Western Relief Road

Rugby suffers massively from traffic congestion and has been waiting for many years for a by-pass or relief road. After years of delay work started just over a year ago and constuction is well under way, although with further delays which will put back the opening of the final section by as much as 12 months. Yesterday, along with Councillors Collett & Hazelton I had the opportunity to visit the site, to view the progress to date and hear about some of the issues creating the delay. I learnt something of the complications of a complex construction project and the need for co-ordination with other agencies including in this case Network Rail since a new bridge over the West Coast Main Line is required. The northern section from Lawford Lane to the Leicester Rd was always going to present the greater difficulty with also a new bridge over the River Avon and passing though a built up area. There is a very useful website at www.warwickshire.gov.uk/rwrr providing lots of information about progress on the road and I am sure that the information here and the communication with the local press which has led to Rugby people being patient about the time taken for its completion. I know road users will be delighted when it is avalable to be used!

Childrens Centre

At the Locality Panel meeting in Brownsover a couple of weeks ago, the manager of the recently opened Childrens Centre at Boughton Leigh gave a presentation. Not having previously visited a centre, I asked if I could do so and was shown around on Tuesday. I saw a well resourced facility providing valuable facilities to parents and unders 5s in an area where this kind of support will be appreciated. I well remember the massive change that Tracy & I had to go through when we first became parents and how often it was difficult to know where to turn for help and advice. The centre puts on a number of courses and provides drop in facilities which I am sure will help with the difficult task of bringing up young children.

Alun's Memorial

Twickenham on Saturday was the usual great day out with an England win, which was pretty convincing. I enjoyed meeting up with English friends from Scotland who had brought some Scots down with them. Only for a few minutes in the second half did I think there was any chance of the Scots, who never really looked like scoring a try, coming into the game. The Wales v Ireland game on the big screen in the bar afterwards was pretty exiting too!

I took the opportunity to look out the memorial to my schoolfriend, Alun Williams, who is remembered by a plaque at the ground. Alun was one of the nicest guys ever but who was so unfortunate with his health. I have always associated Alun with Twickenham ever since, despite having both Welsh parents and the most Welsh name, he played there for England Schoolboys against Wales in 1972.

I had thought his plaque was in the wall of fame and was surprised to find it on the ground in the walk of fame! A fitting tribute to a great player and brilliant person and now that I know where it is in the stadium, I will remember to visit each time I'm down for the game.

Rugby's Football Shirts in Rwanda

I have received these photos of the shirts we sent over a few weeks ago. Great to see they are being put to good use!

Credit Union

Yesterday evening I attended the AGM of Rugby Credit Union. This is a voluntary body who provides savings & loan facilities to Rugby people generally but targetted at those who might otherwise be forced to use doorstep lenders. The Credit Union charges loan interest at 1% per month equivalent to 12.7% APR. By contrast we were shown an advertisment for another loan provider where the APR is 189.2%. So the work carried out is a valuable service within the community and has a method of working where people are helping one another. Loans are granted to those with a record of saving with the Credit Union and so a sound approach to personal finance is encouraged. I was impressed with the work that is being done in the tought economic times such we face today and wish the team there well.

Open Source Software

Two young businessmen attended the recent seminar we held dealing with the recession. They run a business I wasn’t previously familiar with and so yesterday I met Chris Hall from Credativ in Rugby who supply IT packages running on open source software. Chris explained to me the rationale behind this approach. As someone who has grown up in recent years with Microsoft products, the notion that there is a software package with the source code open to all is pretty revolutionary. I was struck by the huge marketing opportunities and also be potential cost-saving to government institutions who are massive purchasers of software. I hope that their business will do well.

Locality Panels

During the past week I have attended two of rugby’s locality panel meetings. Locality panels are held by Ward County Councillors and local Police to discuss matters of concern within the use smaller geographical units. I am very familiar with the style of these meetings as I used to attend those of Dunchurch divisional panel in my time as a Rugby Borough Councillor. I attended Rugby Town West panel which covers Overslade, Caldecott and Bilton last week and yesterday I was at Rugby Town North covering Newbold, Brownsover and Benn. The agendae were similar, and covered topical issues, in this case the new refuse and recycling arrangements, current developments, and then followed a report from the Police. In addition the Police are looking for a guide from the community as to the priorities they would like to see intended to. In each case I was able to get a good feel of what is happening in each area and what residents would like to see done. In many ways it is a great pity that not more of the public are unable to attend.

That's better!

England’s performance on Saturday was everything we’ve been waiting for this season. I’m really looking forward to my trip to Twickenham this coming Saturday when England play Scotland, when I will be watching with Victoria, Will & Tom & meeting up with some old friends and watching another great game!

Law School Forum

On Thursday I joined a group of final year law students at the University of Warwick who held a forum concerning the rights of older people in care homes. They are looking at the Security of tenure for older people in private care and the possibility of extending human rights legislation to ensure that they are not forced to leave. A forum involving specialist speakers followed by a general debate took place. Some convincing statistics showing a high number of deaths immediately after the closure of a care home were presented and the issue is how this might be avoided. The forum itself was very interesting, although dominated by the very strong personality of a lawyer who has been involved defending the rights of older people. I was not convinced that the extension of the human rights act into this area is the solution to the problem. It seems to me that particularly in relation to local authority care homes, it is vital that procedures should be in place to ensure that proper inadequate care is given to vulnerable residents if a closure becomes necessary.

Bulkington boxing club

On Wednesday I joined Bulkington councillors John Ross, Des O'Brien and Julian Gutteridge at Bulkington boxing club who were opening an extension of facilities at the club. A redundant temporary classroom from the county council has been made available and a new boxing ring has been installed. I met Stewart Tidman who is secretary and matchmaker of the club who told me all about how the club came into being and its role in the community. I think the work that they are doing with young lads is absolutely fantastic, giving them a sense of belonging and achievement with several Midlands champions. As a father of two teenage boys, I know how much energy they have and it's great to see that energy channelled in a positive way. Stewart told me that they have a waiting list of both boys and girls wanting to join the club and with the excellent organisation they have, that's no surprise.

Rugby cement plant engagement stakeholder meeting

The meeting I attended on Tuesday evening was one of several with the intention of setting up a future engagement process. Unfortunately the recent meetings of this group have led to very little progress and as a result The Environment Council, who are a charity whose goal is to “help society deliver the best outcomes to the most challenging sustainability issues through ensuring we and others apply the right engagement strategies” have been invited to assist with setting up new ways of working. I found the exercise very interesting with highly professional facilitators trying to make progress in the group who up to now have been unable to agree on a way forward. Their approach was to avoid conflict by getting the participants to agree on a way forward “for now” under headings that people present “could live with”. While the meeting was very lengthy (4 hours!), I did feel that the basis of a way forward was provided. However it also seemed to me that while the Environment Council people were present, they acted as a driving instructor in a car with an inexperienced driver. The test will be what happens when the instructor leaves and the driver is left on his own.

Literary Lunch

On Sunday lunchtime one of our most active branches are arranged a lunch with a star speaker. The lunch organiser was our very own David Barby, antiques expert and presenter on TV is bargain hunt. David invited along one of his colleagues Philip Serrill who gave a most amusing talk about his early days in his career as an auctioneer with a long established firm of Surveyors and Land Agents. The audience was in stitches. Not all Conservative Association events have to be political, but Philip laid out his stall by telling us how pleased he was to be addressing the local branch of The Gordon Brown fan club!

Typing Update

A few months ago I started at Rugby College on a course designed to improve my typing skills. I'm afraid my attendance record isn’t the best attend and have so far only managed to get up to 17 words per minute which is little better than the one fingered approach I used before starting the course. I aim to continue with the course but in the meantime to try and get more done, I have just bought voice recognition software which I am using for this posting. So far it seems pretty good and I am able to get words down on paper much faster than I will ever be able to type. I'm also sure that the software will help tremendously when it comes to preparing for speeches and presentations. I'll give an update about how I get on!

Rugby’s cement plant

This coming Tuesday evening I will be attending a stakeholder meeting which has been set up to consider they engagement process between Cemex who operate the plant and local residents and community groups. In order to be up to date with the operation and activity at the plant on Thursday I visited Rugby cement and was showed around by Ian Southcott, the company’s public affairs manager. Due to the slowdown in the construction industry the demand for cement has reduced which means that some of the other plant run by the company has been either mothballed or is operating a reduced capacity. Rugby is the company's newest and most efficient plant and is still running at full capacity. The aim of the meeting will be to ensure that the plant remains a good neighbour to local residents and I am looking forward to a positive and constructive outcome.

Friends of Grammar Schools

A busy evening on Tuesday meant that I was unable to attend a reception held by Friends of Grammar Schools. In Rugby we have two excellent grammar schools and as a former pupil of one of them, I am a strong supporter of grammar schools where they exist. I believe they provide a high quality of education and provide an opportunity to bright and capable children from all backgrounds. More details of this organisation are available at www.friendsofgrammarschools.org.

The Rugby Network Breakfast

Last Friday I joined a well attended meeting of the Rugby Branch of the Federation of Small Business. As a former small business owner I was at home with entrepreneurs with an opportunity to network followed by a presentation. This month’s topic was by Rosie & Ken Barfoot of Training for Results and covered different modes of thinking and identifying different groups. It was no surprise to me to find myself in the analytical & structure group which represents my approach to running and organising! I enjoyed also talking with people present about how their businesses are responding to the current climate but wasn’t so sure about the 7am start which took me straight back to the days of running my business. The FSB have an excellent website with a report of the meeting and details of their forthcoming events at http://www.rugbybreakfast.co.uk/.