Should we have higher standards for our local Councillors?

Many people break the law on a day to day basis, whether it is parking on double yellow lines, speeding or copying music.

I would like to point out that I do non of the above and have in fact never broken the law. :-)

But I was appalled to hear that a councillor blatantly flouted the law by employing illegal immigrants, I accept that there many laws that are simply deemed misdemeanours but I don’t think this is one of them.

Should the Patrick Chung the Conservative Councillor in question, be allowed to A) continue to hold a licence to run a restaurant or B) remain as a local government councillor.

See the link below for the EADT version of events.

http://www.eadt.co.uk/content/eadt/news/story.aspx?brand=EADOnline&category=News&tBrand=EADOnline&tCategory=news&itemid=IPED11%20Mar%202009%2023%3A03%3A09%3A500

St Edmundsbury Borough Council-breaks another promise

St Edmundsbury, who have pledged to help retail businesses have broken another promise by increasing market stall rents by 4.25%.

At a time when many shops and retailers are struggling its seems insane that a council with £53 million in reserve would pile even more pressure on market holders by increasing rents.

Last week a stall holder who has worked in the Town Centre packed up shop, after 25 years in Bury. Does St Edmundsbury want to kill of our market?

BURY BLOCKED

I apologies for no posts over the weekend, I had a rather nice few days away.

I hear that Bury was rather exciting over the weekend, a couple of sources have told me that Bury’s road and parking infrastructure couldn’t cope with the number of shoppers coming to the town.

Not sure if this means that I should praise local councils for there foresight and imagination, bringing people to Bury for the new shopping centre.

OR

If I should criticise them for not having enough foresight to realise that the shopping centre was going to need additional parking and a complete upgrade of the local road infrastructure.

I vaguely remembered two or three years ago, Councillor David Nettleton telling SEBC that there was going to be a massive problem with parking unless something was done before the new shopping centre was built.

I think David has been vindicated.

Massacre in Bury

I would like to publicly thank the Black and White cat that keeps leaving me dead animals outside my back door.

In the past month or so, I have had three mice and one dead bird. Although, I was not sure whether to count one of the mice because it was still just about alive when deposited.

While I would like to thank the black and white cat for his thoughtful presents, I think it is unfair that I keep receiving these “generous gifts”, maybe it is time for someone else to share your charitable donations.

The ARC, thumbs up or down?

I think that my views may have been misinterpreted by some, I am all in favour of continued development, and keeping Bury St Edmunds thriving as a market town. I just feel that the Arc is not the right development for this town, it is not in keeping with the heritage or the aesthetics of our great town.

I think it is great the people don’t have to go shopping elsewhere and I think it is great that local money will be spent locally, paying for more jobs; and higher paid jobs.

I also think it is good that the town has a FEW empty shopping units, simple free market economics will eventually drive down rent for all shops elsewhere as a result.

So all in all I think the idea, the concept of new development is great. What I don’t think is great is the structure, design or the timing. Even the world’s smartest individuals never predicted the current recession. So I can’t blame anyone for that.

The building however is an eyesore and out of place for a small market town. Many of the people that live in Bury, love the tranquil life that it offers. If they had wanted to live in a big city, with a massive commercial shopping centre they would have moved to Ipswich, Cambridge or Norwich.

So for me; it’s a thumbs down, but only because the development doesn’t fit in with the local heritage.

Dairy Milk advert

Anyone that hasn’t seen the scary kids in the eyebrow avert needs to follow this link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJshbIqmdck

The first time I saw it I nearly cried with laughter, however nothing beats the Gorrila advert.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wy52yueBX_s&feature=PlayList&p=D33B16A565BEB8A6&index=0&playnext=1

Food for thought.

As my last few posts have been rather heavy, I thought I would lighten the atmosphere.

Over the last few months, I have been eating out rather a lot: too much according to my scales. So I thought I would open up a debate on Bury’s best restaurants, broken into two categories. Firstly the best expensive restaurant, secondly the best sensible or family restaurant.

In the category of the best expensive restaurant my finalists were; Maison Bleue, The Leaping Hare and the Angel Hotel.

My favourite was the Leaping hare, a bit hard to get to and expensive but worth the drive.

In my category of the best sensible or family restaurants my finalists were: Pizza express, Canton Chinese and Café Rouge.

On this occasion I have to give the award to the Canton Chinese for great service and great Chinese food.

I invite you all to suggest your personal finalists and your personal winners.

£53 Million in reserves

sorry, i'm still thinking of how i would spend £53 million.

It may take some time.

£53 Million in reserves

After a little bit of investigation, research and prodding, I was able to extract from officials at St Edmundsbury Borough Council, that they have £53 Million pounds in reserves.

Sorry I need a second to get my breath back……£53 million pounds, well where do we start,:

I was thinking a council tax holiday for a year followed by free parking in the town centre with all local businesses being given rate relief. This would drive up local house prices, with people wanting to move to the area, encourage businesses into the town and finally attract more shoppers with the free parking. This would creating more jobs and higher paid jobs.

How would you spend £53 million in Bury?

Money down the drain

Today, I was delighted to see workmen repairing the leak to a water main on Out Westgate.

The leak which was caused by building work being carried out, has been bubbling away for about three weeks, it seems a massive waste, especially as we are all trying to save pennies at the moment.

What really annoys me is that my water bill has been increasing year on year, and I imagine that next year there will be another increase. Its always the consumer that suffers and never the companies. This year I will be watching two things closely, first my water bill and secondly the profits from Anglian Water.

Bury St Edmunds the Ghost Town,

While walking through Bury town centre the day before yesterday, I was shocked to see so many shops closing down or moving premises.

This ghost town phenomenon is not just a local problem, I know it is going on elsewhere but it is exacerbated in Bury because the new shopping mall.

Woolies-closed

Officers club – closing

JJB – closing (although it has been newly acquired)

Next –moving

Waterstones-moving

Topshop-moving

Monsoon-moving

Vodafone-moving

I have also been looking at the online map for the “arc” and it seems that the majority of the new space opening there are empty.

http://www.arc-burystedmunds.com/

It depresses me to see Bury migrating away from the Historic town centre, but very few of these corporations care about local communities. I wish that the damn thing had never been built.

Local democracy takes a kicking.

If you have read the East Anglian today or the Bury Free Press last week you will have seen two stories that spell trouble for Bury St Edmunds and local democracy.

The first was:

http://www.buryfreepress.co.uk/news/Town-council-is-all-but.5018976.jp

not really news worthy, the town council has been dead for years. But its interesting that there is some Conservative infighting.

The resigning Conservative Councillor is quoted as saying "It's purely lack of leadership and direction” interesting considering the leader is also a Conservative.

The second was:

http://www.eadt.co.uk/content/eadt/news/story.aspx?brand=EADOnline&category=News&tBrand=EADOnline&tCategory=news&itemid=IPED01%20Mar%202009%2020%3A03%3A44%3A313

as always David Nettleton managed to grab the headlines with a colourful quote. But I was appalled that the majority group would just go ahead and make such a decision, without even a debate on the issue, even if they have had the debate before.

St Edmundsbury Borough, How rich are they?

If you read the newspapers, perhaps you will have read about the vast sums of money that St Edmundsbury have. But how much have they really got?

I tried looking it up, and admittedly I am no accountant but theses figures are not exactly clear. Perhaps this is the point, and as taxpayers they don’t want us actually knowing.

Have a look for yourself!

http://www.stedmundsbury.gov.uk/sebc/live/Budget-book-2008-09.cfm

Why I decided to blog

Well I have decided to launch this blog because in truth I am not happy with the direction that Bury St Edmunds has been heading for some time. I feel let down. I have lived in Bury for many years and have slowly seen Bury turn from a beautiful sleepy market town-with the countries finest live animal auction; into the current monstrosity which looks more like a New York commercial district than the town I used to know. (and to add insult to injury, all this is going ahead on the site of my beloved cattle market)

The big question I suppose is who is to blame.

I blame all the Councils involved in the planning process, we elected them to represent our wants, needs and desires, and they have let us down.

I blame the Press and our local MP for not holding the councils to account.

I blame the Conservatives for deceiving us at the last election, and i blame all the other political parties for not challenging the Conservatives with anything other than a feather duster.

But in truth, I blame myself and all the other residents that have stood and watched our town slowly get destroyed and done nothing to prevent it. Well I say “no more”, today will be my Agincourt, my Thermopylae, my Battle of Britain all rolled into one. Today I will stand and fight; I will pick up my pen and use it to challenge the powers that be.

Maybe a little bit melodramatic, but you get the jist of it I’m sure.

ASDA is here, at last

Well done too Ernie Broom, chairman of the Howard Estate Over 60s Club. Who has finally managed to get an ASDA in Bury, offering a lower cost alternative to Tesco and Sainsburys. With the country now firmly in the grip of a recession I imagine many people will be flooding through the doors looking at ways they can save money. I know I will.

Don't get me wrong I’m thrilled that we have secured the additional jobs locally but I do wonder if Companies that commit to these "grand" projects, such as ASDA and the New Cattle Market, now regret there decision. Most large companies are currently looking at ways to reduce there overheads, but in projects such as these they generally commit themselves 2-3 years ahead, and no one thought the country would be in the state it is now, three years ago.

Well done Ernie - Whatever will you do with all your free time now???????????