Suzanne Fletcher's Blog

Another long day but the key event was the Celebrating Faiths and Beliefs in Stockton on Tees.   A long title and long awaited even.  We were delighted that so many representatives of different faiths turned up and were together.  I did take notes, but I am too tired to write them up tonight, maybe another day.  There were interesting stalls and people to meet and there are a number of photos on the mayor's blog. The important part was at the end where a number of people met and made the decision to take the next steps forward with meeting again to work out what sort of issues we could all work together on, and find out much more about our different faiths.

Before this I had accompanied John to the opening of a new charity shop for Age Concern on Norton High Street, done a session for my voluntary work and had a meeting about Fairtrade issues.

Next was full Council meeting - nobodies favourite !  It was John's first Council meeting to chair, and I must say I didn't envy him but he did well.  I had a formal question down about the Bus Users Forum.  The initial meeting was held on 25^th February, it was agreed to form a steering group and I had put my name down to be involved, but heard nothing at all.  It had taken years and years and repeated questioning by John to get as far as the initial meeting.  I wasn't impressed by the answer that it was "going to be looked at" (a précis not a direct quote).  Nor was I impressed to hear that the four Area Transport Groups in the Borough needed to be consulted as to whether we had a Borough wide Bus Users Forum as well as a Tees Valley wide one.  Buses come and go, or don't come and go, but the saga seems to go on forever.  I can only promise to keep up the pressure and keep on asking the questions.

I had other points to raise though.  I was happy to congratulate our Council Officers on the hard and determined work they did to make sure that the new National Bus Concessionary System was able to be used by people before 9.30 am if needed - it is much appreciated.  However I wanted to know how much implementing the new system had cost the Council, suspecting that the Government had not paid its full share!

More questions on the proposed Christmas Market.  It all sounded very good when it was first presented to the Market Forum and Cabinet - good for business, good for our Borough.  However when the market traders found out the facts they were furious.  It is complicated - I'll write another day or give the link to some press reports, but we really will have to learn how to communicate and work with our "Queen of the Markets" traders better.  Also I was proposing that we used the Christmas Market to use the opportunity of stalls and people from other countries to link in with schools programmes; use cultural events such as music and dance to fit in, and use the event to promote a general better understanding of people from other cultures.

I'm exhausted, 2 days of non stop activity and an early start tomorrow ....