Unvaled – Summer 2011

You can see the summer 2011 edition of Unvaled here.

The Tory-led Vale council doesn’t seem to be committed to communications with residents: they are considering discontinuing this community newsletter.

The new council is also looking at the future of Unvaled, and
whether it should continue to produce a magazine for
residents. Please let us know what you think by emailing
haveyoursay@southandvale.gov.uk or call 01235 547614

If you like reading Unvaled, and like hearing how the Vale is putting your money to work, send them your views by email (or phone, but I’m suspicious of anything that doesn’t have an electronic records these days.)

Get it Sorted Sessions

County Councillor Janet Godden and I are collaborating to bring a Get It Sorted session to a location near you. We’ll have a session every other month, and hold it at a different venue each time, so that everyone will have a session near where you live. I hope you’ll come along and meet us!

No matter your local government-related question, you’re likely to find the answer at a Get It Sorted session. District concerns are things like planning applications, rubbish and recycling, housing. County concerns include road repair, education and social care.

The first Get It Sorted session will be Tuesday, 13 Sept 2011, from 6-7pm. We don’t have a location determined yet (today is 30 Jun 2011) — but as soon as it’s firmed up, I’ll post an update here.

I hope you’ll come along so we can meet IRL (in real life). I’d like to hear what you think.

Why have a Councillor’s blog?

I’m in earnest discussion with some of the Vale Councillors as to the value of having a blog site. They wonder, if I have no real idea whether people come to read what I have to say, is it worth the time spent?

I usually work a strategy based on first deciding the overall thing I’m trying to achieve, or the longer-term goal. In this context, by  ‘longer-term’ I mean 3-4 years or so. Medium term would be over a year. And Everything less would be ‘short-term’.

In this case, unashamedly, one of my longer terms goals is to get re-elected. In order to get re-elected, I think it’s important to keep in touch with the people who will vote for me. Newsletters, flyers, knocking on doors, Twitter, and blogging are all good ways to do that. I want to find a way to keep in touch with people who are online, which I think hasn’t been done very well (or at all) in the past. So, that’s why I have a blog.

Please let me know what sort of communications you value, and what types of things you want to hear about. If I don’t hear from you about what you want, then I can just keep on writing about the things I want. 🙂

The graphic here is called a Wordle. This one happens to be Obama’s inauguration speech. You can make one of any written doc, through the Wordle website.

New Vale of White Horse Website Goes Live

The new look Vale website at www.whitehorsedc.gov.uk launched on Wednesday the 23rd of June 2011.

As well as including all the best features from our old site, residents will be greeted by a fresh looking, much
less cluttered homepage, with a brand new navigation structure to help residents reach the service/
information they are looking for as quickly and easily as possible.

Please note, if you have the council’s website added to your browser favourites, you will need to add it
again. You may also find searches in Google take a few days to update.

For more information or to give us your feedback on the site contact:

Vic Buckett-Hipgrave
01491 823108
victoria.buckett-hipgrave@southandvale.gov.uk

or

Helen Strain
01491 823931
helen.strain@southandvale.gov.uk