Untidy Hyndburn - Please Post Your Pictures

[garinda]

Originally Posted by Ken Moss

perhaps we don't need to buy force-grown bedding of a certain colour that only flowers for two weeks at the right time, perhaps there is room for economy in the 450+ hanging baskets that all need to be watered daily or the flower towers that cost the borough £47,000 per year. Perhaps if Area Councils had been reviewed earlier then the £240,000+ per year that it is said it costs to administer them could have been diverted into actually improving the borough rather than fancy calendars and expensive meetings that few residents turn up to.

Going back to the borough's planting costs, and in reference to the flower beds in Church Street, near St. James Church.

March/April - A beautiful display of hyacinths.

May - These bulbs were replaced by hundreds of pansies.

June - Whilst the pansies were in full flower, and looking fantastic, they were all dug up and replaced by the present dahlias.

I don't know who is responsible, but only a fool, or a lottery winner, would go to the expense of planting two consequtive lots of summer bedding plants.

Certainly man hours, and plant cost savings could be made here, in just this one example.

[cashman]

Well was the "Pansy" not replaced in May anyway Rindy?

[jaysay]

Originally Posted by Alan Varrechia

Give them back to Jaysay at once, you know he can't see without them....

How dare you Alan my glasses have always been blue tinted

[Tealeaf]

I'm quite sure HBC could get a container load of mixed, plastic flowers from China for about two thousand quid; stick these in the ground and they'll last for about 10 years, without any maintainance costs, and good for summer and winter. They'd certainly look very nice up Ossy.

[Neil]

Originally Posted by Ken Moss

Did you ever say any of that to Peter, I wonder?

I have had many conversations with him and on more than one occasion asked if we could take the park out of the conservation area as it was more of a hindrance and the council conserve nothing

Originally Posted by Ken Moss

I see he thinks that all the flowers in the borough will disappear next year because of a remark by Graham Jones, someone he simply can't seem to stop referencing. Perhaps there is a more effective way of prettying up the borough, perhaps we don't need to buy force-grown bedding of a certain colour that only flowers for two weeks at the right time, perhaps there is room for economy in the 450+ hanging baskets that all need to be watered daily or the flower towers that cost the borough £47,000 per year.

I agree that hanging baskets are not the best way to spend the money

Originally Posted by Ken Moss

I would still urge you all to send your photos and a brief report to [email protected] before adding them to the Accyweb gallery as you are far more likely to get something done about it.

Like I said before its better to do both. Its harder to ignore when its made public.

Originally Posted by Ken Moss

You're remarkably quick to have a go at the council now that it isn't headed by Cllr Britcliffe, it's such a shame you didn't point out the flaws earlier so that he could take all the glory for sorting them out.

I have no interest in glory no matter who is trying to get it.

Originally Posted by Ken Moss

One might almost think that someone is pulling your strings on this forum.

Its a shame you finished a good post with such a silly sentence. No one has ever pulled my strings and I find the suggestion an insult.

[Neil]

Originally Posted by Ken Moss

You don't mean since......before May, do you?

I think you'll find you're probably mistaken there, old boy. The streets were paved with gold back in those halcyon days, there were no grotspots and the council was run by people who really knew how to connect with the public.

Sorry, I seem to have slipped on a pair of Conservative rose-tinted glasses by mistake.

Your having a laugh, I hope. Pop over to Ossy and we can take a walk around. I will even buy you a beer if you stop insulting me

[Ken Moss]

Originally Posted by Neil

Like I said before its better to do both. Its harder to ignore when its made public.

Any e-mail sent to Enquiries is very definitely logged and dealt with. This is not a party political matter of 'see who sends what and we'll see what we think', the officers deal with complaints and comments in a meticulous manner and without prejudice.

We're very lucky to have a system that works, all I would urge is that people use that as a first port of call to remedy a problem rather than trying to shame the council and essentially insult its staff on Accyweb.

[Neil]

Originally Posted by Ken Moss

......under an evil Labour council.

You are the only person on this thread that thinks the Labour council is evil. I don't.

I am concerned by the massive amount of debt or MP says we are in. I am still disappointed he appears to be the councils spokesperson and not one of our many councillors. The usual way for councils to reduce debt is by slashing staff, that means a direct impact on front line services. For me personally the concern is the impact to our parks and green spaces. you are a cabinet member so I am sure you know exactly what my concerns are, if not ask Ciaran in a few weeks when he has been to our meeting.

[Ken Moss]

Originally Posted by Neil

Your having a laugh, I hope. Pop over to Ossy and we can take a walk around. I will even buy you a beer if you stop insulting me

Flytipping and general untidiness is an ongoing and endemic problem, even my beloved Rishton keeps me and my team in a constant war with litter and dumped sofas. Cllrs Grayson, Cleary and myself take weekly walkabouts around the village to report just this sort of thing, I'd urge other councillors to do the same.

A beer, eh? Got any real ale over in Ossy?

[Neil]

Originally Posted by Ken Moss

I have been told that the flower towers and hanging baskets each have their own watering contracts which cost around £6,000 per year. The 40 bedding troughs along Eastgate are watered weekly by HBC staff.

More efficient ways of having floral displays are being looked into but this does not mean that they will disappear under an evil Labour council.

To be honest £6000 does not sound bad to water all the flower towers we have. I did know how many we have but have forgotten but I was surprised how many we have.

[Ken Moss]

Originally Posted by Neil

You are the only person on this thread that thinks the Labour council is evil. I don't.

I am concerned by the massive amount of debt or MP says we are in. I am still disappointed he appears to be the councils spokesperson and not one of our many councillors. The usual way for councils to reduce debt is by slashing staff, that means a direct impact on front line services. For me personally the concern is the impact to our parks and green spaces. you are a cabinet member so I am sure you know exactly what my concerns are, if not ask Ciaran in a few weeks when he has been to our meeting.

I'm not actually in the Cabinet, I'm Chair of Resources Overview and Scrutiny which gives me the opportunity to do pretty much what I set out to do in the first place and try to make money-saving recommendations in any area.

Graham has always been outspoken on subjects which he cares about and he happens to take council business very seriously. I personally don't see the problem and just because he currently has a louder voice than Miles Parkinson doesn't make him the council's spokesperson. The same could be levelled at me on Accyweb although I would never go that far myself, I just have a keen interest in online debates.

The council's finances aren't in the best shape and an FOI request has indicated that the Big Society Grants announced in February this year had seemingly been known to Conservative councillors as far back as August 2010. The cuts that have to be made this year are bad enough but next year they will cripple us and some of it could probably have been cushioned if the spending spree between March and May had been curbed.

There is now no Cabinet Action Fund because Cllr Britcliffe spent it all in one month and basically if (for example) Friends of Rhyddings Park came cap in hand to the council there just isn't any way of justifably giving you any money without handing it out to the other 300 groups that want money too.

Graham may seem like the council spokesman but just bear in mind that Peter would have been exactly the same if he had become MP.

[Neil]

Originally Posted by Ken Moss

There is now no Cabinet Action Fund because Cllr Britcliffe spent it all in one month and basically if (for example) Friends of Rhyddings Park came cap in hand to the council there just isn't any way of justifably giving you any money without handing it out to the other 300 groups that want money too.

I think you have to look at each individual request for help and see what the council will get in return for its investment.

I think I mentioned the £3.5 million raised by local green space groups working with the council. How much match was put in by HBC I don't know for certain but I would guess around 10%.
To me that is amazing value for tax payers money, do you agree or not?

[Ken Moss]

Originally Posted by Neil

I think you have to look at each individual request for help and see what the council will get in return for its investment.

I think I mentioned the £3.5 million raised by local green space groups working with the council. How much match was put in by HBC I don't know for certain but I would guess around 10%.
To me that is amazing value for tax payers money, do you agree or not?

I'll take your word that those are accurate figures but yes, it is a good return. That really isn't the knub of the matter, it's the fact that so many cheques have been given out where no return was expected or even asked for, they were essentially free gifts. No council can afford to operate like that, particularly since the recession hit and it demonstrates a remarkable lack of understanding of public feeling that the Conservatives basically opened the cheque book over the past few months.

The watchword now of spending by the new administration is that we should strive wherever possible to get at least £1 back for every £1 spent. It will not be easily acheived and there will be some very disappointed people around the borough but we need to get as far away as possible from the fantasy that HBC is some sort of cash cow.

There is simply no money to give away, every penny needs to be justified from now on.

[Neil]

Originally Posted by Ken Moss

I'll take your word that those are accurate figures but yes, it is a good return.

Have a read of this, no I am not being sarcastic for once, it was the first document I found on google while looking for the story in the Beacon http://www.hyndburnbc.gov.uk/downloa...s_08.07.10.pdf

The figure has gone up as that report is from last year.

Originally Posted by Ken Moss

The watchword now of spending by the new administration is that we should strive wherever possible to get at least £1 back for every £1 spent.

I hope you do, you will make our job of finding funding for you so much easier

[lancsdave]

Originally Posted by Neil

I will even buy you a beer if you stop insulting me

Originally Posted by Ken Moss

A beer, eh? Got any real ale over in Ossy?

Why not meet on neutral ground. Grab a couple of cans and sit on the bench outside the Market Hall with the 'in-crowd'