Election 2012

After a brutal campaign, I was re-elected to serve a three year term, though several of my colleagues, and friends, weren't so fortunate. We've lost some good councillors along with our huge majority, and we need to take a long, hard look at the way we do things locally. I only hope there's a willingness to undertake serious self-scrutiny rather than simply apportioning blame elsewhere; otherwise, we'll learn nothing.

The Localism Act should act as a catalyst for change, and we simply can't let the opportunities it affords us to pass. It sounds trite, but we really are at a crossroads, and it's vital that we find the courage to challenge our opinions and systems, because we need constructive criticism if we are to rebuild effectively.

I am hopeful that, together, the Rushmoor Conservatives are up to the challenge.

Farnborough Town Centre Prospectus

I've never written to the letters page of a newspaper before, and of course they may not print it, but this is what I've sent to the Farnborough News and Mail:

Like many other Farnborough residents, I have been examining RBC’s Prospectus, currently out for public consultation, that updates the Farnborough Town Centre Supplementary Planning Document of 2007, and I am deeply disappointed. It lacks vision and it lacks boldness, and will do little to reverse the town’s inexorable decline because Farnborough will remain a cultural desert, with nothing of real quality as a basis for the evening economy identified in the Core Strategy as being fundamental to the revival of the town centre.  This simply isn’t good enough. We deserve better.

There are aspects of the Prospectus that I welcome: the long-overdue cinema and its anticipated cluster of restaurants, the improvements to the street scene by designing outward-facing shops and businesses, the new entrances to the shopping areas. And I really like the idea of a town square as a focus for activities such as parades, markets and entertainment. But the bottom of Queensmead is entirely the wrong place for it, and misses a unique opportunity to do something truly remarkable to improve the quality of residents’ lives, to raise civic pride and, crucially, to attract inward investment.

The right place to create a truly impressive focal point for the town is the current site of the Elles Hall Community Centre, no longer fit for purpose, the library, ear-marked for relocation, and the police station, scheduled to close. The SPD proposes moving the council offices to this site, acknowledging its prime location in the geographical centre of Farnborough, with excellent connectivity, by all modes of transport, to all areas of the town. The new prospectus is very vague in its proposals for this site, but moving the council offices there would be a dreadful waste of opportunity. I believe we need to set our sights much higher and have the courage to dream.  

I have a dream; it is to see a town square in that location, bounded by buildings devoted to the arts. I dream of a small auditorium, where I can go to see the Farnborough Symphony Orchestra perform, or a local amateur operatic production. I dream of an exhibition space, where I can see the work of local artists. And I dream of indoor/outdoor café culture, of the kind that flourishes in European towns and cities.

I know that funds are short, but that shouldn’t limit our aspirations.  RBC is extremely good at forming partnerships and making things happen, and I have confidence that, with courageous leadership and strong, creative marketing, my dream would be possible. We are being offered shops, cinema and bingo, and frankly, for me, that isn’t good enough.

I really hope that Farnborough residents will look at the proposals, along with the 2007 SPD, and ask themselves whether this is what they want. Is it worthy of a town with such a rich aviation heritage, and whose name is known throughout the world? I say emphatically no.

I'm actually pretty angry about this and feel that we're all being made complicit in the further decline of the town because the slick presentation obscures the fundamental flaws in the Prospectus.  If we're not careful, we shall be stuck with a generic town with no character and precious little in the way of amenities, and I'm determined to do all I can to prevent that.

St John Ambulance Hut Refurbishment

With several other people who really need to get a life, I spent most of the weekend painting our St John Ambulance hut. It's a huge job and still only half done, but already the place is considerably lighter and brighter. We had the hut insulated and a lot of cupboards built in, hence the need for all this painting. Sustained by lots of home-baked cakes and copious quanitities of tea, we worked incredibily hard, not least because we had to leave the place in a suitable state for Squirrals Pre-school on Monday. With all that bending, I ache in places I didn't know I had places.

The inulation has made a huge difference to our comfort, and when the second phase--replacement windows and doors--is complete, we shall have a pretty impressive building. It'll be much nicer for our members, of course, but also will hopefully attract other community groups to use it during the afternoons, and evenings when we're not using it for SJA activities, thus bringing in a bit of extra income.

My great hope is that some of the pre-schoolers will be interested in becoming Badgers. It's such a very worthwhile thing for a young child to do, and may one day actually save someone's life. I really admire the work our members, of all ages, do, and I'm very proud to be their President.

Openings

I've had a thoroughly enjoyable morning attending two openings that meant a lot to me personally.

First, I went to Cove Infants School, where the Mayor of Rushmoor, Cllr Alex Crawford, formally opened our new Discovery Centre. A wonderful range of activities had been set up on the topic of 'Bones', with archaeological digs, real skulls to explore, games and quizzes. The whole school gathered and sang a song, then the Mayor talked about his own interest in science and exploring things before cutting the ribbon and declaring the centre open. He invited the children to ask him questions, and when asked, "How much does your chain weigh?" called for scales to weigh the badge of office, much to the children's delight. He then posed for photos with Charlie, the skeleton, which they also loved. The children then returned to their classrooms singing another song. They had behaved wonderfully well throughout, and I felt incredibly proud of them and of the staff, who had done a marvellous job.

Afterwards, I went along to Barclay's Bank for their grand re-opening following a major refurbishment. They have selected Parity as their charity for the year and invited students and trustees along to see Gerald Howarth, MP, cut the ribbon. I arrived just in time for a brilliant dance routine by some pretty flamboyant 'soldiers', with everything from break dancing to ballet. Adam, one of the students, was absolutely squealing with laughter and it was terrific to see him having such fun. The event will continue till 4.00pm and as many students as possible will be taken along to see further performances of the dance, scheduled to take place throughout the day. No doubt they will all return to the day centre with huge bunches of balloons. Inside the bank, a young man was peddling madly on a stationery bike to raise money for Parity. Like the rest of the trustees and staff, I really appreciate what he's doing for us.

Renovation of St John Ambulance Hut

Since I'm the building manager, I stopped by to see how work on the Station Road hut is progessing today and was very pleased with progress, though it's going to take a week longer than expected. We're currently under budget, so that won't be a problem financially, but Squirrals Pre-school won't be happy about the delay--they're desperate to get back in. Still, we're undertaking the work, consisting of putting in insulation and large built-in cupboards, for them, (and Ofsted) so hopefully they will be patient.
Since I became President of Cove St John Ambulance, I've had occasion to spend evenings in the hut during the heat of summer and the ice and snow of winter, so I can personally attest to the fact that it can be brutal in extreme temperatures. I take my hat off to everyone who has kept classes going over the years in such trying circumstances. I'm sure things will be very much more comfortable from now on.
We're going to have a painting weekend on the 4th and 5th February to finish off this phase, and hope to have an Open Day afterwards. With luck that will attract some new members.
The next phase will be the installation of new windows and doors, which will make a terrific difference because the windows have to be kept boarded up at the moment, so users must use artificial light all the time. Once the windows and doors are done, we'll set to and landscape the front of the building to make it look more welcoming. I think people will be very pleasantly surprised to discover how nice the hut is now. It's deceptively large, and conveniently located close to Farnborough town centre. I'm really excited by what we're doing and hope to be involved with SJA in Cove for many years to come.

Rushmoor Pedestrian Forum

The Farnborough Society recently initiated the Rushmoor Pedestrian Forum, the first public meeting of which took place on 6th December. Under the chairmanship of my friend Clive Andrews, we brought together, as guest speakers, a transport officer from Hampshire County Council, a blind lady (with her guide dog) and a police officer. By the end of the evening, we had a range of views that will provide a solid basis on which we hope to build meaningful relationships with both Hampshire County Council and Rushmoor BC for the benefit of all pavement users.
The issue that dominated was cycling on the pavements and it became abundantly clear that the mish-mash of cycle lanes and shared pavements in Rushmoor pleases nobody because of the lack of consistancy. Sometimes pedestrians are on the outside, sometimes cyclists, sometimes lanes are marked, sometimes not, the signage isn't good and there seems to be a great deal of confusion generally. I've proposed asking Rushmoor BC for a Task and Finish Group to examine the subject and hope to gain approval for that shortly, under the auspices of the Leisure and Youth Panel, on which I serve. Through my involvement with the Pedestrian Forum, I have made contacts with the Cycle Forum, the police and the handicapped, all of which will be invaluable if we are to achieve anything meaningful.

The Farnborough Society

It's been a very busy time with TFS, with us breaking new ground in a couple of ways that I think are important. First, there was the series of seminars on planning and development that I organised in association with Yateley Society and Fleet and Church Crookham Society. They attracted people from civic societies throughout the region and, judging by the feedback we got, they found them useful.

We kicked off with 'The Fundamentals of Planning', the day after royal assent was given to the Localism Bill, so there was a lot to consider regarding how things are likely to change. On a somewhat lighter note, the second seminar dealt with heritage protection and listed buildings, which was especially interesting for me because one of the speakers was Graham Rood from Farnborough Air Sciences Trust, of which I'm an assocation member, who told us about the fascinating collection of listed buildings at the former Royal Aircraft Establishment site: wind tunnels, a centrafuge and our famous 'black sheds', among them. Finally, we addressed the issue of challenging planning applications, probably the area most likely to affect us all.

Frankly, I got rather fed up with the organisation, not least because it shouldn't have been down to me at all--the Chairman of our Planning Group wasn't available for the meetings of the steering group, so I got lumbered. But it was the inordinate amount of fuss that really got to me. What could have been a relatively simple venture became increasingly complicated as our partners sought to turn it into a parody of a business conference, which I found rather ridiculous, to say nothing of the enormous number of emails it necessitated, over a period of weeks, fussing over details. Although we plan to host perhaps one seminar a year from now on, to keep abreast of planning issues, I've gratefully handed over to the appropriate person, who will hopefully be far more patient than I.

Our other new venture is the Rushmoor Pedestrian Forum, the first public meeting of which was held last night. The turnout was disappointing, though quite a few people contacted us to say they were interested, but couldn't make it. We had an officer from Hampshire County Council to give us an update on the Farnborough and Aldershot Town Access Plans, a police officer to deal with the legalities of common complaints such as parking or cycling on pavements, and a blind lady who brilliantly gave us some insight into her experience negotiating the pavements with her guide dog. It was all useful stuff and we got a lot of good feedback. I've got a lot of work now, sorting and prioritising the data collected. Hopefully, we've taken the first steps in building good working relationships with both the county and borough councils, and achieving some improvements for walkers and other footpath users in Rushmoor.