June 2008

The Archives

• About me, Being Labour, Bickerstaffe Thoughts

  I forgot to say – A 600% increase in the Labour vote

  06.29.08 | Permalink | 1 Comment

  I got my NEC voting papers in yesterday.  It was really nice at the back of the publication to see a few examples of Labour winning, and winning well, at local level.  The examples included Oxford, which I know all about from Antonia’s blog and followed with interest, and other ones I was less familiar with [...]

• Being Labour, The world beyond West Lancashire

  ‘Community confusions’ – intelligent bloggery

  06.27.08 | Permalink | Comment?

  I feel the not-so-sudden urge to give this blog ‘Community Confusions’ a little plug.  It’s by Andy Gregg, boss at the London Advice Services Alliance.  I met Andy a few months ago and he is very clever and committed.  He also bought me a beer, or it might have been two.
   Much of the argument he puts [...]

• Bickerstaffe Thoughts, Breaking News

  Sandbagging old ladies

  06.27.08 | Permalink | Comment?

  For the second time in six months, the heavy rains in Bickerstaffe last night saw me out and about trying to unblock highways drains, diverting road run off into them with strategically placed bricks, and helping to sandbag old ladies, in the nicest possible way.
   As far as I know at the moment, no-one actually got [...]

• Being Labour

  Is this really acceptable?

  06.22.08 | Permalink | Comment?

  By mistake, I happened upon this page on the West Lancashire District Council website the other day.  It’s concerned with ‘naming and shaming’ people it refers to as ‘litter louts’, and appears to be written in accordance with the official  guide to cheap and nasty journalism.
  It struck me as strange that I should have been ‘invited’ in to [...]

• Being Labour, Leisure and culture

  A slightly thrilling read

  06.21.08 | Permalink | Comment?

   The Audit and Inspection plan for West Lancs District Council was published yesterday.  Not exactly thrilling bedtime reading, I accept, but the following statement from the Audit Commission thrilled me a litlte tiny bit:
  “In December 2004 the Council entered into a formal partnership agreement with Serco Limited for the management of its leisure facilities until [...]

• Bickerstaffe Thoughts

  94 penalties later

  06.20.08 | Permalink | Comment?

  My main claim to fame today is that I’m probably the only Labour councillor in Britain to have faced 94 football penalities today, and saved about 60 of them.  The good news is I can still type.  The less good news is my knee hurts more than it did this morning.
  The marvellous  head at the marvellous Bickerstaffe [...]

• Being Labour, Leisure and culture

  A gagging order?

  06.19.08 | Permalink | Comment?

  I finally got the tables for the Serco 2008-09 price increases today.  It’s taken a while to extract them.  They come with the cordial warning:
  “This information is commercially sensitive and should not be reproduced in this format or the detailed content reported in full.”
  Now these tables are in much the same format as I’ve had [...]

• Being Labour, Cotterill on the Council, Leisure and culture

  Summing up the Tory approach in West Lancashire

  06.18.08 | Permalink | 1 Comment

  The phrase ‘people not profit’ is a bit hackneyed nowadays, and is often used without much in the way of  thought process.  Yet it’s the reverse  – ‘profit not people’ which comes to mind as the most appropriate way to encapsulate the West Lancs District ruling Tories’ approach to its ‘management’ of leisure services – by ‘management’ [...]

• Bickerstaffe Thoughts, Breaking News, Cotterill on the Council

  It’s official – Bickerstaffe is ‘inaccessible’

  06.16.08 | Permalink | Comment?

  The mch promised, much delayed West Lancashire Integrated Transport Review is finally available here.
   It won’t come as any suprise to Bickerstaffers, but it’s useful to have it official that, along with Great Altcar and Holmeswood, Bickerstaffe is the most poorly served area in West Lancashire for public transport.  Sadly, the report notes this but provides [...]

• Uncategorized

  Serco sunbed promotion and an ‘untruth’

  06.16.08 | Permalink | Comment?

  On 23 May I received this email message from the Head of Leisure of Services at West Lancashire District Council:, in response to my query on the Council and its ‘partners’ promotion of sunbeds:
  “I have been advised that the [West Lancashire Leisure] Trust have no special price offers planned for the sunbeds for this summer.”
  On [...]

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