Gary's views

Gary's weekly views

Each week an article by Gary has appeared in the Plympton Plymstock and Ivybridge News in South West Devon. The articles are published here

DRINKING

Wetherspoons have applied for planning permission for a pub/restaurant on the Ridgeway Plympton. (It could just as easily be Plymstock or Ivybridge) What should the planners do?
My feelings are mixed. On the one hand, I enjoy few things more than going for a nice meal and drink with Jan in pleasant nearby surroundings. The more choice we all have, the better; the more competition, the more standards will rise. Wetherspoons do produce some very attractive places.

But on the hand, we need another outlet for alcohol in this area like a hole in the head. We are all getting thoroughly sick of the sight of drunken youths strewn all over our street corners, being sick and making a nuisance of themselves. I exaggerate, but only slightly. So much crime is now drink (and drug) related and our hard working police officers are overwhelmed, especially at the weekends. Most of the recent evidence suggests that 24 hour drinking was a step too far. We have to get this dangerous love affair with binge drinking under control, and opening up new pubs is a strange way of doing it.

Many would argue that the real problem with alcohol abuse stems more from cheap booze at supermarkets than respectable establishments, and there is some force in that argument. Whatever the cause, we clearly have to act on this modern day scourge, especially when underage drinking is concerned, where the primary regulator must be the parents.

I worry too about the character of the Ridgeway. When we first came to Plymouth in early 1980 (symbolically in an old car that got slower and slower as we approached and expired never to go again outside the front door of our newly purchased tiny terraced house in Mutley) Mutley Plain was a decent secondary shopping area of reasonable quality, with a few quite good restaurants. Look at it now – a glorified drinking haunt for students and teenagers. I do not want our suburban shopping centres, all of which have shown signs of recent improvement, to get like that.

So the planners have a real dilemma on their hands. At the very least they will need to explore fully the likely impact on anti-social behaviour and the character of the neighbourhood before being able to agree such a dramatic change of use. The attitude of the police will be crucial. What would you do if you were a member of the planning committee?

posted by Nigel on Friday, August 24, 2007

Gary's weekly views

Each week an article by Gary has appeared in the Plympton Plymstock and Ivybridge News in South West Devon. The articles are published here

GARBAGE

Garbage in, garbage out, is the old saying now commonly applied to computerised databases – that what you get out at the other end depends on the quality of information put in.

It is the same with people. We are incredibly influenced by what we allow to enter our minds. As a teenager I used to like the 1980s poet/singer Leonard Cohen, and recently bought myself a CD to listen to him driving around in my car. But after a while his dark lyrics were beginning to get me down and affect my usually sunny personality! I now ration myself and make sure that I supplement my diet with plenty of uplifting music!

This week the media is full of yet another story of a brave man stabbed to death outside his house after tackling a gang of youths. Anti-social behaviour and violence by young people is a real menace. But consider for a moment what daily diet of cultural influences many young people receive today in this no-holds-barred world. Violent DVD games, cynical and trivial TV programmes, aggressive music, a never ending wave of rubbish filling their minds. The prevailing message is to get wasted and have a good time. Alcohol and drug addiction continue to soar. Garbage in. Is it any wonder that we are getting garbage out?

The Home Affairs Select Committee on which I sit recently looked at why young black men are disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system. Naturally there are complex causes, but several witnesses spoke about the destructive influence of rap music filling these minds with hateful lyrics. It is the same for all ethnicities and cultures; you will get out what you put in.

We are in danger of breeding a generation of whom a significant minority have no respect for anybody else, are cynical, hopeless and aggressive.

There have always been seditious influences in our society and sometimes governments ban them or regulate access to them. The major difference today is the Internet. Everything is within reach of today’s youngsters, without limit or censor and at an increasingly young age. This has never happened before in history. Who now can regulate what influences are brought to bear on this next generation?

As ever, the burden must fall on parents and schools, but their job is getting harder by the year the garbage piles up waiting to be downloaded at the click of a button. What do you think?

posted by Nigel on Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Gary's weekly views

Each week an article by Gary has appeared in the Plympton Plymstock and Ivybridge News in South West Devon. The articles are published here

SHERFORD AGAIN

So now we know. The new town at Sherford will be on the site earmarked for it by the South Hams council, not the last minute Co-op option. An independent planning inspector has so decided.


To recap: few of us wanted this new settlement and campaigned against it; it has been forced on us by government. Councillors in Totnes had no choice but to provide for it in their local plan and Plymouth had no choice but to deal with the transport implications in their own plan. Vigorous campaigns were fought by local groups and councillors all trying to persuade the decision makers that the settlement should be shifted somewhere else. Battle lines were drawn and everybody had their say.


That is now all over. The law of the land is that the inspector’s decision is binding. Unless the Co-op can persuade a court that the process of making this decision was somehow flawed, the matter is now resolved. The South Hams Council has no choice but to approve this plan at its next meeting. Plymouth Council has no choice but to adopt this plan at its next full council on 6th August 2007.


What would happen if they did not approve it? The government would intervene to make it happen anyway and the local council tax payers would be saddled with hundreds of thousands of pounds of extra costs, all to no avail. No thank you.


None of us wanted it, we fought a good fight, but it is over. I congratulate all those who fought so hard.


Now we must work with the planners and the developers and local community groups to make it the best new town in the history of the British Isles and to ensure that impact on existing communities is minimised, especially traffic.


That is what I and local councillors will be doing from now on. Now the hard work starts. There is some wriggle room on the precise location of the road from Sherford to the A379 and we will seek to make sure the voice of local people is heard. We will do our utmost to protect St Maurice from unwanted traffic. We will make sure the transport links suit local people.


We must make sure that the affordable housing on site – to buy and to rent – is available primarily to our local youngsters who cannot afford today’s house prices. This cloud may have a silver lining yet.

posted by Nigel on Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Gary's weekly views

Each week an article by Gary has appeared in the Plympton Plymstock and Ivybridge News in South West Devon. The articles are published here

FOOT AND MOUTH

Only last week I sat in an old barn flanked by local farmers on all sides and listened as the deputy president of the National farmers Union gave an update on the state of their industry. For the first time in years, it contained glimmers of hope; the supermarkets were getting worried about lack of supply and were beginning to increase their prices to British farmers; concern about environmental sustainability meant it suddenly made more sense to source locally, rather than flying the same thing in from New Zealand; there was a new dynamic in the industry that suggested better times lay ahead. Farmers never smile, but I could see the frowns reducing. That was Wednesday

Late on Thursday night news of the outbreak of foot and mouth in Surrey began to break. And with it the hearts of farmers everywhere. Just when the industry was beginning to get into its stride once again, this massive blow strikes from nowhere. For me it brought images from the early sixties, dipping our shoes in disinfectant at the top of the farm lane on the way home from school.

Hopefully, this outbreak will be short-lived and contained to those immediately alongside government and private bio- lab facilities. Hopefully, the nationwide ban on transport can be lifted before too long. Hopefully, our friends in the EU, always so ready to help, will be persuaded to lift the export ban instantly the all clear is sounded. Hopefully such a preventable escape of this virulent virus will never happen again.

In the meantime what can we all do to help? Although farming contributes only 1% of national income, in this region it underpins our rural economy and preserves the countryside for us all to enjoy. It is vital for all of us that agriculture prospers. We can continue to use the countryside this year and support the many rural businesses that rely on a very short season. We can continue to buy and eat meat, and apply as much pressure as possible on supermarkets to continue the trend to source their products locally. We can frequent butchers and farm shops wherever possible.

In times of global uncertainty, when all kinds of events could disrupt the fetching and carrying of food supplies around the world, home grown food supplies are vital. Let us hope that this week’s news will shortly be tomorrow’s fish (locally caught) and chip (potatoes locally grown) paper.

posted by Nigel on Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Gary's weekly views

Each week an article by Gary has appeared in the Plympton Plymstock and Ivybridge News in South West Devon. The articles are published here

FLOODING

Just a few days ago, I thought my summer project might be to build an ark in my garden. Then the sun broke through once more and my plans have been shelved. As the muddy waters recede in Gloucestershire and people get back to normal, it is worth reflecting on the lessons to be learned.

Is something happening to our weather patterns? Undeniably yes. Climate change is real. It is clear that climate change has been going on, up and down, wet and dry, hot and cold for thousands of years. Rainfall patterns seem particularly violent right now. Is it being caused by mankind’s activity? Because it has always happened, we can only partially answer that with a yes, but pumping out all of those greenhouse gasses in the past one hundred years has to be contributing to global warming. We need to do all we can to address that.

In the meantime what can we do to reduce risk? The first lesson learnt from Gloucester is that we have to be better at protecting infrastructure – water and sewage treatment plants and electricity stations. It is bad enough being flooded out, but being without power or clean water takes it to a different scale.

Secondly we really do have to stop building on flood plains unless the systems put in actually decrease the water run off problem rather than exacerbating it. Perhaps we should also insist on gravel hard standings for cars rather than solid material. Water has got to go somewhere and if we allow everywhere to be plastered with tarmac and concrete, the escape options are dramatically reduced.

Finally, we clearly have to make action on flooding a greater priority for both local and national government. There are only limited resources, but I would like to see money directed away from some of the more fanciful functions performed by our state towards both prevention and action on flooding. We have regular problems in Plympton Plymstock and Ivybridge that would benefit from greater investment.

I also wonder whether, when we have a national emergency, we should have flexibility in our international aid budget to divert some of that cash towards our own people. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for investing wisely in the developing world, but I don’t think we could be criticised for making sure that home base is secure when disaster strikes. Probably get hammered for that idea.

posted by Nigel on Friday, August 03, 2007