local kids got frightened to go there. So last summer we had a meeting on the field - about 50 turned up, and it was agreed it would be better if it belonged to Parks Dept and had a new gate to stop the lad with the moped driving straight onto the field. It also emerged that local residents group BAGNARA had some money to spend on the field, so now, under the parks  depeartment, there is a nice new set of goal posts and there will soon be a new gate that can be locked at night, like all proper parks!

We havent got a park keeper, but earlier this year I helped a small group of local residents to chop back some of the bushes and clear up all the cans and broken glass. We will have to keep doing it, but it all seemed worth it the other day when I saw two groups of youths who didnt seem to know each other agree on a friendly match among themselves. One of them actually thanked me for the posts when I said I had helped to get them in place! Tonght I was busy leafletting houses in the area encouraging residents to report any problems and encourage their children to make use of the field. Most people I met were quite friendly, except one who made a point of refusing the leaflet ('No junk mail') so he wont know about the change in ownership of the field or who to contact if he has a problem.   

PS Have now got someone locally willing to act as keyholder, and Im exploring the possibility of getting a litter bin installed. Broken glass from morons throwing bottles and games of football are not a sensible combination!

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Who runs this place?

 

 A major reason why people are less interested in local politics is because councillors are largely seen as irrelevant to modern life. 70 years ago the 'city fathers' would have had committees controlling the buses and trams, electricity, water, housing, parks, museums, street cleaning, bin collection etc. Now many of these are run by private companies.

An interesting analysis of how much this has changed even since my childhood is outlined in an article below from the online version of Green World see www.greenworld.org.uk  

By Richard Scrase, Editor, Green World

Anthony Sampson, in his book, Who Runs This Place?, analysed the ruling powers in contemporary Britain. It is a superb sequel to his classic, Anatomy of Britain written in 1962. In both books he attempts to describe the people and institutions who are actually running our country. The relative strengths of the different components of power, media and parliament, corporations and the rich, are summarised in both books by a diagram of overlapping circles. The larger the circle, the greater the power.

The changes from 1962 to the present day are stark. Back in 1962 Trade Unions and Aristocracy, Palace and Church, Parliament and Cabinet all had larger circles than that of the Prime Minister. There was no circle for the rich.

Today the unions and aristocracy have gone, and the circles representing Parliament and Cabinet have shrunk while the Prime Minister's has grown. Most striking though is the growth of the circles representing The Rich and Media; although the institutions of corporate capitalism remain strong, these two sectors now have huge power.

In 1962 the circles of power overlapped and the individuals inhabiting those institutions had some common experience, even if it was merely sharing the same geographical space. There was some possibility of common cause or mutual sympathy.

Today the Rich disconnect themselves from the rest of us. In 1962 the company or land owner would interact with his employees. Today the Rich interact with each other, and when at home, isolate themselves in security surrounded enclaves.

So our society is run by groups with a great degree of power, but less and less democratic accountability. As a political party our route to power is through the vote, but also by how effectively we spread our ideas for others to implement.

Our party conferences have been mainly taken up with the refinement of our policy, our ideas. At our next conference in Hove, there will be the opportunity to rehearse and practice spreading our message. I look forward to seeing you there.

Anthony Sampson, 2004, Who Runs This Place?, John Murray

How would you spend £3m?

Well, I know it's a different pot, but the Lib Dems are £3m short of the moneey they need to providea pool at the Barbican but they are happy to spend £3m to build a roundabout so that the electors of Dringhouses can safely turn right to pop up the A1237 ring road to shop at Clifton Moor if Tescos is not good enough for them!

The City Strategy meeting tonight discussed various designs- when I asked why they had not considered a set of traffic lights with a reduced speed limit I was told that the speed limit cant be enforced as N Yorkshire wont install any fixed cameras and it would be dangerous to have lights at this junction and roundabouts on the rest of the ring road! So yet again, a roundabout with no really safe crossing option for cyclists, even though it is on the cycle map for the city as 'quieter route over ring road'!

The junction is going to be designed to be able to carry the volume of traffic expected on the ring road when all the other roundabouts have been upgraded. The people of Ashkam Bryan village expect more 'rat running' through their village, particularly on occasions such as race days and Bank Holidays when the A64 gets traffic clogged. Not providing for cyclists and pedestrians was justified on the basis of their being no safe route from the village for them (providing this would cost about £250,000)! So the car wins again.

Elsewhere on the agenda a proposal to exempt cyclists from the no right turn order from Tower St into Coppergate in York Centre was dropped because it might be dangerous, even though the police had not objected and it was put forward by our highways department. Welcome to the national centre for excellence in Cycle planning!!

 

 

Currently playing: The pushbike song

Association of Green Councillors

An inspiring weekend spent in Newsome, Huddersfield at the annual Conference for Green Party councillors (and wanabe councillors) around the country, including our male Principal Speaker Keith Taylor from Brighton. There was a good cross section attending ranging from the lone Green councillor out of 96 on Manchester City council to some of the massed ranks of Green councillors on Brighton, Lancaster and Norwich Councils. The Norwich councillors are really gearing up now for the potential of becoming the largest party group on the council in a few years time and perhaps also electing our first Green MP! The seem to be making the most of holding the balance of power and seem to be working well with their new Chief Executive Laura McGilvry, until recently the Deputy Chief Executive in the City of York.

 Everyone has come away with a better understanding of the successes around the country, ideas for campaign strategies useful websites and contacts around the country. The next time we meet up will be at our autumn conference in Brighton.

Naff font options!

This is a test to try to find a way around the inadequacies of the software for this setup and produce the text in a font size suited to the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act. It is generally accepted (and has been for at least the last six years to my knowledge)  that text should be a sans serif format (without the twiddly bits) such as arial and at least 12 point in size. Many websites fail on this score, but at least remind you that you can increase the font size easily using the ‘view' function.

I have now located the options section that allows you to change the style and font size. Funny thing is that the technical people from whom I asked advice told me it wasnt possible!

I hope the site is a bit easier to read now and apologies to those who struggled before with the difficult writing.

The other options offered by Readmyday are:   Strange thing is that Heading 1-6 are in progressively decreasing font size when typed but not when they appear on your screen!

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Deadline for 2007 ward funding bids

Community groups in Fishergate

 can apply for funding from the

ward committee by completing a

grant application form that has to

be returned by Friday Aug 4th

2006.

The ward committee is particularly keen to receive applications that address issues of facilities for young people and crime and community safety. The current total budget is in the region of £34,000, including regular commitments that account for up to half of this amount.

Individuals can also put forward ideas - there is usually more demand for funding towards voluntary groups and 'revenue' spending (eg council staff time) than there is for new provision that is a one off capital cost (eg trees, benches, signs, fences). If you want to discuss your ideas contact Sarah Nicholson on 01904 551819 For an application form contact Kay Hoare by email to kay.hoare@york.gov.uk or tel 01904 551818

Nuclear Power no thanks!

The government seem to be hell bent on taking us lemming like into a nuclear nightmare - In the week when the Guardian revealed that many of the ageing AGR plants have dangerous cracks in them, Tony Blair is set to announce that we need to build new plants, when we still havent worked out how to deal with the waste from the present ones. Even the Lib Dems are with the Greens on this one: nuclear power is not and never was the answer, other than to the question of how do we hoodwink the population into thinking it makes economic sense.

See http://www.hearfromyourmp.com/view/message/108 for the views of the Lib Dem energy spokesman!

Ward meeting at Millennium Bridge

A hot, busy day - pack daughter off for a canoeing school trip, accompany a coach full of college students to a HE Fair at Hull University, meet the SU President in the building I worked in for a year, the first year it was build 30 years ago! Strange memories flood back in 'Staff House' that used to be the union building in my student days but is now much more sophisitcated accomodation for staff.

 Once back in York I rush home, collect daughter's bike to get security tagged at the event by the Millennium Bridge. Hot sun doesnt seem to deter people dutifully forming a queue of cycles. After half an hour I decide that the queue isnt going to get short so I'll have to join it... My note book gradually gets more full as people approach me with all manner of issues for their councillor - or in one case from a passing cyclist from another ward! Much discussion about the under-age drinking, vandalism and mentality of some of our young people today. Generally it seems people are willing to give the Police some credit for recent efforts to tackle the issue in the area around the bridge.  

The queue of people waiting for their bikes to be tagged was constant from before 5pm until after 8pm - some folk had even been home and come back with a second bike! ALL IN ALL A SUCCESSFUL EVENT.

 

Street piano

  

  

As a light diversion from Politics, I came across this story to restore faith in the British sense of humour and entertainment. Apparently it all started when a student, who had lovingly moved his piano from house to house in Sheffield as he got new accommodation, hit on the obstacle of the steep steps up to houses in Sharrowvale Rd. Leaving the piano on the pavement, he jokingly put a note explaining that passers by could give a tune. This caught on, and the local media took an interest. To cut out late night disturbance to the neighbours a lock was bought and each night the curfew imposed to stop drunks creating a din in the middle of the night. More adventures followed, and as you can find out by visiting www.streetpianos.org this situation has gone on for the past year, though now the council are about to step in and remve said piano.  Theres much more to it, pictures etc if you go to the website.

KEEP MUSIC LIVE!!

 

Currently playing: Russ Conway's 'Sidesaddle'
Current mood: Big-Smiley

Trident - what is it for? And how many nurses and hospitals would it pay for?

 

A hard-hitting report by a cross party committee of MP's on the future of the Trident missile system is published today. For the latest news of the campaign visit www.yorkshirecnd.org.uk

"The most pressing threat currently facing the UK is that of international terrorism," according to the Commons Defence Committee. But witnesses to the inquiry ( the Ministry of Defence refused to give evidence) overwhelmingly agreed that "the strategic nuclear deterrent could serve no useful or practical purpose in countering this kind of threat".

The MPs say they heard no evidence that Britain faced an impending or current threat from any existing nuclear weapons state, and it was impossible to identify future threats with any certainty. The committee says that Tony Blair must explain whether he believes possessing nuclear weapons makes any difference to the UK's international influence. Officials in the Foreign Office and Ministry of Defence claim it would be difficult for any British government to contemplate France being Europe's sole nuclear power. Sir Michael Quinlan, a former MOD official told the committee that he did not find the "seat at the top table" argument persuasive.

The committee says: "Before making any decisions on the future of the strategic nuclear deterrent, the MoD should explain its understanding of the purpose and continuing relevance of nuclear deterrence now and over the lifetime of any potential Trident successor system." Any decision to keep nuclear weapons, ' must not be made in secret".

The MPs express their surprise and disappointment at the refusal of the MoD to give evidence to the inquiry. The MPs state: "If the MoD believes in the value of a nuclear deterrent as an insurance policy, rather than in response to any specific threat, we believe it is important to say clearly that is the reason for needing the deterrent."

The committee suggests Britain's nuclear position could be further reduced. The existing force is made up of four Vanguard-class nuclear-powered submarines, each capable of carrying up to 16 Trident II D5 missiles armed with up to 12 nuclear warheads, with one vessel always at sea. "In the light of the reduced threat we currently face, an alternative possibility would be to retain a deterrent, but not continuously at sea," the MPs say.

Tony Blair has made it clear he intends to ensure Britain keeps nuclear weapons. He told the Commons that a decision would be taken this year, but he refused to say whether or not MPs would be allowed to vote on the issue.

Former chiefs of staff have said that the armed forces are desperately underfunded. Field Marshal Lord Inge warned about the "vulnerability of the old Northern Ireland 'snatch' Land Rovers" in Iraq and Afghanistan. Former chief of the defence staff, Admiral Lord Boyce, said: "Our armed forces are operating well above the level expected and resourced for under defence planning assumptions, and the impact of lack of adequate funding is hurting."

Currently playing: All you need is love /Yellow submarine by the Beatles
Current mood: Mad