Can't see it myself....

The two week diversion for the aforementioned gas works will be:

The alternative route for traffic is via the B5088 Oxford Road and A565 to Congleton then north on the A34 to rejoin the A537 at Monks Heath, or vice versa.
Local traffic under 7.5 tonnes can avoid the works within the town. Through traffic and heavy goods vehicles are advised to avoid the A537 route east or west through Macclesfield and use an alternative route, if possible.

It's a long diversion. I can't see it myself. I can't help but think that those with local knowledge or SatNav may get re-routed via Ivy Lane and Ivy Road, where the weight limit is in place. I think I'm going to have to speak to the police to see if we can get some high visibility presence to avoid this.

** UPDATE **: Highways have confirmed that the No. 19 bus will be diverted via Oxford Road, Ivy Lane and Ivy Road.

Roadworks

I know that everyone is still being bothered by Gas works - especially as the ones on Chiltern Ave seem to like blocking the entire road when they're not supposed to - but I'm afraid I've got advance warning of some more.

United Utilities need to carry out some repairs to the sewers on Chester Road, and as a consequence the road will be closed from 01/06/2010 to 14/06/2010.

This is a pain in the backside for our ward, not only because it's a bit difficult for us to get anywhere, but also because a lot of people will be trying to use Ivy Lane/Ivy Road as a diversion.

The interesting thing is that these roads have a 7.5T weight limit, and this is something that the residents are very keen to keep enforced. If this route is to be the primary diversion (which I can only assume it must be, along with Victoria Road?) - then what's going to happen to the HGV's?

I've written to the highways engineers requesting more information. I'll let you know what I hear.

Happy new year....

What does the Council have in common with China?

We both like to have run to our own calendar and have out new year at seemingly inexplicable times.

Yesterday saw the start of a new year for the council (it's the year of the greasy pole climber again, apparently). This manifests itself as a full council meeting which starts at Tatton Park, in adjourned and then is finished at Congleton Town Hall the next day.

Sounds odd, but it makes a bit more sense in practice. The first part of the meeting is to elect a new mayor and is called the "Mayor Making". The election is already a done deal - the council voted last meeting to decide who the mayor should be, but the decision is ratified again at this meeting. Once elected, the new mayor is installed in due pomp and circumstance, and everybody who's anyone gets a chance to say something nice about them. The meeting is then adjourned, and everybody gets a nice buffet lunch at the taxpayer's expense. We then all go home.

The next day we arrive at Congleton Town Hall, get a nice buffet lunch at the taxpayer's expense (Yes, again. I'll come to this part in a minute....) and we hold the rest of the meeting. This is mostly procedural items to appoint a new leader, deputy leader, cabinet and chairman of committees and there isn't much to discuss.

Now, the big news is that two cabinet members have been removed (Cllrs Findlow and Silvester) in favour of two new faces (Cllrs Bailey and Gaddum). The eagle eyed among you will note that this is bringing two women into the cabinet to bring the total number of women to.....two. Although this change gets announced at the full council meeting it is for information only and we cannot debate or vote on the changes, it's completely within the gift of the leader.

I'd just like to point out that I'm not for a moment suggesting the change had been solely to bring balance into the cabinet at all. I don't know Rachel Bailey that well, but most people from Macclesfield will know Hilda Gaddum and will know that she doesn't do anything by half measures and she is there on merit. It is slightly odd that she's been given Children's Services as a portfolio when she doesn't have any experience in this area - but of anyone Hilda will be able to get her teeth into it. She's also tenacious enough to ensure that officers can't slip anything past her. I wish her and Rachel the best of luck.

Just to pop back to the lunches....nice as they were, I'm at a loss to explain why the taxpayer has to pay for lunch for two days running - especially when you consider that the meeting on the 2nd day lasted for less than half an hour. Some of the meetings go on for an age, and perhaps then it's more understandable, but it doesn't seem right when we're out of the building within 30 minutes.

CCTV

Following on previous budget post, there's another interesting capital project in the works.

The council will be spending £815,000 next year to scrap the existing CCTV control rooms in Crewe and Congleton (Sandbach, actually, but serving the old borough) into Macclesfield.

I've spent time in the CCTV room in Macclesfield and was impressed by what I saw. The CCTV operators know what's going on. They know the virtual "patch". They know where to look, who to look for, and who to contact if there's a problem.

Whilst I guess there's a cost saving argument as we won't need as many staff on the go when it's all being controlled from one place, I can't help think there will be a noticeable drop in the quality of service that's delivered. And even if there is a cost saving, it'll take us 10 years to recoup what we're spending.

Common sense tells me that these operators are never going to be able to deliver the same kind of service as when they were dealing with one town only. A relationship is built between the local shop security chaps, bouncers, coppers, and CCTV operator.

This just won't be sustainable if they're dealing with a much larger area.

Courageous

You can always count on Sir Nick to say something courageous or unfortunate.

http://www.macclesfield-express.co.uk/news/s/1193028_wintertons_fury_at_mp_first_class_travel_ban

In this case it's also inaccurate as well when it comes to Councillors traveling first class.

The Council constitution states:

All Rail Travel to be booked centrally through the travel bookings system
wherever possible and second class travel to be used, unless in exceptional
circumstances where a good business case can be made for first class. Where
applicable senior rail cards to be used to reduce cost.

Personally, I've never claimed travel expenses from the Council directly be it payments for mileage or for train travel. The only time the taxpayer has funded my travel was through Connexions, when they sent me down to London to meet Prince Phillip. I traveled standard class and walked the half hour across London.

However if I'm honest I do try and travel first for business and pleasure, always by booking in advance and getting the cheapo tickets. It's nice - free paper, drinks, meal and then there was the time that I bumping into Abigail Clancy. We shared a taxi from the station (true story).

The point really is that we should be asking our public servants, be it local or national, elected or officers, to be more careful about how they book tickets. I don't care if it's first class or not, I'd rather they were all booking in advance to get the good deals.

IT Systems for Children

I mentioned a day or two ago about the ContactPoint system which we are spending £280k on in the next two years.

I wouldn't want you to think that this is the only IT spend in the Children's and Families budget - so I'll tell you what else there is.

Ignoring structural projects for schools, children's centres, etc, these are some of the systems also in the Child protection/social care area just for next year:

Integrated Children's Systems (ICS) - £656,000
Contact Point (already mentioned) - £231,000
Electronic Social Care Records - £250,000
PCT Access to Child protection data - £25,000

A grand total of just under £1.2 million.

As anyone who works in IT will know, a system won't provide you with a solution. It's only as good as the management structures/process/procedure around it. The drivers for these projects aren't coming internally, they're coming from central government. The overload of technology is an attempt to circumvent the need for good management, and it won't work.

As an authority, we should be pushing back against it more. But we're not - we just tend to go with the flow. It will cost us in £'s no doubt, I only hope it doesn't cost us in the quality of social care as well.

Budget Madness

Nothing brings home how futile life can be as a Councillor as the round of meetings that occur at budget time.

We haven't got to the big one yet, which is the full Council meeting, for the moment we have a round of scrutiny committees who have been asked to look at sections of the budget. The sections were given to us at very short notice and don't look anything like a budget you'd expect to get in the private sector, so it's all a bit tricky.

Theoretically at the full council meeting any Councillor can propose a change to the budget, to add/remove/increase/reduce something. Except there's no chance of this happening, because the ruling majority is too large (and some would argue that a good number of Councillors consider the few thousand bonus they get as Chairman of committees more important than listening to an argument about whether we should really be cutting Connexions funding for the 3rd year running. About £200k lost this year.)

Of course what they'll actually say is that they don't think changes should be considered at Council when the thing has been adequately scrutinized in advance. Which to a great extent is true.

Or is it?

Firstly, from an day to day expenditure point of view, the information we have is minimal. I have no idea what the Children's and Families stationary budget for the year is, so I'd have no chance of reducing the number of pencils they all take home. (Not that I should really care about looking into things at this resolution). Consider all those aspects unscrutinized.

The information we have about the capital spend is much better, but it still seems that nothing can be done about each item.

For example, we are down to spend £280,000 next year on the next stages on ContactPoint. This is a computer database which will hold details of every Child in Britain. It's intention is to protect Children from harm, but why this couldn't be better achieved by having a database of Children at risk rather than collecting arbitrary information about every boy and girl I don't know.

More criticism here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2009/sep/15/contactpoint-child-databases

Oddly, Cheshire East has become a pilot for this scheme and that is why the money will be spent. I say oddly, because the Conservative oppose ContactPoint and will be scrapping the scheme should they win the election next year. Therefore it's a mystery to me why the Conservative controlled Council has got involved in it.

So why spend this money if the plug may be pulled next year? Rather than spending money on technology and administration that won't actually help anybody, why don't we give it to an organisation that actually does improve outcomes for Children. Of course I'm actually talking about the aforementioned Connexions again.

I couldn't get an answer out of anyone for that. All I was told when I suggested we didn't spend anymore was that we had to because it's a mandatory scheme. (Except it seems that it's not).

So given my experience, I don't consider the budget has been scrutinised in advance, and that's a very worrying thought.

Barnaby - save the date(s).

As the observant of you will already know, plans are afoot to resurrect the tradition of the Barnaby Festival in Macclesfield. Thank those crazy kids at the loop, lord knows where we'd be without them.

It will be held on 18th to 20th June this year. Put the date in your diaries, it's not one that you'll want to miss. The weekend will showcase local arts, and the highlight will be a parade through town on the theme of "Made in Macclesfield".

To whet your appetites, the following was read at the launch event today (Friday 12th).

Barnaby bright, Barnaby bright,
Light all day and light all night.

Barnaby laugh, Barnaby play,
Dance all night and dance all day.

Barnaby summer, Barnaby sing,
Barnaby bebop, Barnaby swing.

Barnaby old, Barnaby young,
Barnaby family, Barnaby fun.

Barnaby boy, Barnaby girl,
Barnaby knit, Barnaby purl.

Barnaby market, Barnaby shops,
Barnaby barley, Barnaby hops.

Barnaby sup, Barnaby eat,
Barnaby mingle, Barnaby meet.

Barnaby magic, Barnaby Macc,
Barnaby's ours. Barnaby's back.

Macc Express to move again?

It seems that Macc Express are to move again from their current location in the centre of Manchester (although most of them seem to spend 90% of their time writing copy up in Macclesfield's costa coffee) - to who knows where:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/8508124.stm

How are the Council supposed to be held to account if the people that do that spend all their time packing and unpacking crates?

Speechless

Just about to leave for the council meeting (assuming the gas men decide to let me out of my drive), but I'll leave you with some food for thought.

The chap who killed Maxonian Neil McDonald has been sentenced to a measly five years.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1245860/John-Cunningham-Drunk-thug-killed-innocent-father-punch-jailed-years--two.html

I accept the decision to prosecute for manslaughter, although many will argue that he intentionally used violence and therefore was aware of the potential consequences.

But what really took me back was Cunningham's history.

Cunningham had convictions for six other violent offences from street robberies as a youth, to affray, possession of a firearm and making threats to kill in 2000 for which he got seven years.

In 2008 he was given 17months in jail after he was convicted of assaulting his ex-girlfriend by dragging her and punching her to the floor.

This chap isn't going to be reformed by another sentence. It's clear he'll offend again.

Lock him up for life.