Being quiet is the best option

 

 

A couple of things happened today that made me raise an eyebrow.  It seemed to me that they were connected and I therefore came to a conclusion. Later in the day I found that there was absolutely no significance in the coincidence. Too often, or so it seems to me, we attempt to look for significance in random coincidence with curious outcomes! In our sound-bite world this seems to be becoming a regular occurrence. The worry is that things are then said in error which can be hugely damaging.

As we rocket toward 2015 the war of words has already started as our political leaders attempt to score points over those opposing them. We all tend to only loosely listen to what is being said which inevitably links coincidental events to which we attach unwarranted significance. In a world crowded with social media it is so easy to hear bits of a conversation rather than the whole thing and judgements are then made without the luxury of firm knowledge. That judgement can launch damaging comment and once the words are out there attempting to pull them back is almost impossible!

All I am saying really is that once the political rhetoric heats up we must listen with care and keep the spiteful comments at arm’s length. To be quite honest if you don’t have something nice to say about someone then being quiet is probably the best option. If you do have a criticism to make then at least ensure that it is understood and balanced.

I don’t know whether you have stumbled across J K Rowling’s new book ‘A Casual Vacancy’ which is very different from the often dark Harry Potter stories. It was for me a fascinating read because it captured the essence of a community and demonstrated how words can skew a point of view. It doesn’t take much for negative comment to grow into something quite harmful. As the politicians both local and national seek election those social divisions can become very complicated with quite often unintended consequences.

One activity that I have always felt an excellent platform for social cohesion is the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and recently the 500^th Gold presentation ceremony took place in London.  There is an increasing need, in my opinion, to encourage young people not in full time education to use the DofE to develop skills to provide a life platform that will both build their skill portfolio and also help bind a community together. Please ask your local councillors what they are doing to support the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award amongst those not in full time education or part of a youth organisation.

Talking of community cohesion I was really pleased to see so many people pitch up to the Oldway Mansion open afternoon the other Saturday. The tour of this crumbling building was actually quite exciting because we got to see parts that have never been open to the public. I gather from the developer that nothing much is going to happen for at least a year and that given the poor state of the fabric the whole project is going to be very challenging. Torbay Council, in these cash strapped times, must be really pleased that this money bucket is off their hands. At least I think that it is off their hands.

The weather this summer has been fantastic and the sunshine continued into September. That warm weather was good news for one young couple who decided to hold their wedding reception at the Red Rocks Beach Café on Goodrington seafront. Always a worry when you are that close to the water because if the wind comes blasting in from the sea accompanied by lashing icy rain then the whole event can become a washout. But their evening went well and the Red Rocks Beach Café throbbed with an eight-piece band hammering out toe tapping music.

It is very easy to say negative things about our tourism offering and yet there really is so much to do. For anyone wandering along Goodrington seafront and Young’s Park that evening it must have seemed quite atmospheric. I loved it and can still feel the tingle today.

In a little while the clocks change and the sun continues to head south. Thankfully this year we have all be buoyed by some lovely weather which has made the English Riviera sparkle. The thing is that the sunshine days kind of seep deeply into the spirit and allow you to almost radiate through the short winter days.

I guess that is one way to keep the smile!

 

 

Don't take the NHS for granted

My words in the Herald Express 3rd October 2013



IF you happen to be reading your Herald Express over a Thursday morning cup of coffee, then spare a thought for me because I will be waiting to undergo a minor surgical procedure at Teignmouth Hospital. I don't live in Teignmouth, but that is where South Devon Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust has sent me. So while you are tucking into a second piece of buttered toast I will be flicking through the pages of the Last Train from Liguria by Christine Dwyer Hickey while waiting for my surgeon to do his thing. All part of that rich tapestry of daily life of course, or so we believe.

The National Health Service is the most wonderful thing and was coincidently launched one month after my birth in 1948. Not that I have had too many occasions which have required immediate medical attention, but the fact I have always known access to a physician has been freely available is a precious thing.

It therefore worries me when I see huge cracks appearing over the surface and the exhausted looks on the faces of those holding together the frontline services. That has to be a concern for all of us.
I don't know whether you watched the London Olympic opening ceremony last year, but if you did then you must have been impressed by Danny Boyle's breath-taking pageant charting the history of these Sceptred Isles. He paid a stunning tribute to the National Health Service by underpinning the fact universal healthcare is indeed a core value in our society. Although a core value we should never, ever take for granted. These are curious times and we must all pay attention when various changes occur which might threaten that freedom of access to medical care.

We all need to pay careful attention to the words spoken by our political leaders as too often casual comments suddenly become policy. Keep the things which we take for granted very much in mind because local councillors will now be looking carefully at the funding cuts which threaten many of the services that all expect. It will be the discretionary spending which will too often quietly disappear.
One local service under threat is funded school transport and comments from struggling parents of children at St Cuthbert Mayne in Torquay made me raise an eyebrow. It wasn't just the words, but the wide-eyed facial expressions as the impact of additional outgoing on an already beleaguered family budget hit home. My children have grown now, but during their  school years we did benefit from subsidised school transport which, of course, allowed a parental choice as to where our young were schooled. Of course, many might argue if you want choice you should pay for it and while for many that is of course possible, for others it is not.

Sadly with these often very subtle funding cuts it is the most vulnerable groups in society who tend to feel the pain first. If we really want to be a caring community we really must look out for each other in these troubled times and not simply say it's not my problem.

What follows may be seen as a ray of sunshine perhaps.

If you take the time to struggle through my fortnightly contribution you will know the apparent development at Oldway Mansion has made me question progress. On Saturday from 2pm until 4pm there is an open event at Oldway to update the community about progress to date and the anticipated start date, which apparently is later this year, for the resurrection of the mansion as a premier hotel. How exciting. In the words of Paul Hawthorne, chairman of the Friends of Oldway: "We have worked consistently on getting a fair and viable solution for the Oldway Estate over the last four years. Our initial reservations have been addressed, and I believe we are indeed on the way to achieving a future for the house and gardens which our members and the wider circle of people of Torbay can be happy with."

That view is echoed by head of Akkeron regeneration, Mark Jones, who said: "We are pleased to be working towards starting work on the hotel. We are looking forward to the open day on October 5, to show everyone interested in the project the history and current condition of the buildings along with plans."

I have always loved Oldway Mansion with its beautiful gardens, bowling greens and tennis courts. It really is my hope the outcome will be for the greater good of the community and encourage you to visit the open event to gain a better understanding of what is happening.

Keep the smile.

Boost your career with Channel hop



BUENOS Dias! What a sparkling way to start the day and the echo somehow captures the magic of a sunny atmospheric Barcelona, which coincidentally happens to be the home town of my Spanish visitor.

Law student Valenti Sabate is with me for a month and our time together started with a thrilling conversation about Spanish writer Carlos Zafon's book 'Shadow of the Wind'.
Also with me is Matthias Feuerstein from Germany and therefore English is our common language.
I have to say these young folk from Spain and Germany plus the many others who visit bring a special energy to the English Riviera. Of course, the hundreds who make the trip also boost the economy!

Many local employers offer work placements and benefit hugely from the expertise they bring.
It has always made me a little curious as to why our young folk don't seem to head in the other direction for work experience since the placements are funded in the same way.

On Friday morning at a Cockington Court breakfast event hosted by the Torbay Development Agency, I bumped into Nadine Stroud from the Training Partnership Torquay who tells me it is indeed difficult to get our young folk to hop across the Channel.

Then Nadine told me of something I thought very exciting and wanted to share it with you.
It seems there are 20 fully-funded, 10-week work placements being offered to graduates in the south west to boost their career, gain vital European work experience and develop language skills.
Please don't let a lack of language knowledge put you off because there is a three-week preparation course in Torquay.

All you need is a very basic knowledge of French or German. How good is that? Give Nadine a ring on 01803 321210. Placements are on offer in Lyon and Bordeaux in France, and Magdeburg and Leipzig in Germany. There are also other funded opportunities for those who have not gone to university.

It seems to me sometimes we all need to step outside our comfort zone for a little while.
Let's start to make the world a smaller place.

Still thinking about the next generation you may have recently attended one of the many roadshows touring South Devon promoting the new South Devon University Technical College which is scheduled to open in 2015/16.

If you did then you will doubtless share my enthusiasm for this exciting development.
The SDUTC will be the area's first university technical college and is going to offer a whole new way of learning for up to 600 young people aged 14 to 18.

It will be built in Newton Abbot and recruit from across the region including Teignbridge, Torbay, Exeter, Plymouth and the South Hams.

The academy school will have a unique focus in engineering, water and the environment, reflecting both the natural environment in Devon and the needs of employers in these industries where there is a lack of technicians available.

It is interesting to note that locally, apprenticeship numbers in science, engineering and manufacturing are half the regional average and nationally the technician deficit is estimated to reach 450,000 by 2020!

That has to be a worry. It seems to me this exciting development is a very good thing indeed, especially so when I chat with work experience people from Germany where a greater emphasis is placed on vocational education to meet the needs of industry.

Now I have some homework for you.

Roman governors in ancient times used to symbolically wash their hands when they wished to disengage from a thorny topic. It seems to me that habit is popping up again in our Big Society and that worries me. The handing back of quite often essential services to the community is all very well if we have a structure to ensure those most in need don't slip through the gaps.
I worry that all too often the structure simply isn't there but once the service has been handed over it will take time to see whether the baby has gone out with the bath water.

As you know, if you read my words from time to time, I keep banging on about community engagement and part of that is making contact with your local councillors. This need is increasingly important it seems to me. So here are a few questions you might want to ask them.

The first one which springs to mind is about the redevelopment of Oldway Mansion. When will the new hotel open? I will not mention the 12 closed tennis courts. Oops.

The second is about community engagement at the exciting Parkfield Centre with its huge BMX track, climbing wall, skate park, sports hall and other goodies which should by now should be captivating Torbay. Have they, the councillors, engaged?

Finally, rather than overloading you, can you please get an update on the Torquay seafront balloon debt and the future of that weed-covered plot from our political leaders?

Keep the smile!

Brave decision to vote against Government

My words in the Herald Express 5th September 2013

The South Devon Energy Centre

One of the problems, or so it seems to me, of our modern age is that things can seem so close at hand while being so far away.

The news of events that happen far away once took months to reach us but today streaming images allow us to share the picture, though not the adrenaline rush, of actually being there.

I don't know whether you watched the Syria Debate on the BBC Parliament Channel, but I did. I've never been to Syria although its history has always interested me for many reasons not least of which is that it is the meeting place of the three great Abrahamic traditions.

A few years ago that interest was heightened by acting as a business mentor for a lovely man who imported floating soap from Aleppo in Northern Syria. From Alan I gathered huge amounts of current information about this intriguing country and its diverse population.

Two of our local MPs didn't vote with the Government and I listened to their balanced arguments. It was brave of Sarah Wollaston and Anne Marie Morris to stand against the PM on this issue. Adrian Sanders was in South Africa and couldn't return for the vote.

Whatever the eventual outcome of this conflict, what is happening is a great sadness and, as always, it tends to be the innocent who get hit the hardest. Of course in the minds of many will be the dreadful consequences of Iraq and Afghanistan.

It is not my place to offer an opinion on Syria and I have no right really to do so here. What I do want to say is that it is the duty of all of us to be aware of what is happening at home and away. It is all too easy to let the streaming images pass before our eyes as a sort of fiction. Perhaps we see it as something that doesn't really concern us or as something that we would rather not acknowledge.

Both Sarah Wollaston and Anne Marie Morris said that they had listened to the voice of their constituents and voted accordingly. Too often those we elect follow the party whips and vote as requested by political leaders. That has its place, of course, otherwise things would move very slowly. But there are times of conscience and common sense, or so it seems to me.

Tell me, do you make your views known to members of parliament and local councillors? When the time comes to vote do you join the queue and select the person that you want to represent your community locally and nationally? Hmm.

Meanwhile here in South Devon the shadows lengthen and the sun heads south after a simply wonderful summer. After six successive soggy summers this has been a real tonic. The boost to the local economy has been huge and many beleaguered tourists businesses have been buoyed at last by wall to wall sunshine. I live not too far from the beach in Paignton and listening to the laughter from the crowded seashore has been a tonic. Although I am writing this wearing a pair of old board shorts I am aware that winter is just around the corner.

I don't know about you but I am battered on a daily basis, or so it seems, by telephone calls offering me cheap energy prices, free boilers, cavity insulation, loft insulation, solar panels, energy assessments and goodness knows what else. It's mind blowing, confusing and potentially very expensive when you find that what you thought you were getting didn't turn out to quite what was expected as many folk have found when they have attempted to sell a house that had free solar panels fitted. You can, therefore, imagine my joy when I went to visit the new South West Energy Centre which has opened just off the Brixham Road near South Devon College.

I spent a morning looking around this wonderful £5.6 million development with Paddy McNevin.
Paddy is the man at the sharp end and featured in last week's Herald Express business section. I've known Paddy for a number of years and his intriguing soft Irish accent always warms my spirit. I was completely captivated by the new South West Energy Centre and really think that it is a stunning community asset.

Now the nice thing, for me and I suspect for you, is that the SWEC staff are not selling a product or pushing a contract into your unwilling hands. Their mission is to make us all more aware of what we can do to be energy smart. As Paddy says "It's about behaviour change and making people think about the energy they use. Little things like not filling the kettle when you only want one small cup of coffee." Almost everything about the SWEC underlines that simple message. So before you sign up to anything to do with energy and fuel go and see these folk and be educated! That way your eventual decision will be a balanced one.

One feature of the SWEC that really captivated me was the wonderful little Passivhaus. What is a Passivhaus? Well I think that you need to visit and see for yourself but as a taste I can tell you that Paddy says "Passivhaus buildings achieve a 75 per cent reduction in space heating requirements compared to standard construction for new UK buildings." That is amazing.

While drifting around the building something else came up in conversation that bothered me. That worry was a passing comment about more and more people falling into fuel poverty. Terms like fuel poverty slip all too easily from the tongue and can mask huge social problems.

Sitting here on a warm late summer morning the cold winter days seem so far away. But then I suddenly remember the horror of my gas bill arriving after a particularly cold period last winter.

That's made me shiver.

Keep the smile!