Its been the week from hell

It really has....

Sorry I have not posted much but it has been appalling.

I got a phone call a week ago to tell me that my nan was dying in hospital, and spent the rest of the day trying to get their and ignoring most of everything else. The family were all gathered together, and despite us all knowing she had been ill for a while it still caused a lot of shock. She finally died Wednesday.

Thursday was a by election, which I have blogged about before. UKIP cost us the election, taking 66 precious votes (yes it was that tight).

Overall you will see that its not a great week, so I have not been posting.

Please excuse the lack of blogging.......

At the moment, those of you who follow this blog will know that there is a by-election campaign going on in the ward of Staple Tye in Harlow. The election is on Thursday (30th).... so thats about 42 hours til polls open. Which kind of explains why I have not been blogging much in the past week. Apologies.

My days have been mostly:

Go to work (for those who don't know I work in the Health Service as a Business and Performance Manager for a large London hospital trust, mainly looking after contracts with a lot of PCT's and trying to get as much money for the trust to work on as possible)

Get home and spend a precious half hour or so with my daughter

Go out and knock on doors / deliver leaflets

Get home and eat

Then help write more leaflets / phone people to get extra deliverers/canvassers/organise other events.

In the odd gaps that can be found in that I have been doing my role as leader of the council and answering emails/calls through the day on my blackberry.

Most nights with all the council emails etc I have been getting to bed vvvvvery late.....

The thing is, I do actually enjoy it. I will however be looking forward to the Bank Holiday weekend as a relaxation post by-election and before the County Council/Euro election month hits us!

If you are in or near Harlow on Thursday and want to help the conservative party win a by election please do get in touch.

Freedom of Harlow

Today I was privilaged to attend the first time that Harlow granted the freedom of entry to the town to anyone. We presented it to the Essex Yeomanry. It was wonderful to see the result of the motion I moved at full council.

It was not only a wonderful parade, but it brought out the best in harlow. From people cheering and clapping our boys and girls to praising them afterwards, it was wonderful to see so many people supporting our heroes.

During the presentation of the freedom proclomation I have to admit that I got a lump in my throat....

Sadly not everyone feels as proud and supportive of them. There was apparently one minor incident where a group of people (who normally are seen with an armful of "socialist worker" publications ) shouted some abuse. But they were in the extreme minority.

I was really pleased to see so many people from Harlow celebrating the civic life of the town, and showing appreciation to Harlow's troops.

Green Fingers

As I have got older I have found a growing (pardon the pun) affinity to my garden.

I like to grow things. I particularly like to grow things that I can eat!

There is something rather magical about popping into the garden to get ingredients, for my other growing passion, when I am cooking. Knowing where your food has come from and how it is grown is a wonderful thing.

This always used to be small scale, the odd herb in a pot. Fresh rosemary on my lamb, fresh bay leaves in my stews.

But in more recent years it has (ahem) mushroomed, to the odd mushroom, and a couple of chilli plants and a wider herb garden.

I really took the plunge this year though!

I have built a raised vegetable bed for onions, beetroot and and miniature sweetcorn , I have beans and peas growing up my trellis and have buckets with potatoes in.

My daughter (almost 3 years old) is loving playing in the garden with daddy and has some sunflowers growing as well. There is something quite magical about children understanding how the natural world works and where food comes from.

Of course I don't have that much time and so my efforts are limited to what I can do in my small back garden.

Many others though are taking the plunge and through a desire to go greener, a wish to save money, the chance to do something as a family in the open air, or maybe a combination of the three are driving a rejuvenation of "grow your own".

If you want to grow your own on a bigger scale or a group of friends and family want to work together, why don't you consider getting an allotment?

In Harlow, the council has 35 allotment sites, so there is probably one quite near you. It doesn't cost much, the typical plot is only about £18 for a year, and there are concessions for pensioners and those on benefits.

If you want to know more about allotments in Harlow, take a look here.

A wedding with a difference....

Yesterday I had a wonderful experience!

I have been to many weddings over the years but never to a Sikh one.

That changed yesterday.

A guy that has worked with me for the last six months, invited Mrs J and I along with some other work colleagues to celebrate his wedding.

It was like no wedding I had ever been to.

There were some obvious differences, like the ceremony being in a language that I did not understand, and sitting on the other side of the temple to Mrs J.

The subtle differences were very interesting though, the fact that it was more than just a joining of two people but far more the joining of two families.

And the sheer size of the wedding was amazing. 600 people at both the temple and the reception. 600! Most weddings I have been to 200 has been considered very large, but 600 was just huge.

The reception was more like a giant awards ceremony than most wedding receptions, and the sheer vibrancy of the colours of the outfits that the ladies wore was incredible. Everyone had obviously put so much time into their outfits, and the tables and the food and everything else.

It was a real honour and a pleasure to have been invited to the wedding, to share the day with the happy couple and it was a wonderful experience culturally for me.

Alcohol Success - Underage drink sales reduced

A year ago when there were some test purchases made in Harlow, over 30% of the tests were failed - that means that about 1 in 3 shops tested sold alcohol to under 18's.

Now any councillor will tell you that lots of their mailbag/email inbox of complaints is based around rowdy young people on street corners and associated anti social behaviour. Often it appears as though alcohol is involved. So this is an issue that concerns us all very much.

In that last year Harlow’s Community Alcohol Partnership has been established, bringing together the experts from Harlow Council’s Safety and Licensing Team and the Council's Community Safety Team working with both the Police and Essex County Council's Trading Standards supported by the Councillors on Harlow Councils Licensing Committee under the leadership of Cllr Nick Churchill (pictured) and Cllr Sarah Dangerfield the Chairman and Vice Chairman.

The results?

Alcohol sales to underage drinkers are falling in Harlow according to the latest test purchasing figures. The rate of test purchase failure has plummeted like a stone from over 30% to 11% in the last year, which is now better than the county wide target of 15%.

This is a real success for collaborative working between the County and District Council's and the Police, and my thanks for all the hard work goes to all those involved.

But the hard work does not stop there.....

For the coming year the team will be trying to ensure that the 11% does not slip, continuing to educate and warn retailers and now to target those who illegally buy alcohol for those underage.

Lib Dems "act shamelessly"

Local politics sometimes provides a few amusements, but none so much as the activities of the Lib Dems in Harlow.

I and my fellow councillors had an email this evening from a Lib Dem councillor calling for all councillors to avoid gutter politics, respect others and promoting decency in public life.

And that would be great if the Lib Dems actually believed that. We know that what their Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors schemes is something completely different.

As was recently reported in the Guardian, and raised in the House of Commons the Lib Dems advise their councillors to "Be wicked, act shamelessly, stir endlessly."

The Libs also advise "Don't be afraid to exaggerate." but worse than that it advises Lib Dem Councillors to deceive the public by saying different things to different people "you can secure support from voters who normally vote Tory by being effectively anti-Labour and similarly in a Tory area secure Labour votes by being anti-Tory."

I suppose a message to all of us in Harlow, as they fight a council By-election in Staple Tye and then the County Council Elections, is that we should be prepared for lots of nasty negative campaigning since they believe that "Positive campaigning will NOT be enough to win control of the council."

The ultimate insult to voters in Harlow though, is that the Liberals advise their councillors that "You are NOT running the council. It's NOT your problem."

Surely all councillors are elected to work for the best of their abilities for their public, not to "be wicked, act shamelessly, stir endlessly"!