Back Online!

Please accept my VERY sincere apologies for failing to put any new material on my BLOG. But I must especially apologise to those who have asked me questions and have no replies.
It is very easy to give excuses, but it is pretty poor of me to fall at the first hurdle so soon after the launch.
But I will give you the four reasons.
Firstly, I hit a technical hitch on the first weekend I tried to update. Recently I hit a quite different problem when I wrote a reply on the Shrewsbury Traffic and I was refused permission to proceed and the reply disappeared from the screen!!
Secondly, the person helping me left the Department for another job!
Thirdly, I genuinely had no time to sit down and get on. I had some very urgent and serious cases to deal with in the Ward. I had to 'down tools' to help these unfortunate families - still on going.
Fourthly, with all the above frankly I lost motivation.
NOW I am back and will pray that I can motivate myself with Chris's help and give you value for money. I will include answers to 'anonymous'.
EILEEN
PLEASE NOTE, I just cannot answer and nor do I have the time to research matters out side Shrewsbury.

POST OFFICE CLOSURES??
DITHERINGTON POST OFFICE at the bottom of Mount Pleasant!!!!
Did you know this is one of the threatened Post Offices????? for closure ????
The others are:- Acton Burnell Post Office; Cressage Sub Post Office; Greenfields Post Office and Montford Bridge.
IF YOU HAVE NOT YET SIGNED A PETITION TO KEEP THEM OPEN particularly the Ditherington one PLEASE, PLEASE find one and sign. There is one in the Post Office AND in the STEAMWAGON PUB
BETTER STILL WRITE A LETTER to:-
Mark Partington, Network Developmental Manager, c/o National Consultation Team, Freepost Consultation Team. OR Email them to consultation@postoffice.co.uk OR Telephone 08457 223344.
LETTERS speak louder than anything. They show people have taken the trouble to put pen to paper and feel strongly about it. IS ANYONE GOING TO DEMONSTRATE OUTSIDE??
NOTE you only have until MAY 31st
Please return Petition Forms to the MPs Office by that date. Off Harlescott Lane Unit 1 Benbow Business Park.
An anonymous questioner asked me "What I thought about the Derek Conway situation"?
Answer ' In principle I agree he should pay back the money he wrongly paid to his family. Frankly, he should not have to be asked or forced to pay it back to the Tax Payer. His conscience (if he has one) should dictate his actions!
Forcing him is probably impossible to make him pay it all back. Unless the Police will prosecute OR there are rules which oblige him to do so.
I am appalled that the Speaker of the House should be trying to stop through the Court the Freedom of Information Act applying to the Prime Minister himself and others.
Misappropriation of funds by anyone should be divulged and 'punished'.

Another Question "Have I any power over the Shrewsbury traffic etc"
The answer is not really. I am a County Councillor and a Borough Councillor but in this matter I am not on the Highways Committee. But I can and do give my opinion and yours about such matters to Officers and the Portfolio Holder.
I have supported various re routing of traffic BUT not up Town Walls.
I believe that at the bottom of Claremont Bank there should be a Yellow Box not traffic lights as there was before so that the traffic flows.
I have always supported The building of The North West Relief Road. Not just for the benefit of South Shrewsbury but for the benefit of North Shrewsbury and Huffley Lane etc. Where traffic tries to take short cuts to avoid Smithfield Road.
I opposed Charging as expensive, penalising people like me who live in rural areas or have to use cars for work and would have been wrongly penalised. It would have devastated Town Trade and Tourism.
Many Traffic lights could go as they are trying successfully in parts of Holland.
Signing to direct Heavy Traffic in particular is poor, very poor in and around the Harlecott Ward. Much more traffic could be directed away from the Industrial Parks onto the Byepass and along Brixton Way etc.
Another Question "Concerned about Teachers and children being allowed to wear as much as they like. Also the idea that no school uniform should be allowed"
My Answer:- The whole idea of school uniform was so that no child whose parents could not afford stylish clothes should not feel or be seen to be different/disadvantaged ,clean etc. This you could not insist if it was 'mufti'. Also frilly skirts are not suitable for games and PT. How do you change to suitable clothes from fashion clothes?
So I agree with the questioner's concern.
I would add also that very short skirts (should be just above the knees) should not be tolerated at any school age, whatever the fashion. Equally if children are to be expected to have a natural respect for Teachers the I'm afraid I do NOT agree with Christian Names when addressing them. I also believe a tie for male teachers and not too fashionable dress for females is more appropriate.
Make-up for teachers should not be over done. For pupils it is good for the older ones to learn about such matters, but not to spend hours in front of mirrors making up. They become grown up before they leave school!. BUT let us be reasonable. If 'children are going to be made to continue school to 18 ten reasonable make up should be allowed. The Twelve and under should not be allowed make-up?

FINALLY in this Update (MORE I PROMISE NEXT WEEKEND!)
Two items.
SCHOOL AMALGAMATIONS
I am in favour of the Infant Schools and Junior Schools amalgamating in our area into one Primary School (Mount Pleasant and Grange). Might even find a new name?
I believe it would be in the best interest of the children as their work needs to be as continuous as possible.
For the Head Teachers it is very stressful. One thing I am insisting on. Is that the Selection of the new Head Teacher is as open as possible so that the new Head will be the best and most experienced to start the ball rolling and run the new PRIMARY School.
The Governing bodies are now I believe fully supporting this.
ESTATE PARKING
A Tour of the Estate with an Officer has now been done by Vernon Bushell and myself.
We have a looked at all the options.
We put the priorities and saw why.
Please note all the parking on the Estate needs modifying and improving BUT we must recognise cost and prioritise. (NOT EASY!!)
After our tour we decided (HOPEFULLY) that there will be a rolling programme for the next years like the Severnside improvement plan. At least AT LAST it looks as if some money is in Budget and start will be made this year.
Priority 1 DUTTON GREEN and parts of Worcester Road as money will allow.
Next we wanted LANGFORD GREEN as money will allow.
In the frame for next round are Aynesworth and Prestbury with others like Middlegate and Morris Close. Under Unitary we can work on Lancaster Road to get cars off the Cycle Track and small green areas.
NEXT UPDATES:-
WASTE MANAGEMENT and the INCINERATOR,
UPDATE ON THE NEW PLAY AREA AT KYNNASTON ROAD AND THE LATEST NEWS ON THE BMX TRACK AT CORBET CLOSE.
INFORMATION ON ORGANISATIONS
Formation of the Youth Residents Group, The Roads Group and A Ward Residents Group ( Underdale and Monkmoor have a joint Committee and they are getting £40,000 from The County Council to improve their area!!) WHY NOT HARLESCOTT?? (See page 23 in the May 22 Edition)
In the mean time write or contact our Harlescott News correspondent:-
Chris Whittall, 13 York Road. or phone 462581. Email roy.whittall@btinternet.com If you have any news or events you wish the Readers of the Chronicle to know about.

REPLACEMENT SENIOR PLAY EQUIPMENT,KYNASTON ROAD REC:

This wooden equipment was put up by local Residents after raising a lot of money and asking other funders to help.
Unfortunately it is now 'past its sale by date!'

£60,000 has now been put in the Borough Budget. GREAT!.

Consultation with teenagers has now taken place. The youngsters had a wide choice of equipment from pictures on display.

I had stipulated that the equipment MUST BE fun; challenging and as exciting as possible.

Their choice has now gone out to Tender. When in the Supplier will be chosen from those who put in a Bid.

The plan is to have it up by the Summer Holidays.

I will see if pictures of the equipment can be put on this BLOG.

Youth Residents Group

I'd really like to form a Youth Residents group for Harlescott!

These are some of my ideas - which can be changed by those who come to the first meeting!
After the first meeting the Group will be run by the Young people themselves.
They can decide what they want to do and how to run it etc.
It will be the voice of the young people of the Ward.
Suggestion - the Age group 14 to 21?
I have a few interested young people, their ideas include :- making a video of the Ward; Discos; Graffiti Workshops; football and basketball competitions. What ideas do you have?
The First Meeting is provisionally planned for APRIL/MAY.
Venue? Where would you like to meet? What time and Day??
Watch this BLOG for Date and time.
If you'd like to get involved and come to the first ever youth residents group, email me with your details eileen.sandford@shrewsbury.gov.uk
Please give me your email, name and address (do not forget post code)
It would help to give your age when replying.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Harlescott Roads Group

I intend to form a 'Roads Group' (not a committee!) in the near future.
I believe this will strengthen my power when I am negotiating for improvements or alterations to the ward's roads.
Also I will be able to consult you when there are planning improvements etc.
I plan to include the following roads to be represented:-

• Mount Pleasant (2 reps)
• Lancaster Road
• Westbury Road & Boscobel Drive
• Morville Road
• York Road (possibly 2 reps)
• Kynaston Road
• Harlescott Lane (2 reps. to include Harlescott Cresc: and Crossing.
• Battlefield Industrial Park
• Worcester Road
• Bainbridge Green
• Schools rep

The idea is to look after and observe Safety zones, parking, traffic calming measure and get your thoughts and help for the ward.

We would need 12- 14 reps for all the roads.
Meetings to be held when required. Suggest about 2 a year plus the preliminary.
We could invite a Highways Officer/Police or as we think might be helpful.
Venue to be determined, any ideas?

If you're interested in representing a road please let me know & if you have any ideas, I'm listening!

I'm Online!

Welcome to my new venture!
I haven’t any idea where to start but I am having help with the technology and so hopefully, I’ll make progress!

The idea is to attempt to communicate with all my residents who use the world wide web.
This will be your chance to ‘talk’ to me and get your questions answered, (if I don’t know the answer, I will find out), and your chance to air your opinions on national, local or any other subject you are interested in.

I will be posting entries with news and views on national and local issues, I want to know what you think about everything going on today.
If you don’t know who I am, please read the links on this page to ‘About Me’.

So, what do you think? Please leave a comment below.

Eileen