Residents' Surgeries

Residents' advice surgeries

Councillor Rob White and I will be holding the following residents' advice surgeries over the next three months. No appointment is necessary.

Thursday, July 14 -- Park Hall, Park United Reformed Church, Palmer Park Avenue, 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Thursday, August 11 -- True Food Co-Op, Wycliffe Church, King's Road, 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, September 24 -- The Co-Op, King's Road, Cemetery Junction, 11 a.m. to 12 noon

One month (or so) in......

Well it's been a busy, but enjoyable start to my role as Councillor for the Green Party in Park Ward, alongside Cllr Rob White.

So what have I been doing?

Locally (Park Ward)

1. Hosting and contributing to a number of Green Party Business & Strategy meetings.
2. Raising various items of casework for the benefit of the people of Park Ward including queries on the parameters for the use of the PA sounds system at Palmer Park, parking & littering issues on and around the TVU playing fields site due to Saturday morning football (not everyone of the visitors but a small group I am sure are inconsiderate to local residents). There are a number of other items of casework that I have been taking forward.
3. I have requested a review of the air quality check around the Alfred Sutton school site and the Council have taken this query seriously and are reintroducing an air quality measuring tube into the area. This will help ensure that the children ar enot being exposed to unhealthy levels of NO2, given that the school is on such a busy road.
4. It has been well publicised that Rob and I worked hard to use our position as holding the balance of power to put a number of key local and Reading-wide issues on the Labour Administration's agenda. We have been pleased to see that they are taking steps to progress with these issues, including seeing Counsel (legal advice) on the Maiden Erlegh Catchment change.
5. I have been supporting local residents on their concerns' in regards to local planning applications and the pressures on Resident's parking.

Reading-Wide

1. I attended the East Reading School briefing and have been trying to get to the bottom of the communication process being used to ensure that families across Reading are being kept informed of this very important event in our area. To date, I remain disappointed at the communications process that is being used for this as I feel too many families are not aware of what is happening.
2. The UoR kindly invited me to attend a careers evening where I was able to talk about my role as Councillor. The evening was very much a success and Thomas Kholler did a very good job at engaging with the students and organising the event. Thank you Thom.
3. As mentioned earlier, our position on Council is very unique this year in that the 2 Green Councillors will have a significant influence on voting. We are pleased that Labour continue to press on with exploring some of the Green Party priorities that we had the opportunity to raise with them, including reviewing the reverse of the Green Bin Tax, installation of PV Solar Panels across Council buildings(recent announcements by the Government have somewhat sabotaged this but we hope there is a way forward) and reviewing and reversing the cuts to vulnerable people that were agreed by the Con-Lib Dem coalition.
4. I am now on the Planning & External Overview & Scrutiny Committees and to date I have been particularly able to play an active role on the Planning Committee.
5. I have been able to meet with the Police Sergeant for Neighbourhoods in East Reading, and raise with him some of the local issues that I know matter to residents including; dogs off leads on public footpaths, local parking issues (pavement blocking, causing hazards to pedestrians), Anti social behaviour and crime and disorder. We are going to work in partnership with the police in taking forward and tackling these issues over the year.

Nationally

1. On the subject of Hydraulic Fracturing (Fracking), I have been building my knowledge and understanding, and also looking for useful National Green Party contacts who may need support on campaigns opposing this abhorrent process currently being introduced to the UK. http://www.gaslandthemovie.com/
2. I am keen to explore certain policies that the Council & Government has on Housing Council Tennants and as part of this the rules & regulations in regards to the moving of tennants and furnishings of property. I think there is a great deal of waste and costs incurred by the Council and hope that my investigations will lead to some cost saving initiatives that could in turn be rolled out nationally.
3. I am very passionate about fostering and believe that foster carers play an amazing role in our community, I will certainly be taking a keen interest in matters affecting children in care, foster carers or any of the support functions across Social Services.

 That's me for now.

Bloggerubbishness

I conclude, after several failed attempts at boosting my blogger worthiness, I have no idea what I am doing. If anyone would like to help me out and start following me, maybe I might start to see something happen.

For now, I will have to see if one of my fellow bloggers friends can provide me with any training.

A reluctant blogger

Reluctantly, I join the Bloggers.

Hello to all of my potential bloggerettes.

It has been an amazing year of campaigning for me and the Greens here in Park Ward. I have now begun my Councillor Training and am enjoying meeting my fellow newly elected Councillors. The support staff and Management Team have kindly given up their evenings to meet with us and it has all been very useful.

I am looking forward to seeing how the Council takes shape over the next week or so so that everyone can get stuck in with getting Reading back into shape and giving the people in Reading a better quality of life.