I am trying to resist the temptation to write about the weather, but really nothing much else is happening here. Today I decided to spend the day at home reviewing a huge pile of HR policies instead of walking either one mile or five miles to work (depending on whether the buses are running). I haven’t even set foot outside, although the kids have been all over the place. Frankie and Charlie are making an igloo in their back garden and Chrystal is going over to help now.
It is not just me having nothing to say or write about apart from the weather though.  One of the RSS feeds I follow is the Horsham local paper. This is what the feed currently looks like:
- Snow: school closures Friday – updated
- Real-life man of snow
- Snow: school closures Friday
- Snow: care workers pull out all the stops – audio
- Snow: county council extra workers drafted in – audio
- Fallen tree blocks Cowfold road
- Horsham (Aus) 40 degrees; Horsham (UK) -4 degrees
- Snow: 1,000 999 calls in 24 hours
- Snow: Thursday – ice creates major problems; schools closed
- Horsham recycling and rubbish collections suspended [because of the snow]
- Snow: county warning to drivers
- Snow: school closures for Thursday – update
- Snow: police report no major incidents
- Snow: Warnham hit by power failure
- Snow: advice for safer driving
- Snow: audio – county has enough grit
- Snow: latest disruption
- SNOW: pictures of obstacles
- Snow: more snow at weekend
- Snow: delays and cancellations to transport
- Send us your snow photos
- Snow: schools shut across county
- Snow: traffic chaos in Horsham district
- Snow: schools gear up for closures
- Snow: Gatwick Airport runway closed Tuesday night
- Snow hits Horsham
- Snow: police warn motorists
- County council prepares for the snow
- Snow: latest Met Office forecast
That’s right – of the last 29 entries, going back to Jan 5th, 28 relate to the weather – unless the Cowfold Road tree fell because of the weight of snow, in which case nothing at all has happened in the whole of Horsham that is not related to the weather!
Ironically, the printed version is due out tomorrow morning and I will probably be unable to get it at my local shops… because of show disrupting the deliveries.
Number 28 amused me. My first thought was that they must have prepared by panic-buying bread, bog rolls and tinned food for their homes, because the state of the roads in Broadfield doesn’t provide much evidence of anything more practical than that.
The story itself says that “gritters will be working round the clock as part of the effort to keep major A and B road routes open” so presumably Tollgate Hill is not a major B road route, despite being the route lorries use to deliver food to Morrisons and Iceland at the Barton.
It also says that they were “preparing to distribute salt in hippo bags to around 100 key locations for hand spreading. These will mainly be shopping precincts and hilly areas“. Obviously, and despite the clue in the name, the Tollgate Hill area is not hilly and our local shopping precinct is not a shopping precinct.  That is a pity because delivering these hippo bags sounds like a really good idea and full marks to WSCC for coming up with it.
Maybe the overall picture for the county is as rosy as it is painted but, yet again, the north of the county is very much the poor relation, and within that area Broadfield seems to get the lowest priority. I am reminded of that line from The Commitments where Jimmy says:
The Irish are the blacks of Europe. And Dubliners are the blacks of Ireland. And the Northside Dubliners are the blacks of Dublin. So say it once, say it loud: I’m black and I’m proud.
We should adapt that for Broadfield!
Broadfield seems to be a target of a lot of snobbery. I always note that it’s basically what Maidenbower could turn into in 20 years’ time.
Dividing Broadfield into North & South makes foe “snobbery” – The English make class a subtle art form.
To me, it’s simply a weapon of ontrol by the powers-that-be to keep the rabble in line & obedient.
WSCC has done it with Ifield East & Ifield West.
Of course, my comment above is completely itrelevant to the subject topic ……or is it ?
Perhaps the ‘powers-that-be’ in Chichester calculate they will get less powerful aggro from the obedient rabble in Broadfield – except it’s local opposition politicians – compared to the more powerful aggro from an elite rabble in Arundel.
Simply the Law of Natural Selection at work in County Hall – Social Darwinism.
Look after the county’s ‘pedigree’ first, and the ‘runts’ of Crawley can go hang.
aksherly, dividing Broadfield into North and South was done by Crawley, not West Sussex, and it was only because it had grown too large to be a single 3-councillor ward.
The division itself was pretty arbitrary, and based on using as many main roads as possible. It certainly wasn’t about setting one bit up as ‘better’ than the other.
Although obviously my bit *is* better 🙂
Then Crawley Council was more stupidly naive than I thought….
The decision was actually made by the boundaries commission wasn’t it? Although CBC was obviously consulted the BC get the final say.
It was the right decision though. I was a Broadfield councillor at the time and the area had far too many residents for 3 councillors, especially when a high proportion of social housing = more housing casework which is the most time-consuming.
Even when it was a single ward we unofficially took the lead on different areas, with us letting Brian handle a lot of issues in what now B North.
CBC, WSCC, BC or Micky Mouse – it makes little to no difference who split Broadfield.
The net effect, I would argue, is that it plays into the hands of the powers-that-be, who capitalise on people’s working class snobbery for their own political ends – control.
And the powers-that-be have half-succeeded – Broadfield North (?) is now Tory-controlled – the snobby end who can look down their noses at the plebs in Broadfield South 😉
And it only matters to those who live in Broadfield – and politicians & estate agents.
The rest of Crawley (& Beyond) don’t give a toss.
John Lennon had it sussed :
As soon as you’re born they make you feel small,
By giving you no time instead of it all,
Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all,
A working class hero is something to be,
A working class hero is something to be.
They hurt you at home and they hit you at school,
They hate you if you’re clever and they despise a fool,
Till you’re so fucking crazy you can’t follow their rules,
A working class hero is something to be,
A working class hero is something to be.
When they’ve tortured and scared you for twenty-odd years,
Then they expect you to pick a career,
When you can’t really function you’re so full of fear,
A working class hero is something to be,
A working class hero is something to be.
Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV,
And you think you’re so clever and classless and free,
But you’re still fucking peasants as far as I can see,
A working class hero is something to be,
A working class hero is something to be.
There’s room at the top they are telling you still,
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill,
If you want to be like the folks on the hill,
A working class hero is something to be.
A working class hero is something to be.
If you want to be a hero well just follow me,
If you want to be a hero well just follow me.
What rubbish.
Broadfield is only split for administrative purposes as it grew – like how Maidenbower split from Furnace Green when the estate grew too large. Those of us who live here don’t think that we live in BS or BN – it is just Broadfield.
As for BN being the ‘snobby end’… it sounds like you haven’t been to Broadfield much.
And the political state is not how you say either. The South has 2 Tories and the North has 1 Tory and 1 Labour – not that local councillors ‘control’ a ward anyway. Bewbush is still 100% Labour but very much Tory-controlled.
You might as well accuse the Post Office of being an agent of divide-and-rule by using more than one postcode within the borough.
Estate agents don’t pay any attention to whether something is Broadfield South or North – they are too busy trying to find terms that don’t mention the B word at all by calling areas things like Tollgate Hill, Cottesmore, or whatever.
“Rubbish” it may be in Broadfield – although methinks you protesteth too much – but it’s not “rubbish” in Ifield – where WSCC/BC succeeded in dividing it up into “West” and “East” – thus securing a Tory victory by toppling the Labour veteran John Mortimer.
We will know when we’re completely insane when Streatham will be re-named St. Reatham !