Quick snaps, nostalgia, non-answers, and local buildings

I did manage to nip up to Hartlebury Common Saturday morning, seems I wasn't the only one who had that idea, the first parking point opposite Cook's was full and the second being filled. I managed to squeeze in, the benefit of a small car, and exchanged pleasantries with the gentleman who had just parked before me. They were all off for a walk and managed to pick a nice day for it too. I had a wander took some snaps which I'll have to sort and post, and watched my battery level decline. <sigh> Well at least I've got a benchmark for batteries now, between 250-350 per set of four AA's.

Sunday was my birthday and as such was a family occasion; we got my (deceased) grandfather's projector, a Gnome Supreme, down along with one of the boxes of slides. Amazingly, despite not being switched on for perhaps 20 years, it still works and so we started through the boxes. It's a shame really; my grandfather dragged my father and uncle all around the area taking pictures, but so few of them were of this immediate vicinity. It's also fun in that, for the majority, they're not labelled except for the odd date; prompting such comments as "Where was that taken?" with regard to castles, cathedrals, rivers etc. Some nuggets turned up, the second Stourport Road being constructed; and the old Stourport Town Hall, which had just collapsed down one side burying two cars under rubble. I'll scan them in at some point.

So the electricity story has sparked out, we've sped past drinking, and now we're dealing with debt; if our news media ever manage to lock onto a fundamentally important story for more then a week I think we'd all collapse from shock. GMTV had the shadow chancellor on who mentioned that it was important that terms such as APR and debt management be taught at schools (as always avoid causes and head straight for the symptoms) Andrew Castle quite rightly asked

And where exactly are you going to cram that into the syllabus?

A simple question deserving of a simple answer you might think, of course we're dealing with a politician here so this is what we got

Well at the moment actually very... there's very limited teaching of um financial savvyness. There's only four hours a year and I think there is scope in a curriculum to expand that. It's so important that people come out of school with some of the basics of how to live their life, and if it's not going to be taught at school when are people going to pick it up? They might pick it up from programmes like this, but it's a bit you know, something we can't be sure of.

Or to decipher that - I think it should be taught in schools. Which was what prompted the original question in the first place.

Finally a little bit of localness, the WFA has been talking about Tesco planting one of it's megaliths in town and it seems most people expressing a preference are against it, killing local business, increasing traffic etc. As far as I can tell however no-one has suggested what should be there and more importantly who's going to pay for it. As for the plan itself it seems a duplicate of the one in Kidderminster, right down to the river, and we all know how much of an effort Tesco made for that once the bare minimum for their own needs had been satisfied.

Likewise discussion has been made about the closing of the Stourport Civic Centre, and selling off of the site, which is currently the meeting point of our District Council etc. A new building (actually two) will be built in Kidderminster for 'efficiency reasons', a phrase almost as chilling as "In the interests of customer service". No doubt the idea behind this is similar to why the majority of hospitals (under county jurisdiction) are arrayed close to the county headquarters. It has been mentioned that the meetings were held in Stourport, as it was feared that Kidderminster and Bewdley would dominate the proceedings if it were held in their towns. Although that may have been the end result after some talk with those who were in a position to know, it was perhaps the less grand ideal that Stourport had the building constructed for its own Urban District Council prior to the existence of the over-all District Council and when that was established, rather then create an entire new building, they simply moved in to the already existing structure. The big joke is that it might all turn out to be a waste of time, under new legislation from Parliament; County Councils can abolish District Councils and take over their functions, again under the auspices of 'greater efficiency'. So no doubt the buildings will be constructed at an inflated cost only to be undersold later to a developer.

Final localness, a new skate park for teenagers to hang around, now where would you place it?Next to an empty field with the amusements and mini-golf between it and the bridge, or next to the kiddies paddling pool against the bridge, where the inflatable castles are placed during the summer? Well if you're the local council the answer's obvious - the first choice, however it seems if you're a higher authority you choose the latter. Guess whose 'advice' is generally listened to?

Update: 14 Feb 07 more information on the WFA here