JUST TO BRING YOU UP TO DATE ON THE £50K

Not blogged for ages but that doesn't mean that I've been inactive on matters of the Village Centre.

Just to bring you up to date, the biggest specific problem recently has been the prospect under the current proposals that a large proportion of the £50k will be spent on Block Paving the Co-op side of Market St from the Village Chippy to the Library.

It isn't that this project would have no merit, if there were squillions of money to spend, but I, for one, maintain that if it were to go ahead soaking up 63% of this limited amount of money, then the other visible signs of dilapidation around the centre would never get fixed.

Anyway, I've measured up the pavement and it comes to 350 square metres. I've got professional quotes from several companies and the most I can get it to is £22,750. - £65 per square metre. This is against £31,500 pounds costed in the proposals. I'm not really suprised because quotes for other aspects of work such as signage seem to my mind to be equally inflated. Why do Councils allow contractors to get away with inflated quotes or, if it's done in house, why are the Works Departments so un-competative?

Following on from this, I have contacted the Executive Member for Development & Regeneration (who signed off the spending of the £50k against these proposals) about apparent differences of opinion on the proposals and also the Public Consultation (or lack of it).

He informs me that he has referred the whole thing back to the Director of Development & Regeneration and I'm led to believe that the Officers and Councillors will meet shortly to review the proposals.

It is perhaps wise, therefore to wait for the outcome of this.

Should there be no change then I am minded to ask that the whole thing be discussed in public as a substantial part of the next Area Forum Meeting in November.

If, in the event, that request is either refused or cannot be accommodated, then a series of written questions from several members of the public being submitted to the Forum should liven things up.

Finally, of course there is such a thing as the Council's Scrutiny Committee who might be interested to ask why this large amount of money is being used to rip up a pavement that's only been down five years or so.

There is another meeting of the 'Love Little Lever' Forum on Tuesday 21st Sept at 6.00pm at Hardy Hall.

I think that this meeting should steer away from discussing the £50k whilst the Council are getting there ducks in a row.

I have distributed letters to all the businesses in the Village Centre not currently involved in the 'Love Little Lever' Group inviting them to this meeting with a view to expanding our base of views, opinions & ideas.

I, personally, would be keen to see the 'Love Little Lever' group (aka the Little Lever Business & Residents Forum) being officially recognised by the Council as per the 2006 Little Lever Action Plan.

I also think that a decision should be taken to proceed with repainting the cream walls without further ado.

I have sought the opinion of professional painters and decorators about the possibility of removing the paint from the walls (as has been alternatively suggested). Their collective opinion is that the nature of the brick precludes the blanket strip method and the only way we could get the paint off would be to sandblast it which would be horrendously expensive and damage the lack of porosity of the brick.

Let's just repaint the bloody things to make them look clean.

Litter is becoming an issue again, this week not on the square but on the Co-op side, the Precinct Car Parks and particularly the whole length of Fletcher St.

I don't think we are left with any other option than to take up the offer of Street Litter Control Notices and embarass the Police and CPSO's into taking the matter seriously.

Sorry no piccys on this Blog

Next Blog - a bit of light relief from the Village Centre - THE HEALTH CENTRE !!!