Warning!!

Below is an email warning sent to me this morning.

Trading Standards advise consumers to beware of itinerants / doorstep sellers attempting to sell goods such as memory foam mattresses in the area.

We advise residents not to contract with itinerant sellers and to report suspicious activity to the local Police on 101 or their local Powys Trading Standards office.

Hope this helps

Meeting on Street Management

I have a meeting this afternoon with the area manager for the Hay area on the agenda is the following.

1. Toilets by town clock
2. Pavements in town
3. Bollard on pavement, broad st corner
4. trees in broad st
5. Hand rail (lose) by telephone box in broad street
6. obstructions on highways
7. signs on pavements
8. hatching in playing fields
9. tree by corner of church
10. crossing (brown hatching) by church
11. brown hatching highlighting speed on brecon road
12. sign for forest road
13. cycle parking around town
14. finger post in town
15. flooding in gypsy caste

if you have any more please let me know

Thanks

Gareth

Its not the Dog its the owner

Yet again we are facing problems around town with people allowing their dogs to foul on the street and not clean up after them. This has been a problem for a long time and with thousands of poop a scoop bags been given out by the council and 100s of leaflets that i delivered last year highlighting the problem it still goes on. Sadly it is just a small number of people that do this yet it upsets a large number of you. At the beginning of last year i went to full council asking for them to extend the powers to other officers of the council and to name and shame the people that the council convicts but sadly to get a prosecution is difficult in the way the laws are written.

So is education the best way forward? This will take a long time to drive that message to residents and visitors that we want our streets clean.

If you want to make a change then please get the following information eg times of Day, street and description and please pass this information on to me (you can email me or reply below anomalously) and i can forward this to the Dog Warden.

People are creatures of habit so i hope we can get info to target the problem

Presenting the Petition

Chair of Powys County Council reciving the C.R.A.P Petition from me at Thurdays full council. We went past our target and ended up with 1046 WELL DONE

PCC press on schools

Cyngor Sir Powys County Council PR 4679 14/07/2011

21st Century Schools Bid

News that all county councils in Wales have been asked to re-think their school modernisation plans has been greeted with disappointment by Powys County Council.

Minister for Education and Skills, Leighton Andrews announced yesterday (Wednesday) that the Welsh Government would be asking all authorities to review their 21st Century Schools bids because of reduced capital funding.

Powys County Council Cabinet Member for Learning and Leisure, Councillor Stephen Hayes said: "The minister's announcement is extremely disappointing and will have a significant impact on the county council's ability to back its school modernisation initiatives with new buildings. Not only does it reduce the Welsh Government's contribution to future schemes, but it pushes the availability of funding further into the future."Construction is due to begin imminently on four new schools in the Ystradgynlais area, and funding for this major scheme is secure.

Similarly, implementation of both the Gwernyfed and the Upper Severn Valley Welsh Medium primary reviews remains a high priority. However, further area reviews are likely to be affected by the Minister's announcement, and I recently announced a deferment of the Welshpool area review, which had been due to start in the autumn.

"With regard to secondary and post-16 modernisation, the challenges of surplus places, ensuring our youngsters have appropriate curriculum choice and fostering educational excellence across the county remain. There is therefore no question of modernisation not going forward in Powys, and I will be announcing the next stages of our work later this year. However, the Minister's announcement is a serious blow to our aspiration to back modernisation with new and refurbished buildings, and extremely disappointing considering all the hard work that went into the original 21st Century Schools submission.""But, it does not mean an end to the work to modernise our schools; that work is still needed and vital if we are to deliver the quality of education our young learners deserve. ENDS

Meet fire Service at RWS

Come and meet the Fire Service at the Royal Welsh Show

Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service will be hosting a stand at this year´s Royal Welsh Show in Builth Wells from 18 to 21 July - and we´re inviting you to come along to find out how to be a safer citizen!

By visiting our stand at the show, you could get advice on fire and road safety, as well as signing up for a free Home Fire Safety Check.

Farmers and landowners will also be able to get advice on how to safely conduct grass burns, and stay within the law.

Children will be able to visit the stand to take part in a special fire safety quiz - with a Nintendo Wii with Wii Sports as a prize! There will also be a play fire engine for younger kids.

Community Safety Manager Neil Evans said: "We are maintaining our year-on-year tradition of hosting a stand at the Royal Welsh Show, and we really have become a part of the festival furniture because we´re such regulars."This year we´re pulling out all the stops, with fire safety advice for families, farmers and landowners, and a great safety quiz for kids where they could win a Nintendo Wii!"People should pop along to the stand, where they will also have the option of signing up for a free Home Fire Safety Check."The public will be able to feedback their views as part of the service´s consultation over the Draft Annual Action Plan 2012-13, which details the direction of the service for the year ahead. So if you have ideas on how the service could be improved - like reducing risk from arson, working more closely with other organisations and providing value for money services - then why not pay us a visit?

The consultation runs until 19 August, and you
can also respond online at www.mawwfire.gov.uk

Common Sense at last on Parking

Yesterday was a key day for the resident of Hay as the council supported my motion to review our parking restrictions. Following a debate in the chamber with a lot of concerns being repeated over the county we came to decision time at this point cllr Hopkins said that he was going to do it so why don't i withdraw my motion? He had a simple reply

NO

I put the motion forward on behalf of the residents and it stands with this he withdrew his request and it went to the vote.

the motion was as follows

From September 2011 this council will start to work on the feasibility of a residents parking policy with the assistance of the scrutiny committee. Also a review of parking restrictions, traffic management and off street parking with consultation with key stake holders such as town and community councils and chamber of trades so when the moratorium is expected to be lifted in April 2012 and the council will be able to move forward from this earlier point in 2012


ALL IN FAVOUR

But now the work starts i have asked for maps so we can start our review and over the summer we need to get our heads together

So if you have any ideas what we can do add your comments below and i will publish them so we can start the debate.

More sign up before deadline

Thanks to Cllr Gary Banks who presented me before going in the chamber with 94 new signatures to add to our campaign. NEW TOTAL 1046

now we wait and see if the council will listen to the motion later and support their residents

Emergancy Question to council

Dear Chairman

I know this is unusual but due to the press release by the Welsh Government could i raise an emergency question to the portfolio holder for schools. We are going in to recess over August and i feel that Parents deserve some clarity on this situation.

Question

Following the BBC report that Education Minister Leighton Andrews has withdrawn WAG financial support for the schools modernisation programme. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-14142840In the light of this, can the portfolio holder please update us as to the current status of Powys County Council's primary schools modernisation programme

Best wishes
Cllr Gareth Ratcliffe
Hay on Wye Ward

C.R.A.P petition

Petition done 952 signed up now waiting to address full council tomorrow and present the petition on behalf of the residents of Hay and Powys. Followed by my motion

In Powys since the Powys County Council have taken over the Civil Enforcement Officers and are now enforcing the parking restrictions in our towns and villages. One of the main problem is we have 1970's traffic orders with 2011 enforcement and the residents are feeling the brunt of this new way of working. I have today placed a motion to full council for decision on the 14th July if your readers are in favour i would ask them to talk to their local councillors and ask them to support this motion.The key point is to bring the enforcement and traffic orders in line so residents, businesses and Powys county council will be able to work together. As county councillor for Hay on Wye i feel we need a full review of our towns traffic management and not piece buy piece as this has been done in the past pushing problems to other parts of our town and coursed the problems we face today. This has been repeated to me across the county since we started the Campaign for a Realistic Approach to Parking in Powys with residents not just in Hay but also Brecon, Prestigne, Talgarth, Rhayader and even as far as Machynlleth.

MOTION TO FULL COUNCIL By Cllr Gareth Ratcliffe seconded By Cllr Clair Powell

Due to concerns being raised over the last couple of months when Powys county council took over the civil parking enforcement. Communities have raised concerns over a number of issues mainly.
1. Residents parking and policy
2. Parking restrictions
3. Traffic management
4. Review of off street parking

At the last meeting the portfolio holder stated that “The intention is to allow Civil Parking Enforcement (CPE) to settle down for a twelve month period during which time the outcomes of more frequent and targeted enforcement will become apparent. A review of parking restrictions and traffic management could then begin on a county-wide basis and include both on and off-street parking, and any demand for residents', lorry or coach parking, bus stop orders and possibly mandatory and advisory disabled parking. The review will inform new draft policies, e.g. residents' parking (both on and off-street), and will also enable the Council to properly consult on any proposals to remove or introduce restrictions prior to their implementation.” he also stated “, it is anticipated that the review will generally commence in April 2012 when the outcomes of CPE are becoming established, although there may be some obvious anomalies that could be considered for earlier action. Given the current financial constraints it is doubtful when funding will become available. Members introduced a moratorium on TROs some time ago as a budgetary measure and changes to legal Orders cannot be processed until the moratorium is lifted or when there are external contributions.

Following this I would like to put forward the following motion to the council.

From September 2011 this council will start to work on the feasibility of a residents parking policy with the assistance of the scrutiny committee. Also a review of parking restrictions, traffic management and off street parking with consultation with key stake holders such as town and community councils and chamber of trades so when the moratorium is expected to be lifted in April 2012 and the council will be able to move forward from this earlier point in 2012.

PCC waste of money

Over concerns that PCC are running short of their target set in their Change plan (strategic document that the council gets grants of if they hit the targets set) In this document PCC have set a target of 52% of waste is reused or recycled by 2012/13. With the council now only hitting 37% this target is slipping away and with fines of around £200 per ton ( for example when i done the day on the bins in Hay we collected 12 tons and only 2 tons was recycled) PCC is facing troubling times if they don't move forward quicker and the residents will be left to pick up the bill again.


QUESTION TO COUNTY COUNCILLOR K.A. HARRIS, PORTFOLIO HOLDER FOR WASTE, CLIMATE CHANGE AND WELSH LANGUAGE FROM COUNTY COUNCILLOR G.W. RATCLIFFE

Figures released by the Welsh Government on Municipal Waste Management, January-March 2011 show that Powys County Council have slipped in the league table of Annual municipal Waste Reuse, Dry recycling and composting rates, by local authority from 41% in 2006/07 with the Welsh average then being 28% to 37% in 2010/11 with the Welsh average now being 44%.

In this time Powys County Council has slipped from 2nd to 20th in the league table. What plans has the Cabinet member put in place to bring Powys County Council in line with other authorities?

So lets talk about that White elephant in the room and get on with it NOW

Big Thanks Tonk

Thanks to Martin Tong for his 3 Years service as Chairman of Hay st Marys FC. All the players and supporters of the club would like to wish him the best for the future and a happy retirement.

Following his departure I was appointed the clubs new chairman for the 2011/12 season. I am looking forward to working with the committee and players to work with the community for the youth of our town.

Planning stopping work for local tradesman?

Following concerns raised by tradesmen in Hay i have raised the following question at full council this Thursday

QUESTION TO COUNTY COUNCILLOR W.T. JONES, PORTFOLIO HOLDER FOR REGENERATION AND DEVELOPMENT FROM COUNTY COUNCILLOR G.W. RATCLIFFE

Over the last couple of year the Welsh Government have published a Development control Quarterly survey showing the percentage decided within 8 weeks of receipt for the 25 planning authorities in Wales. Over the last year it has shown Powys County Council to have one of the poorest rates in Wales. The figures are as follows

January to March 2010 57% were completed in the 8 week deadline and Powys County Council were 23rd out of 25 with an average across Wales of 69%

April to June 2010 54% were completed in the 8 week deadline and Powys County Council were 25th out of 25 with an average across Wales of 72%

July to September 2010 64% were completed in the 8 week deadline and Powys County Council were 20th out of 25 with an average across Wales of 71%

October to December 2010 56% were completed in the 8 week deadline and Powys County Council were 23rd out of 25 with an average of across Wales 68%

January to March 2011 41% were completed in the 8 week deadline and Powys County Council were 24rd out of 24 as Monmouthshire did not record a figure with an average across Wales of 67%

Please can the Cabinet Member for planning inform this Council if he knew about these figures and what he is doing to increase these figures as it is alleged in some case delays in the determining of applications are causing hardship for local tradesmen?

I wait with interest on what is going to be said

Lets make sure our police station is safe

QUESTION TO THE MEMBERS APPOINTED TO THE DYFED POWYS POLICE AUTHORITY FROM COUNTY COUNCILLOR G.W. RATCLIFFE

In a BBC online article it stated that Dyfed Powys Police were to close 13 buildings across their force: "Dyfed-Powys Police to close 13 police buildings Dyfed-Powys Police wants to close 13 buildings to save £13m by 2014. The force said the buildings are used by officers but not generally visited by the public. None will close until alternative arrangements have been put in place."

Can the appointed member confirm if any that are earmarked for closure are in the Powys and if so where?

Campign for a Realistic Approch to Parking

One of the campaigns i have been working with local residents of Hay. 1970's traffic orders with 2011 Enforcement does not work. check the blog now

http://crap-powys.blogspot.com/

Hello All

Sorry its been a long time just starting my blog life again