Author: Brian Riley

An Appreciation of Dogs

Brian Riley Canine Matters, Nice Things

“Come to lunch” they said. “Oh and bring the dog, the garden is secure. “Hmm, I doubt it very much.
It is lovely to be invited out and there is nothing Tia likes more than lunch in the garden and a new challenge of fences and shrubs to be breached!
Fear not, we now attach a length of string to Tia’s collar with a large empty milk carton in tow.
With luck we can finish lunch before working out how to reel her back in!

An Ode to Tia

You are so cute
You are so sweet
You are so dainty and petite
How could one so proud and haughty
Stoop to be so very naughty!
Sweetness flows from every pore
How can I help but to adore.

Time to Make Noise

Brian Riley Local Colour, Political - Local, Political - National and other

 

Brett River Valley

Please write to:
Nigel Wakelin
Department for Culture, Media and Sport
2-4 Cockspur Street
London
SW1Y 5DH
Or email  regulated_entertainment_consultation@culture.gsi.gov.uk
Why – because The Department of Culture Media & Sport wishes to deregulate
Schedule One of the Licensing Act 2003 (http://www.culture.gov.uk/consultations/8408.aspx).
Boring as this sounds it will affect everyone in Hadleigh and beyond. Licensing protects our town from event promoters destroying our rights to peaceful enjoyment.
The Department’s  proposals, would mean that no licence permissions would be needed for any entertainment event/activities for up to 5000 persons. Activities such as amplified live or recorded music, whether indoors or outdoors, could take place in a whole host of different venues – whether in night time economy areas or residential/rural areas. There would be little or no prior scrutiny or enforceable control measures such as limitations on timings, area or frequency.
The local, transparent and inclusive licensing system, which has determined and mediated many contested licence applications since 2005 in a balanced and fair manner would be undone at a stroke.
What does it mean for us: well for a start there will be no curfew, so events would no longer stop at 11 p.m. but instead could run through the night. There will be no limitation on noise so, for example, a rave at the Football Club could run for days and be heard all over the town.
If the Department gets its way then any complaints will be dealt with on a reactive basis and it’s quite possible that the Council and the Police will have had no prior notice of the event and so find it difficult to track down the persons responsible for the nuisance.
We have until the 3rd December to let the Department know our views!.
Babergh are responding (see http://www.babergh.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/BE20FA1A-E4DC-4003-99EB-C40EDA05A55D/0/L94.pdf) and we should support them by writing vigorously to the department as indicated above.
Remember we have nothing to lose but the peaceful enjoyment  of our town! The more noise we generate now will save us from enduring excessive noise in the future

Scams, Telephones and Credit Cards

Brian Riley Money Matters

People are receiving calls from a ‘representative’ of BT, informing them that they were  disconnecting the line because of an unpaid bill. In one such case the representative demanded immediate payment of £31.00 or it would be £118.00 to re-connect at a later date. The guy wasn’t even fazed when one subscriber told him that he was with Virgin Media as allegedly VM have to pay BT a percentage for line rental!
The representative gives a very English name “John Peacock” but with a very ‘African’ accent – & phone number – 0800 800 152 (which turns out to be unobtainable).
Many people query the veracity of the statement and so John Peacock offers to demonstrate that he is from BT. The subscriber is told to hang up & try phoning someone – and he would disconnect the phone to prevent this and he does !
The phone then goes dead- no engaged tone, nothing – and then he phones again.
Very pleased with himself, he asks if it is enough proof that he was with BT. When asked  how the payment was to be made and he offers to take credit card details there and then.
How’s it done: the cutting off of the line is very simple, he stays on the line with the mute button on and you can’t dial out – but he can hear you trying (This is because the person who initiates a call is the one to terminate it). When you stop trying he cuts off and immediately calls back.
The sad thing is that it is so simple that it will certainly fool the elderly and vulnerable.
Incidentally this is not about getting the cash as this would not get past merchant services – it is all about getting the credit card details including the security number so that it can be used for far larger purchases later.

Season Of Mists And Mellow Fruitfulness

Brian Riley Local Colour, Nice Things, Uncategorized

The leaves are falling off the trees but the weather is still mild. Nevertheless last week we tried out the logs and open fire. The production went well until the fire was well lit when the room filled up with smoke. I spent two hours with the window open trying to improve the draw and waiting for the smoke to clear. Even so the room still smells like a kipperie.Can roasted chestnuts by an open fire be far away?
Meanwhile today’s visitors included this male pheasant who dropped in and only left when I called out “bread sauce”.

Pylon policy in the dark

Brian Riley Local Colour, Political - Local

The National Grid are busy consulting and lobbying on  a new 400kV connection between Bramford substation in Suffolk and Twinstead Tee in Essex. The line is needed to connect a number of new power generators to the national electricity transmission network in East Anglia.

The Preferred Route runs for the most part alongside the existing 400kV overhead line. Let me declare an interest: the route passes to the east and south of Hadleigh and existing pylons are visible from my kitchen window.

There are still decisions to be made and the “Bury Not Blight” campaign now focuses on burying the cables and the associated costs.

At a recent forum meeting a county councillor was understood to ask “What happens in January?” The puzzled looks met with the following explanation “In January the County Council will be switching off the street lighting after midnight.” There was obviously no answer forthcoming.

I suppose the correct answer to the query should have been that during the day the underground cables would be used as the pylons would be visible. During the night  when they were not visible the National Grid would use the pylons.

http://www.nationalgrid.com/uk/electricity/MajorProjects/BramfordTwinstead.
http://www.suffolk.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/A4F84FE5-1AE3-406A-8A15-4FC61CB70CC2/0/amenitygroupspart2.ppt

Suffolk Book League

Brian Riley Local Colour, Nice Things

One of the best value organisations in Suffolk  is the Suffolk Book League (www.sbl.org.uk) whose annual family membership is £15. For this you get reduced entrance fees for nine or so author speakers plus other events. This year’s speakers included Sally Vickers and Chris Mullins. Thursday night’s speaker was Marina Lewycka whose first novel publication was “A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian”. Marina read excerpts from her new book “We Are All Made of Glue” and answered questions afterwards. The web page http://marinalewycka.com/glue.html contains the following excerpt:
“Georgie Sinclair’s husband has left her; her sixteen-year-old son is busy exploring fundamentalist Christian websites and becoming more distant by the day; and all those overdue articles for Adhesives in the Modern World aren’t looking too appealing either. So when she spots Mrs Shapiro, an eccentric old Jewish émigré neighbour with an eye for a bargain and a fondness for matchmaking, rummaging through her skip in the middle of the night, it’s just the distraction she needs. And although they mistrust each other at first – … – a firm friendship is formed over the reduced-price shelf at the supermarket.So when two slimy rival estate agents (one with a taste for bondage) start competing to trick Mrs Shapiro into selling her rickety old mansion, home also to seven stinky cats, Georgie must step in and help her new friend. Along the way she uncovers the long buried mysteries of Mrs Shapiro’s past…During the questions it came out that the book is set in North London (Highbury Fields) and includes unscrupulous social workers who collude with estate agents to identify vulnerable people who own property which might be bought for less than market value.It promises to be a good read.

Babergh Development Framework (4)

Brian Riley Local Colour, Political - Local

The Babergh Development Framework consultation document is 109 pages long and could replace Mogadon once it has passed the tests required our National Health Service. Around the table at Monday’s briefing meeting were a number of views – not surprising as people came from all over the district. A lady from East Bergholt (2007 population 1597) put forward the view that their village was large enough and did not need to be upgraded to a small town. The people from Thorpe Morieux (2005 population 257) wants development to encourage younger people into the village. A lady from Hintlesham (2005 population 580)explained that they were happy in having a village shop which did not sell newspapers or provide day to day groceries. They preferred newcomers to buy or build the upper value houses.

Hintlesham does have some social housing and a very nice village hall and social club. It also has a respected primary school and a pub (the George). I suppose the other reason for liking the village location is because it is easy to access (& egress).

As for Hadleigh I’m happy that the plan for us to double our 8,000 population over twenty years has been discarded as it would fundamentally change our character and severely stress our community.

Babergh Development Framework (3)

Brian Riley Local Colour, Political - Local

One of the anomalies thrown up in the briefing was that we are providing for about 9,700 new jobs in Babergh by 2031. The question was asked how come we are creating four new jobs for every home to be built. We were told that the figures were not directly comparative – but by pressing the point we were told that some of the jobs were to be created on the Ipswich fringe for Ipswich people, since there was a shortage of land for job creation in Ipswich. The reason for this shortage is because Ipswich had encouraged businesses to move outside their boundaries to be replaced by housing. Businesses bring no direct monetary benefit to the local authorities – instead it goes  to the Central Government and is then redistributed. So where is the logic in providing for jobs which have no direct benefit to our tax payers and which instead leave us with the pollution and other costs associated with providing business infrastructure. We were later told that some of the 9,700 jobs were associated with previously approved planning applications. However the underlying questions were not answered – instead we were told that it is not a simple as that. Fortunately/unfortunately we ran out of time before simple answers could be provided.

For more information see http://www.babergh.gov.uk/Babergh/Home/Planning+and+Building+Control/Local+Development+Framework/

Babergh Development Framework (2)

Brian Riley Political - Local

On Monday I attended a briefing at Hadleigh Town Hall on the Babergh Development Framework. This was a key briefing and I was the only Hadleigh District Councilor present. I could only see one Town Councilor and Hadleigh’s man on the County Council was similarly missing, Doubtless they have attended other briefing sessions.

The good news for Hadleigh is that we are scheduled to have 250 new dwellings with employment land over the next twenty years. This is the equivalent of one and half “Lady Lane Persimmon” developments. For Babergh as a whole 2,500 homes are planned. There are also windfall completions which for the whole of Babergh have averaged 120 homes a year over the last five years. Windfall sites are those housing developments which have not been specifically identified as available or suitable and allocated in the planning process.  They will however count towards fulfillment of the 2,500 target. The new houses in Hadleigh are to be built towards the East (see map) – thus negating the idea that we must have a supermarket adjoining the town centre. Let’s hope the plan will allow for mixed retail/residential development, which was not the case for the  “Lady Lane Persimmon” development.

BDF District Map