Monday 19 September 2016

Hunt The Picture

Joining in with Mum's picture scavenger hunt.


Beauty and Happiness

Year 6 Prom
Year 11 Prom


















 Laura had fun at both proms and has grown into a beautiful young lady


Inspiration


 Martin's parents, married 54 years. This was taken at their 50th celebration do with their family


Tune and Passion


 Music is Laura's passion whether listening to it or dancing to it. She did an amzing job of decorating her bedroom bedroom in music


Wonder


 Wonder what cuddles thinks of the Jamaican Turkey. They do look rather cosy


Spectacle


Kite festival at Lytham, St Annes. Big ones, small one, in the sky, on the sand and everywhere in between


Sight


I love  Cleveleys beach especially in the summer. Picture is 
of  Mary's shell


Wink


 One of Laura's art projects for her GCSE and one she is most proud of


Arrangement


 Laura sorting my twiddle muff beads

That's my lot and I hope you enjoyed it. I enjoyed looking through my old photos stored on the computer


Sunday 11 September 2016

Closures In The Community

Lancashire County Council have to make a savings of £265m over the next five years due the central government cuts and these are some of their actions.

Closing 6 museums from 30 September 2016. These are:-

The Judges Lodgings - Lancaster
Maritime Museum - Fleetwood (Run by 1 paid staff and a few volunteers and only open in the summer)
Museum of Lancashire - Preston
Textile Museum - Burnley
Helmshore Museum - Rossendale

Organisations for four of the above museums have applied to take over the running  and the council is hoping negotiations will soon end with the view to make the transfers by the end of the year. But I don't know which ones they are and it still means that two will be gone forever.

Also on the list of closures are 2 Youth Centres (1 of which is in my area), the one and only Youth Offending Centre (in my area also), old people services and diabled services.

On top of that 14 Childrens Service (once know as Sure Start) one of which is in a raural area are to close. (Luckily our one is not closing) And 40 out 74 Libraries.  The buildings that are owned by the council will be sold off. So may job losses too.

So many organisations rely on voluteers so that they can continue delivering the sevices we need. I worry what will happen when people say enough is enough and people stop vlounteering.

My local library is affected by the closure, where I go to a craft and chat group and will close at the end of September. However there is a group who are negotiating a new proposal with the county council and local council in a bit to take over the library, run it with volunteers, and bring in other agencies who will contribute to the cost of running the building and the county council will give £5,000 towards the set up costs. I'm not sure if other areas are also considering this way forward too.

A number of years ago our police station closed and the building sold off. It was knocked down and a block of flats were built in its place. Then gradually the 3 banks move out.  All the while our village (almost the size of a town) has been expanding with more and more property being build on old farm land. (Currently only 2 working farms left in the area)  Even now there are plans in with the local council to build over a 1,000 homes (with strong objections) on some farm land close to a very congested road. There are only 2 roads out of Thornton and both are congested mornings and evening and as there are so few jobs so most people have to commute.

I wonder how other councils are affected in this way and how the residents are coping?

Carolx



Farewell

I've taken some time to think this through and decided to stop blogging. I'm not getting out of it as much as I did when I first sta...