I think this is quite a fair assessment of the arguments around wind turbines, by a Green councillor somewhere near Stroud.
Mabinogogiblog: Wind Turbine Controversy?: I was spurred by criticism of wind turbines on a Green Party email list to review the controversy over wind turbines for my blog - somethi...
Monday, 16 December 2013
Sunday, 15 December 2013
Phoning BT - and some Whovian Excitement!
I wasn't online much yesterday - or rather, I was online, but I was spending all my time trying to sort out a problem with my virus protection - and eventually I had to admit defeat and call the BT helpline.
I got three different Indian men on the line, and they couldn't have been nicer. They were all incredibly patient, and helpful, and when we couldn't completely solve the problem last night, the chap I was talking to seemed genuinely sorry, and told me all the steps I needed to take to finish off the process. (Gosh, but I got my money's worth out of them yesterday!)
And it seems to have worked! I'm now back online and safe behind my little McAfee shield.
Meanwhile in the real world, we had a rather special customer in the bookshop last week. She was looking for leather bound books, and she'd come from Cardiff. She was collecting them for set dressing for Doctor Who! So some of our books may possibly end up in the Tardis Library! That's almost more exciting than being by Royal Appointment! (No, actually, it's a lot more exciting!). Knowing my fannish tendencies, Deb in the antiquarian department tried to get her to offer me a bit part. "But I'm a rubbish actor!" I protested, when they told me.
She was nice enough to give me the latest Doctor Who magazine, though, and we had a little chat about favourite Doctors (mine has to be Jon Pertwee, from the classic series - all those capes and velvet jackets, and racing around in Bessie the vintage car, and all the other vehicles that Jon Pertwee used to love driving).
I got three different Indian men on the line, and they couldn't have been nicer. They were all incredibly patient, and helpful, and when we couldn't completely solve the problem last night, the chap I was talking to seemed genuinely sorry, and told me all the steps I needed to take to finish off the process. (Gosh, but I got my money's worth out of them yesterday!)
And it seems to have worked! I'm now back online and safe behind my little McAfee shield.
Meanwhile in the real world, we had a rather special customer in the bookshop last week. She was looking for leather bound books, and she'd come from Cardiff. She was collecting them for set dressing for Doctor Who! So some of our books may possibly end up in the Tardis Library! That's almost more exciting than being by Royal Appointment! (No, actually, it's a lot more exciting!). Knowing my fannish tendencies, Deb in the antiquarian department tried to get her to offer me a bit part. "But I'm a rubbish actor!" I protested, when they told me.
She was nice enough to give me the latest Doctor Who magazine, though, and we had a little chat about favourite Doctors (mine has to be Jon Pertwee, from the classic series - all those capes and velvet jackets, and racing around in Bessie the vintage car, and all the other vehicles that Jon Pertwee used to love driving).
Saturday, 14 December 2013
Small Business Saturday
The Keeper's Pocket, a recent arrival to Lion Street. They do antiques with an interesting line in taxidermy - in the window is the head and shoulders of a draught horse, stuffed around a hundred years ago by a loving owner.
Friday, 13 December 2013
Toilets To Be Proud Of
Last night there was a meeting in the Parish Hall about the future of the public toilets in Hay. It wasn't packed out, but there were still about 50 people there, and all of the councillors who could make it. Rob Golesworthy thought it was worth putting on his Mayoral chain for the evening.
Earlier in the day, the Chief Executive of Powys County Council, Jeremy Patterson, and Paul Griffiths, the Director of Powys Highways, came for a private meeting with Hay Council. They took them to see the toilets at the top of Hay car park, and suggested strongly that it would be a good idea to have a small levy on top of the car park charge to pay for them.
Then they went back to the Council Chambers, where a "small but vociferous" protest rally was being held outside the Clock Tower toilets. The petition against the closures started by Ellie Spencer gained 1,122 signatures, with an online version hosted by 38 Degrees and a paper version.
At the meeting with the councillors, a few concessions were made. If Hay Town Council sends a letter of intent to take over the toilets, the Cabinet may delay the closure to April 2014 to enable them to get the funding in place. They also agreed to look at the possibility of a levy on the car park, first of all to see if the idea was legal, and then (if it is) at a mechanism to get the money to Hay. They are considering raising the car parking charges across the county anyway. A levy of 5p per ticket would raise £14,000 and a 10p levy would raise £28,000, based on the number of cars using the car park last year (280,000). Hay doesn't get the car park money because in 1974 the town council gave responsibility for the car park over to Powys.
The toilets are expected to cost £13,393 for the ones at the car park and £6,373 for the clock tower toilets - Rob had a breakdown of the figures from the county council, including water, sewage, electricity, rates, cleaning and toilet rolls, and a climate levy of £13 a year. There's also an annual health and safety inspection charge, which has to be done by law.
They will give their answer early in the New Year. The town precept (which is the amount of money Hay gets from the council tax to run everything they are responsible for in the town) is £13,900 and Hay council have to set the amount of the precept that they need by the 24th January.
If the Cabinet don't agree to these things - what then?
Rob Golesworthy was adamant that the toilets would not be closed down, even if he has to clean them himself! They are too important to the future of the town.
Dawn Lewis, one of the new councillors, has been in touch with someone at the National Park - I think it was the Sustainable Tourism Manager, and she also mentioned a Mr Tyler who is the Director of Countryside. They are concerned about what the county council are doing, but feel it is not their place to lobby them. They agreed that Hay is the jewel in the crown of the area as far as tourism is concerned, and raises a lot of money.
The Disabled Access Group are also looking for a meeting with the county council, as they want to ensure that disabled people are able to get to toilets when they need them. There may be a legal issue with closure, as disabled people are a "protected group" which needs to be catered for.
The other options the town council have are to ask volunteers to clean the toilets, to start charging for the use of the toilets, to find another local body willing to fund the toilets, such as the Chamber of Commerce. This could start off on a voluntary basis, like paying for the Christmas lights.
Another possibility would be to increase the precept, meaning that the council tax payments for everyone in Hay would go up by around £10. But this would mean charging the people who, on the whole, don't use the toilets, rather than putting the cost onto the visitors who do.
There is a grant available of £6,500 a year from the county council to run the toilets - but this doesn't remotely cover the cost.
The use of volunteers was considered to be a bad idea - it might start well, but people would drop out and leave others to carry the load, and it would be better to hire someone to do the cleaning, because then there would be someone to hold to account for the state of the toilets. One suggestion was that if Hay, Talgarth and Glasbury got together, the cleaning of all those toilets could be the basis for a start up business for someone.
At a recent meeting in Glasbury, a group of volunteers have come forward to run the toilets themselves (they are trying to set up a Trust), and the meeting was practically unanimous in agreeing that the precept in Glasbury should be raised to pay for the toilets. But as Anna of Drover Holidays pointed out - they don't have a car park to raise money from.
There were worries about vandalism - some towns that started to charge for their toilets found that people were breaking the locks and causing damage. However in Llandovery, vandalism went down. Luke of Drover Holidays pointed out that the problem with vandalism wasn't whether the toilets were free or cost money, but anti-social behaviour generally, and if it wasn't the toilets, it would be something else in town that was damaged.
Rob said that the last time the toilets at the car park were seriously damaged, it was by adults from out of town. They were caught on CCTV. There's also a problem in that one of the gent's toilets by the clock tower is broken, and the county council will not mend it.
One of the ways to combat vandalism would be to lock the toilets earlier, around 5.30pm, but there are people around town in the evenings who can't always go into pubs to use the toilets, such as the boys who ride their BMXs around. It could also be a problem for walkers and canoeists who come to the town out of business hours.
Just recently Hay became a "Walkers Are Welcome" town, and the early closure of the toilets in the evenings might jeopardise that status. Talgarth and Crickhowell are also "Walkers Are Welcome" towns, and it would be worth getting in touch with them and working something out together.
Another suggestion for raising money would be to sell advertising space in the toilets. Gareth is going to look into the cost of turnstiles and coin operated locks. Anne Brichto suggested that booksellers could leave some surplus books in the toilets - "spend a penny and get a free book".
Another suggestion was to turn the toilets into "eco-loos", with solar panels for the lighting, and cisterns that use less water.
If anyone else has ideas - the council would love to hear them!
Earlier in the day, the Chief Executive of Powys County Council, Jeremy Patterson, and Paul Griffiths, the Director of Powys Highways, came for a private meeting with Hay Council. They took them to see the toilets at the top of Hay car park, and suggested strongly that it would be a good idea to have a small levy on top of the car park charge to pay for them.
Then they went back to the Council Chambers, where a "small but vociferous" protest rally was being held outside the Clock Tower toilets. The petition against the closures started by Ellie Spencer gained 1,122 signatures, with an online version hosted by 38 Degrees and a paper version.
At the meeting with the councillors, a few concessions were made. If Hay Town Council sends a letter of intent to take over the toilets, the Cabinet may delay the closure to April 2014 to enable them to get the funding in place. They also agreed to look at the possibility of a levy on the car park, first of all to see if the idea was legal, and then (if it is) at a mechanism to get the money to Hay. They are considering raising the car parking charges across the county anyway. A levy of 5p per ticket would raise £14,000 and a 10p levy would raise £28,000, based on the number of cars using the car park last year (280,000). Hay doesn't get the car park money because in 1974 the town council gave responsibility for the car park over to Powys.
The toilets are expected to cost £13,393 for the ones at the car park and £6,373 for the clock tower toilets - Rob had a breakdown of the figures from the county council, including water, sewage, electricity, rates, cleaning and toilet rolls, and a climate levy of £13 a year. There's also an annual health and safety inspection charge, which has to be done by law.
They will give their answer early in the New Year. The town precept (which is the amount of money Hay gets from the council tax to run everything they are responsible for in the town) is £13,900 and Hay council have to set the amount of the precept that they need by the 24th January.
If the Cabinet don't agree to these things - what then?
Rob Golesworthy was adamant that the toilets would not be closed down, even if he has to clean them himself! They are too important to the future of the town.
Dawn Lewis, one of the new councillors, has been in touch with someone at the National Park - I think it was the Sustainable Tourism Manager, and she also mentioned a Mr Tyler who is the Director of Countryside. They are concerned about what the county council are doing, but feel it is not their place to lobby them. They agreed that Hay is the jewel in the crown of the area as far as tourism is concerned, and raises a lot of money.
The Disabled Access Group are also looking for a meeting with the county council, as they want to ensure that disabled people are able to get to toilets when they need them. There may be a legal issue with closure, as disabled people are a "protected group" which needs to be catered for.
The other options the town council have are to ask volunteers to clean the toilets, to start charging for the use of the toilets, to find another local body willing to fund the toilets, such as the Chamber of Commerce. This could start off on a voluntary basis, like paying for the Christmas lights.
Another possibility would be to increase the precept, meaning that the council tax payments for everyone in Hay would go up by around £10. But this would mean charging the people who, on the whole, don't use the toilets, rather than putting the cost onto the visitors who do.
There is a grant available of £6,500 a year from the county council to run the toilets - but this doesn't remotely cover the cost.
The use of volunteers was considered to be a bad idea - it might start well, but people would drop out and leave others to carry the load, and it would be better to hire someone to do the cleaning, because then there would be someone to hold to account for the state of the toilets. One suggestion was that if Hay, Talgarth and Glasbury got together, the cleaning of all those toilets could be the basis for a start up business for someone.
At a recent meeting in Glasbury, a group of volunteers have come forward to run the toilets themselves (they are trying to set up a Trust), and the meeting was practically unanimous in agreeing that the precept in Glasbury should be raised to pay for the toilets. But as Anna of Drover Holidays pointed out - they don't have a car park to raise money from.
There were worries about vandalism - some towns that started to charge for their toilets found that people were breaking the locks and causing damage. However in Llandovery, vandalism went down. Luke of Drover Holidays pointed out that the problem with vandalism wasn't whether the toilets were free or cost money, but anti-social behaviour generally, and if it wasn't the toilets, it would be something else in town that was damaged.
Rob said that the last time the toilets at the car park were seriously damaged, it was by adults from out of town. They were caught on CCTV. There's also a problem in that one of the gent's toilets by the clock tower is broken, and the county council will not mend it.
One of the ways to combat vandalism would be to lock the toilets earlier, around 5.30pm, but there are people around town in the evenings who can't always go into pubs to use the toilets, such as the boys who ride their BMXs around. It could also be a problem for walkers and canoeists who come to the town out of business hours.
Just recently Hay became a "Walkers Are Welcome" town, and the early closure of the toilets in the evenings might jeopardise that status. Talgarth and Crickhowell are also "Walkers Are Welcome" towns, and it would be worth getting in touch with them and working something out together.
Another suggestion for raising money would be to sell advertising space in the toilets. Gareth is going to look into the cost of turnstiles and coin operated locks. Anne Brichto suggested that booksellers could leave some surplus books in the toilets - "spend a penny and get a free book".
Another suggestion was to turn the toilets into "eco-loos", with solar panels for the lighting, and cisterns that use less water.
If anyone else has ideas - the council would love to hear them!
Wednesday, 11 December 2013
Castle Tap
On Saturday night, I went up to the Castle for an evening out. It was a mini beer festival, with beers from several local small breweries, as well as ciders (and wine). The tickets included 2 pints of beer, food and the band Lonesome Stampede, all for £10. It was all to raise money for Hay and Clyro Schools.
I was a bit cheeky at the bar, and asked if I could have four halves instead of two pints, so I could get round as many beers as possible (two pints is getting close to my limit!) and they were very good about that - I had some Abigail's Party from Jones the Brewers, Oliver's Twist (quite citrus-y and refreshing) and Auntie Myrtle's. The organisers had gone for fairly hoppy and light beers on the whole, but a variety of strengths.
Food was being cooked in the Castle kitchen - I got a sausage, beefburger and salad, in a bun, from a man with a sweatshirt emblazoned with the slogan "Heisenburg's Cookery School". I asked him if this meant he was uncertain about what he was cooking.*
Lonesome Stampede are a good local band, and they will also be playing Tomatitos on Saturday 21st December for their Winter Solstice gig.
The Castle was packed out - and when I saw one of the organisers yesterday evening he told me they could have sold the tickets about three times over. Also, they ran out of beer! They raised £400 each for Hay and Clyro Schools, and they will certainly be doing it again!
*It's a science joke - Heisenburg's Uncertainty Principle
I was a bit cheeky at the bar, and asked if I could have four halves instead of two pints, so I could get round as many beers as possible (two pints is getting close to my limit!) and they were very good about that - I had some Abigail's Party from Jones the Brewers, Oliver's Twist (quite citrus-y and refreshing) and Auntie Myrtle's. The organisers had gone for fairly hoppy and light beers on the whole, but a variety of strengths.
Food was being cooked in the Castle kitchen - I got a sausage, beefburger and salad, in a bun, from a man with a sweatshirt emblazoned with the slogan "Heisenburg's Cookery School". I asked him if this meant he was uncertain about what he was cooking.*
Lonesome Stampede are a good local band, and they will also be playing Tomatitos on Saturday 21st December for their Winter Solstice gig.
The Castle was packed out - and when I saw one of the organisers yesterday evening he told me they could have sold the tickets about three times over. Also, they ran out of beer! They raised £400 each for Hay and Clyro Schools, and they will certainly be doing it again!
*It's a science joke - Heisenburg's Uncertainty Principle
Tuesday, 10 December 2013
Christmas Dinner
It's that time of year when groups book Christmas lunches and dinners in restaurants and pubs, and on Friday I went with a group to the Black Lion.
I just want to say that their rice pudding with fruit compote is possibly the best rice pudding I have ever eaten in my life! And the rest of the meal was pretty good, too. The squash and apple soup for starters was delicious, and there was plenty of meat for the main course (I had beef rather than the traditional turkey) - it was all very tasty.
And there was good conversation too.
I just want to say that their rice pudding with fruit compote is possibly the best rice pudding I have ever eaten in my life! And the rest of the meal was pretty good, too. The squash and apple soup for starters was delicious, and there was plenty of meat for the main course (I had beef rather than the traditional turkey) - it was all very tasty.
And there was good conversation too.
Monday, 9 December 2013
More Council Discussions
The Two Towns One World project is just finishing, thankfully on target after some problems along the way. Now it remains to wind down and do an audit (which could be expensive in itself). Steve Like pointed out that councillors put a lot of their own time and effort into things like the recent visit from Timbuktu - such as Fiona Howard driving a minibus to the airport and back - and in future that sort of thing should be written into the costs of a project rather than donated for free by the councillors. Hay-on-TV now has a second film channel dedicated to Timbuktu.
Problems continue with the plans for the new Hay School. The provisions for the Council in the new building are not adequate nor appropriate, with the council meetings having to share space with community groups doing yoga and the town clerk having to share an office with the registrar. There are also concerns about the County Council's plans to sell the Council Chambers and the Library (which will also be moving into the school building). It would be nice to know where the money from those sales is going to go.
Fiona Howard, who couldn't be present at the meeting, had said she was going to work out a business plan for the Council Chambers so that the town council can continue to use it. The rent from the offices is enough for the day to day expenses, but some serious maintenance work needs to be done and there is no money spare for that. The roof will need replacing soon, for instance. The present lease from the County Council has expired, and it was suggested that the best plan at the moment was to ask for a further five year lease, by which time the school might actually have been built, and councillors would have a better idea of their options.
If the town council have to move, one suggestion was that they should move into the present Library building when the Library moves to the school.
Apparently, there is £200,000 in the bank which is supposed to be for the benefit of Hay, but which the town has not been able to touch. It was put to one side by the County Council in 1996, when there were plans to extend the main car park. So someone is going to investigate the terms on which the County Council will release the money to Hay.
Problems continue with the plans for the new Hay School. The provisions for the Council in the new building are not adequate nor appropriate, with the council meetings having to share space with community groups doing yoga and the town clerk having to share an office with the registrar. There are also concerns about the County Council's plans to sell the Council Chambers and the Library (which will also be moving into the school building). It would be nice to know where the money from those sales is going to go.
Fiona Howard, who couldn't be present at the meeting, had said she was going to work out a business plan for the Council Chambers so that the town council can continue to use it. The rent from the offices is enough for the day to day expenses, but some serious maintenance work needs to be done and there is no money spare for that. The roof will need replacing soon, for instance. The present lease from the County Council has expired, and it was suggested that the best plan at the moment was to ask for a further five year lease, by which time the school might actually have been built, and councillors would have a better idea of their options.
If the town council have to move, one suggestion was that they should move into the present Library building when the Library moves to the school.
Apparently, there is £200,000 in the bank which is supposed to be for the benefit of Hay, but which the town has not been able to touch. It was put to one side by the County Council in 1996, when there were plans to extend the main car park. So someone is going to investigate the terms on which the County Council will release the money to Hay.
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