Clangers and Clangers......

My scribblings in the Herald Express 21st December 2011.......

Last week I pitched up to a breakfast business networking event at Richard Haddock’s Churston Farm Shop, which was good fun. I think the farm shop concept is hugely important and, just to hammer the point home, as you drive in there is a whacking great big sign recommending that people shop locally. It was my first visit and I felt a little guilty about that because the whole enterprise is quite brilliant. I have to say that the farmer’s breakfast is really outstanding!

Curiously as I drove in through the gate John Humphrys and his Radio Four Today programme colleagues were banging on about town centre shopping because good old Mary Portas was once again waxing lyrical about the catastrophic state of town centre shopping. Of course I have a vested interest with Harbour Sports shops in Paignton, Plymouth and Exeter, which meant that the harbinger of gloom (John Humphrys not Mary Portas) had my full attention!

But you know the localism thing isn’t just about shopping. I do worry that we are becoming a nation of Clangers. Do you remember the iconic children’s programme, The Clangers, about a strange people who popped out of their holes in the ground made a funny noise and then disappeared back into the comparative safety of the hole- home?

The advent (good choice of word for this time of year!) of multi-channel television, the internet, game machines, smart phones, an eclectic mix of other devices and rising unemployment that actually seems that leaving home is almost optional. Home delivery of neatly packed food and cut price alcohol allows us to slump in a heap on the sofa before drifting into a soporific hypnotic state in front of a shimmering screen. Outstanding!

Miles Kington years ago made the slightly amusing comment about understanding the difference between knowledge and wisdom. What he said was that knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit but wisdom is knowing not to put it in the fruit salad! If we really want to hold our communities together then the preservation of local shopping and neighbourhood services is hugely hugely important.

One simple example close to home was the loss of the popular Post Office on Paignton harbour. We had all the pointless rhetoric about slimming business made by highly paid executives but they gave scant attention to the pivotal role that the Post Office played in community life. It was a meeting place for so many, a place for basic shopping, a place where views were exchanged and a source of cash for pensioners. Oh yes it is all very well to have your pension paid by direct debit but it now means that a trip has to be made to the nearest bank for cash.

Ah yes, the nearest bank. Well that is usually in the town centre and here comes the next bit about knowledge and wisdom. This one really is for Torbay Council! Knowledge is knowing that parking meters can generate a very good income which would seem to make sense in these horribly challenging times. Wisdom is knowing that people will only go where their car is welcome and so the short term parking meter income is soon lost as folk abandon the town centre. The local economy and neighbourhood identity will simply wither like un-watered fruit on the vine.

Here is a little bit of advice for Torbay Council. Go and take a look at those big big supermarkets on the edge of the town. Look at the crowded car parks and just think why do people park there when they have to spend £3 for the privilege? Oh yes, of course they don’t pay anything! You simply flop out of the car, prop yourself up at the end of a trolley and slide around the aisles before wheeling your goodies back to the car. Lovely! But in the town centre you have to have a pocket full of change and for a short visit to the shops (less than ten minutes for 20p) you need the sprinting ability of Usain Bolt to make it back to your car before the hovering civil enforcement officer stuffs a ticket under the windscreen wipers. First hour free boys and girls, first hour free!

Happy Christmas…………………….

Nothing stops a bullet faster than a job....

My column this week in the Herald Express 24th November 2011.....

This past week has been Global Entrepreneurship Week when globally folk come together to celebrate enterprise, innovation and that sort of thing. I always found the word entrepreneur somewhat daunting although these days it seems to pop up time and time again. Of course it has been around for many years and indeed try “Googling” (what an amazing computer search facility Google is!) and up pops a huge list. ‘Young Entrepreneurs’, ‘Famous Entrepreneurs’, ‘Entrepreneur Ideas’, ‘Entrepreneur Exchange’; the list goes on and on. Of course it is, as I am sure you know, essentially about business.

During the week events were held across South Devon by the various organisations tasked with encouraging people to be enterprising, to think about business, business start-up schemes business success award ceremonies and so much more. During the week I found myself spending an afternoon as a business mentor with a group of people who will soon graduate from the Devon School of Social Entrepreneurs based at Dartington. This was for me a good thing to be doing because I am fascinated and perhaps even captivated by the concept of social enterprise and, if you like, social entrepreneurship.

For those of you who bravely or foolishly read what I write will know that community action has always been near and dear to me. We live in hugely troubled times and the daily news brings a torrent of worrying detail about economic distress, financial inequality, rising prices, unemployment and perhaps a creeping loss of hope. But there is some good stuff going on, people doing special things, folk working for the good of all and more importantly refusing to be beaten down by the negative.

Of course much of the distress is about the loss of jobs, the worry about losing a job and the fear of running out of money or the reality of having no money. That is where many of the local entrepreneur start up schemes can be so helpful, especially when it comes to building social cohesion. You have only to look at what happened in London and Manchester last summer to see what happens when things tip over the edge.

In California some years ago Jesuit priest Greg Boyle coined the phrase ‘nothing stops a bullet like a job’ and that caught my attention. People, especially the young, need to be valued. Getting and hanging on to a job is being valued. Not getting or losing a job is catastrophic for the individual, for those around him/her and for the community as a whole. Enterprises and especially social enterprise can create jobs within a community and build a sustainable platform. One of the Dartington SSE students was in the process of developing a concept that had the fledgling title of ‘Crime to Career’ and looked at building individual talents into a meaningful career rather than slipping into crime. It is, at the end of the day about captivating a community and building hope.

Now one of the shadows of our time is the rise of unemployment amongst the young. We also live in a time of catching acronyms. One such acronym is NEET. Of course when you hear the word neat then all seems well but sadly NEET isn’t well at all! NEET is the growing band of people who are not in employment, education or training. That is needlessly to say very unhealthy for a society. It is here that the need for enterprise training and building social enterprise is huge. Enterprise is not, in my humble opinion, just about being able to run your own business. It is about collecting life skills that will also be of considerable benefit to breath fresh life into businesses that already exist and indeed to larger public sector organisations.

There are good things happening here on the English Riviera, Torbay, South Devon, Agatha’s Riviera, but they need nourishing. We mustn’t simply roll over and feel that there is nothing to be done because events like Global Entrepreneurship Week and organisations such as The Devon School for Social Entrepreneurs CAN make a huge difference. We simply need to be receptive to the message – said the voice too often ‘crying in the wilderness!’

Parking Meter Highway Robbery!

It’s dark. It’s raining. It’s Wednesday 16th November. It’s just after five in the evening. Paignton is a ghost town. Hyde Road has a handful of cars parked. My wife, who has reached retirement age parks and pops 20p into a parking meter before walking briskly to quickly look in a shop window on the corner of Victoria Street. The expire time on the ticket is 17.12hrs.

Having looked into the window my wife walked briskly back to her car and noticed a civil enforcement standing by her car with ticket machine in hand! The road is deserted, the rain lashing down yet there he is in all his soaking glory! The penalty ticket is timed at 17.16hrs. My wife is 4 minutes late!

At 17.16 the civil enforcement officer has already made out the ticket? So where was he? Hiding in a doorway just waiting for a victim? At least Dick Turpin used to gallop up to those he was about to rob and so everyone knew what was going on!

So here is the irony. I’ve been campaigning against parking meters for a long time especially when they are for revenue collection rather than traffic control. For small towns like Paignton they are catastrophic and do untold damage to the economic viability of the town centre. Certainly my wife is now saying that she has no intention of visiting Paignton town centre again and she was born in Paignton!

If Torbay Council feel that they really really do need parking meters then THE FIRST HOUR MUST BE FREE.

You really couldn't make it up!

Dad's Army at public meeting

My column in the Herald Express Thursday, November 10, 2011

WHEN the coalition galloped madly into Westminster with David Cameron, Nick Clegg and dear old George Osborne at the head of the eclectic horde, I really did worry that we were slipping into some sort of neo-feudalism, as we were scattered in all directions.

Poet David Neita warns us to 'mind the gap' as he observes the widening divide between those who have so much and those who have so little.

As the coalition marches on it seems to me that the gap is indeed getting wider and wider. Part of that widening may well sadly lead to the re-emergence of the feudal class system.

Prime Minister John Major sought a more egalitarian society and part of that thrust was an attempt to make the honours system classless.

Out went the Medal of the Order of the British Empire Medal (BEM) and those deemed worthy were made Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE). Well, it seems David Cameron wants to re-introduce the BEM because not enough MBE awards were being made for folk who do so much for their communities. Hmm.

Rather than go back to what many described as a 'working class award', I would have thought that simply awarding more MBE gongs to deserving tireless folk who do so much for others would do the trick.

I am sure Mr Cameron is keen to recognise the contribution that all those in his curiously named 'Big Society' should feel we are all in this together, but I worry this may not be the best way.

One thing I do know is that people do indeed quietly beaver away and so often their work is not recognised or acknowledged.

Too often it is not until they stop doing what they do that heads come up like startled meerkats and notice things are not quite as they were!

One such local hero is Bob Brewis, who until last week or so was the chairperson for the Preston Community Partnership.

Bob has been unwell and therefore decided to hand the reigns to others. He has done so much for Preston, for Paignton and indeed for the whole of Torbay.

Gesche Buecker is the new chairman and presented Bob with flowers at the recent public meeting held in the ballroom at Oldway.

Now about that meeting! My reason for being there was to keep the pressure on councillors before too much damage is done by the thoughtless planting of traffic meters.

When the parking meter issue came up you could almost touch the energy in the room.

People were on their feet and forcefully attacking the proposals. Numerous people thought that we should be pushing on with regeneration rather than making Torbay a place that people simply don't want to visit and be penalised by draconian parking charges. Others thought the planting of meters on Preston seafront was yet another tax on local people.

Sadly from where I was sitting the meeting suddenly started to look like a scene from Dad's Army with Cllr Robert Excel suddenly looking like Corporal Jones while Cllr Chris Lewis took on the role of Chief Warden Hodges!

The 'audience' were being told not to panic by Excell/Jones, Lewis/Hodges went for a show of hands and the community voted against parking meters on Preston seafront, leaving Corporal Jones scratching his head!

But all credit to Robert Excell, because he knew the ride would be bumpy but was still brave enough to face the crowd.

But here's the thing. The meeting was both packed and buoyant, demonstrating that a community can gather in a meaningful way.

This was the sort of thing that I did suggest mayor Gordon Oliver might want to think about on a monthly basis.

The thing which caught my attention at the Preston partnership meeting was the energy and constructive comment.

We all need to engage and I truly believe that we ARE all in this together, though perhaps not quite in the way that Mr Cameron keeps bleating on about!

Watch the birth of a new day

From the Herald Express today.................

FRANK SOBEY: Forget the gloom, think positive .Thursday, October 27, 2011 Herald Express

I DON'T know why I start the day listening to the BBC Radio 4 Today programme because it all too often raises my blood pressure to a ridiculous level.

So much so that the other morning I wanted to scream to the harbinger of doom, John Humphrys, that we all know how bad it is but don't need his negative rhetoric early in the day to mercilessly hammer home the message.

Yet still if I am still asleep at 6am it is his highly-paid voice which bounces reality off the bedroom walls and plunges me into the day.

But it does also drives me rapidly from the bed and out of the house with my energetic dog for our daily pilgrimage to the paper shop, since it is my wife that in truth is the Today fan.

Often the wind is off the sea and I really cannot think of a better sensation than the salty air at dawn.

Of course it's not just dear old John who hammers home a message of gloom. David Cameron isn't too far behind with his daily litany of tighten your belts 'cause it's getting worse.

My worry is that both of them either consciously or unconsciously help to develop a feeling of national negativity that might unfortunately become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Sometimes we just really need a positive message to beef up flagging spirits. While we do of course need the news, we don't need a negative spin which feeds the ego of an overpaid presenter at the expense of folk fighting the reality of a new day.

When our affluent political leaders say it's going worse and that we are all in it together it we know that simply isn't true.

Those who have will not be in the same place as those who have not. They never have been.

So even though the days might seem dark that is absolutely no excuse to walk around looking glum or, as I often say, walking around with a face like a slapped kipper!

We need to buoy each other up and look for the positive rather than the negative. We should look for the best in each other and not the worst.

Let's celebrate success and hold a helping hand out when others need support. Don't count the cost or keep a score, just go for it.

Going for it is exactly what Torbay has done with the new £4million-plus Parkfield youth centre on Paignton seafront.

If you have not had a look, then do. I had a tour the other day and was simply blown away. So when people say nothing is happening in Torbay point them in the direction of Parkfield.

As a one-time climber I can tell you the climbing wall is one of the best I have seen. The BMX track is of an international standard and the skate park is simply stunning. There you go John Humphrys, start the day by telling everyone there is a new super-duper facility just opened for young people in Torbay which is breathing new life into the community.

One feature of Parkfield is the fact that all the staff will be Duke of Edinburgh's Award trained, adding to social inclusiveness.

As you doubtless know, you cannot gain a DofE Award without working as a team and helping others. For all those participating there are many older folk helping and that really does offer a brilliant shared social profile, in my opinion.

Now here is something really positive for you all to do when you have the time. At this time of year the sun rises over the sea and if you really really want to feel the energy of life get down to the beach just before dawn.

Sit quietly, wrapped up warmly in a picnic blanket, suck in a lung full of the sea air and watch the birth of a new day. Just do it.

The problem with mixed messages

This is my columnist contribution in the Herald Express 13th October 2011

Too often these days the message is mixed and outcomes curiously confused. Unpacking the rhetoric can be tedious and disorientating. Keep that in mind for the moment.

You see there are, it would seem, things that everyone should do at least once in a lifetime. Famous on the ‘must do list’ might be walking the Camino de Santiago, the Hajj and perhaps a visit to the Wailing Wall. All have a spiritual energy and of course there are doubtless so many others.

Another ‘must do’ with less spiritual energy is to attend a full meeting of Torbay Council! That was exactly what I did a couple of weeks ago and suggest that you might also like to experience that cathartic event. Watching our elected members ‘strut their stuff’ really is quite something. It’s an eclectic mix with a blend of serious stuff and curious comedy.

Each member has a microphone with a red light that flicks on when the civic chairman gives them the floor. The cross party black humour can be tedious but then there are the moments of sheer joy such as a senior member jumping up to second something that hadn’t been proposed, only to be batted into the long grass by the restless chairman!

I was in the sparsely populated public gallery (rows of chairs at the back of the ballroom) with, I think, eight or nine others. My fellow travellers included two young political hopefuls, a former mayoral candidate, two folk I didn’t know and small selection from the Kitsons Top Fifty club.

Now back to those mixed messages. Torbay subscribes to the commissioning model when it comes to local government services. Commissioners are highly paid senior council officers with an annual pay cheque of between £100,000 and £120,000 plus benefits. Part of the commissioning process has been the delegation of services to private companies like the English Riviera Tourist Board, under the direction of CEO Carolyn Custerton, with its own allocated budget to market Torbay.

You could have knocked me over with a fluffy magenta feather duster when during the Council meeting £250,000 was magically snatched out of the reserves for tourist marketing via our mayor and the Torbay Development Agency. That had me scratching my head. Do we now have two agencies marketing tourism?

Hmm. Mixed messages.

Still keeping in step with the tourist theme (must be all that glorious sunshine the other weekend!) I stumble across another mixed message. During Nick Bye’s Mayor’s Vision I followed, via the free cd, the prophetic footprints around Paignton that eventually end up on the harbour. The ‘Vision’ was for a harbour that suddenly became a honey pot for tourist activity. It’s actually quite famous for watersports already. No matter. The whole area is of course, in keeping with the dear old town plan, a conservation area.

You can imagine the surprise just over a year ago when two giant ugly containers landed outside the crab factory where the south quay meets the east quay. The locals, including harbour officials, protested pointlessly to Planning. Added to the summer ambiance is the smell of crab offal and the joy for tourists of watching living crab slaughtered in the open air. This aquatic abattoir is the latest tourist attraction adding a macabre balance to the numerous local eateries. Having said all that I am quite partial to white crab meat with a sprinkling of vinegar and black pepper served on a bed of fresh salad lightly tossed in olive oil!

So here is my thing. We really should say what we mean and really mean what we say. These are confusing times and we are too easily at the mercy of political spin. I know that dear David keeps banging on about us all being in this together but I sense a mixed message. Most of us are certainly in it; but all in it together? Well I am not too sure about that!

When the late summer sun hammered down on Torbay the other weekend it delivered a very clear message: Torbay, the English Riviera / Agatha’s Riviera is a stunningly beautiful place. So let us have a little joined up crystal clear thinking and celebrate what we are lucky enough to have!

We'll all take the pain!

FRANK SOBEY: We'll all take the pain of meters .Thursday, September 29, 2011 Herald Express
ON THE evening of Thursday, September 29, I plan to be at the Oldway public meeting when our councillors debate the placing of yet more parking meters around the town centres and shoreline.

I write this having just watched the hugely expensive Torbay Council-sponsored TV advert promoting late season holidays on the English Riviera, so let me start there.

Whether you like it or not we live on the coast and by its very nature is therefore a 'honey pot' for tourists.

What we have not had for the past four or five years is a sunny summer.

Most places can seem somewhat sad in the rain but a beach is particularly pathetic.

While the harbingers of doom bang on about how hopeless it all is, you must agree that we do live in a stunning beautiful area that springs into life when the sun beats down.

Sky Atlantic is still screening the television diary Fish Town, which tracks the lives of Brixham folk around the harbour.

Sad that it is only on the expensive pay-to-view Sky Atlantic because the filming is stunning and the narrator spins the yarn in elementary verse.

The sun seems always to shine and I do believe that even the seagulls are flying upside down!

It's this, I believe, that has prompted our mayor Gordon Oliver to stump up an additional £250,000 to promote tourism. Hence the little film.

The screening now, it seems, is to capture the late season business although I was a little curious about the waterslide shot because it is, of course, closed at this time of year.

Having said that, it is really good to see lovely film clips of the English Riviera on TV as a thirty-second advertisement.

The film is buoyant and that is how we must be if we want to retain our tourist business in these troubled times.

Part of that buoyancy is down to the local population and whether we make the visitors really welcome.

Having local folk walk around with faces like slapped kippers doesn't get the best reaction from people who have travelled many miles to holiday on the friendly English Riviera.

Now about that welcome.

The reason that I will pitch up at the parking meter meeting is because it seems to me that we are spending hundreds of thousands getting people to visit and then metaphorically take the foot shot as we make them angry by blatantly stinging them with painful parking meter charges.

But, of course, it isn't just the holidaymakers who take the parking meter pain since the local population get to share.

A local legal-eagle is looking at the relevant statute since our executive seem to be using parking meters as a means of revenue collection rather than traffic control.

That being the case, we have one part of the administration saying to people please come visit whilst another department is making them very unwelcome!

Of course, it isn't just about tourists when the parking meters start to spread like some alien life form.

It's hard enough these days to hold a community together around the centre of a town.

The evidence is the sad empty shops that look hopelessly like the mouth of a man in need of a dentist after years of oral neglect.

We've spent, again, hundreds of thousands on town centre managers and consultants.

We watched our Prime Minister ' launch' shopping guru Mary Portas on some sort of spiritual retail journey around the towns and cities in the hope of regenerating the flagging fortunes of the high street.

So what do we do on the English Riviera / Torbay/ Agatha's Riviera?

Parking Meters! Outstanding! You couldn't make it up.

One of the planned pitches is on the road around the west side of Paignton harbour.

The harbour economy is fragile and for the local businesses parking meters will be both catastrophic and pointless.

Catastrophic because for many a business it will be the final nail in a cheap coffin.

Pointless because people will simply not park there and so the machines will stand idle as a monument to the commercial corpse.

So, let us celebrate what is good, push forward socially cohesive and economically viable initiatives, but most of all have a council with its eye on the ball.

DON'T SIT THERE - GET UP AND GO!

I was the guest speaker this morning at the Peter Jones Enterprise Academy based at South Devon College.

“The Peter Jones Enterprise Academy is an opportunity for aspiring entrepreneurs to realise and achieve their business dreams.
Set-up by Peter Jones, CBE, star of ‘Dragons’ Den’, the Academy was the first to offer further education courses in enterprise and entrepreneurship in the UK where students are actually required to set up and run their own business.”

My thing, obviously, was about the life of Harbour Sports from the idea, the creation, the life pattern up to and including today.

The today is the interesting part as the national economy balances on a knife edge. Today Nick Clegg will address the Liberal Party at their annual conference and bang on about the economy. Meanwhile TV star and shopping expert Mary Portas is galloping around the country attempting to stimulate life into lifeless high streets.

These are hard times and the increasing trend if for people to hide indoors and sink into the virtual world offered by the Internet and countless television channels.

Certainly we have noticed reduced footfall and a reluctance take hands out of pockets!
But taking hands out of pockets is what needs to happen for all sorts of reasons. Unless the economy lifts then we will head for curious places.

Now, whilst I was banging on about Harbour Sports I suddenly slipped into a sunnier place where people got out and did rather than sat down and watched. Windsurfers, surfers, kayakers, sailors, hikers, climbers and in point of fact people that got out and did.

You see, if the body and spirit is active then the mind will follow. SO GET OUT AND DO – LIVE THE LIFE – MAKE IT HAPPEN.

frank

Are we really all in it together?

This is a cut and paste from my fortnightly column in the Herald Express today...

WE KEEP being told about the Big Society and my question remains the same: What Big Society?

David Cameron and his band of Eton College Old Boys keep banging on about how we must all pull together and how we are all in this together and yet, to me, the evidence is stacking up against that battle hymn.

We are told they have been handed the empty coffers and devastating debt by the previous administration.

But what must be clear to anyone with half a brain cell that poor old Gordon Brown was just the silly sausage who got left with the useless parcel when the music stopped in the international game of financial pass the parcel.

When he opened his cleverly-wrapped parcel he found it full of junk bonds, worthless mortgages and other dubious financial goodies. Had David Cameron been in that seat at the time, he too would have been clutching that nasty little goodie bag. But he wasn't.

Some bright spark suggested that never in the history of man has so much been taken from so many by so few.

It is worth looking at where our elite group of political leaders came from and where the money came from which supported and still supports them. So when George Osborne famously said what he wants is what we want, and that he wants for his children what we want for ours — we're all in this together — I wanted to cry.

So what do you think of the Big Society in Torbay? Remember that we are all in this together, are we not?

Tell the man who has just lost his job that we are all in this together. Tell the parent struggling to buy food as prices increase and fuel prices escalate that we are all in this together.

Tell the young people who left school last summer and still can't find work that we are all in this together.

Tell the young graduate with a good degree and now a Masters, yet can't find a job, that we are all in this together.

Tell the Torbay citizen looking at high council wages for senior staff, the bonuses still being paid to bailed-out bankers and the manipulation of curious business deals locally that we are all in this together.

Being a sad soul I sat, the other night, through a meeting of our local transport committee which had been opened to the public.

The purpose of the meeting was to look at the ludicrous proposal to stick even more traffic meters in popular areas.

Has no one told these people that you have to plant before you harvest?

Stripping yet more money from the people will accelerate decline. What worried me a little was the rabbit-like look in the eyes of a number of councillors.

Gordon Oliver wandered in during the meeting and sat quietly in the councillor corner. At the end of the meeting he was ambushed and asked suddenly to comment.

Gordon spoke for about 15 minutes, wandering loosely through the fact the country was short of cash, that Torbay was something or other (I couldn't understand that bit) and that hard times were ahead; which perhaps accounted for the rabbit-like look in the eyes of his fellow councillors, although not in the eyes of the council officers.

Therefore Mr Cameron, Clegg, Osborne and Cable, are we really, really, in this together, and is the Big Society not quite what we think it is as funding is yet again cut from another charity?

I was asked the other day how I would get the economy running again, and my response was to tell them to go and buy an ice cream.

You see, in order to buy an ice cream a commercial exchange has to take place.

The ice cream seller now has income and the ability to buy more stock.

People see you eating the ice cream and do the same. Suddenly the ice cream seller is busy and has to employ people to help him.

He buys more stock from the local producer who in turn can buy a new machine from the factory that was about to make people redundant.

Now that is what I call a Big Society!

They say that pride comes before a fall.....

So let me tell you about something that could have been nasty but turned out to be very funny and somewhat humbling. I'm getting older by the day and because my mind, according to my daughter, is saying one thing and my body another things don't always turn out the way they should. Jess noticed the problem watching me run upstairs. I have always found it almost impossible to walk up stairs and always want to take them three at a time. My mind accepts that but these days my body simply can't facilitate! The mind says three whilst the body says two and down I go in an undignified heap.

In attempt to keep breathing I walk/jog the dog through the woods when I can. I say when I can because the kids also want to do the same and of course I stand back, usually with gratitude and let them do the business.

Anyway on this slightly damp afternoon I jogged around the local woods that too few people share these days. Now if it is damp I tend to put on my ancient mountain boots for added traction. But this day I didn't bother because the effort was simply too much.

So I'm coming down this steep bank and lose my footing. I don't fall but do crash out onto the path in front of a young maid walking a large brown Labrador. Nice dog and attractive maid offering the ideal macho moment. Having regained my balance I brush the leaves and twigs from my hair and smile confidently. She asks whether I am OK; obviously concerned for this curious geriatric semi-jogger. Of course, in a very masculine way, I confirm my fitness to jog on.

I don't get very far before slipping on the wet mud and diving headlong into a dirty ditch next to the path. For a little while I remain still amongst the roots, brambles and smelly water waiting for the pain to come. My embarrassed dog has wandered off, obviously not wanting to be associated with the ageing idiot in the ditch. The Labrador lady arrives and expresses immediate concern for my well being.

I gingerly lift myself damply from the ditch and all seems well other than a few scratches, some minor bleeding and throbbing shoulder.

But all isn't well and I ask her, somewhat pathetically, to help me search for the missing pieces of my over inflated ego in the hope of regaining something of my lost dignity........she laughs and wanders on whilst I gather my hound and limp pathetically home......

I think that I could still hear her laughing when I eventually staggered out of Occombe Woods...

I will leave you with that image!

PARKING METER MADNESS

This is posted at thisissouthdevon.co.uk today......

I've just staggered back from a meeting of Torbay Council Transport Committee meeting which had been opened to the public. The gathering was at the English Riviera Centre and there was a certain irony about having to pay £3 at a meter to speak at a parking control meeting!

Torbay Council is constantly banging on about town centre regeneration, numerous empty shops and of course the infamous BID scheme where local traders pay a supplementary tax for town centre improvement. So what are they doing to support that? Well more parking meters with draconian charges of course which will simply drive people away from the towns!

Of course it isn't just the meters it is also about the hurtful charging policy. For a while now I have been promoting a call for FIRST HOUR FREE parking where meters have already been erected. The call has been made that it is only 20p for the first ten minutes. Well if you can get from the parking meter with your 20p ticket back to your car, then lock it before sprinting to your destination, grabbing what you want and then legging it back to the car inside ten minutes then you stand a good chance of being selected for the Olympic sprint team!

If Torbay really want to make extra cash from parking then a few parking meters dotted around the Willows might be worth thinking about. But to carry on with a parking policy that hammers town centre parking is eventually kill off the place.

My specific beef is with the proposal to pepper Roundham Road around the harbour with parking meters. I've watched Torbay Council make a pigs ear of Paignton Harbour by turning a once popular holiday destination into a myriad of prohibition notices, pointless fencing with all the attraction of the exercise yard at Guantanamo Bay and enough coloured road markings to equal a major motorway traffic intersection. Parking meters will finally finish the place off.

These knee jerk reactions to strategy really really worry me and they should worry you too.

We don't have the right to insult.....

This is from my occasional correspondent slot in the weekly Herald Express newspaper...

Thursday, September 01, 2011 Herald Express

IT'S VERY easy to take a spiteful pop at local councillors and, of course, any elected mayor. Nick Bye can tell you that and, whether you agreed with him or did not, the public rhetoric too often was both hurtful and, indeed, viciously spiteful.

Gordon Oliver is now in the firing line and getting many of the same hurtful, spiteful attacks.

​ATTACKED: Nick Bye, left, and current mayor Gordon Oliver have been in the firing line for hurtful, spiteful attacks
.You see, we all have the right to comment but we don't have the right to be rudely insulting, especially when the nastiness is hidden behind some silly pseudonym.

The other evening I was allowed, with two friends, the privilege of speaking for five minutes at a council committee meeting.

It was to push for a change in the proposed 100 per cent increase in school transport cost to parents and guardians.

That sort of increase was draconian, way ahead of any ruthless utility company price hikes and hitting many families already struggling to keep their heads above water.

I quite like public speaking — how sad is that? — but my two friends do not and it took courage to face our elected members in the ballroom at Oldway Mansion.

They did so very well and I felt that our councillors understood their bravery in speaking publicly about something they felt strongly about.

Looking around the ballroom while they were speaking and thinking about how intimidating it all seemed, I wondered again about public gatherings in venues for local folk that might prove a little more user friendly.

Nick Bye used to encourage folk to have a say before council cabinet meetings and other councillor events, which was fine for those happy enough to stand and speak.

Nick also had his monthly caravan engagement sessions at assorted places in Torbay.

But I think these things need to be a little wider in application, hence the suggestion that we use the Riviera Centre for monthly mayor meetings.

The format could be inclusive and user friendly. Gordon?

Here is another little point that is worth considering.

Often a mayor or councillor has to punt an idea that has been promoted by council officers rather than politicians.

Poor old Nick certainly took many custard pies when others were able to duck out of sight.

Let me give you an example. The chain and concrete barrier around Paignton Green is seen by many as the fault of councillors but the suggestion and energy came from an officer of the council rather than a councillor.

These things too often get lost in the rhetoric and drift into history. But hey, you doubtless know all this.

Talking about Paignton Green, I happened to be wandering in the sun at the start of this week and came across something I have not seen for a while.

The green was packed from end to end with folk sunbathing, families picnicking, children playing and people just generally having a good time.

Sunshine makes all the difference and, after five bad summers in a row, our tourism figures dip.

Despite the hard work of our new English Riviera Tourism Company, bad weather just doesn't bring a smile to the face of an aspirant tourist.

Not helped either if large sectors of the local community seem intent in walking around with a face like a slapped kipper.

As I write, the sun is out and so the prospect of a swim in the sea beckons.

Come and try it – the water's fine!

"You who are on the road...................."

Some months ago I was the guest speaker at the Riviera International Conference Centre Business Breakfast with a bendy sort of theme entitled How to Cure a Curmudgeon. Curmudgeons have always worried me, but that isn’t what I want to write about today. As I write the country is being stressed by economic dips, rioting, disengaged communities and most of all the sense of the loss of hope.

So what has all this to do with Torbay? Well it’s August and theoretically the height of the tourist season; a time for making the most of what we have. You might ask what we have and I would answer that we live in an area of outstanding beauty with large wooded areas, miles of super safe beaches and stunning rocky outcrops. Did you know that you can almost walk from the middle of Paignton to Cockington village through leafy tracks past sparkling streams and only have to cross roads a couple of times? How good is that? As a bonus you can score one point for every deer you see on the way. Yes it’s true we really have wild deer on our doorstep!

From numerous high points the view across our precious bay is to say the least breathtaking. Yet on a summer afternoon in August few boats bob on the open sea. There was a time, not so long ago, when you could almost hop from Torquay to Brixham bouncing off windsurfer decks, but now only a handful flit across the water.

I had thought about introducing geriatric Coasteering this summer in the hope of grabbing a bundle of older folk (not all geriatrics, although I now include myself in that noble group!) to explore the cliff coasts from a very different angle. I seem to remember Jim Parker jumping up and down with excitement when I mentioned the idea. What better way to encourage tourists than to see the local population out there using the environment without having to flash huge amounts of cash?

Ah yes, the local population. Well that is you and it is me, folks. The socio-political landscape is changing and unless we wake up to that fact the future is indeed not that rosy. Whilst I use the throw away comment ‘grabbing a bundle of older folk’ it is of course much bigger than that. It is about grabbing the energy of a community which is a bigger and a hugely more important task. The word community must mean exactly that; all of Torbay and not simply randomly touching the energy here and there.

The other morning, just after six, I wandered down with my dog to the local newsagent to pick up a copy of the now weekly Herald Express (I miss the daily dose!) and bumped into four lads outside the door. They seemed nice enough and responded to my greeting. Two were in the infamous pulled up hoodies; I guess they were between the ages of sixteen to nineteen and had obviously been up all night. With my paper tucked under my arm I walk home with the four lads a little way ahead of me all munching away on their recently purchased junk food breakfast of fizzy drinks, bottled milkshakes, crisps and other goodies. You might wonder how I knew what they were eating if I was trailing behind them listening to the sound of loosely used foul language? Well it was easy really since once they had finished or simply had enough, the unwanted bits were casually dropped.

Now a good citizen would have hailed them and suggested that they carry their litter home with them. They seemed nice lads and I suspect that they might have apologised and picked up the discarded detritus. But given the recent worrying news, the fact that I was alone with my hound and the national propensity for gratuitous violence, I did not. I did however pick up litter. As I walked home the words of a song made famous by Crosby Stills Nash and Young came to mind which now echoed in the early morning light. They sang that we should teach our children well, which made me wonder about parental guidance in this troubled time. How do we teach our children well when so much has changed and the constant onslaught of television, social media, instant communication and the irresponsibly mixing of fact and fiction into a maelstrom that is fast becoming a socio-political and economic perfect storm?

Well Mayor Oliver I still think that we can set an example here in Torbay by using our natural resources to the maximum and engaging the whole of the community. I have already suggested open meetings at which you could encourage all sectors to attend and positively contribute in a meaningful way for the greater good. But how do we get them there? Well, we could start by knocking on doors and holding out a hand. Hmm, interesting! We all have life and it is something that in my humble opinion we must positively share. That’s my vision. What do you think?

Mankini Man and the 6th Torbay

The Italians have a word which, for me, seems to catch the moment when things really go well. The word is Fanastico and the annual Paignton Regatta Round the Pier swim last Friday evening was exactly that! This is my second year of being the organiser and what fun it is. Twenty-nine people ranging in age from 14 to 75+ splashed into the sea on the south side of the pier and then cut through the waves around a bright orange buoy off the end before speeding back to the beach.

Of course and event like this can’t happen without tremendous support from many people including two safety boats and numerous canoeists from the 6th Torbay Scouts, plus Simon Lane his kayaking friends. Lifeguards Claire (from the Redcliffe Hotel) and Bethan (6th Torbay) kept a watchful eye over the swimmers but didn’t need to leap into action! Dotted amongst the spectators were the yellow sweatshirts of the Paignton Regatta Committee members rattling collecting boxes and handing out space blankets to shivering swimmers! This is a community in action!

One of the stars of the evening was swimmer Ali Sular who sported a bright green mankini and in doing so managed to raise over £200 for Rowcroft Hospice. Good man! Borat look out – Ali Sular is looking for your job!

How green is my Green.....

There are times when I simply want to sit down and weep! It’s that feeling of being the proverbial voice crying in the wilderness when things seem to blindingly obvious. Let me give you a few examples.

We spend so much time talking about regeneration in Torbay and energising the flagging high street shopping experience with assorted schemes. But unless we address parking cost little is going to change. Our mayor is now talking about forming a committee to look at parking but to me it seems that unless you make the first hour free then little will change. Does that need a committee? Who on earth wants to spend pounds on parking whilst nipping into local shops for a low value purchase? Not me for one as I drive around at a cost of £1.40 a litre looking for a free parking place! We live in the age of the car and whilst short term parking is financially painful then folk will simply not shop locally. It really is as simple as that!

He moves swiftly on! I am, as you have probably worked out, a firm believer in community cohesion and in these troubled times there is a real and increasing danger of the social divide widening. Some weeks ago I found myself at an event with some affluent folk and happened to hear the observation that there were really no poor people in Torbay . Shortly after that I attended a presentation for young people from difficult backgrounds who were being awarded certificates for social engagement and the contrast, to me, was shocking. There but for the grace of god go all of us. We share this journey through life together and looking out for your neighbours must be automatic. That is yet another reason for getting people into the town and sharing community experience.

Part of the sharing process, I rather hoped, would be my suggested monthly mayoral public meetings with the added bonus of some positive community action afterwards. But as I write I see no evidence that this socially cohesive event is any nearer. Once again the proverbial voice crying in the wilderness echoes across Torbay . The cathartic experience of standing, unsuccessfully, as a councillor some years ago demonstrated to me how insular communities can be. Certainly our virtual world in cyberspace gives the illusion of community action although the reality is that it is contained within the home whilst staring endlessly into a flickering screen.

Oh well, we battle on and battling seems to be what is happening with tourism just now. The front page of the paper recently had Laurence Murrell of the TLH hotel group banging on about the confusion resulting from the mayor’s strategic gymnastic in suggesting merging tourist and conference folk. It reminded me of what has gone before with the various interest groups slugging it out over the future of our flagging seaside resort. To me the main focus should be on celebrating what we already have and stuffing what we might want on a realistic wish list. We do need a fresh look at what we do because as dear old Albert Einstein said doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome really is insanity.

Insanity. Hmm. One of my much loved areas of Torbay is Paignton Green and when the silly concrete posts connected by a spiky chain arrived some years ago, solving a problem that we didn’t have, a single tear ran down my cheeks. I loved that open space and found myself over the years engaging in many community events that have been traditionally held there. Hot summer days, when we had them, had the whole grass area covered by sun bathers and cheerful picnicking families. So how green is my Green today? Well less than it is now when another chunk is sacrificed to the building of a play park later this year which will reduce the usable area. I can see the attraction of this new Geo play park but am saddened by the loss of this destination green space and the worry that at pub chucking out time it will become a hot spot of a very different kind as inebriated idiots demonstrate their invincibility balancing on various play park climbing frames! Not the sort of destination tourism that I had in mind…….

Vision of question time and personal litter-picking...

The Herald Express is now a weekly rather than a daily. This is my occasional column for the first edition...

Thursday, July 21, 2011 Herald Express

A couple of months ago, just after the mayoral election, I wrote down a few thoughts about the new political dynasty. My concern was that when you suddenly get what you always wanted you might find that you didn't want it at all! But you've got it and now you have to do something meaningful with it.
I had the opportunity to test that thought process last Thursday when I bumped into Gordon Oliver on the stunningly beautiful main staircase at Oldway Mansion in Paignton. I reminded him of what I had written just after the mayoral election and asked whether he really had got what he wanted. His diplomatic wry smile will amuse me for years to come. As he said, these are early days.

Well, early days they might be, but we live in tumultuous times where, like the Mad Hatter's Tea Party, some things are just so hard to believe. It may well be these are simply days rather than early days. The one thing that we cannot afford is confused thinking because people too quickly become disorientated and worse still disillusioned. There is, more than ever, a need for very clear strategic thinking and a sweeping aside of the curmudgeons.

My reason for being at Oldway was to attend, in the public gallery, a meeting of the full council. My specific interest was the draconian cost increase for families being bussed to school and college. An amendment had been tabled by a couple of councillors to soften the blow, which will financially damage so many struggling families, by spreading the increase over five years. Well, what happened was that a vote was not taken, to the disappointment of a large number of parents and children who had attended the meeting, and the matter was referred back to our mayor, Mr Oliver.

I found that hugely interesting because it made me realise the shocking power an elected mayor has. But an elected mayor is what we all voted for when we went down that dubious dusty road. It seems to me therefore whatever a council may decide is ultimately at the mercy of the mayor!
These are hard times, as we all know. But even now we have the obvious winners who have managed to reach the security of the financial high ground, and good luck to them. But they are few when compared to the increasing numbers beaten down by rising prices, high utility bills, redundancy, reduced services and a myriad of other hardships. As some bright spark noted, never in the history of man has so much been taken from so many by so few!

Where am I going with this? For more years than I really care to remember I have worked with the Duke of Edinburgh's Award as participant and then as a volunteer. I have always seen the DofE as an agent of social cohesion. The gap between those who have and those who have not is getting wider by the day, which will inevitably lead to a lack of social cohesion. We need to look out for each other, help neighbours and do our best to ensure our legacy is not one of selfish greed.

In a whimsical moment I had suggested to our new mayor that we might start perhaps with monthly public gatherings at the Riviera International Conference Centre where ordinary folk can air their views to the mayor in a pleasant and productive way. The questions could be written, for those who don't want to speak in public, but still allow for energetic rhetoric. This must not be a ranting session because I am sure we can find an upturned milk crate on Torre Abbey corner for that pent-up energy of those who simply want to unleash angry venomous rhetoric.

My other little tongue-in-check suggestion was that after the meeting we all pick up a paper bag to do a little litter collection on the way home as a gesture toward community cleanliness! That really is a serious suggestion since we shouldn't wait for others to make Torbay blossom.

How's that for a new vision?

Dreamscape..............

When I was a young man I had a very vivid dream; a dream that has haunted me for so many years and now latterly has an echo of reality. Perhaps that is the nature of dreams that in darkness of sleep we somehow connect with eternity where the past and the future become part of the one. I don’t know and therefore the search for truth continues!

Anyway let me get back to the dream. I knew then as I know now that it was a time in the future. It was a warm day with a stunning clear blue sky and I was travelling on a sort of flatbed vehicle on a road that I knew well with people that I didn’t because I had obviously found myself, somehow, in the future. As we travelled it occurred to me that there were no churches which I questioned a companion about. He smiled at me and said that they had all been demolished a while ago. Where the churches once stood, for I remember them being there, was grassland!

A few days ago I was leaving an increasingly traffic gridlocked Plymouth down one of my numerous rat runs and happened to be in Mutley. There was until recently a beautiful old church on a crossroads that had been the core of the local community. Now it’s rough ground with the occasional pile of bricks poking out over the numerous weeds.

That prompted a church search over the next few days. Some that I once knew have been flattened others have become snooker halls, antique shops, private clubs and designer homes. For me it prompted the thought of the generations who worshiped, were hatched, matched and despatched in these once spiritually vibrant buildings.

Sunday those years ago was a time for families to gather and often attend a church service together. There is still that gathering today but not in the churches. Now families gather in the supermarkets which have become the new cathedrals of consumerism where a false feeling of equality is established through the aisles of plenty and the advent of a credit card.

In this apparently Post-Christian era I make no call for a return to the churches but I do make a call for the spiritual energy that we all hold to be liberated in the hope of building more socially cohesive communities in these increasingly troubled times where the neighbourhood gap between those that have and those that have not widens by the day.

Feeling a little blue......

I’ve been messing around at Harbour Sports for over thirty years and yet things still creep up and bring tears to me eyes. Silly old thing really when I think about it and I guess that in the grand scheme of things it doesn’t really matter. But it does, perhaps sadly, matter to me.

I little over a year ago we picked up a new brand which I thought quite special. Rather than simply stick it on the rails we made it a central feature on our large stand at the Riviera Conference Centre Great Outdoors Exhibition in Torquay last summer.

The brand sold because it is unusual, well priced and fun. The exhibition was hard work but it was exciting to do. The outcome was that we worked at building the brand and nice folk shared in that journey. After all is said and done our Harbour Sports strap line, for want of a better term, is that we don’t just walk the walk and talk the talk we also live the life. This new brand was part of that life force.

We live in curious times and things too often are not as they seem. It saddened me this year when the distributor suddenly started opening new accounts without bothering to consider the hard promotional work that we had put in. Sign of these times perhaps?

Anyway I happened to be walking past a shop not too far away today and found the window full of the clothing brand that we stupidly thought (well not that stupidly since we have a pointless email saying that we had territorial rights) was exclusive to us.

I seem to spend too much time these days placing plasters over metaphorical knife wounds between my shoulder blades. There was a time when a handshake meant something and it makes me sad when people act in the way that the brand supplier has.

But hey, we get up dust off and get on with life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Keep the Faith, or faith if you like...............

Making a bid for a buoyant community

I’ve spent the day on Paignton harbour fighting the good fight at Harbour Sports, which isn’t a bad thing although today I had other plans. But for all sorts of reasons I didn’t have the right people I the right place and so here I am.

Opening the post from yesterday I see that I have a ballot paper for the Exeter BID. The Exeter what? BID: Local Government Act 2003 Business Improvement Districts (England) Regulations 2004. Basically this means that local business pay a percentage (tax) based on rateable value as a contribution toward improving the local business environment to encourage folk back into the town centre. Government then chip in a large chunk and away we go.

Some folk might see this as another tax, but I have no comment on that. What I do think is that unless we address parking then very little will change. You can plant all the flowers you like, paint beautiful walls, ring bells, arrange dancing and whatever else you want but do nothing about parking then it will all end in tears.

A little while ago I wrote an article in the Herald Express about town centre parking and suggest that THE FIRST HOUR SHOULD BE FREE. Locally Torbay Mayor Gordon Oliver is sorting a committee to look at town centre parking, but it really isn’t that complicated. Unless folk can park without taking out a mortgage then they will not come back to the town centre. So please, if you feel that it is worth saving the local community, campaign for FIRST HOUR FREE PARKING.

That brings me neatly to the other restricting process in business district revival, Value Added Tax! 20% really did plonk a big stopper on spending because it arrived at a time when we were already on our knees. Perhaps Mr Cable can ask his new friends whether they might consider a return to 17.5% before we run out of people to collect the tax at all!

Less rhetoric and a little more joined up thinking would be welcome.

He wanders on……………….

Making the most of the elected mayor regime

Herald Express 6th May 2011 - a few published 'Frank' words......

SOMETIMES when you get what you think you want you find it wasn't what you wanted at all.
Perhaps during the process of getting you couldn't understand why everyone was rushing around and now you suddenly realise that you didn't understand the nature of the beast.
But now you have it and perhaps worry that you don't quite know what to do with it!

I've watched the antics of Torbay's mayoral candidates and listened to the almost endless rhetoric. We've now popped out of the first mayoral reign which was a time of visions and dreams, some of which did actually become a reality while others disappeared like the morning mist on a hot day. All this happened at a time of great economic, political and social change. What a stunning rollercoaster! Well here we go into the second term of mayoral leadership. But you know nothing is truly going to change unless you can capture the hearts and minds of the population.

Now I know that term easily runs off the tongue, but it is the essential truth! You can paint the buildings, construct new facilities, plant beautiful flowers and hold endless gatherings, but unless you can capture the identity of a community nothing, absolutely nothing, will change. We live in troubled times and it has been increasingly easy to focus on the negative, to look for what has been done badly and to find fault.

That has to change. Let the new mayor build community that looks for the positive, celebrates what has been done well and seeks not to find the proverbial splinter in a neighbour's eye whilst sporting a plank in our own eye. It isn't impossible but it does require the rejecting of empty political rhetoric and the almost constant cross-party sniping. Whether you like the mayoral system or not is neither here nor there because for a while we are stuck with it.

That being the case, let us use it to advantage and make it a shared experience. It is our system of government and so we must use it as best we can. But here is the rub. Our mayor must also use it as a post of social responsibility and captivate us all into a more meaningful vision. It is a time for pulling our people together, of energising communities and demonstrating that there is a better way. So here is the starting point; an open gathering perhaps once a month at the Riviera International Conference Centre, which has potential as a village hall for Torbay. Gather the people and share the excitement of a shared journey and see a new social horizon together. At the end of the meeting everyone can take away a bag and on the walk home pick up all the waste paper drifting on the wind. What a wonderful shared experience and a simply way of increasing community pride.

There you have it. A new mayoral vision for Torbay.

A Single Tear

A single tear ran down my cheek this morning as I read a Western Morning News (Good Friday 2011) headline “Anglican Priest Makes Catholic Switch”. It seems that Moretonhampstead Anglican vicar and father of eight, with a ninth on the way, is to be ordained as a Catholic priest. So why do I have a tear running down my cheek this morning?

The tear is for all the young men who had a vocation to the celibate Catholic priesthood, giving up the joy of married life and the pleasure of children. Now for them the knowledge that it’s OK to join the club via the backdoor and be a married Catholic priest.

I guess what has caused me to raise an eyebrow is that Father Hellyer is only forty-five whilst most of the other switchers have tended top be rather ancient.

When I was young I thought that I had a vocation to the Catholic priesthood, but my director of vocations suggested that I might be best to work through college first. I met my wife at college and that was the end of my priestly route!

I have a friend who would have made an excellent husband and father but became a celibate catholic priest. We meet from time to time and experience a sort of sliding doors moment in wondering where we might be had the roles been reversed.

Perhaps now is the time for a change in the Church of Rome and allow priests the option to marry or remain celibate. Accepting married Anglican clergy without first allowing Catholic priests the opportunity to marry seems to me to be a little unkind.

Having said all that I would like, as a Catholic, to welcome Father Hellyer to the Church. Perhaps his arrival will trigger a change and that celibacy in the Catholic priesthood will become an option rather than a requirement.

Cristos anesti!

The Making of a Mayor #2 & a glimpse of heaven...

.....................but unfortunately the two are not related!

On Monday 11th April I pitched up at the Mayoral Debate oganised by the Torbay Business Forum at the Riviera International Conference Centre (aka The English Riviera Centre) to see the candidates strut their stuff. As previously stated I am not in favour of an elected mayor for Torbay, however Conservative Central Office in its wisdom has decided that we are stuck with the system and must therefore simply get on with it. Mayor Nick Bye has decided to bravely stand again given that the local Conservative group decided to select someone else as their official candidate and I have to say that it was Nick who carried the evening.

So where do we go now? Well, on May 5th we have the joy of voting for (a) a new mayor, (b) numerous local councillors and (c) a new alternative voting system. Hmm. It's enough to make your head spin, especially since all this follows immediately after the late Easter and the Royal Wedding! Many of us will doubtless stagger to the voting kiosk in a state of religious euphoria or alcoholic semi-oblivion and attempt to make some sense of the assorted boxes just waiting to be ticked.

So the choice is yours boys and girls, do you stick with Nick Bye or elect one of the others? There you have it - one of the others. Hmm. Perhaps that should be Nick's strap line for this election - Stick with Nick. Seems to me that it is one of three devil choices. The devil you know against the devil you don't and as usual the devil will be in the political detail! I guess for the moment my money is sticking with the devil that I know.

..............................and now that glimpse of heaven! The other day Pete Hobbs (Oak Tree Garage in Paignton) gave my Noddy car (a Westfield) a really good going over and when I picked it up in the evening there was only one thing to do - go for a blast! The joy of Devon lanes and the late afternoon sunshine...................brings a little smile, well actually huge smile as Donal Lang and Matthew Porter will testify when I shot through Stoke Gabriel....

The Making of a Mayor

Torbay, despite its size, is a unitary authority with an elected mayor. London has an elected mayor, but it is a little bigger than Torbay. Now here's the thing, despite what you may have been told size does matter, but there we go.

For the past four years we have been under the bailiwick of Mayor Nick Bye and that has, to say the least, been an interesting experience for us all. But you see in my opinion the elected mayor should not be a party animal (political party that is!) otherwise the zealots tend to let rip and sadly they have been very much at play in Torbay. Nick Bye started out as an independent but in truth was always part of the Conservative group and that faction at this time is very much in the proverbial driving seat.

During Nick Bye's tenancy we have been offered a curious landscape that has developed from an almost biblical document known as the Mayor's Vision. I say biblical because the promotional DVD came complete with the little red footprints of an ancient prophet and of course, needless to say, at the time I did produce an alternative script using quotations from the Old Book. This DVD featured images of the Torbay is today followed by a flash of white and then up popped the vision which had high rise apartments, bistro seating and other stuff in a foretelling or perhaps foreseeing role. I have to say that some or the Vision was very good, but some had me reaching for an out of town bus timetable.

On Monday (11th April) I am attending the first Mayoral Debate at the Riviera Conference in Torquay in the hope of hearing something meaningful from the mayoral candidates. My worry is that if that if the local population show the same apathetic response to this election as they did last time and we don't get a mayor with the charisma to disrupt and captivate then the future will be bleak; very bleak indeed. I did talk to Nick Bye recently about the need to captivate people and change the way they see themselves at citizens of a united Torbay. Unless that happens then all the topographical changes will simply be lost in that sea of apathy. I've always thought that Nick has been a little unlucky since he has been the one being belted with rotten fruit whilst others making decisions behind the scenes have kept their heads down. He is standing again which does take courage.

Oh well, let's see how Monday evening shapes up!!

The DofE - Duke of Edinburgh Award

Sometimes I find myself scratching my head and this morning was such a time. Why the scratching? Well it is all about doing the best that you can for as long as you can. You would have to be a brick short not to have realised that we are living through troubled times. So what of the future? What sort of world is on offer to our young folk and they work their way through the self inflicted financial chaos? Who can know? But one thing is certain and that is things will never be the same again. For me there is another certainty and that is unless we all pull together things will continue to unravel. I guess that is why I have always been captivated by the Duke of Edinburgh Award. I am, in the words of HRH, a 'Veteran Gold'! My journey started back in 1962 and I am still banging the drum today because you cannot achieve Bronze, Silver or Gold without sharing with and helping others. That makes the DofE hugely socially cohesive at a time when all too easily things become unstuck! My message is simple. If you are aged between 14 and 24 Google 'DofE' or 'Duke of Edinburgh Award' and follow the link. Sign up and get stuck in. If you are older then do the same thing and see what you can do to help. School and college people? Well our young folk need every 'leg up' that they can get and for me the DofE should be the cement holding the students together. In business? Well what a great way to motivate a work force! Public Services? Of course you are doing this already! Come on people, let's make this happen!

No parking - no local shopping

This, written by me, appeared in the Herald Express today...time for action....

People won't come back to shop in town centres if they can't park – it's that simple!

YOU would have to be a modern Rip Van Winkle not to have noticed that life has changed dramatically in the past few years.

So much of what we had previously taken for granted seems to have been blow away in a sort of financial maelstrom that has left many people buffeted, battered and hugely confused.

A little while ago – well in point of fact it was actually four years ago – I delivered a number of lectures based on the concept The Tsunami of Change.

Basically, I had become increasingly worried about the gathering financial storm. That worry was not in isolation, since others had also started to become concerned about financial instability in the markets.

Of course, anyone with two thirds of a brain working would know that if the markets became unstable then the impact would hurt the most vulnerable sectors of society first.

The Tsunami of Change, in financial terms, is very much like that nasty wave. The incoming rush of water is bad enough but the real problem is when sea level is re-established. As the water rushes back to the ocean it pulls so much ugly rubbish with it and, sadly, enormous financial changes do the same, and yes you've guessed it, those most vulnerable in society suffer most.

In recent times the old story of frog cooking has a new relevance because in so many ways we have all been heated slowly and some of the changes happening leave us too apathetic to find a place of safety.

Why don't we react? Well too often it is simply the worry of change and being pushed from what we might call the comfort zone.

Most people will have heard about Roosevelt's 'All we have to fear is fear itself' comment in his first inaugural speech.


One obvious impact of the financial storm is the change in town centres. Take a walk through the centres of Paignton, Brixham and Torquay and count the number of empty shops.

Do you remember when local communities used to gather around the post office? Community disengagement is very dangerous indeed and this is a time when we all need to pull together for what we might deem to be the greater good.

Government, both national and local, has started to react and you will have been aware of the Business Improvement District initiative that has featured recently in the Herald Express. BID is shared investment between government and local business to energise town centres to try to pull people back to the town centres. It is a good and wholesome project which is captivating people and that has to be a very good thing.

But here is the rub. Why do people not come into our town centres? They always used to, so what has changed? The building of huge supermarkets around our towns, which seem now to have taken the place of Christian cathedrals and become the new cathedrals of consumerism, cleverly captivate people.

There we find an almost egalitarian approach in that the well-lit shelves offer goodies to all as families trundle from aisle to aisle. Have you attempted to visit a supermarket for a bottle of milk and leave with just that?

The nice thing about an out-of-town supermarket is, yes you've guessed it, easy free parking. Cars are welcome and in this day and age if the car is welcome then so are the people. The opposite is also true. If your family car is unwelcome then you feel unloved also.

It follows, therefore, that if nipping into the town for something means that you will have to a pay a pound-plus for parking then we tend to get a little twitchy.

Parking meters dominate the town centre which doesn't actually cause a problem. One immediate benefit of a parking meter is that the all-day parkers don't dam the possible parking spaces for shoppers.

No, it is not the parking meters that cause the problem. The problem is the parking charge. Road Tax hurts, insurance will bring tears to your eyes, fuel is at an all-time shocking high and having a car serviced can leave you sleepless for weeks.

Now add to that a parking charge every time you nip into town then it really is the final nail.

It's even more annoying when you nip into town spend your hard-earned cash on a meter charge, get home and then find you have forgotten something and have to head back into town and pay another parking charge.

For me the answer is blinding simple: Make the car as well as the person welcome. That immediately will be one of the biggest business improvement district outcomes. So how do we make them welcome?

Yes, that's right, make the first hour of parking free.

We've already got those lovely blue parking meters and all that needs to happen is a quick bit of reprogramming.

You will still need to display a ticket, but that hour is free. If you want to buy a ticket for longer then the charge would start after the first hour. How simple is that?

Now, I can already hear the curmudgeons on the attack. But stand back you harbingers of doom. Give it a chance and let's see whether folk start to gravitate back to the towns.

Coupled with the good work of BID I think that we could be on the edge of community regeneration which has to be a wonderful thing.

Torbay Council may cry 'oh no, oh no' at the thought of parking revenue dropping, but will it?

But here is another idea for you guys. How about toll gates on the approach to out of town supermarkets? Simple lever arm and bucket activation as a pound is thrown in. Now that has to be a winner, but of course will never happen.

Working on the harbour, I'm outside the Paignton BID, but the problems are the same. Harbour Sports shops are also located in Exeter and on Plymouth's historic Barbican and guess what? Yes, that's right. With one hand we are saying 'come and see us' and with the other we are saying 'but we'll sting you for parking'.

It's time for a little action, boys and girls. Time also I suspect for a little joined-up thinking rather that endless disparate initiatives and biblical visions.

Amen.