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Tressell Blogwritten by Cllr. Peter Chowney
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January 2010:
30th January: The Ore & Tressell coffee morning today, at the Salvation Army Hall. Michael Foster was there, as was Michael Wincott, the Labour candidate for Ore Ward, as well as me and Jay Kramer, as Tressell councillors. It proved to be quite a busy morning, with plenty of local people coming along with problems for Michael and us councillors. A lot of anger about the failure of the county and borough councils to deal with the bad weather adequately, understandably. 27th January: Audit Committee this evening, which is more interesting than it sounds. Hastings got a very good score in it's annual 'Audit Letter', a judgement issued to the Council by the District Auditor. However, we didn't do so well at workforce management, partly because of our continuing high sickness absence levels. And we still only have achieved a level two rating on the Equalities Standard, which is a bit dismal really - we've been aiming at a level three for several years now. 26th January: The East Hastings Community Safety interest group today. No Tory or Liberal Democrat councillors there, so presumably they think there aren't any community safety problems in their wards. And if the councillors aren't there, it means issues from those wards don't get much of an airing, so we had plenty of time to discuss Tressell issues! I raised the problems of anti-social behaviour, reported to me and Jay by Bembrook Road residents, although the police are indeed having difficulties getting reports of specific incidents involving named individuals. At least the prominent drug dealing in the ward seems to have quietened down, for now at least. 21st January: Out knocking on doors and delivering local newsletters in Bembrook Road, with Jay. As usual, people were pleased to see us, but there are a lot of complaints about anti-social behaviour around there. People really need to note down incidents and report it - names, times, details, or the police can't do much. 20th January: Went to a briefing on the 'Connecting Communities' initiative, which is money made available to Hastings by the government to 'engage' people in areas where they don't have much to do with local services, and don't recognise how much help is available. These are areas where the BNP has been most active, stirring up hatred in deprived communities. There will be an event organised on Broomgrove estate, and at Waterside Close. 18th January: Budget Cabinet meeting this evening, where they agree the Council's performance plan and budget drafts, for consultation. Labour members moved a series of amendments to the Performance Plan, pretty much all of which were accepted. We also moved an amendment to the budget, to spend money on acquiring salt stocks in advance of next winter, and putting aside money to compulsorily purchase the pier. This wasn't accepted, with the Tories voting against. They want to spend instead £200,000 on a cafe on the East Hill, which could be achieved for half that, or less. 15th January: First meeting after the snow and ice postponed everything: Tressell Police Panel. We could do with some more 'public' at these - police, council officers and councillors outnumber members of the public. Still, those who come along make a useful contribution, and this time we decided to include 'fly tipping' as one of our three priorities, dropping dog fouling. I'm sure dog fouling will make a comeback soon, it always does ...
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