The Week that ended....23 Nov '14

This week has been a big week for Wigan. With comments that Dave Whelan, Wigan Athletic Chairman, made. I have read a few things about it including someone even suggesting that there could be 20,000 racist in Wigan. Nutters!!! Where on earth do these people get these figure from? How can anyone know or even suggest this? Nonsense and all because in a busy day of interviews Dave Whelan made some comments that may have been taken out of context. Me and Dave have crossed swords on a couple of occasions and I'm not on his Christmas Card list but one thing he isn't is a racist, in my opinion. For my bit the comments have been taken out of context and blown way out of proportion. Would I say them things? No, but I understand what he was trying say. I even saw one Football pundit last night say it might be a generation issue and he was in the wrong generation and DW is out of touch with this what is and isn't allowed in this generation. I would to love to interview that pundit and ask what he thought was allowed. Why all the fuss? To sell more newspapers. Knowing a little of DW, I am sure he hired the new manager on the grounds of his ability to get Latics out of the trouble that they are in and not because he agreed with somethings that he may have said in the past. What a crazy world we live in. Some of you will remember I posted a video some time ago and the Left Wing Lones jumped on that saying it was racist when the vast majority of people just saw what it was -funny!

Ashfield

OK, back to normal business. Ashfield has taken a large amount of time this week and this will be the norm for a little while. This week I sent out all the witness questionnaires and emails out to all those that requested them at the Save Ashfield meeting.

We will be getting the wristbands out in shops and pubs in Standish soon and the poster has been designed now and they will be going out this week so grab them whilst you can. Also I will be arrange the first meeting of the newly formed committee and working out and through the work.

Preparation for meetings  

I have been sent some council meetings papers that are coming up in the next week or two. One thing I noticed is that the Council are going to look to give a bonus for 100% attendance. Makes my blood boil. The vast number of staff do not take the Mikey and work hard. But one thing that I always discuss is the high sick rate that the Council has and you can see a trend too. Yes the Council has to try and resolve it and the carrott is better than the stick but when someone gets a job they agree to take a pay at  X and work for so many days at Y. Now with the Council saying if you turn up for all the days we ask you will get a bonus sends out the wrong message. What it says is you take this job and you can take time off too. Sick pay is important and I, for one know about this personally, but sick pay and the ability to take off for being sick is there for a reason - you are sick and need the time off and if you are not sick you should be in work.

It also can have a negative effect on some people. If money is tight and they are genuinely sick they may not take the time off so they can get the bonus but that could lead to their health deteriorating and then they have to take longer off work later. We need a caring Council for staff but not one that does thing for the wrong reasons. If someone is genuinely sick we need to allow them to get better but equally if someone is swing the lead then difficult conversations are needed to be had.

Asylum Seekers and Health Scare.

A little while ago my attention was drawn to the fact that Asylum seekers where living in the Britannia Hotel at Almond Brook. Also there were rumors that TB  was rife in there too. This week I had some residents in the Surgery also wanting to know more about this issue.

I heard back just on Friday that there are 39 Asylum Seekers living tin the Hotel. Out of those there are 4 family units. I have been told that there is no serious health scare for the public to worry about as TB only is an issue if a prolong period of time is spent with people that has it. On the grounds of my limited information on TB I know this not to be true and therefore I am questioning the information that the Authority is telling me. I do not believe that this situation is one that we as a community should not have to have. I have also learnt that the authority have now instructed a private company to find them private dwellings to live in. Shocking the money some people make out of us the hard working tax payers!