Well what a relief after all these long months we have a ray of hope in a vaccine approved by the Regulatory body in the UK.
It’s going to be administered before Christmas starting with the elderly and the staff in care homes and perhaps now we can look forward to going back to some sort of normality and getting on with our lives.
But at what cost has this been to our economy, the country has incurred massive amounts of debt during lockdown, which is going to take many generations to pay back. The Chancellor has already started in his spending review last week with a billion pound tax bill for Councils leading to Council tax rises for 2021.
There have been numerous business closures resulting in huge job losses. The government estimated up to four million out of work and there is little prospect of them finding employment in the near future as the work isn’t there anymore.
People with serious illnesses like cancer were left untreated by the NHS during lock down and now tragically are suffering and dying as a result. People who experienced mental illness through social isolation has resulted in high suicide rates. In stark terms it’s going to be a very long haul process to rebuild lives, our Country and our economy to the way it was before. It’s going to take true grit and determination and strong leadership to get us back on our feet again!!
Technology
Well we’ve had another virtual Council meeting today, it’s like being in an episode of a farce like the ‘Navy Lark’, some of you may remember.
Technology is never perfect and something always goes wrong either because folks haven’t got a grasp of how it works and in-advertently press the wrong buttons on their equipment, or the signal fades. It was difficult for everyone to vote together today as the technology failed in this instance however we soldiered on and managed to get around it in other ways. I’m really looking forward to when we can all meet in person again.
In the Council today we passed a motion to secure £2.5million worth of food vouchers for the thousands of disadvantaged families with children in Derbyshire to last through to next March.
A further motion was to lobby the government for legislation to protect shop workers and public workers such as librarians and bank staff from physical and verbal abuse while dealing with the public.
Adult Care
As Shadow Cabinet Member for Adult Care, I raised a number of questions with the Council to do with the safety of our residential homes that was affirmed by the council who are carrying out refurbishment works in a number of them, including Basset House in Shirebrook, to ensure they meet all safety standards for the residents and workforce.
I asked about future investment and marketing of our homes to ensure we are able to provide a good quality service to our residents and a sustainable income to cover the cost of delivering that service. This ensures that we keep people in employment in the care industry. I was assured this was information already contained in a report for the next cabinet meeting which I look forward to reading.
Then I raised the point that we already have funding available as a Council to use for apprenticeships and were we going to use that funding to develop a career strategy in Adult Care to produce well qualified care workers, as we have an increasing ageing population and Care is a growth industry and will help create future employment. The Council are seriously taking this on board. We are still waiting for the government a few years down the line to produce the promised green paper on the future of Social Care in this country!
Politics
Politics is a good word but it’s had a bad press from bad politicians mainly. Its origins are Greek and what it means is basically how we arrange our lives together for the common good.
Everyone’s life has been affected by politics down to using the electricity and water brought to your home, and even the quality of the water, the road infrastructure to get to work, schools, libraries and even down to the ingredients on the outside of food packaging, it’s all been down to political decisions.
There’s something holy and sacred about people getting together to work together for the good of the community. At a meeting before this current lockdown residents of Shirebrook came together to support a recently formed organisation called ‘BLAST’ (Building Lives Around Shirebrook Town) to organise donations and collections and distribution of food parcels and presents for needy families in our locality at Christmas.
It was a great privilege to see people from all walks of life - workers, housewives, sports organisations, businesses, professionals, retired, young and old, with passionate commitment and energy, collectively wanting to improve the lives of others in their community, who are adversely affected by this year, and giving their time, energy, buildings and donations to organise this to make it happen over Christmas.
Further a local business man has contributed a shop premises for BLAST to open a food and clothing distribution Centre. Other local businesses have contributed carpets and a fridge freezer so community support can continue to operate after Christmas in the shop premises, at the end of Patchwork Row on King Edward Street, in the coming year. This is the ethics of kindness in Shirebrook helping others help others going through hard times.
Now that’s what good politics is all about dear readers ! An inner radiance from within the community emerging from the darkness uplifting all of us in this bleak era.
Leadership Fund
From my leadership fund I have recently donated to the following:-
- £800 to Holy Trinity guides for outdoor equipment so they can start up outdoor activities after Christmas.
- £2,000 towards the refurbishment of the Community Hub in New Houghton enabling Community groups to meet once again in the new year.
- £500 to the SNAG allotments group to buy materials for a teenage weekly gardening project with specialist tutoring on the allotment. The teenagers are busy building raised beds for growing vegetables, making a wildlife pond, insect houses and sensory equipment for younger children to explore.
- £2,530 to BLAST who are organising an insulated storage facility for those using the church hall which lacks suitable storage, namely for: guides, scouts, brownies, cubs, bike club, judo club, Viking re-enactment group, mental health cafe and other community groups on site.
The storage facility will be situated next to the church hall in the grounds of Holy Trinity Church.
Potholes
I have continued to report to county highways potholes, faulty street lights, raised ironworks causing noise nuisance and blocked drains. Contact me on 078811 995612 to report highway matters
Holy Trinity Church
We’ve had a beautiful large Christmas Tree kindly donated by a local business to Holy Trinity Church for Christmas and I shall be busy today (Dec 4th) with my friend Janet Downing, an active member of the church for many years that many of you know, decorating the tree ready for Christmas Services.
There is a blessing of the crib service on the 24th December at 7.30pm at Holy Trinity. It is free to attend but it is a ticketed service because of COVID restrictions. If you are interested then contact Reverend Karen Bradley on 01623 748577
Dear readers, until we meet again, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you peace and grace this Christmas, and let’s hope that 2021 is a better year than 2020. Please stay safe over this most festive period!!
Cllr Christine Dale