theBythams
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reports archive : november 2003
22/10/03 Reproduced from The Glenside News (November 2003) ... " I was thinking the other day of another village I know. Although quite small, it has its own road bypass and the roads through the centre have been re-paved and arranged to slow down traffic and make it safe for pedestrians. There are floral decorations in the streets and the verges are neat and tidy with no litter. Most of the local farm tracks are tarmac and open to the public and no farmer would dream of spreading mud on to the ordinary public roads. Unpaved footpaths through farm land and woods are well maintained and people are actively encouraged to use them. Between villages the footpaths alongside connecting roads are at least 2 metres wide and available for use by cyclists as well as pedestrians. Houses and businesses are provided with big wheelie bins for their rubbish and re cycling is encouraged with paper, glass and tin cans all separated and collected frequently. There are even collection days when garden refuse and bulk rubbish and “white” goods (fridges, washing machines etc) are collected. In autumn everyone cleans up the leaves from the front of their houses, even from the public footpath, and in winter every household gets up early to clear away the snow from the public footpath in front of their property before they go to work. Drivers do not hog the fast lane on motorways and drivers are punctilious in indicating when they change lanes. Incidentally, truck drivers do not pull out in front of cars just to take 10 minutes to pass the truck in front with an overtaking speed of 2 mph. Oh, and by the way, the trains are comfortable and run on time! On the down side you cannot mow the lawn or wash your car on Sundays and the shops close for long lunch breaks every day and at midday on Saturdays. The locals are not renowned for their sense of humour, the pubs have limited choice of beer and Indian restaurants are hard to find. Where is this Elysian location? – Germany! Although I would not swap living in our village to go and live in Germany again, I cannot help comparing how we do business to how it is done in other parts of the world. What is all the more remarkable is that I am describing village life in Germany 15 years ago. What was (and indeed still is) evident was that local authorities in Germany, the equivalent of our County Councils and Parish Councils, had much bigger budgets to work with. Another illustration I can quote is that in the 10 years or so we lived in Germany I guess we averaged 25,000 miles a year driving all over Europe. In all those miles, (or should that be kilometres?) I never had to replace a windscreen on my car. In the last 10 years, with a much lower annual mileage in the UK I have had to replace no less than 7 windscreens, which speaks volumes for the difference in the road maintenance standards. Some of you probably read Jeremy Clarkson’s newspaper articles – he starts off at a tangent, talking about wine tasting in North Korea or the value to the ecology of butterfly farms, but in his last paragraph is actually leading up to a criticism of the latest BMW saloon - staff cars for Nazis, leaves a bad taste in the mouth and only good for killing bugs with its windscreen. Well, I think I am leading you down a similar journalistic tunnel. What drives the German system to spend liberally on local amenities and wider public services is the desire to present their environment as an expression of pride in their community. Some of this comes from the determined spirit that was needed to rebuild Germany after the War, but a side effect is that individuals are more ready to take responsibility for the amenities they enjoy. This leads to less vandalism, litter and a willingness to correct people who do not respect the standards expected. The danger is that an attitude similar to the Pythonesque “what did the Romans do for us” prevails – they expect the State to provide everything. Although SKDC and the Parish Council do the best they can with the money made available to them, how that money is raised – general taxation plus council tax means they are forced to concentrate on the essentials with little spare for improving or adding new local amenities. We do however have a great tradition of self help in the UK and the Midsummer Fair is in that tradition. So next time a prospective councillor or MP comes canvassing on your doorstep just ask him or her “OK but what will the Romans do for us!” " Ray Keiff |
  The Midsummer Fair website Links etc relating to the Report for November 2003 Yeah ... we know they have nothing to do with the Midsummer Fair ... but then did the report ? :-)  As Ben Elton would say if he read the report ... "Oooh! Little bit of politics there"  From the Dictionary of Difficult Words ... Elysian ... "pertaining to Elysium, the heaven of Greek mythology; ideally happy."  Germany ... "Central Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, between the Netherlands and Poland, south of Denmark" ... from the CIA World Fact Book 
Jeremy Clarkson "The King of Motoring", presenter of BBC TV's Top Gear and writer for The Times newspaper  Oooh ... another flag ... North Korea ... "Eastern Asia, northern half of the Korean Peninsula bordering the Korea Bay and the Sea of Japan, between China and South Korea" ... from the CIA World Fact Book  The BMW Group website  Pythonesque ... GO VISIT this website far more interesting than anything here :-) |