June 2016

Tiny New Zealand town with ‘too many jobs’ launches drive to recruit outsiders

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This is an uncommon but not completely unknown phenomenon in England. I have been working with a former RAF Base now largely an industrial centre but with very little integration between its residents and its businesses. If you would like to know more drop me an email. In the meantime this article tells us:

A tiny New Zealand town has a unique problem – too many jobs, too many affordable houses and not enough people to fill them.

So the 800 residents of picturesque Kaitangata, on the South Island, have launched a recruitment drive to lure new residents to the town.

The scheme involves offering house and land packages in the rural community for an attractive NZ$230,000 (£122,000) in the hope that Kiwis struggling with life in big cities will be tempted to relocate.

Bryan Cadogan, mayor of the Clutha district, which includes Kaitangata, estimates there are upwards of 1,000 jobs vacant in his district and local residents are unable to meet demand.

He said: “When I was unemployed and had a family to feed, the Clutha gave me a chance, and now we want to offer that opportunity to other Kiwi families who might be struggling.

“We have got youth unemployment down to two. Not 2% – just two unemployed young people.”

The major employers in the Clutha distract are linked to primary industries – including a dairy processing plant and freezing works – and for many years they have been forced to bus in workers from the provincial hub of Dunedin, which is over an hour away.

Trust in charities at record low after scandals

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Charities have become increasingly important organisations in terms of underpinning social provision with the shrinking of the state. In our rush to apply private sector principles of efficiency and competition to the sector in order to “professionalise” it we seem to have forgotten something fundamental about the core rationale for the concept of charity. I wonder if smaller charities with neighbourhood/village foci, mutuals and cooperatives might not become increasingly popular in the light of the issues highlighted in the article below. They appeal to me on the basis of their local and highly accountable structures. I have learnt through years in local government that the closer to the punter we are the more “real” we have to be and ultimately the more good we can do. This is important because without some form of alternative social provision to the big or little state many rural communities face a significant and potentially worsening service deficit. The article itself tells us:

Public trust in charities in England and Wales has fallen to the lowest recorded level since monitoring began in 2005, in the wake of a series of high-profile scandals.

Research for the Charity Commission found that people were increasingly concerned about how charities spend their money and perceived aggressive fundraising techniques.

The main reason given for trusting charities less, cited by 33% of people questioned, was media coverage. Stories to have hit the headlines since the last survey, two years ago, include the collapse of Kid’s Company amid allegations of financial mismanagement, and the suicide of Olive Cooke, believed to have received almost 3,000 mailings from charities in a year.

Another controversy concerned Age UK’s deal to help market an E.ON energy tariff to older people, for which it received £6m in commission.

Such stories have contributed to charities’ trust rating declining to 57%, from 67% in 2014.

How community currencies could help rebalance our economy

In the second story about truly local solutions to global problems and as a fan of local action I bring you this article celebrating the growth and development of local currencies. The movement has now gathered enough momentum that it is considerably more credible than of yore. It has much to offer smaller towns and their hinterlands keen to maintain their independent character. I was in Amble in Northumberland earlier this week and walking up and down the High Street and looking at the local fish landed there my creative currency juices were running high. There are many places like this which are ripe for such developments.

Community currencies are a window into a possible future. The model is practical, not theoretical. It has shown its usefulness in many places. And it has now reached a point where it deserves to be much more widely known.

Community currencies have been with us for decades, even centuries. They are reminders that there is no God-given law stating that only governments or central banks can create monies (even though they do reserve themselves unique powers over what counts as a money). Throughout history different kinds of money have been created, sometimes by communities, sometimes by companies and sometimes by local governments. Their aim has been to connect different kinds of supply – of time, work or things – to otherwise unmet demands or needs.

There are now thousands of examples globally. Many have thrived when the mainstream economy contracted, as happened in Argentina in the early 2000s or Greece in this decade. Others have appeared in the UK, like the Brixton and Bristol pounds. But there are also many examples in countries such as Germany where they have become an expression of community spirit.

Some of these currencies are explicitly about time. They allow us to exchange hours of our time with others. At their best they work by formally valuing things that the mainstream economy finds hard to understand. That might be the time and skill to care for someone; to cook; or to fix things.

The biggest community currency in the UK is Spice Time Credits. The scheme swaps one hour’s volunteering in the community for a time credit for each hour given. The credits can be spent on a range of community, cultural and leisure activities locally. They can also be spent across the national network of organisations that are currently participating in the programme.

This model has already reached tens of thousands of people with well over 1,000 organisations as partners, as shown in their new report, Positive Change in Challenging Times. From quiet beginnings in the Welsh valleys Spice has also shown that it can be effective in addressing many different types of need, from eldercare and schools to drugs and alcohol misuse.

University of food awards ‘Nobel prize for chefs’

Years ago when the RDAs were first invented Derek Map who led the East Midlands one wanted to develop a University of Food to support the rural economy. For a whole range of bureaucratic reasons he wasn’t allowed to call it that. The potency of the idea gradually ebbed away, which was a shame because the production of food can be an impetus for much in terms of rural economic development stretching from primary production to tourism. This article shows that the idea is alive and kicking elsewhere and has the potential to do some real good.

An innovative prize for food that does good as well as tastes good is to be awarded by what must be one of the world’s most distinctive universities.

This prize for a chef, worth 100,000 euros (£77,000), has been likened to a Nobel prize for food, as it judges the creators of food in terms of how their work has improved society.

The Basque Culinary World Prize is the brainchild of the Basque Culinary Center, which has the unusual distinction of being a university entirely dedicated to food.

The university, in a building that looks like a stack of white plates, is in San Sebastian, in the Basque region on the north coast of Spain.

Heston Blumenthal is part of the international judging panel and he says the idea is to recognise chefs who are “striving to improve society through gastronomy”.

Wealthy residents under suspicion as two 30ft trees spoiling sea view in Bournemouth are injected with poison

This article reminds us of the extreme things seemingly normal people will do when they have their own challenged agenda. I remember tales of a policeman being behind local vandalism in response to a plan to introduce affordable housing into a village he lived in. It all makes me think about the challenges facing local authorities at all levels in seeking to harness local democracy and good sense in the interests of local services around themes such as neighbourhood planning. The article tells us:

An investigation has been launched after two mature trees were drilled into and poisoned in an attack believed to have been committed by a homeowner in order to improve their sea view.

Residents in the picturesque West Cliff area of Bournemouth, Dorset, were furious after they discovered the sophisticated attempt to kill off the pair of 30ft Scots pines.

They believe the trees have been deliberately poisoned so they will have to be felled, giving a better view of Poole Bay from luxury flats overlooking the cliff and leading to a potential increase in property values.

Council officials are now investigating the criminal damage, which has involved someone making numerous drill holes deep into the trunks of the two trees to pour in poisonous chemicals.

Boa constrictor rescued from gas fire in Gainsborough

A bit of light relief from my neck of the woods:

An 8ft (2.4m) long snake got itself into trouble after curling up inside a gas fire and getting trapped.

Billy the boa constrictor was roaming around its owner’s living room in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, when it found its way into the heater.

Firefighters had to be called to rescue the pet, who was agitated but not hurt.

The service tweeted: “Not every day you go to a snake rescue! But Billy the boa constrictor needed some help to get out of this tight spot.”

Billy’s owner, Jane Boor, said “[Billy is] pure muscle – very, very strong and I was frantically holding on to him because I didn’t know the chimney was blocked up.

“I had terrible visions of him disappearing up the chimney.”

UK gun licence changes ‘place undue burden on GPs’

Here’s a non Brexit debate story to start us off – don’t be fooled about the rest of our content this week (at least in part) though…

Do we really want to put more pressure on our precious rural GPs – the answer is YES in terms of the stuff set out in this article:

Hard-pressed GPs lack the resources to deal with new firearm licensing arrangements designed to keep guns out of the hands of those medically unfit to have access to them, doctors have warned.

The British Medical Association annual conference in Belfast on Wednesday comfortably passed a motion expressing its concerns over the changes in gun licensing introduced in April.

The motion said the changes place undue burden on practices to report on every application for a gun licence, leaves the element of discretion too broad in reporting depression, and places the GP in the vulnerable position of having to decide when to report any deterioration in the health of a patient flagged on their notes as a firearms holder. The question of whether to charge a fee for the service is also an issue.

NFU calls emergency post-EU referendum meeting

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Mark my words post Friday, whichever way the vote goes those risk averse civil servants will be reaching for the pause button! This story tells us:

Industry leaders are seeking urgent meetings with Defra ministers and other government officials to address vital farming issues once the EU referendum is over.

NFU president Meurig Raymond said farmers were losing out because politicians had left important agricultural issues on the back burner for almost three months, while they have fought over the UK’s future relationship with Europe.

Such is the level of concern that the NFU has convened an emergency meeting of its 90-strong leadership council in central London a week on Friday (1 July) – just 10 days after the union’s regular quarterly council meeting held earlier this week.

Speaking the day before the EU referendum, Mr Raymond said: “The government hasn’t functioned properly for the past few months while the referendum debate has taken place. We need urgent decisions to be made across a number of big areas.”

Unresolved issues include the lack of a promised 25-year government strategy for the UK farming industry, slow progress in the battle against bovine TB, ongoing problems with basic payments and the threatened withdrawal of agrochemicals.

 

EU referendum: The map that shows where Brexit voters live

I have hesitated in saying anything about Brexit. On the eve of the biggest decision in the UK for 43 years here’s an interesting map!!

A new map compiled by pollsters show the stark geographic divide between people wanting to leave the European Union and people wanting to remain.

Data from YouGov put into map format shows Scotland, London, and other urban areas like Manchester and Brighton solidly backing Remain.

Rural areas, particularly in the East of England and Midlands, tend to support Leave.

Southern trains facing disruption after 24-hour strike

Rail is still the lifeline of many rural small towns up and down the country from Kemble to Morpeth. This latest post Bob Crowe industrial action shows that the RMT is still fully capable of disrupting this aspect of their functionality. This story tells us:

Rail passengers are still facing disruption on some Southern services following a 24-hour strike which saw nearly 900 trains cancelled.

The company said train crew shortages and trains out of normal positions were causing delays and cancellations.

RMT union members walked out over the introduction of driver-only trains and a change in the role of conductors.

More than 10,000 people have signed a petition calling for Southern’s owner Govia to be stripped of the contract.

Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) took over the franchise in July 2015.

Southern said it was running a normal timetable on Wednesday, but some services would have fewer carriages.

However, passengers still frustrated by the ongoing disruption took to social media to complain.

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