Topic: Question for Russel?

[wanderlust]

I have, today, received a letter from Wiltshire Council, telling me about changes to waste & garden waste collections in NOVEMBER. It also tells me that I will receive a new collection calender during the week commencing 28th SEPTEMBER.

Only a council employee would feel the need to send me a letter telling me they are going to send me a letter

Any chance you could find out how much money could be saved by not employing people to send out, via Royal Mail,  completely unneccesary mail shots to every bloody house & flat in Wiltshire?

Thanks in advance.

[baldy]

I am not involved in this, but I can see why there is a need to send two letters.
 
The second letter will most probably be delivered by the bin men or their work colleagues because the exact schedule of collections is chosen by the contractor. They will hand deliver their letters / schedules for each round.
 
The council wants to make sure that people know that there will be a change and to warn people that they need to look out for a new calendar advising of the new details.
 
I know for a fact that most people simply do not properly read the letters they get on anything .... so it's a good idea to try twice.
 
Even so, the council will get deluged with calls from people who read nothing at all ..........

[wanderlust]

So why didn't they send me a letter last week telling me to look out for the one I received today. If people ain't going to read them, they're not going to read them. Utter madness.

[Phippin]

Another question for Russell, have the two newish Tory councillors that upped sticks and buggered off to Warminster left the Council?. Not followed it and obviously the town council website is an embarrassment, so no info there.
Is Mike Hawkins back or going to come back?.

Why does Francis Morland look like he has been beamed in from 1976 in his council photo?. Reminds me of the shop owner in are you being served. Has nimby pedantic tosser written all over him in that pic.

[baldy]

The website is being upgraded and new contractor was appointed last week to do this.
 
Mike Hawkins has only recently resigned. He cannot come back unless he wins a by-election (I assume there will be a by-election soon, which will happen if 10 people send in their signatures). Alternatively, he would have to get the council to co-opt him. That would be bizarre as he has only just resigned. It would make the council look mad. Maybe he will come back at the Ordinary elections in May 2013. I personally think he has left and will not come back as he has had enough and has served his normal 2 years as mayor.
 
The two new tory councillors who have moved to Warminster have not shown any sign that they intend to resign. Give it time and we will see what happens. 
 
Francis Morland was "elected" in 2007 when he put his name forward in Westbury Laverton ward with 2 signatures from local people to support him as a candidate. There are 7 seats in that ward. As only 5 people ran as candidates, there was "no contest", so no election took place as election law says thay are elected anyway, automatically, when there is "no contest".
 
I knew nothing about him putting his name forward at that election. He tends to get in on parish/town councils by "no contest" elections.
 
I cannot account for the way councillors look. In fairness to Francis Morland, he grew up in Church Street, Westbury and Westbury is his home town in many ways.
 
 

[baldy]

So why didn't they send me a letter last week telling me to look out for the one I received today. If people ain't going to read them, they're not going to read them. Utter madness.

You are just being awkward and critical for no good reason.
 
The council is trying to make sure people are warned in the most effective way available.

[Phippin]

Please tell me the website will have a CMS (content management system) that a designated councillor can use to update the site with news/minutes for an hour once a fortnight.

The good Content Management systems make updating sites not much more complex than making posts on here.

I would say you could do it Russell but you barely update your own site and have been promising for a year now that an overhaul was just round the corner. Not blaming you, you seem to be on every committee going and are stretched.

Did you wish to provide an update on the Laverton project?. You have provided info on the PCT, community centre etc but not able to find recent stuff on the Laverton.

[Phippin]

Why have the two councillors not resigned when they no longer live here?. Hardly showing their belief in the town by abandoning it home and business wise. They should be too embarrassed to show their faces.

I presume they joined the Council to push an agenda for town centre retail to enable their business and others to survive. Which begs the questions, what proposals did they make? & why didn't the proposals come to fruition.

By all accounts the two Tories ran a tough somewhat dirty campaign so leaving so soon after is odd.

[baldy]

Phippin
 
You seem to be following things quite well ....
 
I am on a number of committees, but that is not the reason I've been slow to update my blog. The reason for not updating my blog is that it needs a complete re-start and I've been waiting for some big and good news to start it off with. That news has now come about and so I can start the revised website off with some serious and good news.
 
Also, I've been spending a lot of time seeing a certain lady lately which has been a completely unplanned series of events ....
 
The election campaign run by "Cllrs Pope" was a bit misleading in numerous ways as they talked about several subjects as if they would transform the council, when in fact the council was already correctly acting on all the issues anyway.
I did gain the impression that their real interest was the Market Place.
 
However, on a personal level, I've found them both to be perfectly good councillors in council debates. It's just a pity they have moved away already.
 
They will continue to qualify as councillors as long as they turn up to at least one meeting every 6 months.  To qualify to be a parish/town councillor, one must live in or within 3 miles of the parish, own property in the parish or work in the parish at the time of the election. Changes after the election do not disqualify councillors.
 
I assume it has not yet occurred to the Popes that they should resign ....... though we will all be watching to see what happens. This could not be more embarrasing for the local Conservatives .....  !!!!!
 
Individual councillors will not be able to update any bit of the town council's website. It will be run by staff who will be  able to write and update whole pages at a time.
 
I will certainly be providing an update on the Laverton Project some time soon on my blog, especially because the current chairman of the committee has been putting out misleading stories and articles that suggest he is some sort of leader for the project, when in fact he is simply chairing the committee (though I acknowledge the time and work he has put in).
 
The real reason why the Laverton is a successful project is because I brought in John Parker, our project officer, who has been doing all the key strategic and vision work plus applying for grants very successfully.

[Phippin]

Could you clarify when that job posting on the website expired? Some poor sod may fill in the form!

[baldy]

The whole website will change soon.
 
The form states on it that the last date for submission was in August.

[Phippin]

Ahh nothing on the job description as you would expect and the form appears to be generic apart from that one line add on at the end of the form. Think you will accept it could be more prominent.

[Phippin]

About the laverton, I see a potential proposal for it is a much needed IT drop in centre. I would suggest that some form of support is provided to assist with job applications on one day a week. Perhaps a charity might handle this.

However, I feel the best place for the drop in centre is the library but this would require an extension. This would make longer library hours more viable and provide one resource centre, rather than multiple.

I presume this has already been considered?.

[baldy]

Centre Point is being set up as a charity based in the former MadCap Music shop.
 
It will be a drop-in centre for people who need all sorts of help, such as filling in forms etc.
 
The details for setting up an IT Centre in The Laverton will be worked out when the current refurbishment project is finished. It would not have been practical to set this up until the majority of works in the building have been concluded.
 
There are many other ideas for extending activities at the Library, but it's currently too early to speculate on what may happen.
 

[charlie finbow]

Im glad the web site is being updated because I tried to send an email to the TC guess what the published email address is invallid because it came back "not a BT customer account",   so is the TC working more efficently than ever as you quoted Russel or is it just a simple cock up.   Still the phone no is correct so Joe Public can still contact the Office.