East Lindsey Car Parking - Back To Unfairness

I am sure that a lot of you will have heard about or seen that a recommendation is to be made by a Scrutiny Committee to the District Council with regard to removing car parking charges in some car parks. On the face of it this appears to be all good news and something to be welcomed but it is a return to unfairness.

Let me explain.

Prior to the last major change to car parking there were 14 car parks within the district that were free to park in. The rest of the approximately 58 car parks were charged. To my knowledge, there was no real basis for the fact that these 14 car parks were free. This was just an historical anomaly.

None of these original free car parks were in Skegness and that point had long been a matter of discontent amongst the local population and the local councillors alike, both District and Town councillors. When the car parking charges were revised and all car parks were charged then there were still no free car parks in Skegness but at least all other communities were being treated in the same way. An element of fairness had been achieved, although there were still one or two anomalies.

This fairness issue was considered when, subsequently, the charging at some car parks was changed to allow for 2 hours of free car parking. Every community benefited from the changes as every community had a non-centrally located car park with 2 hours free parking. Fairness!

It is now proposed that car parking charges will be removed but unfortunately only in those 14 car parks that were once free to park in! Why? Why only those car parks? Why will only some of the communities within the District benefit from this? Why are some of the most deprived communities in the District not going to benefit from free parking whilst some of the most affluent are? Where is the fairness in that? Why will some town and village centres and the businesses in them benefit whilst other town centres won't? This is truly a retrograde recommendation.

I sincerely hope that the District Councillors that represent Skegness, of all parties, will oppose this recommendation unless the fairness issue is addressed and I hope they will be joined by their colleagues who represent other communities who will also be treated unfairly if this recommendation is accepted and then sanctioned by the Executive Committee. Time to stand up for your communities ladies and gentlemen!

Back To The Forties - Woodhall Spa

Attended the Woodhall Spa 40s weekend yesterday and I have to say it was a really enjoyable day. I was taken aback by the amount of people who were actually in costume. My estimate is that about a third of all the people, and there were a huge amount of them, were dressed in the clothing of the period. I would have thought that those in military garb would have been in the ascendency but in reality it was people that were in normal civilian clothing of the time that were most numerous. There were some really surprising outfits. I noted two guys dressed as miners complete with miners lamps and knee protection and also a couple of policemen, one of whom must have been the most photographed person there as he was standing in front of a police box and was complete with a Raleigh cycle of the period. In addition there were a group of cleaning ladies complete with cleaning equipment! It was quite obvious that many people really go to town with the costuming and the accessories and they looked fantastic.

The following images are not mine and I do hope that the photographers that took them are happy for me to use them. Mine are still not available.

This 40s thing really does appear to be big business. I was surprised by the amount of stalls that were located in Jubilee Park dedicated to retro clothes and household items such as crockery etc.

There were a lot of Militaria stalls which I did expect and they all seemed to be doing a roaring business.

Woodhall Spa really lends itself to the 40s theme with the history it has relating to World War Two. Jubilee Park is an absolute gem of a place and if you have not been it is worth an afternoon in the sun. The town seems to have a really strong community ethos. Shops were decorated as were some of the streets with the Union Flag out in abundance. I am led to believe that the whole event is organised by the community themselves and they really did themselves proud.

A highlight of the day was the battle re-enactment that took place in the grounds of the Petwood Hotel. It was very professionally done and attracted a large crowd. It was an excellent way for some of the Military Groups to show off their prowess. As the commentator said it would have been acceptable if the guy playing the bagpipes had been taken out early!!

The whole day was topped off for me and for the large crowds that went almost completely silent and became enraptured when the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight in the shape of two Spitfires and a Hurricane provided a display over the town. It lasted about 15 minutes and included some really low passes. It was fantastic to see.

More details of the day can be found on the Event Website at http://woodhall-spa-40s-festival.com/
If you have not been to this event, which I had not prior to yesterday, I would thoroughly recommend it. Hugely enjoyable and I will be back!

Women's Magazines - Hate Them!

Now I have always had a thing about women's magazines. Full of flim-flam and celebrities and young lasses that look like stick insects, pretending that they don't diet and pretending that all women can look like that. It is just a world that us blokes do not understand.

A couple of examples of what I mean:

Dunno why I picked one in Russian!

But now I have found one that I am really, really not happy with!

My wife came home with this:

Now it looks innocent enough doesn't it? But oh no. Believe me it is really dangerous and insidious.

Women's Running. The operative word there is WOMEN'S! Not MEN'S but WOMEN'S. Why do I feel so strongly about this particular rag? Well let me just tell you.

My wife and I are into a bit of running. She is much more competent than me but then again she has the advantage of youth! In six weeks time we are going to be doing the Woodhall Spa 10k. A nice little jaunt in the Lincolnshire countryside thought I. Nowhere near as difficult as the Lincoln 10k that just about ended my stint on the earth. Nothing too strenuous. 

So what is the problem? Well I will tell you. In this blooming magazine is a Training Regime for Improvers! It is a regime that lasts for 6 weeks after which you do your next 10k. 6 weeks? You getting the picture? Oh yes WE not SHE are going to be taking advantage of this wonderful regime apparently! My protestations "That it is for women out of a women's magazine" are cutting no ice. Oh no. We are now both IMPROVERS! I look forward to the improvement!!!!

Bloody womens magazines. Hate them!