I’d like to thank the binmen of Barnsley for emptying our grey bins last week after a runaround on what to do when they aren’t emptied. The thing is that getting through to anyone on the phone is nigh on impossible and it may surprise the powers that be that many – maybe most – elderly people ain’t going to rush to the internet to try and find their answers.
I did try and tweet for help a few times but only one response at the beginning telling me to check the website for the streets listed. No one responded when I did a few follow ups to say ‘I have and our street isn’t on’. Why can’t we ring people any more? Especially when the email system doesn’t work.
So the elections are coming up, there was sensible advice from Steve Bullock on the letters page last week in which he advises people to do their best to influence the changes they want by voting – because that is the only way you can make your voice known. Moaning afterwards about Mr or Mrs Useless getting in when you haven’t rocked up to vote and could have turned the tide is just daft.
Look at what the people you voted for promised you last time and did they deliver? Did they act on your concerns and refer back to you? Or were they all flannel and disappeared after they won – like too many. I know I have friends up in Kingstone ward who are STILL waiting for responses from the councillors they wrote to about concerns fifteen months after their third letter. Not good is it? Councillors cannot pick and choose the cases they’d rather do and not attend to and follow up – they are there to serve the people who vote for them, but it hasn’t worked that way in Kingstone. So, as Mr Bullock so wisely says, choose wisely.
Very glad to see that there is some positive action on the beleaguered bus service around Broadway in the form of a temporary fix, thanks to the efforts of the mayor of South Yorkshire and a determined public action group led by powerhouse Ronnie Steele. These bus companies surely have to realise that along with their profits made with viable and busy services, there has to be some give back to the community and they can more than afford to do that. They aren’t just buses to many elderly folk, they are lifelines. Let’s hope this small win leads to more and bigger wins in the future for people who rely on public transport and someone somewhere in power sees that people are as important as profits.
I went to Dave Myer’s funeral this week. It wasn’t a showbizzy event by any stretch, although there were a couple of ‘faces’ there, but one full of family and friends from Derbyshire where Dave had made his home and from the North East, France, London and obvs Yorkshire. There was a lot of leather and bikes, as you might imagine, and in the small church Alfie Boe, clad in leathers, stood at the back and sang Ave Maria acapella. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything so beautiful in my whole life – and holy, it was like a touch of heaven.
Dave had a life which was stuffed to the gills with fun but it can be a faith-tester when too many good people die much too young.
Whatever you do this Easter, I hope that you find time to have a break and spend time with family and friends. Enjoy!
