Tenbury Rocked Tonight

Tenbury rocked tonight to the sounds of Andrew Lloyd-Webber and Tim Rice's Rock Opera Jesus Christ Super Star.

The very confident and competent cast, recreated this early 1970s classic and transported the audience back both 40 years and 2000 years.

St Mary's Church became Broadway, the West End and Jerusalem.

All the cast put in a strong performance and the dance troop would be welcome on the professional stage.

Tenbury Wells - Bucolic?

AP (Associated Press) news agency have released an article about how the proposed Severn Estuary Renewable energy project could hurt the environment.

In the article they say "the Severn Estuary, a broad stretch of water that narrows into tributaries meandering through bucolic villages with names like Tintern, Dursley and Tenbury Wells."

Currently this is article is being run on a TV station in the Philippines and PR site in Western Austraila.

It's a funny old world!

Council Tax Increases

West Mercia Police Authority   4.9%

Hereford & Worcester Fire        4.9%

Tenbury Town Council               3.2%  (Not 0% or 1.8% as previously announced!)

Worcester County Council          2.9%

Malvern Hills District Council    2.9%

Ludlow Journal Gets It Wrong (I hope)

I really hope that this weeks Ludlow Journal have misquoted Tenbury Mayor, Richard Jones, commenting on being awarded a £30,000 "Playbuilder" grant.
The quote says ".....Part of the £30,000 will go to the play area for small children at the Burgage and also to the sensory garden that we will be starting shortly also at the Burgage....."

Surely the Town Council can't be allocating yet more funds to the development of the Sensory Garden (*which it isn't anyway).

Already in excess of £30,000 pounds have been allocated to this project.

Sensory Garden Moves To Next Stage

Tenbury Awarded £25,000 Grant

Sensory Garden

*The planned garden is not a "Sensory Garden".
See Sensory Garden Design Advice

Theatre Funding

By some quirk of numeric jiggery-pokery, the amount of Council Tax raised by MHDC in the Tenbury Ward exactly equals the amount they spend on subsidising the Malvern Theatre.

In defense MHDC, spend £65K subsidising the Tenbury Swimming Pool and will spend an additional £8.5k funding free swimming for the over 60s.

They spend £5k on Cafe 27, also grant aid the CAB and the Museum.

Last year they match funded the creation of the ill conceived Civic Garden and this year will fund a £40k improvement to the skate park.

This is in addition to their duties and planners, household refuse removers and suppliers of concessionary bus passes.

Anyone wishing to discuss these figures or any other MHDC business are invited to attend the District Councillors "surgery" held in the library building on the first Friday of the month.

Teme Bridge Repairs Delayed

It seems that the long promised and long overdue face lift of Teme Bridge have been delayed indefinitely.

It has long been said that the bridge would not be painted until after it had been repaired, and it now seems that WCC funding application to Central Government has not been successful, so no work will be carried out until 2012 at the earliest.

Kyrewood Road - Splash Point

Once again the Kyrewood Road splash point was raised with John Wallace, County Highways Liaison Engineer, and once again, the problem has been classified as "Not A Priority".

Despite his personal assurance in October that the problem would be fixed, he now says there is insufficient funding available.

It seems that it is OK to repeatedly, do temporary repairs and then "Hot Patch" the area every spring, only to have the work undone, by standing water after every rainfall.

Good News? : More Traffic Delays Ahead

Anyone who has tried to drive through Tenbury Wells in recent days can't help but notice that once again, three way temporary traffic lights have led to long delays. Well the bad news is that temporary traffic lights are going to feature locally quite a lot this summer. The good news is that it is all in a good cause.

This week two more burst pipes are due to be located and fixed, then the following drainage work is to be carried out.

1. Church Street: 4 -6 extra road gullies to be installed and linked to the foul sewer. Also the pavement level is to be raised in various areas.

2. Teme Street (Kyre Bridge End): 5 extra road gullies to be installed and a new pipe run into the Kyre Brook.

3. Bog Lane: The existing 450mm pipe that links the 750mm pipe to the 375mm pipe is to be supplemented with an additional 450mm pipe, then the 375mm pipe is to be removed and replaced by two 450mm pipes thereby giving a 59% increase in capacity. (You couldn't make this stuff up!) No account has been taken off the likely increase in flow associated with the proposed development opposite the school.

4. Bromyard Road; 6 extra road gullies to be installed (where the run off from the high school hits the road) and a pipe laid to carry the water down to the Kyre Brook.

Kyre Brook to get sensors

Anthony Perry, Environment Agency Flood Risk Manager, confirmed tonight that the Kyre Brook would get flood sensors / gauges.

A survey of the brook (now classified as a river) has been undertaken, and landowners will be approached about building the necessary infrastructure to house the equipment.

Money has been set aside in the 2009-2010 budget to complete these works.

Don't sit back and wait.

Tenbury Town Council were told tonight, not to sit back and wait for Flood Defence funding. If the expectation is that they will be centrally funded "it's not going to happen."

Anthony Perry, the Flood Risk Manager for the Environment Agency explained that the money is out there, but it won't come to you.

Various organisations such as AWM, WCC & MHDC have money to spend, but they all have different priorities.

If the Town Council feel that a Flood Alleviation scheme is essential then they must lead a multi agency project looking at the problems and the solutions. Money is available for technical assistance, but the desire, vision and leadership, must be local.

The project can include aspects which are for sustainability and for regeneration, and can be for implementation over a number of years.

There is no point spending effort in trying to change the system, as that has no guarantee of success and if the criteria is changed Tenbury may still be no better of.

It was accepted that the Councillors may not have the necessary skills to lead this project, but should canvas support locally to find someone who can deliver this project.