Football’s coming home so let’s get the fire going!

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The beacon at Jubilee Park

Back in February 2014 I was already dreaming of world cup victory and anticipating victory I proposed to Deeping St James Parish Council that they should light the Jubilee park Beacon if and when England reach the World Cup final. The Parish Council, anticipating no expenditure and no action that year, passed the motion unanimously. It generated a little bit of positive publicity for the village including, for me, an appearance on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire’s sports programme (They haven’t asked me for any sporting opinions since!).

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Thanks to Iceland, we didn’t make to the final in 2014 but perhaps tonight’s the night. With it being the second Wednesday of the month, Market Deeping Town Council will be hosting it’s monthly meeting at the Town Hall. So even though I have the opportunity to watch a thrilling, nail-biting display of team-work, split-second decision-making, sportsmanship and dramatic resolutions which could make us all proud of our representatives,… I’ve decided to watch the football instead!

Come on England!

 

The England bandwagon

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This is the text of a letter about Nick Boles latest campaign that I sent to the Stamford Mercury earlier this week…

Dear Editor

Nobody is surprised to hear Nick Boles MP calling for people to fly England flags. He is famous for leaping aboard every passing bandwagon so why not the world cup? It is a convenient distraction from the Tories ongoing imbroglio over Brexit. However, I am surprised Mr Boles chose to be photographed with a tourist flag embellished with words, a crest and an inexplicable star rather than a proper England flag. The latter is a plain red cross on a plain white background known as the St George’s cross and named after a roman soldier who became a Christian martyr but never set foot in our green and pleasant land. A true patriot would surely be aware of that! Come on, England!

Yours etc,

Ashley Baxter

Nick Boles MP partially hidden behind a flag based loosely on the design of the England flag.

@MakeVotesMatter in Stamford during ‘National Democracy Week’

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PRESS RELEASE
Release Date: 3rd July 2018

The Government has declared “National Democracy Week” between 2nd and 8th July but campaigners have taken to the streets of Stamford to explain why they feel the UK electoral system is in dire need of an overhaul.

Coun Ashley Baxter (Ind) who represents the Market and West Deeping ward of South Kesteven District Council explains:

“Many people in Lincolnshire are frustrated that although only around half of voters vote Conservatives, that particular party always wins the vast majority of the available council seats at District, County and even Parliamentary level. It is no wonder so many people feel disenfranchised and disillusioned and have given up voting completely. At the street stall in Stamford many people agreed with us that a more effective system of elections is not only possible but essential.”

Stamford Town Councillor Steve Carroll (IND) and Little Bytham Parish Councillor Gerhard Lohmann-Bond (Green) were also involved in the organisation of the event.

The stall was one of more than 60 across the country as part of a national day of action co-ordinated by the Make Votes Matter campaign. People who wish to know more about proportional representation or would like to sign the petition for electoral reform should visit the makevotesmatter.org.uk website.

ENDS

Does anyone remember the days when Ministers used to resign when they got caught?

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This post is shared without amendment from kittysjones’ blog.

In my previous article, I discussed the outrageous responses that the Department for Work and Pensions minister and petty tyrant, Sarah Newton presented to Shadow Disabilities Minister Marsha De Cordova, who had once again raised the fact that the United Nations (UN) had found “grave and systematic violations of disabled people’s rights” in the UK. The Labour MP also […]

via Esther Mcvey forced to apologise for being conservative with the truth — Politics and Insights

Grantham needs a Town Council.

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At the last Full Meeting of South Kesteven District Council I proposed a motion that Grantham should have a Community Governance Review to enable residents of the town to choose whether they wish to have a town council. My proposal was criticised with a succession of weak arguments along the lines of: ‘we once held a couple of meetings a few years ago but no-one turned up’; ‘we think it might cost a lot’; and ‘you live in the Deepings so what’s it got to do with you?’ (I’m paraphrasing!)

The conclusion of the debate was the passing of wrecking amendment put forward by Coun Ray Wootten (Con)  to say the Council would have hold a review only if they were legally obliged to or if SKDC ceased to exist. So, the Tories were able to say they were not against a Town Council in principle but would only vote for it in specific circumstances (and those circumstances would be if they had no other choice).

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Coun Ray Wootten (Con) and his wife Coun Linda Wootten (Con) pictured in 2016 with mayor’s hat, chain and ermine but no Town Council to preside over.

I’m pleased to read that this week’s Grantham Journal proves at least one resident supports the idea of replacing the Charter Trustees with a proper town council by publishing the following letter from Ann Wright: Continue reading →

Defying Gravitas – Why is the Wherry’s Lane project in Bourne delayed?

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Last week I blogged that Gravitas Housing Ltd has been planning to build houses in Bourne and that there are no definitive public evidence that South Kesteven’s Local Authority Controlled Company (LACC) is planning anything else.

On 10th January, the Deputy Leader, Cllr Kelham Cooke, decided formally to sell the Wherry’s Lane site to Gravitas Housing Ltd. If I have understood correctly, the council also agreed to lend £250,000 to Gravitas in order that they could afford to buy the land.

So, after securing the land and almost a year of Shareholder Meetings held behind closed doors, the Gravitas Directors (who are all employed by SKDC) decided to request planning permission for the erection of 25 dwellings on Wherry’s Lane in Bourne. A valid application was received by SKDC planning department on 27th March 2018 (which had been prepared by a consultancy in Louth!). Continue reading →

#TakingBackControl of our Grounds Maintenance!

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PRESS RELEASE

Release date: Immediate

Council to consider creating Grounds Maintenance company.

South Kesteven District Council has decided to investigate forming a grounds maintenance company to take care of grass cutting, hedge trimming and maintenance of flower beds. The proposed local authority controlled company would look after all the council’s parks and municipal open spaces and is also expected to take on similar work for other organisations including town and parish councils.

The preferred option was chosen from four alternatives presented to the Council’s Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee which was held at the Council’s depot in Grantham on Wednesday 20th June. The other options included a competitive tender, setting up a partnership with another local authority or taking the grounds maintenance work completely in-house. Continue reading →

There’s no such thing as waste…

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There’s no such thing as waste;
only stuff in the wrong place!


Lincolnshire County Council is currently conducting a two-month consultation on the JOINT MUNICIPAL WASTE MANAGEMENT STRATEGY for the County. For convenience, the waste strategy is abbreviated to the catchy acronym of JMWMS. Unfortunately, the consultation concludes next Monday 2nd July so if you want to participate you will need to get your skates on.

For many people, the most important value, vision and target of a County-wide municipal waste strategy can be summarised as “Make sure my bins get emptied every Thursday” but the consultation assumes all consultees will be diligent in reading the various documents associated with the Draft JMWMS (a summary is available) and the Environmental Report, The first is 54 pages long (or 66 including appendices) while the latter is a technical document of 38 pages (or 116 including appendices).

I have already submitted my response. If you want to use my answers to inform your own response you are most welcome. I have already shared them with SKDC who apparently considered them as part of their workshop on the issue. (This was a another closed Members’ workshop without any external invitees. It was attended by three councillors and a few council officers. The response drafted by the workshop has been circulated to other members of the Enviroment OSC but will not be published in any committee report).

Here are my own responses. NB. I have only put the answers. If you want to see what the questions are, you will have to follow the link to the JMWMC consultation, which is kinda the point of this whole blogpost. Anyway, here goes: Continue reading →

See Shakey live at the #WatertonArms, DSJ, this friday!

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I am delighted to promote the Mask Theatre Company’s forthcoming production of  ‘The Comedy of Errors’. It is touring the Peterborough area from tomorrow (Crowland Abbey) but this Friday 29th June it will be performed at the wonderful Waterton Arms in Deeping St James.

Tickets are £10 and food and beer will also be available (though sadly not within the ticket price).

Last year’s performance of Macbeth at the Waterton was fabulous with twilight birds and bats adding to the atmosphere of the play. I am looking forward to Friday’s performance even more though because my beautiful and talented eldest daughter is a cast member this year.

If you want to buy tickets for the play then click here 

Meanwhile, to whet your appetite, here is some recycled blog roll on the issue from the Mask’s resident blogger Becky Owen Fisher

This evening’s blog comes from our renowned Abbess, Emma, who observes, very eloquently, just how much left we have to learn. We had some photos of our rehearsal yesterday, but they’re in the process of being WeTransferred, so you’ll just have to look out for those later. Time waits for no man, and it certainly […]

via Time waits for no man — Dromio, Dromio, which one are you Dromio?

Gravitas – Is something LACC-ing?

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Gravitas Housing Ltd is a company established and wholly owned by South Kesteven District Council.Wherry

What is a LACC?

In order to become more agile, flexible and able to generate revenue, many Council’s have chosen to establish Local Authority Controlled Companies (LACCs or sometimes pronounced ‘Lac-Co’).

Some LACCs have been very successful, for example Norfolk Property Services (NPS) which now has a group structure and trades as Norse Commercial Services delivering services to the public in many local authority areas (geographic areas and service areas).

Other Local Authority commercial ventures have been a nightmare, e.g. Solutions SK which was described as a ‘Four-Star shambles‘ when it lost £4.7million pounds in a year. When I say ‘lost’ I mean they couldn’t find it. The highly paid Directors employed for their commercial acumen couldn’t explain where it had gone. There was no question of fraud, only incompetence on a grand scale. I happy to report that the ‘SK’ in ‘Solutions SK’ refers to Stockport not South Kesteven. Presumably they couldn’t even spell Stockport Council when they set up the LACC.

Gravitas slowly takes off

Back in 2015, South Kesteven Councillors decided that the LACC vehicle was a band-wagon worth jumping on to and so a Shareholders Committee was formed. This is an advisory group to keep the company directors on track. Due to the need for political balance, the membership consists of four Tories and one Independent (which is me).

The first meeting was scheduled 4th July 2016 but this was cancelled. Another date was set for 6th September 2016 but this was also cancelled. The Shareholder Committee finally met for the first time on 3rd October 2016 Continue reading →