Maureen Fearn – 90 and still going strong

My friend and former fellow Sefton Borough councillor Maureen Fearn celebrated her 90th birthday today and we had a little party in Prezzo Southport to mark the occasion.

Maureen is 2nd from the left.

I blogged about Maureen (and her Brother-in-Law Ronnie) a while back and here’s a link back to that previous posting from March 2016 as they were both retiring from Sefton Council:-

tonyrobertson.mycouncillor.org.uk/2016/03/26/tribute-to-ronnie-and-maureen-fearn-on-their-retirement-from-sefton-council/

Maureen was first elected to the old Southport Borough Council in 1971 and as noted in my previous posting she retired from Sefton Borough Council in May 2016. Over the years she has spent many hours fundraising for the Mayor of Sefton’s charity and she still does.

If we are all as fit and active as Maureen at the age of 90 life will be good indeed.

Happy Birthday Maureen

Click on the photo to enlarge it

Aintree – Removal of Copy Lane Cheshire Lines railway bridge

I came across this photo (see below) on the Mersey Railways group of Facebook and it is credited to Phil Hughes:-

At this point the Southport & Cheshire Lines Extension Railway and the Liverpool – Ormskirk – Preston Line paralleled each other between Aintree and Old Roan Stations. The other line can be seen behind the crane removing the Cheshire Lines bridge.

What I don’t know is the date when the bridge was removed – 1960’s?

Click on the photo to enlarge it

MP’s – We need to stop putting them on pedestal and on high wages/expenses

I was taken by this article about how the political system works in Sweden (see link below) as it fits well with my own views about how we in the UK pour far too much money into our MP’s pockets!

mg.co.za/article/2019-05-31-00-no-perks-for-swedish-mps#.XPbvIy6QNco.twitter

We have in effect put MP’s on a pedestal and made them a political elite disconnected from our real world. In turn this has created professional politicians with a sense of entitlement who govern in the interests of their political parties rather than the interests of the UK.

Despite all the hype around the MP’s expenses scandal of a few years ago little has actually changed – they’re paid too much, allowed to claim too much in expenses, have far too may assistants paid for by the public purse.

Unless we learn from the likes of Sweden we will continue to governed poorly and expensively.

Sefton Council – Draft Strategic Housing Market Assessment Update 2019

The draft report, which is available for comment, is on Sefton Council’s website – see link below:-

www.sefton.gov.uk/shma

This is the general comment I have made in response to the draft assessment:-

I remain concerned that Sefton is not targeting sufficient social housing, single level housing for the elderly/those with disabilities and 1 and 2 bedroomed properties in general both social housing and the ordinary housing market.

At the same time the Council is pursuing building on Green Belt/high grade agricultural land whilst not achieving sufficient housing in the categories I have mentioned above. It is bad enough losing high grade agricultural land to development but doing so whilst not addressing actual housing need in the Borough is particularity upsetting.

I remain far from convinced that building more 3, 4 and 5 bedroomed properties for the normal housing market will in any meaningful way meet actual housing need.

If you wish to comment you can do so by e-mailing this address:-

local.plan@sefton.gov.uk

Downholland – Vandalised canal bridge is reopened

So pleased to see that the Canal and River Trust has managed to replace the vandalised electronic control cabin of Coxhead/Rimmer’s swing bridge on Eagar Lane/Greens Lane Downholland on the Leeds Liverpool Canal.

C&RT staff were testing it this morning and all was looking good, what’s more it seems the Police have the culprits on CCTV so I was told.

New electrical control cabin at Coxhead swing bridge