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Friday 30th November 2007

In the Offing...Ofsted's Offshoot Oftot

I'm surprised we haven't seen leaks about the research on the miniCD designed to be "injected" into the vicinity of the pregnant Mum's womb where it transmits to the baby's brain over a 5 month period the basics of literacy and numeracy. It may be that I haven't been reading the right newspapers or journals. I have, however, read in The Times today of the Labour government's latest draconian invasion of our liberty, that The Times headlined: Stealth Curriculum. Not content with the straitjacket of the National Currciulum for state schools (private schools exempt), as The Times editorial exposed, the government now "...seeks to impose by statutory diktat" a "stunningly prescriptive 72 separate early-learning goals" not only in state nursery schools but in private institutions and also by registered childminders."

One of the 72 apparently is "begin to know about their own cultures and beliefs and those of other people." Whiff of the politically correct social cohesion brigade pervades the air. And remember, we are talking about the under 5s! Must we stand by and watch the the joy of spontaneous learning, especially about relationships, around the Wendy-house, sand-tray and water-play be deformed by frantic rote learning, multiple choice questions and harrassed care staff reduced to bureaucratic boxing-ticking imbeciles?

Thursday 29th November 2007

Linking...

Plans for the next Fairtrade conference are well advanced. At last, I have learned how to establish a link, thanks to Scott in the City Council's IT department. The fact that the link has nothing to do directly with the conference we are planning for Fairtrade Fortnight in Stoke-on-Trent next February is neither here nor there! It is the Fairtrade Foundation's website and very useful. Give it a try!

Wednesday 28th November 2007

The pot calling the kettle black...

...is perhaps one of those earlier C20th idioms little heard and less understood nowadays. I wouldn't know really, whether it is little understood that is. I can't remember the last time I heard the phrase but it suddenly came to mind this evening while reflecting on the strange double standard of this morning's BBC Radio Stoke presenter. He obviously felt strongly that much of the spotlight on the Labour party funding woes is media inspired, as though if the tabloids laid off, there would be no funding crisis. I'm tempted to say, "whatever" and leave it at that! Except, having repeated his pathetic thesis for the umpteenth time he then proceeded to spin a crisis introduction for their reporter at the Mitchell Memorial Theatre. The demolition of the former ABC cinema is well advanced on the neighbouring street frontage; former pottery works have long since been demolished behind the theatre and only a few doors along the road more property is being demolished for the final segment of the inner ring road to be constructed. From this on-air tabloid sensationalism listeners could be forgiven for thinking that the bulldozers were lined up around the Mitchell Memorial Theatre and at the signal of the presenter's final screeching hype the attack would be launched. Do we really need to pay a licence fee for such drivel dressed as reportage?

Tuesday 27th November 2007

The Welfare State: Measuring Animal Welfare in the UK 2006

The Welfare State popped through my letter box the other day. Published by the RSPCA, I am assuming it has been circulated to all City Councillors. I certainly hope that Cllr Paul Shotton has received a copy. Several weeks ago he and his wife were successfully convicted of cruelty to their 12-year old pet dog in a case taken to court by the RSPCA. As a result of the conviction, Cllr Shotton resigned his position as deputy leader of the Council's Labour Group, his Cabinet Portfolio - which included community safety! - and his seat on the General Purposes Committee. The Labour Whip has been withdrawn, whatever that might mean, since he is still expected to vote with the Labour Group! Double standards and having your cake and eating it are two notions that spring to mind. The Labour Elected Mayor said Paul had done the right thing in resigning. Did the Mayor's response imply a moral dimension? Shotton's reason for the "voluntary" resignations certainly didn't, being simply pragmatic: to clear the decks to concentrate on his appeal against the conviction. So, Cllr Shotton, why not concentrate 100% and resign from the Council?  

Monday 26th November 2007

City Schools' re-organization - 100% success

The school by school consultation meetings on the secondary re-organization proposals, put forward by private company SERCO, the out-sourcing arm of the government, and ecstatically supported by the City Council's Labour Elected Mayor, the government's puppet local representative, have finally entered their third and final week. However, the SERCO officers might just be beginning to wish they had never entered Stoke-on-Trent, with this ritual round of "we will take a way your suggestions" (oh yes, and dump them in which bin precisely?). With the end of the three weeks of consultations in sight and due to be consigned to the archives, along come the headteachers aided and abetted by the City's three MPs with a completely different set of proposals. How audacious of them!

SERCO must be thinking that they should have laid down the law more starkly right at the start. They must be worried that their real paymaster, the government, has spotted that this contest could go the full distance. Long drawn out bruising punishment is not what Brown's troubled Labour government needs during the coming months. In pressured politics, particulars, whether schools or banks, party donations or grumbling generals, quickly get rolled into blanket condemnations and a troubled situation becomes a teetering situation. Congratulations to the headteachers for co-operating, for demonstrating solidarity and for standing up for a city-wide solution that avoids the SERCO trap of divide and rule out of which self interest flourishes. 18 years of rampant Thatcherist free market racetering re-inforced by 10 years of Blair-Brown free market politics has not, thankfully, completely extinguished the sense of fair play and commitment to co-operative communities.

IF SERCO and the Elected Mayor and his Labour poodle portfolio holder for Children & Young People, Ian McLaughlan, have any wisdom at all, they will start to listen to people of the City a little more and the people at Westminister a little less. Finally, will all those Councillors, whose only contribution to the debate is to whine relentlessly about the need not say or do anything that will endanger the government's once in a life time offer to spend £200m on new schools in the City, please have a rest! Then, come back rejuvenated and help to call the bully's bluff.     

Saturday 24th November 2007

Trig Points

I must have driven past this trig point along Lask Edge, high above Biddulp hundreds of times during the past 35 years but only today did I have my camera with me! Mind you, it was premeditated. I know some people will begin to wonder about me having already revealed my obession with the iconic red telephone kiosk, the K6, but these little 4' isolated hill-top obelisks (oops, another obsession, but that's for another time), cast in rough shingly concrete, are rewarding beacons after a long, up-hill walk. (Admittedly, on this occasion I was in the car!). And what better to lean upon, while getting one's breath back and admiring the panoramic view? (Looking eastwards towards the Derbyshire Peak District.)  

Trigpoint is the effectionate abbreviation for triangulation pillar, used by the Ordnance Survey to map the exact shape of the country which they began to undertake in 1936. (the year of the K6!!) They are generally located on the highest ground in the area, so that there is a direct line of sight from one to the next. By sitting a theodolite (an accurate compass built into a telescope) on the top of the pillar, accurate bearings to nearby trigpoints could be taken. This process is called "triangulation". Each trig point has a unique reference number set in a rectangular brass plate near the base of the pillar. Also, each has a three-pronged brass fitting on the top of the pillar into which the theodolite was secured.

Triangulation only produces the shape of the land, not the scale. The scale of the mapping was determined in 1784 by laying a series of glass rods along Hounslow Heath! Using this single measurement, plus the network of triangulation pillars, the shape and size of the country was determined to within about 20m! It was the fear of Napoleon's invasion that prompted the army's Royal Ordnance department to get some mapping done along the south coast in the latter part of the C18th!

To determine heights, around 200 fundamental bench marks (or FBMs) were located across the country. They are an underground chamber topped by a small pillar. Between these 200 FBMs, around 750,000 lower order benchmarks were chiselled into structures thought likely to last a long time, such as old buildings. We have one on our 1848 Old Vicarage and there is one on a stone gatepost near Rudyard Lake. All bench mark heights are based on the sea level, measured by a tide gauge in Newlyn, Cornwall, averaged over a period of 6 years from 1915 to 1921, known as Mean Sea Level (MSL).

For the Ordnance Survey, the advent of the satellite, Global Positioning System (GPS) technology has rendered trig points redundant but that's not the case for hundreds of enthusiasts! Geography teacher and freelance journalist, Peter Naldrett, (pictured) has published four books of walks linking trig points in the Peak District. Peter Naldrett's website is: http://www.trigpointwalks.com/ 

For the genuine trigpoint aficionado, Ian Harris and Barry Hunter run http://www.trigpointinguk.com/ and it contains a wealth of interesting information and useful links.

Friday 23rd November 2008

Parents petitioning the Council

  

For my 8th November entry I noted how parents trying to come to terms with their dismay at the City Council's cavalier cuts to pre-school childcare provision were mobilising a collective and co-operative campaign. It would seem that each of the affected Children's Centres is in fact organising a petition so that Councillors and Officers will not be able to say they didn't know how strongly parents feel. What the officers with private company SERCO running our Children & Young People's Directorate fail to recognise is that parents have CHOSEN the Local Authority Children's Centres having found the private sector provision unsatisfactory. However, SERCO are far more concerned with meeting the private providers' choice, namely getting rid of the Local Authority competition rather than responding to the parents' choice. So much for Brown's Labour Government's commitment to localism. Whenever brown does dare to go to the country he may well find that the City breaks with traditional voting habits. Voters in our three constituencies may feel enough is enough: promises for a better tomorrow only produces more promises but no better tomorrow.

Thursday 22nd November 2007

Fairtrade City planning for Fairtrade Fortnight

The day started very well with a one-hour planning meeting with the City Council's CITIZENSHIP advisory officer, TRACY ELLIS. The shape of the One-Day Conference, Fairtrade in Citizenship, is now well advanced.

As it was in Fairtrade Fortnight this year, it will again be held at the Port Vale Conference Centre, Burslem. One of my tasks is to approach the various people we would like to form the panel of judges for the Fairtrade Media Awards competition we have initiated. Categories include: a)  max 1,000 word illustrated newspaper/magazine story; b)  5mins DVD; c)  information leaflet; d)  Fairtrade song. Once again, we shall have a mix of workshops where teachers and students can share their experiences, ideas and projects, speakers and short dramas/role plays. If we can key into the Fairtrade Foundation's F/T overseas producers' tour we hope to host someone as we did in February this year when Conrad James, banana producer from St Lucia, made a massive impression on both teachers and students. We have also started encouraging schools to be involved in the FAIR PLAY drama presentations and already two schools are on board.

The City Council has certainly taken its commitment to Fairtrade seriously since it unanimously approved the resolution in Full Council in October 2002. We have links on the Council's Web Home page to the Fairtrade Foundation as well as our own F/T information page; we have the annual Lord Mayor's Civic Fairtrade Reception, a Council Procurement Strategy in which the commiment to Faitrade is embedded and a practical manifestation of that with Fairtrade goods purchased for the whole of the City's school meals, catering outlets at museums and leisure centres. We have a Council Manager/Chief Executive Officer fully committed to Fairtrade and who leads by example. Next February's Fairtrade in Citizenship day promises to be a really enjoyable and first rate learning through sharing experience. 

Wednesday 21st November 2007

Launch of National Tree Planting Week

One of the real highlights of my year: the annual Tree Assembly, marking the start of National tree plantinmg week, at Packmoor Primary School in my Ward. At this afternoon's Assembly, celebrating the environment in general and trees in particular, was, as has become customary, the Lord Mayor of Stoke-on-Trent, Cllr Bagh Ali, the vice-Chair of the Governors, Mr Stephen Mansell and a goodly number of parents, grandparents and friends. Soothing music played while the children filed into the hall and after a brief introduction by the deputy head, Ms Clare Thomas, the children's seamless performance of song, dance and narrative for more than thirty minutes was entertaining, informative and thoroughly enjoyable.

One of the lovely apsects of the Assembly, was that the young performers enjoyed their roles and performed really well as a team. A central message was that we all have a responsibility for the environment and that "It's not too late, we can all help." I picked up on that theme when I spoke at the end and also emphasised how important trees were as a vital life-line for us, summing up with the idea that harming and destroying trees is like harming and destroying ourselves. This was the 7th Annual Tree Assembly at Packmoor school. It's a good example of oaks springing from acorns. I initiated the idea with the previous headteacher in 2000 as a way of bringing the school into an active relationship with the then newly established adjacent Millennium Green. The present deputy head, Clare, has organised the last five Assemblies and this afternoon I proposed a vote of thanks to her for her unstinting commitment to the event. Clare leaves Packmoor school at the end of the term to take up the headship of Holden Lane Primary school in January. I feel there may well be two Tree Assemblies in the City next year!   

Photographing children for publication has become a near nightmare, so I have played safe and pictured the Lord Mayor, Cllr Bagh Ali, Deputy Headteacher, Clare Thomas and vice-chair of Governors, Mr Stephen Mansell in front of the large trees children produced for the hall wall.

Tuesday 20th November 2007

SERCO's High School consultation caravan continues controversially city-wide, fostering self-interest at the expense of community cohesion   

Now at the midway point of the three-week consultation period, 10 of the 17 City High Schools have experienced their consultation evening with the SERCO officers and the Elected Mayor. A great deal of passion, heated debate and near pandemonium has typified the larger gatherings at the schools where the restructuring proposals are strongly opposed. Last night, at the Roman Catholic St Joseph's College in Trent Vale, according to this evening's Sentinel, Cllr Roger Ibbs, leader of the Conservative and Independent Alliance Group declared that his group would be voting against the closure of St Joseph's. (for which, apparently, he received rousing applause) Precisely where will Cllr Ibbs and his group of Tories and non-Tories cast their vote? Cllr Ibbs knows as well as the rest of us, that the High Schools' restructure decision will be made by the Executive, which under the unique Stoke-on-Trent system of governance means the unelected Council Manager/Chief Executive Officer with or without the political advice of the Labour Elected Mayor. Full Council may or may not discuss the matter and consequently may or may not indulge in a vote, but in any case a vote would be a purely gratuitous gesture.

The consultation process is shrouded in mystery: how precisely, is SERCO capturing the essence of the consultation meetings? What precisely will they do with the "evidence"? How will any of it influence the final restructure? Indeed, upon what criteria is the restructure base? You will be hard pressed to get much sense from SERCO. We all recognise the fact of fewer teenagers during the next few years; we all recognise therefore the consequent need for fewer High School places. It does not, necessarily follow, that therefore we shall need fewer High Schools. Similarly, it does not follow that we need to introduce new and different forms of school governance, namely, City Academies, and Trust Schools, while retaining Faith Schools but abolishing Local Authority schools.

There may be a case for fewer schools. But what are the criteria for such a case? Economy of scale is tritely trotted out as though that is a self-evident truth. Who nowadays talks of parity of esteem? equality of educational opportunity? The campaigns conjure self-selecting self-interest rather than a community of interest and what a neat trap SERCO has sprung. Divide and rule is always a sure winner. My guess is that SERCO are absolutely disinterested in the form of the restructure but are quite happily delivering the Labour government's diktat. After all, what other reason would there be for inflicting 4 Academies on the City? Academies entrench structural inequality and as such contribute to deprivation: whoever thought a so-called Labour Party would be so enthusiastically implementing Tory so-called "free market" economics in our education system?

Labour have betrayed ordinary, working people and they rub salt in the wound of betrayal by fraudulantly claiming that what they offer is consumer choice! That is a lie and they know it. I hope the electors bear that in mind at the next elections.

Monday 19th November 2007

Respect week...

Another so-called Respect Week launched this morning, this time at Chell Heath, part of my Ward, so naturally I accepted the organising police Inspector's invitation to arrive for the 9am launch to discover that in fact the two dozen or so officers from the police, City Council, Fire & Rescue Service, RSPCA and so on were just concluding their briefing which had started at 8.30am! The photo opportunity turned out to be scheduled for 9.30am and eventually kicked-ff at 9.40am as a result of a little direction from myself.

That turned out to be only with a local agency who publish the City Council's good news magazine and the Burslem Regeneration Company's Angel, focussed on, Burslem. The daily Sentinel was due later, as were more Port Vale staff to pose alongside Chairman Bill Bratt and MP Joan Walley already on site. None of this served to endear me to these Respect weeks, typified as they are, by saturation attention from the agencies. My picture captures the moment after the agency photoshoot beside the City Council's specially created flower-bed in front of Burnwood Primary School. Eco club pupils had been lined up in front of the myriad adults, holding the letters R E S P E C T.

I would be happier if the various agencies concentrated on delivering good services as a matter of course, week after week, rather than indulging in showy spectacles. Actually, it doesn't matter too much about what I think; this is what the majority of the Ward residents think. 

Saturday 17th November 2007

Another tremor strikes the United Front*

A second Cabinet member is sacked in almost as many days. Following Labour's Cllr Paul Shotton's sudden dismissal after he had been convicted of cruelly neglecting his dog, Lib Dem's Cllr Paul Billington has been kicked out after allegedly "not co-operating with the enquiry" regarding some senior officers returning to his house in the very early hours after the Lord Mayor's annual Ball last week. Another Cabinet member, Labour's Cllr Mervin Smith, having announced he would not be seeking re-election to the Council next May has been adopted as Labour's candidate for next May's City elections! Not, however, for his own Ward in the north of the City. Fearing perhaps he may not even be selected to be the candidate there, let along be re-elected, he parachutes himself on the central Ward of Bentilee and Townsend, which just happens to be the Elected Mayor's home Ward. Even so, Smith only narrowly gained the selection with one vote over former Labour City Council Leader, Barry Stockley. Current odds apparently are 50-1 against Smith being in the Council Chamber after 1st May 2008. 

*The United Front is the cobbled coalition of Labour, Conservatives & Independent Alliance, and Lib Dems.

Friday 16th November 2007

Billy Liar shines at the Mitchell Memorial Theatre

Newcastle Players have been presenting shows at the Mitchell for 49 years, becoming their favourite base a year after Douglas Bader opened the theatre in October 1957. The amateur group have offered some good productions over the years but I am sure their production of Billy Liar must be one of their most outstanding ones. It is exemplary in it direction by Chris Lockett (she joined the group earlier this year), set design by John Hough (captures the period and functions very well), lighting by Brian Beech (nothing fancy but again very effective), the cast working smoothly and co-operatively and a Billy who was played like a seasoned professional by 19year-old Chris Wilkinson.

There is little or no let-up for Billy's role but that was a challenge well within the competence of Chris. His movement, mannerisms and mimicry were very good; with more voice training he will extend his tone, strength and volume. The 16pp A5 professionally printed programme was excellent too; layout, background information on Keith Waterhouse, and Willis Hall, 2 pages of key events of the Billy Liar '50s period, photographs (a sensible size, thank goodness) and all the credits, including the printer! A standard to be emulated. Well done Newcastle Players - I hope you all have a good end of production party on Saturday night.

Geoff Price, Life Member of the Newcastle Players and author of the excellent history, The Story of The Newcastle Players, published last year, took the photograph of Michael Hinks of Derby, the President of the National Operatic & Dramatic Association, to which the Players are affiliated, with me at the Mitchell Theatre during the interval.

Thursday 15th November 2007

Play it again Sam 

In response to former councillor and leader of the Labour group, Mick Salih, Elected Mayor Mark Meredith this afternoon, at his 5th and final Meet Mark meetings or as many people have dubbed them, MEREDITH'S FAREWELL TOUR, managed to perpetuate the misinformation put out by the government appointed Governance Commission. He said that there were three options available for local council governance, namely: directly elected mayor & cabinet; leader and cabinet with the leader elected by the Full Council and the whole executive or cabinet directly elected. As I pointed out, Mark like the Governance Commission, needs to keep abreast with the times! As long ago as July 10th the third option (whole executive directly elected) was thrown out of the Local Government Bill currently passing through parliament! John Healey, local government minister made no attempt to restore it when the Bill returned to the Commons on 24th October.

Earlier, Ann Salih, chair of the Norton Residents' Association challenged Meredith to justify the closure of neighbourhood offices and moving services to more remotely located parts of the City. Not surprisingly, Ann received no satisfactory answer. A number of residents departed as frustrated as they had arrived over the proposed school closure plans in general and the closure of James Brindley High school in particular in favour of a new-build, re-located Catholic school. Students from St Joseph's College on the south side of the City came to the meeting and one of them made a very forceful and well argued case against the closure of their school. In the context of a debate on educational provision, I think they found Meredith's constant references to the need for "less" schools because there were "less" pupils over the next five years curiously at odds with the grammatically correct need for fewer schools because there would be fewer pupils.

Of the five meetings held in different parts of the City, this was by far the best attended, with some 40 people gathered at St Michael's church hall at Chell. Previous meetings, though described by Meredith as having "good attendances" had struggled to attract more than a dozen people at each of the four meetings. Further, unscheduled closures of elderly people's residential homes, litter, negative consequences of staff cuts at the Town Hall, the controversial house clearance programme at Middleport each generated almost as much heat as the discussions on school reogranization had at the beginning of the two-hour session. Held from 2-4pm, this demonstration of the democratic process seemed to be designed to exclude the maximum number of participants! The majority work during the day and a large proportion of parents at home are involved in meeting their young children from school around 3pm.

Perhaps the only person on the floor who left feeling more positive about the democratic face of the elected mayor system was the MC with the roving microphone, Sam Plank, former local radio DJ. Play it again Sam! 

Wednesday 14th November 2007

Minton Archives

Great news: City Council director of Community Services, Julie Seddon, has given her backing to the Council taking a leading role to secure the world-famous Minton Archive for the City where it rightfully belongs. Eminent ceramic art historian and tv personality, Paul Atterbury says: "This is simply the greatest 19th century industrial archive in Britain. 

Royal Doulton Ltd, owner of the celebrated Minton archive, has commissioned Bonhams to advise on the future of the archive and they recommend that the archive be preserved in a British institution on display as an entity, not only for historians, scholars and students of ceramic history, but a much wider public.

The Archive dates from 1793 to the present day, and includes thousands of original watercolours and drawings by artists associated with Minton. There are a substantial number by Augustus Pugin, including a series for The Great Exhibition Stove, made up of titles designed by Pugin and manufactured by Minton and set up in the Medieval Court of the exhibition of 1851. The collaboration between Minton and Pugin had a profound effect on English taste as seen in the Houses of Parliament or the huge floor at St George's Hall, Liverpool.

Bonhams believes that the collection of over 120 watercolours of designs by the 19th century's most important designer, Dr Christopher Dresser, may be the largest surviving anywhere. Dresser was the Victorian designer who anticipated the modern world. In quantity as well as quality this is an unrivalled treasure trove. In Dresser's designs we glimpse his genius, his humour and his revolutionary ideas involving function and simplicity of form. Dresser was a skilful draughtsman and his drawings have been stunningly preserved with all their boldness and revolutionary design motifs. Indeed, so fresh and timeless are the designs, that they appear as striking today as they would have done 140 years ago. Mark Oliver, Director of Design at Bonhams, said: "In many ways his angular forms and Japanesque designs anticipated the spirit of Art Deco and Modernism some 50 years before these movements took shape. Even today at the start of the 21st Century we owe a great debt to Dresser. From the line of soaring skyscrapers to the uncluttered interiors of the contemporary apartment, he helped lead the way, while others followed in shaping our modern world."

All of Minton's stellar cast of other artists and designers are represented in the archive in the form of their original sketches, drawings and watercolours that would eventually be either discarded or fashioned into fine ceramics. The range of Minton's commissions extends from Kings, Queens and Tsarinas to a relatively workaday service for RMS Titanic. The archive contains original illustrations for the borders of Minton's fabled masterpiece ‘The Lord Milton Dessert Service' of 1867, which documents the expedition undertaken by Lord Milton and W.B. Cheadle through the Rocky Mountains to British Columbia between 1862-63. This very important dessert service was sold at Bonhams in 2002 with individual plates making £10,000 a piece. The scenes depicted on the service were taken from the expedition's sketches.
 
David Park, Director of Books and Manuscripts at Bonhams said: "The first thought, having had a chance to range through the material, is gratitude to Minton and successive generations of employees who saved what others allowed to be lost, not least in skips in recent years. This is doubly fortunate since Minton was also perhaps the pre-eminent firm in the second half of the 19th century. "

Paul Atterbury passionately believes: "It must be preserved as an entity, for any breaking up would render it completely useless. The sale of the archive as an entity, to a suitable institution or collection should attract support from the Heritage Lottery Fund or similar bodies, well able to understand that the preservation of the Minton archive represents, in a very real sense, the chance in a lifetime.''

Tuesday 13th November 2007

The local daily, The Sentinel, did its readers a great service on Saturday with the page 11 article: How would you like the council run? Neither the Council nor the Governance Commission has so far widely publicised the consultation which is now underway. The first and only communication councillors have had from the Governance Commission is a letter dated 7^th November 2007 addressed: "Dear Sir/Madam" and "I am writing to you as an interested party..."  There is no hint whatsoever of what the Commission will do with the views they gather! This does not inspire a great deal of confidence. Nor does the later paragraph which states that there are three options from which the Council may choose to be run. Well, that's not the view of the government minister:  

"Although the Bill no longer contains proposals for directly elected executives, the measures set out in part 3 will still result in stronger and more accountable leadership. Councils will be able to choose between a directly elected mayor, and a leader and cabinet executive, which will be significantly strengthened by the Bill. We retain the ability to make regulations under the 2000 Act to provide for additional models of executive arrangements, including those comprising directly elected members."

John Healey, House of Commons, 24^th October 2007 (Hansard: Col 351) 

And, just in case there is any doubt, the minister continued:

"I could have argued for what Ministers have described as the opportunity to provide local authorities with an innovative new model of governance arrangements and for the reinstatement of the directly elected executive model. However, given that I believe that the Bill will foster better leadership, that we retain a power to provide for executive models and that there is a broad consensus that we should enact the many important measures in this Bill as soon as possible, I ask the House to accept these amendments as a group and not to reinstate the provision for and the model of a directly elected executive."

In other words, in order to race the Bill through parliament, the minister is not bothered about losing one of the three options because he can do what he likes anyway under the provisions of the Local Government Act 2000!

In their letter, the Governance Commission refer the reader to the White Paper upon which the Bill is based. That is useful as background reading but clearly the Commission should have advised readers of the Bill's passage through parliament, and therefore, Hansard so that up-to-date versions of the Bill are widely known.

If it is not being impertinent, I would like to suggest that the Governance Commission itself keeps an eye on Hansard so that they do not issue any more misinformation.

Monday 12th November 2007

CERAMICA presented with top heritage education award

CONGRATULATIONS to Karen Burgess, the manager of the CERAMICA project located at the Town Hall, Burslem. Karen has inspired hundreds of school children during their programmed hands-on experience of the Ceramic experience. The formation of this Millennium project, like so many Millennium projects - just think of the Dome at Greenwich! - was mired in controversy during its costly over-spend, over-time and over-hyped development. But all that was the doing of the original overly optimistic, overly unrealistic, trustees. None of that belongs to Karen Burgess. A qualified teacher, Karen has quietly developed a project which gives young people a real feel and flavour of aspects of the ceramic industry, past, present and future, drawing on interactive exhibits, working with clay and computers with design programmes. The SANDFORD AWARD, established in 1982 by Lord Sandford, a government minister at the time, is a prestigious annual award for the field of Heritage Education. Karen and colleagues travelled to RAF Cosford today for the annual presentations at the air museum there. CERAMICA now joins a very impressive membership of Award holders, including the Tower of London, Blenheim Palace, Tatton Park and within the City, Gladstone Pottery Museum and Ford Green Hall. The award lasts for five years and then the holder must reapply for the quinquennial review. For example, Blenheim Palace first received the Award in 1982 and has successfully reapplied quinquenially, for the 5th time this year! Gladstone Museum gained the Award in 2006 but Ford Green Hall was the torch bearer for the City, first gaining the Award in 1996 and successully retaining it since.    

Remembrance Sunday 11th November 2007

The granite war memorial at Brindley Ford is the only free standing outside war memorial in my Ward of Chell & Packmoor and I always attend the Remembrance Sunday Service at the Methodist Church, almost opposite the memorial along Outclough Road (A527). The service begins with prayers and a hymn shortly after 10.45am and then we file out to form a semi-circle on the main road in front of the war memorial.  Fortunately, the police divert the traffic along the parallel Fisher Street and for the first time that task was entursted to three Police Community Support Officers who discharged their duty excellently. Without the traffic diversion it would be impossible to assemble in front of the memorial and observe the two minutes silence, followed by the last post, played by Sam Carey. His father Andrew Carey led the service and Cllr Nora Salt (Newchapel ward for Newcastle Borough Council) laid the wreath on behalf of the British Legion and Police Community Support Officer Andrew Wootton laid one on behalf of the Staffordshire Police force.  George Moreton of Fegg Hayes (right) was in the transport corps in the Second War (with his brother Anson of Packmoor who was unable to attend this year) and behind him J.B.Roberts of Bridge Street, Brindley Ford, whose uncle Percy Roberts' name is inscribed on the plinth of the war memorial amongst those who were killed in the First World War.  

165 names are inscribed on the four faces of the granite plinth. On the side facing the road is the inscription: To the glorious dead who fell in the Great War 1914-1918 and 25 names with a further five added at a later date. The other three faces of the plinth are headed: In honoured remembrance of those who served and 140 names are inscribed. The memorial is treasured by the village residents and recently the local Residents' Association raised £500 to meet half the cost of the new flagpole.

Friday 9th November 2007

Opening an account is easy!

Well that's what the banks' publicity material proclaims. I can remember the day (I'm sure!) when I could make an appointment with my helpful bank manager (a what?) and pop along to open an account for a charitable organization with minimum fuss. Minutes of the meeting that made the decision to open the account with this particular bank, specimen signatures and the banks good wishes for a successful organization and the job was done. Well, alright, that was a few decades ago admittedly. I am well aware that in the 21st century (I have come to dislike hearing/reading that cliche as much as "absolutely" when "yes" would be perfectly in order) a passport or driving licence, as well as a recent utility bill in one's own name with one's home address, must be brought into the bank in person by each prospective signatory. However, getting the vital appointment at which to present this vital evidence, designed to weed out money launderers, is a minor task in itself these days. Short-staffed, fully booked, not at this branch are more likely responses than, "of course, what time would best suit you?" Given that an appointment is eventually available, the paperwork journey to head office and back can take a fortnight - a fortnight! (That reminds me, why can cash be moved from one account to another immediately on payment of a fee, like £25, but without such an incentive the movement takes 3 days?) I wonder how much actual money laundering has been prevented by this absurd bureaucratic rigmarole (isn't that a lovely word?). I mean, if that were my voluntary organization's objective, presumably I would have obtained the necessary false passport/driving licence and a domestic utility bill is absurdly simple to arrange. I have a sneaking feeling that the big boys in the cash dry-cleaning business have not been too inconvenienced by all this palaver (another lovely word!). On the other hand, I have been very put out, as Tony Hanock would have said.

Thursday 8th November 2007

Council's savage cuts at Children's Centres

At a well attended public meeting this evening the anger and dismay of parents was evident; they just cannot understand why the Council's Executive  is cutting Local Authority staffed pre-school child care. They are more hurt than indignant that not a single Council official has thought fit to consult them. They are worried about child-care provision for their children. In some cases there is no alternative private provision at the moment; in others there is an alternative but no parent considered the alternative remotely appropriate. They are worried that they will have to give up their jobs and stay at home. They cannot understand why the Council Executive regard the cost of the provision as a "subsidy" and not an "investment" for the future. Stoke-on-Trent pays out £millions annually for its large number of looked-after children cared for outside of the city. Children's Centres are providing an excellent service and are a fine example of a strategic preventative approach to the development of a whole host of social problems. This issue is making an increasing number of people aware of the state of democracy in the City and they are not impressed. Their experience is mobilising a collective and co-operative campaign; the response of their councillors and MPs to requests  for clear and unequivocal answers is awaited with interest. 

Wednesday 7th November 2007

Bonding in the backs

I spent this morning with the manager of Urban Vision, Mick Downs and two of his colleagues, walking along the back alleys as well as along the fronts of the Fegg Hayes Village miners' terraces undertaking a heritage characterisation survey. It has seemed a simple solution to a number of professionals from a variety of bodies, including a major local registered social landlord, to favour wholesale demolition and new build. As the City Council's Heritage and Design Champion and as a politician committed to people-power I have championed the retention and refurbishment of the majority of the properties while acknowledging that some sections are beyond rescue and demolition is the only viable option. Fred Hughes, local historian and regular columnist of The Sentinel, the daily local newspaper, was with us as was Jim Worgan, the tireless campaigner for the rescue and development of the country's first million tons of coal a year coalmine across the road and beyond the field, Chatterley Whitfield. These were the colliery's miners' cottages. They have in many cases been unsympathetically refurbished, not least by Staffordshire Housing Association which owns some 60+ of the cottages, with inappropriate materials (concrete roof tiles, upvc window frames and doors, concrete fencing panels etc). But all that can easilly be stripped away. A coherence can be restored, not least along the backs with careful replacement of much of the renewed boundary walls. Fred Hughes is shown in the picture pointing out a rare example of the original stone coping on the brick wall. The range of brick bonding emphasies just how monotonous modern brickwork has become. 

Much of the building in these terraces has been allowed to deterioriate too far, for too long and the associated social decline is a gross injustice inflicted on the vast majority of residents in these streets which are still, despite the adverse odds, imbued with a latent community-ness, or in the modern parlance social cohesiveness.        

Tuesday 6th November 2007

Is it really a NEET solution?

One of the headline issues in today's Queen's Speech was the government's proposal, in effect, to raise the school leaving age to 18. Ministers are concerned about the large proportion of post-16 teenagers not in education, employment or training. New Labour's solution to most issues seems to be compulsion. But how successful is this proposal to force disaffected young people into education, employment or training likely to be? What will happen to the continuing refusniks? Fines, imprisonment, deportation? Has anyone looked at the socio-economic structures within which these young people are found? Are we talking about Lord Bertie Tweed of Dee, the youngest of the old Marquesses' brood? I don't think the government are over worried about the few thousand from that particular strata that may not be particularly gainfully employed. Young descendents of the working class disinherited by Thatcherite so-called free market economics, experiencing the realities of deprivation in their daily lives, and receiving at best an indifferent and on average a failing school experience and seeing little or no real likelihood of change, not surprisingly, are distant, disengaged and disaffected. They feel they have been failed. They have been failed. Beating them will not change that. We must engage them, incorporate them, embrace them. But if we really start doing that we shall be laying down a radical challenge to stratified society which serves privilege and profit based on elitism and exploitation.

Monday 5th November 2007

NEWS FLASH  -  SERCO releases some information

"The consultation is a genuinely open process..."

SERCO, the private company catapulted into the City by the government to run our Children & Young People's Services has finally written to all Councillors today with the consultation dates (but not times!) for each of the 5 Special Schools and the 17 High Schools in the City. The meetings are spread over 3 weeks (Monday -Thursday) kicking off at Edensor High School next Monday (13th), Interestingly, the final consultative meeting is at Haywood High School on the 29th November, the only school to have mounted a sustained campaign against SERCO's proposal to close it.

A booklet setting out the proposals, we are told, is currently at the printers and will be distributed next week to all councillors as well as every school, with sufficient copies for parents of every child in the schools. SERCO are still clinging to what they call their favoured option, what I call their fiction, "that all 22 secondary and special schools should close, and that 12 new secondary and 4 new special schools should open in their place." The more I consider SERCO's modus operandi the more polite I think is my term "fiction".

No one disputes the demographic facts: namely, the decreasing number of teenagers in the City, hence the need for fewer High School places. It may follow, although not necessarily so, that fewer schools are required. However, I am content to agree that fewer schools are required. I am not content to agree that we need to plan schools as large as 1,300 students. However, if it were all down to the size and geographical location of schools, the issue would be a relatively straight-forward administrative process.  

But that is not the case! SERCO is being less than transparent, along with the City Council's Executive, the Elected Mayor no less, with the political process. The so-called transformation of our schools is actually much more to do with ideological dogma than with falling birth rates! For example:  first, each faith school and several High Schools survive the "transformation"; second, academies are slipped in without open debate.  

It is difficult to see the government's purpose in sending in SERCO was anything other than making sure academies were forced into the City. The Blair-Brown Labourites knew only too well that the majority of the City Labour party were opposed to academies. (Is not the City party still officially opposed to academies?) This is the same Brown government that prattles on about local democracy. Were it not so utterly serious it would be a joke. And to think that once Labour proudly supported equal opportunities for accessing education!

Sunday 4th November 2007

Mrs Simpson joined by family and friends at church to celebrate her

100th birthday

Packmoor Methodist Church was absolutely packed this morning with additional chairs squeezed along the aisles. The songs of praise service was led by Ann Speed, the Methodist Minister's wife, and we started shortly after 11am, appropriately enough with Happy Birthday and a warm round of applause. Various members of the congregation had chosen the hymns. A dozen or so members of the Youth Church sang one and Church member Maggie Coates sang a solo in her mother-tongue, Bemba, that powerfully and movingly reflected the depth of her faith from heart and soul. After a little more than an hour of joyful thanksgiving through song, prayer and readings for Nellie's 100 years we adjourned to the adjacent school room for refreshments and chatter and in turn a few minutes with the birthday girl herself.  I was delighted to capture such an animated image as this with Nellie and her nephew brothers, Norman, 91, (left) and Peter, 87, sons of her late sister Elizabeth. Norman and Peter Taylor will be remembered by many of the older people in the community for their supermarkets in Biddulph and Tunstall during the '70s and '80s.

Born on 4th November 1907, Nellie Baskeyfield lived with her family at 7 Cross Street, Tunstall. Nellie married Thomas Simpson on 7th June 1930 and in 1933 they moved to Mellor Street, Packmoor where Nellie has lived ever since. In all those years she has been a devoted member of Packmoor Methodist Church. Thomas and Nellie had three children, Betty, Janet and John. Nellie has 5 grandchildren and 11 great grandchildren. Nellie's mind remains sharp, her memory clear and she can recount the intricacies of her extended family in a way that is increasingly rare amongst contemporary, mobile and, it has to be said, often temporary family raltionships. John Baskeyfield, VC, whose statue is at the Etruria Road entrance to the upper part of the Festival Park, was Nellie's second cousin, being the grandson of an elder brother of her father. As Ann Speed said at the conclusion of the service: "People really are delighted to sit and listen to Nellie as she talks about people and places of times gone by." I remember one of my early meetings with her at the fortnightly Saturday coffee mornings at Packmoor Methodist Church when I said some of our favourite pottery was Booth's Real Old Willow. "I was a gilder on that line" she said and entertained me for ages with her recollections of life on the pot banks.

Mrs Simpson, you must have listened to thousands in your long life, offered wise, quiet counsel and above all, given so much love to so many people. A very happy 100th birthday and God bless you.   

Saturday 3rd November 2007

Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

News that MPs in their debate on the Bill on Wednesday 24th October agreed with the Lords' rejection of one of the three proposed Executive arrangements for Local Councils, has not become generally known. The demise of the "whole elected Executive" option now leaves local authorities with a choice of two systems: EITHER a directly elected mayor OR a Council leader, elected by Full Council. Whether or not it matters much which of those prevails may be of relatively little importance. Why? Because BOTH are invested with TOTAL executive authority; BOTH delegate that authority in whatever way they wish; BOTH have a Cabinet of a maximum of 9. Interestingly, a number of MPs lamented the absence of the option of a reformed or enhanced committee arrangement. It is that system for which the Democracy4Stoke movement campaigns. The Blair-Brown Labour consensus blindly believe the more centralised, authoritarian system is MORE efficient, effective and transparent. What a joke! The government still maintain that a directly elected mayor increases accountability, makes clear where decisions are made. Really? Where is the evidence?    

Friday 2nd November 2007

Youth Musical Theatre Company Floods Stoke-on-Trent Theatre

I thought I might have overdosed on the Mitchell Youth Theatre after a seemingly non-stop month-long programme marking the 50th anniversary of the theatre but I was back there tonight for this year's production by the Stoke Youth Musical Theatre Company. This year's Best Actress Award winner for her role in Me and My Girl, Ann McArdle, has a long, impressive professional stage career and many tv roles, including regular appearances in Doctors, was this year's invited director. Together with former member of the Youth Theatre Company, choreographer Sarah Mould, Ann McArdle has inspired a magnificently even and captivating production. The standard was so high that occasional slightly hesitant transitions from one song set to another were obvious where they would have passed unnoticed in a less polished production.

NOAH, the musical, might not at first sound, strike one as offering much in the way of entertainment, particularly in these days of massively devastating floods causing huge loss of life. However, entertaining the show was as much (possibly more) due to the polish and professionalism of the young cast of 30 as to the musical itself. The lighting might have been sharper, more exciting, and the Ark could have more resembled a boat than a building-site hut, but I did not allow either to tarnish the overall glow of the evening. 

With such a splendid team effort it is somewhat invidious to single out particular parts but I have to say the Raven & Dove ballet, performed by Matthew Turner and Danielle Slinn, did stand out, not just because it was different in form from everything else in the show, but because they both danced so gracefully and harmoniously.  

I left the theatre delighted that our City has such a gem of a Youth Theatre where young people can learn and enjoy so much working together.  

Thursday 1st November 2007

Gag City Spinning Out of Control? 

Well, well, well, silly Cllr Gavin Webb thinking that he, as a Liberal-Democrat member of the City Council's United Front Organization (UFO), composed of the Labour group, the definition challenging Conservative & Independent Alliance group and the Liberal-Democrat group, should ever think he could issue a paper for discussion at Full Council concerned with future governance arrangements in the City. Cllr Webb was left in no doubt by his group leader that such discussion would not be helpful. I'm just surprised that a Liberal-Democrat needed to be reminded that open, honest, democracy was unhelpful.

Before Full Council this afternoon, all Group Leaders were invited to a buffet lunch to munch over "low key" discussions  with the four candidates for the £75,000 a year Head of Public Relations post. Yes, the one I wrote about on the 6th September, where possibly a glimmer of our Executive's view of democracy peered through the notion that "dissenting voices can be drowned out by sheer weight of positive comment" as the Tribal Recruitment's phrase had it in the job advert. Naturally, I asked each candidate in turn what their response was to this idea. Secondly, with pointed finger and hand motioning a spinometre I asked each where they placed themselves on their commitment to and practice of spin. The vegetarian snacks were very tasty and for once clearly labelled.

Slightly fast-forward to the Elected Mayor's report to Full Council. He has done the first 3 of his 5 scheduled Meet Mark Farewell Tour Meetings (our Elected Mayor system, thank goodness, is being abolished by the Local Government Bill currently passing through parliament and so will disappear in May 2009). He said that he was pleased that attendances at the meetings had been "good". I said I was pleased that he was pleased but mused on what superlative he might employ if attendances ever did exceed more than a dozen members of the public. (Mark's count include  his entourage, various officers and some loyal, as well as some merely curious, Councillors.) 

Ever more desperate to appear to be making some sort of political progress, I predict we can expect more gaggings and accelerating spin. Spin away, Gag-on-Trent, Gag-on-Trent/ never ever relent/ however many facts are bent. Gag-on-Trent, Gag-on-Trent, Gag-on-Trent, to whatever tune you feel is apt.