Mela, Hot, Hot, Hot

Had a fantastic weekend. Spent yesterday talking to residents on the door and spent today at the Mela.

We had a very subtle stand, as you can see and it was nice to be able to talk politics with East Reading's asian community. Although it was very very hot. I had to ask my daughter to bring over my hat as I was getting sun burnt.

This picture shows Jon and I with a College Road resident. This was obviously before the sun burn kicked in.

Saw some of Park's other Councillors, it was interesting to see that Park's Tory popped in especially as we have not seen much of him over the last 3 years.

One of the great things about an open air event is that everybody wants to talk about what really bothers them. Sometimes this can be tricky political questions and sometimes this can be where's the nearest loo. Happily we were able to help in both cases.


So I am checking out the lists of issues we have been given to follow up and am going to have to do something about my face, which is in need of somekind of cooling liquid. Will report on the issues and follow ups soon.

The Reading ConDems, can you trust them?

Have just seen this from my friend Councillor John Ennis. John is highlighting the double dealing nature of the current ConDem administration in Reading.

I copy it here for you.

Headline: All Saints School, Alok Sharma and Councillor Ralph need to answer questions

Before the General Election, Alok Sharma, MP Reading West and Councillor Mark Ralph visited All Saints School and committed to supporting the parents, teachers and governors in expanding the school. They lobbied our administration for the expansion. We had already agreed to hold off putting August House in order to investigate further expansion of All Saints. However, less than six weeks later the ConDem coalition is going to sell August House against the commitments of Cllr Mark Ralph in an outrageous bout of hypocrisy. ALok is saying nothing as he has already achieved his aims of getting elected as MP for Reading West, therefore he doesn't need the parents and children of All Saints anymore. Maybe he will comment in four years time, closer to his re-election.


Below is a press release from the Reading and District Labour Party outlining the hypocritical comments made on Mr Sharma's website and the platitudes of Councillor Mark Ralph.

READING & DISTRICT LABOUR PARTY MEDIA RELEASE

Labour: “Tory hypocrisy will break All Saints hearts”

Tory Lead Councillor for Education Mark Ralph plans to ignore the pleas from Governors and parents at All Saints Infants School by pushing ahead with the sale of August House at Cabinet on 12 July. All Saints and their local community are only asking for six months to see if they can find funds for their one and only opportunity to expand the school to a full Primary and end local families’ junior school placement misery. Cllr Ralph and his ConDem colleagues on Reading Borough Council seem to be simply turning a blind eye to their plight.

But, says Labour’s education lead, Cllr. Jon Hartley, Mark Ralph and his Tory colleagues, are also ignoring the promises that they made before the election; when Alok Sharma MP pledged his support for parent's plans for All Saints.

Jon says: “The Tories were clear in their support for All Saints School before the elections. Now, despite proclaiming that they are working in a ‘new politics’ they are already engaged in the worst kind of political bad faith, promising one thing to local people and then doing the opposite.”

Amazingly, the clear evidence of the Tories’ hypocrisy is still available on the Conservative’s own campaigning website, www.aloksharma.co.uk

On 15 February, Alok Sharma, who as a Parliamentary Candidate claimed to be working with the school’s parents and governors, said: “I fully support this excellent initiative from the parents and governors at All Saints. They are all extremely motivated to expand the school and I very much hope that Reading Borough Council will listen to their proposals with an open mind. The pressure on school places in Reading Borough is not going to go away and creating another 60 places at All Saints will undoubtedly help. The Council needs to demonstrate some imagination and long-term thinking when they review the plan from All Saints. The success of any school is determined by its leadership team, the motivation of the governing body and the positive involvement of parents and in the case of All Saints, everyone is fully behind this initiative.”

And Cllr. Mark Ralph himself, then Tory education spokesman, added: “The plan to expand the school has clear merits and I will be pressing the council to give the parents and governors a fair hearing when they are ready to present their proposals.”

A month later, on 16 March, Alok Sharma again publicly supported the school’s expansion plans, saying: “Parents are understandably frustrated and concerned that many of their children have not be allocated places at any of their preferred schools. If All Saints receives support from Reading Borough Council and is allowed to expand, not only will overall pressure on school places be eased but parents at All Saints will not face the same uncertainty about school places in future years. This is a win-win situation, it just needs the Council to think and act with some imagination and support a really motivated set of parents and governors.”

Jon Hartley comments:

“Just a few months ago, Alok Sharma and Mark Ralph were happy to say they supported All Saints School and even called on the Labour administration to do more. Now the Reading West MP is silent whilst Cllr Ralph seems prepared to push through a complete U-turn, ending all hope of expanding a popular local school.

The challenge to them and their Tory colleagues is to do the right thing and live up to the promises that they made in the run up to the elections. Just do what Labour was doing, give All Saints parents the support, imagination and most importantly the fair-hearing that is still promised on their own MP’s website. If they persist in their current plans, the Tories’ hypocrisy will break the hearts of parents at All Saints and families across Reading will know that they cannot trust this new council coalition’s promises.”

East Reading Festival and Sun Burn

I wish I had a hat....just spent a very very warm afternoon, campaigning on behalf of public sector workers at the East Reading festival..very enjoyable.

We were also asking residents to sign a petition on HMO's it was great to talk to residents about their concerns and work with all the Labour volunteers to make sure we spoke to as many people as possible.

The picture show me with Labour activists at the festival.

We have a big programme of campaigns ahead so you will see us out and about. Come and say hello, we might even give you a badge.

We also met up with the organisers of the Freegle group and promised to put a link to their site so here it is.

Writing a Consitution

I now have an incling of how the Founding Father's of the US felt....Ok a little exagerated perhaps but stick with me.

I with a number of other Parent Governors at Alfred Sutton have been asked to establish a Parents' Forum to assist the Governoring body. It will be a consultee of the Governors and also be a place where Parents can discuss with the Governors issues that concern them.

I am very keen that parents are able to find a voice in the school and am working hard with a number of parents and governors to develop this.

We have already held our first meeting where parents were able to talk about the issues that worried them and also to decide whether they wanted to have a Forum in the first place. We were able to take those issues to the school and I am pleased to say got some very positive answers back. The parents also decided that the Forum was a good idea and that we should go ahead and organise it.

Yesterday we took our first step in formalising the group by writing a Consititution, or perhaps more realistically a charter for the group. Although it only runs to a page and a bit it was good to see everyone working together to make the Forum work and understand the commitment needed to run it.

I hope we will be able to present the Charter at our next meeting, which is Tuesday 6th at 19.30. If you are a parent of a child at Alfred Sutton, come along we will be giving feedback on the issues raised at the last meeting.

For those of you with an interest in such things here is a link to the US constitution there are some intor notes but the constitution starts on page 21 of the document. For really constitution spotters here is a link to the German Grundgestezt, which is the current German constitution. For reall constitution spotters there is a prize for those that can tell me why the German's have a Basic Law rather than a constitution.

Lollipops are lovely

Have had my first day back lollipoping, really enjoyed it. I have actually missed the interaction with parents and their children in the morning.

5 weeks has been a long time not to do something you enjoy and especially as in the last few weeks my foot felt ok as long as I didn't stress it too much.

I was taken aback at how many people were kind enough to say they were pleased that I was back looking after the crossing and the sun even shined.

I also understand that another Parent has offered to do some of the afternoon slot as 4 out of 5 slots haven't been covered, so even more good news. He is meeting me on Wednesday for some training so he can see what the mornings are like. I hope he enjoys it.

So all in all a good day,

Shooting at Grange Ave.

I am sad to say that the spectre of gun crime has again come to Park Ward.

At about 11.30 last night( Sunday) an arguement took place outside of the on of the Take Aways and a shot was fired. As far as I could find out there were no fatalities.

I was working outside Alfred Sutton this morning, and came across this scene. Fortunately as I was on the spot I was able to reassure passers by about the general safety of the area and that this appears to have been a one off incident. Nevertheless it is very concerning and I will be writing to the Council and also to the Police to ask them to step up police and PCSO patrols in the area. As a member of the local Police/Residents' liaison committee I know that the Police are working hard in the area, but as a father of 2 teenage children I want to make sure that they are doing everything in their power to make sure that the area is safe.

I will be working, with my Labour colleagues, to make sure that nothing like this happens again.

Doesn't recommend the Tube on Crutches

My odyessy on crutches continues, while I learn to understand the issues which people who have mobility difficulties have when out and about.

The day starts off, with me having to "walk" on crutches to Great Knolly's Street from Jackson's corner, I don't know about 3/4 of a mile, because I left something on a bus and had to pick it up. Usefully Reading Buses doesn't have a bus stop near the depot. Then I had to walk, stomp, back to the station. I had to get from Paddington to the Imperial War Museum. So for those that don't know the Tube trip is simple stay on the Bakerloo from Padders to Lambeth North.

Get to Paddington, stomp to the Tube, ah, only way down is steps of escalator, it is easier to use the Bakerloo exit near platform 9 and 10 but this has steps. Stomp to the gate and go down the escalator. With crutches I take up a bit of space on the escalator and a kind chap waits behind me as he can't get by me. This poor chap is sworn at by a woman aged about 20 as she tells him to get out of the F+++ing way. All this because he was giving me space. The Tube was fine except, despite being on crutches no one wants to let you sit donw so stood for 20mins.

Get to Lambeth North easy, except you have to get up somesteps to get to the lift, only one working. Then another 1/4 mile stomp to the Museum. Oh at the Museum, which I love, the lifts don't work and there are a million steps.

So feeling a tadge worn out and have to reverse the whole thing to get home. Almost exactly the same, except there are no seats on the train. While I am wondering whether I can cope on crutches for 30 mins a lovely lady gives up her seat. Thank you so much.

Get to Reading so have to get a bus home, a simple yomp from the Station to Jacksons Corner, another 1/4 mile. Then the bus home and another 1/4mile yomp up Hamilton Rd. Was done in when I got home.

So my judgement, the Tube is utterly useless if you have any mobility difficulty, if you aren't being abused by pushy Londoners, none will give you a seat and there are about a million steps. Reading Buses are ok, except the bus stops are not quite where you want them, especially in the centre of town.

BUT Reading Borough Council, STILL hasn't replaced the bus shelter by Alfred Sutton and my arms hurt allot. So if you have mobility problems, don't go on the Tube, get a Taxi.