I Have something To Say - Communication!

There is something I really want to write about and I don’t quite know where to start or how to approach it, as so many thoughts are occurring at once, to be honest my thoughts are like a tangled up ball of string and I am pondering on how I untangle them. So what better way than to scribble them down

What an earth am I talking about?

Don’t laugh but it started off with one particular paragraph in the SDC Draft Development Framework Plan and then disappeared into the realms of communities working together etc. Then flitted back to if our councils can’t work together nor than the Communities they represent.

Almost every if not all councils in England has adjoining neighbours and will have the same problems.

So what was the paragraph set me off in my current quandary

2.1

The Duty to Co-operate

2.1.1 When producing the draft Core Strategy it is not possible to produce it in isolation as there are a number of cross boundary planning issues that need to be taken into account. Areas that neighbour the District and even those further a field can be affected by the proposals that Stratford-on-Avon District plans for the next 15-20 years

Ok I know the above is about planning issues and infrastructure however, shouldn’t the same ideas for planning be used in all sorts of different circumstances. On two occasions in the last 6 days in the area of 1 ½ - 2 square miles I have witnessed.

1. Councils failing to work with each other and failing Residents.
2. In one of the circumstances two councils appeared to have a prime opportunity to help two cross boarder communities work closely together to achieve the same goal. (They appeared to have failed) (My Own Personal Opinion)

Equally in the last 2 or 3 weeks I have witnessed Police Forces cross boarders working very well together, sharing responsibility in both tackling crime and ensuring a certain event went according to plan.

So if cross boarder Police can do it. I don’t understand why our Councils appear not to be able to.

The first instance was half the length of a lane in Worcestershire was mended beautifully. It reached the boundary of Warwickshire then stopped. What we now have is part of the length of the road beautifully mended and the other half in S*** Order.

By The Way the beautifully mended bit is 30 mph the S*** Order one is 60 mph. Work that one out!

Wouldn’t it have been more sensible for one council to say to another we are doing xyz road do you want us to do your bit as well whilst we are here. Then charge Warwickshire, meanwhile Warwickshire can allocate their planned resources else where and not worry about that particular road/lane.

Please don’t tell me in the 21^st century road mending services from different councils use different software and have no access to what their neighbours are doing across the boarder. You know cross boarder cooperation type of thing, time saving, money saving resident pleasing services.

Believe you me living on the boarder of three different Councils I often wonder where the joined up thinking is and have decided there is none.

Working together as communities is important, communication between each other  is important especially when you live on a boarder.


In Fact living in one District but so close to two other boarders one needs eyes in the back of the head sometimes :-)

Regards

Carrie living on 3 boarders :-)