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Monday 30th June 2008

One World Week with FAIRTRADE theme

At this evening's City FAIRTRADE Group bi-monthly meeting we decided to organise a Fairtrade themed quiz night. The idea is to invite teams of four members each to wend their way through a knock-out university challenge-style competition but perhaps veering more towards the endearing antidote to quiz games, Radio 4's long running I'm sorry I haven't a clue. Teams from the widest possible range of cultural and faith backgrounds will be sought from across the City so that we can in our own small way demonstrate the joys of a one world approach.

Details will be posted on the Stoke-on-Trent Fairtrade website once we have confirmed the venue and date in October.

Auditioning for the pivotal role of quiz person extraordinaire will be held in due course.

Saturday 28th June 2008

Stoke Labour Group bolt for the bunker 

The Staffordshire and Cheshire Co-operative Party welcomed the Stoke-on-Trent Labour Local Government Committee and all with a sympathetic interest in the future governance of local authorities to a meeting at the Council Chamber, Stoke Town Hall, yesterday evening. I was one of the invited speakers. The Deputy Elected Mayor, Cllr Mohammed Pervez had accepted an invitation to speak in support of the Elected Mayor and Cabinet model of governance but together with the whole of the City Council Labour Group bolted for the bunker and boycotted the meeting. A more abject lack of manners and political engagement is difficult to imagine. This is yet another example of the unfitness of the Labour Elected Mayor, and the whole of the Labour Group which he is dragging down in the process, for the leadership position to which he was elected.

It is also yet another example of the inappropriateness of the system of governance so favoured by the Labour government. Surely now it can only be a matter of time before those Labour Councillors of integrity speak out and resist further public humiliation attached to the ineptitude of the Elected Mayor.

This last minute withdrawal from the public meeting can only be seen as an unwillingness to engage in open, honest debate about the options for the new form of governance which will take effect after next year's local elections.

Equally serious, it fuels the widespread suspicion that the Elected Mayor is engaged in a last ditch attempt to prevent a referendum being held so that the Council, jerrymandered by the Elected Mayor, NOT the public decide the outcome. Already, people are asking why the full page advertisement on Friday in the local daily newspaper, The Sentinel, makes no reference to the promised referendum. In fact it gives definte impression that the Council will make the decision! When Councillors were sent a draft of the 4-page A4 leaflet, on which the advertisement is based, I strongly suggested to the Council Manager that reference to the referendum as part of the decision-maing process be included. The public's dismay, sadly, comes as no surprise to me.   

Thursday 25th June 2008

City Council plans wholesale privatisation

The Director of Central Services' report to next Wednesday's Executive and Members' Board (Council Manager/CEO, Elected Mayor and his Cabinet of 10 Portfolio Holders) gives due warning when she writes at 6.2: "The scale of what is being proposed must not be underestimated." The Director goes on to claim: "This proposal is one significant step in (sic) the journey to excellence."  Also, apparently, proposing the "...outsourcing of support services" demonstrates that "...we are capable of both thinking 'outside the box' and acting upon and implementing it." Another reason used to support the outsourcing or in plain language, privatisation of public services, is that "...major investment from the City Council is not considered practical to implement in a manner that would deliver a major transformational element..."  Unsurprisingly, the superficial report fails to indicate projected costs; nor does it indicate how a "major transformational element" would be recognised.

It will be interesting to see just how the ten Portflio Holders support this latest aspect of the Labour Elected Mayor's programme to dismantle public services in Stoke-on-Trent. I said some time ago to the Council Manager that I did not doubt he would reach his goal of excellence but that it was my view that at that point there would be few if any Council assets or Council services left for a democratic body to manage and develop.

This is not only wholesale privatision of services it is the privitisation of democracy where citizen involvement is eliminated and reduced to consumer contact with call centres.  

Thursday 25th June 2008

Tuesday 24th June 2008

Coal Authority's agreement in principle

The New Black Bull pub in Brindley Ford, just inside the City's northern boundary, stands on the edge of the former Victoria colliery site and opposite where once stood the world's largest iron-smelting works, but that was a century or so ago. There is little obvious topographical evidence of either industrial activites since both have been "greened". Who would have imagined twenty years ago that seemingly fixed features of the landscape would so quickly be lost without a trace?

The trees in the picture mark the extreme south-eastern border of the former Victoria colliery area. Immediately behind them is the former mineral railway line, now part of a national cycle route. The flat land is still owned by the Coal Authority because they need to retain access in case of emergency works associated with the dam and lake beyond the trees. As a result of a site meeting this morning with Coal Authority officers we have an in-principle approval for a licence to transform the land into a playable football pitch. Recently arrived licencees at the adjacent New Black Bull pub, Jan and John, are keen to promote the widest possible community involvement and creatng football pitches (another junior/5 aside pitch would fit their existing land) would fulfill a real need by numerous local teams. We now need to get down to some serious practical planning; drawing up each stage of works necessary, indicative costings, exploring funding avenues and agreeing the legal entity of the group that is to take forward the project. There is a great deal of work to be done, but the potential dividends for the area if the project can be realised are indeed great.

Monday 23rd June 2008

State funding for political parties

I think we all realise that to have a good chance of reaching the White House, Washington DC, a few $million are more useful than a log cabin, whatever the ideology of the American Dream or as one bright spark once put it, if all you have is a log cabin, forget it! The Guardian reported last Saturday beneath the headline on page 27: Obama tarnished by rejecting public funds for election fight. He had promised last year that he would abide by the election funding scheme set up after the Watergate scandal in 1974. Apparently, all presidential candidates since have signed up to the protocol that gives each candidate $85m (£42.5m) of government funding to fight the presidential election campaign from early September to November 4th. So why would someone turn down such a massive free fighting fund? Two good reasons it would seem in Obama's case. One, he has a track record of being able to raise vast sums for electioneering: $265 so far, spent on knocking Hilary Clinton out of the Democrat candidate race. The Republican candidate, McCain raised less than half that amount. And Obama is good for raising as much again! Second, the protocol does not stop the respective political parties from spending unlimited sums on aspects of the election campaign and since the Republican party has a much richer base McCain clearly benefits from the protocol.

All very interesting. Anyone that ever thought funding political parties in the UK from government funds, that is, from our taxes, may wish to reconsider. Our figures might be smaller, proportionately, but in any case why should even £1 of our taxation prop up political parties too complacently arrogant and removed from their supporters that they cannot raise enough through their own efforts? 

Sunday 22nd June 2008

On its website, BT state: "Our campaigns and charitable partnerships aim to inspire people and communities to make a better world through the power of communication skills and technology. We form key strategic partnerships with charities where our expertise in communications can make a real difference above and beyond just fundraising. In 2008 that investment was £22.3million; made up of direct funding and support in kind. Many of our activities are particularly focused on helping young people across the globe."

Surely retention of the K6 red telephone kiosks, treasured parts of both our urban and rural environmental heritage would cost a miniscule proportion in money and kind of BT's charitable chest. 

In the meantime, local authority organizations such as the Local Government Association and the Parish Councils Association are being contacted to see how thye might lend support for the campaign.

Saturday 21s June 2008

Red Alert - BT threatens more K6 heritage

Today's local daily, The Sentinel, flagged up BT's latest threat to the iconic 1930s K6 red telephone kiosk with a front page photograph and full page story inside. They include a list of the threatened public telephone kiosks in North Staffordshire. Not all, of course are K6s and I am not sure about some of them. I do know, though, some are red K6s in surrounding villages. There is an urgency to mobilise all interested in the preservation of such a vital part of the landscape heritage so that a concerted, constructive case can be put to BT. We ought to be able to find an alternative to yet another calamatious cull. 

No one denies that most of the public telephone kiosks are little used. But what we have not been told is to what extent they are uneconomical. Can each of these K6s be so uneconomical that they threaten the profit margins of BT? At the very least, BT should welcome all interested parties to meet and explore ways of preserving the K6s in situ. I have asked key Council officers to contact BT with a view to listening to our representations and alternative proposals. 

The K6 shown here at Jack Haye Lane, Lightoaks, was rescued from redundancy and removal in November 2006. It has recently been repaired and repainted and we have been grateful to BT for their change of heart and for its retention. The one threatened now near Tongue Lane along Bemersley Road in the north of the City is the only other K6 in the City!

Friday 20th June 2008

638 Squadron:government myth making

It would seem from some rough notes found on a train that pulled into Stoke station earlier today that so desperate is the government to reach its squalid target of 400 academies across the country that the Secretary of State for Education, or whatever they call it in its present incarnation, has come up with a nice winning little number. Amongst a great many doodles, and some quite uncomplimentary pen portraits of various government ministers, we read: "Create criteria for failure: mmm, easy, all secondary schools with fewer than 30% of its students failing to gain 5 GCSEs A*-C. Now let's see, how many is that? Ah ah, 638! Wonderful, all we have to do now is to bank on a goodly number failing to gain sufficient pace to reach our target (if they do, it doesn't matter because our back up plan is to up the criteria; neat, eh?). Then, we close the failures then promptly re-open them as academies! NB: not a word about those 26 academies which appear amongst the 638. If anybody does happen to bother to wade through the list and spots them, we'll just ignore any questions and comments about them. Just in case the questions and comments persist, give PriceWaterhouseCoopers a ring to see if their latest annual evaluation of academies will mask the failures."

The minister and his colleagues should be ashamed of themselves. This is a travesty of an educational policy. The minister would do students, teachers and indeed everyone with a genuine interest in education a real favour if he were to resign. Ed Balls would be better employed as a quality controller at the end of a sausage-making production line.

Encourage him to take the hint. Write to your MP, write to Ed Balls, and demand he withdraws this insult to teachers and pupils doing their best, often in extremely difficult circumstances, and actually despite all the flak from government, making good progress.

Thursday 19th June 2008

RED ALERT - BT's renewed threat to more classic K6 red telephone kiosks

Stoke-on-Trent must be the only city or town in the country where you will not find the iconic red K6 telephone kiosks, except for just two along the fringe of the city/rural boundary. One hundred years after the first public telephones appeared in Britain, the GPO (General Post Office, for younger readers) was privatised in 1984 and it didn't take the new profit orientated BT (as opposed to public service orientated GPO) very long before it set about systematic destruction of all but some 15,000 of the original 80,000 K6 red kiosks throughout the UK. The classic cast iron kiosks were consigned to scrap yards; a few escaped the clutches of the crunchers and found their way into private gardens.

Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, who designed Liverpool Anglican Cathedral when he was only 21, was commissioned to design the K6 in 1935. To mark the Silver Jubilee of King George V, the GPO wanted every town and village to have at least one public telephone. The K6 has become a truly iconic design, the embodiment of classical and 1930's modernist architectural features, that never appears out of place wherever it is located. It not only sits easilly but positively adorns any environment, whether it be amidst formal urban settings or isolated, sparsely populated rural places.   

In the autumn of 2006 BT launched a renewed attack and one of the two remaining in the City was doomed. With the sustained and committed support of a number of Council officers, including the Neighbourhood Manager and a Conservation Officer, the doomed K6 only just within the City's southern boundary at Jack Haye Lane, Lightoaks was reprieved. BT promised to repair and re-paint it too, work that is being currently undertaken.

However, BT are are it again and now the only other remaining K6 in the City, just inside the northern boundary along Bemersley Road, opposite Tongue Lane (which is out of the City and in the Staffordshire Moorlands District Council) is on the closure and removal list. Again, we will do all we can to ensure that this iconic structure remains in place.

Admittedly, with the spread of the mobile 'phone BT maintains that some 50% of public telephones are unprofitable. Not all are K6s however. Prune the others but surely BT's vast profits permit an elemnt of the "old fashioned" public services commitment. Vital elements of our public architectural heritage should not be sacrificed when it become part of a privatised portfolio.

It is especially important that Stoke-on-Trent does not lose its two remaining K6s but I hope Councils throughout the country will be working vigorously to ensure that not a single one of their K6s is declared redundant and removed.

Wednesday 18th June 2008

Community films at Stoke Film Theatre

Five short films made by various community groups were premiered this evening at Stoke's brilliant little film theatre beneath the title, WARD STORIES. Ward Stories is an Arts for Health media project, principally funded by the Stoke Primary Care Trust and the City Council. Post-natal depression, so often a taboo, particularly in the Asian community was the subject of the first film, followed by creeping Alzheimer and the effect on her partner as much as the closing-in of the sufferer's world, conveyed with sensitivity in the second short film. Young From Stoke and Proud, was a welcome celebration of several gay and lesbian young people talking positively about their sexual identity after being accepted by their parents. Twenty seven years ago the accounts of thirtyfour teenagers' struggles for mental health in a hostile society were published in a ground-breaking little book, Breaking the Silence. At its City launch for youth workers in 1981 one youth officer attended.

Fish and Chips is the work of the Townsend Residents' Association Youth Group and it powerfully projected the horror and pain of bullying. Eclipse, the fifth and final film graphically conveyed the trauma and terror of despair, desperation and depression experienced amongst some members of the Afro-Caribbean Community in England.

Excellently supported by three professional film makers and Paul Bailey, a City Council cultural development officer, the five City communities have been enabled to articulate and portray their various experiences. Those in themselves were enormously enriching processes. But with the tangible and enduring outcomes of the films, those experiences live on and can inspire countless others.

This is community work at its finest. Congratulations to each person involved.  

Wednesday 18th June 2008

Technophobe's despair transformed to joy!

Last Wednesday I moved to TALK TALK for my telephone and broadband services and since then spent most of the time off net though the 'phone line was fine. I feel I've been round most of the world's call centres, suffering severe linguistic challenge but thankfully today I successfully penetrated the human firewall and as I was ushered into the inner sanctum of real technical help. Hearing his voice instantly relaxed me; I just knew I was in safe hands at last. "I am totally technically incompetent" I immediately confessed. "That doesn't matter" said the reassuring voice and promptly and gently guided me through a few clicks to reveal that my router wasn't functioning. "When did you last switch off your router?" asked the gentle giant of technological knowledge. Feeling somewhat inadequate, if not guilty, I confessed that I had never switched off the router. Why would I want to, I wondered? "Pull out the power cable for a few seconds then reconnect. Now try to connect to the net." YES, back on: "I could hug you" I heard myself saying. Following advice about the need to buy a new, updated router, I was assured that I could get technical support at any time and with that my new friend and I said our farewells.  

I have posted this for the benefit of that one other person in the world who, like me, is completely ignorant of the mores of computer folklore so that s/he also now knows that a good trouble shooting starting point is to pull the plug for a few seconds.  

Saturday 14th June 2008

Empowerment In Action

In yesterday's posting, I illustrated how increasingly grassroots community empowerment is emerging in Stoke-on-Trent. Engaging, encouraging and empowering people is a pretty straight-forward process, requiring only one essential ingredient: the political will to facilitate it. I am not convinced an expensive London conference, to be held on 17th July and launched by Hazel Blears, MP, Secretray of State for Communities & Local Government, will be any more than hot air, hollow platitudes and bullet-pointed programmes for "action".

The conference is designed to coincide with the publication of Blears' White Paper, Community Empowerment. By the way, what happened to "double devolution" which was in vogue quite recently?

The pre-conference blurb promises that with the published white paper to work from, presentations and discussion will be led by politicians, practitioners, commentators and experts on:
* Renewed interest and pressure for elected mayors to encourage strong local leadership
* How empowerment will change the relationship between service providers and local communities
* How communities will hold public officials and representatives to account
* How new powers will trigger action on popular priorities by raising the status of petitions
* How local authorities can revive involvement in local civic and democratic roles
* How local authorities can use the empowerment agenda to tackle worklessness and promote enterprise

Quite an interesting agenda! My emphasis in the first bullet point: I wonder where the pressure is perceived to be coming from for elected mayors?        

Friday 13th June 2008

City Labour Party & Regional Co-operative Party confront DEMOCRACY

In Stoke-on-Trent, increasingly more and more people are realising that there is more to a local council than getting the refuse removed, streets cleaned and the parks well maintained. More and more single issue campaigns are building up a broader base of political awareness, political experience and political ambition. The successful broad-based coommunity campaign to stop the Dimensions' Splash Pool being closed has demonstrated the effectiveness of people coming together to work for a shared goal. Co-operative action is being experienced as effective action.

That campaign had a flying start, grounded as it was in the successful Hands Off Haywood High School campaign. Now the double success of those campaigns has led to the development of HAVOC, a kind of standing community campaign unit. Already it has put out a well reasoned case for getting rid of parking charges in Burslem and is seeking Council support. HAVOC firmly believes free parking would not lead to chaos but would lead to a rebirth of retailing in the town centre. A great many people agree.

Democracy4Stoke is another example of a broad-based community campaign that has raised the political awareness of thousands of people across the City. Gathering some 15,000 signatures has demonstrated that more and more people are demanding that their views be noted. The Governance Commission has declined to accommodate the Executive Committee system for our new City governance. Instead, convinced that the Minister will only countenance the two main options in the Local Government & Public Health Act, the people will have only two options to choose from in the autumn referendum: namely Elected Mayor & cabinet or Council Leader elected by the 60 councillors who then appoints the cabinet. 

The City Labour Party and the area Co-opertative Party are organising a joint meeting starting at 7.30pm on Friday 27th June at the Council Chamber to contribute to the debate about the form of local democracy that people would like to see introduced in May 2009. I have been invited to be one of the speakers. The meeting is open to all. Details from the organiser, Mick Williams: 01782413974.

Thursday 12th June 2008

City Mayor elected by the people or Council Leader elected by the 60 councillors?

At this afternoon's Full Council meeting the information campaign to inform all City voters, business people and other interested parties of the choice City voters will have in the referendum to be held later this year in October-November. The information camapign will cost between £80,000 and £120,000. A variety of methods will be used, including messages on the back of parking tickets, special section in the Council's Our City magazine, advertising in the local daily, The Sentinel and a question and answer panel session (filmed for general release?) at the Stoke Town Hall.

Admittedly, the current Elected Mayor and Council Manager system, which invested all Executive decision-making in the hands of the unelected Council Manager (set to be the Chief Executive from May next year) has become widely unpopular amongst residents across the City but not, interestingly, amongst the business community. If the Sentinel breaks ranks with objectivity and impartiality it will surely support the elected mayor system.

Admittedly (also) it has to be recognised that politicians are currently in held in very low esteem and local councillors as abody are no exception. So when it comes to the crunch and the referendum asks people if they would like a Leader and Cabinet, with the Leader elected by and from the present 60 councillors, the level of misrust may lead  many to say no, knowing that the fall-back position would then be that we had an Elected Mayor with a Cabinet appointed by the Mayor.

In other words, the outcome may not be so cut and dried as many appear to believe. Howver, one thing is certain. In the coming weeks there will be a great deal of publicity about the advantages and disadvantages of the two systems followed by a number of campaigning weeks leading up to the referendum. The deciison has to be finalised this year by no later than the 31st December. The current system is due to continue until May 2009.   

Monday 9th June 2008

Post Office closures

It is with real regret that I feel compelled to say that the Elected Mayor's response to the latest Post Office closure programme is abysmally inadequate. He has been very badly advised to sign a two-page letter of such waffly platitudes. Not until the final brief paragraph is there the remotest hint that the City Council is making an expression of interest to open negotiations to see how the inconvenience, worry and potential initial hardship that hundreds of pensioners, single parents on limited means and the disabled (to mention just three important groups of people) might be ameliorated.

I have signally failed to have any political impact upon this response despite the detailed feedback I provided following my attendance at the Local Government Association's sell-out national conference on the issue on the 14th May.

As a Council that claims to be on the road to Excellence, this is an abjectly weedy effort. We should have been proclaiming our determination to do all that we possibly could to lessen the pain for many, many residents, following the closure of 7 Sub-Post Office across the City. (This remember, is on top of the previous round of closures.)

We should have been determined to explore how we might have ensured that specific financial services were available for particular communities at particular times. No one was ever suggesting fighting to retain the doomed Post Offices. Post Office Ltd made it absolutely crystal clear, if one Post Office is saved from closure, they will close another one. 2,500 nationwide WILL be closed. Post Office Ltd have been put between a rock and a hard place. And unlike Northern Rock, rescued by the government with billions of taxpayers money, the government, with the support of its MPs, pulled the plug on the Post Offices by diverting Benefits payments to recipients' bank accounts. Take away the business then accuse them of being uneconomic and so demand that they must cut their cloth accordingly. In other words, the destruction of a national institution, treasured and valued by the vast majority of people has been sacrificed on the altar of marketisation.

Unfortunately  for the people of Stoke-on-Trent, their City Council is led by politicians who think privatisation is good and public services bad. I just wish someone could get the message across to them that not even the most rabid capitalist thinks that! 

Sunday 8th June 2008

Arnold Bennett Society Annual Conference, Forum Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent.

Some 90 people from as far afield as Southampton, Ramsgate and London attended the full one-day 5th annual Arnold Bennett conference, held for the first time at the City centre Forum Theatre. "It has been the most well attended conference to date" John Shapcott, Arnold Bennett Society chairman told me: "And all the better too for being held for the first time in the superb Forum Theatre, made possible by the generous support of the City Council. Participants have been universally impressed with the venue and the support services of the City Council staff."

John and his wife Linda put hours of work into arranging the conference which included erudite papers from university lecturers. Unfortunately, because of other engagements, I arrived mid-afternoon, and so caught only the final two presentations. Lynne Hapgood, Nottingham Trent University, gave a paper that included some fascinating analytical comparisons with Virginia Woolf and T.S. Elliott. Less intense, but no less stimulating was Manchester Metropolitan University's Les Cooke's presentation on tv adaptations of Bennett. It included a brief extract from an early black and white tv production of The Old Wives Tale. It was a fascinating reminder of how basic production technique was some forty years ago.

Half of the delegates stayed for dinner at Denry's, St John's Square, Burslem (where then?) to round off a very packed, intense, enjoyable day. I was introduced to novelists, film makers, teachers and the Countess of Chell, though I must admit I missed my chance to explore that further! Novelist Deborah Moggoch (Orange Prize long-listed for her latest novel,, her 16th, In The Dark) regaled me with accounts of hilarious candle-lit parties in London's famous Kensal Rise cemetery. It was good to meet up again with tv producer, Tim Brearley, and to catch up with the latest on his Bennett documentary film. It was a delightfully lively and convivial evening. Congratulations to John and Linda Chapcott and their fellow Arnold Bennett Society officers for all their hard work which is increasingly making this an annual flagship event for Stoke-on-Trent.   

Friday 6th June 2008

Phoenix Dance Theatre in the City

Anticipating an exciting evening of contemporary dance from one of the country's leading international dance companies, as I entered the splendid city-centre Regent Theatre on Tuesday evening I was immediately deflated with the news that the company had cancelled their opening night. However, I re-arranged my commitments so that I could see the show last night, their final night in Stoke. This short tour started at Sadler's Wells, London at the end of April and ends next week at The Churchill Theatre, Bromley. Along with only 50 other people in the Regent's vast auditorium, this exceedingly professional company performed  some interesting group encounters, particularly in their final set, Paseillo, where the intimacies of a web of relationships were portrayed with vigour, subtlety and delicacy. However, my abiding single image of the evening will be Tiziana Fracchiolla dancing the three and a half minute solo, Harmonica Breakdown, first performed in 1938. It is an incredibly intense and energetic emblematic response to the American Great Depression of the 1920s. The haunting music, Harmonica and Washboard, was first heard by the creator of the dance, Jane Dudley, at New York's Carnegie Hall in 1937. It really is a brilliant piece of music for the equally brilliant evocation of the dislocation and migration of that turbulent period.

I last saw the Phoenix Dance Theatre in Stoke-on Trent shortly after they had emerged in 1981 as an all-male, all-black positive response to the poverty, deprivation and discrimination of Chapeltown, Leeds. They were a sensation on stage at the Cauldon College - raw, vigorous, angry. Time assimilates - the company is now mixed, both gender and colour. I bet somewhere amidst our (shamefully) still many inner areas of abject deprivation there is an embryonic rawness taking shape. I hope so. 

Thursday 5th June 2008

Elected Mayor concedes to people power

Today, Labour Elected Mayor, Mark Meredith, finally recognised the huge strength of feeling against his penny-pinching budget proposal to close the popular and well-used Splash Pool at the City council's Dimensions leisure centre. A simple press release wasn't enough to deliver his U turn. Instead, he laid on a special press conference at Dimensions to stage his concession to common sense and community wishes. As is the custom with his press conferences, it was tightly policed (akin to the nightclub door-bouncer scene) to make sure only accredited media reps attended - all three of them! Perhaps he gave in just in time, admitting that £60,000 wouldn't be saved after all. Next week, he will seek Council support to spend £120,000 on publicity for the change of system of City Council governance next May when the despised, deeply anti-democratic present elected mayor and council manager system is killed off by the Local Government Act. Apparently £120,000 can easilly be found within the current budget! Like I've always said, money is never the problem; it's the political will that is usually lacking. 

Wednesday 4th June 2008

Communities looking to Council for lead

Numerous communities across the City are waiting anxiously to see the City Council's response to the Post Office Ltd's call for consultation re the company's planned (yes, planned NOT proposed) closure of 2,500 more Post Offices across the country and in particular the 7 closures planned for the City. As I reported recently, some 50 local councils have sent expressions of interest to Post Office Ltd to explore the possibility of offering certain, specific financial services for some communities which will lose their Post office. I have reservations about the political commitment of the Council's Executive to present a robust response to Post Office Ltd. A great many elderly people and many people with mobility problems will face unnecessary difficulties if we pursue a negative "no can do" approach. The deadline for responses is Monday 9th June. We have only a few days more to wait to see what our Executive's response will be. Following my meeting yesterday with the Assistant Cheif Executive, Chris Harman, I am not at all optimistic. I came away with the distinct feeling that this issue has simply not been taken seriously. I hope, as a result of my robust exchange of views, a more serious approach emerges at the 11th hour. We will see.