It was really great to see John Reid – Secretary of State for Health in the ward on Thurdsay. He took time off from the Labour Party Conference, to come over and open a building on the Marlborough Site which now houses two new surgeries, a pharmacy and 40 extra care flats for elderly people.

It is worth remembering that this site was another of those which former Liberal Democrat councillors fought against redeveloping. Through their active involvement in preservation groups they ended up dragging the chief executive of the council through the high court, and costing council tax payers considerable amounts of money before building could begin (see press release). This is the kind of knee-jerk proffice:smarttags" />test which Libdems are now repeating in building programmes all around the town in opposition to regeneration proposals.

There is also a corker of an article in this weeks Hastings Observer, where Dave has a good old go at the evil council who are the censoring ‘big bullies’ who took most of his text off the council website. Some would say that this was because he was getting the council tax to fund the hosting of dodgy copy but Dave is not for turning.

Does anyone think I should invite him to set up a 20six?

Last night was a Hastings cabinet meeting, where the first item was a presentation about the future of the fishing industry given by  Nautilus Consultants

While the direct impact of fishing is relatively small in terms of the economic turnover of the town its spin-offs are massive. The real value of the Nautilus study is that it contextualised the future of the fishing industry within the future development of the town. So the presentation was quite thought provolking, covering how the industry can both make itself more economically effective while also contributing to a host of other activities such as tourism, the restaurant industry, education and job creation.

I don’t think its ever been looked at that closely, but I wouldn’t mind betting that the small collection of beach landing boats and fish market also has a huge impact on the DFLs (down from London) who are now making decisions about where to relocate when cashing in on high house prices in other parts of the south-east.

Anyway, if you want to read the report, its here

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Rather less accessible was a report on whats described as the area investment framework. (what needs to be done and where are the gaps which need cash to make the area work). The purpose of this was to review work in progress and approve the Council’s delivery of projects covering:

Creating construction industry employment opportunities for local residents

Fishing industry development worker – to establish new markets for catch and employment opportunities

Ways to increase the number of town centre visitors who play a part in the evening economy.

I never wrote anything about my visit to ffice:smarttags" />Brighton last Wednesday - when I had kindly been given a guest pass to attend the Labour Party conference.

Being a bit of a free spirit, I used the time to graze a selection of stalls plus fringe and campaign meetings instead of doing the big auditorium thing.

It may sound a bit sacrilegious but as I get older time becomes more valuable and I find myself asking 'what will change as a result of what I do?' As far as big speeches are concerned I now agree with my elderly mother, who always said ‘why go to stuff you can see on the telly’. Mind you I don’t think she ever really appreciated the thrill of mass events and that sense of collective purpose, but as a result of such wisdom in my formative years, it now feel far more comfortable honing skills and knowledge at campaign workshops than watching headline speakers in big auditoriums.

I’m off to meet the Director of Hastings Age Concern in about half an hour. We have agreed to go to one of those healthy places on the sea front, which serve bean sprouts and a range of different pulse vegetable slurry dishes.

Age Concern have been working with the council to develop an older peoples forum recently. I am a big fan of this move, particularly because it helps give voice to another ‘community of identity’ and so gives some balance to the priorities which come from ‘communities of location’.

I have also just emailed one of our policy officers some information about councillor skill sets to try and popularise the view that councillors are made rather than born to the task.

This is the first meeting of the seniors forum in Hastings. All sorts of people are senior citizens and all sorts of subjects are senior issues - did you know Mick Jagger was on the front of Saga Magazine last year?

Next week is Hastings week

Anyway, the big thing for most folk is the bonfire procession which is BIG (have a look at the slides to give you an idea of how big). Not having lived here all my life I have to say that the bonfire tradition in Sussex seems a very odd affair. All through October and November village bonfire societies turn up in each other’s towns, dressed up as Vikings, characters from the American civil war, or roman soldiers in a mixture of role play and fudal rivalry. A sort of wanna be pageant with flaming torches – its amazing and well worth seeing for real.

ed:Tradition states that Papa Lazarous from League of Gentleman always lights the fire (see slide 24)

http://www.jungle.mcmail.com/league/league2.htm