Rubbish in our main street

And No, It's got nothing to do with "Your Move"

What message does this kind of thing give to our tourists?

Bt behaving irresponsibly?

Colin Hodgson, as our local councillor, could you do something to prevent a disaster?

(Deter parking like this and open up the route via Church Fields)

Why isn't our parking enforcement officer clamping down on this kind of thing?

(email sent to Colin)

If parking here is alright, why have we got double yellow lines?

This narrow stretch of road is one of the busiest in Ulverston.

It's used by many as a way of dodging the one way system.

Why do the people living in Church Walk, Town St, Ainsworth St, Beech Bank and Green Bank and those using the popular Church Walk School , put up with this?

Have they not considered what could happen if this particular intersection gets blocked?

That no ambulance or fire engine could reach them?

Potfest in the Park is on

I'm off to pick up a figure made specially for me by a brilliant artist who is exhibiting at the above.

Will probably by some more of her work - after all it's magical.

I love the contrast

Green against wet rock

Our news crops up in the strangest places

Yes this is the Toronto in Canada - anything to bring in a few new customers!

The Future of Ulverston's Tourist Information Centre

Photo Ian Taylor and used thanks to his Creative Commons License

At present we have an excellent set up.

At the moment we have a very good system operating for an important aspect of the town's economy - Tourism. An industry that has a direct impact on many of the shops in the town.

The upgrading of the County Square has made it the focal point for tourists arriving in the town.

Coaches deliver their tourists to this venue or to the nearby Victoria Bus Station.

The new Laurel and Hardy Statue has attracted tourists to the front door of the TIC, with nearby wide open doors has had its business double recently.

Here at the centre we have staff with as much as 20 years experience (and no less than 8 ) to give a wealth of advice to tourists.

The Laurel and Hardy Museum also benefits from being in the nearby Roxy building.

The possible future.

Yet because of the expenditure cuts proposed by the ruling Lib. Dems. all this could change as soon as April next year :

1. The staff at the TIC may have been dispensed with.

2. The offices in the Coronation Hall may no longer be available for Tourist Information and be restricted to a Box Office for the shows held in the Coro.

3. The uncertain future of the Roxy, now that the main use as a night club has been halted (with the exit of Gary Robinson), leaves the future of the Laurel and Hardy Museum in that location in doubt.

The outcome for the first two of these items hinges on the proposals to be made to a meeting called by SLDC , this Monday, for organisations to voice their intitial proposals.

So what would be good for the town :

1. That the Town Council take this service under their wing making an effort to involve the voluntary sector as well as professionals.

2. That they raise money were necessary by increasing our rates which they could if they wished.

3. That they get greater involvement with the Tourism Industry here so that they share some of the burden as well as the benefits of having a vibrant tourist economy.

4. That they push harder for an excellent web site for Ulverston instead of using their money to promote themselves as Councillors and allowing Jayne Kendal to opt out on the opportunities that were available to her leaving what is now a defunct web site (the demise of this site is an absolute disgrace in my opinion).

My concerns.

What concerns me is that I suspect that our local councillors are not taking the initiative to help solve this crisis. Unlike Grange who now have their own TIC , along with Broughton who took over the initiative two years ago and now I believe Coniston. These towns put Ulverston to shame - for how much longer?

Ulverston along with Kendal and Windermere have an uncertain future, if an organisation takes them all over, it will be Ulverston that will loose out.

I dread a future front page of the Evening Mail along previous lines when a picture of Colin Hodgson or another SLDC councillor is shown wringing their hands at the loss of yet another facility in the town. It seems that for the most part our councillors stand by and react to disaster rather be proactive and wrestle with a problem and offer a solution.

It would be good to find at the meeting this next Monday that this will not be true.

Important

For me, as someone very much involved with tourism in the town in the past, it is extremely important that we as a town take on the running of this facility and do not leave it to outsiders who also administer Kendal and Windermere to do it for us.

We have a very different product to sell and we should take charge of every aspect of selling it. A good TIC is one part of the jigsaw. A good web site would be another - but let's take one step at a time!

I'm hoping the Cllr Judith Pickthall, who has shown an interest in this situation as well as the health of our Town Market, has a few tricks up her sleave.

I'm also looking to our new Chair of the Ulverston Community Partnership, Paul Jarvis , to have some firm proposals that will rescue the situation as it is reported by our town clerk that they have expressed an interest in running the Coronation Hall based Ulverston TIC.

Frustrations in getting information

Since writing this I have spent a very frustrating time trying to reach people at SLDC offices four phone calls resulted in being tranfered to one office to another, receiving a statement that they would ring back and after two hours they have not, being tranferred to the correct extention but being left with and endlessly ringing town, in a following call being transferred to a silent line which remained that way of two minutes.

On the last occasion, getting the same operator ( and I still managed to be patient but persistent) I was finally put through to a real person - David Phillips who confirmed that a meeting called by Michel Keane was taking place but that the information was confidential and that members of the public were not to be admitted.

I shall now chase what information I can find through alternative channels. At times like this it is easy to give up.

The general attitude is "Leave it all to us and keep your nose out" only to find that those in charge are apathetic and only get involved in an ineffective way giveing everyone they can the impression that they are working hard. But are they?

What would be encouraging is to find that our District Councillors are not simply acting as bystanders to this process but are actively engaged in achieving a result. So far I have found that three Councillors have at least asked questions at the TIC - they are Judith Pickthall , Town Councillor, Norman Bishop-Rowe, both Town and District Cuncillor and Mark Wilson District Councillor. But what are they doing to support a local bid.

Being outside the system is very frustrating which makes me even more determined to get elected and be in a position to ask questions more effectively and to promote action where this is possible.

Campaigners successfully oppose plans for walking and cycling trail ...

This project sounds promising.

Why did it fail?

On the surface a few of the determined have stopped the wishes of the many who are less determined.

Why did the Lake District National Park authority cave in?

Could it be that the membership of the board that run this have a strong land owner presence?

Anyone familiar with this story?

Revised letter to The Gazette

My letter last week was too close to the deadline and was not published.

This gave me the opportunity to rewrite it a little.

Here I hope is an improved version:

Dear Sir,

Your report published on July 15th, though very welcome, described only the tip of the iceberg.

First , the size of the problem. One photograph of one group of totally dislodged setts fails to convey the fact that in a stretch of 50 yards there are 81 loose setts in 15 different places. Three of these have 13 to 21 grouped together.

Second, the behaviour of a dysfunctional Cumbria County Council. Much of the article dwells on the statement of the county council spokesman.

However this problem has persisted for over a year yet our county councillor, James Airey, has been unable to achieve any repairs. It was first reported to him in June 2009 , then again in August with the attached photos, a site meeting followed in September 2009.

The above two photos illustrate the state of the cobbles a year ago when they were reported to James Airey for the second time.

Nothing happened and the state of the setts became increasingly worse. A further site meeting with Cllr Airey took place on June 7th 2010. It was only when a video demonstrating the enormity of the problem was placed on Youtube on July 9th did anything happen.

It is clear that our county councillors are not in charge of their council.

The County are a law unto themselves. They ignore everyone : the guidelines set down by the Department of Transport; their elected bosses the County Councillors; other SLDC councillors and requests from Ulverston Town Council as well as those from the Plebs , the members of the public.

This is because the executive are firmly in charge and unresponsive to anyone. The program "Yes, Minister" illustrates the situation well. The Chief executive earns £170,000 with six below her having salaries that add up to £733,000. Maria Fallon, salary £125,000, the corporate director responsible for running the county's roads and highways, amongst other things has a staff who can be totally unresponsive to councillors and public alike. How does she justify her high salary? Head teachers have a far more difficult a job and work for less.

In 2006 when a new water main with some ten openings in the road was laid down Market Street, there was an outcry from people on every level Town Council to County Cllrs, as well as members of the public at the shockingly low standard of the work done in replacing the cobbles.

The Highways totally ignored the protests even when they were responsible for overseeing the work. They are hand in glove with Capita of the private sector and cosy up to them in the same office. How can this work without corruption and mismanagement?

It was only when an employee of United Utilities and myself started to chase this up nearly three years later that United Utilities came to examine the work and admitted that their work was far below the standards they find acceptable. They then returned and repaired all their mistakes over the full length of the street, even though legally they were not obliged to do so.

What is the difference?

United Utilities have a reputation to maintain. The County Council do not. The last time they were appraised by the Audit Commission in 2008 Cumbria CC were in the bottom 20% in the country. Since then the independent Audit Commission has been disbanded. They were to embarrassing too local government.

For over a year we in The Gill have had to stand by and watch what is potentially a dangerous situation getting worse as our Council behaves irresponsibly.

In the future we will tolerate this situation no longer. People are getting hurt in some cases severely. It would appear that the only way forward is for us to maintain the highway to our own standards which will be a lot safer that those of The County. There is a feeling that they can take us to court if they wish, the threat of insurance claims doesn't bother us as we will only be doing work to a high standard and we foresee no claims. The existence of claims is a myth spread by insurance companies. With the present appalling conditions maintained by the county - there are no claims . Why should there be any in the future with superior workmanship?

There have been no complaints from either the public or the county to our illegal work on the highway in Lower Brook Street roughly a year ago when we replaced unsightly tarmac with the loose cobbles that had been left lying about.

Now, will James Airey and his fellow councillors take charge of our county council and ensure that executives earn their inflated salaries?

On the subject of cobbles versus tarmac, the latter is fine as long as the surface is not broken but repairing potholes in tarmac quickly leads to more potholes. Cobbles can be fixed to last almost indefinitely if done well, the trouble is that many contractors do a poor job giving cobbles a bad name.

Dr Geoff Dellow

Qualified Engineer.

The Monday Interview - Jude Godden

Thanks to her and her team we have some attractive adult education courses to go to in the autumn.



They put many unpaid hours in to get this service up and running. Made all the more time consuming with ridiculous CRB checks that in many cases are completely irrelevant.

Details of their courses are available on line. The brochures for the two areas, they cover, are available on two downloadable files.

An extremely serious issue - police beware.

The advice to charge PC over Ian Tomlinson death ignored.

Police watchdog and pathologist favoured tougher line than CPS as Tomlinson's family accuse authorities of cover-up



Every policeman should be outraged at this decision. It brings the whole police force across the country into disrepute. An essential ingredient in policing - Trust - will be severely eroded.

There has been dismay at the level of support - in the tens of thousands - given to the Raoul Moat Facebook pages which continue to pop up. This illustrates the level of anti police feeling there is in the country.

We need to feel that we can trust our police.

Police, like those of our Ulverston Police force, some of whom I know as great and caring guys, will suffer in the long run as a result of what happens over this Ian Tomlinson case.

We all need to campaign like hell to reverse this decision.

Another couple of letters to MPs are called for!

Laying setts in The Gill

Skip to 1 minute 20 seconds to see skilled workers producing an excellent result.

Can we ever expect the county council to ensure workmanship of this quality and speed?

Can you imagine the contractors authorised by them to work in this way?

I'm sure that the use of setts is being totally mismanaged.

Don't we have many skilled drystone wallers who could do this work well and quickly?

The quick judgement in choosing the right sett to fit in will produce a secure surface that will bind together and last for years and give years of enjoyment too. Partially sighted people can enjoy the adventure of traversing a textured surface that can be relatively hazard free. Let's live a little!

Follow up letter to the Westmorland Gazette

On the subject of the South Lakes Highways Department:

Dear Sir,

Your report last week, though very welcome, described only the tip of the iceberg.

First , the size of the problem. One photograph of one group of totally dislodged setts fails to convey the fact that in a stretch of 50 yards there are 81 loose setts in 15 different places. Three of these have 13 to 21 grouped together. Furthermore this is not new. The problem started eighteen months ago and was first reported to Cllr Airey in June 2009 , then again in August with the attached photos, a site meeting followed in September 2009. Nothing happened and the state of the setts became increasingly worse. A further site meeting with Cllr Airey took place on June 7th 2010. It was only when a video demonstrating the enormity of the problem was placed on Youtube on July 9th did anything appear to happen.

Second, the behaviour of a dysfunctional Cumbria County Council. They are a law unto themselves. They ignore the guidelines set down by the Department of Transport; their elected bosses the County Councillors; other SLDC councillors and requests from Ulverston Town Council as well as those from the Plebs , the members of the public.

This is because the executive are firmly in charge and unresponsive to anyone. The program "Yes, Minister" illustrates the situation well. The Chief executive earns £170,000 with six below her having salaries that add up to £733,000 . At this rate the totals for the next two tiers where the head of our Highways Department is to be found must add up to a figure in the region of another £3 to 4 million, all for bureaucracy.

Some of these people appear to be totally unresponsive to criticism particularly in our Highways Department. Maria Fallon, salary £125,000, the corporate director responsible for running the county's roads and highways, amongst other things has some work to do in sorting out her staff.

In 2006 when a new water main with some ten openings in the road was laid down Market Street, there was an outcry from people on every level Town Council to County Cllrs, as well as members of the public at the shockingly low standard of the work done in replacing the cobbles.

The Highways totally ignored the protests even when they were responsible for overseeing the work. They are hand in glove with Capita of the private sector and cosy up to them in the same office. How can this work without corruption and mismanagement?

It was only when an employee of United Utilities and myself started to chase this up nearly three years later that United Utilities came to examine the work and admitted that their work was far below the standards they find acceptable. They then returned and repaired all their mistakes over the full length of the street, even though legally they were not obliged to do so.

What is the difference?

United Utilities have a reputation to maintain. The County Council do not. The last time they were appraised by the Audit Commission in 2008 Cumbria CC were in the bottom 20% in the country. Since then the independent Audit Commission has been disbanded. They were to embarrassing to local government.

For over a year we in The Gill have had to stand by and watch what is potentially a dangerous situation getting worse as our Council behaves irresponsibly.

In the future we will tolerate this situation no longer. People are getting hurt in some cases severely. We will maintain the highway to our own standards which will be a lot safer that those of the county. They can take us to court if they wish, the threat of insurance claims doesn't bother us as we will only be doing work to a high standard and there will be no claims. This is a myth spread by insurance companies. With the present appalling conditions maintained by the county - there are no claims . Why should there be any in the future with superior workmanship?

There have been no complaints from either the public or the county to my illegal work on the highway in Lower Brook Street roughly a year ago.

On the subject of cobbles versus tarmac, the latter is fine as long as the surface is not broken but repairing potholes in tarmac quickly leads to more potholes. Cobbles can be fixed to last almost indefinitely if done well, the trouble is that many contractors do a poor job giving cobbles a bad name.

Dr Geoff Dellow

Qualified Engineer.

Salaries at the top of our County Council

Some are available on the CCC web site.

£170,000 at the very top, £125,000 to the six in the next tier down.

Then what : £75,000 to the next tier of say twenty

And then perhaps £60,000 to the next tier of say fifty one of which would be our Head of Highways.

If that's anywhere near correct that's:

Top £170,000

next tier total £750,000

next tier total £1,500,000

next tier total £3,000,000 (Head of Highways level)

Grand total salaries of £5.5 million for the administrators - none of them doers !

Has anyone come across the salary structure of a typical County/Borough Council

Who other than themselves checks that they deliver a good job.

The County Councillors don't seem to - I would have thought this would be one of their important jobs - making sure the system is working efficiently.

On some levels it isn't ; on others like social services, teaching, elderly care, possibly the police - different money pot - (too much paper work), we know people are working their socks off.

The Monday Interview - Allan Wilson photographer

The camera that Allan started with in his early teens.

Poor representations of some of Allan's favourite pictures

The Wet Lunch

Was a little wet .

Perhaps because of this and because of the kind of people that do such crazy things - it was thoroughly enjoyed.

The wine was good, the sweet peas smelt good and looked good in their little glasses. The specially made flapjack was beautifully crunchy - that is if you could prize it away from it's backing sheet.

The kids had the same spirit as their parents and were out to enjoy themselves. The swing was popular as was the multipurpose tunnel, bridge, slide!

The Canopy worked for those that could get under it and the trees supplied the rest of the shelter required.

We parted looking forward to meeting again and knowing a little more of each other!

On a wet day, give yourself a treat!

This is so beautiful,

it brings tears to my eyes.

Thankfully I can cheer myself up all over the house at the press of a button, I have one of her CD's and can go an emulate her music in my amateurish way on my piano.

Enjoyment to the full.

And now for a good dance about the place - without the piano!



Now can you keep your extremities still?

Forty five minutes of pleasure

Listening to this very wise and thoughtful woman and her choice of music is something I plan to repeat soon.

Dr Gwen Adshead on Desert Island Discs

Cobbles replaced with tarmac

in Liverpool’s World Heritage Site

Thanks for this from a reader of this blog. Many heads are better than one.

If this can happen at this site in Liverpool.

We'd better look to our laurels.

By taking this over ourselves - and taking action before they roll up with the asphalt as happened in Liverpool - at least we have a lot of control. Unlike most of our councillors we need to take action and make proposals before disaster strikes.

You never know what are dysfunctional Highways Department will do next.

See the attitude of the County Council in the article about The Gill Cobbles

This is why I'm researching alternative ways of laying cobbles more efficiently as used in Italy as we speak! With good know how we can do the job ourselves at such a high standard that it would be extremely unlikely that we would be sued and thus insurance is irrelevant. So far I've got a good track record in similar matters.

In support of the comment from A.R. below.

You can write with your concerns:

to the clerk of the Ulverston Town Council, David Parratt ( townhall@ulverstoncouncil.org.uk )

to our Conty Councillor James Airey who has been instrumental recently in getting his highways department to finally do their job ( james.airey@cumbriacc.gov.uk )

to Paul Jarvis, Chairman of the Ulverston Business Alliance and now chair of the Ulverston Community Partnership who is deeply concerned about the future of Ulverston especially the role of tourism ( info@ulverstonbusinessalliance.co.uk )

Your email will really make an impact because the recipients can then state the level of public concern to Council Officials and press from a more thoughtful and all inclusive approach to our problems.

The arrogant attitude , so prevalent with officials, needs to be nailed to the carpet so that it can go no further. This was especially common with the now side-lined Nick Raymond and even David Parratt on at least one occasion, that "We know best, keep your nose out and leave it to us" - that has led to some disasters in the past.

Speaking up certainly is having effect as more and more of us do it!

And email couln't be easier.

Tomorrow, the day of the Big Lunch in Mill Dam

All set, weather looks good, and loads of good company is guaranteed (from the emails I've received).

Starting at 12:00 when most people are arriving.

Goes on till 14:00.

Picnic tables laid on.

Ban the Burka

People are using the argument of freedom of religious expression to defend this practice.

What they ignore is that they are living in Britain which has a British culture.

I witnessed this practice in Lancaster recently and found it totally repulsive. The Man was confidently talking to his mates while his 'chattels' stood silently by waiting dutifully and walked off two paces behind when he went.

How can you carry out a conversation - as I often do - with complete strangers when you have no facial expressions to read. Result - we don't. Who has ever made friends with someone wearing a Burka except in very unusual circumstances.

To put this into perspective :

If a religeous sect decreed that women should wear no clothes - Would our society cope?

Just imagine her getting on the bus or the tube in London.

Fine if you're living in deepest turkey as we saw in Tribal Wives but when in Britain show respect for the country you are living in.

What I find equally shocking, as do some of my Ghanaian friends, how lacking in confidence the British are in voicing their opinions in public - they just mutter and complain in private - like true whingers.

Vive la France. They have a high respect for people relationships and hence have far fewer social problems. (There, shoot that one down in flames)

The Big Lunch - rain predicted - the show goes on!

The forecasts indicate the possiblity of some rain through out the day. However some of us will attend anyway as we have an eight foot square canopy which will be up and the trees in the park provide lots of cover.

So come prepared to get wet!

After all we all have dry clothes and dry homes so why not come with the possibility of getting wet anyway.

Hot cups of tea would keep raise the spirits of the wet sensitive.

Others will lap it all up . . .

Stress

I read recently someone say

"I feel underpressure already in my life at the moment"

Is this a sign of stress?

(Which it probably isn't; but if it was)

How do people react to the statement (mine) ?

"Stress is a perception, not a reality"

The influence of the media amongst other things on the mental health of the nation

Open letter to Professor John Ashton CBE

(who is the North West Regional Director Of Public Health and Regional Medical Officer for the Department of Health. A specialist in psychiatry. . . )

"In the light of :

the recent coverage of the guy who killed himself in Rothbury (I've been avoiding watching it and don't know his name),

the media's part in emphasising the differences between Labour and the Coalition regarding how to deal with the economic crisis

the public's concept that there is such as thing as fairness in society

the increase in violence in society - illustrated by your call for polycarbonate glasses in pubs

the preoccupation of the public in exploring remote relationships as in Facebook and Forums where communicants avoid revealing their identity

the intense interest in Celebrities and programs like Big Brother and TV programmes where a few individuals are followed with great interest rather than spending the time getting to know people next door and down the street.

Are you not concerned that we have a mentally sick society with the increased potential of mob and individual violence that are becoming increasingly angry and acting in an irresponsible way - often fuelled by alcohol?

Added to this we have the added pressures of global warming, unemployment , deaths of soldiers in Afghanistan and the belief in the fantasy of romantic love and the perfect partner.

Are we not heading for horrendous mental problems in human relationships on a multitude of levels?

Geoff Dellow


Address The Coach House, Union Lane, Ulverston Cumbria LA12 7BU"

Sadly the email address I used has bounced - I'll try and find another - any suggestions.

I found his personal web site with a new email address also sent snail mail!

Wed 19th July, Prof Ashton has sent a message to say that he will reply to the above when he returns from his annual leave which he is about to take now.

What I look forward to are some insights as to what the way forward could be!

Silla Carron - Pride - "The Estate We're In "

Just finished watching episode 3 and discovered the series has finished on live TV.

So I'm having to play catch up:

Episode 3 Two days to run: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00t1f4w/The_Estate_Were_In_Series_2_Episode_3/

Episode 4 Three days to run: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00t1f95/The_Estate_Were_In_Series_2_Episode_4/

Episode 5 Four days top run: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00t1fcw/The_Estate_Were_In_Series_2_Episode_5/

Join me in watching all these and make notes and pool information. We need to find out how she does it.

Step one form a "Official Group".

Then what?

What's her secret? : Self-belief and perseverance?

Are we too polite and afraid to put councillors on the spot when we have the opportunity?

I know I could have been a lot more forthright at the recent Flood Meeting in the Coro.

It's hard putting up a fight when all you expect is failure.

Our councillors have a lot to answer for.

Believe it or not at least two councillors are gunning for me because I'm doing too much and have complained to a SLDC officer. He called me to a meeting last Friday and I asked why the meeting as we were getting on fine by email:

"Was it because some SLDC councillors are complaining?"

He was silent and evaded the question.

"It's important for you to form an official group." He said.

It's incredible.

Some councillors actually want to stop others doing stuff for the community.

There's going to be an article in the West. Gaz. about the state of the setts in The Gill.

Will I be able to put my case clearly and forcibly?

I ask myself.

The Monday Interview - Snails - Do they have a homing instinct

On the Hop with Jennie - all in a days work!

If you've missed previous interviews click on the label "interview" below.

It's Furness Tradition Weekend in Ulverston

I was hoping to go to the "Big Merry Neet - The Big Party" at 7:30 tonight in the Coro but I've a spitting headache.

We'll see . . . .

A BIIIIG Number

I've just noticed the length of the URL for a comment I have just made:

blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6586801766217114148&postID=4403352031319564287&page=1&token=1278774745713_AIe9_BEAh9qzrqZpvMiTtBzZQNfNgTllEdGXbRIhww7y87iHJEnCVuQ_FgQvYFtOAoDWEsEzfDUrJQ7PxkFiCQvuDKjLE73MXveCEz99uLlVxd1l6ln1hbT8lbK25DbhoupHfCLRj4pRVt-st7acZL0rraXyNjKyOpA0c_7hD1yssgV7y2K1fw5U4LSp6ywEQqabi5liHGT_xnnQPG23X3LWfTv6_zdynIrR3IbWZbGJJqtnWkGhmsovQ8qrBW21Dyzm_HiEWcgseJp5ywsqUwGKg-bylEpGbOQNV2wOhAsw1dzMvsJxUC7DhHhPrHlNkhX6Q9EraFz_1_rijKyg5OqVWnmuKo8C8wqpQ6_QRg_RBECs_HJL7y1sjIT-N5PrFSndZBQpylCKg4MsvEqEA5V21jfk5XjB-bvROvUpVikPwgwko-awlkFbRfhBQDvWSe2ZN5ykReKWgmAeMsxXrQj_m1lYLJbHjfIEDBzkRRP7uLtrUhsjxUD1td2FnCy2cd-9F3M4dIwoGPc59HEfCSwWTuFgT0NafumCPkp_4coNhuyuDkqEcxiWifUIN5WUqL8bGIlNXFBq3YWp80Juo1lskBFefwTE-w-aHw8tIifLf87Yo1Rk0xpDAZdJnA1RK-m_3CpcXlqusyTB3npbP-wuU8Cf8chItg

Any mathematician will realise just how many possibilities there are for all the variations of this URL

There are 52 alternatives for every letter used (upper and lower case) and of course ten for every number.

On my screen at the moment there are over 50 characters in every line.

There are ten lines

That's a number 50 X 10 ie 500 for all the characters here.

Each one has say 50 possibilities so that's 50 to the power of 500 possibilities

By comparison 10 to the power 6 is a million

This figure is in the region of 10 to the power 1,000

If each unit represented a centimeter .

I bet the length would be in the region of many light years.

Are there really this number of comments being made on Google's blogs alone?

Looks like there's a lot of redundancy present!

The URL will often be longer than the comment - what a lot of computer storage is being wasted!

Is anyone else getting fedup with the news coverage?

It goes on and on and on.

This isn't news.

This is entertainment of a very unhealthy kind.

Could some psychologists please speak up?

What does it say about the perceptions of the media about our society?

Are we really as sick as they imply?

How do we tackle the media?

Reading between the lines

It would seem (though no one has actually said so) that some Cllrs are gunning for me because I'm too involved in Gill Banks, The Gill, Union Lane and Mill Dam Park.

My my - I live there and have toddlers to take care of .

Join twenty of us as we form a "Supporting Environtmental Improvements in Ulverston" Group to help them feel better!

Interview with an amazing multitasker

parent/scientist/reporter/researcher/cook/toddler pacifier/ rescuer/mediator

Yes she's got to be female. She's our Monday interview of the week on . . . .

Monday.

Mill Dam Park get together

Join us here, for lunch- bring your own and share, on Sunday July 18th between 12:00 and 14:00.

A chance to make some pottery for the park at 14:00.

Sweet Peas galore!

Anyone want to bring a Barbecue?

Keep your fingers crossed about the weather - an 8ft square canopy and two more picnic tables will be in place.

Geoff

The setts in the Gill are dangerous.

James Airey promised a response to this video by yesterday :

" I am pushing for work to be done on the setts and will have an answer to timescales etc with you before Friday. "


So far , I've received nothing.

Admittedly getting blood out of a stone would be easier than getting a commitment from Cumbria Highways Department.

Who's in charge?

Us - through our councillor or the County Council who appear to be a law unto themselves.

Steam is building up here in the Gill to do this job well ourselves. Work is planned to start in August 2010 . . . . .

Other authorities are being consulted on how the technique of laying the setts without cement is done from experts in Dublin where this is their practice.

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An email just received from James Airey:

From: james.airey@cumbriacc.gov.uk
Subject: setts the Gill
Date: 9 July 2010 07:53:50 BST
To: gd@tygh.co.uk

Dear Geoff

The setts on the Gill were looked at by Highways on Wednesday after I chased them again, a works order has been placed and the work will be done within 6 weeks. Hopefully as soon as possible but no longer than 6 weeks.

Regards James.


(That's by the 20th August)

My reply:

"Many thanks,

What work do they plan to do when they do it?

Will you be supervising/checking it?

Best wishes

Geoff"

A result :

Well done:

What mark out of 10?

Bear in mind the difficulties involved!

Hosepipe ban - it's official

Feel free to report any sprinklers being used, etc to this site.

If they are in Ulverston, I shall go out and film this, give a polite warning and if they continue, publish video on this web site.

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Worth watching on iPlayer

One of our readers has posted this comment:

"A program been on this week bbc 1 at 9-15 am called The Estate We're In its about a women who took on the council to sort a run down estate who got nothing done by the council.Now you should be able to watch the other episodes on iplayer"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00t1f4w

We have 6 days left to watch it.

I've been watching back episodes of Tribal Wives which Chris Loynes alerted me about. only managed three episodes before they ran out - which was yesterday.

If anyone comes across anything else of interest on TV or in an online newspaper - let's have it!

Adult education courses

The new 2010 -11 brochure has been published and can be obtained at the Library and Town Hall.



A very professional job has been done by the team based at Cartmel School led by Jude Godden who has rescued our ability to attend a variety wide variety of courses.

The on-line version is not yet quite ready.

One can enroll at :

Victoria High School this next Friday, July 9th 9:45 - 12:00

or in September on Thursday 9th 2010 12:00 til 14:00 in the Library.

These limited times, I suspect, reflect the low budget available for running this service.

Mind you this brochure probably catches only a fraction of what goes on in Ulverston.

If you wanted to do Egyptian Dancing at 11:00 on a Saturday morning would you know where to go?

Our Monday morning interview - Mr Chirpy

Each week, someone from Ulverston will appear here.

Here's our first one - a little early!

Don't we all look forward to seeing him here every Thursday and Saturday Market Day?

South Ulverston - flood meeting at the Coro last Monday

I have delayed writing about this as I was so disgusted with the outcome.

The 'officials' made a mockery of the purpose of the meeting by hardly offering any new information. Their presence, sitting there to provide explanations and field questions showed severe contempt for the public by avoiding giving any useful answers.

The politicians were for the most part absent.

The Mayor , Phil Lister tried to do a good job of chairing the meeting, ex-mayor Norman Bishop-Rowe helped proceedings by being friendly and carrying the mike to members of the public that wanted to speak. Only one Town Councillor, apart from Lister and Bishop-Rowe, - Jack Rice spoke up in concern for what had happened.

Despite the key SLDC Councillor Mark Wilson being present he offered nothing of note.

John Woodcock MP sent a representative who offered nice words and an offer of involvement- which remains to be seen.

Where were the other SLDC councillors, and why were the County Councillors totally absent?


Heather Shepherd, a representative form a National Flood Forum organisation whom had come to the meeting specially from the Midlands was very helpful giving advice on obtaining insurance.

David Myers a representative for a new South Ulverston Flood Action Group was a welcome breath of fresh air, presenting challenging facts.

In the end , the only way to obtain information as to the precise cause of the flooding in people's houses was for Dr Geoff Dellow to offer explanations and ask Mike Fell of the Environment Agency whether he agreed - he said the explanation that Was offered was quite probable.This was that because of the sandy soil in the area (similar to that to be found on the adjacent allotments)this allowed to water to travel underground through the soil as a result of the pressure from the lake behind the defense and up through cracks in peoples concrete floor.

Similarly Paul Whitby of United Utilities came totally ill equipped not knowing anything about the existence of the drains in the area. He in turn agreed with Dr Dellow that the surface water drain from South Ulverston to the sewage works by the sea was inadequate which was why the extremely high volumes of water coming from the town instead of taking water away from So Ulverston actually acted in reverse resulting in drain water actually coming out of downstairs toilets into people's houses.

Only trivial agreements were given to the public for the future.

SLDC said that the problem was highly complex and offered nothing more - they showed no sign of caring either. No undertaking was given to clear any of the 14 (out of 15) blocked drains in the area.

Looks like we can expect exactly the same if flooding occurs again in the next five years.

The new flood action group have certainly got thier work cut out.

Heather Shepherd of the Flood Forum commented afterwords that it was meetings like this that totally turned people off that democracy made anything better.

Why did the Mail reporter offer such a poor article in the paper?

Again a second flood meeting with what Officials and Councillors do best : respectively - avoid clear answers and taking on any commitment to sorting a problem out.

Why bother going?

What kind of butterfly

Gladys writes in

"We thought we knew what it is but it does not match up with official photographs."



A lovely mutation don't you think?

Click on the picture to get an enlarged version.

When does one kind of butterfly become a new one?

This month's gorgeous photos from Allan Wilson

See the full collection at his Gallery in Brogden Street - some lovely cards.

The New Mural

People's comment on the new mural designed and painted by Gill Barron with help by local children.

A more complete version with comments from people who happened to be passing.