Hampshire Country Council recently hosted its Business Conference to consider the impact of the spending cuts on local companies.
The conference took place against a background of the Council having to cut £19M off its annual budget, and provided an opportunity for business leaders to have their say in where the axe should fall.
Councillor Ken Thornber, Leader of Hampshire County Council, said: “In the current financial climate it is more important than ever that the public and private sector work together to support the economy. It was useful to see that there was general agreement over what the top priorities and areas for collaboration should be, such as improving broadband access and encouraging entrepreneurship.”
Delegates at the conference said their key messages to the Council while it is looking to reshape its budget are to make it easier for local businesses to provide goods and services for the Council and to keep business informed of the main issues the Council is facing and the changes that are planned.
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Young people from Basingstoke celebrated the opening of the new Oakley Skate Park
The opening followed a £30,000 refurbishment project funded by the Youth Capital Fund administered by Hampshire County Council.
Councillor Roy Perry, Hampshire County Council’s Executive Lead Member for Children’s Services, said: “The new Skate Park
The youngster involved, advised on the type of equipment they wanted to see at the site and worked alongside the contractors to develop and design the new layout. As part of its continued commitment and support to the area’s young people, the Parish Council has put in place a 3 year maintenance schedule to ensure the Skate Park
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Hampshire County Council’s Cabinet, at its regular monthly meeting, has been looking behind the headlines of the spending cuts to see just what it means for the county.
Although the average cuts to local government funding over the next four years will be 7.25%, the cuts will be greater in the first two years with an average loss of 10.1% in 2011/12 and 8.6% in the following year.
“These figures are the average grant cuts across the country. Hampshire could see larger losses depending on how the grant is distributed between councils. If we take our past funding levels as an indicator then Hampshire will be one of the hardest hit” said Councillor Ken Thornber, Leader of Hampshire County Council.
He went on to say that “Over the next couple of months we will get a clearer picture of the funding that Hampshire will actually receive and this will coincide with this phase of our work to secure reductions in our expenditure. We will also be asking business and residents where they feel cutbacks can be made, and all of this combined will help us to identify priorities for the future and draw up our budget for 2011/12. We are facing turbulent times and we will do what we can to reduce uncertainty for residents, staff and partners.”
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Hampshire County Council will celebrate the life of former County Councillor
David Kirk, the former Executive Lead Member for Children’s Services died suddenly on 16 August. He was aged 63 and is survived by his wife Tracey, their two sons Marc and Alex and two older daughters from a previous marriage.
Inviting people to attend the service Councillor Ken Thornber, Hampshire County Council’s Leader, said: “David was a larger than life character, well-known and well-loved by a vast number of people who came into contact with him professionally and personally. I hope many of those who knew him and worked with him will join us in a celebration of thanksgiving for his life at Winchester Cathedral. David, I know, would not want it to be a sombre occasion – he would want everyone to join together in celebration of his life.”
The Thanksgiving ceremony will start at 2pm and will be attended by the Lord-Lieutenant of Hampshire, Dame Mary Fagan, the High Sheriff of Hampshire, Alan Lovell, County Councillors
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Good but the stories are mainly descriptive, and not telling or selling a story. That's normal for this stage of the course, as shaping the story is probably the most difficult and central thing in journalism. I will ask some of the undergrad students who have been practising now for one or two years to have a look and advise as well. One or two of them are now being identified as being able to shape stories very well. It is really a matter of practice and confidence, of unlearning bad 'rules' from schoolteachers and above all of starting to read lots and lots of newspapers from the poiunt of view of a journalist, rather than from the point of view of a consumer, not thinking about how they are written or why. Best for simple straight punchy news reporting is probably the Daily Telegraph - the Guardian for a more discursive featurised approach; tabloids obviously for sharpness and pushing the angle to the absolute limit - read them all and become a sort of anarak about how the intros are written, how the quotes work, where they got the story from - this is the key thing to success on journalism courses in my now longt experience - there is just a one:one correlation between success and saturation in newspaper reading (from the point of view of mechanics). It is a wonder to me that students don't read more newspapers than they do - they are cheap (even the free ones are worth reading from the point of view of how badly they areusually done). Magazine reading is also crucial. I hear students saying they want to wite for magazins but I never see them rading them or brining them in to sessionsto discuss them. Its weird!
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