Start & Finish

To start the week, a first …  Held a surgery in the Phoenix Centre café – this is where any resident can just turn up with an issue for the councillor then to look into on their behalf. (I have to say that it was slightly tortuous as I spent most of the time resisting the sight of watching people eat wonderfully naughty fried breakfasts!) I’m hoping this will become a good time for meeting residents – it used to be in the evening but very few came - as the café is now holding a regular LASA Credit Union collection point there every Monday morning. 

The Phoenix Centre

I may have banged on about this before but credit unions are one of those ‘best kept secrets’ which in these awful days of increasing legalised loan sharks – I personally believe they shouldn’t be allowed to advertise on TV – is a secret which ought to stop being ‘kept’!  I’ve been a member for years and still we seem to be no nearer getting the message across as to how good they are, both for people desperate for a short term loan to pay a bill, and those of us lucky enough to use it mainly as a savings account.  In other countries such as Ireland, Germany, Australia, they are as big as banks, although personally I’d rather they complemented them, rather than competed with them.  But most of all I just want people in difficult financial circumstances to know they have an alternative, and so can avoid getting into an even worse mess through having to take out loans at grotesquely inflated interest rates.

Some issues can sound very trivial.  I remember when Simon Coombes, Tory MP for Swindon, kept going on about postmen & women dropping elastic bands everywhere.  Arguably it shouldn’t be the MP who highlights this but on the other hand beneath the surface there are the bigger problems of litter and our throw-away society.  So whilst I was tempted to make light of my first photo opportunity, me standing next to the dog warden picking up dog poo, yet again this seemingly minor issue covers a multitude of others, from unsightliness to health issues.  Not so trivial after all.

And to finish the week, I now know all about being a governor – well I’ve had the training at least!  I think it can be a job in itself – a lot of information if nothing else – but when I do get really into it, I’m sure it’s going to be very rewarding.

Les