I just dont get it ...when we were involved with the carnival we had prove we were going to use and fill the high street with entertainment or we wern't allowed to get a road closure and all the shops complained....Jazz festival has closed the road ....no moaning shops, and what is filling the high street ......one ice cream van
can anybody explain that?
double standards ...it's always seemed that way to us, but it's made our minds up though....we will take our help where it's wanted ....but it certainly will not be in Marlborough
-- Edited by tracare at 07:02, 2005-07-11
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I'm a Dyslexic Agnostic Insomniac...
I sit up all night wondering if there really is a Dog
Gotta say I agree with the sentiment behind what you are saying ..... BUT not your intentions!
It has always seemed to me that there is an "inner sanctum" in Marlborough that play by their own set of rules. Ordinary folk in the main have to play by a completely different set of rules.
For example, if "they" want to celebrate the tenuous link with a ship named after the Duke of Marlborough (not the town) ... "they" can, and then "they" tell us it is what we all want.
However if the community (you know us ordinary riff-raff that inconvenience things from time to time!) want something as simple as a goalpost on the Common (where incidentally there used to be a full sized pitch) ..... you would think someone had asked to bring back public flogging!
Cost of a goalpost is a couple of hundred quid ..... and this was something actually asked for by residents up on the Portfields estate (young and old alike) at a community meeting a couple of months back. Their excuses so far for refusal? Health & Safety ... and other people who walk on the Common!! Hmm did anyone see the number of cars parked up there this weekend during the Jazz Festival?? Imagine if it had been wet .... it would have cut up the common and turned it into a mud pool ... and as for Health & Safety ... hmmm cars on a Common ... that sounds Healthy & Safe!!
Sorry Rob ... but I do have to disagree with your last few words though. We NEED people like you and Ange in this community. The website is a credit to the town, the old days of your Carnival involvement were enjoyed by the community too.
By abstaining now (although I can understand the sentiment), it plays into "their" hands. If I quit the Council, it would be doing exactly the same (and I am sure many of them would have a party to celebrate!).
I know it feels like you are swimming against the tide, but trust me, if you took a "straw poll" of residents of Marlborough, without any doubt they would far rather have people like you working for the community and trying to fight their corner. Trying to change things is often a lonely and seemingly futile thing to do ... but I believe that the silent majority really do genuinely appreciate people like you who are actually prepared to "get their hands dirty" on their behalf.
1) the jazz festival; a jazz freak friend went on Saturday and said he heard 7 blues acts but only 1 jazz act! Now I like blues music and hate jazz but it seems that I would have enjoyed it more than him. How many other jazz fans will not return because of the amount of blues acts they heard - and how many blues fans would have gone if they knew it was not all jazz? Why don't the organisers call it the Marlborough Jazz & Blues Festival? BTW my friend last went 3 years ago and commented that as well as more blues music, the price had gone up (£25 for a stroller) but there seemed to be fewer people. Meanwhile my plumber from Chippenham came to the house on Saturday morning to do some work and although a jazz fan, did not even know the festival was on and had dropped his wife and kids in Marlborough to do some shopping while he worked!!!! I appreciate the hard work the festival's organisers do but I think they may need to review how they package and promote the event.
2) re Maverick's advice to Rob & Angie - hear hear; don't give up or else Marlborough will fill up with even more blue rinse wrinklies; have more White Elephant Business Parks; more loopy projects like the KVAT's theatre, crazy new schools, new hospitals which end up without adequate parking for staff or visitors; while the town continues to be governed by the same old cronies who seem blissfully unconcerned with what is happening.
PS Maverick, H&S is freely quoted as a reason for not doing anything. Ask them if their refusal was based on a written Risk Assessment for the goal post project and if not why not. Also ask to see the written RAs for any other activity which they permit to take place on the common such as car parking, fun fairs etc. If they are not assessing each requested use of the common via a standard written RA procedure how do they know what is safe and what is dangerous? As you say, if goal posts constitute a risk to H&S, what risks are there assosiated with un-supervised car parking, fun-fairs, people exercising dogs, flying stunt kites, kids playing conquors, games on the rugby pitch or from flying golf balls? My village has a small playing area for kids which contains a basketball loop, a football goalpost, roundabout, slide, climbing ropes etc - all within a space about the size of the new car park behind Hamptons. If Marlborough Council wanted to provide a goalpost then they could.
I shall keep doing the site but I am afraid my enthusiasm has gone out of the window.
I actually agree with the not having kids playing on the common at the moment.....but for different reasons....first is the amount of dog mess less than half of the hundreds of people who walk their dogs every day pick it up......so that means there is literally tons and I do means tons of the stuff all over the common
Second is the danger of the road....now I am not talking of a quiet road ...yes it has a central reserve but with vehicles traveling in excess of 70 mph (in both directions) it is very similar to trying to cross the M4 ....there is at least one accident per week and there have been 3 fatalities to my knowledge .....the safety camera unit wont do anything (I did manage to get them up there) because they cant legally stop someone for speeding in the first three hundred metres of a 30 mph limit ...they wont even acknowledge there is a problem!!!! ....by the way maverick there was a traffic counter up there for two weeks recently, you know the ones with two rubber pipes going across the road, they also count the type of vehicle and the speed ......now where do I get a copy of that printout or could you find out for me ?
The Jazz festival is a law unto itself, and I heard a lot of people moaning about the price
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I'm a Dyslexic Agnostic Insomniac...
I sit up all night wondering if there really is a Dog
Well - and I thought I was the biggest moaner in Marlborough!!! Now, there are a lot of very negative things in this town and every other town and village in the UK. However, somethimes it is good to look at the positive.
I've just spent a fantastic weekend with friends in Marlborough and visitors too Marlborough. I started partying Friday night - saw Japanese Drummers, Waking the Witch (4 girls from Yorkshire singing), Slaughterhouse 7 - a group of incredible school boys with a master who played excellent trad jazz, then down to the Fire Station to dance and have enormous fun with The Township Sisters. AND did we have fun!!!
Saturday morning - off to our last rehearsal with the 40 strong Township Choir in St Mary's. From 11am till 5pm I was either rehearsing, drumming (with Kaya) or singing with Mbawula - the most fantastic experience! We felt really privilaged to be allowed to sing with the professionals - the audience were wonderful and very kind - clapping and shouting after every song - I don't think they were shouting "Get off" either!!
I spent the evening wandering up and down the High St with friends, dipping into this music and that - again ending in the Fire Station with Zubop Gambia where we danced like I haven't danced for 30 years!! I'm aching all over to prove it!
Sunday morning - the third day that Marlborough basked in sunshine - I was at St Mary's sitting in the choir stalls - (and me a Pagan!!) - and we sang a couple of our recently learned songs. The service was long, but the sermon was surprisingly good!
Paul Bartholomew has spent the last 3 Thursday evenings rushing down from London with one of the Township Sisters to teach us - they spent 5 hours getting to us this week because of the crisis in London. They taught us 6 songs (mostly in Zulu I think) including the famous "Click Song" and showed infinite patience!!
Sunday afternoon I listened to Curfew - great music again - then met up with friends for a little birthday party in The Sun Inn whilst listening to a brand new band - first performance - Burnt Reynolds, who were great. They played for free but raised money for Prospect Hospice - we had a lovely evening. I walked home in the gentle heat of the evening, down our beautiful High Street and once again wondered at the architecture, the ambience and my very good fortune to live in this place.
Why all this detail? Because - taking my view against other views of the same event you will have a very different perspective - and that is just worth thinking about. I LOVE Marlborough Jazz Festival - I know it has problems, I know all the people weren't happy all the time BUT you can make an event work for you or you can stay away - I was just very proud and very pleased to be part of it.
Trying to change things is often a lonely and seemingly futile thing to do ... but I believe that the silent majority really do genuinely appreciate people like you who are actually prepared to "get their hands dirty" on their behalf. Please ... Don't let the B*****ds grind you down!
Sorry Maverick......but they have already
I live here ...because it is convienient (work, friends, family etc.)
I don't shop here (too expensive ....and so far I haven't paid for parking here)
I also get my fuel from somewhere else, when I go shopping (well does anyone buy their fuel in Marlborough?)
the one thing Marlborough is very good at is extracting vast sums of money from visitors who get very little in return
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I'm a Dyslexic Agnostic Insomniac...
I sit up all night wondering if there really is a Dog
Its not really a reply to the topic of Jazz Festival its the apathy thing again.
I wish someone would tell me who Them, They and the B*****ds are (besides a good name for a punk band) we could then find "them" and tackle them with our anti-apathy flag.
There are centres of community spirit in the town, but each centre is not joined up so when a town wide event comes along its difficult to get them all involved, and besides, from my experience all peoples time is taken up with actually keeping their own centre of community running.
So the Carnival is dead and its a shame. Perhaps I am guilty for not supporting it this year I have in the past, but the bottom line is who actually cares, the 70 odd people who voted positively in the pole! but what is the population of Marlborough?
It maybe time to let the Carnival lie and think of something else to get involved in, its not worth knocking yourself for, flogging a dead horse.
