Find ways to building rather than knocking down...

My words in the Herald Express Thursday 12th December 2013......Curiously since writing this I've bumped into a voluntary organisation struggling to cope with the sudden influx of folk seeking help as those most vulnerable take the pain of this fiscal mess.....

One of the things that you get to do when constructing a questionnaire is to select the questions that you want to ask and leave out the ones that you don’t want to ask. When you get to fill in a questionnaire you don’t have that luxury!

Why am I telling you this? Well recently I popped over to the Riviera Centre, also known as the Riviera International Conference Centre, to a very crowded Mayor’s Budget proposal evening. I estimated that around five-hundred people had braved the cool night air to hear about the pain that this budget is likely to inflict. That for Torbay, I have to say, is a very good turnout.

Most of us were sitting around tables with a councillor and an council officer to mentor. We were all clutching a questionnaire that offered the opportunity for us all to ‘have our say’ on the ‘tough decisions’ that have to be made in order to set a balanced budget. I’m not going to labour the point here but the lady sitting next to me must have been reading my mind and immediately made a comment about the questions being asked!

I did ask the council officer on my table what would happen if Torbay set a negative budget. It seems that cannot happen because it would be illegal! Hmm. That didn’t really answer the question but in many ways it was a rhetorical observation. But here’s the thing. How far can you push a population with draconian cut after draconian cut? One immediate call was for an increase in council tax. Explain that to a low wage family facing huge increase in utility bills, rising food prices and a complete tsunami of other soul destroying fiscal onslaughts! Of one thing there is no doubt and that is that the gap between those that have and those that have not is getting worryingly wider by the day.

You can have your say by filling in that questionnaire, by making contact with your councillors, by attending the next public meeting at Paignton Library on the 9th January 2014, by chasing your member of parliament or indeed simply becoming more aware of what is actually going on. You have a voice and you have a vote at the next election.

I have always had in mind that story about a frog in a bowl of water and suddenly these days I am feeling very frog-like! You see if you placed that dear little chap in water that was too hot he would simply hop out at speed. But if the water is cool then he is a happy-chappy and doesn’t notice that the water is heating up. Eventually the water becomes too hot leaving our sad little frog with no energy left to hop. Do you get the picture?

I’ve written about the nature of our social landscape before and at that recent meeting it was obvious that those who would feel most of the pain would be the vulnerable. Many of those folk do not attend public meetings as a rule and often have little or no access to computers. If you have a social conscience that must be a worrying concern.

I did make a note of a number of comments made by Gordon Oliver during the evening which included “I share your view completely” “I share your emotion” “With your help we can do it” “We’re very happy to listen – but the reality is!” “Let’s continue to talk” “It’s not my decision!” Against that backdrop were the comments of people who bravely attended having been homeless and sleeping rough. As one man said “These cuts to organisations helping those with little will result in deaths!” Certainly the loss of support to places like Factory Row will be catastrophic for many of our most vulnerable citizens.

I would like you to think about something. We constantly bang on about cutting spending and say very little about generating income. That doesn’t mean selling off assets because you can only do that once! What it does mean is looking very carefully at cleverly creating income from the assets that we have, both in terms of facility and community expertise. A number of folk are already working toward that and we need to build the portfolio. We have amazing skills within the community and need to liberate that energy. So let’s start looking and find ways to building rather than knocking down.

Ultimately it will be about working together for the good of all and whilst we probably know this it still seems a hard thing to make happen. So when it comes to building a questionnaire you might now think of a few more questions that you might want to ask!

Keep the smile.