Happy Christmas (belatedly)

I'm currently taking a week off.  Thought that this set of photos was quite striking, worth a look:

This one links the two meanings of Christmas:  a Santa balloon in the Church of the nativity

Martin Salter on the snow

I'm on a Christmas break now but Martin Salter MP has asked me if I'd like to post up his comments on the recent snow...  I pretty much agree with him:  - it's nice and simplistic to blame one group or organisation for everything that isn't totally smooth in life but it's still worth pointing out problems and finding solutions.

Over to you Martin:

"Whilst I have nothing but admiration for the emergency services and public sector workers who had to cope with the most appalling weather conditions on Monday there are clearly lessons to be learned from the snow gridlock which paralysed Reading and other towns across our region.
Firstly I want to know why the severe weather warning was not issued by the Met Office until nearly two hours after the heavy snow began to fall on Monday afternoon. Secondly, the last thing we needed was for firms and businesses to be encouraging their staff to leave early before the gritter lorries could get out and clear the main routes. Thirdly it is now clear that councils like Reading need some smaller, more mobile vehicles that could get through the traffic with a couple of guys with some grit and shovels to deal with the chaos that was caused by some of the smaller slopes and inclines which were causing massive tailbacks and adding to the congestion. Fourthly, where were the police and council officials at key junctions such as the roundabouts either side of Caversham and Reading bridges where traffic needed an element of control and direction in order to keep things moving?
As it happened I witnessed along the Meadway and the Tilehurst Road civic minded citizens helping vehicles up the slopes near the Honey End Lane junction but there was not a police officer or council official to be seen. Without the selfless actions of my constituents I suspect that the Tilehurst Road, which was one of the only routes open into Tilehurst, would have remained gridlocked into the early hours of Tuesday morning.
What needs to happen is for local councils like Reading to look carefully at those black spots and pinch points which cause trouble and congestion during heavy snow or icy conditions. We may need grit bins in such locations and certainly these areas should receive priority treatment.
I am not seeking to scapegoat public sector workers without whom things would have been many times worse on Monday night. I am full of praise for the ‘Snow Angels’ of BBC Radio Berkshire whose coverage was simply invaluable and I think that the police, council staff and the emergency services worked tirelessly to look after vulnerable people and to prevent a crisis from becoming a disaster. However there is no doubt that better planning and better contingency arrangements can be put in place and that we need improved communications with both residents and businesses. Ironically if people had stayed at work rather than leaving the moment the snow started to fall the gritting lorries could have done their work and we would have all probably arrived home several hours earlier”.
I hope people who like to harp on about cutting back the public sector and privatising the BBC will take a moment to reflect on who we turn to at a time of crisis. Without public sector broadcasting and without the sterling efforts of public sector workers people would have been without information and without a helping hand. There are times when market forces are simply not the answer."

Brrr...

I've been too busy to write but thought I better update on my earlier post (especially given the comment on it today!).  I still maintain it was nice on Wednesday afternoon (hard to remember it now - a few flakes that didn't settle!)

Got home from visiting some of my husband's family yesterday and we ended up walking 2 1/2 miles home from the station while it snowed, but we were lucky, we didn't have a car to adbandon/push up the hill.  I can sympathise with the commenter who had trouble on castle hill:  every road I saw with a hill seemed to have at least one stuck car on it or blocking it altogether.

I have been in touch with councillors about the gritters and apparently they were out including at 1am this morning and I saw council staff shovelling snow this morning on my way to a hospital appointment.   Lots of side roads don't seem to be gritted but having said that some roads that have been gritted still have masses of snow on them, so I don't know how much difference it would make?

Ho Hmm.

Snow, lovely snow!

I'm sitting in my office in the town centre getting excited about the snow.

Hurrah!

Went to a Kennet Island residents' meeting yesterday.  Was very constructive and positive I thought.  Lots of hard work being done by the residents to get a more active community spirit.

Pre-budget report - my thoughts

I'm sure there will be lots of people continuing to pick over the pre-budget report in greater detail over the next couple of days.  For what it's worth my impression watching it was that overall the emphasis right; making sure that economic recovery isn't choked off by reckless cuts while keeping public debt within the G7 norm and that for most people round here the impact will be good.

I thought young people and families were winners - giving under-24s a guarantee of work or training after six months out of work (down from a year), increase in child benefit and more eligibility for free school meals.

For those working for Reading employers (like I do) there was some good news too - we have lots of high tech industry and the lower tax on innovative products will help those big employers, and delaying the corporation tax increase will help small employers!

Older people (and those of us with older relatives) will be pleased that - even though the 'rules' of linking pensions to inflation in September would have lead to no increase - there will be a 2.5% rise in the state pension.

There were also lots of practical measures to help the country become greener and a better place to live at the same time.  What stood out to me was more money for home insulation and a boiler scrapage scheme - from a personal point of view it's a shame as we saved up to replace our 20-ish year old boiler this year already!  But we have seen how much money it's saving us in lower hot water and heating bills so definitely a good policy - win-win!

VAT is going back up to 17.5% but that was expected.

I thought the tax on banker's bonuses was clever as if banks want to avoid it they will have to cut the bonuses and keep the money back for shoring up their capital - that's got to be a good thing as it will help to make them safer in future.


For my husband, a teacher, not so good will be the cap on pay rises and (if he ever earns that much - highly unlikely!) potentially a cap on pension, but I think that's a small price to pay to keep the country's finances stable and it's a lot better than the slash and burn alternative.  After all lots of us in the private sector have had pay freezes or short time or found ourselves doing extra work due to short staffing.  As well as having got used to our employers talking about the recession to explain most things!  So I hope public sector workers will understand the need for this.


Overall then a good speech I thought.

Waving off the wave...

Unfortunately I wasn't able to attend 'The Wave' in London today as I was at work teaching my lovely class.  However a group of people gathered at the station to wave off the Reading people going to the Wave and since it was about 8am I was able to join in with that at least.  There were some photos taken, I'll publish it later if I get permission.

"The Wave"  was a protest today to call for a fair agreement on climate change at Copenhagen this week.  It included a church service that I was really disappointed to miss and lots of different organisations marching together wearing blue

Social care report on Reading Borough Council

Full details are here, overall the commission judged Reading BC social care to be 'performing well' and that there have been a lot of improvements over the last year.

There's still room to improve further but combined with the fact that Reading funds people with 'greater moderate' and 'substantial' as well as 'critical' (unlike our neighbours) this is good news for the elderly and other potential users of the services.

Stockton Road and Swallowfield Drvie surgeries

I helped out Martin Salter MP with his street surgery in the Stockton Road area last weekend, by knocking on doors of people to check if they had anything that wanted to raise with him or a member of the councillor team as Cllr Mike Orton was also helping out.

If you missed it there will be a councillors' surgery on Swallowfield Drive this Saturday morning - look out for the notices if you live in a nearby road and of course you can get in touch with any of the team at any time if you have a concern.