Predictions for 2013

[steveL]

2013 looks like being a watershed year but what would people predict as the main stories to come?

My own attempt at being Nostrodamus:

• At least one by-election
• Declared Interests story brings all sorts of skeletons out of cupboards
• Company Donations become an issue
• CAB and Marj fall out big-time
• Allowances cause public uproar
• Manor Residents finally goes bust and Labour propose a bail-out.

[stokoe]

we will be nowhere forward than 2011 when we first said we would bring them down.

but hey gang i know you are really trying,lets just pray hartlepool people get the truth.

[Stig of the Seaton Dump]

we become North Middlesbrough

the Hospital shrinks even more

2 people in the town get jobs

we retain our position in the top of the bad charts

Dumbo continues to serve the public, working in Aldi

things improve when the Scottish get their independence, invade and give us an improved standards of health

Today is one of those days that I feel like a mug for living in this town.

[norfolkngoode]

The economy will go from bad to worse purely because George Osborne 'doesnt really know what hes doing'
lol.

[fred c]

2013 looks like being a watershed year but what would people predict as the main stories to come?

My own attempt at being Nostrodamus:

• At least one by-election
• Declared Interests story brings all sorts of skeletons out of cupboards
• Company Donations become an issue
• CAB and Marj fall out big-time
• Allowances cause public uproar
• Manor Residents finally goes bust and Labour propose a bail-out.

Ditto to all of the above..... not 100% sure on number 4..... not the falling out..... just who will scratch who`s eyes out, sooner or later "ego`s" clash, & the sh*t hits the fan.

A couple of my own.....

    A number of Labour Councillors find themselves unable to support "The Mob".

    Public disquiet about the councils plans to salvage Manor Residents, & possible legal ramifications.
   
    Councillors Query Ratepayers funding Employees working for Unison The Union at a cost of £50,000 +

    The £280,000 + spent on the Cafe In The Crem will prove to be another White Elelephant.

    Closer ties between HBC & Tees Valley Unlimited (Arghhhhhhhh).

     HBC Get the Public Seating Bolted to the Floor In the Council Chamber.

[stokoe]

    The £280,000 + spent on the Cafe In The Crem will prove to be another White Elelephant.

fred c posted this how do you you know this has cost that much?

i have got to say that new road they are putting in (rather badly)
is causing a big problem for pedestrians,funeral corteges,mud all over 

and they are even on about putting 45 houses on the the land adjacent
pathetic,no respect at all to the cemetery and the residence to the people who
live in the road.

[fred c]

    The £280,000 + spent on the Cafe In The Crem will prove to be another White Elelephant.

fred c posted this how do you you know this has cost that much?

i have got to say that new road they are putting in (rather badly)
is causing a big problem for pedestrians,funeral corteges,mud all over 

and they are even on about putting 45 houses on the the land adjacent
pathetic,no respect at all to the cemetery and the residence to the people who
live in the road.

There was an article in the Mail about the cafe..........The council are looking to promote it as part of the garden centre.... aka. Council Plant Nursery.... it`s being touted as the place for the "Finest Coffee" in the town, according to a council spokesperson.

The £280,000 is for the extensions to the original Lodge House.... so they have conveniently forgotten to add on the value of that building.

The strip of land on the other side of the road that was a storage area for machinery etc, has been sold off for housing, & the old Focus store in Lynn St is being used for the machinery & maintenance base........ I am led to believe

The mud on the road may be something to do with the extensions that are being installed to the Crem & Chapel building, i think the building is for the installation of new equipment that is required for the actual cremation process.

[steveL]

This whole scheme came about as a result of the realisation that continuing with the council nursery wasn't viable; it was actually cheaper to buy in plants from outside. In the current financial climate, HBC couldn't justify paying over the odds to keep the facility going and so it looked like closure was the obvious option. To avoid redundancies, HBC came up with a plan to turn it into a Garden Centre with a total cost of £400,000 and part of this would be converting the lodge, which at the time was used as a training centre for horticultural students, into a Cafe.

It's a good example of why the public sector shouldn't get involved in commercial ventures because the same commercial pressures that apply to true private ventures aren't applied. The cafe is destined to become one of those silly ideas were the staff will constantly outnumber the customers. It will not be able to cover its running costs and will end up being subsidised for a few years until the decision is finally made to close it.

To be blunt, if someone was to set up a Garden Centre then they would not choose Tanfield Road as its location. Consider this. If the Garden Centre were to attract sufficient customers to make it financially viable, then the amount of traffic through Tanfield Road and the disruption to funeral corteges would result in public protests.

The whole concept is ill-thought out. The purpose appears to have been to retain staff rather than for it to be financially viable. 

[fred c]

Viability never came into the equation, the number of cafes that "Open & Close" on a regular basis throughout the town must number in the dozens.......... if the council don`t cover the overheads on the Cafe in the Crem.......... it won`t last 2 weeks.

However, the Council will let the project stumble along until they can think of some kind of justification to let it slip into the loss column in the next years accounts.

[marky]

The cafe in the Library could possibly succeed with different marketing and under different ownership. At the moment, it resembles one of those horrible formica table caffs of the 70s where people dropped cigarette ash into their egg and chips.

[fred c]

A really nice cafe in the old cleveland gas premisises on York Rd was the Black Cafe.... reasonably priced & very nice food, we used it a number of times........... it`s now closed.

Why should ratepayers subsidise a loss making business to the detriment of a business that has to make its own way ?

[Lucy Lass-Tick]

I don't need to deploy the old crystal ball or consult the entrails of a chicken to anticipate that 2013 will see all hell break loose in the hallowed halls of the Kremlin...in the meanwhile here's a super song from Rachel Unthank and the Winterset celebrating Allendale's new year tar barrel ceremony...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pks0D2xBfI

[Lord Elpus]

Staff at Hartlepool Hospital receive a letter (very early in the New Year) informing them the majority of services will transfer from Hartlepool to the North Tees site in August 2013.

[steveL]

I should think that this will be the year The Mail goes weakly....oooops.....weekly..

.... and maybe we should run a sweep on when this year's DDOS attack will start. There's no elections this year so it's hard to call. 

[fred c]

DDOS attack....... a week or so before the Full Council Meeting to discuss the Peer Groups Report.....

We will know when that meeting is going to take place, because they will lift up one corner of the Kremlin & sweep all the "Negatives" under the building.