Britain’s Shame

The disgusting way in which we as a nation treat our pensioners seldom ceases to amaze me.

Research released by Key Retirement Solutions Group, a firm specialising in equity release schemes, found that 17 percent of pensioner households were receiving income from earnings in the financial year 2007-08, compared to 12 percent in 1997-98.

The figures also showed the proportion of pensioner couples supplementing their income through work had increased from 22 percent to 29 percent over the same period.

The announcement came on the heels of official figures which showed that British pensions are the worst in the developed world. A report from the Office for National Statistics showed that pensioners living solely on state benefits receive less than a third of the income of average workers, and put the UK at the bottom of a league table of 17 leading industrialised countries.

The original article is, “Britain’s Shame: 1.4 Million OAPs Forced out of Retirement to Make Ends Meet”.

I am sick and tired of seeing again and again that Great Britain is at the bottom of league tables in the western world when it comes to provision for our pensioners.

Beat it Brown!

Pressed though I am for blogging time during the by-election, and quite frustrated about it too because there has been so much locally that I wanted to tell you, I just had to put this YouTube video up.

Michael Jackson made some popular music and I found this video originally on the Capitalists@Work blog.  It made me smile and that is not a bad thing.

BNP challenged by EHRC.

The video below is of Nick Griffin talking to John Snow and answering questions about the recent letter to the British National Party from the Equality and Human Rights Commission and from the Legal Director of that organisation.

By-election time

Hi folks,

I have not blogged since Monday and to be honest it may be a few days before I get to do so in any great detail again.

Those of you who know me will know that I enjoy blogging and normally will get at least one post per day into the blogosphere.

This however is by-election time and I am the candidate.  I still have to be a dad, be a successful and hard working borough councillor (both parts, preparing for and attending meetings as well as the ward work), make a living as a driving instructor and prepare literature as well as candidate duties for the by-election.

Candidate duties include preparing literature (who knows better than the candidate?) as well as being on the streets whenever possible.

Normally I am very busy, at the moment it is mental!

My Twitter account feeds into the status line of my Facebook account and into the Twitter feed on the side of this blog.  I shall endeavour to use this MicroBlog to update wherever possible.

Normal service will be gleefully resumed after polling day which is July 16th.

Until then please bear with me.

Martyn.

£3M lost to Icelandic banks safe – or is it?

I read on the Nuneaton News website today that: -

ALMOST all of the three million pounds of Council Tax payers’ cash lost in the Icelandic bank collapse will be recouped.

The Nuneaton News can reveal that the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) has told Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council that it can expect to receive between 90 and 100 per cent of the money frozen following the financial meltdown back.

CIPFA bosses have also hinted that the council may be able to recover interest gained on the money up until November 2008.

This is the first piece of good news the local authority has received in terms of getting the Council Tax payers’ money back since the collapse of the Icelandic Bank, Landsbanki last October.

Immediately after the shock collapse, the council pledged not to invest any more money outside of the UK.

The initial ‘hoorah’ is somewhat tempered by cynicism I am afraid.  As Landsbanki went bust the money is unlikely to be coming entirely from them.  Will some of it be coming from the Icelandic government?  Will it be presented in one cheque or will it be in regular payments?  Will we be paid by the people who lost the money at all or is this an initiative from our own government to write off the loss over a period of time therefore offsetting it to claim a quick resolution to an embarrassing problem?

I shall reserve my ‘hoorah’ until more details are known.

It is nice to see that as a result of this debacle Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council has taken on a nationalist stance more akin to British National Party policy than either of the controlling groups but in extreme circumstances even they have to rely upon common sense.

Technorati Tags: bnp,british national party,nuneaton and bedworth borough council

Labour want to join the Euro

I am sure that this story will have been all over the news but I could not help but blog it in case you, like me, do not watch the television.

Lord Mandelson, whom I believe is currently the best recruiting sargeant for the British National Party in the Labour party.  For me he surpasses even Tony Blair and Gordon Brown for his remorseless efforts to push as many voters as possible in our direction.

Maybe we should send him a membership form – maybe he is already a member!

As reported by the Daily Express: - MANDELSON: WE MUST JOIN EURO

PETER Mandelson sparked fury yesterday when he let slip that ditching the pound in favour of the euro remains an "important objective" for Labour.

Speaking in Berlin, Lord Mandelson insisted the euro had been a great success during the global downturn.

The obsessively pro-Europe First Secretary of State’s comments caused widespread alarm at Westminster, especially as Labour has repeatedly failed to honour its manifesto pledge to hold a referendum on the European treaty.

In a revealing insight into Government thinking, Lord Mandelson, who was yesterday sworn in by the Queen as Lord President of the Privy Council, said: “Does it remain an important objective for Britain to
clear that the euro has been a great success in anchoring its euro zone members during the financial crisis.

“I hope people will recognise that this represents a major vindication for the single currency.”

This type of news can only increase calls for a referendum on Great Britain's membership of the European Union, especially with the spectacular euro sceptic vote at the European Union election.

Do not mistake me here.  I do not think that there is a cat in hells chance that there will be one.  I do not care how they word the question the answer would be a resounding NO!

Stockingford and Arbury District by-election madness

We are now starting a campaign to win the Arbury and Stockingford seat on Warwickshire County Council from which its current Conservative incumbent resigned after only three days!

Three Days I ask you?

The Conservative in question was non other than Cllr Tom Wilson of Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council who currently has the honour of being our Mayor.  Cllrs Tom and Sonja Wilson stood in the County Council elections in the Stockingford and Arbury ward.

There is no doubt that being a County Councillor is a time consuming job.  Neither is it in doubt that being a Borough Councillor as well as being the Mayor and Mayoress is a full time job and no mistake.  The Cllrs Wilson are the newly elected Mayor and Mayoress of Nuneaton!

How on earth are either of them going to manage to perform their duties to the electorate as Warwickshire County Councillors as well as the heavy workload which they have already taken on as Mayor and Mayoress?

Neither of the news reports by the Nuneaton News or the BBC care to cover this aspect.

You are not allowed to stand as a candidate for election to Warwickshire County Council if you are an employee of the council.  At the time that his nomination papers were put entered Cllr Tom Wilson was still employed by the County Council.

This makes his candidacy illegal.  The Labour party found out and made a complaint to the electoral commission.  There were only two choices open to Cllr Wilson: -

1. Resign immediately
2. Face a police investigation and possible prosecution for electoral fraud.  (unlikely I would have thought but highly embarrassing for the Mayor and the borough)

Let us not forget the costs to the taxpayer: -

The projected cost of this by-election is £20,000.

There is a lot that can be done with twenty thousand pounds I can tell you.

What makes this all the worse is that Cllr Wilson knew the rules before he agreed to stand as candidate.  Tom Wilson has been a member of Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council on and off for thirty years.  He currently sits on the Standards Committee on the council and has previously been a County Councillor.

The taxpayer has to bear the £20,000 costs and the inconvenience of another election because a Conservative thought that he could get away with it!

It would be beyond belief for him to claim that he was not aware of either the circumstances or the rules.

Technorati Tags: bnp,british national party,conservative party,by election,stockingford and arbury,nuneaton and bedworth borough council,warwickshire county council

Too many foreign lorries trading on our roads

I went out this morning to fetch a batch from my favourite batch bar.

‘Blazin Buns’ which can be found on the Bermuda Industrial Estate alongside the A444 near Bedworth.

Out of curiosity I kept an eye on the number of foreign trucks on the road.

More than half of the lorries that I have seen today have foreign registrations.

If this is mirrored across the country then that is a staggeringly monumental drain on our national economy.

There was a study undertaken by the government to find out the true extent of the issue but they abandoned it.  This is a thorny subject according to the Transport network News: - Foreign Lorries And Fuel Duty

Following the Government's abandonment of the proposed Lorry Road User Charging (LRUC) scheme last month, the Freight Transport Association (FTA) and the Road Haulage Association (RHA) announce a series of actions.

These actions are designed firstly to determine the impact and cost to the UK economy and the road transport industry from the increasing number of foreign lorries operating on UK roads; and secondly to clarify the competitive effect on UK operators of the substantially higher rates of duty applied to diesel in the UK compared with the rest of Europe.

The Government's proposals were intended to level the playing field by taxing foreign lorries running on UK roads. They would also have provided a framework for decoupling fuel duty on lorries from fuel duty on cars. Since scrapping the scheme the Government has given no indication that it intends to deal with either matter.

According to a report on Auto Trader : - Foreign lorry crashes up by 10 per cent

Foreign lorries are three times more likely to be involved in collisions than UK lorries, according to the Association of British Insurers.

Most accidents were the result of ‘side-swiping,’ which is commonly caused by left-hand drive lorries due to their wide blind spot.

The Road Haulage Association reports that: - May 1st a good day for foreign trucks

May 1 sees a landmark, unwelcome day for the British road haulage sector. That is the date when thousands of hauliers from the EU Accession states get the right to compete in our domestic market under cabotage rules.
Low-cost Polish, Lithuanian and other Central European trucks will add to the pressure on rates and are expected to take work from British firms. And these are not just newcomers to EU haulage market; they are often owned or controlled by long-established Western European transport firms.

All this at a time when the British industry is reeling from the credit crunch and trying to ensure sustainable haulage rates – and British international hauliers have never had it so bad.

I have previously earned a living as a driver of heavy goods vehicles and have watched with a heavy heart as the industry has been decimated in front of me.

The politicians responsible should never be forgiven for this.

Don’t forgive them

Vote British National Party every time!

Technorati Tags: bnp,british national party,fuel duty,foreign lorries

British National Party - Manchester Press Conference June 2009

In Manchester the press conference was carried out away from the egg throwing thugs of the UAF, sponsored and supported as they are by the Labour, Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and trades unions amongst others.

Nick griffin MEP stayed and answered questions for as long as it took.  Literally one and a half hours in front of a press pack until they literally had no more questions.  No holds barred!

How many politicians do you think can do that?

The most interesting point for me on the video below is when the lady in the light coloured top with the microphone spoke to Nick about the press who were banned from entering the event because they have a history of maliciously campaigning against us with lies and smears.

I am not having a go at this lady particularly but the press in general really do seem to think that there is nothing wrong with this lying behaviour.  They lie all the time and expect the public to make their own minds up.  This is a ridiculous proposition.

Whatever happened to reporting facts!

Watch it for yourself and see what you think.

Technorati Tags: bnp,british national party,regional meeting,west midlands

Conservatives against democracy and freedom of speech

Pictured is Julian Lewis, Conservative MP for New Forest East and a member of the Conservative shadow cabinet.

Mr Lewis has a problem with democratically elected politicians being fairly reported by the mainstream media under their impartiality rules.  This low-life has gone as far as to make clear in parliament that he would like the media to ensure that ‘appropriate fairness’ does not extend to the British National Party.

You can read the full article: - Tory Shadow Cabinet Minister Seeks New Measures to Force Media to Smear BNP

Labour’s Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw said in answer to Mr Lewis’s comments that the BNP election victory posed a “dilemma” for the media.

During Commons question time, Mr Lewis put the BNP gains down to the voting system used for the European Parliament, rather than the fact that nearly a million people voted for the party.

He asked Mr Bradshaw: “Do you accept that this raises very serious issues for the concept of due impartiality by the BBC and independent television when reporting political matters? What conversations do you propose to have with the broadcasting authorities to ensure that appropriate fairness doesn’t mean a platform to spout unacceptable views?”

Put in plain English, Mr Lewis was asking what measures the government was going to put in place to prevent the media from reporting fairly on the BNP’s policies.

Observers have pointed out that Mr Lewis is actually firmly in step with his party. Tory leader David Cameron is a co-signatory to the UAF charter, and therefore implicitly associates himself and his party with the anti-democratic thugs who smash up press conferences and attack people with claw hammers.

Technorati Tags: conservative party,freedom of speech,democracy,bnp,british national party

Pathetic Anti-BNP protest in Birmingham

According to the Birmingham Mail anti British National Party protesters held a peaceful protest in Birmingham city centre.

The report says that there were, “more than fifty placard waving protesters”, but I cannot see that many.  The comments section is by far the most interesting part of this piece of online news.  A reader who claims to have been there says that there were only twenty in attendance.  This is a figure which fits in with the video clip nicely.

Bearing in mind that the British National Party secured nearly a million votes in the recent European election you would have thought it would have wound the buggers up more than that wouldn’t you?

Anti-BNP demonstration in Birmingham city centre

Technorati Tags: bnp,british national party,anti-bnp,protest,demonstration

Freedom of speech – what price do you place on it?

Let us not forget that what you may have witnessed on the news is a democratically elected Member of the European Parliament being denied his right to free speech.  Pelted with eggs and charged away from a pre-arranged press interview by a group of organised protesters.

Nick griffin MEP was conducting an interview with television crews when the event was turned into a circus by protesters.  This was no ‘fortunate intervention’ on their part.  They were not just passing.  This venue was not announced by Simon Darby, National Press Officer, until the morning of the shoot.  The protesters were therefore given the location and time by someone with a vested interest in depriving the British National Party of the right to freedom of speech.

Whoever you vote for is irrelevant.  Surely you cannot condone this?

The British National Party does not seek to impinge on anyone's rights!

Technorati Tags: bnp,british national party,member of european parliament,freedom of speech

Pensions pain for millions

Without a doubt the pension pots are empty or, in some cases worse, in considerable debt.

The current ‘credit crunch’, or recession, or if we are to be truthful and call it the worst recession in modern history since the depression which it still may eclipse if our failed politicians do not do something useful about it by trying to restructure the economy to reflect reality instead of just aiming at the financial sector.

Is it a coincidence I have often wondered that MP’s are often given lucrative work by financial institutions when they finish and we as a nation only seem to be concerned with bailing out the financial sector.

Final salary pension schemes have always been seen as the ultimate pension scheme with anyone who had one feeling secure about their future.  Recently even more final salary pension schemes have been closed down, some of them not only to new members but to existing ones as well.

The media has been so busy slagging off politicians for the past few months that the big companies have taken advantage and quietly closed most of the remaining final salary pension schemes.

The extract below is from an article entitled: - The death knell for final salary pensions?

Most of the Western democracies have an ageing population, as better public health standards mean people are living longer.

New mortality assumptions have kicked away a key foundation of pensions provision, whether people work in the private or public sector, or are wholly dependent on the state.

No longer can it be assumed that there will be enough younger workers to fund retirement provisions for those who have left employment.

The 'baby boom' generation - those aged over 50 and set to retire in the next 15 years - could well come to be regarded as the pensioner aristocracy, and the last group of workers guaranteed a reasonably prosperous retirement.

Whereas the private sector is starting to confront these difficulties by adopting more realistic assumptions, the public sector is doing little to prepare itself for a frugal future. In Britain the unfunded liabilities of inflation-proofed public sector pensions are heading for the £1trillion mark. This is money that will have to be found directly from future generations of taxpayers and is not counted as part of the surging national debt.

One trillion pounds in case anyone is wondering looks like this: £1,000,000,000,000.

That is the amount, based upon the numbers of public employees who we owe pensions to today, that we will have to find when today’s public servants retire.  This figure is not shown or indicated as a budgetary requirement anywhere on the national debt.  There is no provision set aside for it.

This is a ticking time bomb for the future.  Something needs to be done without delay but can the current government, if you still wish to call them that, be trusted to do anything about this?  Personally I do not think so.

The answers are painful and neither they nor the Conservatives will wish to tackle the problem head on.

It is a fact that this is not a bill that will have to be paid all at once but with an ageing population, which includes public sector workers, and a decreasing working population combined with a higher level of benefit claimants there is only so long that this ticking time bomb can be ignored for.

Technorati Tags: bnp,british national party,public sector workers,final salary pensions

More on BNP European Election victory

This video was taken of British National Party Chairman Nick Griffin making his speech after the announcement in the North East constituency.

Al-Beeb did not allow Nick’s speech to be broadcast because unlike the liberalising parties they do not approve of him, but never mind.  I am sure that BNP bloggers the length of the country will link to it.

The election of the BNP duo of Nick griffin and Andrew Brons has caused a few ripples amongst the establishment already.

From an article entitled: - Female minister quits after refusing 'pledge of loyalty' to Brown in wake of Labour's worst election results for 100 years.

Gordon Brown's premiership is in fresh turmoil today after Labour suffered its worst election results in a century and another female minister quit the Government.

Environment Minister Jane Kennedy walked out after refusing to pledge her loyalty to the Prime Minister as he reshuffled his junior ministerial team.

She revealed he had asked her personally for her support and she refused. 'In the end, I could have stayed if I had made that pledge of loyalty,' Miss Kennedy said.

Her resignation - the eighth from the Government in a week - could be a starting gun for rebels, who are expected to mount a new bid to oust Mr Brown after Labour's humiliation in the European elections.

It came third behind the Tories and the UK Independence Party with just 15.4 per cent in its worst performance in a national poll since the 1910 General Election.

Not since the end of World War I in 1918 has it taken less than 20 per cent and even under Michael Foot, it managed 27.6 per cent in the 1983 General Election.

With Labour apparently now the third party of British politics and having suffered the worst election defeat since 1910 it is fair to say that the Labour hierarchy are not smiling quite as much as the BNP threesome in this photograph.

Obviously taken before the evening began in earnest Albie Walker, Chris Turner and Tom Gower were not alone in the National Indoor arena in Birmingham.  To my knowledge two of the Nuneaton, Bedworth and North Warwickshire BNP group’s County Council candidates Alwyn and Yvonne Deacon were present as of course was our European candidate Simon Darby.

The election of two of our people to the European Parliament is a great step forward for our party because we now have representation at the very highest level.

Next the local and parliamentary elections next year.  Can’t wait!

Technorati Tags: bnp,british national party,european union elections,nuneaton bedworth and north warwickshire bnp

BNP European election victory

Do you think he looks pleased?

Has he had to put up with years of smears and lies?

It has taken a lot but the British electorate has finally put two British National Party politicians into the madhouse commonly known as The European Parliament.  This is only the beginning and we knew that it would be hard.  Two victories is one more than I predicted I will say.

Andrew and Nick can now use their rights and privileges as Members of the European Parliament and find information that has previously been inaccessible to us.  I will let Nick explain this himself.

“The far left and the Tory types who thought that the British spirit was dead and that they could walk all over 10,000 years of history, tradition, culture and heritage, were wrong. The British lion has awoken, and its roar will now be heard throughout the world,” Mr Griffin said.

The BNP leader said the first priority of the new BNP team in the European parliament was to send its researchers into the archives to dig out the facts about the conglomerates and corporations which have profited from the privatisation theft of Britain’s “common wealth. The dissolution of the institutions and property of the British nation into the hands of the internationalists is the single greatest piece of larceny in our history,” he said.

“The truth of how the ownership of all our national assets ended up in foreign hands is all there, untouched in the archives. None of the parties want to investigate it. The Tories won’t, because they were the ones who starting selling everything off and gutted British industry. Labour won’t because they carried on with the Tory policy. The Lib-Dems won’t because they hardly have any ideas about anything. The Greens won’t, because they don’t know about it, and UKIP won’t because they are just another corrupt Tory front anyway,” Mr Griffin said.

“The BNP will not shirk from this responsibility, and I can assure the public that the scandals which lay waiting to be uncovered will make the claims for bathplugs, porn films and housing allowances in Westminster seem like small potatoes.”

The original article: - BNP’s “Defining Moment” – Statement by Nick Griffin is on the BNP website and is well worth a read.

MEP Andrew Brons speaks in the video below immediately after his election victory.

Technorati Tags: bnp,british national party,european union elections,european union,bnp election victory

European Election count June 7th 2009

The leaflets are all in the recycling by now and the public has decided and this afternoon we will find out what they have decided.

I do not think that there has been a set of elections that has been more interesting to predict than these for many a year.  I should expect that the members of the Labour party are expecting a hammering this afternoon and to a lesser extent (though for no good reason) so are the Conservatives.

We in the British National Party know well enough that the establishment safety valve, the United Kingdom Independence Party, will fare well even though they do not deserve to.  How anyone can vote for a protest group defies logic in my simple world.

The people at the count in the Bedworth Civic Hall this afternoon will be the usual mixed bag.  Mostly perfectly reasonable and polite but with the odd ‘bear with a sore head’ type in evidence.  Especially when the results are in.  Poor Debbie was charged out of the way on Friday by a Labour party member who had just found out that she is no longer a County Councillor.

I am pleased to be able to say that it is safe to expect that the staff at the count, headed by the chief executive of Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council Christine Kerr, will conduct themselves impeccably and proceed with the efficiency upon which their reputation at elections is built.  Over the years I have attended a few haphazard counts.  Even ones where the agents were on the same side of the tables as the people doing the counting!  I would love to see the response if someone tried that here.  Now that would be something to talk about.

Technorati Tags: bnp,british national party,nuneaton and bedworth borough council,european election,european union

Chairman’s election update

The Chairman of the British National Party, Nick Griffin, is at least talking sense today as this video clip shows.

He recognises the magnitude of the first County Council election victory and is only expecting possibly one seat in the European Parliament and I agree with him completely.

This morning I am truly gutted at the opportunity that we have thrown away in Nuneaton and Bedworth of at least two County Council seats and quite possibly three.

I will never surrender and have already started making plans for the future.

Watch this space!

Warwickshire County Council election count, 5th June 2009

Pictured are seven of the eleven candidates from the Nuneaton, Bedworth and North Warwickshire British National Party group leaving the count for the Warwickshire County Council elections of June 4th 2009.  We did not manage to secure any electoral victories on this occasion but I can honestly say that I am not disappointed with my result.  Quite possibly a surprise to some who may already know that I came in fifth!

The results for the Arbury and Stockingford District of the Warwickshire County Council election were: -

Conservative
Wilson, Tom	1,637               18.2%
Wilson, Sonia	1,582               17.59%
Labour
Longden, Barry	1,480               16.46%
Henry, Pat	1,472               16.37%
British National Party
Findley, Martyn	1,283               14.27
Green Party
Wright	848                 9.43%
Alty	692                 7.69%

This electoral division is unique within the borough of Nuneaton and Bedworth in that it is the only one that elects two councillors to Warwickshire County Council.

Yesterday this district had two Labour county councillors and now it has two Conservatives.  This raises an interesting situation, for the next twelve months at least, because the winners are the newly elected Mayor and Mayoress!

Are they going to be able to do both jobs properly as well as both being councillors on Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council?

The validation of the votes was done last night on polling day and I only managed to see some of the boxes emptied and validated.  I am pleased to say that the ones that I did see were some of the ones from my own Borough Council ward of Barpool and I can honestly say that I did well in those.

I am very happy about this because as well as attending all of my meetings I have done an awful lot of work on the ward.

A better picture that I lifted from Yvonne's (centre left) Facebook page.

The other boxes that I saw, in Borough Council terms, were from the Kingswood ward where I also did quite well.  Unfortunately the turn out in these wards was not as high as in the Arbury ward, boxes from which were like watching Conservative snow falling onto the counting tables.

One other point is that at the Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council elections in 2008 if you accumulate the Conservative totals across the same three wards there is a difference of very nearly eight hundred votes.  Four hundred extra votes today and I would have been the highest polling candidate.

So I can say that the British National Party is closing the gap in Stockingford.

The obstacles that we have had to overcome to achieve these gains are monumental.

The national press have been attacking the British National Party nationally for weeks.  Locally there has been no positive press coverage of us at all throughout the election period.

In leafleting terms the Green Party must have entered the wrong co-ordinates into their satellite navigation systems because they were unable to find the district in which they were standing candidates.  The Conservative party found it and did more canvassing than leafleting.  Reports of a shadow cabinet minister being on the streets alongside their prospective parliamentary candidate Marcus Jones provide a lesson for us all I think.  The Labour party targeted this district for maximum attention and did it get it!  No less than three anti-bnp leaflets were distributed throughout the campaign as well as two Labour ones.  The Conservative efforts were more than matched by the Labour people on the canvassing front with teams out on multiple occasions all with a, “don’t vote BNP”, message.

With the opposition this focussed against us we have to do better.

Technorati Tags: bnp,british national party,nuneaton and bedworth borough council,warwickshire county council,labour party,conservative party,green party

Barpool ward walk

On Tuesday morning I met up with officers from Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council and Warwickshire police to take part in the latest Barpool ward walk.

For the uninitiated a ward walk is where the housing officer, along with repairs and cleanup officers and ward councillors if they want to go (which most do not), meet with PCSO’s on the ward and whilst walking around the ward discuss its problems from their perspective.

I have probably not done the experience justice in the paragraph above.  It really is interesting from the point of view of a ward councillor to speak with and obtain input with regards to problems in my own area from law enforcement and council personnel.

For a ward councillor this is brilliant because multiple resources are available at the same time and place.  A discussion can take place at the scene of a problem, notes made and action or work orders arranged.

The meeting of minds opens us all up to new information.  PCSO’s get to hear things that council officers would not and vice versa.  Councillors who live within the ward that they represent, as I do, can offer a local perspective and bring forward local knowledge/opinion/fears.  These inputs combined usually mean that everyone involved learns something.

For reasons of privacy I cannot go into details here.  Suffice it to say that I have spent a good three hours with the above people walking Barpool ward and working out the best way to tackle many problems.  Sometimes the problem falls squarely at the door of the council.  Fencing repairs or missing guttering for example.  On other occasions a combined agency approach is required as with cases of anti-social behaviour.

A good mornings work by all involved I feel.

Technorati Tags: nuneaton and bedworth borough council,warwickshire police,pcso,barpool ward,ward walk

Freedom of the Borough for Royal Regiment of Fusiliers

Ever since the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers marched through Nuneaton town centre on May 1st I have been asking whether or not they have the Freedom of the Borough.  As of yet I have not received an official reply either way so I will assume that they do not possess the honour and do everything within my power to see that it is indeed bestowed upon them.

Currently the only regiment to hold the privilege to my knowledge is the 30th Signal Regiment based at Bramcote.

The picture to the left is of the 30th being inspected by His Worship the Mayor and the Chief Executive last year in a ceremony to reaffirm their right to the Freedom of the Borough and to march through the borough with swords drawn and bayonets fixed.

I shall e-mail the Chief Exec today to confirm what the process is and get it underway.

Technorati Tags: freedom of the borough,30th signal regiment,royal regiment of fusiliers,bnp,british national party,nuneaton and bedworth borough council