It's taken a long time. The result is nowhere near perfect but the people from Colas have worked very hard. Some have been coming all the way from Newcastle every day, others from Wigan.
The last stretch along the front of the shops at the bottom of Market Street will be done next Sunday.
Wouldn't it be good to give these workers a good send off - they have worked hard travelling long distances to complete the work. Their attitude has been a vast improvement to the guys from Amey who did the top stretch and insulted the public and shopkeepers with their casual approach to getting the job done.
How many people realise the work should never have needed doing in the first place and shouldn't have cost us a penny?
It was our county councillors back in the early 2000s who didn't keep tabs on incompetent work of supervision by the Cumbria Highways Department under the arrogant Nick Raymond. Contractors where allowed to dig holes in the cobbles without doing a good job of back filling the holes with good quality hardcore (gravel). The soil below then settled, created depressions which attracted water leading to a a chaotic road surface. Later on in this story (after their knuckles had been rapped) United Utilities showed us that quality work could be done so that a year later one couldn't tell there had been any activity,
The contractors who accessed services under the street weren't made to come back to do repairs as they were legally bound if called back within two years to make good by the Highways Department. Our councillors ignored or were ignorant of what was happening.
It was only when a campaign was run in 2008 by Geoff Dellow because of the extremely poor work done by Balfour Beatty, the contractors for United Utilities, when laying a water main down Market Street in 2005 that the problem was highlighted. Even then our local councillors took no interest and our petition was ignored. Fortunately one of the people signing the petition was Roz Harris, formerly from Ulverston, who now worked away for United Utilities. She went up to the top of her company and pointed out what had been happening.
United Utilities then apologised and agreed to do repairs in spite of the fact that their legal contract to do repairs had expired in 2007. The full story has been documented in full, here on this blog using this link
Could the same thing happen all over again ? Yes, with the quality of councillors we are still electing. The public continue to vote according to national trends and take little interest in the kind of person they elect and what our councillors actually do. At election times their literature is full of half truths and slagging off the opposition. As a result the councillors feed the public deceitful and irrelevant information and once elected do a poor job of keeping the public informed - which is why when planning to run for council, this blog was started . We need councillors who will keep us in touch with what they are doing from week to week: for instance running a blog so that we can vote intelligently at our next election. (Which will be in 2015)
7 comments:
Absolutely agree with your comments about councillors and their election literature. I feel quite depressed having read some of the tawdry nonsense that came through my door, and I plan to have words with some of the candidates who included outright lies in their material. Local representation in Ulverston needs a real shake up. In my view the political element is hugely counter-productive, and if only local people could work together for the benefit of the town rather than trying to get one over on the other parties, we'd all be a lot better off. My worry about blogs is that politicians would simply use those to slag off the other side and exaggerate their own achievements.
Wow. A politician that is willing to identify themselves and give us an honest opinion.
This is indeed special.
Is this the beginning of having councillors that we can support wholeheartedly?
Is there something in a name?
"Harris is generally considered to mean "son of Harry." The given name Harry is a derivation of Henry, meaning "home ruler." "
Ulverston is not the house of commons.
It is a parish council and working together is essential to the interests of the parish.
The more interest the members have in the parish is reflected in their ability to "GANG UP" and pursue representations to C.C.C.
A nice point made by Jane.
Jack Kelly
Thanks for stating the facts so clearly, Jane. The lies do need to be exposed. Some of them might be discussed on this blog if nowhere more suitable exists.
I have a few questions that you may be able to answer:
1) Did Jack Rice highlight the need for a reduction in car parking fees in Stockbridge Lane car park? Did others have a major role in the decision?
2) Have Ulverston in Bloom acknowledged the work put into the Gill Banks’ boxes in 2011 and 2012 or the continuing efforts to improve the planting of Mill Dam Park by a group of gardeners?
3) Did Ralph Spores acknowledge that the local residents’ flags in The Gill were placed there by a group of residents when he was interviewed by the local paper?
We, the councillors and the public, need to be honest with each other and give thanks where it is due. Claiming achievements where others have worked hard neither encourages people to take pride in Ulverston nor have confidence in their representatives.
On another issue of confidence in the Town Council:
Why did Mrs Janette Jenkinson not represent the views of the Town Council at the SLDC Planning Meeting on the 25th April 2013?
Mrs C Atkinson
Well done Jane Harris. YES the political element IS counter productive. Working together — representatives and represented — on every level is what is needed, especially at this time with financial difficulties. Everybody's skills should be put to use to create a unity of spirit, especially on our local council. Together WE CAN! should be the council motto. What we want is LOCAL cooperation in LOCAL government, certainly not a version of the punch and judy politics stemming from Westmister.
Well, that's my opinion for what it is worth. (And I have been around a good few years, including years when Britain was at war and folk pulled together, to form my views.)
I've been saying for more years than I care to remember that the "local govt way forward" for us is a Unitary authority, separate from the dogs breakfast that is Cumbria, out of the money grabbing clutches of Carlisle and Kendal.The Sainsbury's debacle was a perfect example of non "local" govt when the no decision was made largely by councillors from Sedbergh(??) Ambleside, Kendal etc. Furness and Cartmel (maybe the old North Lonsdale RDC area) has a viable population and could easily survive out of Cumbria and the SLDC tyranny.
John McArthur:It is imperative that we support Jane Harris and like minded councillors at the next election, instead of voting for the usual parties. If we don't vote for positive people we'll live to regret it
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