Encouraginng each other to be assertive is something that is very important to me!
Relying on others can be very frustrating. People using their own initiative can often achieve far more. Self belief is important!
We llive in a town where this already happens so much . It will be natural for us as to do this more and more..
Once again it's the Ulverston Flag Flag Fortnight and there are some superb new flags on show.
If you arrive at The Gill Car Park, you're in for a treat.
First is the centrepiece display of the new flags shown below
These were featured on the front page of the Evening Mail yesterday with a great picture - the Westmoreland Gazette's photographer comes tomorrow.
Then, as you come into town along Upper Brook Street you will see the superb flags designed and made by Sue Redhead and her team of skilled volunteers.
Here are a couple of them:
This artistic talent is really resetting the bar at a high standard for the art design in the town.
And another 30 flags to make if our target is to be reached !
Over the past month The Ulverston Flag Festival has sprung back into life under the guidance of the new Ulverston Flag Group who are working with people to design, make or just have a flag to fly during the festival in early May.
Flags have been made at an unprecedented rate because so many people from the community have been involved. Workshops in houses with large rooms along with individuals working in the small terraced houses of The Gill have already produced more than 20 new flags.
While the Ulverston Better Towns Team is continuing to run the festival centred on the shopkeepers under the guidance of Peter Winston, the new group are focussed on involving people of all kinds in this great celebratory activity at a time when all our lives need a little Zest to cheer us up.
The making of flags is a time consuming activity and for a beginner this can take some ten hours to make.
A trip to Bradford's Bombay Stores yielded enough beautifully coloured fabrics to make fifty flags. Bamboo poles have been purchased from Newcastle and the design of brackets has been finalised and are to be made by one of three local firms that have willingly got involved.
The Gill was chosen as a starting point for this community activity because it provides an ideal space for the display of flags and because over thirty people here are so keen to have a flag.
Furthermore the theme of The Gill's past history is an inspiration to all.
It's difficult to believe that so much has happened here in the past : Home of the Hiring Fairs where people came to find work as recently as 1940, Circuses with tales of an Elephant that died and was buried in the nearby Quaker Cemetery at Birkrigg, a Saw Mill and Corn Mill driven by the power of the beck that flowed through the middle, the corn mill owner was the national pole vaulting champion, The Magazine where gunpowder and arms were stored for the local militia, the Slaughter House and Tannery, the Police Station and Lock Up (now toilets), A Pub - The house of Letters with the beginning of Ulverstons Postal Service, all based on The Gill as a centre for travel by horse, The School run by Holy Trinity Church and more recently the home of Welfare State International, the people that started all the festivals in the town, noteworthy the Lantern Festival and this Flag Festival, and lastly the beginning of the Cumbrian Way.
All these are being reflected in the designs of the flags that are being made.
When the Gill has been covered the theme is being extended up Stanley Street to the Health Centre where it is hoped there will be three very large flag poles and on to the Mill Dam Play area, Sun and Star streets and the allotment beyond. It is hoped to also have some flags coming down Soutergate to celebrate the church, pubs and workshops it had in the past. Next we hope to spread down Church Walk to the school and chaurch at the end.
Those wanting to get involved are invited to the workshop that has been organised for next week end on Sunday 6th and then again another which is being organised in a large Hall in late March/early April. Details can be found on the new facebook page - Ulverston Flag Fortnight or to contact Geoff Dellow on 01229 480347.
The Ulverston Flag Group had their first Photoshoot with the two local newspapers vying with each other to capture this feast of moving colour from the twenty flags that have been made in the last month by this active group.
They represented just the tip of the iceberg of massive enthusiasm for this project - many of the flag makers, who spend on average eight hours of hard work in making a single flag, are camera shy!
(seen here are the result of 160 hours of enthusiastic work on a sewing machine and cutting board)
They invite others in Ulverston to join them in celebrating "nothing in particular" other than a Zest for Life and a refusal to let "problems " get the better of them. Others in the town can get involved in designing and making another 20 flags for their houses before Flag Fortnight which is in early May.
The Royal Wedding is providing another source of inspiration for the flags which will go up on William and Kate's special day - Friday April 29th.
It set Stan off on his humourous life - even though he only got a few sips in the eight weeks he was here.(I'm wrong - he was drinking it by the gallon until he was six I understand)
Incredible though it may seem:
The workmen repairing the setts in The Gill, Ulverston, were told last Friday to 'rip there own work up' (to use Evening Mail headline speak) and do it again.
Not that they have done poor work - it was excellent - but because the County Council have now decided to do the whole lot and not just do patches.
This was something that definitely needed doing and my statement, that I would be repairing future damage straight away - and not waiting a whole year as I did this last time, may have influenced them (? - Highly unlikely but you never know).
So this morning when I talked to the workers they were fed up at the thought of digging their work up in order to achieve a uniform and attractive result.
They are starting at one end and working all the way along to reset all the setts.
The Council must be congratulated for making this brave decision.
On prime time BBC coverage at 07:45 am Radio Cumbria tomorrow when I'm being interviewed about taking action illegally to repair our highway - the setts - in The Gill.
No doubt thousands of you will be tuned in specially
A morning spent yesterday visiting the businesses on Ulverston high streets showed a lot of support for the meeting to be held with the councillors next Monday at 5:30pm at The Lantern House. Many people are making a big effort to make sure that their opinions are heard by the councillors.
In addition to the concerns about the lack of a tourist web site and the future of the TIC, the hot topic is car parking.
After the first two topics have been dealt with to the satisfaction of the meeting we will look briefly at possible ways of solving the car parking problem.
One solution being discussed is the buying back of the running of the car parks by the Ulverston Town Council. This would mean that the Town undertook to pay SLDC so much a year in order to be independent and fix the charges themselves in the belief that they could be more businesslike and generate more cash than the present high charges that lead to many car owners to park on our streets.
This would allow the Town to decide if and when it wanted to provide free car parking.
It is worth noting that the Ulverston Town Lands Trust already own the Gill car park.
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.
. 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.
