About Wrinehill

 The work by Staffordshire County Council is almost completed in Checkley Lane.  Well,we hope it is. The telecom mast site area drain has been repaired by SCC (broken when the mast was installed).  This will be recharged to the EE contractor who carried out the work, of course.  It seems that this broken pipe had caused silt and water to build up across the road and burst the ceramic drain in the layby opposite.  this too has now been repaired and a swanky inspection chamber installed which will hopefully mean the road will not need to be dug up again.  Potholes will be filled.  Sealing, the edges of potholes and road repairs, is no longer favoured by the SCC   I am told, since the black sealant becomes slippery and cyclists were falling off their bicycles.  So the large ravine on the side of the road which had been created by the flood damage is to be filled in with compacted sand. It will be interesting to see how long this lasts. It s...

 At the moment the Mobile Library visits Betley twice per month on a Friday between 9.20 and 10.00 am. However,  it is rarely on time since it has to travel from Stafford at rush hour and the van has to be kitted out an refuelled etc before starting off from Stafford.. For a while the librarian has felt that this service is not sustainable at this time or even on this day.   Therefore a suggestion has been made that the day be changed to Tuesday afternoon, when the Van is at Madeley Centre in the morning, so it would not have far to travel. It might also suit the School better since the morning time slot interfered with assembly and other activities.   Tuesday afternoon might also coincide with the students' lunch break and so not interfere with lesson time.     It seems that the Officer in charge is aware of the difficulties re scheduling but claims that Cabinet is in charge of the decision-making re any changes to be made.  It was also...

 So, two holes now dug on opposite sides of the road to the telecom Mast.   The mast side hole is impossible to see into, but the area seemed drier and the verge also looks as if it has been dug over (it is  certainly a mess, but hopefully will soon regreen itself).   hole at the mast       The other hole once overflowing with water has been drained.  It is unclear if the water has been drained or whether or not the drain has been unblocked.  It still looked blocked, but again it was difficult to see beyond the plastic barriers.   the blocked drain  Fortunately, the two grids under the bridge have now been cleared of silt although the drain just above the bridge on the Cheshire East side is still oozing water.  This might indicate that the drain under the road has not yet been unblocked or that the water is coming from elsewhere.  If there is any more work to be done by Amey then the next week or so wil...

The Parish Council held an Extraordinary meeting on the 17 May 2024 to hand down 'punishments' to the Subject Member accused of a whole litany of 'wrongdoing' (wrongly in my view) and hopefully anyone reading the complaints and the evidence the Subject Member had submitted.  But the NBC hearing was not necessarily to disregard the complainants' allegations but to ensure a case was made against the Subject Member - well it did cost almost £24,000 and the Solicitor had been engaged by the NBC.  Perhaps to hear both sides might have doubled the cost and the Solicitor's remit from the NBC MO was for the investigation to be focussed and quick (cheap, but not necessarily cheerful).  It was none of these things since this was not a simple case. It would have been helpful to know what actually constituted a breach of conduct - in the 20th Century that would have been gross misconduct, gross indecency,  fraud, GBH, murder/manslaughter, bankruptcy etc..  The complaints su...

  This was sent to me today from Balfour Beatty: What we are doing as part of our ongoing maintenance works along Station Road Bar Hill: we will be carrying out essential works to roadside trees from 3 – 7 June 2024 . These works are required to ensure the public highway remains clear and safe to use. Balfour Beatty will be installing ground protection matting to access and survey the trees and remove any unsafe features as necessary. We will need to install an off-peak lane closure with temporary traffic lights on the A525 to access the site and manage the safe movement of vehicles and people required to carry out the works. If your journey is affected by these works, we appreciate your patience and understanding for any minor delay. We also urge you to allow some additional time for your journey as necessary. If you have a question about HS2 or our works, please contact our HS2 Helpdesk team on 08081 434 434 or email hs2enquiries@hs2.org.u Take care.

 Plato grew up during the Peloponnesian Wars which lasted until he was 23 years old and in a city (Athens) at war.  The downfall of Athens occurred in 404 BC.  When Plato was young he met Socrates.   Socrates was a philosopher who thought outside the box. His influential views and thoughts on society and governance were so astute that they have percolated down to the global, present Century.  He wrote little, if anything, thought a lot, and persistently discussed and asked ethical questions in order to gain knowledge.  One of his projects was to discover what made a 'good society'.  In order to find out he asked people what they meant by the terms justice, courage or self-control, for example.  Whilst he increased his own knowledge base, in this way, he found that those he questioned, did not really know, or could not really say what they meant.  What he also learned was that although he was aware of his own ignorance, the public seemed ...

 This morning a large tanker was observed in the area of the Checkley Lane junction  and the A531.  It was the sort used for drain clearance, and said so on its sides.  It is not yet clear if it had been down Checkley Lane to clear the drains, or even along the A531.  The next downpour might reveal all.   There also seems to be much activity in Checkley Lane, the Lane being closed, hopefully by Staffordshire County Council, for the remedial and repair work that is now desperately needed. A General Election must be closer than we thought.  

 this was sent to me this morning by the Lead of the Footpaths Working Party Councillor Amanda Berrisford: On Thursday 9th May (tomorrow) Nigel Hopkins from SCC rural team is coming to install the remaining two Kissing gates at the Ditch opposite Frank Speeds and the Stile held up with strin g on H Kennerely's land. He has informed me there are no volunteers available and so I am putting a shout out to you all  with the details to see if you can help in any way.  I am out all day today so do not have the time to call the people on our list.  I do not want to put out on the facebook page as we may get too many folk (going forward that would be great) however, we only have a couple of hrs so on this occasion a small productive team would be best.    I am Meeting Nige at the H&T at 10.am then we shall enter the field opposite Betley Court Farm and take his truck to the furthest point where then we have to carry the tools a short ...

 Anyone attempting to follow the Hearing of 30 April 2024 might have found it difficult to follow since the microphones were not working properly neither were the subtitles up to scratch.  'Councillor' was transcribed as 'Chancellor', for example - and that was the least of it.  Trying to follow what was being said using the subtitles was therefore not only difficult but almost impossible.  The text presented to the hearing is below:    I am attending this hearing because it is important to know what it is that I am being accused of. The Monitoring Officer in June 2023 asked the complainants to provide him with the 'specifics'   - ie the evidence to support their allegations.     Without it, he stated   he could not proceed.   It has taken two years and a new MO to arrive at this point.   2024 is a different country, it seems.       If evidence was submitted, then I have not seen it.   I have looked at ...