Where have I been the last 2 weeks?

Yes the blog has slipped a little compared to it's usual coverage - yes I've covered the brook and a few other bits but missed lots in last two weeks. Below is a brief summary of some of the meetings, case work and activities from the last 2 weeks - more coming later today if all goes well!

Photo: Glorious colours in Standish/Randwick woods - don't miss seeing before wind blows leaves off!

Scrutiny meeting - 4 and a half hours - 6pm to 10.30pm - I could hardly string a sentence together by the end - especially after a busy day - that was nearly 2 weeks ago now and I can also not remember all the discussions! One item was peak oil and I'll save that for a separate post. The minutes and webcast will also be on the Council website. Clearly to be effective we need to look at the way this meeting is held - I think all are keen to see changes - part of the problem is that many of us on that committee are new and consequently are asking questions that we should perhaps know the answer to or is not in the remit of that committee - plus some work could be done before the meeting - one question I asked was about the key targets being chosen by the Council - now that is something I could have perhaps explored before the meeting - plus some members do not appear to have read their papers before the meeting - very frustrating!

Photo: Cafe discussion - James Beecher and Janet Bailey

Cafe Discussion - 'How can we achieve real change?' was the title of the discussion - I always find it difficult to drag myself from the house on a Friday night but everytime I go to these discussions they are different and pretty well every time they have been very interesting. See write up here.

Green Councillors and Cabinet - having arranged a meeting at Ebley Mill childcare arrangements fell through for one councillor so we ended up around a table at the Springhill co-housing (see more re SUDS at co-housing here and the project here). This meeting is a chance to share news and project between District councillors and look at approached to broader issues. One issue was the policies re floods - see my blog for 31st Oct 2007 - see also the webcast of the Cabinet meeting that we all went along to after this meeting.

Cainscross Parish Council meeting - I haven't managed to get to so many of these recently - not my ward but it is a neighbouring Parish with a chunk of the Ruscombe Brook in it - the two main topics of interest were
- the Cashes Green Hospital site (see blog for 25th Oct) - a presentation was given by Martin Large and the Parish agreed to write to the Minister in support of the Community Land Trust - more of that in a later blog entry.
- the Lake at the Lawns site - a presentation was given along with a comprehensive draft report on plans for management of the site - I have a paper copy but will try and get an electronic version for anyone interested.

Policy Panel on renewable energy - these are put on to help improve councillors knowledge and sometimes help develop policy - I nearly missed this one as I thought I knew much of it but infact it was excellent and a great overview of situation and approach. It was deeply disappointing that only 8 councillors were present - and 3 of those were Greens - especially disappointing as only a couple of Planning Committee members were present. The meeting looked at the background legislation and covered the basics in a simple way re new developments - like the need to reduce overall consumption, everything facing South if possible, concentrating on space and water heating first - Solar Thermal likely to be first choice but centralised gas chp or woodfuel boilers being an excellent way forward - only rarely will pv/wind/hydro be best options for hitting the Councils 10% of renewables target - of course Greens would like to see all homes Carbon neutral but in the light of Government rulings this 10% is at least a step forward - but still no where near far enough!

Councillors Training needs - I am on a small committee looking at members training needs - it only meets 3 times a year and we haven't met for a long while - in fact I was so keen to get to it I turned up 24 hours early - ah well I did manage to get to it on the next day - and one issue we looked at was the low attendance of the monthly Policy Panels - I've been to all the last 5 or so and attendance has dropped to around 10 - this is a great shame when the quality of presentations is usually excellent - at this training needs meeting we explored ways to encourage councillors to attend and also ways that the number of meetings can be reduced - often in a week I will have 4 evenings of meetings. It was also a chance to look at how best to induct new councillors - various ideas were put forward...

Gloucestershire Green party meeting - in Gloucester - the 4 Gloucestershire Green parties meet 3 times a year to share stuff - of course we meet at other times but this is our chance to develop policies across the county - the big topic this time was waste and we were fortunate to have a Green party member who works in the industry - more of that in a future blog.

Leaders meeting - this is a meeting the Monday before Full Council - and my last as the Coordinator of the 5-strong Green party District Council group - 18 months has been good in the role but my work commitments mean I have to step aside a little and this seems a good place - Sarah Lunnon will take my place from tomorrow - I hugely welcome her radical and thoughtful approach to issues - it was always hoped she would take over this role but a baby meant she has had to postpone it until now. Good luck to her - having said that Greens do leadership differently to other parties - as the party is now voting on leadership I'll no doubt do a blog on that.

Shut Oldbury - following the successful public meeting various people left names saying they were interested in doing more. I went to a meeting to explore what might be possible - one woman is now looking at whether she will coordinate a renewed campaign to close this nuclear dinosaur - meanwhile John Large, the nuclear physicist, has now put his powerpoint presentation of his talk onto his website showing the potential dangers of Oldbury.

Case work - various bits and pieces including...
- another nearly homeless person contacted me - amazingly there are 140 single people on the register waiting for homes in the District and barely one a month is found a home - I can't help re a home but I can ensure nothing has been missed - very very hard indeed for the people involved and it makes me angry every time I hear stories like this - our government has failed us badly re homes - and most so-called affordable homes are not affordable at all - we urgently need more Council homes and suitable private-rented.
- water leak in Upper Kites Nest Road - traffic on the lane has damaged this pipe in the past and did so again last week - the drainage officer Bob Nightingale attended the call when the water company didn't respond initially - the householder sings his praises now! Anyway the problem has been sorted but we now would like the water company to move the tap to stop the problem occurring again. We'll see what happens with that.
- problems re a building site in the ward - the Parish Council note that SDC Planning have now confirmed that their 'enforcement officers' were investigating. I have also heard from Highways regarding the possible damage to the road caused by the work, and they are monitoring the situation.
- several calls re Hunts Grove - see Green party statement and various letters by using search facility on our website

Photo: Gatcombe event - never been before and found a few bits of interest in the enormous marquees of endless craft stalls - plus glass blowing, ferret racing, puppets and more - but best was the food stalls!

Other news - the other news is that I've started a few hours as a Community Mental Health Worker - as a former social worker it is great to be back in a similar role. Plus last Thursday and tomorrow I'm doing 4 presentations to MSc students at Cardiff University - did a couple last year on the brook and Shared Spaces (see 2nd Nov blog) - this time also looking at the British political system, a councillors perspective on how councils work and various local green projects (that's green with a small 'g') - good fun and so far good feedback - but lots of work re putting presentations together - I forget how much time that takes!