Grantham Journal Column: ‘General aims of economic development strategy are excellent,’ says Councillor Ian Selby
It saddens me to read reports by the East Midlands Ambulance Service that their staff have been subjected to the highest number in the country of physical attacks by members of the public whilst they are undertaking their vitally important role in the community.
Life can be very fragile and our emergency service personnel do an amazing job under high levels of stress and pressure in a tough working environment.
Whilst emergency staff are dealing with issues of abuse and physical attack, they are being distracted from helping other people who are in desperate need of assistance.
I can understand if an attacker has a genuine mental illness, but when drink and drugs are involved then I’m afraid I am a little less sympathetic. Then in turn I become even more supportive of our police force who have to deal either retrospectively or proactively with drugs issues. Our emergency services deserve our support.
Something else that deserves our support is our district council’s economic development strategy. In my view, the general aims of this strategy are excellent. Who can argue against more jobs, more high skilled jobs, attracting new businesses, generating local spending power that helps a local economy, supporting the housing growth, lowering the burden on benefits and reducing anti social behaviour in the process. One small personal objection though is that it makes reference to promoting a certain party political figure. I say talk the town up, but keep the party politics out of it.
The draft consultation survey is available via the council’s website. However, the survey is limited and does not provide a section for further comments, only themed comments, so I suggest that you write to your council and help to influence how our local community is developed.
Tell the council if you think the Grantham Canal project should be included, and if you want things to be more environmentally friendly etc. As our town expands, tell the council if you feel that it’s important to underpin it with excellent local schools and higher education, or to support and encourage the ambulance service and the hospital trust to provide a service here locally that meets our needs.
Tell the council now, don’t miss this opportunity to express your view on your future. The consultation closes on Sunday.
Our goal should be to get Grantham top on the list of desirable places in the UK where people most want to live and have the best quality of life. Although South Kesteven rates highly in many surveys it can do very much better.
