UTC Update

What is the subject that causes the most heat in Park Ward and East Reading? It is the provision of school places for East Reading's children and so it was to discuss the subject that about 100 people gathered in Alfred Sutton's main hall last night.

Passions rose as the meeting, led by Cllr John Ennis, described the coming shortages in junior school and senior school places. Residents passions bubbled over in to anger when Conservative Councillor Isobel Balsdon, never known for her comfortable relationship with the public, tried to score political points while speaking on behalf of Rob Wilson MP. Passion became anger when Cllr Balsdon announced that our MP was secretly negotiating with a "provider" for a school for 11-16 year olds to be built "somewhere" in East Reading. That anger doubled when she stated that she was not at liberty to tell us anything else because of "bad publicity. Balsdon is well remembered by Park and Redlands residents as the Cllr who most vehemently supported Wokingham's plans to exclude Reading children from Maiden Erleigh School.

Cllr Ennis and Chief Education Officer Kevin McDaniel calmly presented the issues in East Reading of pupil place shortfall. In short Reading has seen a 34% growth of the 0-4 cohort from 2001 to 2011 and from 2014 will be short 12 classes at reception and the area will be short 16 classes at year 7.  The £25m spent by Reading on its junior schools in expanding class provision will deal with this problem in the Junior/Primary sector, however it is at Secondary level that there are larger problems, which brought the meeting to the subject of Rob Wilson's UTC on Crescent Road.

The above map shows the way that the "Alfred Sutton" site on Crescent Road is divided.

A1 and A2 is the land that belongs to Alfred Sutton Primary School.
A3 is the site of the childrens' centre on Hamilton Road
B1 and B2 is the site of the UTC
C1 and C2 is the part of the site owned by a developer

The temper of the meeting was that the UTC is going to happen, it will only take children aged between 14-19, but since it is going ahead we should work with it. Kevin McDaniel advised that because of its catchment area and age range it may have only a minimal effect on Reading's shortage of secondary places.

What is worrying is the fact that the Sports Hall and Tennis Courts is under the threat of development. The covenants on the land mean that it can only be used for education, unless there is no educational use for the land. Cllr Ennis explained that RBC would like to put either a 2 form primary school on the site or Secondary School. Both these ideas would need funding, and while he stated that the council was looking at borrowing to build, Government rules dictate that the option of Free School has to be muted as a first step and only when this step has been exhausted can the Council step in. There are also issues of density and making it fit it with the general area. The meeting agreed that it did not want to see housing on the site, however could not agree what it wanted.

Cllr Ennis and Kevin McDaniel both said that this morning was the beginning, not the end of the process. They both asked residents to give them their views, either directly at the meeting, or by taking part in the consultation process that will start on the 15th Oct.

So what do you think should be done with the area C1 and C2, school? something else? Whatever your opinion please take part in the consultation. When the link is up I will post it to help this.

If you want to tell me your opinion please comment below (note all comments will be moderated)

School Places in East Reading

Rob Wilson MP having appeared to have washed his hands of his "half cocked" plans for a Senior School for 14-18years olds in East Reading, I am pleased to see that RBC, under the Labour Lead Councillor, Cllr John Ennis, is holding a public meeting to discuss the issue with local residents.

I spent a very pleasant morning delivering leaflets to parents as they went in to Alfred Sutton Primary advertising a Public Meeting to be held on the 27th September at 6.30pm. Most of the parents I spoke either said that they would come along or would send someone on their behalf.

Unfortunately the Head of Alfred Sutton seems to be a little confused and is humming and hawing about whether the meeting should be advertised in the school newsletter. I bumped in to a Governor of the school who told me that she is under the impression that it is some sort of party political meeting and therefore won't be advertising it. I hope after the conversation I had with the school Governor and a good reading of the leaflet above will help her to change her mind.

Nevertheless I hope that as many local parents from Alfred Sutton, Newtown, Redlands and St Johns will be able to make it as the decisions made about Secondary provision will effect East Reading for generations.

I will be there and I hope to see you there too.

If Only All Saturdays Could be like this.....

This week has been so busy, lots of street work and lots of things happening in the Ward. Saturday saw the morning spent talking to residents in Park and the afternoon spent at Alfred Sutton's International Fayre.

On the streets residents were concerned about many things but something that particularly raised hackles was the Conservative's changes to the disabled bus pass. Previously if you held a disabled or OAP bus pass you received free bus travel before 9.30. The Conservative and Liberal Democrat council forced the motion through the Council to remove the concession on Tuesday. They gave disabled people exactly 3 days to find out about the change and introduced it on Friday. If that wasn't malicious enough they sent the letters out so late that they didn't arrive until Friday afternoon. If you were disabled and worked you would have already had the humiliation of having your pass rejected in the morning.

Many residents were shocked at the Conservative Council's pettiness and narrow mindedness.


I spent the afternoon at Alfred Sutton's International Fayre. I think this is the third one we've held. The PTA and its Chair should be very proud of what they have achieved. I was on the English stand. There were stands representing: Spain, Wales, Pakistan, Portugal, Iraq, Poland, South Africa, France, Scotland, Germany, Italy, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Jamaica and of course England. It was a great afternoon. I am sure that I have missed some of the stands, but the stands represented the breadth of nations that are represented at the school. As with any Alfred Sutton event there was country dancing but the highlight of the afternoon was the competition to carry a basket on your head. One of the teachers, who originally came from Sierra Leone was challenging people to carry a basket of fruit on their heads. This was the star event and hugely amusing especially if you watched. Loved it.

Another bad week for the liberal democrats

Its been a very very busy week, hence the time between posts. The news has been busy too, a fantastic win in Barnsley while the Liberal Democrats coming 6th and the Conservatives trailing after UKIP. In Reading Liberal Democrat councillor Gareth Epps has decided not to fight for his seat, perhaps bowing to the inevitable? On a national level the Coalition skillfully announced their desire for a no fly zone over Libya while advising of huge cuts in the RAF.

In my own life the week has also been busy, a lot of canvassing, talking to residents and attending meetings of Alfred Sutton's Parents' Forum, where I am Vice Chair.

Canvassing was interesting, apart from it being very very wet and cold. I was talking to a resident in Newtown she was very worried about the cuts that the towns Conservatives and their Liberal Democrat allies are forcing through. She was so worried she said to  me" Richard, the only way that the Council can change is for Labour to win in May, to win in Park Ward, and in all the other Wards in the town" I completly agreed and would do my best to see this happen in Park.

Does this look right to you?

A very shaky picture I know, but does this look right to you?

The picture shows a parent driving his children to a private school on Christchurch Road, I think the Abbey juding by the green uniforms of the girls in the back. He is taking an illegal left hand turn in to Crescent Road. Unfortunately he has miss judged the turn and is stuck on the bollards. He had to reverse backwards a couple of times to get by. This time he didn't decide to drive through the bollards or try and knock over a child in the process, but he was lucky I have seen a lot of near misses when drivers do this and on one occassion I saw a Taxi drive through the bollards. I see drivers do this at least once a day. It is incredible when you see it.


This cannot continue I have spoken to the local Police Inspector and have asked that the Police take action to stop this. One day someone will get hurt. I will keep pressing the Police to take action and I hope that this photo and others that I have taken an given them will be acted on soon.

Thanks for driving carefully-NOT

As you may have noticed its hammering down with rain outside.

Reading's drivers, at least those along Crescent Road, seem to be reacting with characteristic zeal and verve. So much so that many of them, such as the driver of this 4 x 4 seem to have forgotten about everyone else's safety and comfort.

There's a bit of a puddle just where I lollipop and today saw nearly every driver, apart from a few honourable exceptions try to hit the puddle at maximum speed, causing maximum bow wave and splashing the maximum number of children and parents.

It was all a bit unpleasant for the poor people who were splashed and the drivers seemed to show no interest in the chaos they were causing as 5 year old children were doused in mucky road water. As you can probably tell I am more than slightly hacked off by the behaviour I saw and hope that having seen the picture you share my indignation.

The lesson for us all is, I guess, either be anti social and splash people or have a bit of humanity when you drive and slow down when you hit a huge puddle.

Another Day Another Blockage

Imagine my joy yesteday when I came to the last 10 mins of my last lollipoping shift of the week and most people had smiled, all the cyclists had stopped and no one had been run over.

Imagine how this joy evaporated when a large 3663 lorry from their depot in Abingdon rocked up and parked immediately opposite me and blocked half of Crescent Road and all of the pavement. He managed to force a couple of parents in to the road and even had a go at splatting a couple of cyclists.

Imagine again my frustration when I went up to the cab to ask him if he knew there was a school and he was stopping children being able to get to school safely and he basically told me that he had a delivery to to and I could push off.

Not a good way to end the shift, but lo I remembered that I had my mobile in my pocket and since no one could cross at my crossing, because he'd blocked it I range his depot and chatted to the Transport Manager. The Transport Manager was very polite and quiet contrite and said he would make sure it would happen again, but couldn't it all have been avoided if the driver had  been a tadge more thoughtful. Ho Hum lets see what happens next week.

A Long Week Lollipoping

Ok can you spot the deliberate mistake in this photo?

Its not the car, its not Bali's shop, its not the Newsagents, its the sign. This is the sign that says no right hand turn at the junction of Crescent Road and Wokingham Road. It has been banged out of true by drivers who have illegally turned right, where the right hand turn is banned.

This sign has summed up some of the problems which face your Alfred Sutton Lollipop man on an average day.

Every morning I face, people who illegally turn left from the Wokingham Road in to Crescent Road. The curb has been set to make this difficult and indeed they often ground on the curb and have to reverse back in to the traffic to make the turn. They at least try to look sheepish as they come around the corner.

On the other hand there are those who make the illegal right turn, this week I even saw a Reading Borough Council dustcart make this turn. 

I am there to help people across the road, amazingly a large number of drivers appear to want to speed up when they see me walk in to the road. At least twice I have had to call out to parents and children to make sure that they don't step in to the road because I wasn't sure that the car, infront of which I was standing, didn't appear to want to stop.

Occassionally I get tradesmen who park up to get sandwiches at the sandwich shop and dump their vehicle in front of the school. Last week a trademan did this and gave me a lot of verbal when I asked him to move. Fortunately when I called his boss he took it very seriously and said he would discipline his driver. I was very impressed at the boss's attitude.

So in to this mix add rain and fog this week and the fact that a number of parents seem to encourage their children to run in to the middle of the road. I had the situation this week where a father was running late and dropped his child infront of the school, on the opposite side of the road. He then told his child to run to school. The poor child aged 7 or 8 did as he was asked and ran straight infront of a car. Luckily the approaching driver had his wits about him and stopped in time, after I had shouted  a warning.

I went to discuss the issue with the Father, who after all just encouraged his son to commit suicide, and the Father had the gall to ask me to open one of the car's passenger doors, on the road side, as it had child locks and the other child couldn't get out of the car. All I can say is that I was flabbergasted.

When Did Reading Borough Council Know About the Maiden Erlegh Consultation?

Questions have been asked about when Reading Borough Council knew that Wokingham Borough Council were going to propose changes to the Maiden Erlegh Catchment Area.

Jon Hartley, Labour Councillor; Park Ward, has asked Reading Officers to confirm when they were aware of the changes. They confirm that Wokingham advised them in June that changes to the catchment area were proposed. While not for now, as we are where we are, however this date asks questions of Tory Councillor Mark Ralph's commitment to Reading's residents as this would have been one of the first things across his desk in coming to his role as Lead Councillor for education.

The officer's full response to Jon's question is attached below for your information.

---------- Forwarded message ----------


From: Wright, Anna
Date: 30 September 2010 13:35

Subject: RE: Reading Borough Council involvement in Wokingham's

Designated Area Review

To: "Hartley, JonX">

Dear Jon

I have consulted with colleagues and can clarify that we were invited to

an initial meeting at Wokingham to discuss their review on 26 March

2010. Noone from Reading went to that meeting as it was billed as a set

up meeting covering terms of reference etc. The papers were circulated,

but no proposals for change were contained in them and the meeting just

covered background information.

The next meeting officers attended was on 13 May 2010 when the over

subscription criteria were discussed and the focus was on Wokingham town

centre schools in the main, in particular Holt and Forest.

The meeting concerning designated areas for all Wokingham secondary

schools was held on 10 June 2010 and at this meeting we first learned

Wokingham's plans for changing the DA of Maiden Erlegh.

Best wishes

Anna

........................................................................

...............

Anna Wright

Director of Education and Children's Services

Reading Borough Council

Tories, true colours seen

Now we know what Wokingham's Tories really think, with a rallying cry of Earley schools for Earley's children they bend the truth and try and exclude Reading's children. I especially like the part where they say that Park's children would have a shorter walk to Bulmershe, let me think, erm Melrose  to Maiden Erlegh, 10 min walk, to Bulmershe, 30-40mins.....or Hamilton Road to Maiden Erlegh, 20 min walk to Bulmershe 40-50mins... Lies, damn lies and Tory leaflets... I publish the leaflet for your amusement

What I suggest Park residents and parents of children at Alfred Sutton, St Peter's and other local schools do is that they phone the numbers of the councillors and the email of their office to complain.

Earley's Tory Councillors, and especially Paul Swaddle, who I used to consider a friend, you should be ashamed of yourselves. If you want to email the document to friends or back to their office, Pauline@Earleyconservatives.com you can download the document here

5 Reasons For Objecting to Wokingham's Proposals

Just come back from a very very good meeting made up of Parents from the area and Councillors.

The discussion ranged around the following points.

1. Would RBC support parents in their fight with Wokingham Borough Council.

2. What are the best objections to use in any letters to Wokingham

3. The next campaigning steps

Will RBC support parents ?

I am pleased to say that Ward Councillors seem to be behind parents. The lead councillor for Education was there and he promised to look at the issue closely. We the parents were very strong in our view that Reading must make a strong statement of support.

How should parents object ?

The meeting developed 5 reasons for objecting to the proposal. These are:

1. Maiden Erlegh currently serves an area that is made up of many cultures, religions and nationalities. The Wokingham plan seeks to exclude this area and therefore will prevent the school from reflecting the make up of the area in the immediate vicinity of the school.


2. The Wokingham plan misunderstands the geographical area of Erleigh. It claims that only the Wokingham side of the Erleigh crossroads is Erleigh, while both sides of the cross roads are part of Erleigh and have RG6 postcodes.

3. The proposal suggests the opportunity to have a shared catchment for both Maiden Erlegh and Bulmershe in the Wokingham area but not in the Reading area. This goes against logic and natural justice.

4. Most importantly the plan seeks to remove the children who live closest to the school for the benefit of those that live furthest away. In removing the Reading children, the plan attempts to stop children going to a school that they can walk to one where more children will be driven to.

5. The proposals seek to remove parental choice.


These can be found here

Next Campaigning Steps

The group had come up with an innovative way of informing and discussing the issue with the local community. They have proposed holding a "drop in" meeting where residents can ask questions and get help in understanding the consultation, which has been written in legalise. This date is still to be decided, but will probably be the week after next at the Park Church Hall. Will confirm when I know.

The Petition

Support for the petition continues to grow, as of 17.00 this evening we have received over 450 signatures. This figure continues to grow. I was pleased to see that Erleigh St Peter's school have publicised it and I hope that Alfred Sutton will do so as well.

Other

What was most interesting was a leaflet that the Tories had produced in Wokingham. It makes many claims but fundimentally argues Erleigh's schools are for Erleigh's children. Now we know what their real agenda is and now we see how hard we, parents, politicians and the schools, will have to fight to defeat this.

Hands Off The Maiden Erlegh Catchment Area

Wokingham Borough Council has really gone and done it now, it has decided to change the catchment area for Maiden Erlegh School to exclude children attending Alfred Sutton Primary School from September 2012.

Under this proposal all children who are currently in Year 5 and below would be excluded and have to attend another secondary school, despite the fact that Maiden Erlegh has been the traditional secondary school attended by Alfred Sutton Primary School for more than 20 years.

Wokingham have decided to open a consultation on the 6th September and hold a public meeting at the end of September or the beginning of October. They will put their full proposals up on their website http://www.wokingham.gov.uk/ on the 6th. It is vital that parents, grandparents and residents living in Park make their voice heard. Wokingham has made a number of attempts over the last 10 years to exclude Alfred Sutton Parents from Maiden Erlegh and a concerted campaign has always made them back down.

What can you do.

1. Sign our petition. We have put up an e-petition on line which you can access by clicking here

2. Write to the Wokingham Education Dept. Education & Cultural Services, Wokingham District Council, PO Box 156, Shute End, Wokingham RG40 1WN Tel: 0118 974 6000 Fax: 0118 974 6103. Write expressing your concern and demanding that Alfred Sutton School children remain within the catchment area.

I have contacted Wokingham already to ask them to reconsider and will be writing to them shortly. We have got good coverage to the story and I hope that we can get a good head of steam in the campaign and get them to change their minds.

Please support us and support Park's children by signing our petition and writing to Wokingham. When we have more information I will post it here.

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.

Where's The Bus Shelter Gone?

Still struggling about on crutches, although tried give them up yesterday and ended up in screaming agony. So won't be giving up crutches just yet.

Now I have a better understanding of what it is like to have your mobility impared I also understand what it is like when our new Conservative/Liberal Council don't replace bus shelters.

The shelter outside Alfred Sutton has yet to be replaced as I discovered after yomping up their one morning. Imagine my surprise when, with beads of sweat popping out of my forehead and my muscles aching there was no where to sit down.

I rang the Council who promised to call me back with an answer as to when it will be replaced. They did call me back but to say that they didn't have an answer. I waited for an answer and of which there was none. So asked the Evening Post to follow the story, which they kindly did. They didn't get a more sensible answer than I did. So am now campaigning to get the shelter replaced. I will be off crutches in 5 weeks, I hope, but people will still need to sit down in this important bus shelter. If you want to join me, email me on: richard@richardmckenzie.org

Not Enjoying Crutches

Am yomping slowly about, bus service ok if you are on crutches. Going up hill on crutches is utterly murderous and I don't recommend it.

In fact apart from being a pain, being on crutches is quite constructive. I have now got the opportunity to see life as others sometimes see it and I have to say it makes life bloody hard work. From not being able to rush upstairs to change when I am wandering about the house in my underpants when I thought no one was at home and then my youngest daughter brings her friends home, to the strain involved in getting the 17 in to town, hobbling to Market Place to get a bus to Uni and then hobble from the bus stop to lectures. Very very hard, come back broken bones all is forgiven.

The worst of it is that yesterday I hobbled to the bus stop by Alfred Sutton knowing that I could have a stop there to find that it had gone......Rang the council today to find out when the bus stop would be replaced and was told soon, how soon, no one knows.......

Its an International Fair

Blimey what  a busy day. I had to miss the official opening of the New Palmer Park. Its really great, if you have children you really should go there and try it out. I had to miss the opening as my good lady wife is playing the piano at a wedding in Surrey, my old school actually. Kath can't drive because of her epilepsy so it I am incharge of travel in the McKenzies. Well we dragged ourselves to Surrey and the Priest didn't have the key to the piano so we had to drag ourselves home. Ho hum.

Shame I missed the opening. My youngest daughter loves the park. The picture is of her enjoying one of the new bits of kit.

Spent the morning talking to residents in Park about the problems and issues they face in their streets. It is always a pleasure and interesting talking to my friends and neighbours in the area.

I had a fab afternoon at Alfred Sutton Junior School's International Fair. This is a school fair with a difference all the different communities of the school have the opportunity to show off. There were stands from about 15 different nationalities including Pakistani, Ghanain, Japanese, Indian, Moroccan, German, Italian, Polish, South African, Welsh, Jamican, Bulgarian, Islandic, Saudi Arabian, Australian and English.

I was on the English Stand and we were giving away samples of scones and marmite slices. We had a short consumer test to see how many people loved marmite and how many people hated it. As usual the lovers of marmite were in the majority.

The international fair had a serious side too. The governors want to establish a Parents' Forum, which will be a way of giving the parents a voice in to the governors and to allow school parents to bring concerns directly to the governors. We want to reach out in to every school community. My committee has been asked to organise the forum. The International Fair was the ideal opportunity to speak to as many different communities as possible to hear their views. So as well as standing behind a stand and handing out scone samples I was talking to the stall holders and to get their views.

Parents, or at least the ones I spoke to, seemed very positive to the idea and I look forward to working with them on the project.



This a picture of me at last year's International Fair

Why do people keep trying to sqaush me?

Ok another week of ward things over but before we go any further I must have a bit of a rant. I have calmed down a lot but am still more than a little peeved.

I love lollipoping but have spent the week trying to allow young children and their parents to cross the road. A simple request surely. Where I work there are wiggly lines to discourage/stop people letting passengers off in front of the school. There are huge signs saying no stopping and still car drivers stop and get arsey, can I say that in my own blog? When I ask then not to let people off there.

I think my limit was reached when I went up to a driver, who was a vicar, someone I've met an who was a vicar of a local church, started giving me back chat, saying things like I can park here because there's a traffic jam. To say I am fed up of drivers doing this, do people have no shame? What can I do to stop this, not sure, I am pretty sure that the arming of lollipop men hasn't been approved....

Thought I had got over it but looking at the rant above but obviously not.

On the ward front spent the week speaking to residents, had a good couple of conversations this morning and picking up on ward work. All very everyday and not as exciting as the lollipop thing but neccessary none the less.

We Dig, Dig, Dig, Dig the whole day through

Saturday saw me working with Parents and Governors at Alfred Sutton to try and get the car park cleared and make paths through the snow so the school could open.

We had a great day working as teams to clear the snow. It was about 8 inches deep across the car park and a bit deeper within the school. There were about 20 people working very hard, and only on the promise of a cup of tea and a portion of chips to keep going.

The effort was greatly helped by one of the Dad's going home and making 2 massive snow shovles, without these I don't think that we would have done it so quickly. Starting at 10 o'clock three of us were steadily joined by more and more people so that by 3 o'clock we had finished. We were a very international group, with Brits working with Dutch, German and Romanian to deafet the snow. You can see what we acheived in the before and after photos.

It was great fun, but if everyone was a tired as I was there were a lot of very quite homes that evening. I managed to fall asleep on the sofa at about 6pm and had to crawl to bed at 9.30pm. I still ache....

So the snow continues, please remember your neighbours to make sure that everyone is ok in the snowy week.