Despite the appalling weather and conflicts with normal electioneering we had a good turnout and were able to talk to voters or deliver leaflets through doors in West Green, Ifield, Bewbush, Ifield West and Gossops Green.  We will be doing more there and also in Pound Hill South, Tilgate and the four wards in Reigate & Banstead where the BNP are standing.

The message was generally well-accepted and the response was positive.  One notable exception was an idiot in Ifield shouting something about how we need to reclaim our country and not be giving it away.  The integrity and consistency of his opinions was compromised slightly by him wearing a Chelsea shirt with ‘Vialli’ on the back.

Quite how successful Chelsea would be without their Russian owner, Israeli manager, his Portugese predecessor, and the African, Italian, German and Italian players I am not sure, but that’s another discussion all together.

Over the next few weeks  the Wealden UAF will be out and about again and if anyone is interested in coming along they should get in touch – details on the WUAF website.

The venue is the Holy Trinity School 6th form centre, Buckswood Drive, Gossops Green.

There is a slight whiff of futility about these meetings because the committee has very few powers to make decisions: it can only make recommendations or comments for the whole council to take into consideration when making the actual decisions. Added to that, the county council is Tory-dominated but the West Crawley Committee is 100% Labour – I think it is the only one in the county with more than one Labour member, as nearly all the Labour county councillors represent divisions in the West of Crawley.

Having said that, the committees were set up to solicit opinions and there is a chance that recommendations from it will be taken into account, especially if they are backed up by public opinion. Some of the agenda could be heavy going, but there are some important issues which are of particular interest to residents of this area.

The way I look at it, the county council have made an effort to set these meetings up in Crawley instead of being out of sight in Chichester, so the least we can do is try and turn up. If I did not have a previously-arranged piss-up to host I would be there myself.

Topics like the fire station, hot school meals, grant applications and the transport/highways works programmes should provide enough interest for the public, and I hope that the local papers will send someone along too. If nothing else, it is always good to see Ralph Wright from the highways department in action – he really should have been a politician instead of an officer.

The last one of these meetings I went to had very few members of the public in attendance, unless you count about 20 borough councillors. Lets see if we can get a few more this time around.

Items on the agenda include:

Update

Developments since the last meeting, including the Northern area bookbus, the fire station, and hot school meals. Only 10 minutes is allocated to this, so expect a basic update and not a major discussion.

Public Questions

Any questions – although there is a request that anyone with complex questions should submit them before the meeting to allow them to give a more substantive answer.

Highways and transport works programme

This is all about a report on the programme of works for the next two years. The committee is to respond to the report. (The actual schedule is in an appendix to the report)

Community grants

Another report, this time about applications received for community grants.
Applications have been received from:

• Chestnut Tree House
• Crawley CVS
• Crawley Audio News
• 2nd Ifield St Margaret’s Scouts
• Broadfield Youth & Community Centre
• CTL Anglican Church
• The Happy Hut Care Group

The committee will be considering each of these applications, and I think this is the bit where they actually can make a decision. The committee has a budget of £20,000 which can be allocated. Applications total £18,160 plus “a contribution” for the scouts, so they should all be OK, but I don’t know if they intend to hold onto anything for contingencies.

Minerals & waste development framework

Yet another report, this time about public consultation on the draft minerals and waste core strategy and strategic waste site allocations.

General information on county local committees can be found here, including full agendas, answers to frequently asked questions, and contact details for anyone who wants to know even more.

The youth centre at Dormans in Gossops Green does a lot of good work, and specialises in music and encouraging youngsters to learn how to play instruments, recording techniques, DJ mixing and everything to do with music.

There are two things which can put youngsters off learning an instrument. One is if their school only encourages types of music which the pupil do not find stimulating, and the other is the expense of buying an instrument just to find out if you are any good at it. Dormans Youth Centre has a selection of decent instruments for members to use and actively encourages them to be used for whatever music is wanted.

On Monday night (11th December – tomorrow) at 6:30pm they are having a concert with about half a dozen groups of local youngsters playing. Admission is two quid. There are posters up at the youth centre but I have not seen it listed on either the borough or county council websites’ ‘whats on’ listings.

If you have teenagers it might be worth getting them to go, or even going with them. Apart from being entertaining it might get them interested in learning to play themselves, especially if they have never felt the buzz of seeing music played live before.

I will see if I can persuade Charlie to go so I can go with him (I think it might be a bit naff for an adult to go on his own to a youth concert). It will be interesting to see what sort of stuff they are playing (death metal is my guess) and how well they do it. Who knows, I might even be seeing next year’s Actic Monkeys