Shropshire Council's move to give up the lease on Acton Scott Historic Working Farm has been referred to its scrutiny committee by the opposition Liberal Democrat group. This means the decision by the council to end its 47-year involvement with the site will not yet be put into practice. The Shropshire Star quotes the Lib Dem group as saying the marketing and publicity for Acton Scott is "poor and almost non-existent", and that "the value of the enterprise to the local economy is vastly undervalued" Only a few years ago, Acton Scott seemed never to be off our television screens ...
Another figure from the golden age of satire in the early Sixties has left us: it was announced this morning that John Bird died on Christmas Eve at the age of 86, Bird was a member of the team that wrote and performed That Was the Week That Was, the show that brought satire to the masses. He enjoyed a second career peak at the start of this century appearing with Rory Bremner and John Fortune. This was an era when the Conservative response to Blair's government was so feeble that the three of them became the nearest thing Britain ...
Whether it's something that was new out this year, or an oldie that you came across for the first time, what were your favourites?
The so-called City Centre Movement Strategy caused chaos in parts of the City Centre for more than 3 years. It appears to be a £70 million waste of money failing to meet its key objectives. Traffic chaos has been brought ... Continue reading →
The Guardian reports that ministers have been accused of making a "pitiful attempt" to recoup taxpayers' money wasted on fraudulent Covid contracts, after it emerged that only a fraction of the estimated total had been recovered so far. They say that about £18m has been retrieved by the Department of Health and Social Care through checks on personal protective equipment (PPE) contracts identified as "high risk" and through "contract management". However, the total amount estmated to have been defrauded is closer to £630m. thirty five times greater than that recovered: The Public Accounts Committee, which scrutinises the value for money ...
If I was the editor of Conservative Home, I would be embarrassed to publish its annual poll of the most popular Tory MP. Lee Anderson, the MP for Ashfield won. If you are struggling to remember who Anderson is, think of cooking 30p meals, a challenge a reporter from the Nottingham Post found impossible. Anderson is the former Labour councillor turned Tory MP who said people going to food banks can't cook or budget. I wonder what he had for Christmas dinner. Maybe an out of date wet lettuce reduced at the supermarket checkout. He is a fully paid up ...
Residents will recall our update in September - - about consultation on possible environmental improvements for parts of the Perth Road shopping area - at the Sinderins 'triangle', Pennycook Lane in front of the police station and at the Miller's Wynd car park. We recently asked the City Council's Head of Planning and Economic Development for an update on timescales and further consultation with the community and have been updated as follows : "Considerable progress has been made in identifying projects within each of the five District Centres. However, there are some challenges around delivery and this is impacting ...
