Welcome to my blog.
I was elected as Councillor for Macclesfield West in May 2008. I live in the centre of the ward with my Wife and Westie, and when I'm not a Councillor I'm a Scout Leader and I run a small consultancy business.
I'm equally at home cycling around the town as I am walking the dog up Shutlingsloe – Macclesfield is one of the few places that can provide this town and country balance.
This blog is intended to give the residents of Macclesfield West an insight into the work that I am doing on their behalf. This could be better services and facilities for children and young people, or perhaps trying to achieve a better plan for the Macclesfield Town Centre redevelopment. At all times I'm keen on reducing costs and keeping council tax as low as possible.
The blog is intended to be little lighthearted at times, perhaps irreverent but never irrelevant. You're encouraged to comment on each post and have your say - it's a great way to debate the issues of the day.
10 comments:
Firstly, thanks for the comment. After ruling out previous ones as "off topic" I was expecting one to appear as I opened the can of worms on the Macc Forum.
As ever...don't be so convinced you've got a scoop with whole America thing. I am well aware of who runs the site and where they and it are based. It's not something they hide.
Re: Ethics and scruples, I've come across no evidence of this myself with the regrettable exception that some seem to be afflicted with socialist tendencies. This I pity, and I hope they find a cure for it one day.
Whilst I continue to see that they treat me and others fairly I will do the same to them. It is not right to prejudice relationships with hearsay about things that may have happened in the past.
With regards to cheshireeast.co.uk - it is of course perfectly legal to register any domain you wish. My company owns all sorts of weird and wacky domains.
But I'll wait to see what the legal chaps at the council do about it. I get the specific impression that Cheshire East (rather the East Cheshire) was picked because it's a unique brand that can be protected.
Previous comment from Anonymous deleted following receipt of a written request.
Go on tell us what was posted and by who. Since you seem to have allowed a mock Cheshire East site to be mentioned on here your censorship seems incredible.
I wopnder if he/she pointed out how false the site mentioned was and is.
Free speech is not and never has been allowed if it offends a certain Gareth.
The nearest connection it has to Macclesfield is you and about 3 other poor misinformed people.
Unproven allegations about 3rd parties are clearly against the comments policy which has been published.
I have seen no "mock" Cheshire East site? The site in question doesn't pretend to be anything other than what it is.
Lets talk about censorship if you want to....why your self censorship? Are you too scared to post under your own name?
The registration of the cheshireeast.co.uk domain name occurred some 11 months prior to the first Cheshire East Council-related application for a trademark associated with the name, and even then the application was for a specific embodiment of the name "Cheshire East Council", with the distinctive new wheat sheaf logo. There is no public record of any other application or attempt to protect the term "Cheshire East".
Since the domain registration clearly predates the existence of any entity called Cheshire East Council, or the registration of any associated trademarks, the Council wouldn't have a leg to stand on if it attempted to procure the domain name on the grounds of trademark infringement. Any arbitration panel would deem such an attempt to be an attempted reverse hijacking, regardless of who the current owner of the domain is, or for what purpose the name is being used.
I made the original comment but it is explained so much better on the following.
http://maccforum.wordpress.com/
http://spidercomment.blogspot.com/
I do not know who hosts the above blogs but they certainly know what goes on there.
As for the character G the majority of the posts are by him, and there are no new genuine punters.
By the way there was nothing wrong wigth the original post so why not put it back up and let people see what you are afraid of.
I would love to see the original blogg. If it contains a part of the information in the two sites mentioned then I for one can attest to their truth.
I had the misfortune to be taken in an believed in their authenticity, once.
Just ask yourselfs for what reason would someone want to register a site with the name of cheshireeast, other than a genuine site?
I would consider it a misuse if hosted in this country but, why would anyone in Chicago, USA want to register such a name, other than to misuse it?
You allow one, G, to state his case; a thing which he himself does not allow. I rest myu case.
This melodrama is becoming quite amusing :-)
"Authenticity"? Eh? Not sure what your definition of "authenticity" is. 95% of active participants at Macc Forum live in or near Macclesfield. The rest are ex-pats.
"Misfortune"? Sounds absolutely awful. What happened... loss of job based on dodgy advice from someone at Macc Forum? Did someone steal your dog, perhaps? No, no - maybe you were about to eat your last Rollo and, in a fit of pique after reading a comment on the Forum, it fell down the drain, never to be seen again, causing your Irritable Bowel Syndrome to flair up...
Am I close?
You're concerned that the Macc Forum is hosted on a server outside of the USA? Hmmmm... okay - do you have similar concerns about the fact that Cllr Beckford's site here at blogger / blogspot, is hosted by a company in California? No? So why the issue? Yes? what on Earth for?
Free speech has always been welcomed at Macc Forum. We certainly tolerated you for long enough, that's for sure. What was not so welcome was the multiple user accounts set up to gang up on people, the subsequent and ongoing string of attempted registrations with abusive usernames and passwords, as well as rather feeble attempts to hack certain other blogs run by Macc folk. We'll spare your better known parent the embarrassment of being indirectly connected to you and your antics.
But we know who you are, and so does your ISP :-)
Just for clarity, this site and associated services I deliver are run using Blogger and three servers in Macclesfield, London and Germany. Nice to spread it around a bit.
Two things bother me.
The first is there may be some intellectual dishonesty in accusing someone of not allowing free speech whilst simultaneously saying they shouldn't be allowed to talk about Macclesfield because they live in the states.
The other is this. The content of most arguments don't have a right and wrong, good and bad.
(There are some exceptions to this rule, like child porn or murder....and any form of totalitarian collectivism)
But there is right and wrong.
Some people create things and add value to the world. They try and build things, improve things, and be positive. This makes it a better place. This is right.
Other destroy things. They complain about everything, stop people from doing things, add no value...snipe with constant negativity. This makes the world a worse place to be. This is wrong.
Take a long hard look at yourself...which are you?
Post a Comment