Posts from — November 2006

I visited something called a Life Education Centre mobile classroom today. It was just as it sounds, a mobile classroom where youngsters between 5 and 15 years old learn about us, our bodies and how they work.

But it doesn’t stop there; as you might expect they also learn about things that harm the body, drug and alcohol abuse and also the dangers of smoking. Inside the mobile it was entirely black but futuristic with bright coloured roof lights which caught the kids’ imagination from the word go.

The educator, Jill, was superb. She had a real way with them and kept their full attention all the way through (well nearly). The class I was with were nine and ten years old and I was really impressed at the knowledge they already had as well as how much they seemed to take in, particularly about the things that could harm them.

There is a big problem though; money! The idea is for the two Life Education mobiles in Staffordshire to visit as many of the 450 schools in Staffordshire as much as possible. Unfortunately, as I’ve mentioned numerous times before, the County Council is in serious financial difficulty; so there’s not enough money to use these mobiles as much as they could be.

John Kingslake, a local Rotarian, is the guy who asked me to see this service in action. He and his Rotary branch are huge supporters of this programme, financially too. But he’s concerned that more could be done; and he’s right. I was very impressed with the whole thing and I now need to find away of finding more funding to help expand it’s use.

I’ve decided, to start with, to allocate some of next year’s LMIS funding towards the vehicle visiting as many of the 14 schools in my county area as possible. I’m also going to write to Peter Traves, the County’s Director of Education, to ask him to find some more funding for this programme. The new Community Learning Partnerships will also be a possible source of funding I think.

Anyway this is yet another long term ‘to do’ for my ever growing list……..but it’s a very worth while one!

If there are any organisations (or indivduals) out there who’d like to sponsor a day’s visit by the Life Education mobile for a school, it’ll cost £350 . Money well spent I assure you. If yoy can help please contact me.

Visited Whittington Football Club’s coaching session for youngsters with disabilities this afternoon. It’s a regular session which takes place at King Edward leisure centre in Lichfield and I have to say the club seem to be doing a wonderful job.

The kids have different disabilities, both physical and learning and one of the key priorities is to play sport with other youngsters who don’t have disabilities; the interaction is great! I was there to see the work the club are doing and also to do one of my favourite things, presenting a cheque for £1100 from my County Members’ funding scheme to help them buy new equipment. Very very worthwhile and it’s an organisation I intend to help whenever and however I can.

With the HGVs of Willi Betz gone my assumption, and understanding, is that things are a lot quieter on the heavy traffic front along Pinfold Hill in Shenstone.

I am hearing a few people saying there’s a slight increase in foreign HGVs and general HGV traffic over the past few weeks though. I’ve asked the County to arrange some traffic surveying before Christmas but it would be really helpful to find out from residents what the situation is.

I’ve got a couple of key meetings regarding the Shenstone Industrial Estate coming up before Christmas so any additional input would be good.

If you’ve got a view on this please contact me by e-mail and let me know.

I’m delighted that Ellen Fleetwood is joining the Conservative team as a candidate in next May’s election for Lichfield District Council. A mum of three, Ellen lives in Clifton Campville and is determined to fight the council ward of Mease and Tame’s corner.

She’s involved with several local groups including the Elford and Harlaston Youth Club and I’ve been amazed at how many locals already know her around the area. Ellen is hoping to join LDC at an exciting time with new state of the art shopping facilities coming to Lichfield City as well as a number of new and innovative initiatives to help combat the effects of climate change.

Chris Pincher, Tamworth’s Tory parliamentar spokesman, Ellen and I are pictured at Elford’s wonderful millennium playground.

Just back from the new Friday night ‘Rush Hour Jazz’ in the Atrium bar at the Garrick. It’s been on for six weeks now and is really taking off. Absolutely packed tonight and the jazz, bearing in mind I’m not a jazz fan, I thought was great.

Bar takings are good and the real ale is going down very well, literally, and it does seem the Garrick has turned a bit of a corner. Just finishing off agreeing the latest finance reports and I can’t wait to announce the information on the latest position…….it’ll surprise a lot of people, big time!

The Garrick’s ‘makeover’ also seems to have gone down well and actually everything about the place feels and looks totally different to before. Eight months ago when I took over political responsibility for the Garrick, along with the new management team, people thought I was mad to tackle it.

I must admit when I first met Adrian Jackson, to consider asking him to be the new Artistic Director, I knew he was the guy who could turn it around. We just seemed to be on the same wavelength from the very start and although there’s some way to go yet the last eight months have been a huge improvement in just about every way.