Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2009 8:14 pm Post subject: What would YOU do with £87,000 ?
Your Fairy Godmother's come to town and given you £87,000 to spend.
There's just one rule - you must spend it on Abertillery.
However, that's 'Abertillery' as in anywhere from Cwmtillery Ward to Llanhilleth Ward.
That's how much the Fairy Godmother known as the Local Govt. Act ( or similar ) allowed Abertillery & Llanhilleth Community Council to demand off us CTax payers who live in the area this financial year.
Anyone know how much of that money is actually injected into the area, investment made to better in some small way the life of our citizens ?
I don't, but I'm about to find out.
CCs can have a number of functions - cemeteries, toilets, shelters, to name but a few.
When people made comments about our 'town council' ( as people still call it ) I did used to say that it did bring a Christmassy feel with the lights and it did start Aberfest.
However, CF now seems to provide a fair bit of support and indeed they seem to have all the ideas.
Twinning isn't of course within the remit of CF, so that's purely a 'town council' one. And in the meantime our Community Council seems to be more interested in carping in the press or setting up panels that merely duplicate work going on elsewhere.
OK, £87,000 ( remember that is per year )
* Support for Luncheon Clubs, perhaps allowing more to benefit;
* A 'Christmas do' for Senior Citizens;
* More ( and longer opening ) Public toilets
* Putting on events ( cultural music festival, Eisteddfod for all our young and old alike )
* Support for the numerous voluntary organisations that give benefit to people from all walks
* Bus-Rail link
* Additional PCSO even
* Provision of a minibus for use by organisations that provide help, support and services to disadvantaged persons.
* Bus shelters
* Bigger and better Aberfest and Blues, to show the region that Aber is out there somewhere.
Some would be one-off 'capital' projects, others would be on-running.
Has anyone compared the spending and return we seem to get from A&LCC to that of other CC's ?
Has anyone seen any positive initiatives - apart from talking shops - that our CC has developed over the past couple of years and which it still actively supports.
Who would best use £87,000 to the good of this area and its residents - A&LCC or the CF teams - or perhaps a Community Chest of some sort ?
What do YOU feel about this ?
There's more to follow but it's YOUR turn now. _________________ Rocke
Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 5:15 pm Post subject: £87,000, What to do with it?
I live in Blaenau Gwent and I would spend some of this money giving the teenagers,who are hanging about the streets, somewhere to go. This school holiday has not been much fun for them, unless they want to use the swimming pool at the Sports Centre, which unlike Ebbw Vale hasn't got slides or diving boards and is pretty boring. The playscheme didn't provide much for anyone over the age of 12, so what do you do in Abertillery if you are outside the age criteria. There is a perfectly good building going to waste in Blaenau Gwent, which I understood was to be used as a community centre. It is unused most of the time and I would think that something could be done with this.
I think that 'wild things' in Glandwr Ind Est has a teens youth club on a Thurs evening that is a hit with tmy teen son. Maybe a place like this in Aber could be funded. _________________ Top tip: never put anything in your ear smaller than your elbow
The issue with teenagers is a very valid one.
I know we've been there before but before moaning about them hanging around the streets we have to look at what has ( not ) been provided for them.
Unfortunately these days it seems that youngsters don't go to youth clubs. The council's trying to take the clubs to them in the outreach project that's been started.
However, that only covers those who hang around in play areas and other 'hidey holes', not the car people.
I'd like to see an entrepreneur open one of the shops as a gaming venue, a type of Internet Cafe where youngsters can play games online, and perhaps learn IT skills and a place where the detached youth workers can attend.
The former Fads would be ideal.
Anyway, totally back on the subject, Community Councils have the power to run Community Halls and that's the sort of thing I'd like to see this CC doing.
I can't see how a CC can cover 7 separate communities ( Bourneville, Cwmtillery, Abertillery, Six Bells, Brynithel, Aberbeeg and Llanhilleth ) - it's more an area council than a community-focussed one.
And it doesn't take responsibility for many of the things that would give Aber and its surrounds a much bigger ( even 100% ) say in what we get.
For example:
* Street lighting switch-off ? - a sum of money paid to BGCGC as a contribution to its required savings would leave them all on;
* Lack of bus shelters ? - the CC could ensure that every bus stop had a canopy at least;
* Toilets ? - put one in every community
OK, so you could argue that we pay BG to do that, and yes, we have had a raw deal over the years. But how much of a raw deal have we had from Abertillery & Llan CC ?
As I've said - what could be done with £87,000 a year ?
Over a 5-year period we could have all those I've listed and much more.
I'd like to break it up and allow every community to decide whether it wants a council which will make a very small ( in comparison with BG's take ) levy and use it wisely, for the benefit of all.
CF is actually doing a lot of the work a CC should do, injecting money and enthusiasm directly into the communities it serves.
300 people is all it takes ( and far fewer votes ) to start the process of a referendum. _________________ Rocke
CF is actually doing a lot of the work a CC should do, injecting money and enthusiasm directly into the communities it serves.
And as a result, the town/community councils attempted to undermine CF in many areas. This was also true of the previous borough council regime.
In the eyes of many councilors, CF committed the ultimate sin by showing what can be done without (and more often despite) elected officials.
Town and community councils are the vestigial organs of the body politic, their original functions have diminished (often voluntarily abrogated) until they serve no purpose other than a tendency to rot and poison the whole system.
I was once offered a co-opted seat on my local council. My reply was genuine, if a little coarse - “I’d rather play piano in a whorehouse – it’s more honest work” _________________ :
:
Never put down to malice anything that can be explained by sheer incompetence.
Every now and again I promise myself to look into how you go about getting rid of a community council. Furthest I ever got was emailing someone on a message board in West Wales somewhere (can't remember where exactly) as they were discussing this and seemed clued up. I never got a reply and did no more about it. I suppose if I felt that strongly I'd get off my backside and follow it up
If we did get rid of the Abertillery CC though we'd have a damn sight more than £87,000 to consider spending. _________________ The compliments pass when the quality meet.
I did mention in my last post martyn but didn't go into too much detail.
A minimum of 300 people must attend a properly-convened meeting on the matter. A simple majority of people wishing to petition the relevant body ( in this case BGCBC ) is sufficient to get WAG to get a referendum going.
The Council can make observations but cannot prevent the petition going forward to WAG.
I agree with dai6 as well.
What's brought it on for me is some machinations I witnessed at the last Cwmtillery CF meeting.
Coupled with some of the letters the Community Council has sent to The Gazette it's clear to me that instead of concentrating on the ( very extended ) community it purportedly serves it's just becoming a tool that local Labour parties are using to chip away at a non-Labour led council.
The CC started Aberfest, then handed it over.
The CC started some sort of Abertillery Partnership - wher's that got this town ?
I suppose we should give thanks for the Christmas Lights.
How can a single CC make a difference to all the 7 substantive communities in the lower Ebbw Fach valley ?
It simply can't.
Each community has its own needs and character.
The only advantage of covering all 7 ( Bourneville/Cwmtillery down to Llan ) is that more money can be gleaned - no, sorry, let's use a more apt word - levied and shovelled into the coffers.
But to do what ?
As I said, what could you do with £87,000/year, every year ?
Let's look at it in a small way.
Break up into Bourneville/Cwmtillery, Abertillery/Six Bells and Brynithel/Aberbeeg/Llan.
Roughly a third each, so approx. £29,000 per year to spend on local things.
1st year : Bus shelters at every bus stop in Cwmtillery/Bourneville ( and a bit left over perhaps.
A public toilet for Six Bells ?
Work started on a Community Hall for Aberbeeg ?
Every year proper representatives of these very local communities would decide after consulting the residents how much to levy and what use to put it to.
Your community wants something that would cost £40,000 ? - OK if you're prepared to pay £20 CC levy then fine ( there is a maximum level of precept by the way ).
The point is that Abertillery & Llanhilleth Community Council :
** Is too big to properly cater for residents at the real community ie. village level;
** Does not invest anywhere near the percentage of levy it should in order to demonstrably enhance the lives of citizens within its boundary;
** Does so liitle as to be little more than a talking shop ;
** In the context of the above, it has no real teeth at all, so we're not even getting a voice for our money;
** It's now becoming simply a political tool.
You might recall that the Clerk, Leader and A.N.Other were over the Civic to a meeting regarding Boundary Changes. Just to listen to less than 2 minutes of debate regarding Cwmtilelry and Bourneville.
How much travelling expenses involved in that I ask ?
And don't mention Twinning.
Anyone know where the idea of a Twinning Association came from ?
Sounds a bit like the Community Partnership to me.
Works out OK then just look at how many Community Councillors are on it.
If it doesn't well, it wasn't anything to do with the CC was it ?
Yes Martyn, just 300 people. That's the harder part.
Because I reckon if you give people a choice they'll almost certainly want rid of what's becoming a red elephant. _________________ Rocke
I am not much in favour of the Community Council, think there are far too many chiefs now, tier upon tier of representatives and administrators to manage what has now become a very small town/village leaving very little money in the pot for the indians.
Other than what I was told yesterday at the Met, that they are negotiating plans to provide Abertillery with an indoor market it has done little else for the town.
_________________ My life is no rehearsal There'll be no curtain call encore, so I've thrown my screwed up script away to ad lib my life once more!
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