Cycle Tour Came to Colchester

Well. I went into town to have a look at the cycle race that cost so much money, but which, apparently has been covered by grants and sponsorship. Wow! The town was buzzing. I have never seen the like of it in Colchester. What a great show! And now I understand that they want to do it all again next year. Well done Colchester Borough Council for at last having some vision for what is possible in our lovely old town. I just hope that you can learn from the experience and do more thingts like it. How about getting behind the Colchester Carnival?

But perhaps the most interesting aspect was that Colchester clearly doesn't need traffic in the town centre. The lard-arsed car driver will always whinge about restrictions but this cycle race has brought a breath of fresh air to Colchester. Wouldn't it be good if all of the town centre, within the heritage zone, within the town walls, was pedestrianised from 9.00 am to 6.00pm? We have seen that it can be done and I like the result. Quieter, cleaner, safer town for everybody. Let's ban the car from the town centre and buses and taxis from the High Street. Let's claim our town back from the unnecessary vehicles that make our lives a misery.

Cycle Tour Comes to Colchester

Whilst we repeatedly learn that the council has no money for festival activities, having cut its cultural and heritage budgets drastically, we now learn that somebody has decided to spend £95,000 of our money to stage a cycle race around the town. For 3 hours on a Thursday night, road closures, the lot. They could have done it a lot cheaper by riding around the football stadium. What amazes me is that this decision was made out of the blue with no consultation. You can imagine the uproar from event organisers in town who get no help from the council for what used to be traditional well attended events. Our council have happily destroyed our flower beds to save £17,000. They are closing schools and selling off our assets and reducing services generally but - a cycle race around town? £95,000! No problem!

Cast Your Vote

I cast my two votes this morning for the county and European elections. These are indeed interesting times, with so many corrupt politicians pouring out of the woodwork. I hope that my fellow voters have taken this golden opportunity to teach the big three parties a lesson that they will not forget in a hurry. We in Colchester, have been treated very badly by Conservative led County Hall, forcing cuts in our services on us and selling off our assets to pay for lucrative council workers final salary pensions. Who do they think they are kidding by forcing closure of two of our schools and to replace them with a remote academy. There is no earthly reason why the kids that do badly in school would do any better in a school that is a long distance away from their community? Of course, the reality is that County Hall want to close our community schools so that they can acquire the land to sell to property speculators. The sooner that these pension agreements are revised, as is being done throughout private industry, the better. Why should the council tax payer fund such lavish pensions at the expense of services? ....and as for Lord Ninnyfield, the sooner he goes the better! The man's a fool!