Andy Millne

Communication is a massive problem here and that is one of the things we are improving with the website. People can voice an opinion and have it reach the decision makers and the decision makers can canvas opinion at no cost. The people in the town should be making an effort to find out these things and a quick glance at the news pages once a week will give them all the information they need. There's even an RSS feed here you can subscribe to and not miss a thing. Expecting this independant group of people to make sure everybody in the town is aware of it is unrealistic. A leaflet drop costs hundreds of pounds out of money that could be better spent elsewhere especially as the vast majority will just ignore it. As an example 5,000 flyers personally hand delivered by myself resulted in less than 20 new members here. After delivering these flyers I asked one of my neighbours what they thought of it and got the response "Oh is that what that was, I remember seeing something with Bedlington on it."!! I know 3g is in the process of putting together a monthly email that will go out to all members as well so the people that aren't regular visitors will be made aware of issues in the town and hopefully may become more regular visitors as a result. If you've got any other suggestions on how we can help make people aware I'd love to hear them too as there's always scope for improvement. Let's not forget the guys at SNRG as well who are dedicated to getting set up to help as well. here's the news article you missed http://www.bedlington.co.uk/2009/08/bedlington-base-for-county-radio/

it's also at a minimum 38 million kilometres closer to the sun.

http://www.bedlington.co.uk/2009/12/community-group-looks-to-reverse-closure-trend/ More will follow as more is known.

Failing that there's the only thing likely to remain... The Job Centre.

Yep that was my thinking, you've got an automatic multiplier straight away. We could include the new classifieds system here as well to encourage a bit of trading in them. Charge a very small listing fee and take bedlington pounds as payment (which goes back into the grants pot). Sellers could also choose to accept Bedlington pounds as payment, those that do get added benefits like featured listings.

That's quite a lot (understatement of the year). Especially considering the average debt for every UK adult is £30,000. 133% of average earnings. Still... it's not all doom and gloom. Look how many flat screen TVs we all have now

Is that before or after the Bedlington referendum?

http://ts17.gazettelive.co.uk/2008/10/thornaby-town-independence-row.html anybody know how they got on?

OK what about a local economic development fund that is responsible for raising funds to be spent in Bedlington (this idea has already been raised). This group could also be responsible for the issuing of Monsta's currency and would also pay out to local projects in this currency. This would encourage some local enterprise and ensure the money was spent locally. Any new enterprises that come about because of the fund would be automatically reinvesting their grant/loan with local builders/shopfitters suppliers etc.

Great idea. Here's a good article to describe the Local Multiplier Effect this generates.

I fully agree with the vast majority of your points on this one mercuryg. The town has a deep rooted problem of self-denigration which puts a lot of people off trying new things and trying to get ahead.The sooner we can get past that the better.

No you're right and I don't pretend to, just commenting on what I've seen and been told. What I've been told is it's getting finished off in Spring. Next time I'm passing I'll have a look around the cross.

It's flawed on many levels not just security. It's most fundamental flaws are actually in it's primary purpose i.e. rendering HTML

I've just been around the Market Place and I couldn't see anything wrong with how they are laid. They haven't been "pointed" if that's the term. Could just be like tiling in that the slightest level difference is noticeable until they're grouted. I was told that they couldn't do it in the cold weather and it would be done in the spring.

You could probably just about scrape in under a fiver with chips and curry sauce. Maybe even 7 packs of tesco value super noodles for your weekly shop.

Another argument for a means tested property rates system for local businesses. The current one size fits all scenario is shocking.

It's well ironic, innit!

To be honest, although it's not really AOLs problem you'd be better off switching to a different provider anyway for several other reasons.

so you don't disagree really, you agree and have presented a solution for a small scale project it's just not worth doing. But if set up as a centralised service that people could retrieve from/contribute to when data is missing then you've got a really useful product. When's it going to be available? Now back to the Ridge Farm...

I've heard good things about the meals at the Three Horse Shoes. As somebody that has written this sort of geo-location software recently I can say that it is notoriously difficult to ensure accuracy. Royal Mail have a near monopoly on the post code data and it is ridiculously expensive to get a copy and it's still not terribly accurate. The best way to handle it is to position the marker on the map at the post code given then get the user to manually position it to make sure it is accurate or enter the gps info in directly. I suspect this site is using postcode data alone.

Here's the Secretary of State inspector's appeal decisions regarding the old school. I'll publish a more in-depth news article when I get a second spare. Decision Letter.pdf

My points in this thread are not aimed at getting a fast food place in Bedlington, they're a little bit wider reaching than that. What I'm trying to do is correct some of the assumptions made as to why we don't have these things (and yes that includes a leisure centre) and at the same time try and foster some entrepreneurial flair.

For the latest on the leisure facilities feasability study see here... http://www.bedlington.co.uk/2009/12/community-group-looks-to-reverse-closure-trend/ the outcome of that study will show what Bedlington will likely be able to support and outline the steps needed to bring it to fruition.