Wild Wednesday

Wednesday was a very busy day - if you are looking here for an idea of the average day in the life of a Labour councillor, then don't look here, because if this was "average" I would be on my knees within a fortnight!

At 9am Wendy and I met on Lilley Road, Fairfield, with staff and officers from Liverpool City Council Neighbourhood Services, HMRI HIT team, C7 staff and wardens, Venture Housing staff and wardens/caretakers, the Clean Team, Rodney Housing staff and probably others I cannot immediately bring to mind.

There was about 20 of us and we blitzed the street. We pruned back hedges and bushes, mowed lawns, weeded areas of hard-standing, picked up rubbish, filled six skips, swept up broken glass, disposed of items of discarded furniture, a fridge freezer, two boilers, an arm-chair - and finally ordered the destruction of two wasps nests. It looked fantastic when we had finished - and all was done regardless of tenure - that is my kind of partnership working!

At 11am we went to Latham Court, Laurel Road to join some OAPs who had been reminiscing about their early lives in Kensington and Fairfield for a project with Steve Faragher and Wendy Miller from Kensington Vision. Their stories are now available for you to download on www.whatwashere.com
Look for Dolly, John, Bertha and Laura. Find out about the secret BBC transmission station that broadcast during WWII from next to the biscuit factory on Binns Lane, find out about dipping the brazils at Barker and Dobson, find out about going to the pictures on Kensington...

And we had cake as promised

Then at 12.30 we went on the sponsored walk for Multiple Sclerosis - thankfully we did not have to walk very far to honour our commitment.

Then we went to a Partnership meeting hosted at Venture that we hold monthly called "Putting our Neighbourhood First" and believe me we do!
It was the biggest attendance we have ever had. Representatives from Venture Housing, Rodney Housing, Hornby Homes, Liverpool Mutual Homes, two police officers (our Sergeant and a PCSO), two teachers from the Academy who specialise in community development, along with 4 of the kids, the 3 councillors, LCC City and North Neighbourhood Management Team staff and the Chair of the two local TRAs.
We have agreed a whole host of actions and activities in the L6 area - which the group covers, including youth engagement work on Friday and Saturday nights in the parks, an initiative to grow veg in gro-bags in yards, two more open days (one around safety which we as councillors are funding from our WNF and a Jobs Fair during Respect week). It was great to have the young people there too, so that we had a lot of input from them about the ongoing debates about youth activity and facility provision.

At 5pm Caroline and I went to the Electoral Committee of LCC upon which I sit with Liam, so it was interesting to see him in action in a different role. He had the opportunity to talk about proportional representation which I know he is very interested in. We debated and all agreed on the merits of weekend voting (very little that we could see but we would watch with interest the outcomes of any trials held elsewhere), and an Electoral Commission report on the issue of citizen's juries and citizen's summits, referenda and electronic petitions etc (not enough teeth, but by all means Parliament could give it a go). Sadly we did not talk about those bloody boxes, but my day will come, mark you.

Then at 6.30pm Liam, Caroline and I went to Stephenson Court on the Crosfield estate which I have never been inside before (Picton ward) to learn more about plans for a sculpture/piece of artwork in Kensington. It will be a stone frieze, something like 20 feet long and perhaps 3 or 4 feet high and it will be attached to a suitable wall at a suitable distance above the ground. They are still looking for locations but we offered half a dozen that we thought might be good - naturally all on our side of Edge Lane!! We also drew up a list of about 10 symbols of Kensington that the sculptor might like to consider incorporating, pretty much the same sorts of things we have included in our mural design, if it ever gets painted! - the Ice rink, the zoo, meccano, cross-words, Stephenson's Rocket, Littlewoods, the Quarrymen, Buffalo Bill etc. All those great things that make Kensington such a fascinating place.

Then I got home and wrote 64 items of casework by email.

An amazing day