Routine progress, a prom and a special ceremony

Originally posted @ 7:39 pm, Mon 30th Jun 2008

Two meetings of scrutiny last week on health, one for City & County and one for city, saw a number concerns arise on the patient transport services provided by East Midlands Ambulance Services. More on this when I know if it's confirmed that there's something to redress, but it was good to witness scrutiny raising the game on behalf of constituents.

Audit Committee on Friday considered the Statement of Accounts for the last year. Hardly a meeting where you'd expect to find anything to fix and we didn't, except for a couple of typos.

Of more satisfaction has been progress in my ward on the embankments used to shore up roads serving the Mapperley Hills that for so many centuries were inaccessible to freight that might need to go up the hills. One scheme has been completed and another is almost finished.

More surprising was a visit to a former church of Scientology on Mansfield Road, at the junction of Villa Road, which is a listed building. A Sikh community have taken it over and don't have any use for most of the pews. Let me know if you know anyone who could use solid wood pews to effect.

The local secondary school continues to do well, now preparing for a new headteacher as we move to an Academy in 2009. Fingers crossed for the exam results in August. Year 11 held their prom on Thursday night - and very overdressed they were too.

On Friday 20th, the family of Senior Aircraftsman Gary Thompson, 51, of Sherwood Vale, including his wife and 5 daughters, planted 5 Himalayan birches in the nearby Woodthorpe Park, where his family played as they grew up. Gary Thompson was killed in Afghanistan in April.