Danger of Electrocution at BMX Track

I witnessed to day a real danger of electrocution at the skate park. The BMX club along with the council are running a live domestic cable all the way from the trailer to the start gate of the BMX track. Health and Safety can get silly at times but this a real danger. It was a wet day which made it more dangerous as the area was wet so any problems with the cable and there could be a leakage into the wet area.
There should be a trip at the end so if there is a problem it will cut off before anyone is killed. Secondly the cable to be used must be tested by an electrician and be certified as safe. Thirdly you cant have a live cable trailed over a public path were its not only a trip hazard but a real danger as if you do trip you could pull on the cable and expose the plug to surrounding metal.
Fourthly if you are going to trail this cable in public it must be armoured and protected. I witnessed the staff plugging in all sort of odds and sods of wire not I feel sure tested and to make things worse it connected to equipment that touches the metal rail which means any faults and the rail becomes live.
What made the matter worse was the staff attitude I asked about the cable and told is was caring air which clearly wasn’t truth they then back tracked and claimed the council had risk assessed the cable and the situation. I feel that would be a lie or they should go back and do the assessment again. The council staff then threatened me for taking pictures but as I had taken none of any children that didn’t work.

Crewe & Nantwich Swimming Success

Crewe & Nantwich Swimming Success



The final presentation of swimming awards as Crewe & Nantwich Borough Council took place in the Council Chamber at Crewe’s Municipal Buildings on Wednesday 22nd October. The ceremony celebrated the achievements of 45 swimmers from the Council’s Learn to Swim Scheme which is operated in conjunction with the Amateur Swimming Association’s National Plan for the Teaching of Swimming

The Mayor of Crewe & Nantwich, Cllr. Brian Silvester, who presented the swimmers with their awards on the night, along with Mayoress Ms Sheila Davies, said, “I was delighted to make this second presentation of the year to swimmers from our very successful Learn to Swim Scheme. We have seen a good number of sporting achievements from this area over the past few months and with continued dedication to sport we can hope to see some of these swimmers competing at a much higher level in the future. The theme of the Mayoral year is Lifelong Learning. There cannot be anything more worthwhile and rewarding than learning to swim.”

Cllr. Bill McGinnis, Leisure Portfolio Holder, added, “Crewe & Nantwich has a leisure service provision that local people can be very proud of with so many recent successes including the Quest awards and the achievements of these young swimmers today. Now that these swimmers have completed the scheme, I would urge the children and parents to continue with their swimming development by supporting our local aquatics clubs operating at both Crewe and Nantwich swimming pools.”

Crewe and Nantwich Borough Council currently has around 1500 people registered for swimming lessons from the age of 6 months with Parent & Tot sessions, through to adults. For more information on swimming tuition in the Borough, contact Leisure Operations on 01270 537090 or leisure.services@crewe-nantwich.gov.uk

Yobs Wreck Derby Docks Play Area

Yobs struck again over the weekend and wreck the play area on the Derby Dock.

They systematically stripped up the safety surface and through it all over the Derby Docks. This is the regular gang that now makes the Docks a no go area many old people as they are frightened of these gangs. It’s a never ending stream of yobs a gang starts gathering and causing trouble they grow up and move on and as soon as they are gone the next generation moves in.

The problem is they wreck the play area of young children who can now not use the swings as there is no safety surface and it will cost a lot of money to replace it all. This is about the fourth time this has been wrecked. The thing is we are paying for this in our taxes and council tax.

If you are a parent and live near by do you know what your child is doing tonight?

SLB Cars Ltd Camm St Crewe Guilty of selling a dangerous car

SLB Cars Ltd Today Wednesday 15th October 2008 pleaded guilty to selling a car unfit for the road and in a dangerous condition at Crewe Magistrates court. Court heard how SLB Cars Ltd had sold a Blue Saxo VTR in May for £1300 and had agreed to service the car and carry out minor repairs. The car had been bought from and advert on their website.

The car was returned to SLB on many occasion for the repairs to be completed but after they had 21 days to repair the central locking and failed it wasn’t taken back again as every time the tried to fix it they broke something else.
The car was MOTed early after fears about its safety and when it was found to be a dangerous car by the MOT inspector Trading Standards were called and they got an expert Ian d Lee consulting to look at the car. The report read out in court indicated the car was excessively corroded in vital part of the suspension and braking making the car a death trap and this was long standing rust. He believed the steering and braking would be greatly effected by this. The fuel filter was loose which made a fire highly likely. He concluded the car was dangerous and past repair and in the event of an accident the car would fall apart.
SLB then blatantly lied in court saying the car had been placed on the forecourt and wasn’t for sale as it had not passed their inspection. You will see above in bold that it had been advertised on their website for 3 weeks so that was a lie. They then came on with a sob story of how their car sales had dropped a director had resigned and several staff have left and they are poor.
They were fined £2000 and £1000 cost and pleaded they could only afford £400 per month by direct debit. They were asked if the car could be now destroyed but they objected to this. The only reason we can think of is that they want it back to try and resell it to some other mug who want know its done 190000 miles as it only says 88000 on the clock. If they were so concerned and taking into account the expert who said it was past repair they would be happy to scrap it.

What they didn’t mention in court was that SLB refused to do anything about the car when they were asked after the MOT in fact they told me to F off. They didn’t mention the car was sold with 88,000 mile son the clock when it had done 117,000 miles in 2005’s MOT. The fact that the lights front and rear were illegal wasn’t mentioned and one would expect any reasonable car dealer to know the lights were illegal.
If they had settled then it would have only cost them repair to the car or a replacement. Now its cost them over £5,000 and loads of bad publicity which they deserve for there customer service. At no point did they offer to reimburse for the car or even say sorry its lucky we paid with a credit card as under the Consumer Credit Act you can claim your money back off the card company worth remembering.

Dont Mess with the Market Manger

Saturday 11October and gunfight on the square (well sort of)
I was sitting on the square and watched as the man from the bouncy castle unlocked the council mains supply and gave an extension to the Sky TV man demonstrating Sky in the back of his van. He had been using a generator up until this point. The man ran the cable 30 ft or so to his van across the square were people walk. We have had trouble with this before.
I went to speak to the man and as I did an old lady tripped over the cable. I explained to the man that you cant use Council electric unless its wired by a Council electrician, you cant run live cables across were people walk it must be armoured cable to do that and thirdly someone is going to break there neck on it. His comment amounted to go away in short sharp jerky movements. I explained I would report this to the Town Centre manager before someone was hurt to which he repeated his previous statement.
I hot footed it around to the market and saw the Market Manger who said the Town centre Manger was off and he would deal with it an ensure it didn’t happen again. He strapped on his guns (well got his camera anyway) and stormed of immediately to the square. He of coarse found the cable plugged in and took pictures of the offending cable and immediately unplugged the cable from the van so the mans TV and DVD died, he then removed it from the mains and locked the cabinet.
The Sky man went mad and started shouting but is was all to no avail he was told off good and proper. Its good to see that some members of the council can act quickly and decisively when the occasion warrants it.

The final score was Market manager 1 Sky Tv 0

Samuel St play area is getting a major revamp with all new equipment. It includes so new climbing frames like those used to train mountaineers be it on a smaller scale. It should be open in the not to distant future and it’s hoped it wont be plagued by yobs like the Derby Docks. While these playground are great for younger kids nothing is ever provided for 16+ yrs old kids which is were the problems arise. As the 16yrs have nothing they end up taking over the young kids play areas and stopping kids getting on to the play area. Derby Docks play area is always full of 16yrs old drinking and causing problems

West St closed by Fire

Today at 10:30 Friday 10/10/08 lots of sirens were heard down West St and a Police car was blocking West St at Ford Lane another at Underwood Lane and one at Goddard St. two fire engines were fighting a blaze at a house in West St near to Oxford St. As there are a few house in the terraced block other family were evacuated as smoke poured out down the lofts of the other house. The house next door had its door smashed in presumably by Fire crews to prevent the fire spreading.
The Police at the scene didn’t know yet how the fire started but were concerned as not long ago shots had been fired in Oxford St believed to be revenge attacks by drug dealers from Liverpool.

Yobs strike a light on Derby Docks

Once again the yobs are ruling the Derby Docks in the past few weeks street lights have been broke by yobs who find it fun to shake the lights until they pop. The next step is to bend the lights over and wreck them. This leaves smashed light across the main route for school kids going to school. The problem being with the lights broke there is often exposed live wires just right for some child to be killed.
This week they wreck a light on Tuesday which was reported to the council who came out and fixed it less than 24 hours later and it was down again that’s 4 lights smashed in as many weeks.
A new gang has formed on the kids play area and their greatest joy is to shout abuse at old age pensioners crossing the Docks. These can range from just shouting to threatening action like riding bikes very close at high speed to pensioners or throwing bricks. One pensioner of 73 years old told me how he cant go across the Docks any more which is a problem as is house backs onto the Docks.
Still the area is littered with beer cans and despite it being a no drinking zone people just walk about ignoring the rules. I watch the Police standing outside a house they had just raided and 3 lads came and stood next to them leaning on a lamp post which had the no drinking notice on it drinking beer from cans and the Police ignored it.
There is also an idiot on an electric bike who speed down the path on the Derby Docks right past the child play area he has been told several times how dangerous his action are but chooses to ignore the advice he has nearly hit to old people already and its just a matter of time before he hurt someone

600 jobs to go at Focus

It was announced today that Focus DIY are to loose 600 jobs. Focus main office is in Crewe and also the supper store on the retail park. The store actually gain ground on other stores last year but they are still shedding 600 jobs from a distribution centre and head office. This is said to be a streamlining exercise to ensure company growth.

For Crewe it’s a major set back after the Post Office trying to close the sorting office. Before long Crewe will be a ghost town with no employment. We believe the Post Office are rethinking the closure so lets hope there is better news soon

Help needed Urgently

The Hope House (Children's Hospice) Shop in Market St

I went to the shop to see what had happened and saw how the yobs had broken in over a wall covered in razor wire and smashed doors to get into the out building. They came down an alley next to Carters the jewellers and used dustbins to gain entry. Strangely the Police haven't bothered to tell Carters about the break in at the rear of their shop. The stock that is left will have to be thrown away as there is no way of knowing what the yobs have done to it. A computer is missing and one has to ask how can anyone walk about Crewe a night with a computer in the town centre and not be seen somewhere on CCTV?
The break in have happened on more than one occasion and help is needed to secure the premises and carry out repairs

The lowest form of crime when toe rags do things like this

I am writing this on behalf of Diane Banton.
Hope House (Children's Hospice) Charity Shop in Crewe is one of Diane's companies and someone has broken in, trashed the shop and stolen all the items they have put aside for their Xmas Display.They will have to pay to have the damage rectified and replace most of the stock. They have asked if anyone can help with books, toys, sparkly dresses or any donations, no matter how small.
Please contact Diane Banton direct if you can help.
Thank you
Celia

Please either drop it into the shop, or contact Celia or Di Banton on 01270 251493






Floral Display outside the Library Sept 08