The Blurfings of Tavis Pitt

save wyre forest dial a ride bus service for the disabled .

3 Mar 2010 04:22:07 GMT

Since the Wyre Forest District Council has now agreed to cut funding to the Dial-A-Ride Wyre Forest service, have your plans for your future changed. I understand that the main reason for the cuts was lack of a business plan. Are you going to produce a viable business plan and resubmit your case for funding again?

Arrests not easy

2 Mar 2010 18:30:00 GMT

What piffle! You do know that since 2004 there have been 3,481 incidents of fly tipping with NO (ZERO) prosecutions. While our neighbour, South Staffordshire, have had less incidents yet managed to get 11 successful prosecutions. 'Arrests not easy' _ pah! I thought the Tories zero tolerance was zero warnings not zero prosecutions.

Time has come to address real issues

2 Mar 2010 13:38:00 GMT

walkerno5 has covered the 'independence' of Richard Taylor very well. I hope this is clear enough for those who 'just don't get it' _ fingers crossed. @Michael Jenner: Please, I implore you to look further than reading, 'letters and threads online'. Outside Wyre Forest there are a number of new independent candidates, like Esther Rantzen; Sir. Paul Judge, who was Director General of the Conservative Party during the mid 1990's wrote a damming letter in the Guardian entitled, 'Party politics is rotten'; new 'independent politics' groups are forming like The Jury Team, The Democracy Club, Alliance for Democracy, The Independent Network; . It's time to address independence politics (the real politics), every one else is, including the world outside Wyre Forest!

John Bolton's Word Heap

11 Feb 2010 22:21:20 GMT

John Bolton's Word Heap

Kidderminster Mural

9 Feb 2010 22:52:04 GMT

Kidderminster Mural

The History of Witchcraft

7 Feb 2010 21:08:05 GMT

...In the same year at Kidderminster, a widow, her two daughters, and a man were accused ; " the man had five teats, the mother three, and the eldest daughter, one...

'Get your Kicks on the A456', Productions, Urban Canvas

7 Feb 2010 21:56:34 GMT

Title: Get your Kicks on the A456

Location: Kidderminster near Tap House

Commissioned by: Wyre Forest District Council

Image Above: Small section of the piece / Jagger portrait and Sepia Nostalgia section painted with young people from Kidderminster

Medium: Handpainted using Montana spray paint onto construction hoardings

Title: Get your Kicks on the A456

Location: Kidderminster near Tap House

Commissioned by: Wyre Forest District Council

Image Above: Local resident & legend Robert Plant portrait detail

Medium: Handpainted using Montana spray paint onto construction hoardings

Email to WFDC (FOI - Edam Horse)

6 Feb 2010 15:42:31 GMT

Dear Wyre Forest District Council,

Under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act, I wish to receive answers to the following questions:

All questions are in reference to the public art to be erected at 'the Horsefair triangle', Kidderminster�

(1) How much funding has been allocated to the project and where has the funding come from?
If it is from a 106 Agreement, which planning application does refer to (reference number will suffice)?

(2) What is the timescale of the project?
Please tell me when the tender process started, when was the deadline of the tenders; when is the public art to be erected, etc. (i.e. the full planned lifecycle of the project).

(3) What was the brief of the tender?
I would like a copy of the brief.

(4) Which artists applied for the tenders?
If possible I would like a spreadsheet or table with the following columns:
Artist Name | Artist Contact (email, web address, telephone number) | Description of Proposal (a brief description of their proposal, one sentence will be fine)

(5) What criterion was used and what judgments were made in deciding upon the winning offer?

(6) When were ward councillors (Broadwaters Ward) consulted?
Please provide the date contacted, the media used (email/letter/verbal etc.), and the subject of the communication for the three councillors: Cllr. Mumshad Ahmed, Cllr. Howard Martin, and Cllr. Ken Stokes

(7) Which other organisations/ key stakeholders where contacted?

Please provide the date contacted, the media used (email/letter/verbal etc.), and the subject of the communication.

Some parts of this request may be easier to answer than others, and should this prove to be the case I would ask that you release available answers as soon as possible rather than hold up the entire request.

I would prefer to receive this information electronically. If the decision is made to withhold some of this data using exemptions in Act, please inform me of that fact and cite the exemptions used.

If you need any clarification then please contact me via email [ tavis.pitt@wfa.org.uk ]. Under your section 16 duty to provide advice and assistance I would expect you to contact me if you find this request unmanageable in any way.

I look forward to hearing from you in the near future.

Kind regards,

-Tav-

Tavis Pitt

The Wyre Forest Agenda

Email to WFDC (Art Projects)

6 Feb 2010 15:43:03 GMT

Dear Wyre Forest District Council

Under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act, I wish to receive the following information from you:

I request a spreadsheet of all public art projects funded either partly or fully by Wyre Forest District Council for the past 12months. This will include, Project Name, Location of Public Art (if applicable); Artist(s) Involved (names and contact details, email will suffice); Total Project Cost; Amount funded by Wyre Forest District Council; Start Date of Project; End Date of Project.

I would prefer to receive this information electronically. If the decision is made to withhold some of this data using exemptions in Act, please inform me of that fact and cite the exemptions used.

I look forward to hearing from you in the near future.

Kind regards,

-Tav-

Tavis Pitt

The Wyre Forest Agenda

Out of Recession

27 Jan 2010 22:00:12 GMT

You said, "In Wyre Forest, this means Labour�s policies are directly helping employment prospects and keeping industry relatively stable."

Can you explain how and what has been directly helped by Labour�s policies in Wyre Forest?

Cox Homes

27 Jan 2010 21:25:48 GMT

I read the Shuttle recent article entitled, ' Yea, or neigh to statue' where it reports that a tender was put out for an art piece in the Horsefair, Kidderminster.� The article also states that you are funding the development.� I'm very interested in this and would like to ask some questions for my weblog, The Wyre Forest Agenda [http://www.wfa.org.uk/]:

When did the tender process start and what was the brief?
How many artists applied for the tender and what did they offer?
Where any artists who applied for the tender local?
Did the winning artist provide evidence that they researched the history and the social make-up of the Horsefair area?
What criterion was used and what judgements were made in deciding upon the winning offer?
Is there any public money (taxpayers or contributions) to be used or going to be used?
Why were the public not consulted?
In the Shuttle newspaper several letters suggested a statue of 'Johnny the Cobbler' and 'Alf Tabb' (local figures).� Where they ideas ever considered?
What is the timescale of the project?
With the Horsefair being designated one a several national 'Air Quality Management Areas', do you think �12,000 would be put to better use tackling this issue?
Traffic around the 'Horsefair triangle' is busy and sporadic and people may wish to view the statue close up.� Has a pedestrian road crossing ever been considered or discussed?
Will a bench be provided near the statue?
Are provisions made or plans being made to prevent/detect vandalism to the statue once erected?
Can you promise that at the end of the lifetime of the statue the public will be informed it final fate?

I look forward to reading answers to these questions.

The Shuttle

27 Jan 2010 17:29:00 GMT

Email to Clive Joyce: I would like permission to copy and publish the image (artists impression of the Horsefair statue) used in the recent 'Yea, or neigh to statue' article. I would like to publish it on my weblog, The Wyre Forest Agenda.

Finn Stone

27 Jan 2010 17:29:00 GMT

Email to Finn Stone: I read an article in our local newspaper [http://www.kidderminstershuttle.co.uk/news/local/4875210.Yea__or_neigh_to_statue/?ref=wfa] that states that 'Finn Stone' won the tender for a horse statute to be erected in the Horsefair district of Kidderminster. I wondered if you were the 'Finn Stone' the newspaper is taking about. If you are I would very much like to ask a few questions and also copy some images for my weblog 'The Wyre Forest Agenda' [http://www.wfa.org.uk].

Good News on the Economy

21 Jan 2010 21:34:00 GMT

Tav said

January 21, 2010 at 9:34 pm

You haven’t mentioned that since the recession (end of 2007) unemployment in Wyre Forest has consistently risen, doubled in fact. If elected as MP how are you going to reverse this trend?

Prototype first impressions

17 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Love, apart for a heart and by the word. Intention to accept each other's everything, all the intentions to love each other.

Is being a member of a political party a bad thing?

11 Jan 2010 00:07:51 GMT

Dr. Richard Taylor MP was elected as MP for two terms which I believe is a modern-day record. Could it therefore be that the majority of the people of Wyre Forest will keep electing Richard Taylor until the job is done (restoration of A&E at Kidderminster Hospital)? Doesn't a man with a cause and solution seem more appealing to voters than yet another political party stalwart?

Wyre Forest Icelandic cash 'unaffected' by bill

7 Jan 2010 13:00:19 GMT

I wonder if our unelected leader is saving more agreeable news for a later date?

There is a shimmer of light at the end of the tunnel for some of our money. English councils have been given high priority in the queue of creditors for recouping money from Landsbanki.

Shooting stars

Tavis Pitt — 6 Jan 2010 20:54:00 GMT

"...many are never archived onto hard drives or cd/dvd, they are deleted in camera".

What? I would never delete a photo. CD/DVD? Are those the things we used to use at the turn of the 21st century? Besides there are more public gallery and storage sites on the Interweb these days, and the look-and-giggle photos are usually archived on social networking sites.

Bewdley Town Council Website Response #2

6 Jan 2010 13:35:00 GMT

My letter was in response to an article in the Shuttle just before Christmas (page 2) where Dr. Taylor implied that KTC was now not to be sold to the Dudley Group of Hospitals which was never on the agenda. He also implied that Dudley would serve Wyre Forest better than WHAT and I feel very strongly that trying to divide Wyre Forest people does not help to get better services to KTC.

Suggest to look at the back issue of the Shuttle.

Bewdley Town Council Website Response #1

6 Jan 2010 12:13:00 GMT

This letter was sent following Dr. Taylor's article in the Shuttle before Christmas when he suggested that KTC was now not being sold to the Dudley Group of Hospitals. As it never was to be sold off and the implication that WHAT was inferior I thought it deserved a reply.

There seems to be a persistent move to suggest WRH is inferior since KGH lost its hospital status and its about time we all worked together to promote services for KTC.

Email to Cllr. Jan Adams

5 Jan 2010 20:24:05 GMT

I have read your letter in The Shuttle newspaper entitled '�Them and us� stance costs vital NHS funds' with great interest. I would like to reference the letter on my weblog 'The Wyre Forest Agenda' and therefore I would like to know the source of "MP Dr Richard Taylor�s assessment of Worcestershire Acute Trust and Kidderminster Treatment Centre". An on-line link would be preferable, however, if that is not possible a date, time and location will suffice. Thank you in advance. Tavis Pitt The Wyre Forest Agenda

Tav's back!

4 Jan 2010 13:22:16 GMT

Oh, I have longed for a rss feed and also a search facility, but I'm too stubborn to move onto WordPress/Blogger. I'm staying with the stone-tablet version of blogging and write all my pages in a text editor. However, for the new year I will try to enter the 'Teenies' with more up to date technology. I will also put some work into Wyfopedia.

For the 'nitty-gritty' of the 'Say No to the Incinerator' campaign I would recommend subscribing to their mailing list. There you see everything (warts 'n all), including the entire list (there is a WFDC councillor or two in there)!

Your own search engine and RSS feed

4 Jan 2010 22:03:44 GMT

Thanks for this FlipC.

I guess I should explain some history of the 'agenda. It started in 2004 and at that time I had at least six years experience of web development and even longer in database development. For work I would follow the same routine: atomise the data into the database (build the database); storyboard the website; build server-side script (VBScript, ASP); add the cosmetics (graphics), and then add content (usually the responsibility of the user, but not always). The server-side scripting was really big back then because the total lack of functionality from Crapscape Crapivator which pulled down client-side scripting. When it came to the 'agenda I decided to turn this procedure on its head and I created the content first, in the understanding that I would build up the functionality as I went along.

To be honest this really worked and in 2004/2005 there were very few weblogs around for me to pick up an idea of functionality. However, about two years ago Don requested a search facility and I also wanted to try out RSS. I did look at Google for searching, but it didn't work how I wanted it. For instance go to Site Search and enter 'www.wfa.org.uk' in the URL textbox and 'Stourport' in the Query textbox. The first result 'Stourport is a canal town' directs you to the root index (no good), the second result directs you to a page successfully but the title of the result is 'http://www.wfa.org.uk/cal/20070130.htm Tuesday 30 January 2007 ...' whereas I would have preferred something like: 'Tuesday 30 January 2007: Meet Tesco if your name's down'. I have looked into it (back then and just now) and I cannot customise it to how I want. So back then (early 2006) I started to put all my blogs into an Access database (and then SQL Server) manually. It took ages, about two weeks of blogs took about 3 months and that was also eating up my 'agenda blogging time. I even tried to write an application to automate the process, but they never got off the ground.

I thought that since I'm writing a database for searching, I could use it to write the 'agenda (bye bye iframes); the comment functionality; and also easily (at the touch of a button) create RSS. That was (and still is the plan).

Also I did originally write my out-of-iframe script in VBScript, but soon found Firefix users couldn't read my blog so I changed it to ECMAScript (JavaScript). See FrameControl.js. Since I was writing a htm page for each day (usually one blog) I didn't have the time or resources to retrospectively update the pages. So very old pages have no frame control, old ones a VBScript and then new ones have JavaScript. Recently I changed my comments provider and I had to remove the script because it was interfering with the comment functionality.

Anyway I have already started to build some my RSS feed (even before I started to read this blog!). See: RSS.

BLOGGING 2010 from Hugh O'Neill

3 Jan 2010 13:51:27 GMT

Since I have decided in the big Two-Oh-One-Oh to blog (blog and comment) I will respond to this blog. Firstly I hope you had a merry Christmas and are having a happy new year. Secondly, I have to disagree with you about the 'Shuttle Stream'. A case in point is Verity's weblog, her WordPress weblog had all the blogs clumped together so you could catch-up and the blogs & photos were available in one place so you could see the whole picture. Also the Shuttle removes valid comments on old blogs _ a big no-no in blogosphere.

Our of your 12 points I generally agree with them, except for point #5 which I find insulting, and point #12 I don't quite understand.

myconservatives dot com beta

2 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

I am a modern-day Chartist and believe fundamental change is required. Firstly to have annual elections and all positions of responsibility with the taxpayers money should be elected, be transparent and fully accountable to the taxpayers. The party that provides this promise gets my help and full support.

Kidderminster, Worcestershire, UK-26th December 2009

2 Jan 2010 23:02:00 GMT

I saw another one a few minutes after the start of 2010. They seem to be raising from the ‘Hoobrook’ area of Kidderminster.

Kidderminster, Worcestershire, UK-26th December 2009

30 Dec 2009 09:42:00 GMT

We (our family) saw these both on Christmas Day (25 Dec 2009, night, about 8:30pm) and also on Boxing Day (26 Dec 2009). We believe it to have been Father Christmas returning back to the North Pole or some Chinese Paper Laterns.
See: http://www.wfa.org.uk/?/cal/20091226

Don�t be fooled by crossing idea

27 Dec 2009 11:43:00 GMT

What do you mean, 'Perhaps this tactic will buy time until the Tories get in'? The Tories control Worcestershire County Council, they are in. Even worse at district level one Tory councillor for Mitton (where Tesco is proposed to be built) didn't turn up for the Tesco application meeting and the other Tory councillor for Mitton didn't take his place. So no representative of the residents of Mitton were at the Tesco application meeting! ...and people have the nerve to call this a democracy!

FlipC - The Mad Ranter, Stourport says...
11:10am Mon 4 Jan 10

The bridge might alleviate problems at the Parson's Chain island, by pushing it into Mitton Street instead.

As for the "Tories" getting in, I share Tav's outburst. Not only already being in control of WCC but WFDC too. As for the curbing of powers, the only news in that respect is their proposed creation of an ombudsmen and that's not for us that's for dealing with supermarkets and their suppliers.

I'll agree that the Labour government have been remiss in curbing the dominance of supermarkets, but why would you expect the Conservatives to do any different?

County killing idea of �partnerships�

21 Dec 2009 11:46:00 GMT

Wouldn't it be fantastic (and democratic) if all the various local authorities made a partnership with the taxpayers rather than each other. Maybe if they were accountable to us they would pull their finger out.