Spruce up the town

Some times being on the town council you feel it's all pointless waffle  and that we never achieve any thing. Nobody is ever listening, or there's no money to make things happen. So it comes as some surprise when you highlight something and somebody says they can do something about it.

Some months ago I brought some photos to the council meeting which I had taken of lamposts and other street furniture. I don't know if you've noticed but lots of them are in dire need of a lick of paint. Some are so rusty they're about to fall over, and others have plates missing exposing elecrical wiring. You would have thought that getting somebody out with a pot of paint and some new covers would be the sort of thing that your council tax would be paying for as a matter of course. Not so.  

But thats where super col strikes. I met some guy from Cumbria county council, well actually he was from Capita, because The Council don't do stuff any more, it's all outside agencies, or companies as we used to call them. He came , he looked and he agreed that our street furniture was in a bad state. He even said he might be able to find some funds from his budget to fix stuff. Of course I was scepticle, but today I had an email from David our town clerk to say that he had had a telephone call to say that Owen was going to send someone to paint our posts. But only the posts that they are responsible for. I will have to chase up Amey Machel who are in charge of main highway signs, and SLDC for other stuff like CC tv masts and Glaxo for seats and on it goes. We do seem to have a very complicated way of running our little town, but for now I can savour a tiny victory. Although I won't believe it till I see that man with a pot of paint.