🚧 #ChinnockHollow update 🚨 I attended a very productive meeting with senior highways officers this afternoon, including the new Lead Member for Transport Cllr @MikeSRigby
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You don’t need me to tell you that sorting out the Hollow is going to be a complex and expensive job. Public safety is absolutely paramount, so this needs to be looked at with all due care and consideration. 2/
I’m pleased to say that we’re very nearly in a position to start making meaningful progress - setting a budget, establishing deadlines and the rest of it. 3/
However, because this project involves a large amount of unplanned expenditure at a time when budgets are extremely tight (not to mention the fact that all of Somerset’s councils will merge in 8 months…) it all has to go through the Council’s elected Executive first. 4/
Once that has happened (we’re aiming for Sept), we can then sign off costs, deadlines, and publicise our intended course of action - including robust, face-to-face public engagement: a commitment that Cllr @MikeHewitson1 and I made during the local election campaign in May. 5/
I know it has been a long and frustrating wait to get to this point, but rest assured we’re moving things on. As locals who travel around these roads, we’re as impatient to get results as you are. 6/6
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Some comparative stats have just been released by @cab_south in relation to hardship in #SouthSomerset. Comparing Jan-July 2021 with the same period in ‘22. They make for grim reading:
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⬆️ Food bank referrals +15,700%
⬆️ Fuel-driven financial crisis +2,900%
⬆️ Actual homelessness: +119%
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In the #CokerDivision alone, people facing financial crisis and seeking help with Citizens Advice has gone up +796%
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Sounds a lot, right? It was. It took a gargantuan effort from 1,000s of dedicated volunteers
BUT…
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Let’s compare those numbers with the hate-filled rag that is the Daily Mail
Last available normal figures (pre-Covid) show the DM printing 980,000 copies per day. At 144 pages per copy that’s 141 million pages (141,120,000 to be precise
So, out in #Tiverton & #Honiton last week I knocked on the door of someone who has “always voted Conservative” (his words). He said some interesting things, which made me reflect on where rabid right wing politics has got us.
A thread… *paraphrased*
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“I’ve always voted Conservative”, he said, “but I’m not sure anymore. I like the Lib Dem leaflets I’m getting… but…”
“Go on?” I urge
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“Well there’s nothing about immigration on your leaflets. You don’t seem to have an immigration policy. What are you going to do about all these Africans coming over here”
I’ve lived near #Yeovil for 11 years now. That’s 1/3 of my life. I’ve seen it go on quite a journey over that decade+
In contrast to High Streets up and down the UK, you can’t help but feel the town is on the up
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There are some fantastic places to visit in #Yeovil, too many to list here - and there’s genuinely something for everyone. Come and walk around the @QuedamCentre, bucking the high street closure trend and bursting with big names and indy shops
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Or visit #PrincesStreet - also bucking the national high street trend and thronged with indy shops
Why not have a burger and a cider at #cowandapple? Or some French cuisine at #lesamis? Both overlooking the beautiful St John’s Church right in the middle of town
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The financiers, the bankers, but above all *most politicians* don’t want you to understand how money really works
The government has unfettered access to enormous sums of money that it could use to deliver life changing investment in people’s lives
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The government, and them alone, has the ability to invest massively in public services, in hospitals, in schools, infrastructure, R&D, economic development
In doing this, guess what… The economy will grow. Society will be more resilient. Healthier. Better educated. Happier
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How can it do this? In short: because of the relationship between HM Treasury and the Bank of England - government debt is simply money it owes itself or its investors (if you’ve premium bonds then that’s you!)
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