I'd Like To Thank All Of Those Who Made This Possible...

I have been keeping an eye on my town(as previous entries on my blog will make that clear)I have always been interested but having a blog and becoming active on a variety of messageboards even more so.

I've mentioned the hold up regarding the town centre being brought up to date and how that has come to all but a stand still. How up until the recent by-election we were being told that it was practically in hand and things were moving along nicely.

Since then, we now know that our Borough Council along with most if not all of the councils throughout England are being merged or disposed of so a larger body of authority will run matters, you could understand a soon to be abolished council would drag it's feet and leave things to be sorted by the newly appointed authority when it takes over.

And during the by election all parties played on the state of our town's retail area which includes a run down health centre and town library, a retail area with lots of retail units boarded up, businesses threatening to leave and many struggling to survive.

During the by-election the candidate who succeeded in becoming our new MP kept mentioning that he would fight for our town and launched a petition to "Save Our Town" which when handed into the appropriate people would be accepted by the very same people who had been in power for years and had watched over the situation.

How much could be done is questionable as the town centre is mainly privately owned. Our other possible weapon to get things improved(The Prime Minister)who had been elected by this constituency for around a decade or longer resigned from Parliament and decided to do more political business and be seen on the World stage.

The latest word to reach me(via a taxi driver and another business retailer)was that another long standing retailer was ready to move out as they wanted a short term lease as business is uncertain and owners wanted them to have a long one but at the last minute an agreement was reached.

It does look as though the Library and Health Centre will be relocated and even if it's a temporary solution the building will be 100% improved to the state it's presently in. As for the second stage of the development I would not be able to guess how long it will be before the redevelopment is complete as originally planned.

So it was interesting to see that our local free sheet reported our new MP's maiden speech as listed in the official journal of Hansard. Only a small amount was quoted and it set me thinking that it must be available on the web.

I found it, thanks to a website called They Work For You.

Interestingly enough, his maiden speech was given during a debate on criminal and immigration bill and to be honest having read through it, it had a little connection to the debate but not much.

It is full of spin, compliments to his predecessor and the new leader of the party etc...

There is a reference regarding the area having a "Heartbeat of optimism and it's found it's rhythm" I know it may depend on who you talk to but that's not what I sense.

And in the local election it's interesting that virtually every ward on my town was won my an Independent. And I believe(I am not alone)in thinking the reason Labour put so much importance in fighting the election in my town and setting up it's head quarters here was because they were frightened the result would be repeated in the by election.

That also gave the other parties like the Lib Dems and Conservatives an idea that they stood a good chance of winning as they were in a fight where Labour could lose. Having had Independent councillors elected showed that there were cracks in the solid support Labour usually enjoys here.

I make these observations without any biasness towards any particular party. But I do think it interesting to be able to read this speech in it's entirety and the first response after it was made. It lasted all of 9 minutes! Thankfully, it can be read much quicker. You'll need to scroll down to the 8.08pm entry for the appropriate speech.

I suspect this site will be very interesting and worth a look in the future.