The Real World

I've thought hard about what to write in this weeks blog. As you can imagine, a considerable part of my week has been taken up with one particular issue; that is not to say that life stops in all other aspects and more of that anon.

It can be very difficult in turning the other cheek when people take a number of jumps from what you say to what they promulgate across the web. An example being that firstly the council were accused of not having any plans for a council property. I said we did. Then the council was accused of wanting to sell off the property. I said we had plans to turn it into social housing. Then the council was accused of wanting to take the house all along and that it was some kind of conspiracy. I clearly get the distinct im pression that it does not matter what I say that it will be interpreted to fit the "facts" as some people see them.

Great to use when reading comments from Trolls

Suffice to say that comments of a personal nature only go further to strengthening my resolve. These comments only make a mockery of their campaign by degrading the argument to little more than a playground spat of name-calling.

I don't believe that this will be the last we will hear of this campaign; if I were in their shoes I would look to keep the Echo's coverage going by making a deputation at Council or by employing legal people to stall the process. I await to hear what the response is.

So....outside of this issue, I have mostly been....

Monday - Monthly briefing session with senior officers; talking amongst other things, Biomass, resurfacing, prioritising roadsworks, preferendums and a planning partnership with Eastleigh (income generating, no redundancies for SCC).

Tuesday - Cabinet, which saw me present a report for agreement on £500,000 spend on improvements to bus stops and bus shelters across 13 of the 16 wards of the city. I was chastised (thats a familiar feeling now) when I came to be cabinet member in May for saying on a number of occaisions that I needed to check the books. Turns out that I found half a million pounds from developers which needed spending on capital projects pretty smartish or they would be returned to big business. Oh dear Dan. Tut tut.

The highlight of Wednesday was a visit to a company called Selex, which is tucked away on the Millbrook Industrial estate. These guys build infra red detectors, which are put into a range of military and civiliian vehicles. Who'd have thought that something the size of a grapefruit could cost tens of thousands of pounds. The best part was finding out that the two previous Mars Rovers - the little machines running around on Mars have one of these indicators each on board. So...a little bit of Southampton is currently driving around on the surface of Mars some 140 million miles away!

Someone, somewhere will probably be very excited

about seeing the inside of this machine. Probably.

Thursday afternoon was a whistlestop tour of a number of our bases of operations across the city. Dropping in on the enforcement teams and the ladies who make judgements on the parking appeals as they come in; unfortunately they wouldn't let me refuse an appeal on the grounds that some one was from London or that they drove a Volvo. I will keep trying on your behalf though! Also visited the team which looks after some of our parking maintenance issues and got to see the inside of a parking machine...these guys are like the borrowers and save us thousands of pounds a year by making do and mending a number of our machines. Thanks to Mark and his team.

Dave & Marie, on Redbridge Hill

On Friday morning I met up with Councillor Furnell on Redbridge Hill. As you may recall, a few weeks ago there was a very nasty attack on a lone female late at night. One of the local residents, Marie, got in contact with Dave to ask how they could go about making change happen in our community. With a lot of negotiation and a good working relationship with campaigners, we are able to get a significant area of the scrub cleared at the bottom of Redbridge Hill. This will be carried out over the next few weeks, with letters going out in the community to let them know why. A good case of realistic expectations combined with clear dialogue. My thanks go out to Marie for all her hard work in raising this issue and to Dave for liaising with me, the Council and the Police.

Oh and yesterday I was out and about leafletting with Councillor Laming. We're out every weekend either leafletting and dorr knocking. Theres a lot of homes to get around, but we'll be coming to a street near you soon.