THEY CALL IT MELLOW YELLOW

 

Councillors make

a moot

point

Many people  will agree with Appleby in Westmorland councillor Hugh Potts  in his opposition to  the plan to  change to mellow yellow the colour of the town`s Moot Hall (pictured below) .

 

  A similar plan a few years ago by the National Trust for its Wordsworth House  in Cockermouth(below)  was opposed by those local people who, like Councillor Potts, preferred the black and white that had existed for as long as people remembered.

But the opposition came to nothing and mellow yellow  went ahead.The changes  in both towns  appear to have originated in some woke urge from a trendy group many miles away to change the colour of the buildings to the politically correct colour i.e. the colour they buildings were  when they were  built centuries ago.

 If that is the case, it is certainly very difficult  to see  the Appleby change as  “a novel look to the future of the town”, the view of Mayor Gareth Hayes.

Many people will much prefer Councillor Potts` view:“Not to my taste… and not right too”.

 

THE BIG ALSTON ROBBERY

 

 

 

Why did politicians

fail

this town?

Alston resident Trevor Reed  in a letter to the Cumberland and Westmorland Herald  newspaper launches an attack against the way the town has been robbed of  its essential services. The Cumbria town,1,000 feet up in the Pennines, claims to be the highest market town in England.

 The Big Alston Robbery which you could call it, is a shocking tale . Some might say it portrayed Alston as one of those deprived northern places in need of Boris Johnson`s current cure-all he calls “levelling up”.

 Alston however has a long way to go before any“levelling up” can be tackled, let alone   achieved. Loss of essential services spanning half a century has left a gap that seems impossible to fill and make “level”.

 Surprisingly, Mr Reed`s  blast failed  to include one other  robbed essential service which he might  add to his list …rail and bus links…  the cottage hospital,… the medical centre… three banks…shops and pubs …and now the ambulance.

That other  robbed essential service is Alston Rural District Council which was based in the  Town Hall, pictured.

 

 The council  was abolished in 1974, the same year that Mr Reed arrived at Alston and the same year that both Cumberland and Westmorland  were also abolished.

It was all part of  prime minister Edward Heath`s massive, but much criticised local government reorganisation.

How much has Alston missed its rural council? My guess is  that it has been missed a great deal. It was a  link with Whitehall and an on the spot forum. It was also an on the spot centre for a staff of local government professionals.

Eden District Council which took over from the rural council  is a poor substitute. An even poorer substitute is on its way for Alston. The town will soon be  included  in a new local government area alongside   a town as different as you can get, and as far away in Cumbria as you can get.

That new area is the planned Westmorland half  of what will then be the former county of Cumbria which apparently will disappear. Alston in Westmorland will be  alongside the shipbuilding town of Barrow, 71 miles away and also in Westmorland.

On the face of it, this seems a deplorable situation, just as deplorable  as the uncaring  attitude of the politicians to the loss of  Alston`s services.

Mr Reed rightly castigates these politicians and singles out one of them for special mention.That politician is his MP, Dr. Neil Hudson (Penrith and the Border), who, says Mr Reed,  has failed to reply to his emails.

Perhaps Dr. Hudson might now like to reply . He might also enclose full details of Boris Johnson`s “levelling up” plan and let us see if there is anything in it for Alston.

It might help.

But based on past form, it won`t.

 Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation publishes this blog. Information about the Federation is available on 01228 52227

 

 

HALT THE MERCILESS SLICING OF CUMBRIA

 

Now let us restore

our ancient counties

 Spare a thought for our dear old Cumbria, as the merciless slicing of the county goes on and on.

Not only the government, but now two well-known newspaper correspondents, Jeremy Godwin and very surprisingly, Nick Elgey are busily hacking away.

 The goverment of course, with its planned local authority changes believes in vertical slicing: one  slice between the  six district councils and hey presto, the county is halved. Job done.

 

 Mr Godwin believes in kingdom separation...the West Cumbria kingdom and the East Cumbria kingdom. 

Mr Elgey, an estate agent, reports that property  market forces are  at work doing the slicing which means that property purchasers, probably for the first time, are favouring north Cumbria rather than the south.

County slicing, of course, is nothing new. Usually it goes  with  democracy and goodwill.

Those of us who remember the ancient counties of Cumberland and Westmorland also remember the democratic goodwill which today, sadly, seems to have been replaced by party politics, a much more inferior way of doing things and which frequently is not democratic.

Those people will recall that in Cumberland the county council  was always conscious of, and prepared to  cater for  the competing  claims  of West Cumbria( the Whitehaven and Workington districts) and   North Cumbria (the Carlisle and Penrith districts).

 In Westmorland the same goodwill applied and its county council regularly each 

year     alternated a north Westmorland chairman to adequately cater for the the needs 

of   the Appleby and Kirkby Stephen districts with a south Westmorland chairman   for the needs of Kendal and Windermere districts.

In both counties the goodwill systems worked very well until 1974 when Prime Minister Edward Heath decided  that ancient counties were not for him. 

And  the name of the new county, Cumbria, emerged from God knows where.(Some people swear that  Mr.Heath craftily  grabbed the name from a local  magazine publisher!)

It seems to me, and I think lots of people, that the goodwill  and democracy that existed in the two counties in the years  prior to Mr Heath is still there.

Therefore let us put an end  to the  current intolerable slicing of our county. Let us restore all that democratic goodwill.

Then let us restore  our ancient counties.

 

 Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation publishes this blog. Information about the Federation is available on 01228 52227

 

WHY ARE TENANTS` COMPLAINTS NOT BEING HEARD?

 

Now the ombudsman  wants some answers

No surprise that formal investigations by the Housing Ombudsman, Richard Blakeway (pictured) have risen by 65% compared with last year, while enquiries and complaints of  the service have surged by 139 per cent in the last year .

The figures were published this week as the ombudsman launched a consultation on its three-year corporate plan from 2022 to 2025,

In this plan the ombudsman sets out how it will tackle an “unprecedented increase” in casework and to “reinforce the importance” of complaint-handling in the social housing sector.

 

 

 

 Community activists have long been concerned about the lack of accountability in the housing sector, particularly complaints to housing associations.

One of these  associations,the giant Liverpool based Riverside Housing Association, the biggest landlord in the Carlisle area, has been targeted by  Carlisle and District Tenants` and Residents` Federation.

A spokesman for the Federation said: “We welcome these new initiatives by the ombudsman. Riverside  is a law to itself and  in the experience of our members has never been properly held accountable since the Audit Commission was stopped from regular inspections about ten years ago.”

The ombudsman service is undergoing a major overhaul following the publication of the Social Housing White Paper, created in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire when questions arose about why residents’ complaints were not heard, or in some cases ignore

Complaints are likely to significantly increase even further as the white paper recommends a more consumer-focused social housing regulatory system.

Among several changes that have already taken place, the watchdog started publishing reports on all investigations in March in a bid to increase transparency.

In September, it opened applications for a new expert group that will focus on improving the accessibility of its complaints system, particularly for those without internet access, with low literacy, or whose first language is not English.

The new consultation, open until 12 November, sets out its four strategic objectives – extending fairness, encouraging learning, increasing openness and achieving excellence – and how it will achieve them.

The plan involves “significantly” increasing awareness and understanding of the ombudsman’s role, improving access, and taking a “intelligence-led” and proactive approach to improving landlords’ complaint-handling to encourage earlier and more local resolution . 

 Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation publishes this blog. Information about the Federation is available on 01228 52227

 

LEAD MINE POISONING MAY HAVE ENDED

  

 

Last notes

of a swan song for swans?

How polluted are the lakes in the Lake District? Two of the biggest lakes have different stories this week.

At Windermere, a local conservationist has started an online petition calling for a ban on sewage pollution. He says  the lake could become ecologically dead.

 

 At Ullswater(pictured) a few miles further north, the sight of swans   swimming  happily raised hopes that lead  was no longer polluting the lake.For many years swans   on the lake have died of lead poisoning

This phenomenon- possibly not generally known about- seems to have been first identified by a local GP who was also a keen naturalist. He lived near Ullswater and had a regular nature column in the Herald, a Penrith local newspaper.

In his column in the 1930`s he reported his thoughts and observations of the swan mystery and came to the conclusion that the birds may have been poisoned by the lead from Greenside lead mine that had polluted the lake. But he never proved that this was so.

His findings appeared in the Herald and some years later  another local man became interested in solving the mystery  and carried out his own investigation.

Local people managed to get the bodies of several swans which had died in the lake and they were sent  off for post mortems to a Ministry of Agriculture veterinary establishment in Edinburgh.

There it was found that the swans had all died from lead poisoning. The findings created a great deal of interest and were reported in the Penrith Observer, another local newspaper.

Since then the man has not had an opportunity to establish whether swans on Ullswater were living or continuing to die.

Now the man says:”If the swans are staying alive, it may be that Ullswater is now free from lead pollution. Or perhaps they no longer feed on their natural food, the underwater greenery growing in the lake, because they are being fed with pollution-free food.

“Whatever the explanation, the sight of swans swimming happily  may be the welcome evidence we need that Ullswater is today now much more free of lead pollution and  may be no longer providing a swan song for swans".

Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation publishes this blog. Information about the Federation is available on 01228 52227

GINGERBREAD OR MINT CAKE?....YOU CHOOSE!

 

Time to 

polish up

our tastebuds

 Two stories about Cumberland Sausage caught my eye last week and I marvelled at  the importance of this local delicacy in the county`s heritage.

In the first story, Mr Mark Jenkinson, MP for Workington(pictured) was reported as celebrating Cumberland Day by tucking into a traditional Cumberland sausage sandwich, flavoured with Fletchertown Cumberland Sauce. 

Mr.Jenkinson says his sausage represents all that is best in Cumberland and also reflects the planned local authority shake-up and his campaign to have the  Western Authority-consisting of Allerdale, Copeland and Carlisle-  named Cumberland.

In the second story, Penrith butcher Chris Clough is reported as celebrating his creation of the ultimate traditional Cumberland sausage, which incidentally  has won an  award.

Mr Clough`s sausage will no doubt add strength to Mr Jenkinson`s campaign, particularly as the creation of the Western Authority and the Eastern Authority - Eden, South Lakeland and Barrow- involves cutting the present  county of Cumbria in half.

 

  This in exactly what Mr Clough`s firm says it does  according to ithe firm`s name : Chopping Block.

One  important factor in this mouth-watering tale remains. That is a name for the planned Eastern Authority . So far, no campaign it appears has started in support of the name Westmorland . 

But Mr Clough`s other award-winning speciality, Westmorland sausage,  seems  an appropriate’  second symbol for the coming fight to replace Cumbria.

Possibly Kendal Mint Cake also represents all that is  best in Westmorland, which of course is a mountainous county .And Kendal Mint Cake, so they say, has been to the top of Everest.

Or  should  our support go to, say, Grasmere Gingerbread?

It`s time to polish up our tastebuds.