I would like to thank Morecambe’s The Visitor for featuring my tweet, following Morecambe & Lunesdale David Morris MP‘s comments encouraging the use of “non-lethal” weaponry by the police. I replied via Twitter with – Would you support @lancspolice when a member of public dies after being shot in face by police bullet [Link to MP's Parliament [...]
Historically I’ve always considered myself as a liberal thinker and politically motivated myself through the following ideology “That anyone can do anything so long as it does not negatively affect the life or dreams, or paths of anyone else”, a classic libertarian view point. However, a true libertarian would apply that ideology to the interaction [...]
Since January 2011 local government expenditure over £500 has been released on a monthly basis. Nottingham City Council is currently the only council choosing not to comply with this “guidance”. My argument is that whilst transparency from local councils is a good thing, I believe that £500 spending data hides a huge proportion of the [...]
Please note the data below comes from spending data released as part of the Public Right of Inspection period (July 2011) to cover financial period 2010/11 and does not include internal costs such as wages, pensions etc (external costs only) Department Name Total Property Services 6191344 Financial Services 5739670 Environmental Services 5533901 Council Housing (HRA) [...]
Lancaster City Council tenders for contracts over £50k. Contracts under £50k are not listed as they only require 3 quotations from interested parties. You can request to view any of the contracts below by contacting Lancaster City Council finance department or going into town hall. Please leave your comment below ….which contracts would you like [...]
Google Refine is a desktop database/spreadsheet application that allows filtering and merging of large datasets. Using this application with local council spending information reduces inconstancies and allows more accurate filtering and assessment of data. For example, Lancaster City Council began releasing its £500 spending data in November 2010 and to date there are 2783 entries. [...]
Heysham medical centre is designed to replace the existing facility on the opposite side of Middleton Way. The land has been cleared but has been left vacant. Original planning application for Heysham Medical Centre (09/00668/FUL) Discharge conditions application 15 – Disabled Parking Although I would not object to a reduction in the number to 10% [...]
Banks Renewables are putting in a planning application to build three wind turbines on farm land north of Middleton, close to the electricity pylons and the A683, and are 1km from Windermere Park estate & Middleton An assessment tower (60m) has already been approved is is currently operational A full planning application for the 3 [...]
This is a quick way for a Django site to display an “In Development” message. It is not designed to be “secure”, so make sure you have a disallow * in your robots.txt file to ensure urls aren’t guessable. urls.py Place at the top of urls.py (then include subsequent additions with “urlpatterns+=”) if settings.DEVELOPERMODE: urlpatterns [...]
Below is a snapshot of top pay at Lancaster City Council. It shows those directors, senior officers and heads of department who earn over £50,000 per year (without expenses). Name Job Title Salary Mark Cullinan Chief Executive 107060 Heather McManus Deputy Chief Executive 77321 Richard Tulej Head of Community Engagement 61857 Mark Davies Head of [...]
This is an application to convert the offices above 13 Common Garden Street, Lancaster (Marsden Building Society) into a “House of Multiple Occupation”. I object to these plans. Planning Reference: 11/00259/CU Access to the flats would be to the rear. This Google Streetview shows the access. http://j.mp/iPURyn There are clearly issues with an unlit alley [...]
This is a copy of the objection I submitted to Lancaster City Council planning department/committee regarding the internal demolition of (unused) Cuba nightclub (opposite Dalton Square), creation of a walkway to Mary Street and the creation of 3 new shops. Planning reference -11/00415/CU & 11/00416/CON Please link to this post with - http://j.mp/lu2ndR Significant number of vacant [...]
Today sees the launch of a Twitter robot that takes Lancaster City Council‘s spending data and makes it available for ANYONE to search to see what the council is up to and where YOUR council tax is going. www.twitter.com/CouncilSpending You don’t need to follow it, simply tweet:- @CouncilSpending “Capita Symonds” and you’ll get back just [...]
Response to Virtual Lancaster post titled “Conservative councillors question council tax rise“ http://virtual-lancaster.blogspot.com/2011/05/conservative-councillors-question.html Background During the full council session of Lancaster City Council on Monday 23rd May 2011, new Labour and Conservative Councillors traded ideological insults at each other, relating to the state of Lancaster City Council’s finances and the 2011-2014 Corporate Plan Labour councillors [...]
Rick Seymour & Councillor Ian McCulloch have launched their election campaign for Lancaster University ward of Lancaster City Council. Please support this campaign by Liking the Facebook Page “Vote Green. Vote Ian and Rick May 5th for Lancaster University“. Lancaster University already has TWO Green Councillors and we are seeking your vote on 5th of [...]