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!
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!
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