Category Archives: Spalding

Bandstand argument now off track

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I see the Graham Dark fan club is continuing to leap to his defence, although today’s letter is from the original writer so that’s hardly a surprise. As I’ve said previously, it’s amazing how quickly letters in the press drift away from the initial issue. This lady has now gone down the route of how wonderful the music events are and that she has never seen me at one! And your point is madam?
In retrospect, it probably was a bit too blunt to write that it was the only good idea he’d ever brought to the Spalding Town Forum, even if it is close to the truth.
What I should have said, was that a band stand in Ayscoughfee Gardens, was a suggestion made and promoted more than once by Graham Dark’s and that he had actually brought detailed plans for one to a previous Spalding Town Forum meeting. On that basis, why was this lady attacking me for making a passing comment, about something her hero is supporting and promoting?
Even his idea for a bandstand on the cheap, is ill conceived given his proposed location. The roofed enclosure behind the now disused paddling pool, is too small in length, or depth for a start. Suggesting that it can be made fit for purpose using local trades people, at a lower cost that building a bandstand from scratch, may be true, but it won’t be as cheap as suggested and is not backup with any figures.

As an aside, the original, original idea for a band stand in Aycoughfee Gardens, came from a previous councillor colleague of mine, Paul Walls. Paul’s other more ‘madcap’ idea, that I would really love to see happen, is a glass sided restaurant and viewing deck on top of the Spalding water tower. With that view, it could be our equivalent of Tattershall Castle!

Local Young Apprentice Competition

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A Message from Foundations

Dear all

As some of you may know, we have organised a ‘family fun day’ on 29 September in Spalding. We have a ‘young apprentice’ style competition, with a great prize for the winner. We are looking for three more contestants for the competition. They must be 15-16 years old and belong to a group (i.e. sports team, cadets, etc).

Please could you pass the message on to any individual or any group who may be interested. This is a great competition for young people, and a really good opportunity for a community group to get some publicity without having to do anything for it!

The website for the event is http://www.familyenterpriseday.co.uk.

Thanks ever so much.

Sorry madam, do you really mean him?

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The writer of a letter in today’s Spalding Guardian, in which I am mentioned, must have experienced a case of mistaken identity. Either that, or somebody, who looks like me, is going around calling himself Graham Dark – that’s a scarcely thought on so many levels!

The lady writer is a jewellery shop owner in Spalding town centre and is referring to a newspaper report on the recent meeting of the Spalding Town Forum. At the meeting, a debate took place on the use of the section 106 money paid by the Springfields developer, to help reduce the development’s impact on Spalding town centre.

At that meeting, I made a passing comment that, if built, a bandstand could be there for a hundred years. I didn’t suggest that a town centre manager wouldn’t be a good idea, but I was concerned that, when the s106 money ran out after 4 or 5 years, and the position hadn’t become self-financing, that would be a negative outcome for all of us.

According to this lady, I should speak to one Graham Dark, as he has some really good ideas, none of which it seems, incredibly, include building a bandstand in Aycoughfee Gardens!

Her suggestion that Graham Dark has offered some good suggestions on how to spend this money, flies in face of the facts. The truth of the matter is, that Graham has been banging on about a bandstand in Ayscoughfee Gardens for several years now. Indeed, if memory serves, he has never really suggested any other use for the s106 money that is now up for grabs.

I’m not sure how this lady has ended up getting her facts so wrong, but I will be writing to the newspaper to put the record straight. After all, I get enough stick for things I have said and done, without getting blamed for things I haven’t!

LGC view on UKIP impact, or rather lack of, on local government

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Copied from Local Government Chronicle online
LGC View – Ukip in the council chamber
8 May, 2013 | By Ruth Keeling

Ukip have understandably dominated the news coverage of this year’s local elections after winning a quarter of votes and an impressive 139 seats.

But it is highly unlikely they will have any major impact on local government in the long term. As Nick Golding’s leader makes clear, these votes were about national rather than local politics, and the paucity of Ukip’s local policies just proves this point.

With so little of Ukip’s agenda being decided in council chambers, there are few local issues the party can coalesce around. Even if there were, Ukip leader Nigel Farage has said there will be no whip for his councillors.

The party lacks a profile within local government circles. It has a local government leader, but few would be able to name him (it’s Peter Reeve, a county councillor in Cambridgeshire).

Even at council level the party as a unit is shaky at best. Three of Lincolnshire’s new Ukip councillors may be from the same family, but local Conservative leader Martin Hill, who is now searching for partners to shore up the party’s minority administration, says he is struggling to deal with a “disorganised” group which still lacks a leader.

“It’s rumoured they will come along and vote individually, [making cooperation] difficult,” he told LGC.

Ukip’s success may be significant nationally, but at a local level it is probably better to view the 139 seats won simply as a significant addition to the number of independent councillors.

Ruth Keeling, senior reporter http://www.twitter.com/ruthkeeling

Time for CPE to broaden its horizons?

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untitled-1Now that the county council has taken over the regulation of on street parking, law and order has been restored to our town centre, with shoppers and visitors finding it easier to stop to make a quick visit to a local shop or office.

The Civil Parking Enforcement (CPE) officers now know where the hot spots are and are able to target these to great effect. One might even suggest that few of these offences take place before 8.45, or between 2.30 and 3 pm on any given day. Given their effectiveness at restoring order to the ‘wild west’ that was Spalding town centre, I wonder if the powers that be would consider widening the remit of CPE in order to restore some order to the streets around our schools?

Typical school safety zone

Typical school safety zone

As any highway’s officer or traffic cop will tell you, Spalding isn’t unique when it comes to stories of bad behaviour by car driving parents on streets around our local schools. Until now, the police have been the only ones with the powers to deal with these miscreants. Given the lack of police resources, the likelihood of a cry of, ‘you’re nicked!’, being heard outside of any school gate, is virtually nil. However, with the advent of CPE, we now have the potential to address this problem, thereby reducing the misery suffered by residents living in the streets surrounding our schools.

yellow-zig-zag-lines Most of our schools now have yellow zigzag lines on the road outside their front entrance. Whilst this seems to do the job of keeping these areas clear at the required times, it also has the knock on effect of pushing bad parking behaviour into surrounding streets.

images 4I’m not suggesting that we should now be scarring every side street, around every school, with double yellow lines – as well as being an eyesore, that would make life even more difficult for residents. However, I do believe that it should be possible to make effective use of CPE to enforce some of the existing rules on the parking of vehicles on the public highway. Parking across a driveway where there’s a dropped kerb is an offence, as is parking with 10mts of a junction in most instances.

Once a few tickets have been issued outside of a number of schools and over a period of time, word will soon get around that the parking enforcers have widened their horizons and that it’s time for car driving parents to start behaving themselves.

20 mph speed limit needed on our residential streets

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Living Streets is a national charity that campaigns to make our streets and roads safer places for us all to use. Their strap line is, ‘putting people first’ and they have just launched a national campaign to encourage more councils to introduce a 20 mph limit in residential areas.

This is something I have been trying to get the county council to consider for sometime now and the more public support there is, the more likely it is LCC will give it some serious thought. If you would like to make the streets safer for our children, please go to the Living Streets website and take part in their ‘Show You Love 20mph’ campaign.

There would also be a further benefit to making the 20mph speed limit legally enforceable in Lincolnshire. Many of our schools have what is currently only an advisory 20mph speed limit on the street outside of them. This advisory status means that even when a driver is spotted exceeding it, the most they will currently get from the police is a ticking off and advice on being a more responsible and considerate driver.

Mischievous ramblings, or dangerous mis-information?

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It’s always good to see local people getting involved and willing to do their bit to try to make our things better for their community. One of these local people has now decided to stand for the county council, having been a commentator on local issues for sometime now, both via occasional letters to the local press and an active blog site.

I say commentator, because he does not seem to of done anything that could classify him as an activist. My understanding of an activist, is somebody who feels strongly about something and then takes steps to get things changed, generally for the better. Those who do things for the worst, would of course be more akin to extremists, or maybe even terrorists.

To date, this particular individual has made plenty of comments – mostly rambling and almost always negative – but has done little, or rather nothing, to actually improve anything.

The reason that I’m suggesting that his blog site statements might be more akin to dangerous mis-information than simply mischievous ramblings, is because his comments include factual errors that could lead others to draw the wrong conclusions and possibly form completely the wrong opinions about an important issue.

He is not alone in this lazy approach to not getting the facts right before making his thoughts public, as another newly declared county council candidate, standing under a different political banner, is doing exactly the same thing. However, in this case, his comments are directed at me. This is going to be an interesting and I fear, potentially unpleasant election campaign.

Too many drivers speeding where we live

Posted on by • Posted in Everyday life, Spalding, Spalding Wygate ward • Tagged , , , , , , • 2 Comments

Below is the detailed report from Lincs Road Safety Partnership, following the traffic speed surveys I requested on Wygate Park and Park Road in Spalding. Although the numbers of speeding vehicles is relatively low compared to the overall numbers checked, it’s still extremely disappointing to see the numbers in the hundreds. R U 1 of these?

I now have the results of the Archer survey carried out on Wygate Park and Park Rd at Spalding.

In relation to Wygate Park a survey was carried out on Wygate Park near the junction with Law Court monitoring traffic flow in both directions.

Over a five day period a total of 13,713 vehicles were checked 9,992 of these vehicles were travelling towards the town centre. Of vehicles travelling towards the town centre 442 vehicles (4.4%) were travelling at a speed where a speed awareness course would be an appropriate course of action. 189 vehicles (1.9%) were found to be travelling at a speed where prosecution would be an appropriate course of action.

Vehicles travelling towards the A151 21 vehicles ( 3.4%) were travelling at a speed where a speed awareness course would be an appropriate course of action. 25 vehicles (0.6%) were found to be travelling where prosecution would be an appropriate course of action.

In relation to Park Rd the survey was carried outside 214, Park Rd monitoring traffic flow in both directions. Over a five day period a total of 26,095 were checked 10,479 were travelling towards Spalding town centre and 15,616 travelling towards Pinchbeck Rd.

Vehicles travelling towards the town centre 107 (6.1%) were travelling at a speed where a speed awareness course would be an appropriate course of action. 36 vehicles (2.1%) were found to be travelling at a speed where prosecution would have been an appropriate course of action.

Vehicles travelling towards Pinchbeck Rd 286(11.0%) were travelling at a speed where a speed awareness course would be an appropriate course of action. 189 vehicles (7.1%) were travelling at a speed where a prosecution would be an appropriate course of action.

I realise the survey results may not support your impression of vehicles speed using these roads indicated by your correspondence. However, I deal with many complaints relating to speeding and I find ‘Speeding’ is both a very emotive and perceptive subject. To one person speeding may simply mean exceeding a given speed limit,when to another speeding may mean travelling too fast for the conditions whilst staying within the speed limit.

An indication of whether drivers are using a road too fast for conditions is its collision history. I have checked the collision database of all collisions recorded on Wygate Park and Park Rd with eight slight injury collisions on Park Rd and two slight injury collisions for the last three years and out of the ten slight injury collisions none can be attributed to speed.

The aim of the Lincolnshire Road Safety is to try and reduce the amount of fatalities which is distressful for those involved, however caused in the county but we put our resources into the area’s that have high collision figures and a high recorded data in relation to drivers ignoring the speed limit for the road their on. With the ultimate aim to make the roads safer in the whole county.

I will pass on the results of the survey to the local neighbourhood policing team for them to take any action that they feel is necessary during the the course of their patrol.

Modified car enthusiasts bite back

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Several responses to my post on the fallout following the modified car meeting, none of them very happy with my comments. One of them, was a well balanced and passionate plea for a better understanding of those who genuinely enjoy modifying their cars.

Another took the time to criticise my poor grammar, but offered little else. The third one suggested that I should have, or is it of?, been criticising the police for allowing the meeting to go ahead.

Having stirred up these enthusiasts, I suppose I should at least apologise for some of my more sweeping statements and also for classifying them all universally as boy and girl racers. However, I hope they will in turn accept that they were bound to stir up a s**t storm of protest by doing what they did in the first place – taking over a town centre car park without any form of permission.

I was going to suggest that if this had been a rally for mobility scooter enthusiasts, the response would have been very different. However, thinking about the bad behaviour of many of these people on our streets and footpaths, I’m not so sure. So let’s use mothers showing off their baby buggies as the example. Whilst the owners of the car park may have been slightly miffed at the uninvited takeover, the general public would probably have responded by saying, what’s the harm?

Unfortunately for the modified car enthusiasts, they come with a significant amount of baggage when it comes to public perception. Not least the belief of non-enthusiasts, such as myself, that they are all boy and girl racers at heart. Right or wrong, the simple act of congregating in a town centre location, to display the most obvious badge of the boy and girl racer fraternity – the soup-up motor car – was always going to create a negative response from the general population.

Can I therefore suggest that in future, if modified car enthusiasts don’t want to be pilloried in the local press again and see all the good stuff they do for charity ignored, they don’t takeover town centre car parks without notice. Also, if the local press is to be believed, it would also appear that a lot of litter was left behind, a particular bug-bear of mine and something that definitely winds me up.

It would also be nice if they could convince the less socially responsible boy and girl racer element of the modified car enthusiast brigade, to stop peeing off the rest of us!

Modified car rally – the acceptable face of boy and girl racers?

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Outrage at car park takeover by modified car meet, followed by outrage at biased and unfair treatment of modified car owners meet in local press!

Those outraged modified car owners seem to have conveniently forgotten that they didn’t have any sort of permission to takeover the private car park they invaded for their meeting. They’ve also ignored the fact that those people who are unhappy about this coming together, we’re not really expressing their unhappiness at the car park takeover, but much more about the anti-social behaviour they have experienced involving modified car drivers – generally known as boy racers and more recently, girl racers.

I would also of been very interested to see how many of these vehicles were sporting the illegal number plates so many of these car drivers seem to treasure – or is that yet another illegal act they consider to be okay?

If these car enthusiasts really want to improve their reputation with the general population and not continue to be seen as anti-social yobs, then I suggest they clean up their act and encourage the bad eggs amongst their ranks to stop wheel spinning and speeding around our local streets and car parks at any opportunity they get.

If there are any modified car drivers reading this and muttering about the many being condemned by the behaviour of the few – tough. If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and paddles about in water, then it’s probably a duck!

P.S. – While you’re at it, see if you can get our local Royal Mail van drivers to act more responsibly when driving around our local streets