Rocke
Joined: 08 May 2008
Posts: 795
Location: Abertillery
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 Posted: Thu Sep 24, 2009 1:52 pm Post subject: Mega Week P3 ( The rest !) |
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Says something that I'm writing this on a Thursday ( yes, guess what this week's been like ! ).
Anyway last Thursday afternoon was Environment & Public Protection.
This doesn't generally get bogged down in politics and political statements and manoeuvring and so it proved.
Just over an hour, a lot less than the almost 3-hour marathons of previous days.
We had a presentation on Trading Standards and their part in the Community Safety Partnership. This was very pertinent. A couple of weeks ago I had someone ask me why Blaenau Gwent was stopping vehicles apparently on DoT business. They were in a vehicle stopped by Police between Ebbw Vale and Tredegar but BG personnel made comments about whether the vehicle was overladen.
Anyway it transpires that the Police every now and then co-ordinate a joint operation. The reason is this.
Suppose the police are doing one of their ANPR checks, say for vehicles whose registered owners haven't paid their fines, or have arrest warrents out for them. In the course of that they may become aware of other possible offences. Suppose they stop a van and it's stuffed full of DVDs. The Police have no idea if they're kosher but if Trading Standards were present there'd be a better chance of getting it right. The sae applies if the vehicle's a bit low on the ground - the DoT would be best suited to say if it was roadworthy.
So, my constituents who were stopped ? - one of these joint ops.
If you do drive a large van imagine it - unroadworthy, overloaded with illegal immigrants, counterfeit DVDs & perfume, and with 100,000 fags hidden in a secret compartment.
Perhaps not, but you can now see why these ops take place.
And by the way, the Council's only there for Trading Standards issues if you happen to get stopped.
Straying animals was up next.
It's amazing all the brouhaha there was when the Impounding team was disbanded, all the potential evils that would come about etc. etc. It's also amazing how some form of straying animals policy has still been able to be maintained, despite the need to make savings in this area.
Well, number of complaints down, impounding down and with quite a few animals actually returned to their owners, fences repaired ( prevention is after all better than cure ).
Quite a few compliments from Members who had noticed a difference and expressions of thanks to our Officers and the contractor for their initiative.
Perhaps there's scope for this sort of thing in other parts of the council ?
Bulk waste was also on the agenda.
The problems here are that white goods ( fridges, microwaves etc. ) count towards the tonnage of landfill allowed. There's a 'fine' for every tonne over target and also there's landfill tax, so the disposal of bulk refuse costs us money over and above collection costs.
Some goods are possibly recyclable - some are even in working order. A good example is furniture.
Also, because there's some time between the pickup being requested and actually happening it can lead to fly tipping. ( I remember someone being kind enough to put a 3-piece suite up on top of Brynithel, so I could have a rest after walking the length of the valley from Blaentillery, one year ).
I suggested a radical potential solution.
Take a 3-piece suite. No-one throws it out until the replacement's there and you want it out of the way pretty quickly. It's often not practical to advertise it.
So, how about you notify the Council a week or 2 before delivery or as soon as you buy one and arrange delivery ?
We would then advertise it on a special website. Anyone wanting it could visit the unit we use and if they like it pick up a useable 3-piece suite for £20 say.
That enables people to get the basics for next to nothing, the goods don't go to landfill so it costs the council less and of course cuts down on the potential for fly-tipping.
Hopefully there might be some mileage in this. Equally I hope there's no stupid rules or regulations preventing us having a go.
PACT meetings came up again, as they do.
It's fair to say that a lot of Members aren't convinced that the process works. The main issue seems to be that an entire street will turn up at a meeting and then vote through something affecting it, to the detriment of other areas. Also, a significant amount of complaints and comments are specific to policing ( speeding, anti-social behaviour etc. ) and we get the flak without having any control over the issue.
Nonetheless there has been an improvement - however small it might be felt in some areas - in conditions in places.
Thursday evening was Communities First.
I only had one evening meeting I could attend due to my shift and I made sure this one was it. There's work going on that I believe is crucial to the entire area, not just Cwmtillery.
Unfortunately I first had to dispel some incorrect information and also put a stop to that most unhelpful devil 'politics' rearing its ugly head.
For some reason at the last meeting it had been reported that Roseheyworth Club was in an unsafe state ( Community Council ) and that BGCBC had done a u-turn regarding use of the proposed Calon Centre.
Well, I'd contacted various people ( including the police ) and it seems that at the time of the last meeting the club had been secured following the vandalism. Now it seems that the meeting of the community council had in fact taken place the previous week, which puts the whole thing into correct context. Similarly Delwyn, as Chair of Social Care & Inclusion, was able to refute the allegations of a u-turn. There was never any intention to look into moving people out of 'Tyleri Court'.
One of the community-spirited members of the board quite rightly pointed out that this was politics ( directed initially at me ) and I agreed. Politics has absolutely no place in CF. I therefore expect that anyone acting under the auspices of CF will stick to its aims and aspirations for the community of Cwmtillery and leave Social Services, Public Protection, Education and Leisure out of it.
Talking of Leisure however, the Calon Centre will be located at the Jim Owen Memorial Field and so we now have a key partner in the Council with regard to the land and the management of it.
I've arranged for an officer to be designated our contact and hopefully the Calon Centre will be a model not only of what citizens can achieve with the support of CF but also what can be achieved when communities and the council work together.
The roles of Cwmtillery's elected Members are vital to this.
Delwyn, Mark and I will need to act as the bridges whereby communication lines are kept open and fast so that Cwmtillery gets a centre that will make us all proud and which will continue along the path of revitalising not only the community of Cwmtillery but the whole area.
Other items reported were the continuing good work being done with young people. There's a number of initiatives and 'The Stute' has a session a week which is proving popular.
Nice to see that Tillery Road has started a residents' association. Well done Sue and the otehr lady whose name I can't remember at the mo ( sorry ! ).
Delwyn attended, I was in work. We try to cover everything between us. I think we incur more calls between our phones than to the Civic.
In a way it was a good thing. I wouldn't have taken kindly to the person who said that looking at councillors' expenses ( why does everyone call the 'expenses' - they're payments ? ) if we got rid of them ( not sure if they meant councillors or their expenses ) we'd have more police on the streets.
Not a clue some people - and I wasn't there to put them right........
Never mind - some of my payments ( your money ) will find its way into their coffers to help get them started.
Watch out for this week's events. Me and the media have been doing a lot of talking !
Cheers.
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Rocke |
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