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26.08.10 - BANNER'S BLOG

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Put elderly lives ahead of the bottom line.

TAUNTON Deane Council and Knightstone Housing Association are thinking of demolishing 32 council-run sheltered houses and replacing them with - you’ve guessed it - 64 new homes.
Both organizations think they are being thoughtful.The Council is offering to help residents move, and choose their new homes. And now Knightstone is thinking it should develop the scheme in phases to “minimise any disruption”.
Some of these tenants are in their eighties, and don’t deserve such an upheaval at this time of their life. And how does Knightstone think it can do it in phases without immense disruption to those still in residency while the building work goes on? The association’s executives have obviously never been on holiday with a construction site next to their hotel.
Apart from being a supporter of either of Bristol’s two football teams, moving house, is probably the most stressful thing anyone will ever experience.
Come on, Taunton Deane and Knightstone. Just think of people, not profit
.

THE Wurzels have done a fair bit of traveling over the past few weeks, but we thoroughly enjoyed a “home” gig last Sunday at the Mid-Somerset Show at Shepton Mallet.
The crowd was brilliant there; maybe it was the sunshine making everyone happy. But rain or shine, if you have never been to this show, which seems to get better year after year, make a note in your diary to look out for it in 2011.
It’s a real “country show” with a lovely, friendly feel about it. And that seems to be the trend more and more these days, with people looking for an escape from our computerized modern world back to more simple and laid-back times. The same can certainly be said of the Garlic Festival on the Isle of Wight - another one for your diary – where we had played the previous night.
When we arrived, we were warmly welcomed by David Holmes, the chairman of the committee, who was telling us how fascinated he was by the differences in the ages and the variety of people wanting to see us.

Even the local police wanted to be there. David had just received a call from the CID and had got quite excited, thinking they were phoning about a marquee he had reported stolen the day before.
Far from it. The policeman on the other end just asked : “Can you tell me what time The Wurzels are on stage?”
No mention of his marquee. And I’ll have no wisecracks about our new CD, “A Load More Bullocks” being a criminal record, thank you very much.

(Reprinted with kind permission of The Western Daily Press.)