Peter Kent-Baguley

Yesterday's entry without a picture looks very uninviting...so a picture to start...

You probably do know BUT I didn't and nor did most people I asked, know that it was illegal to park on the nearside of double yellow lines, ie on the grass verge or pavement. Suddenly, without any warning the City traffic wardens started slapping £60 tickets on such cars along Turnhurst Road and at a stroke clobbered the most law-abiding people I know! 

Would the income generators at the City Council's traffic warden HQ see sense? Of course not! The police, by the way, told me that if they had bothered to do anything about it, they would have issued a warning first. So why couldn't the Council bureaucrats have done that?

In my role as the City Council's HERITAGE & DESIGN CHAMPION I attended the book launch at the BRIDGEWATER pot bank today. Emma Bridgwater and her partner Matthew have shown courage and vision developing their pottery at the former Johnson Brothers Lichfield Road potbank, Hanley. It was encouraging to hear Norman Tempest's upbeat view of his Burslem based Royal Staffordshire pot bank. In contrast, John Moorcroft was telling me how much he enjoyed being able to fly off on a whim for sun and golf in southern Spain since he relinquished ownership of Moorcrofts. Rosemary and Will Dorling, who rescued Burgess, Dorling and Leigh a few years ago were excited about their major refurbishment project and we all talked much about Spode but more of that another time.   

To the recently completed brand new CHILDREN'S CENTRE at Chell Heath for the 10am A.I.T. meeting: that's the Area Implementation Team - supposedely composed of key officers from the main areas of the Council plus other services, such as the Police and not forgetting the Ward Councillors.

The only word at the moment which one couldn't quibble with is AREA! There's little sense of IMPLEMENTATION and even less sense of TEAM so far, and the structure has been in place now for well over a year. NORTON & BRADELEY and CHELL & PACKMOOR are the two Wards which make up this AIT. (there are 10 AITs across the City serving the 20 wards)

After an hour and half I had to move down to Fegg Hayes for a meeting with the CAFAG Co-Ordinator. I am the chair of Chell Area Family Action group (CAFAG) which has a multi-purpose centre, the Whitfield Valley Centre in Fegg Hayes Road.  

A major issue at the moment is funding. Although the government and local councils are constantly singing the praises of the volunyary and community sector they tend to offer relatively little financial support. More of this another time.

In the afternoon I was at the Civic Centre to speak at the reconvened Development Control Committee following its site visit to Tunhurst Road re the proposed new James Brindley High School. Of course I am not opposed to a brnad new High School - the current crumbling concrete structure is awful - but I am concerned about how people get to the new school SAFELY.

Thankfully, officers have agreed to stipulate that there must be a drive-in/drive-out drop-ff/pick-up point for people going to the school by car or coach. This should have been an obvious necessity without the cost of a site visit.

Huge apologies to all my avid readers. I can't believe it is 2 MONTHS since my last entry. I went on leave on the 10th August, cruising along the Caldon Canal, the Trent & Mersey, Macclesfield, Ashton, Bridgewater, then back on to the Trent & Mersey with a little detour on to the river Weaver via the fantastic piece of restored Victorian engineering, the Anderton Lift.

I wont display scores of holiday photographs but I thought the following was interesting. The sturdy confidence of the embellished C19th railway bridge contrasts with the award winning no frills foot bridge justaposed in the Castlefield Basin, just west of Manchester city centre.