This is basically a blog page, a few of my thoughts and a snapshot of what I am doing, feel free to comment on it :0)
4th July 2010 Well I have not had chance to up date this recently so I will attempt to do it all at once. I have been involved with many community groups including; Voice Your Choice, Incredible Edible Eastfield, Eastfield 60th Birthday organising group, Eastfield Environment Action Group and Eastfield Problem Solving group assisting as a Ward Councillor. Assisting community/resident groups I feel is one of the most important jobs a Councillor does, its not just a question of turning up to meetings though as most of the work goes on behind the scenes. A week ago along with my fellow Ward Councillors we prevented Eastfield loosing a play area, SBC had it down for closure but forgot to consult anyone. |
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| 19th January 2010 Attended Cabinet today, on the agenda was Middle Deepdale, still no mention of drainage or how the new houses are going to be planned out and still they are sticking to the planned outline planning application in May, mind you it could all come to nothing depending on what they find under the ground at the High Eastfield farm side of the development and before that they have to agree a price to pay off the farmer to surrender his tenancy.
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12th January 2010 Went up to Whitby this evening to the Northern Area Committee meeting. It was a good meeting and the committee got fully behind the whole Participatory Budgeting idea. They put Half of their budget into the scheme so should make a big difference up there.
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| 4th January 2010 Attended the first full Council meeting of the Borough Council today in 2010, it was not really a contentious meeting and was pretty straight forward, well I say that, its funny really how the two remaining Labour Councillors refuse to move with the times, they still refuse to put the needs of Scarborough before the needs of their failing Party. Cllr “king of the free lunch” Broadbent did what is now a set piece rant written by his masters at Labour Regional HQ, it never seems to make sense and becomes more erratic at each meeting, he never said anything when he was in highly paid positions on the County Council... but there again he lost his seat so now has nothing to loose... well not until 2011!
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| 11th December 2009 Waited on at the Parish Council Party for our older residents, also had a dinner and was well stuffed!! See http://www.cllrbsimpson.co.uk/parish-corner.php
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| 27th November 2009 Had a great evening at the first Eastfield Community Pride Awards, well done to all who were nominated See http://www.cllrbsimpson.co.uk/community-news.php for full write up. J
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| 18th November 2009 Parish Council finance committee this morning, made recommendations on next years budget and Council Tax precept, for the first time we are recommending that some of the Money paid by Eastfield residents to the Parish Council will be spent via Voice your Choice, residents themselves deciding on what is funded in Eastfield, no Councillors deciding, no endless committees, no excuses, what the residents vote for on the day happens end of story! In the afternoon went to Corporate Strategy O&S meeting at the Town Hall, promoted the whole Voice your Choice idea, I want allot more people to have allot more say on how their Council Tax money is spent (official name for voice your choice is participatory budgeting).... no I can’t say it properly either! That’s why we call it voice your choice J
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17th November 2009 Cabinet meeting today, the Iron Age seems to be holding up the Middle Deepdale housing plans up! Studies show that something might lurk beneath the ground up around High Eastfield Farm, so it will have to be investigated, it could drastically change what can be built up there or even scupper the planned development all together! The report came on pink paper (confidential) but I made sure this was changed to a public report, I also made sure and got agreement that if any changes need to be made then we in Eastfield will have to be consulted even if it means starting form the beginning again.
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12th November 2009 Crime & Disorder Reduction Partnership meeting today, my first one as Cabinet member for Neighbourhood Renewal, it went well I think, Eastfield is starting to dominate everyone’s agenda... just as it should and will carry on doing so if I have my way!
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5th & 6th November 2009
Catching up with case work, I can not report on this as it covers issues individuals have brought to me which are personal to them. Also catching up with e-mails and general admin work.
4th November 2009
Had a 9.00am meeting with the chair of Groundwork North Yorkshire at the Town Hall, this was to give me an induction as a new board director of Groundwork and to talk about how they fit into Eastfield. Then had a meeting with officers to discus changes to Whitby Tourist Information Centre which comes within my portfolio as a Cabinet member.
3rd November 2009
Corporate Financial Strategy Group at the Town hall this morning can’t really say anything about it on here as it was all confidential papers. Sorry about this but I don’t want to get myself in trouble!
2nd November 2009
12.00 noon a briefing at the Town Hall by Borough Council officers on the Scarborough Spa refurbishment, we were told all the various aspects of the refurb, what we can afford with the funding we already have and what we can get if we are successful in getting extra funding, all in all I think it can only be a good thing for the town, the spa and surrounding area needs a re work, as does the futurist, in my view we will have to take the bull by the horns down there, last thing we want is another Opera House!
29th October 2009
Went over to County Hall Northallerton this morning for a Safe & Sustainable Overview & Scrutiny committee meeting (1 & a half hours travelling time in the car) today the focus was on the committees new role in scrutinising the crime & disorder partnerships together with the police, we agreed that any local problems would be dealt with by the district Council O&S committees and more strategic matters would be dealt with by us. Many questions were asked by members to the Police Authority representative about how it will all work, Participatory Budgeting was also discussed and I will be on a task group along with some Eastfield residents who were involved with setting it up, this starts in December. The meeting lasted just over two hours, left my house at 8.30am and got back around 3.30pm
28th October 2009
Attended a meeting of the problem solving group for Eastfield at 2.00pm up at the youth hub at GPCSC, people on the group are Residents, Neighbourhood Partnership, Police, Youth service, Borough Council, Eastfield Parish Council, and Eastfield Borough Councillors. We discussed the improved youth service in Eastfield now that more funding has been identified along with money which came out of the Voice your choice event, other things discussed were the new play areas and a proposed junior neighbourhood watch scheme (to be given a cooler name)
8th October 2009
I went to the SBC Southern Area Committee meeting this evening, The main function of the committee is to grant funding to community groups in the area which is made up of the Council wards of Eastfield, Cayton, Muston and Filey. All the Council members of these wards are eligible to attend, Cllr’s O’Flynn and Evens from Eastfield were there too. Well Eastfield did well, with most of tonights applications coming from here, Eastfield Neighbourhood Partnership got the money it needed to start the resident empowerment project (something close to my heart) Eastfield Bowling Club also got a grant. A project group for art also got a grant to run a project up at St Georges RC School. It was a good meeting, started at 7.00pm and finished at 9.00pm... and I was home before 9.30pm.. for once! :0) If you have or want to start a community group and need funding for a project let me know and I will help you and see if you would be eligible for a grant.
