Too much Information

I have been having a trawl through the bulk of papers that I received from our town clerk last week that came along with my copy of the latest agenda.
Here's a list of what I was supposed to read through, and understand.

The minutes of the Allotments committee from a meeting they held on 23rd of August.
It covered; discounts for allotment holders, an allotments newsletter, a side access door for Hill Fall, preventative work on a wall, Bee keeping, an entrance at Dragley beck,Bonfires, hard standing at Poplar grove, security, United Utilities work on a sewer near Ellers allotments, phase 2 of work at Dragley beck, The waiting list, plus at any other business erosion at Dragley beck, banking collapse at Tank field, where ever that is, drainage at Hill Fall, stuff about Sandside, and yellow Ragwort at dragley beck and finally neglected plots.

A letter from a man in Dalton about a song he had written about Hoad Monument with a copy of the 5 verses, plus an explanation of the lyric. attached was a copy of the sheet music.

The Minutes of a meeting of Ulverston Community Partnership, this was the executive committee from Aug. 11th.
Most of it is a report on the RDPE project bid. That stands for Rural Development Project Europe, I think. Any way that covered both sides of an A4 sheet.

Next The Minutes of the Albert association, Matters arising, Treasurers report, Other reports, Future visits,, then any other business.

Then it's onto The Minutes of Ulverston in bloom.
Matters arising, sponsership, Daltongate, Planting, High Level Hanging baskets, Charter gardening competition, AFC tree planting scheme, squirrel seats, Dog fouling,Box lettering shrubs, trees at tank square, Co-option of other members, UIB plans for the future, Corresponence about ground maintenance,flower beds in town, Cumbria in bloom awards, a budget update, any other business. 4 pages in all.

A Report from St Johns Ambulance that runs to a full page of A4, by Norman Bishop Rowe
A Report about 2223 squadron that runs to a full page of A4, by Norman Bishop Rowe
A Report from the Dickensian committee which runs to a page of A4 by N.B.R, 3 pages of A4

A letter from Croftlands community safety group about a need for road markings on Central drive that runs to one page of A4.

A directive from SLDC regarding a review of statement of licensing policy 2011-13 which is just over a page long

Now we get a page from the UTC grants and finance on grants to GSK football club. We gave them 500 quid although why we give dosh to GSK is a mystery but hey. a grant for someone to volunteer in Tanzania, and something about the councils grant policy.

There is now the minutes of a town council meeting on Aug.9th which runs to 3 pages.

A page of minutes from a closed session of UTC on Aug. 9th

And it goes on;
A notice of a review of polling stations and polling places from SLDC that is two pages long

And last but not least is the agenda for the meeting of Ulverston Town Council that actually took place last night. that is 3 pages long.

And that's it folks.

To me this is far too much information, and I don't get paid to do this job. I think that it's time to cut down on all this paper, time to put all this onto email and save the council a lot of money in waste paper. You see being swamped with so much stuff I simply ignore most of it. I know I should read it all take it in and bring comment to the council chamber but I don't have the time or inclination to. Maybe if this was a paid post I would, or would I as so much of it is just reams and reams of waffle, important to someone but not to me. It hardly relates to how we run our town, it's simply bureaucracy for its own sake. I just thought I would share it with you, and you have only got the headings, imagine how much stuff we're suppose to take in and understand, and have an opinion on. My brain can't deal with it all and why should it, as I said we don't get paid, we're here as volunteers, and I want an end to this avalanche before I suffocate from too much information.