Public Conveniences – Are they Fit for Purpose?

Being born and bred in Shrewsbury I know and speak to many local residents every day, and one of the most regular topics to come up is the state of Shrewsbury’s public conveniences. A good range of well presented and maintained public toilets is a key part of any enjoyable visit to our town centre. Sadly the position is not all it should be.

Regularly I am told the standard of equipment and presentation is below what our residents and visitors have a right to expect.  The image of Shrewsbury they portray to visitors is one of not caring  whether they have a comfortable and  relaxed visit at all.  It is vital for the economic health of Shrewsbury that we make the most of the opportunities and income well planned tourism offers.
The current provision of public toilets in Shrewsbury is just not doing that.

What a massive shame it is that our Tory led Borough and County Councils instead chose to waste some £750,000 on the Darwin “celebrations” and the hugely costly Quantum Leap slinky sculpture.

Investing wisely in our basic facilities in my view would have been the sensible course, and would be far more likely to bring the repeat visits the Darwin fiasco has so conspicuously failed to produce.

You cannot count on a Tory

I wake to the news of the Conservative party’s latest blunder BBC News – Tories criticised over teenage pregnancy figure error

In a nutshell, the Tories have published a 20 page report, which contains a statistic for teenage pregnancy in the 10 most deprived areas of Britain. The figure is based on Government statistics showing 54 pregnancies per 1000 people.

This is expressed as a per-centage : 54%

To those of us lucky enough to have had a state education and did not study Mathematics at Eton, it is clear that this figure should be 5.4%

A mere error with a decimal point says a Conservative spokesman

“It makes no difference at all to the conclusions of a wide-ranging report which shows that Labour have consistently let down the poorest in Britain.”

Well it really should Mr Cameron !

As it stands the publication makes a claim that there has been an 800% rise in teenage pregnancies in those areas; when in fact – according to the figures on which they have based their maths, and presumably accept, there has been a fall of 10%.

It really should make a huge difference. “A mere error with a decimal point” is not the kind of attitude we should expect from a party that is trying to convince us that their election to government would be in the best interests of our economy.

This story will play out both in the media online and off so I’m not going to spend time dissecting this elementary mistake.

It does remind me though of the Tories’ propensity for shooting themselves in the foot whenever they get the opportunity to make political headway. Long may it last.

Meet the Voters 13th+14th Feb 2010

Liz, Steve and I will be out campaigning this weekend and hope that you might be able to join us!

We will be meeting this Saturday 13th at 11am at frankwell carpark by the suspension bridge.

On Sunday 14th we will be  out meeting the  lovely voters campaigning from 11am meeting at the Onslow pub car park gains park.

We would be delighted if you were able to spare an hour or two. Please do text Jon on 07800 589 074 if you can make it!

Thanks

- Jon Tandy

Abbots Wood Day Centre is the Way Forward

Despite the doom- laden view of some commentators on the moral state of the country, there is much good work going on, if we just take the trouble to look. The article in the Chronicle of 4th February about the Abbots Wood Day Centre is just one example.  This wonderful community facility is located at Eskdale Road, Telford Estate, Monkmoor.

It offers a community based day service for adults with learning disabilities which enables individuals to take part in social and leisure opportunities in the community and to experience new opportunities. But unlike the old days of separate services, Abbots Wood is open to the local community to use. Local people can make use of an IT suite with internet access, meeting rooms for hire by community groups, a physiotherapy suite available for hire and a café open to the public.

Abbots Wood has close working relationships with Severnside Housing and West Mercia Police and as reported in the Chronicle is now an official Hate Crime reporting station. That means anyone witnessing or suffering discrimination or hate crime can report it confidentially to staff at the centre, who will pass the information on to the Police. I am very heartened that as a community we have invested in this Shropshire Council run facility, where the whole community can meet and learn from each other. Surely it is so much better for us to concentrate on working together, rather than looking for reasons to divide us?

Broken Britain – A Genuine Picture?

Sometimes when reading the letters pages of the local press, one can be given a rather depressing and nihilistic view of the world. Often, the same narrow band of correspondents are pushing an intolerant view of life, choosing to focus upon that which divides society rather than what brings us together.

Other times, those with a particular axe to grind will seek to make political capital out of isolated national tragedies far from Shrewsbury. A recent instance is David Cameron’s ‘Broken Britain’ claims following the child violence case in South Yorkshire.

Personally I prefer to concentrate on the facts, and recognise that not all was well in the good old days. For example the number of violent deaths among children in England and Wales fell by almost 40% in the past 30 years, or nearly 50% when taking into account growth in the child population, according to the recent report by Bournemouth University.

Improvements in social care systems, along with a greater focus on child poverty, had helped lower the death rate. Thirty years ago England and Wales were the third or fourth highest child killers in the western world, but we’re now fourth lowest.

These national tragedies are terrible and one violent death of a child is too many but this research clearly proves the way to protect children’s lives is to invest in our social care systems, fight child poverty and support those families who need it.

To consider cutting initiatives such as Labour’s Sure Start scheme, which provides health, education, parenting and employment services to pre-school children and parents, is in my opinion, bordering on the cruel.

I hope our Tory MP Daniel Kawczynski will confirm that he will back our four Shrewsbury Sure Start centres in Monkmoor, Crowmoor, Harlescott and Meole Brace, and not permit any cuts in their funding laid out nationally by his own party.

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