A Little Bit of Good News

This morning I was again at our new Outdoor shop in Portrack, this time to exchange something bought by someone else earlier in the week. Putting the exchange through the till was a procedure for which the member of staff on the till hadn't yet been trained so took longer than it might have done and provided an opportunity for conversation with her and a more experienced member of staff who came along to help her when she got stuck. It turned out that they were both unemployed when the store had advertised for staff - one from Woolwoths and one from a non-retail job. They were both enormously pleased to have their jobs, were enjoying the work and were very happy that Go Outdoors had opened. The ex-Woolworths employee was an excellent teacher and took the opportunity of relaxed customers and a relatively quiet midweek morning to make the transaction a proper and enjoyable learning experience for the older lady. Now that's what I call regeneration - never mind the buildings, think about the people.
At this evening's Parish council meeting the news about the successful bid for Playbuilder funding for St Margaret's Play area was announced and at last I was released from my promise of secrecy made a fortnight ago. The Recreation committee will meet after Easter with officers of Stockton Borough Council and plan the way ahead for the project. Great news after a year of delays and disappointments.
Unfortunately, though not entirely unexpectedly, Amberley Way wasn't considered to be within the criteria for Play Builder funding so we need to look at what we can do there with the funding we have available. Probably quite a bit, but over a longer time frame and without the input of experts on the site plans.

Setting Priorities

A big meeting of all the "partners" and "stakeholders" of Stockton Renaissance to propose priorities for our local plan for the borough last week. This is hugely important and very difficult for most people to influence, but I tried to do my bit. One of the areas of debate was employment, with lots of work going on (funded mainly by central government grants) to get into employment those few hundred people who are unwilling or unable to get a job without a lot of help. This ranges from people with disabilities who need help to convince an employer that, for example, just because their legs don't work as well as most doesn't mean their arms or their brains don't right through to those who've grown up surrounded by unemployment and don't see any prospect for change. I tried to get something in about an employment issue that's been brought to my attention in Eaglescliffe - that of young people who want to work and have the qualifications but then can't get a job in this area because the jobs available don't use their qualifications. I'd like to see more of a drive to get more high skill jobs into the borough but we shall see whether anything is done. All the regeneration of buildings is fine, but if we don't regenerate the communities too we'll be back to square one in no time.
Meanwhile thanks to those of you who responded to the questionnaire on this site on affordable housing in Eaglescliffe - a pretty even split of opinion showed up.