Redcar Lib Dems welcome extra money to fix potholes

Liberal Democrats on Redcar & Cleveland Council are delighted that the Council is to receive over £300,000 to fix potholes.

The Government has just announced extra funding for councils up and down the country to deal with the problem.

Redcar & Cleveland is set to get £301,123. The Government estimates that each pothole costs £53 to fix on average.

This means that over 5,000 holes can be repaired in the borough.

Lib Dem Highways spokesman, Councillor Mike Carling (pictured right), welcomed the extra money saying:

“This is excellent news for our area.

"Potholes affect all areas of our borough. They damage cars and cause injury to pedestrians and cyclists. It’s an issue that concerns many people and that is why Liberal Democrats in Redcar have campaigned for improvements for many years.

“I am pleased to see that the Coalition Government is taking the issue seriously and providing this much-needed extra funding.”

Lib Dem Group Leader Glyn Nightingale added:

“The Labour Council puts up Council Tax every year yet fails to get the basics right. Now, thanks to the Coalition Government, they have no excuse for failing to fix our roads.”

Exclusive Guest Post: Daniel Abbott interviews Leeds United stars with pictures.

Today I went with my Grandad to the opening of the newly refurbished Leeds United superstore at Elland Road to get my new all white strip for the coming season.

All the players were in the store along with the new Head Coach, Dave Hockaday, and his assistant Junior Lewis.

I got the chance to talk to some of the team and here are my exclusive interviews with the new boss and some of my favourite players:

I shook hands with Dave Hockaday and I asked him if he was going to play the long ball or the passing game. His reply was the one I was hoping for, he said: "The passing game."

Next, I spoke to our Captain Ross McCormack and I asked him how he felt when he heard that Brian McDermott had been sacked? He said: "That's football though isn't it lad. You are not wearing a wire are you."

I spoke to Sam Byram and I told him that my cousin Charlotte Seaman had a crush on him. Here is a picture of Charlotte meeting Sam.

I asked Matt Smith, what did it feel like to get sent off at Sheffield Wednesday last season and he replied "dreadful."

I saw Michael Tonge score a 25 yard volley at Sheffield Wednesday, the season before last and I asked him how he felt scoring that special goal? His reply was "Cracking, the best goal I have scored for Leeds."

When I asked Zac Thompson how he felt when he got a straight red card at Reading he was quick to assure me: "That's not how I play football normally."

I told Chris Dawson he was fast on the ball and I asked him if he was hoping to get a run in the team this season? He said: "Hopefully I will get a game."

Pictures above from the top: Daniel with Ross McCormack, Daniel in the new kit, Charlotte with Sam Byram. Pictures below from the top: Daniel with Matt Smith as Ross McCormack listens intently, Daniel chatting with Zac Thompson and Daniel listening to Chris Dawson.

Vehices hitting bollards in Redcar's Roseberry Shopping Centre is costing drivers £1000s each year

Last August bollards in Redcar’s popular but privately owned Roseberry Shopping Centre on Roseberry Road, were given a coat of yellow and black hooped paint, by the Centre’s Management Company, Knight Frank. 

This was to make them stand out more as drivers were shunting into them frequently.

Since then thousands of pounds of damage has been done to vehicles and the evidence is clear on every bollard.

! took this up with Knight Frank last August and was informed the bollards and speed humps were installed when the centre was constructed as part of the planning requirements for traffic management around the site: 

The company could not understand why people could not see them.

Even though they are clearly marked they cannot be seen when you are manoeuvring in the car park and every single one is marked by people shunting into them. It is easy to forget they are there and you cannot see them when you are sat in a car close up to them. There are none of these in the Council’s car parks.

People keep complaining to me about it and grumbling about the damage done to their vehicles.

The shopping experience at this excellent facility can be improved 100% if these pointless bollards, that appear to serve no real purpose, were removed together with the dreadful road humps which also annoy everyone so much. These do not work as safety measures because people weave about to avoid them. Half were removed last year but the rest still remain.

Lib Dems could sink the Daily Mail if they would only stop buying it

Mark Pack has posted an interesting piece on Liberal Democrat Voice about the "newspaper readership habits of Liberal Democrat voters," using figures that have been calculated from the data provided in The British General Election of 2010.  

It is interesting that the two papers which treat the Lib Dems with such contempt and bully us daily with nasty smears and exaggerations, the dreadful Daily Mail and The Sun, have the largest Lib Dem readership. Clearly if Lib Dems stopped buying these papers they would be in real trouble.

Time the anti Lib Dem press backed off

The media has stoked up this anti Lib Dem mood that currently exists in the country and it is time they backed off and started to treat us fairly. 

Too many people are brushing it off by saying it's what you expect when you are in Government or Labour has had a bad time from the Tory press for years. But not page after page day after day since 2010 as we have had from the likes of the dreadful Daily Mail, The Sun and even the Guardian which does it in a very subtle way. 

Prior to 2010 we were lucky if we could get a line in any of the Tory papers but now we are treated abysmally.

Millions of people see this every day. There is no good publicity to balance it up anywhere. Someone like Paddy Ashdown needs to tell them to back off. David Cameron should too. We have kept him in power and shielded him from a lot of the stuff we have taken directly on the chin for him. The Tory press are doing it because we have been a restraining influence on the Tory Government and the Labour press because we put the Tories in. They get away with it because we don't point out the unfairness of it and take 'em on.

YRS offer to provide Historic North Riding of Yorkshire signs at bridges over River Tees

As Chairman of the Yorkshire Ridings Society (YRS), I have today emailed Councillor Bob Cook, Leader of Stockton Borough Council and Mr Neil Schneider, Chief Executive pointing out that YRS has offered to pay for traditional county signs to be erected at the bridges on the Yorkshire side of the River Tees in the Borough of Stockton.

This was in response to Stockton Labour Candidate, Louise Baldock's call for "Welcome to Yorkshire" signs on the bridges in the Borough of Stockton on Tees.

According to Saturday's Evening Gazette Stockton's Council Leader is willing to consider it following the overwhelming vote of Yarm residents in favour of 24% voted in the Yarm 4 Yorkshire poll last Tuesday 27th May 2014, 1465 'Yes' and 177 'No.' I like to think that they took note of my comments on BBC Tees on Wednesday when I suggested ways they could identify with Yorkshire without re-organising local government in the areas and my recent  blog on the subject.

I wrote to them as follows:

"The Yorkshire Ridings Society has offered to pay for signs to be erected on bridges on the Yorkshire side of the River Tees in the Borough of Stockton on Tees on numerous occasions over the past 10 years. We paid for seven signs to be erected in the Borough of Redcar and Cleveland.

"We are delighted the Leader of the Council is now prepared to consider this. We will be happy to discuss with the Council our offer to raise the money to pay for them."

Whilst I think "Welcome to Yorkshire" signs would be a little naff. I hope the Council would agree to have Historic North Riding of Yorkshire signs instead.

Pictured above is one of a number of Historic West Riding of Yorkshire signs erected on all roads on the Lancashire/Yorkshire border. These were provided by Yorkshire Ridings Society in partnership with Saddleworth White Rose Society and Friends of Real Lancashire. Former Labour MP Phil Woolas is in the foreground.

Below is a picture of the Lancashire signs which were provided on the opposite side of the road.