Is Tesco Bullying Bracknell Forest Council?

Bracknell Forest Council have withdrawn their objections to the late opening and Sunday opening of the Tesco’s store in Martins Heron. Bracknell Forest Council had already refused permission for the store to open from 7am to 10pm during the week and 10am to 4pm on Sundays and bank holidays.

Tory councillor Trevor Kensall has been heading these objections to stop the store from opening longer because of strong public objections. One of these objections was because of the noise made by delivery lorries in the morning and their effect on traffic as well as customer traffic (This site also has a train station which is busy at rush hour).

Tesco appealed against the decision which would of cost the council a fair sum in legal fees, it is also believed that the council did not expect to win.

It has been widely reported that Tesco know how to get what they want as reported in the Independent here and by Reading’s Gareth Epps Lib Dem councillor here. Is this just another example of bullying or Is the Tesco request for longer opening hours fair?

Heathrow Airtrack = More Trains through Bracknell

The latest proposal made after public consultation by BAA for the Heathrow rail line extension (Airtrack), which intends to link Reading and Waterloo to Heathrow via Stains. This should result in running an extra two trains an hour on this line bring the total to 4 trains per hour. The example given in the report would cut travel from 1 hour and 25 minutes to 25 minutes from Wokingham to Heathrow.

It is intended that all tickets will be valid for these trains allowing users to use all trains.

The proposal will include;

1. Tunnelling from Heathrow Terminal 5 to Stanwell Moor
2. Construction of a new line across Stanwell Moor and Stains Moor
3. Building a new section of track on Stains
4. Remodelling Stains train station
5. Building a train depot in Feltham.
6. Foot bridges and paths would also be built

The above proposal has now gone to the Secretary of state for Transport to seek authorisation for these works and to examine any objections and to decide if a public inquiry is required.

A new train station in Stains town centre was rejected after public consultation.

There are still some unanswered questions

Will the ticket price remain the same?

The 2nd consultation Brochure (here) states that ‘Passengers will be able to use these new services to travel between existing stations, without payment of any supplement’.

Will the trains be faster?

There will be a train that runs direct from Bracknell to Stains every hour. Once a commuter arrives at Stains the commuter can change and get a direct train to London Waterloo. No train times have yet been produced, so waiting times at Stains are not known.

How does this effect Bracknell?

If it is possible to add two more trains then why has there not been some faster trains added from Bracknell and Wokingham in the mornings. Currently it takes 1 hour to travel from Bracknell to London Waterloo. Where as if you travelled from Farnborough to Waterloo this only takes 40 (38 to 42) minutes to cover a similar distance (of course there are fewer stops).

Bracknell has a train running at 2 and 32 minutes past the hour but in the morning there is an extra train at 7.39 if this extra train was moved to 7.50 surely it could go directly to waterloo and save time without affecting the level crossing any more than the current service does. This train service could stop at Reading, Wokingham, Bracknell & Clapham for example. Only a small change to an existing train service but this change would allow commuters an extra option for an improved service.

For Bracknell itself it would naturally be good to have an improved service, but why can this not be improved now as far as a direct train is concerned?

It should be noted that while extra trains are needed on this route if a Heathrow service was introduced, there are objections to this raised in Wokingham because of expected additional traffic congestion at level crossings (see http://www.waterloo-road.org/). Perhaps a timetable could be drawn up so that the effects of extra trains can be discussed and examined.

Objections can also be raised at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=51908604986&ref=search and http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/waterloo-road/

All notices and proposals for Airtrack can be read here .

Will the new Healthcare space in Bracknell effect Heatherwood Hospital

There has been a demand for a new health facility in the centre of Bracknell offering an extended range of health services. Plans for a new health centre have now been released and will be known as a ‘health space’. What the public of course always wanted was a hospital but this would prove too costly. This facility will be built in Market Street near Bracknell train station and by built by Ashley House and G4S Integrated Services consortium.

The Berkshire East Primary Care Trust (PCT) (part of the consortium investigating future healthcare provision in Bracknell) and developer Ashley House have unvalued there plans for a new health centre in Bracknell (detailed here).

The new health centre in Bracknell will include cancer treatment and a fitness centre. It should also be offering GP services and some emergency services as well as out-patient facilities but will not have facilities for overnight stay.

The centre should be built in 2011 and will be very close to the Skimped Hill Medical Centre, it will also have space to expand upwards if this was later required.

Meanwhile Heatherwood hospital is under continued review with rumours of word closers or ward moves to Wexham park hospital in Slough.

I do fear that the new (and Welcomed) health space could pave the way for the closure of Heatherwood Hospital which still offers services that the new healthcare centre cannot offer as it has no overnight stay arrangements. For example the case of Sally Ingram daughter Kerry, aged 10 from Warfield, who has regular treatment for brittle bones at Heatherwood (highlighted here).

Russ Bryant campaigner and resident of Bracknell has set up a group on social networking site Facebook called ‘Stop Erosion of Services at Heatherwood’. This can be joined here.

Its not nice to be called a chav town‏

I have found that some people talk about Bracknell as a chav town. Naturally I believe this is unfair as Bracknell is really a young families town with low unemployment and hard working people.

Now I believe when people (by that I believe I mean middle class people generally) use the word chav they mean it for two very generalised groups.

1 Young guys wearing sports gear (not the expensive kind) who don't work or don't want to work and who they want to avoid as they are perceived to be dangerous.

2 Young ladies who have a number of kids and who don't work as they can use benefits to their advantage etc etc.

Now let me clarify that im not having a go at anyone individual or group im just writing about the kind of comments people make down the pub or in general conversations that people just don't write about for fear of being branded a snob or worse. I think it should be ok to approach any subject on a blog although I imagine the red top news papers could easily get away with using words like Chav.

My background is growing up in the Great Holland's council estate in Bracknell with a young family (my mum was a young single mum herself after her first marriage before getting remarried). My dad was a working man who used his printing experience to start his own business with a partner and then buy the council house we lived in, sell it and move out of Bracknell to Crowthorne (so we moved from a working class area to a middle class area). What im trying to say is that im not sure if im working class or middle class, I have a middle class job but I live in perhaps a working class area. I also know people from lots of very varied backgrounds including some people who others would brand a chav based on first look (of course their situations are more complicated then that).

I also don't think that calling people words like Chav is helpful but unfortunately I know what people mean by this word. What they really mean generally are people who don't want to work, live off benefits, don't care about what others think to the point that they have little interest in the wider world (dont vote) and are excluded from the wealthier parts of our society and perhaps have reduced personal goals. I think that this is not a working class grouping from the point of view that if you have no intention to work then how can you be working class.

I truly never really noticed this for myself in Bracknell but others have told me what they think when they pop into town. So I sat in the Bentals cafe with my posh coffee during my lunch break and people watched. I saw 3 young ladies take their 8 kids into the pub at midday, 3 sports cloths wearing young men kicking cans thought town. A couple arguing in the street and a mum grabbing her kid roughly and pushing them while the girl was crying and mum was shouting. Now I have to admit that this is all very stereo typical and it does make me feel sad. I did however see many more people who would not of fallen into the stereotype.

One problem for Bracknell town centre is that it does not attract as varied a cliental as it should and many people just travel to Reading or Camberley instead of Bracknell, including many people who live in Bracknell.

The middle classes just don't understand why people want to live on benefits. There is nothing wrong with bring your kids up full time I believe as there can be many good reasons why. However some people I know off have kids so they don't need to work without actually realising how hard it is to bring kids up. This may seem natural if your part of a culture where your friends have done or do the same thing.

Often its people not really thinking about what they could achieve not knowing what they want and not given a hand with achieving something better. If you don't have respect for yourself or your future then you won't have respect for others or indeed the country we live in. I do feel that doors have been closed for example you need a degree for everything these days where as before you could just go and learn your trade. We need to help people who don't care about themselves to care again to see that there is more to life than this.

Of course this is not an easy task and its not just about education but also about the way we treat each other. People like to stick within their own like minded safe groups, perhaps too much. If we are more polite to each other (even when people are not polite to us) and didn't generalise people into groups (tried to not) then maybe that would be a good start.

But of course it is up to people who fall into benefit culture to pick themselves up too and push themselves to achieve better and realise there is a big world out there with many opportunities you just need to sometimes apply your imagination and thought to improving your own situation.

I think for the most part the political classes tend to not try hard enough to get their vote and are therefore some people are more removed from our democracy. You could say there is a growing exclusion of some part of society because they are not as targeted as say the elderly or middle classes. So they are even less likely to vote and so the cycle continues.

I do think that Bracknell is unfairly seen as a chav town by some as it has plenty of working class and middle class people living within it all trying to make ends meet . If you knocked on every door in Bracknell (I have knocked on a lot of doors in Bracknell too boot) you would find that the vast majority do not fit this Chav Stereotype.

If the town centre was improved then this perception would change. If we mixed a little more all of our attitudes may change for the better and our good points would rub of on each other.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chav

http://www.chavtowns.co.uk/

Blog v Newspapers Debate from a Newbie‏

There is an ongoing debate between the columnist/papers and bloggers on the benefits of blogging over newspaper columns (with regards to political blogging), Mark Reckons attended a debate on this very subject (detail here). As a newbie to blogging I find this intellectual debate somewhat self facing as the wider public properly doesn’t give a stuff.

I only recently discovered blogs when Mark Thompson editor of Mark Reckons joined our LibDem local party here in Bracknell. I now write for the Bracknell blog and I am very much learning how to do this as I go along. I recently realised that what you really need is contacts so you can break meaningful stories, which I am trying to build. It’s important to research your argument as you may find that you’re wrong and research brings meaning and enlightenment to your blog and makes your articles far more credible.

I have learnt a lot about writing which is very beneficial as im dyslectic (that word is just too hard). I have also learnt how important it is to know what you are writing/talking about. Researching for understanding, which has really helped me articulate myself better in general.

With regards to the debate there is a good argument on both side of the fence. Columnist are respected professionals who have a background in their subjects and the newspapers they work for have the power of investigative journalism and resource they can bring to bear on a story plus they get paid (although Boris thought that its chicken feed).

Bloggers vary much more from people in the know to people who are just very opinionated. Also some blogs are trying to offer a service and can be comment, news, a diary or a political mouth piece. Although blogs are generally politically aligned the bloggers do tend to refer to each other more than columnist do and do this across party lines. Bloggers are also happy to have a go at their own side. This must be a good thing.

What I like about blogs over columns is that you can comment on a story and the blogger will read and comment back. Comments can sometimes be as informative as the blog itself depending on the level of debate. It allows anyone to have a right to reply. This allows a conversation to develop which can develop the story further.

Blogs of course really come into there own when something is happening in the area of the blogger as was the case with Bracknell Blog when Andrew Mackay resigned or the excellent blogging by the Norfolk Blogger when the Norwich North by-election was in full swing. Blogs are just different I can’t see them taking over from newspapers or 24hour news but they can provide an insight into what is happening on the ground.

There should be room for both, the best blogs (those with good debate and enlightenment to the workings of politics in my view) there are bad blogs too but there readership will disappear. Columnists can blog too of course and their columns are often online and can be commented on. The problem for newspapers is that they need to find another way of making money, as money is required for some investigations as well as time.

I don't know what will actually happen in the future. I do want newspapers to survive with quality maintained but don't knock the blogs they are vibrant and interesting and here to stay. My suggestion to the columnists is if you can’t beat them then join them and blog too.

Those Self-Service Tills Reply

Below is the letter I received from Sainsbury’s in reply to my letter on their self service tills (which you can read here.))

Recently Sainsbury’s Bagshot Road does appear to have more staff on the tills and with competition just up the road from Aldi I expect Sainsbury’s will monitor their manned till levels, as will I.

The letter does include a comment that staff will not be reduced “I can Assure you that we don’t have any plans to reduce the number of colleagues in store”. I really hope this will remain the case but I am also very pleased that they replied to this point too.

I would like to point out that I did not receive any vouchers etc from Sainsbury's

£45k Spend on Consultants on Great Holland's Shopping Centre in Bracknell

A firm of Manchester consultants who produced a facelift plan are expected to be shelved by the Bracknell Council. The council are still considering the proposals which will involve public consultation.

Cllr Anne Shillcock leader of Bracknell Forest Labour Group, who represents Great Holland's North, said in a quote to the Bracknell Standard: “I think it was a waste of money, and unlikely, given the difficulty of getting hold of any extra money, that there would be any redevelopment in the near future. and added "It was a pretty unwise decision.” , “It looked very pie in the sky and given the current economic situation, it did not look realistic. I’m ashamed to say they got the £45,000. It is an enormous amount of money if we get nothing out of it.”

Liberal Democrat PPC Ray Earwicker stated "Once again the Council seems determined to press ahead with its own agenda without carrying the residents with them. There is no doubt that the centre could be improved but without the approval of local residents it would be pointless. The Council is always pleading poverty and it will probably not be able to make any improvements anyway. Nevertheless it enables the Council to give the impression of doing something even if it does result in raised hopes and dashed expectations."

A report has been drafted for the council to consider the future of the centre which will contain the views of residents and organisations who participated in the public consultation.

I would suggest that it maybe possible to for the Berkshire councils to form a partnership that provides the same services as the consultants. This could save on costs as consultants are being used for many planning issues. After all they have got together on waste and recycling.

We really need to see the consultants report to find out if it's was really worth having and if it is value for money. When these details are published we will have a link too them here.

Much improved Recycle Centre

I visited the improved Bracknell Longshot Lane recycle centre this week. I was quite impressed. There are now more bays, a well ordered drive through system and plenty of recycle waste options. I was able to recycle my water cartridge filters, shoes, Books, cloths and drink cartons.

The staff were also very helpful and the site was very clean. Longshot Lane is open to 8pm during the summer weeks so I was able to go later on a work day.

Bracknell Reading and Wokingham councils have formed an organisation called RE3 which is a partnership between Bracknell, Reading and Wokingham Borough Councils and the Waste Recycling Group (WRG). The idea behind this setup is to decrease waste and increase recycling and composting with the aim of reducing the amount of waste sent to landfill.

I was very please to see the site working well and fully support efforts made to improve recycling in our borough.

The RE3 annual report can be viewed here

Covered by Bracknell radio http://radiobracknell.wordpress.com/2009/07/13/re3-fresh-for-local-waste-centre/

Reading List covered this story back in March

http://bythemuddybanksofthethames.blogspot.com/2009/03/zeroing-in-on-less-commercial-rubbish.html

UPDATE: Reading List post about Longshot Lane and RE3

http://bythemuddybanksofthethames.blogspot.com/2009/07/no-time-to-waste.html

Supermarket Waste and Packaging

There has recently been a few reports in the news on the ongoing supermarket packaging issue after the Local Government Association recently called on WRAP asking them to to publish, every three months, the amount of packaging each supermarket produces.

Supermarket waste and packaging adds to the costs of householders council tax bills as it adds to the waste in all our bins for landfill. This can be reduced by having more card and less plastic packaging or reduced packaging of both the hard plunnets and wrapping varieties (Currently within Bracknell most soft plastics can not be recycled through the bin collections).

Every year, the major stores provide details of waste to the government’s waste reduction body (WRAP) giving details of how much packaging they generate. However despite requests by the Local Government Association (LGA) for this information to be made public, both WRAP and most supermarkets do not.

Of the major supermarkets contacted by the LGA, only Waitrose, M&S and Morrisons provided details about how much packaging they produce. Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Co-op all referred councils to WRAP who failed to disclose how much packaging each supermarket produces. Lidl gave no reply and Aldi were not included in the requests.

I was please to see that Bracknell very own Waitrose (HQ based in Bracknell and employing around 2,500 people) responded and are fully signed up to WRAP. Waitrose have been recycling there own waste for 20 years. It is of course a big shame that the Shop in Birth Hill was closed (Aldi opened at the same site on Thursday). Waitrose was located too far from a main road and past the Sainsbury's supermarket. I hope that a Waitrose store will one day return to Bracknell.

However the LGA did perform there own research here were Waitrose did not perform so well when it comes to the actual recyclable waste.

I hope the LGA get their request to have WRAP publish, every three months, so that the public can track the reductions in waste produced by supermarkets.


Links for the above

WRAP http://www.wrap.org.uk/

LGA Reprot on Packaging http://www.lga.gov.uk/lga/aio/1616668

Supermarket Waste Report http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/supermarket-waste-hits-new-high-780513.html

Waitrose investing in Bracknell http://www.getbracknell.co.uk/jobs/news/s/2053970_waitrose_investing_millions_in_bracknell

Waitrose Packaging policy http://www.waitrose.com/food/foodissuesandpolicies/packaging.aspx

Public excluded from the Bracknell Town Centre Regeneration Committee

I was going to attend the Bracknell Town Centre Regeneration Committee meeting held on Monday 13th July 09 as I am very interested in the progress of Regeneration in Bracknell.

But after looking on the council meetings web site I realised that the main part of business for this meeting was excluded (item 6) under Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972. I know that when commercial contracts are involved certain parties or contractual obligations have to be confidential but does all the important business need to be confidential.

I examined other meetings that evoked the Local Government Act 1972. for confidential matters. the public were only exculded for only for part of the these meetings as the meetings was split into a number of agenda items. I would imagine (I don't know as its confidential) that some of the agenda items could of been split out to allow some information disclose on the progress of the regeneration plans.

I also understand that council meetings are not well attended for the most part by the public but some disclosure or splitting of agenda items would be accessible on the Bracknell council website and would help to show how open the Bracknell Forest Council are.

I will of course write to the council asking if any of these confidential agenda items could have some form of disclosure.

If you are interested in examining any council meet details they can be found at

http://democratic.bracknell-forest.gov.uk/ieDocHome.aspx?bcr=1&Categories=-468

with a calendar of meetings at

http://democratic.bracknell-forest.gov.uk/mgCalendarMonthView.aspx?GL=1&bcr=1

Those Self-service tills

It’s a real pet hate of mine but these Self-service tills have gone too far. I had a very bad shopping experience at Sainsbury’s Bagshot Road Bracknell. It took me so long to do my shopping that I almost left it there (I know my brother did recently).

Anyway the English way of informing a company of your displeasure is to write them a letter, which I sent to the Bracknell Store and Holborn, see below.

Dear Customer Services Manager;

I would like to complain about the growing use of self-service tills especially when the tills are designed to cater for a weeks family shopping (Till with a conveyer belt).

I shopped at your Bracknell, Bagshot road store on Saturday 20th June in the evening. This store has recently had many till spaces converted to self-service. During this visit I had some problems with the self-service till;

Cash is not always accepted in them (the customer in front of me could not use their money in the till and had to wait for at least 8 minutes for some assistance with feeding the money into the till.

The till did not accept a few of my items and I required help twice with these.

There appeared to be only two conveyer belt tills that were staffed and they were too busy. This is why I opted for the self-service till, however I feel like I was forced to use the self-service till due to the lack of checkout staff.

The till kept on asking me to not take items off the conveyor belt and even asked for me to put the items back on the belt.

Luckily I had some one to give me a hand but if I had done my shopping on my own then I would of had to pack afterwards rather then when the checkout staff handed me the items.

I also have had a number of other concerns with these self-services tills;

How would I use these tills if I were disabled?

Do your stores now require less staff?

I feel as if the personal touch of the staff has been lost with all this self-service as I also chat to the checkout staff.

Not everyone can use a machine or at least others may find it very hard to use. I know my Grandmother for one would find the new tills very hard to use or understand especially when they give instructions

I do understand the convenience of the one-basket tills if I am only buying a few items but I found this experience so frustrating that I have now changed the supermarket I shop at and will not visit this store again.

In the past Sainsbury’s have come up with some innovative ideas like the self-scan hand held devices that are convenient. But I do feel as if your customers are now being forced to go self-service at a loss of personal customer service for which I had held your store in high regard.

I would like to add that I am very happy with the quality, stock levels and price of the food provided by the Bagshot Road Store it is purely the self-service tills that have caused my unhappiness.

I am a tech savvy person and have no problems operating complicated technical systems and computers. I actually suspect that the self-service tills do not save time but only save on staffing costs.

Please do not send me any vouchers in reply to this letter. What I would like is for there to always be adequate staff and less self-service tills and an explanation as to what is being done to improve the situation at Bracknell Bagshot Road so that I can visit this store again in the future.


Many Thanks

A Previously Customer

I realise that Sainsbury’s are not the only company doing this but this is the store that I had my bad experience at. I would also say that I can operate a machine fine in most cases but it’s not just about me what about other shoppers, this is not so easy for all of us. I am of course ok with some self-service tills but I hate being forced to do something when I suspect a cost saving is really dressed but as a convenience.

Update – visited the store today (8th July 09 8.15pm) turns out there are only 4 staff on although the store was not busy however the staffed tills were busy

Will the Governments change in housing policy affect Bracknell?

I heard an interview with Bracknells councils very own council leader Paul Bettison on Radio 5 live on this very subject. During the interview he made a very good point that 50% of the rents from social housing are paid back to the government. (This figure is actually 35% [turns out his figure is around 50% see comments]).

This is one reason why not for profit housing associations are set up as this money can be kept by the association for improvements etc.

I do not know how the government plans to allocates these homes but I would like to see some of this funding allocated to Bracknell.

Perhaps if Bracknell and other councils were allowed to keep 90% of the rents then the local councils would have found it easier to manage their social housing stock, this may of allowed Bracknell to Build some more much needed social housing.

I live in hope.

I believe the best way forward is proposed by the people at really understand all the issues and that is the local government association;

They are calling for;

1. Councils to have the financial independence to invest in their housing stock and stimulate the local economy;
2. Historic ‘notional debt’ – which councils are currently spending £1.3 billion a year servicing – to be cancelled;
3. Councils to have the same freedom as other social housing providers to borrow money to invest in new homes; and
4. The government to stop setting tenants’ rent and allow them to reflect local circumstances.
   
   Your find these details here