Subject: Newsletter1
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Association
of Westborough Residents |
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Monthly Newsletter Issue #1 June 2011 |
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Next meeting | Forum June 17 | AWR Minutes | NAP Minutes | Councillors reports | | Hospital Trust News |
Contacts | Sponsors
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Hi all, This is a
sample of an email newsletter we plan to send out every month to keep you all
up to date on what is happening in the ward. There will be a copy of meeting
minutes here. There will hopefully be the text of the Councillors report at
meetings, currently we have not had a reply on that from Martin Terry, and we
have not approached the other Councillors yet. We plan to approach the chair
of NAP to see if we can print their minutes here too. The whole idea of this
newsletter is to keep you all informed, one of the many gripes about the RAW
administration was that no one knew what was going on. How many of you knew
about the BIG LUNCH last month? AWR was set up shortly after the RAW
implosion during the May 2011 meeting. Several of the members of RAW got
together to plan for a democratic alternative to RAW. As you may already know
several of the RAW members were expelled by the RAW committee, these expelled
members just happened to be those setting up the alternative. AWR had several
names prior to agreeing on AWR, the names were DRAW, Democratic Residents
Association of Westborough, then WAR Westborough Association of Residents, a
pretty poor acronym on reflection, resulting in the current acronym, AWR.
Currently the unelected committee of AWR are Lydia Sookias, acting chair,
Irene Grubb, acting secretary, Dave Batter [me] website & newsletters,
Alan Grubb, & Peter Duncan dave
batter dave@aowr.org.uk |
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Next Councillors Forum 15th July 2011 Royal British Legion Westcliff Councillors poster to follow |
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Councillors Forum June
17th Martin Terry seen left, with the assistance of the
other ward councillors organised a Councillors Forum to be held in place of
the now defunct RAW meeting scheduled for June. Several items were discussed
see minutes elsewhere in this newsletter. The main outcome of the meeting was
the result of a proposal by Kevin Robinson & seconded by Alan Abbott for
the RAW management to present themselves to the next meeting which is called
as an SGM where the membership will decide on the future of RAW. This proposal
was accepted by a resounding majority of the RAW members present See minutes below dave
batter dave@aowr.org.uk |
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Councillors Forum / Association of Westborough
Residents Minutes For the 17th June 2011 In the chair
Cllr Martin Terrey, Cllr P Collins and Cllr Valmurigan Cllr Brian Efde
was also in attendance Cllr Martin
Terry said that he was going to the LGA conference with all the party leaders
its annual meeting to see what’s transpiring in other places. Budget input_
the council already knows what is happening vis-a-vis council cuts. Cllr Martin
Terry Was talking about pot holes and Cllr Brian Efde suggested the case file
approach go to the offending hole, take a photo measure and hold up an echo
with the date for verification or use a date stamped camera, So a file can be
made. Cllr Terry went
to a meeting about the police he said he did not know the numbers that the
police force was to be cut by. Someone said that they had spoken to a
fed rep and was told 400 front line officers and 800 support staff, this was
throughout Essex. 500 million has been set aside nationally The 1st
budget meeting will be on September 11th 2011 apparently there is
5.5 million set aside for redundancies Locally there
is a new parking scheme at the hospital which is going to impact on
Westborough Cllr Martin
Terry Said he has kept all the correspondence from the council. Cllr Martin
Terry Said more parking spaces are needed in Fairfax and Westbourne. The slip way on
the A road was also discussed. It was also mentioned that HGVs should have
penalties for infringement of using narrow residential streets especially in
Southbourne Grove Southend
airport was discussed Cllr Martin Terry said it was good for Southend and
employment He said we
should tempt visitors with cheap rates on transport and be good for the
Olympics. The next NAPS
meeting will be 16th August at 19.00 at St Andrews Church
Westborough Road The last
meeting there was a discussion regarding class A drugs are now freely
available in Portugal to see the impact on drug related crime. [1] Council
monitoring report we have reduced bus service. Parts of our town are without
public transport. Cllr Terry asked in the council if they thought the bus
service was fit for purpose. The council did not believe in bus
subsidies.
Cllr Paul
Collins to challenge audit commissions and to cut backs efficiencies,
including Children’s lifelong learning, and academies. Cllr Collins is
monitoring this, he is also monitoring preservation of trees, and he
discovered they were not pruned correctly before. He said the council are
planting more trees in the place of those that have been cut down. Cllr Dr Val
said he was upset that so many trees had to be cut down. It was agreed
that the new gateway project was dangerous for people and traffic. Also
that the small statue was inappropriate, it would have been better if
our statue of Queen Victoria would have been more suitable considering it was
in keeping with Southend Victoria Station. It was also
agreed City beach was equally dangerous, traffic should have a 20 mph limit
and speed cameras used. Rochford
Hospital was discussed and it was found mental health provision was
substandard and treatment was failing patients. A question was
asked how many hospital staff in Southend would be laid off. We discussed our association problems,
Kevin Robinson suggested that a letter should be written by the councillors
to the chair and secretary and the treasurer to let them know the mood of the
meeting. It was agreed to ask them to come to the next meeting, or if they
refused, to ask them to resign. There was a vote on this there was an over
whelming majority with several abstentions. It was suggested a time limit was
put on this letter. Cllr Martin Terry said he would approach the
borough solicitor for advice and to write the letter. The meeting ended at 22.00 the next meeting
will be held on the 17th July 2011 at the Royal British Legion in
North view drive. N/B the foot note is some background info on the drug situation in
Portugal are highlighted. This is additional information. [1] "Judging
by every metric, decriminalization in Portugal has been a resounding
success," says Glenn Greenwald, an attorney,
author and fluent Portuguese speaker, who conducted the research. "It
has enabled the Portuguese government to manage and control the drug problem
far better than virtually every other Western country does." Compared to the European Union and the U.S., Portugal's
drug use numbers are impressive. Following decriminalization, Portugal had
the lowest rate of lifetime marijuana use in people over 15 in the E.U.: 10%.
The most comparable figure in America is in people over 12: 39.8%.
Proportionally, more Americans have used cocaine than Portuguese have used
marijuana. The Cato paper reports that between 2001 and 2006 in
Portugal, rates of lifetime use of any illegal drug among seventh through
ninth graders fell from 14.1% to 10.6%; drug use in older teens also
declined. Lifetime heroin use among 16-to-18-year-olds fell from 2.5% to 1.8%
(although there was a slight increase in marijuana use in that age group). New
HIV infections in drug users fell by 17% between 1999 and 2003, and deaths
related to heroin and similar drugs were cut by more than half. In addition,
the number of people on methadone and buprenorphine treatment for drug
addiction rose to 14,877 from 6,040, after decriminalization, and money saved
on enforcement allowed for increased funding of drug-free treatment as well. Portugal's case study is of some interest to lawmakers
in the U.S., confronted now with the violent overflow of escalating drug gang
wars in Mexico. The U.S. has long championed a hard-line drug policy,
supporting only international agreements that enforce drug prohibition and
imposing on its citizens some of the world's harshest penalties for drug
possession and sales. Yet America has the highest rates of cocaine and
marijuana use in the world, and while most of the E.U. (including Holland)
has more liberal drug laws than the U.S., it also has less drug use. "I think we can learn that we should stop being
reflexively opposed when someone else does [decriminalize] and should take
seriously the possibility that anti-user enforcement isn't having much
influence on our drug consumption," says Mark Kleiman, author of the
forthcoming When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment
and director of the drug policy analysis program at UCLA. Kleiman does not
consider Portugal a realistic model for the U.S., however, because of
differences in size and culture between the two countries. |
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Minutes of the RAW meeting on May 20th 2011 At the Royal British Legion North view Drive At the last meeting of Westborough Residents
Association held at the Royal British Legion in North view Drive,
Westcliff-on-sea on Friday 20th May 2011, the room we use for our
group was full; it was nice to see some friends and have a chat. Most people arrived before the Chair who greeted us
most cordially from the top table as usual, the demeanour of the Secretary
was another matter. He flounced into the room taking his place at the top
table, banging everything in sight and muttered under his breath the name of
one of our members. The first part of our meeting went well though, we
had a guest speaker, Mrs Halliday, who explained the new plans for our two
local health Clinics. We then had a break and the whole tone changed. The
Chair explained there had been a problem with some members, one whom
resigned, and the other expelled. The Chair made it abundantly clear that the
top table would speak and would not allow any questions from the floor. The
members of our association listened patiently for over an hour. We are a
lively group and someone voiced the opinion that we had expected this to be
an open general meeting and as we are a democratic association all the people
should have been included and have the rite of reply. At that moment the secretary exploded with
indignation, screaming at the suggestion telling the audience to shut up, his
loud booming voice became louder and incoherent. To her credit the chair
tried to subdue him. She was unsuccessful. I am an elderly person and have
attended many meetings in my life. I have never been subjected, to such an
unnecessary tirade of verbal abuse at a meeting. I was so disgusted, I did
not wish to hear any further more violent speech; I left the premises with
great disappointment. In fact anything the secretary was explaining was
negated by his manner. Furthermore since being a member of R.A.W. I have
never heard or been privy to the minutes of the meeting, or seen them signed
off, as is the general rule. I have only recently seen a copy of the
constitution but have not seen the code of conduct, disciplinary rules or the
rite of appeal if someone is expelled. This is not my opinion of coherent or judicious way
to carry on an association such as ours and I hope this will be improved. |
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News from Southend University Hospital
Trust THE
LIST OF NEW GOVERNORS ARE:- HILARY SEAGO
–PUBLIC GOVENOR SOUTHEND GERALDINE ALWARD
- PUBLIC GOVENOR ROCHFORD ASHLEY JAYAWEERA
- PUBLIC GOVENOR CASTLE POINT COLIN PAVITT -
PUBLIC GOVENOR CASTLE POINT RE-ELECTED GOVERNORS TED LEWIN -
PUBLIC GOVENOR SOUTHEND NORA GOODMAN
–PATIENT GOVENOR SOUTHEND BOB BRADBROOK –
VOLUNTEERS WORKER SOUTHEND
All welcome but
please confirm attendance so we can cater for refreshments on arrival TELEPHONE :
FREEFONE 08000185202 |
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AWR Minutes |
News reports Echo June
2nd [the RAW implosion] |
Councillors reports To follow |
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NAP minutes To follow |
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Our sponsors, Shops who display
a poster This list does not exist yet as AWR is
not officially in existence, watch this space, Your place of business could
be listed just display a poster |
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[1] "Judging by every metric,
decriminalization in Portugal has been a resounding success," says Glenn
Greenwald, an attorney, author
and fluent Portuguese speaker, who conducted the research. "It has enabled
the Portuguese government to manage and control the drug problem far better
than virtually every other Western country does."
Compared to the
European Union and the U.S., Portugal's drug use numbers are impressive.
Following decriminalization, Portugal had the lowest rate of lifetime marijuana
use in people over 15 in the E.U.: 10%. The most comparable figure in America
is in people over 12: 39.8%. Proportionally, more Americans have used cocaine
than Portuguese have used marijuana.
The Cato paper
reports that between 2001 and 2006 in Portugal, rates of lifetime use of any
illegal drug among seventh through ninth graders fell from 14.1% to 10.6%; drug
use in older teens also declined. Lifetime heroin use among 16-to-18-year-olds
fell from 2.5% to 1.8% (although there was a slight increase in marijuana use
in that age group). New HIV infections in drug users fell by 17% between 1999
and 2003, and deaths related to heroin and similar drugs were cut by more than
half. In addition, the number of people on methadone and buprenorphine
treatment for drug addiction rose to 14,877 from 6,040, after
decriminalization, and money saved on enforcement allowed for increased funding
of drug-free treatment as well.
Portugal's case
study is of some interest to lawmakers in the U.S., confronted now with the
violent overflow of escalating drug gang wars in Mexico. The U.S. has long
championed a hard-line drug policy, supporting only international agreements
that enforce drug prohibition and imposing on its citizens some of the world's
harshest penalties for drug possession and sales. Yet America has the highest
rates of cocaine and marijuana use in the world, and while most of the E.U.
(including Holland) has more liberal drug laws than the U.S., it also has less
drug use.
"I think we
can learn that we should stop being reflexively opposed when someone else does
[decriminalize] and should take seriously the possibility that anti-user
enforcement isn't having much influence on our drug consumption," says
Mark Kleiman, author of the forthcoming When Brute Force Fails: How to Have
Less Crime and Less Punishment and director of the drug policy analysis
program at UCLA. Kleiman does not consider Portugal a realistic model for the
U.S., however, because of differences in size and culture between the two
countries.