Palm Trees and Great Minds.

I like Gordon Oliver’s palm tree and during a recent trip to London I bumped into its little friend! There in the middle of a roundabout at the Milbank end of Lambeth Bridge is a spectacular palm tree. I was heading to Waterloo Station for the train back to Torbay but paused for a while to photograph the beast complete with a London bus in the background. Can it be that Torbay’s mayor is indeed a visionary? Great minds thinking alike and that sort of thing perhaps? Hard to say but obviously Boris Johnson has a similar empathy with the palm tree.

Those who brave the Kingskerwell journey will know that the famous palm tree is now missing, but we shouldn’t worry because it is going to reappear when the super-roundabout at the Torbay end of the new road is built. Now I know that many people started to jump up and down when the palm tree first appeared saying that it was a waste of money and of no interest. I have to disagree! For me it is a brilliant statement and a spectacular welcome to the English Riviera. In these troubled times to have something that lifts the spirit is simply brilliant and the palm tree does that for me. For those heading along the new road the palm tree will stand proud offering an almost exotic welcome.

More palm trees have appeared locally of course and recently a couple popped up at each end of the Hollicombe pedestrian refuge on the busy Torquay to Paignton coast road. Once again this little display adds a huge amount of atmospheric ambiance to what was once a dull stretch of road. Of course a new housing estate is about to spring up on the site of the old gasworks at Hollicombe and the pedestrian refuge will provide an oasis of safety as residents head to the beach whilst seemingly endless traffic thunders between Torquay and Paignton. The additional greenery is more than welcome.

The thing is that at the moment large chunks of green space seem to have a habit of suddenly disappearing and it isn’t until they’ve gone that we sadly realise what we have lost. One such event is the proposed redevelopment of Armada Park in Torquay which is likely to be a less accessible green space as a local football club seek permission to expand. This will inevitably mean car parking, clubhouse facility (toilets, changing rooms, food et cetera) and playing area screening. Armada Park is a hugely popular open space and much used by the local community. This is something to think carefully about as I feel certain local councillors Nicole Amil, Michael Hytch and Mark Poutney will be doing. I gather that the Cockington, Chelston and Livermead Community Partnership will be holding a public meeting at 7pm on the 7^th October at the Saint Peter’s Centre Queensway to discuss the possible lease of Armada Park. You have a voice and hopefully an opinion! I’m pleased that the meeting is being held at the Saint Peter’s Centre because this is a focal point for the local community.

Thinking about community focal points I came across an interesting place recently whilst wandering around the streets of London. Age Exchange is a community space in Blackheath which has somehow managed to unite the young and old with common purpose. The building has a little café, computers, a small library and meeting rooms. When I was there the people mix included older folk, teenagers, working people popping in for a break, mothers, toddlers and an assortment of others all enjoying the pleasant atmosphere. It seems to me that somewhere like the Saint Peter’s Centre might offer that potential. We need these days to find things to pull communities together. People bang on about social media and the Internet but it seems to me that cyberspace can in point of fact be a very lonely place. It gives the impression of friendship but lacks the vibrancy of face to face contact.

Curiously there is a flip side to the loss of green space and that has to be the huge number of weeds popping up in once cared for urban areas! Cutting back on urban care is one consequence of the economic downturn. However there is nothing stopping us from doing a little neighbourhood weeding, litter clearing and sweeping of course.

Keep the smile!

Paignton United!

You would think that as a community we would have some sort of common purpose. Yet when you consider that when the Paignton BID (Business Improvement District) trundled into life our beautiful harbour and its business community wasn’t included. Now why was that? Well it seems that some bright spark said that the business rates were paid to the Torbay Harbour Authority! Not true of course but enough to have Paignton telling half its story. Just to add salt to the wound I think that might have been the same year that the English Riviera Tourism Company (ERTC) left Paignton Harbour out of the annual tourist brochure. Hmm.

There is a new initiative being on the horizon and consultants have been employed to guide the decision makers Torbay Council). The initiative is the new TTR-BID (Torbay Tourism and Retail). This will be the first ‘super’ BID of its kind in the UK. In a BID area all businesses pay an additional fee via the business rates to fund area improvements. The payment is legally enforceable and so if you’re in the included area then you have to cough up your share.

In these financially challenging times we must all take great care when spending hard earned cash. With that in mind it is important that you pay careful attention to what is going on. We’ve have already demonstrated that the BID in Paignton isn’t fully inclusive because a major asset, the historic harbour, had been left out.

If this new TTR-BID becomes a reality we need to ensure that it is something we really want and that the money collected is spent wisely. It has the potential to unite the community and we can then welcome a more ‘united’ Paignton. How lovely that would be!

Keep the smile!!

New friends from far off places

Falling out of my dream-scape into a new day is often, for me, a powerful and unsettling experience. Adjusting from the colourful and too often complicated dreamscape can also be something of an adrenalin rush. Colourful memory scraps fall away as soft morning light offers a more, hopefully, stable landscape. Today was such a start that it made me catapult out of bed whilst balancing my own reality! I don’t know whether you have read Jostein Gaarder’s book ‘Sophie’s World’ but if you have then the significance of that moment will make you smile.

Grabbing both dogs I then wandered down to the beach in the early grey light to find a quiet spot on Preston seafront to watch the warming sun creep up over Hope’s Nose. That moment as the golden light spreads across the tranquil waters of Tor Bay is truly atmospheric. This life of ours tends to be a bumpy business and so feeling the first rays of a new day wash over you is like nothing else. This can be your moment of mindfulness meditation as your breathing matches the rhythm of the new day. What a brilliant platform!

For me part of that platform was eventually sorting breakfast for the two foreign students living with us at the moment. Sixteen year old Nicole is from the Czech Republic and fifteen year old Adelina’s home country is Kazakhstan. Both are studying English at the Devon School of English in the middle of Paignton. Paul Hawthorne is the principal and the other day invited me to come and have a look around.  

I live not far from the Devon School of English and the quickest route for me is through the Oldway Mansion gardens. There is a temptation here to wax lyrical about the curious status of this wonderful old estate as Torbay Council seeks to secure its future. Answering public concern Torbay Council issued a statement recently which said “"Torbay Council is working closely with Akkeron to progress the development of Oldway into a four star hotel. Discussions are on-going and we will make further announcements at the appropriate time. The council is committed to securing the most favourable outcome for one of Torbay's most prized landmark buildings." Hopefully you will be able to make more of that statement than I managed to! Torbay Council appears to be still looking after the estate and I have to say that the gardens did look stunning as I wandered past. The flower beds were a riot of colour and the grass had been freshly cut. People were also playing tennis but sadly the once popular tea room café is now, like the main building, closed.

It seems to me that Torbay has many historic buildings less famous than Oldway Mansion that too often go unnoticed or end up at the receiving end of a developer’s merciless sledgehammer. That might have been the fate of the beautiful old vicarage next to Christ Church in Paignton had it not been bought by the Devon School of English some years ago. What a quintessential location for foreign visitors to study English and certainly my student guests all seem to love it there.

I do worry that the value of language tourists to the local economy is often overlooked or worse still deliberately ignored. Let me give you an example. Some years ago a German student on work experience with the Training Partnership in Torquay came to join me for three months. He was well educated and not particularly short of money. Whilst here he stayed with a local family boosting their family income, enjoyed many meals in the various eateries, visited numerous attractions and bought clothes in town shops. Recently he and his family came back to South Devon for a two week holiday with friends! This is a great place to visit and all these folk from different parts of the world become ambassadors spreading the good news about our friendly community!

Sadly I hear many negative comments about the number of foreign students in the area and that really upsets me because they bring so much energy with them. Please make them welcome and allow them to celebrate the vibrancy of our local landscape. Why not tell them about the stunning sunrises over our sparkling sea and if you have them staying as guests chip them out of bed soon after first light for a ‘dawny’ on the beach to celebrate the start of the new day as the sun lifts from the distant horizon!

Keep the smile!

Changing landscape

So much seems to be suddenly changing at the moment and that has started to worry me.  It’s all too easy when you live in a beautiful area to accommodate change with a shrug of the shoulder without really thinking too much until the impact comes knocking on your door. Let me give you an example.

Recently for four of my friends that change came in the shape of a P45. A P45 is a government form for the termination of employment. They had all lost their jobs and were clutching meagre redundancy packages to soften the immediate impact of not having a job. There was a common theme that linked the four and that was a feeling of not being wanted. These days we hear of so many people losing jobs and if you are reading this in South Devon you might well be one of them.

The good news is, or so we are told, that the economy is on the up and that should bring with it many new jobs. If that is the case then that is indeed good news. It is also true that the loss of a job can create an opportunity for breaking away from the grind of the daily routine and doing something new. Quite often the fact that employment may be terminated has been anticipated and plans are in place for a transition to other work. In the case of my four friends that awareness was there and whilst seeking pastures new wasn’t on the agenda the sudden shocking blow to the status quo didn’t happen.

As part of my work I run short courses building self-esteem and confidence. I also act as a professional mentor with people adjusting to new landscapes. One consequence of being bounced out of a job can be a loss of confidence and self-esteem. Once your world has been rocked ‘getting back in the saddle’ isn’t always as easy as you might think. Of course, as I well know, running out of work is an unpleasant experience for those working for themselves. The worry about providing for yourself and those around you can be a dark and lonely place.

You would have had to be living in a very remote state not to have been aware of budget cuts to our local council services. Mayor Gordon Oliver has had to produce a budget to save millions of pounds which has already caused serious hardship. Budget cuts tend to mean people losing jobs because it has an immediate impact upon the balance sheet. Those council jobs at one time tended to be a job for life but that cosy concept appears to have slipped into history.

Philosopher Alain De Botton is an interesting man and talks about the curious nature of human consciousness. It is that consciousness that all too often has the biggest impact when unemployment comes knocking on the door. We are very aware of the future or at least an anticipation of a future and worry about what comes next. I remember a while ago chatting with my doctor about a number of things at a time when the dark demons were knocking on my mind. My blood pressure had been high and he was recommending a new medication. I questioned whether I really wanted to take another drug. He suggested that it would possibly make me live longer. “Why would I want to do that?” I asked. His reply still makes me smile as I write. “It will satisfy your natural curiosity as to what comes next!”

Numerous people have played around with the words ‘the past is history, the future is a mystery and the present is a gift’. This is a truth of course. What has happened has happened. What is to happen does tend to be mostly hidden from us and so all we can truly deal with is the actuality of our own reality at this precise moment.  It can be so hard to do that because there is a tendency to look back fretting about what happened. But that is the point! It has happened and so we must move on and be the wiser for it. We might worry about the future and plan but once again events tend to throw up many threats and opportunities. We must learn from the past, plan for the future but live in the present.

So here is a little homework for you. At the start of your day stand in front of a mirror and take a good look at your reflection. Yes it really is you! Now smile at your reflection and watch it smile back. If you think that is silly now give yourself a wink! Hopefully that will make you laugh and that is the point. In doing that silly little exercise you set a platform for the day. It is your day and you have decided to be in a better place. That smile is infectious and you now face the world as a source of light rather than darkness. That has to be a good thing for all of us.

Keep the smile!

Whether to laugh or cry

To be quite honest I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry! There is on Torquay’s Cary Green a statue of Agatha Christie. They tell me that it is the only official statue of her, which may or may not be true. It doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that the other day a yellow planning notice was slapped on the plinth giving statutory notice of plans to redevelop the area and turn picturesque Cary Green into a car park serving a new hotel.

I don’t know whether you know Cary Green but I suspect that you will have travelled that way on numerous occasions. For me it has always been something of an oasis on Torquay’s crowded harbour-side and is much loved by many. There is a campaign to save it from becoming a car park. Of course you may feel that it doesn’t need saving and that a little thing like a colourful garden shouldn’t stand in the way of progress. The progress here is the building of an iconic hotel that will dominate the harbour area, reportedly bringing hundreds of jobs, providing numerous opportunities and endless happiness. I’ve made the last bit up but it does give you a taste of the supportive rhetoric.

All very interesting you might say, but what has it got to do we me? Well I will tell you what it has to do with you. The planning application came before a full meeting of our council a week or so ago and it was decided that it should not be openly debated. The decision was taken to make the process secret and that was immediately questioned by a number of councillors who worried about the democratic ethic. The consequence of this ‘secret squirrel’ delegated council policy is that the decision will be announced by the few to the many without open debate. Of course having said all that most council decisions can be overruled by our elected mayor which to me is a ‘democratic’ abnormality!

So here we are again looking at what holds our community together and what input we might have in the decision making process. We must keep an eye on what is being proposed and decide whether it is for the greater good or simply for the benefit of the few. In less than a year we will be electing local councillors and members of parliament. We will also, unless things change, be electing a mayor again.

This is the time to take a really good look at what is happening around us and decide whether proposed changes make sense. We all know that these are stormy financial times and so pay attention to where the public money is being spent. Look for the winners and the losers. Is the ‘spend’ for the good of all or once again for the benefit of the few?

Let me take you back briefly to the not knowing whether to laugh or cry. In last week’s Herald Express Paul Hawthorn, chairman of the Friends of Oldway, expressed concern over the lack of progress with redevelopment. At least this year the tennis courts have reopened and that has brought joy to hundreds of local people. Sadly the Oldway Mansion building is starting to look very sad indeed. Torbay Council responded to Paul’s concern by saying “Torbay Council is working closely with Akkeron to progress the development of Oldway into a four star hotel. Discussions are on-going and we will make further announcements at the appropriate time. The council is committed to securing the most favourable outcome for one of Torbay's most prized landmark buildings." I’m not sure what is being said here other than the situation is unchanged and likely to remain unchanged for a while.

As I have already said these are hard times and of course difficult decisions have to be made. It just seems to me that these decisions must be transparent and not be the result of ‘secret squirrel’ meetings. But I guess that will only happen if we all engage and contribute in a meaningful way. Why not contact your local councillor and ask for a Cary Green/Oldway update?

Keep the smile!

The Girl from Brazil…..

I knew very little about Brazil other than the fact that it is a huge South American country with rain forests, Reef sandals, scantily dressed women on Copacabana beach, the huge Christ statue above Rio de Janeiro, colourful cities, shanty towns and of course the 2014 football World Cup!

 

That all changed in June when sixteen year old Naiara de Salvo Lisboa came to stay with us for two weeks. Nai was on a month long tour with her school visiting Paris and London before spending two weeks in Paignton at the Devon School of English polishing her already excellent English. Her only linguistic stumble was the pronunciation of ‘ed’ where words like finished become finish-ed. I speak no other language with any fluency and therefore folk like Nai have my deepest admiration.

Over evening meals we were introduced to the beauty of Brazil and its colouful culture. Nai is a Catholic and shared Sunday mass with me, commenting on the similarities here with the more vibrant Brazilian celebration. Thinking about the World Cup I loved her comment that Brazil should win because whilst the pope is Argentinian she thought that God was probably Brazilian!

Nai enjoyed her time with the the Devon School of English and thought their standard very high. Every morning was spent in the classroom and afternoons were packed with interesting visits around the English Riviera and atmospheric Dartmoor National Park. They even managed a day surfing!

The overseas students bring a special vibrancy to South Devon and a welcome boost to the local economy. Their interaction makes the world a smaller and perhaps safer place, which has to be good for all of us. Nai is back in Belo Horizonte now enjoying almost endless sunshine and we miss her boundless energy.

Look for the light rather than the darkness.

My column in the Herald Express 26th June 2014

The other day I ‘shared’ a post on Facebook. For those of you who don’t play with social media let me quickly explain. Facebook is a social media platform on the Internet for the sharing of information, uploading photographs and generally keeping in touch with friends.

One of my friends shared something the other day that he had seen which worried him. The worry was a picture of the House of Commons debating funding for an important social issue with only of handful of politicians present. Given the nature of what was being discussed and the apparent lack of political interest I thought it important and therefore ‘shared’ the story and picture with a personal comment expressing my concern. Local MP Adrian Sanders almost immediately posted a comment explaining that the original article was a hoax! The picture from the House of Commons had been taken on another day and then the debate title below copied from another day! Why would people do that?

The thing is that these spoof news stories seem to be sprouting up a little too often these days usually with an icon that relates to a genuine news source that gives the post a false credibility. That potentially harmful disinformation can cause so much damage. With the speed of communication these days via the Internet, mobile phones, television et cetera words can spread like an Australian bush-fire on a hot windy day! The thing about words is that once they have been spoken or written then calling them back is so very hard and even if the original story is corrected too many people will not see the correction which means that the false fact trundles on potentially eternally!

Of course that false or misguided information isn’t restricted to cyberspace because daily social intercourse can be a source of quite harmful rhetoric. How often do we say something to others about something and then a little later find that what we had said wasn’t correct? Do we then contact all those that we have told and correct the fact? Probably not I rather suspect. Whilst talking to a group the other day someone commented on the seriousness of religious fundamentalism and that stimulated a debate about religion and its place in society. The comment related to one specific religious group and its ethos. It didn’t take long to understand that the speaker knew little of the religious group but did have very strong negative views about them.

We then discussed other religions and it soon became clear how limited our knowledge was. In a multi-cultural society peppered with religious dogma that has to be a worry. How easy it is to stigmatise and label identifiable groups! Education is changing on a daily basis as Michael Gove MP rampages through the curriculum dumping subjects and my worry is that religious education will slip into obscurity. That in my humble opinion would be a disaster because religious education is about understanding how social groups interact and not simply about worship. Most of us, if not all of us, will have been conditioned in some way by the religious experience and certainly when I was at school every day started with a corporate act of Christian worship. But in those growing years I knew almost nothing about Judaism, Islam, Hinduism et cetera and therefore equally very little about the cultural norms surrounding them.

Can I give you some homework? If you have access to a computer why not search for an online encyclopaedia and learn a little about some of them. Nip in to your local library (while we still have a network of libraries!!) and find a book that simply explains the nature of each. But whatever you do please stay away from the spiteful rhetoric that is so divisive and hurtful too often rooted in ignorant bigotry. To build a healthy community we really need to embrace neighbours and the richness that multiculturalism can bring. That can start by simply smiling at a stranger and if you are feeling really brave you could also say hello!

We live in restless times with increasing evidence that communities seem to be tearing each other apart in so many places. If that is to change then we really need a much deeper understanding of each other and that can start with you! Look for the light rather than the darkness. Seek the good rather than the bad. Find something nice to say about people rather than constantly looking for the negative. You can make a difference.

Keep the smile.