The responses received from the SLDC to the three questions put to them a week ago, are all totally inadequate and make an individual wonder "why bother talking to the council at all".
Unless a Councillor takes up an issue on an individual's part then the council will fob questions off with answers that often avoid the issue or are meaningless.
Persuading a Councillor to think about something, that they didn't think of themselves first, is a major problem.
As they are not for the most part proactive, looking for problems that need solutions.
Reason fails to penetrate their thinking. In my experience the sight of ten or more voters is the main thing that makes them jump.
Tuesday, 29 September 2009
Monday, 28 September 2009
Pottery event in Lightburn Park a huge success
People arrived at 1.30 Saturday 25th September for an hour and left three hours later.
In all about 70 people took part.
It was great for me to meet all the children, teenagers, women and men, making pottery items for the railings.
Thanks to the hard work of several people, I don't yet know them by name, doing a variety of jobs, we had a great time . Especially John McCarthur who helped set the equipment up, helped everyone with making their pots and again with taking it all down and packing it away in my car.
I was bowled over by the response and had a wonderful time.
100 items were made and are now laid out on the drying racks of my pottery studio. Holes have been added to each item so that they can be fastened, to the railings in the park, easily.
Great creativity and enjoyment was displayed in making a wide range of items. Just think these items were just a heap of mud on Saturday morning!
23 people left their details and a one pound membership as interested in forming a Lightburn Park Group to promote the use of the Park.
£45 was contributed to membership and the cost of the clay and its firing - this will go a long way to covering the cost of the two firings that will be necessary
We used Terra Cotta Clay with added iron oxide (rust) for decoration as has been done in Gill Banks. This will be fired when completely dry at the high temperature of 1180 deg. C which will mean that the pots are weatherproof.
Here Geoff works with just some of the pots, adding holes to enable them to be screwed in place. Click on the image to get an enlaged version.
In order to avoid cracking of the clay, the drying needs to be slow. This will mean that the pots will be fired and ready for putting up in Lightburn Park on October 19th.
This will be a great time to decide how the pots are arranged and displayed and won't be difficult now that we have sussed out how to attach pots to the railings easily.
More details about this in a fortnight here.
In the future, Tony Taylor who was unable to be present will no doubt be in touch to you all to discuss the next steps for our Lightburn Park Group both regarding events but equally important the improvements to the park. Here it is very important to have an official group that can attract grants for improvements to the park.
It was good to be visited by the SLDC Councillor for the Park area , Norman Bishop-Rowe and the community police officers. The big improvements to the Children's Play area by the Council engineer Peter Clark over the past ten days and the need for further on the park around the Skateboarding ramps were pointed out.
Comments received:
From Libby Norton:
Thank you for a fantastic afternoon in the park, you and John did a great job organising the event.
My daughter Edie and I had a lovely time making our fish and sunflowers. We can't wait for the next workshop and have lots of ideas for new creations. I had lots of fun helping others after Edie got bored and went off to play on the swings, she is only 3 after all. I have attached some photographs of Edie and myself getting messy.
We look forward to seeing you and our creations again soon,
Hi Geoff,
Thanks for your hard work on saturday, I know the girls and I enjoyed ourselves. I love the fact that these things go on in our locale. It all helps to make the community and create some fun. We are looking forward to the finished products.
See you soon.
Zoe
Thanks for this - it was a great afternoon for all of us!
Geoff (and John)
In all about 70 people took part.
It was great for me to meet all the children, teenagers, women and men, making pottery items for the railings.
Thanks to the hard work of several people, I don't yet know them by name, doing a variety of jobs, we had a great time . Especially John McCarthur who helped set the equipment up, helped everyone with making their pots and again with taking it all down and packing it away in my car.
I was bowled over by the response and had a wonderful time.
100 items were made and are now laid out on the drying racks of my pottery studio. Holes have been added to each item so that they can be fastened, to the railings in the park, easily.
Great creativity and enjoyment was displayed in making a wide range of items. Just think these items were just a heap of mud on Saturday morning!
23 people left their details and a one pound membership as interested in forming a Lightburn Park Group to promote the use of the Park.
£45 was contributed to membership and the cost of the clay and its firing - this will go a long way to covering the cost of the two firings that will be necessary
We used Terra Cotta Clay with added iron oxide (rust) for decoration as has been done in Gill Banks. This will be fired when completely dry at the high temperature of 1180 deg. C which will mean that the pots are weatherproof.
Here Geoff works with just some of the pots, adding holes to enable them to be screwed in place. Click on the image to get an enlaged version. In order to avoid cracking of the clay, the drying needs to be slow. This will mean that the pots will be fired and ready for putting up in Lightburn Park on October 19th.
This will be a great time to decide how the pots are arranged and displayed and won't be difficult now that we have sussed out how to attach pots to the railings easily.
More details about this in a fortnight here.
In the future, Tony Taylor who was unable to be present will no doubt be in touch to you all to discuss the next steps for our Lightburn Park Group both regarding events but equally important the improvements to the park. Here it is very important to have an official group that can attract grants for improvements to the park.
It was good to be visited by the SLDC Councillor for the Park area , Norman Bishop-Rowe and the community police officers. The big improvements to the Children's Play area by the Council engineer Peter Clark over the past ten days and the need for further on the park around the Skateboarding ramps were pointed out.
Comments received:
From Libby Norton:
Thank you for a fantastic afternoon in the park, you and John did a great job organising the event.
My daughter Edie and I had a lovely time making our fish and sunflowers. We can't wait for the next workshop and have lots of ideas for new creations. I had lots of fun helping others after Edie got bored and went off to play on the swings, she is only 3 after all. I have attached some photographs of Edie and myself getting messy.
We look forward to seeing you and our creations again soon,
Hi Geoff,
Thanks for your hard work on saturday, I know the girls and I enjoyed ourselves. I love the fact that these things go on in our locale. It all helps to make the community and create some fun. We are looking forward to the finished products.
See you soon.
Zoe
Thanks for this - it was a great afternoon for all of us!
Geoff (and John)
Friday, 25 September 2009
Here comes the sun
My video hits top spot for Ulverston Cumbria - for a while!
Good to be reminded what the sun looks like!
.
Good to be reminded what the sun looks like!
.
The need for a good web site
The town is loosing business all the time because we have such a jumble of sites to represent us on the Internet.
This represents a multimillion pound business when you take into account the shops, market stalls, eating and drinking places, transport and hire, and most important accommodation.
No one is taking this task seriously.
When I ran a successful tourist business at The Falls - holiday self catering with a unique food service - I spent one morning every week (ie 10% of my time) working at promoting myself by press releases and contact with travel writers in the National papers and advertising. I spent at least 5% of my total budget on advertising in addition to an impressive brochure and back up literature - previous press articles.
Result I was fully booked from the February bank holiday until the one in October. I then let the accomodation to longer local lets across the winter. Of course I offered top accommodation singled out by the AA for its excellence. Furthermore I offered a unique food service which provided all the food inside the holiday cottages which attracted a lot of interest. My bank, the Midland at the time, brought other bankers to the Falls to see how we did it! Other hoteliers came to find out our secrets.
Now compare this business approach with that being used to 'sell' the town to tourists and there is no comparison.
To test this out you need to imagine that you are a potential tourist going on the internet :
First of all you are looking for a town or location that would be interesting to stay at and then some accommodation that appeals.
Now here you have to actually go on line with a bit of imagination and actually take the trouble to see what it feels like.
You are from a foreign country with some English and a fair bit of cash because of the strength of you currency against the UK pound - you could even be Chinese or Japanese or nearer home, Scandinavian, French or German. You would like a market town with a bit of history in the South Lakes because you've heard that there aren't so many tourists around and the scenery is something special with not only Lakes , Mountains but the Sea as well. You also remember that there are some towns that have some really fun festivals that you would like to include - you can't remember much more.
Now try your search.
Do you get anywhere near finding Ulverston?
Try again if you like assuming that you've been told my someone that they visited Ulverston and enjoyed a festival there.
Now, how do you get on?
Can you think of a single Councillor that talks about this problem and is trying hard to promote Ulverston?
Now compare us with Grange over sands and how do we compare?
Are you surprised that our shops are empty?
How is this when we have so much to offer and the well heeled people loved returning to Ulverston, Year by Year. Some even got a bit of a reputation with local shopkeepers for their eccentric habits -plonking their walking shoes on the counter in order to do the laces up! Ordering Cumberland sausage by the 10 lbs to take back home with them. Buying unusual hardware from Smith and Harrison.
Those were the days - have they gone for ever?
This represents a multimillion pound business when you take into account the shops, market stalls, eating and drinking places, transport and hire, and most important accommodation.
No one is taking this task seriously.
When I ran a successful tourist business at The Falls - holiday self catering with a unique food service - I spent one morning every week (ie 10% of my time) working at promoting myself by press releases and contact with travel writers in the National papers and advertising. I spent at least 5% of my total budget on advertising in addition to an impressive brochure and back up literature - previous press articles.
Result I was fully booked from the February bank holiday until the one in October. I then let the accomodation to longer local lets across the winter. Of course I offered top accommodation singled out by the AA for its excellence. Furthermore I offered a unique food service which provided all the food inside the holiday cottages which attracted a lot of interest. My bank, the Midland at the time, brought other bankers to the Falls to see how we did it! Other hoteliers came to find out our secrets.
Now compare this business approach with that being used to 'sell' the town to tourists and there is no comparison.
To test this out you need to imagine that you are a potential tourist going on the internet :
First of all you are looking for a town or location that would be interesting to stay at and then some accommodation that appeals.
Now here you have to actually go on line with a bit of imagination and actually take the trouble to see what it feels like.
You are from a foreign country with some English and a fair bit of cash because of the strength of you currency against the UK pound - you could even be Chinese or Japanese or nearer home, Scandinavian, French or German. You would like a market town with a bit of history in the South Lakes because you've heard that there aren't so many tourists around and the scenery is something special with not only Lakes , Mountains but the Sea as well. You also remember that there are some towns that have some really fun festivals that you would like to include - you can't remember much more.
Now try your search.
Do you get anywhere near finding Ulverston?
Try again if you like assuming that you've been told my someone that they visited Ulverston and enjoyed a festival there.
Now, how do you get on?
Can you think of a single Councillor that talks about this problem and is trying hard to promote Ulverston?
Now compare us with Grange over sands and how do we compare?
Are you surprised that our shops are empty?
How is this when we have so much to offer and the well heeled people loved returning to Ulverston, Year by Year. Some even got a bit of a reputation with local shopkeepers for their eccentric habits -plonking their walking shoes on the counter in order to do the laces up! Ordering Cumberland sausage by the 10 lbs to take back home with them. Buying unusual hardware from Smith and Harrison.
Those were the days - have they gone for ever?
Concert in the Coro last night
WOW
The performance of De Falla was electrifying - with an amazing Spanish conductor too.
Absolutely memorable.
With visions of Firey Spanish Gypsy Women who will tear your eyes out if provoked!
By contrast the sad cold lonely lifeless . . . empty seats. . . .
.
The performance of De Falla was electrifying - with an amazing Spanish conductor too.
Absolutely memorable.
With visions of Firey Spanish Gypsy Women who will tear your eyes out if provoked!
By contrast the sad cold lonely lifeless . . . empty seats. . . .
.
Tesco
To clarify my position on Tesco being in Ulverston.
I welcome it being here.
I would have much prefered a different store such as Sainsbury or alternative use of the building but given the suddenness of the Woolworth vacancy it is an excellent choice of building and adds much to the Market Square.
I welcome it also because I hope that no one will shop there. The Coop is far to be preferred.
Let's hope that Tesco will get its fingers burnt and suffer a loss at this store and that local people will want to support all the alternative shops in Ulverston and avoid Tesco whenever they can.
Anyone that cares to look beneath the surface of what kind of organisation they have in their midst will feel the same. They are wolves dressed up in sheeps clothing see my links on Tesco
I welcome it being here.
I would have much prefered a different store such as Sainsbury or alternative use of the building but given the suddenness of the Woolworth vacancy it is an excellent choice of building and adds much to the Market Square.
I welcome it also because I hope that no one will shop there. The Coop is far to be preferred.
Let's hope that Tesco will get its fingers burnt and suffer a loss at this store and that local people will want to support all the alternative shops in Ulverston and avoid Tesco whenever they can.
Anyone that cares to look beneath the surface of what kind of organisation they have in their midst will feel the same. They are wolves dressed up in sheeps clothing see my links on Tesco
Thursday, 24 September 2009
Opinionated - me?
Why else do people think I run this blog.
I often take extreme positions in order to question the boundaries.
In a world that has very few reasoned opinions expressed there is a need to give it a little shake.
The word 'reasoned' is essential as to express an opinion without a reasoned support leads down the route to emotional chaos.
Similarly disagreement needs to go further than "What you say is total rubbish".
Let's hear why you think it's rubbish and then our discussion can progress.
I often take extreme positions in order to question the boundaries.
In a world that has very few reasoned opinions expressed there is a need to give it a little shake.
The word 'reasoned' is essential as to express an opinion without a reasoned support leads down the route to emotional chaos.
Similarly disagreement needs to go further than "What you say is total rubbish".
Let's hear why you think it's rubbish and then our discussion can progress.
Wednesday, 23 September 2009
Witch hunts again
Once again sniping media and misguided politicians are undermining our government.
I will be dismayed and saddened if Baroness Scotland resigns.
This story echoes what is found all across our British society : the wish to snipe and tear others to shreds over extremely trivial issues.
Can we have some positive reporting please?
Tuesday, 22 September 2009
Questions put to the full SLDC meeting at the Coro tonight
These three questions concern the importance to the town of tourism and the severe problems we experience with parking in our streets.
1. Stockbridge Lane car park
As an occasional Market Stall holder I have found that it is very important to the survival and success of our markets on Thursday and Saturday and to shopping in the town as a whole that as many people are encouraged to visit the town not only to shop but to enjoy our many activities throughout the year.
Many times in the summer all the car parks in the town except one are full to bursting with essential visitors. Stockbridge Lane Car Park is the exception. It is the nearest large car park to the Market Cross , capacity 88 cars, which is never full except at the Dickensian Festival when additional car parking is also needed at the Health Centre.
At other times the occupancy of this car park is never above 50% and often as low as 15% even in the height of the summer, as you will know from your takings at the meter.
Why is this car park so little used ? There is no sign at the Market Cross to indicate this car park exists. This needs to be rectified immediately .
Debbie Binch of the CCC approached Dave Conlin to appeal for a sign here on Monday January 12th with no result.
Secondly a better use of this car park would be for the business people to be offered this car park at a greatly reduced rate over the year this freeing up many of our streets close to town. In this way SLDC would receive far more money for its car park than at present.
SLDC would benefit as would the town.
Why can’t the Town Council to be given the responsibility over its own car parks? It would then be able to offer free parking on Market days as do towns like Hawick in Scotland if it decided that this made commercial sense.
The town is suffering from a lack of tourism; everything possible should be done to prevent this.
2. 27 Princess Street.
For some time now the Town has had to endure the sight of a burnt out house at 27 Princess St which is on the route taken by all tourists that arrive by train.
Far worse the neighbouring houses have had to endure the misuse of this house for over ten years and its lack of repair and broken windows. Repeated attempts by the residents and local councillors have failed to achieve a change. Only when there was a fire that threatened the safety of the residents adjacent did the council start to listen.
Could the Council assure the town that a resolution to this sad episode is at an end and that it will enforce a compulsory purchase of this property if present negotiations with the council and the present owner fail?
3. Web site for the town.
The towns shops and activities are a great source of benefit to the town's tourist trade and attractiveness. Why is it the the SLDC has never done a good job of designing an effective Ulverston website for this purpose.
The present Ulverston Online web site continues to come top of Google rankings yet it has very little information on it from a tourists viewpoint and many of the links don't work.
Jayne Kendall describes its purpose as being a portal and not a site specifically to promote Ulverston.
Yet the description of the site on Goolge is
“Ulverston Online
Lake District, Tourism and Ulverston information from Ulverston Online - the website of the festival town.”
Festival town? There is no information on this site about Ulverston’s festivals. A tourist would loose patience before discovering this on another site if they were lucky.
By contrast Newcastle recognised the importance of promoting itself to the world on the Internet five years ago and were in a position to reap the benefits of its hard promotional work with a surge in tourists when the pound weakened against many other of the worlds currencies.
Ulverston could have benefited in a similar way.
Though the Town Council have had a new web site designed, this is primarily to promote the views of the Councillors and its business; it is not specifically targeted to the tourist.
When will something be done to improve this situation by handing the responsibility and running of this site to an organisation that promotes tourism with flair throughout the Southern Lake District so that we all benefit from each other's strengths?
If the Council is not going to provide a good presentation of our town will it then remove this site from the prime slot on Google so that tourists do not get the impression that are town is a complete shambles. Private business can then be encouraged to take up the slack and become top slot on Google.
Response received Monday 28th September:
(clicking on the image will bring up an enlarged version)
1. Stockbridge Lane car park
As an occasional Market Stall holder I have found that it is very important to the survival and success of our markets on Thursday and Saturday and to shopping in the town as a whole that as many people are encouraged to visit the town not only to shop but to enjoy our many activities throughout the year.
Many times in the summer all the car parks in the town except one are full to bursting with essential visitors. Stockbridge Lane Car Park is the exception. It is the nearest large car park to the Market Cross , capacity 88 cars, which is never full except at the Dickensian Festival when additional car parking is also needed at the Health Centre.
At other times the occupancy of this car park is never above 50% and often as low as 15% even in the height of the summer, as you will know from your takings at the meter.
Why is this car park so little used ? There is no sign at the Market Cross to indicate this car park exists. This needs to be rectified immediately .
Debbie Binch of the CCC approached Dave Conlin to appeal for a sign here on Monday January 12th with no result.
Secondly a better use of this car park would be for the business people to be offered this car park at a greatly reduced rate over the year this freeing up many of our streets close to town. In this way SLDC would receive far more money for its car park than at present.
SLDC would benefit as would the town.
Why can’t the Town Council to be given the responsibility over its own car parks? It would then be able to offer free parking on Market days as do towns like Hawick in Scotland if it decided that this made commercial sense.
The town is suffering from a lack of tourism; everything possible should be done to prevent this.
2. 27 Princess Street.
For some time now the Town has had to endure the sight of a burnt out house at 27 Princess St which is on the route taken by all tourists that arrive by train.
Far worse the neighbouring houses have had to endure the misuse of this house for over ten years and its lack of repair and broken windows. Repeated attempts by the residents and local councillors have failed to achieve a change. Only when there was a fire that threatened the safety of the residents adjacent did the council start to listen.
Could the Council assure the town that a resolution to this sad episode is at an end and that it will enforce a compulsory purchase of this property if present negotiations with the council and the present owner fail?
3. Web site for the town.
The towns shops and activities are a great source of benefit to the town's tourist trade and attractiveness. Why is it the the SLDC has never done a good job of designing an effective Ulverston website for this purpose.
The present Ulverston Online web site continues to come top of Google rankings yet it has very little information on it from a tourists viewpoint and many of the links don't work.
Jayne Kendall describes its purpose as being a portal and not a site specifically to promote Ulverston.
Yet the description of the site on Goolge is
“Ulverston Online
Lake District, Tourism and Ulverston information from Ulverston Online - the website of the festival town.”
Festival town? There is no information on this site about Ulverston’s festivals. A tourist would loose patience before discovering this on another site if they were lucky.
By contrast Newcastle recognised the importance of promoting itself to the world on the Internet five years ago and were in a position to reap the benefits of its hard promotional work with a surge in tourists when the pound weakened against many other of the worlds currencies.
Ulverston could have benefited in a similar way.
Though the Town Council have had a new web site designed, this is primarily to promote the views of the Councillors and its business; it is not specifically targeted to the tourist.
When will something be done to improve this situation by handing the responsibility and running of this site to an organisation that promotes tourism with flair throughout the Southern Lake District so that we all benefit from each other's strengths?
If the Council is not going to provide a good presentation of our town will it then remove this site from the prime slot on Google so that tourists do not get the impression that are town is a complete shambles. Private business can then be encouraged to take up the slack and become top slot on Google.
Response received Monday 28th September:
(clicking on the image will bring up an enlarged version)
Friday, 18 September 2009
Yobos in Ulverston
You could argue that they are irresponsible young kids.
Far from it these are just little yobos.
There are bigger yobos and great big hairy - probably with a paunch - yobos.
I reckon that for the most part once a yobo always one. They grow up and have little yobo children who are uncared for and undisciplined. They will sit at their tele and drink beer while the kids are out creating havoc. These kids learn to take care of themselves by grouping with other yobos.
Some of the parents have in the past visited this blog and been permitted to make comments. Then when they are banned they eventually give up.
Many are to be found on the Nowhere chat group. Go there and you'll be educated into the kind of yobs we have in amongst us.
I visited them when they posted the thread "Dellow is a cunt" which still appears on some graffiti in town if you know where to look. They seemed surprised when I turned up as a poster on the thread and since then having ignored them, they ignore me!
Comments will still appear along the lines "I saw Dellow on the curb in town and only just resisted running him over."
For the most part the yobos here haven't a clue who I am but because their mates are having a dig they join in - Good for a laugh!
Whilst initially ignoring them, I'm changing my mind and feel that we have to go in and sort them out and make them more aware of what its like to be human and considerate of others.
These are the kind of people that are supporting the BNP and aggressive to any group that doesn't agree with them.
If our society is not to go totally downhill we have to deal with these kind of people and not ignore them.
How?
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