It's time for you to seize the day

This is my column in the Herald Express 17th May 2012......

BACK in ancient Rome years ago, the poet Horace wisely said that we should 'seize the day, putting as little trust as possible in the future'. Those words seem to be banging around in my head just now.
 All we can really know is this time right now, and you can evidence that as you sit and read these words because this is your here and now. The past is the past and cannot be changed. The future is not ours to see and so, as Horace wisely said, we must celebrate the day.
Of course, these are stormy days and so many of us are being beaten down by daily economic hardships which tend to make celebrating anything difficult. While we might accept Horace's suggestion that we put as little trust as possible in the future, we do have a responsibility to do what is for the common good rather than remaining face down in the trough gobbling greedily away. We can see the consequence of that greedy gobbling where a few selfish people have taken more than they deserve and left the rest of us staggering under the yoke of the banking crisis. What upsets me is the nature of the rickety platform we have built for the next generation, having already spent their future! Now is the time to take stock, perhaps, before it is too late. Two things do need celebrating just now, and both relate to future generations.

The first is the spectacular new Paignton Green geoplay park. Although I wasn't in favour of losing a chunk of the Green, what has been built really is very good. On the first day it was open the whole park was covered in children and families, and every time it's not raining the same thing happens. The park is a consequence of community action and that alone is quite a thing to celebrate in this day and age! There is one small adjustment for Torbay Council to make, and that is to ensure a safe crossing between the beach and the park because at the moment it is a rat run between moving traffic and parked cars. That apart, it really is the most amazing world-class facility, and so well done to all those who worked tirelessly to make it happen. Old Horace would certainly see that, I have no doubt, as seizing the day!

The second is a little more problematic, and that is the new Parkfield development in Paignton. Those who read my wriggly words will know I was hugely excited when this £4.8million youth facility opened. If you have yet to visit then please do. As you drive along the main road you will see two huge signs outside the seemingly semi-derelict Parkfield House. That is a little confusing, I think, however if you drive around the corner toward Torquay simply turn left into Colin Road and head for the car park. To your left now is this spectacular complex with its world class BMX track (pictured)! Sadly, the opening of Parkfield coincided with a draconian funding cut for already beleaguered Torbay Youth Service with a somewhat predictable outcome.

Our young people wax lyrical about the stunning skate park, climbing wall, sport hall and other things, but there is the worry that if we don't get this whole enterprise on a firm footing then it will drift into the mediocre and that, my friends, would be heart breaking. There is an increasing gap between the promotional video and the way things have so far panned out. So how about becoming a Parkfield volunteer? Isn't that how the Big Society is supposed to work? Well, here is your chance to contribute toward the future in a very physical way. Just simply turn up at the Parkfield reception and offer your help. Outstanding!

One of the things I feel really strongly about is identity. Once you establish an identity it tends to stick. We watched that happen years ago when Torbay Council attempted to charge everyone who turned up to look around the then new English Riviera Centre an entrance fee. I was there and listened to the comments as people turned away, probably never to come back. I don't think it ever really recovered from that idiotic decision.

Both the geoplay park and Parkfield will now be building an identity, and it will need community support to ensure that both become a beacon of excellence and a platform for our young people in these battered times. So here's the thing. When you get up in the morning take a look at the person looking back at you, and ask whether today will the day that you will make a difference. The day where you don't get knocked down in a daze of negativity and deciding that it is all too much. Perhaps it is all too much, but that isn't a reason for mooching looking and sounding like Pooh Bear's friend Eeyore! As dear old Horace said way back in 65BC — seize the day.

Is that a smile I see?

Changing face of the High Street

This is my column in the Herald Express 3rd May 2012...enjoy!

RECENTLY a wise man, or at least I thought him wise at the time, asked me how business was in these troubled times. Well given that I am tangled up in retail I would have thought the answer self evident given the huge number of empty shops populating town centres. I have shops in Plymouth, Exeter and Paignton and so it did start me thinking about the nature of our local towns and of Paignton in particular. There has without any doubt been a seismic shift in the nature of shopping patterns and that adjustment has had a catastrophic impact on so many. Unless you have been living like a Clanger in some deep silo you cannot have failed to notice the increasing number of empty retail units in town centres and indeed the tattered remains of traditional ribbon shopping parades. Each empty shop has a sullen grey sadness about it because it once held the dreams and aspirations of the hard working occupant. Daily we read and hear so many comments about the demise of the traditional town centre, the relentless onslaught of out-of-town shopping, the internet and the rapid development of huge urban shopping centres like Drake Circus and Princesshay (each with empty retail units vacated by recent brand casualties). Sadly, much of what is reported is caught up in a mixture of misty myth, half-truth and wishful thinking. What cannot be challenged is the fact that years and years of hard work by so many has been flushed down the economic toilet as this paradigm change settles down. Meanwhile, giant supermarkets continue to open around the outskirts of Torbay like some demonic attempt to replicate the Great Wall of China, with end-to-end enormous food halls packed full of so many goodies in regulation sizes. I guess that once the smaller shops have gone the retail giants will then slug it out in what will doubtless be recorded by history as the Supermarket Wars. Who knows? Beyond the 'wall' are the increasing car boot sales with queues that bring local weekend traffic to a standstill. What an exciting rummage a car boot can be with so many of the little bits and bobs that increasingly find themselves launched into the brave new recycling cyber world that is eBay. But here is another interesting change. Inside the 'wall' have you noticed the growth of charity shops, charity offices, gambling shops, fast food outlets and shops selling second-hand stuff in Torbay? Is this the nature of the new town centre community? Anyway, let's get back to where we started with my wise man conversation. His second question was whether Torbay missed a trick in attempting to attract people back to the town centres? As you know, much effort has been put into the establishment of Business Improvement Districts, which is of course another tax on local business with a positive spin. This strategy is about improving the ambience of the business districts. It is good to do but of course the best way of helping struggling local business would be a reduction in the rent and the business rates, but that is another story. What actually happened next in Torbay was sadly a bit of an own goal. Cash-strapped Torbay Council decided to populate the town centres and popular tourist areas with an army of blue traffic meters policed by community enforcement officers. Parking charges became a source of short term revenue and nothing to do with easing traffic flow. I'm not going to waste time bleating on about the damage that has caused since others are still fighting that short term and hugely damaging simplistic policy. So there you have it, an opportunity to attract folk into the area has been squandered by the short term need to generate income in the face of draconian economic cuts handed down by this unelected government. But life is good and so we celebrate the moment and greet each day with a smile.

We all want to help our children, don’t we?

We all want to help our children, don’t we? Of course we do! Sometimes you go without simply to ensure that your children grow healthily. That doesn’t change as they get older and often the sacrifice is hard, especially so in these troubled times.

So when a grown up tells you something then you tend to take note. It is after all the natural order of things. When that grown up is a government minister then you do tend to take note. When that government minister tells you not to panic over fuel but it would be best to top your car up and whilst you are about it perhaps filling a couple of Jerry cans might be a good idea I guess that is what you do.

Have you ever watched petrol unexpectedly catch fire? It is shocking. The deafening bang, the stunning blast, the hammering heat and, if you are unlucky, the searing painful deep skin burn.

So when a government minister says fill Jerry cans you really do raise an eyebrow and ask the question, “You can’t be serious?” Then the ghastly news that a mother helping her daughter by decanting fuel from a Jerry can into a jug for her daughter's car then experiencing the petrol suddenly metamorphosing into a traumatising demonic fireball! She is now fighting for life in hospital.

After all is said and done we want what is best for our children and thought that was the message being delivered. We live in times of confusing rhetoric and most of the time that is simply tediously annoying. But occasionally that rhetoric can have catastrophic results.

All very sad don’t you think?

Are we really all in this together?

My column in this week's (22nd march 2012) Herald Express...........the still restless pen...

I LIKE to read and words always both disrupt and captivate me. They always have and I guess they always probably will. But the thing about words is the interpretation of what is being said by the listener can be worryingly problematic.

Part of the worry is when the speaker is a spinner of rhetoric, purposely choosing words which can be manipulated into a convenient truth.

To be a deliberate spinner of words in a time of economic stress too often produces a dangerous toxic mix that simply knocks the unsuspecting over.

Things are changing so rapidly on a daily basis and it is all too often hugely confusing as we face an assortment of worries from the mundane through to life changing events which simply knock you off the perch.

But here's something to think about.

It is the concept of what might be called wilful blindness explained by Margaret Heffernan in her latest book.

It's worth a read and I noticed a copy in Torquay Library the other day.

In passing, when was the last time you popped into a local library? Wonderful places for community contact and a quick public warning therefore. Please use them before we lose them in these times of funding mayhem.

I worry about wilful blindness locally as Government funding and political dogma seep into the community fabric of South Devon.

How often have you become aware of something but decide you would rather not accept it as a reality?

One reason may be that things have become so complicated for you that it is better to look the other way.

In these bumpy times is that of course quite understandable.

Part of the bumpiness is without doubt the various funding pots.

There are so many curious names from the well-known Lottery Fund to lesser known qango (quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisation) projects.

You can see the initiatives dotted around Torbay with two leaping immediately to mind.

The first is the wonderful Parkfield Youth Centre with its spectacular BMX track and the second the stunning geoplay park on Paignton Green which will open at the end of this month.

I seem to remember that the Parkfield development has £4.8million of funding but can't remember the grant received for the geoplay park.

The most shocking economy being made just now is the cutting of jobs.

You don't need me to tell you the impact of job loss as the fabric of a community is traumatised by that powerful swipe at the stability of the individual citizen.

Jobs that might have been there to support these new developments seem to be disappearing.

We hear so much about community volunteers in the rhetoric of the Big Society yet hoping that somehow people will magically appear to do the business is risky.

It's all very well saying that we are all in this together, but what does that really mean?

Even if we want to help, it isn't that easy.

By the time you have gone through the Criminal Records Bureau checks, undergone various inductions, certification, orientation, safeguarding, equality and diversity training and a myriad of other goodies, often at your own expense, your head is spinning.

Back to Margaret Heffernan and her thing about being wilfully blind.

This is not a time for looking the other way or pretending that someone else will pick up the slack.

Whether you like it or not, we probably are all in this together, although that may not include the folk who coined the phrase!

Commenting to a local councillor the other day about staffing cuts, he said community volunteers would pick up the slack.

Personally, I would have rather found the volunteers before I removed the proverbial bike stabilisers and let the novice cyclist off on a busy road.

Stevie Smith's words have been banging around in my head today and I feel that I want to let them go, but for some reason I can't.

Her words seem to underline these curious times so well.

"I was much further out than you thought and not waving but drowning... I was much too far out all my life and not waving but drowning."

Hmm.

Worrying effects of economic change

My column in this week's Herald Express...........the restless pen...

"STANDING on the east quay of Paignton harbour as the sun lifts from the distant horizon against a clear blue sky is the most wonderful spiritual experience.

I'm not talking about religious spirituality here but about the essential essence of us all. That special part of you and of me that is so intensely personal and private.

It is the core of all our fears hopes and aspirations. The shards of cold salt spray touching your face is the stark reality of a winter dawn and of your own actuality.

I say not religiously spiritual, and yet long forgotten prayers on that golden dawn can provide a platform for quiet meditation.

Perhaps that is the nature of prayer in that it allows a moment of personal reflection and a mantra against the dark days which seem to be creeping around us.

I must admit that for me often when life becomes a little complicated that mantra can provide a barrier between you and the demons of the night. That moment of reflection is now lost from council meetings now that the courts have ruled against it.

The BBC news of that morning carried the Moody's credit rating agency warning about the possible downgrading of our AAA status, and it made me reflect on what that actually means to you and me.

The rhetoric is confusing but the outcome is, with this Government's economic policy, likely to have an impact on the streets of South Devon. The changes tend to be a little like toothache, in that the pain at the moment is random.

It is not until, as we are seeing in Greece, the pain gathers a momentum all of its own that you can see the worrying outcome, as families put their children in care because they can't afford to feed them.

The gap between those who have and those who have not is getting scarily wider by the day.

South Devon is without doubt an unemployment black spot, where wages in our predominantly service based industry tend to be minimum.

A recent change in government policy is very worrying. Many local people work on a part-time basis because the full-time jobs are simply not there.

By working a minimum of 16 hours tax credits kick in and allow a sustainable lifestyle. The threshold is about to change to 24 hours!

A small hotel locally may employ a number of folk working 16 hours, thereby allowing a flexible business model which is sustainable in these challenging times.

So for a business that is only just holding its head above water, where do the extra hours come from?

Talking of hours and wages, it was an eye opener the other day to see mayor Gordon Oliver is to donate half his annual salary to charity.

He, of course, is earning much less than many of the council officers he leads, and one has to wonder whether his example will catch on.

Probably not, and in truth there can't be that many of us who could survive having given away half of the annual household income.

But nevertheless it is very good news for the deserving causes who will doubtless benefit from his generosity.

This neatly leads me on to another curious blot on the Big Society landscape.

We were told that localism is important, and that communities could do much of what government, both national and local, had been doing more efficiently.

That may or may not have been true. But a consequence of funding cuts to local organisations has been catastrophic.

I worry about local services which have also been chopped, like youth services where we have brilliant developments like Parkfield without the infrastructure to support it.

The trouble is, like the loss of local shops, once this stuff has gone we will then start to understand what we have lost.

The words of Nikos Kazantzakis (Zorba the Greek) come to mind: "I was happy, I knew that. While experiencing happiness, we have difficulty in being conscious of it. Only when the happiness is past and we look back on it do we suddenly realise — sometimes with astonishment — how happy we had been."

Why I think the Channel 4 series The Hotel is good for The English Riviera!

I don’t know whether you have watched the Channel 4 series The Hotel on Sunday evenings but if you have not then in my humble opinion you have missed a treat! Of course it is not for everyone and indeed some folk have been jumping up and down with rage claiming that is dragging down the image of The English Riviera. I take a more positive view and see it as a breath of fresh air across an increasingly dismal landscape.

First and foremost is the fact that it is a peak time programme televised as entertainment. The eight programmes track the summer season in a hotel that is fighting for survival in an unfriendly world. Anyone working in tourism these days the fact that the economy is flat, the summers have been bleak and footfall light is a given. As Chris de Burgh sings, “There is nothing quite so sad as a holiday resort in the rain!” But at The Grosvener a summer barbecue goes on despite torrential rain and soggy hot dogs seem to go down well. So British..........

The hotel owner manager is Mark Jenkins and his boundless energy is a tonic each week. Come rain or shine he is buoyant and always looking for new ways to make people happy. For him customer satisfaction is the most important thing. Keep in mind that all the guests have agreed to bedroom camera shots, being followed by a film crew and to take the rough with the smooth.
It is for many of them their five minutes of fame and a digital immortality.

Of course it is not a typical English Riviera hotel and has the look of a neo-Faulty Towers about it, which is doubtless the intention. There are folk who love that sort of hotel which is why it has, I gather, suddenly become fully booked! Others would not want to go anywhere near the place, but still head this way having looked at the area via the programme. One local four star hotel has reported bookings as a result of people watching the programme and seeing how attractive the English Riviera is!

So for me I think The Hotel is a wonderful programme for the English Riviera and brings a special sunlight all of its own. After all is said an done it is where Mr Tickle comes for his holiday!

Waving.......

Stevie Smith's words have been banging around in my head today and I feel the need now to let them go.

But I can’t.

The words?

“I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning…..
…………
I was much too far out all my life
And not waving but drowning.”

So much is changing and the world that we knew seems to be shrouded in a mist that gets thicker by the day. In that murky swirl the worry about making ends meet becomes ever more present for so many.

The bounce and buoyancy of a community is challenged by the draconian changes that threaten, as always, the less well off.

So perhaps when we look back and thought folk were merrily waving we might see that they were in fact sadly drowning.