I was at the South West area forum today and it was a subdued affair, rather to be expected when you have it in the middle of the day. I had to plead quite a lot to change my hours and work at home to accommodate it. As it was in Austin Street it was great to see some old faces (including the Larters) and a couple of new people as well.
Anyway the meeting had a presentation about the Big Society, and I had a chance to buttonhole one of the decision makers who decided to decommission the Iceni project. That deserves its own post. It makes me angrier each time I learn something new about it.
The next presentation was on the gritting operation, and some of the earliest readers of this blog know that I have something to say on that. Again there will be a separate post on how to get a grit bin in your road if you are not on the gritter route. Proper Big Society stuff.
Finally there was a talk from the Police about the crime. I really appreciate the police involvement in these meetings. After the meeting I tackled the police on the issue about the vandalism in the public spaces in the Maidenhall Estate, including the Stoke Green Baptist church and the Community gardens. I was relieved to find out that this was something that the police were aware of (although it’s not one of their priorities) and that they were both treating it as more than a collection of separate incidents and they also shared my concern that this could get more serious – indeed it was already very serious.
A surprisingly productive hour and a quarter.
