Living near the West End of Morecambe and interacting with different people I some times I often hear rumours. The latest was that there wasn't enough money to do any work to Bold Street. I can't believe that that is true. Quite frankly that street is a mess.
However the good news is that some funds have been allocated. £3,060,000 to be precise.
This is what John Prescott's underling, Yvette Cooper had to say when Geraldine Smith asked the question "How much?".
"The Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) has made available £60,000 for a feasibility study into the establishment of an arts/creative industry campus in the West End by St. Martin's College. NWDA will also consider investing up to £3 million from 2006–07 onwards in projects that will encourage the growth and establishment of businesses in the area. This is subject to satisfactory progress implementing the masterplan, the completion of NWDA's appraisal and approval processes and the availability of resources."
There is more money allocated for the longer term:
In total, English Partnerships plan to invest up to £7 million in the West End of Morecambe in support of the masterplan.
It doesn't tell us that they are going to work on Bold Street or not, but I suspect that it is just a rumour.
Geraldine asked more questions of the government, which you can read for yourself at her profile on theyworkforyou.com which is
here.
Andy Rourke
I was taking the train from Lancaster to Rugby last week so I could go to a "Baptist Bash". That is where I was last week, in case you wondered. The train was full, crowded and not a particularly jolly experience. I noticed a man dressed in black and carrying a guitar case get on. He looked like a bass player, and I wondered if my suspicions were correct.
We both got up to get off at Rugby and were stood waiting for the train to come into the station. I seized my chance to confirm or destroy my stereotypes. He was a bass player and he said his name, though I forget it now, and that he used to be the Bass player for The Smiths. That must make him Andy Rourke. He said he played a bit now just to pay the rent.
If I had been fast enough thinking, which I am not, I would have come up with a load of questions.
I was doing my usual start of the week rituals, which involve checking my e.mail and scanning my RSS feeds for anything interesting (my rss feeds are listed in my
blogroll) when I came accross a quiz. There are loads of these silly things, I usually ignore them because on the whole they are time wasters. I did this one because I knew it would appeal to Alice.
We visited the National Space Centre in Leicester (my home town) today.
We were sat in the cinema, which was amazing, a kind of modern
planetarium with all over video projection with surround sound. The
film was about Mars. "Mars is very inhospitable" the commentator said.
Sitting next to my mum, Isaac asked her, "How did Mars get into hospital".
Most of the time I visit the Royal Lancaster Hospital as a minister not as a patient but today things were a little different. I was in for a minor operation, the kind men with three children sometimes have, and I was very impressed with the cleanliness. The motorway had been closed
because of an
accident so the traffic through Lancaster was terrible and that meant that most of the patients had not turned up. The fact that the ward was empty may have impacted the general cleanliness! However:
* When I arrived there was a cleaner sweeping and mopping the floor.
* Each bed had a bottle of hand sanitizer on the locker.
* Every nurse had a bottle clipped to her belt.
* The consultant washed his during my consultation.
The day care ward was spotless. I mention it only because
Matt's experience when his dad was in hospital was quite different.
10:00am
I had to visit my mentor today. He has moved recently from the nearby
leafy village of Caton to the far off town of Tarporley in Cheshire.
I decided to use the train to get there. Three reasons mainly, it makes
life easy for Louise because she can have the car, it is more relaxing
and it is easier on my expenses. The rain journey cost just under 17UKP
and the car journey would have been a 150 mile round trip at 40p a mile.
The only problem is the connection times. I am going to have an hour and
a half with my mentor and I left the house this morning at 7:30 in order
to return at 5:30. I will have spent over 4 hours waiting for
connections. Never mind, it gives me time to think and write.
8:30 pm
I missed one connection on the way there, making me an hour late.
The Internet invented a train for me, so I spent half an hour waiting
for a train that was never coming and had to readjust my journey (to
real trains rather than fictitious ones).
The train in the way back got stuck behind a slow moving train, which
meant I missed my connection (again) and arrived home over 2 hours later
than planned.
I might think about a different form of transport in the future!
It seemed like there were three possible solutions to the flooding problem.
1. A Land Drain
As far as I could make out a drain would be sunk at the rear of the house and take the excess water away from the house into the main drains. The advantages of this solution would be that we could solve it from outside without having to do any work inside. The disadvantages would be that it might silt up over time and fail. There seemed to be no effective product on the market for maintaining the land drain. The other possible disadvantage would be that it might not solve our problem. If the flow of the water comes from the front of the house to the back then the water would have to flow through the kitchen before it reached the drain.
2. Tanking
Tanking seems to be a "paint the walls with bitumen" solution. The basic idea is to turn the house into a swimming pool in reverse. Its advantages are that it is cheap, but it does involve major disruption. The disadvantages are that if it get punctured, even a small hole. The water will find a way in and eventually you will be back where you started.
3. Vertical Damp Proof Membrane and Pump
This solution is to cover the walls and floor with "bobbly" plastic and have a kind of guttering that runs around the inside of the perimeter of the house. The gutter drains into a sump which contains a battery backed up pump. The pump removes any water into the drain. The internal walls are then dry lined.
We have decided on the third solution provided by Newton Membrains and installed by Robinsons Preservations Ltd. Although I am going to do much of the donkey work myself
It seemed like there were three possible solutions to the flooding problem.1. A Land DrainAs far as I could make out a drain would be sunk at the rear of the house and take the excess water away from the house into the main drains. The advantages of this solution would be that we could solve it from outside without having to do any work inside. The disadvantages would be that it might silt up over time and fail. There seemed to be no effective product on the market for maintaining the land drain. The other possible disadvantage would be that it might not solve our problem. If the flow of the water comes from the front of the house to the back then the water would have to flow through the kitchen before it reached the drain.2. TankingTanking seems to be a "paint the walls with bitumen" solution. The basic idea is to turn the house into a swimming pool in reverse. Its advantages are that it is cheap, but it does involve major disruption. The disadvantages are that if it get punctured, even a small hole. The water will find a way in and eventually you will be back where you started.3. Vertical Damp Proof Membrane and PumpThis solution is to cover the walls and floor with "bobbly" plastic and have a kind of guttering that runs around the inside of the perimeter of the house. The gutter drains into a sump which contains a battery backed up pump. The pump removes any water into the drain. The internal walls are then dry lined.We have decided on the third solution provided by Newton Membrains and installed by Robinsons Preservations Ltd. Although I am going to do much of the donkey work myself.
My 4 year old son asked my wife "Do worms have eyes?". I had no iedea if worms have eyes.
It seems that they don't have eyes but they can tell the difference between light and dark. They have things called "receptors" which can tell the difference between light and dark and can feel things.
A very handy worm site is:
http://www.zephyrus.co.uk/wormworld.htmland:
http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/newton/askasci/1993/biology/bio041.htmWhere do children get their questions from?
We bought our house in Morecambe primarily because it had plenty of space and was nicely modernised and finished. It looked like the dream home, huge rooms, finished well in exactly the spot we needed.I remember saying to someone before the surveyor went round that I didn't think that he would spot anything we had missed, the only place we had not had a thorough look was in the loft. She warned me about the dangers of pride coming before a fall. I was right though, the surveyor didn't spot anything other than a couple of cracked timbers in the loft.After we moved in though we discovered that much of the finishing was tatty. One of the showers didn't work and one of them leaked into the hall. Worst of all the damp in the basement that we knew about was caused by flooding. If it rains for three days solid, the water just pours in. You can't stop it and it takes most of the day to get on top of it. In just over a year of living in this house it has flooded three times.
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