Paradise Beach

Sunday was not the best day weather wise but we snatched a hole in the wintery showers to take a walk on our favourite bit of beach around Ulverston. It's a favourite place for fishermen but yesterday there was hardly anyone there. The wind was biting, and the tide was going out, and the ducks were riding the ebbing tide. The dark clouds hung over Blackpool but looking back to the lake distict itwas clear and the mountains covered in the first dusting of snow were bathed in sunshine. What amazing views, and wrapped up against the weather we walked for about half an hour before the next heavy shower sent us scuttleing back to the car and home for home made soup.

Drunk kids on Friday night at Ford Park

You know they can really piss you off, those wonderful young things that are the future of our tiny town. 

I had spent 3 days collecting stones to lay along the drive at Ford Park. The idea was to try to deter car drivers from using the field as an advanced skid pan. It's very soggy at the moment, plus w've just planted 10'000 bulbs which we were being protective of. So as a deterent to this temptation we decided to lay out some stones to keep drivers off the fields.

I went up there at 8pm on friday night and all was well, but when I came down the drive at 8.20pm all the stones from one side had been thrown to the other side of the drive. There was a bunch of kids in the woods that I figured must have seen what had happened or they were responsible for this act of mindless vandelism. So I turned my car around and went to confront this bunch of reprobates, who of course denied any knowledge of the evnt.IT WASN'T ME.

Clearly this bunch must have seen who did this, or maybe they were the culprits, it certainly would have required quite a few bodies to shift 150 stones that quickly.

What kind of a kick they get from this is beyond me, but it makes me feel hostile to kids coming to drink in the park. I don't mind picking up the bottles and cans, I suppose the litter ethic is lost on a teenage drinker, but to carry out minor acts of vandelism like this makes me mad. I just want to give up and forget the whole project, because the park will always attract these teenagers, and we'll always have to put up with this low level of nuisance. 

So I just swallow and count to ten. I get abuse from the kids, well the drunk ones, but there's some who appreciate what we are about at Ford Park. So today Sunday 23rd of November I spent a half an hour late this afternoon putting the rocks back in place, lets see how long it lasts, and like they said on the war time poster, KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON>

Cllr Col on itunes

Earlier this year I made an album of new songs with two friends of mine, Ewan and Juje, we used to play in The Lakes Blues Band together, in fact we played in that band for about 20 years. We don't do gigs with that line up these days, but we decided we wanted to record a new album of original songs, for old time sake. Ewan lives in Germany these days, but he was visiting, in January last year, and so we went into the studio and recorded 13 songs, well we recorded two or three more but they didn't make it to the album that is now on itunes. Well its not exactly all on itunes yet but today I submitted the album via a site called tunecore. I've already done this with one song to see if it works, which it has, so tonight I uploaded the rest of the album which should be now availeable in about six weeks, just in time for christmas. I thought that the download model was the one to follow back in 98 when I started lakesounds .co.uk. At that time there was no paypal and itunes, and no easy way to sell music online but now it's maybe possible for artist to sell direct to fan.

 Most of my songs on the album were written in Africa or the dominican republic, on holiday so they reflect experience, Ewans were written between busking around Europe. They just seem to sit together, and our little combo has produced an album of truly inspired performances. It's very basic in it's construction, being mostly, drums, fretless bass and acousic guitar, recorded live. then, with minimal overdubs being added, whistles, clarinets, all played by members of the band. 

If you want a preview you can find it at lakesounds.co.uk/thebeatcombo

 

Ulverston bus shelters

I had a letter from a lady in Neville street yesterday regarding the state of the bus shelters in Victoria road. She reminds me that these shelters are in a disgusting state, and I agree. I brought this up at a council meeting some time ago which prompted a piece in the evening mail. I must admit that I have let this slip, I can't remember now why this ran up against the buffers. But this letter has prompted me to engage with this issue again, under the banner of SPRUCE UP FOR STAN, YES WE CAN. I actually took some photos of these shelters whilst looking at street furniture and yes it's time to bring this issue forward yet again. In fact that whole area needs some serious attention. It's this problem of ownership which is the bug bear here, and it's time to act. Some how we need to rest control from CCC or Stage coach or SLDC or whoever, but they should belong to the Town Council otherwise we end up with a very shabby looking town, cause these other organisations just don't seem to care.

Spruce up for Stan

As one of the councillors for Town ward I decided that we need to give the street furniture a bit of a spuce up as a lot of it is in a very delapidated state. I walked around looking at the Lamposts and general highway signage and found very few that you could say looked in good condition. I brought this to the council, with lots of photos, last week. The whole of the Council agreed that we are in need of somebody with a pot of paint and a brush to smarten up the centre of town. The lamposts are owned by something called the highways agency, and in a reply to my request to refurbish the posts I recieved a reply. They said there was no money in their budget for this kind of work. So it looks like we're stuck with scruffy street furniture. And here's the rub; even if Ulverston town council had any money to carry out this work we wouldn't be able to as we don't own them. So how are we to get round this impasse?

I suppose the only way is to kick up a big fuss. We can't allow this rediculous situation to continue where we, as a council, can't get our lamposts painted because they don't "belong to us". We, that is the council, must be able to take charge of painting its own street furniture, otherwise what's the point of the town council. That's what the electors will think and I think they would have a point.
We need a "spruce up for Stan" campaign, and not be fobbed off by some faceless hack in the highway agency. Spruce up for Stan, YES WE CAN. 

Hello and welcome to Cllr cols blog

Hello everyone. 

I thought it would be a good idea to start this buiness of blogging. I've been involved in this internet thing since the late 90's when I started a website called lakesounds.co.uk from my studio in the Ellers. But as yet I haven't done blogging and I wonder if it really connects with people or is it just waste of cyberspace time. Well as Borack Obama seems to have used it to good effect perhaps now is the time when the general populace will start to get in there as well. 
When I joined Ulverston town council 5 years ago I was very dissapointed with their website and have been nagging them to get into the 21st century with a proper site. Well this weekit's due to go live and so now seems a good time to start blogging, so look out for the launch and look out for Cllr cols blog.