The week that ended.....13 July '14

So with the World Cup playing I must say that this world cup has been the best for years. Whilst I know England did poorly I think many have enjoyed the world cup. I predicted Chile and Mexico having good run and to me they did, certainly in the group stages. Argentina was always one of my favorites for the final.

So back to the business in hand on the old politics front it has been quite a busy week. I attended my first Audit Scrutiny Committee this week and it was well run and well mannered about from Labour Cllr McLoughlin throwing in a random comment in which I am sure none us know why or what he was talking about.

One thing that I raised was the fact that in the report it said the high number of complaints against Cllrs is not only costing the Council money but also putting a serious strain on resources. I know that I have an interest in as Labour and their hack are always complaining about me...bless....but if they are to continue then the system should be outsourced to a law firm that speacialises in that field because not only will the Council get first class advice but it would be hard for the Cllr to complain about the outcome rather than now it is just a Labour Quango court. Also the main area would be that resources would not be stretched.

Another item I brought up was there was a program seriously help back because one person was off work on long term sick. No one either could or did move it forward and it put the Council at a risk. This shouldn't happen and I am pleased that the Committee agreed that this was a concern and an update will be coming in a future meeting on this.

The main area of concern for residents was the bins not being collected on Thursday. I wrote to the Council as I thought it was not only unfair but wrong that the Council was not going to collect the following day, only collect the bins on the normal time in two weeks and not with extra rubbish. As a fully qualified HGV driver I offered to the Council to drive a bin wagon over the weekend on one day to collect the rubbish in Standish. Instead the Council have said this wouldn't be needed but they have decided that they will pick up extra bin bags on the day of the next collection. This will be done by a caged vehicle before the bin wagon comes along. People are still aggrieved that they have to go to the tip themselves or leave it in bags for another 2 weeks, and I can see why too.

For the week coming up I am going to Belgium with Standish high school music students. As a former musician who played with the Wigan Jazz Orchestra, and numerous other bands and orchestra in Wigan I will be able to help out. one thing that I have seen and witnessed is the great musicians that Standish High is producing. I trained and played along side the head of music Mr Turner at Leigh Music college and the Wigan Youth Symphony Orchestra respectively. I am sure the children will be great ambassadors for the School and Standish. I will try and post things on Twitter and Facebook if I am able to get a signal.

With that all done I better go and pack and get the old trumpet ready for the morning.