The litter pick planned today by the Castleton Park Neighbourhood Watch Group has been postponed due to inclement weather.
A new date of 11th April has been chosen to avoid Easter weekend.
Further details will follow on here and on the Castleton Park NWS page on Facebook.
Saturday, 28 March 2015
Council tax rebate - who does it really benefit?
In the last Full Council meeting there was a proposal following a hastily, albeit well prepared report to allow a 5% rebate on the council tax for this year. This followed the decision to freeze council tax.
The Labour Group decided to vote against this and considered it to be electioneering by the controlling Tory group. You may be thinking "Why did you vote against a rebate?"
Well, firstly, what does it mean for residents? A5% rebate represents an extra 12p per week per household on average. We do not consider this to be a significant amount, certainly nothing that will change anybody's lives for the better and this will not benefit those most in need of help.
How does this affect the council? Basically £270k of the general fund will be allocated towards this giveaway of which at least £20k will be swallowed up by administration. Within the report it did highlight the risks involved. With the current political future unsure the council has limited visibility over future funding and £270k is a large chunk of money to giveaway.
How else could the money have been spent? On the report were various options including the granting of disability living grants (these can change someone's lives), using for current projects including Leisure Centre improvements, upgrading of IT systems and also building maintenance. The report had been put together at such short notice that several possible ideas were not considered that may have benefitted our own local communities and address problems such as street cleanliness.
If there had been some way that the money had been put forward to something that would pave the way for an improved service that would either improve people lives or aid the council to work then it would have been worth more consideration.
Our deluded opposition are still coping with the news that the Financial Crisis was driven by global economic factors. They still like to blame Labour for issues and love to tell the lie that you can't trust Labour with the money. As this article demonstrates here in South Derbyshire we are deeply concerned about the public purse.
Wednesday, 25 March 2015
Work Club at CAB
I was recently invited to the Citizen's Advice Bureau in Church Street to meet staff and users of the Work Club set up to help those seeking work.
The story below explains the basic purpose of the work club and shows what a benefit this has been to people who have used it.
http://www.burtonmail.co.uk/Jobseekers-South-Derbyshire-helped-work-work/story-26213083-detail/story.html
There are a few details, however, that the article does not mention and I was lucky enough to share some time with the course tutor and also some users of the sessions.
Part of the success of the sessions has been that they are available in locations close to the urban core in Newhall Old Post Centre, Oaklands Village in Swadlincote, Woodville and the CAB offices here in Church Gresley. This is good in a number of ways as it means they are accessible by foot in some cases, they are more relaxed than in the environment of the Job Centre and the advice from the enthusiastic and helpful tutors is more freely available.
The good news is that funding has been sourced to allow the sessions at Church Gresley and Woodville to continue but the bad news is that the Church Gresley sessions will only take place once a month rather than every fortnight unless more funding can be found.
The service provided includes creation of CV's and covering letters as well as assistance with searching for jobs and looks to be well received by those who use the service.
More details will be provided on dates when these are confirmed.
The story below explains the basic purpose of the work club and shows what a benefit this has been to people who have used it.
http://www.burtonmail.co.uk/Jobseekers-South-Derbyshire-helped-work-work/story-26213083-detail/story.html
There are a few details, however, that the article does not mention and I was lucky enough to share some time with the course tutor and also some users of the sessions.
Part of the success of the sessions has been that they are available in locations close to the urban core in Newhall Old Post Centre, Oaklands Village in Swadlincote, Woodville and the CAB offices here in Church Gresley. This is good in a number of ways as it means they are accessible by foot in some cases, they are more relaxed than in the environment of the Job Centre and the advice from the enthusiastic and helpful tutors is more freely available.
The good news is that funding has been sourced to allow the sessions at Church Gresley and Woodville to continue but the bad news is that the Church Gresley sessions will only take place once a month rather than every fortnight unless more funding can be found.
The service provided includes creation of CV's and covering letters as well as assistance with searching for jobs and looks to be well received by those who use the service.
More details will be provided on dates when these are confirmed.
Tuesday, 24 March 2015
Litter Pick on Castleton Park
Following a successful Launch Meeting recently at the Drum and Monkey public house, the Castleton Park Neighbourhood Watch Scheme (N.W.S) have organised a litter pick of parts of the estate on this coming Saturday 28th March at 2pm.
The group will meet at the shopping development on Glamorgan Way.
Litter picking equipment will be provided by South Derbyshire District Council. In order to ensure that there is enough equipment to go round, if you would like to help please either email the group on castletonparknws
The group will meet at the shopping development on Glamorgan Way.
Litter picking equipment will be provided by South Derbyshire District Council. In order to ensure that there is enough equipment to go round, if you would like to help please either email the group on castletonparknws
Thursday, 12 March 2015
Cllr Michael Bale
We were recently very sad to hear about the passing of fellow councillor Michael Bale.
Michael, known as Mick, represented the Hilton ward and previously the North West Ward which covers villages at the far extremes of the District such as Church Broughton and Sutton-on-the-Hill.
Residents of our ward may be familiar with Mick as Chairman of the Council, a role he performed with great dignity and passion, including his 2012-13 role which included, amongst many others, a memorable appearance at the Dream Scheme presentation at Unity Close.
We will miss his humour, kindness and encouragement and our thoughts are very much with his family.
Michael, known as Mick, represented the Hilton ward and previously the North West Ward which covers villages at the far extremes of the District such as Church Broughton and Sutton-on-the-Hill.
Residents of our ward may be familiar with Mick as Chairman of the Council, a role he performed with great dignity and passion, including his 2012-13 role which included, amongst many others, a memorable appearance at the Dream Scheme presentation at Unity Close.
We will miss his humour, kindness and encouragement and our thoughts are very much with his family.
Castleton Park Neighbourhood Watch Scheme meeting
As previously mentioned on the blog there has been interest shown in forming a Neighbourhood Watch Scheme on Castleton Park.
The first meeting will be this coming Tuesday 17th March at the Drum and Monkey pub at 6pm. Children are able to attend.
As previously mentioned you can contact the scheme co-ordinator on castletonparknws
Further issues have recently been reported in the local press.
Issues around the nature reserve have been reported to the Council and the developers and some immediate actions have been requested. There will be more details forthcoming in relation to the adoption of the area later this year.
The first meeting will be this coming Tuesday 17th March at the Drum and Monkey pub at 6pm. Children are able to attend.
As previously mentioned you can contact the scheme co-ordinator on castletonparknws
Further issues have recently been reported in the local press.
Issues around the nature reserve have been reported to the Council and the developers and some immediate actions have been requested. There will be more details forthcoming in relation to the adoption of the area later this year.
Monthly Surgery - March
Our next monthly surgery will take place this Saturday 14th March at 10-11am at the Methodist Church on York Road.
As always, residents are very welcome to attend and discuss issues with us.
As always, residents are very welcome to attend and discuss issues with us.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)