• When public went private
PFI projects can work well, particularly in sectors like roads, housing and lighting, says Robert Bullard. Local Government Chronicle, 23 August 2007 Local Government Chronicle, August 2007

• Polish Ponies to the Rescue
First it was builders, then it was plumbers, now it is ponies. The Polish have been invaluable in recent years, meeting a range of British needs, and the recent arrival of hundreds of Konik horses in Kent looks set to continue this trend. The animals, bred in Poland from the now extinct European Tarpan, are being introduced to Canterbury’s marshlands to help bring back rare birds and wildlife. Daily Telegraph, April 2007

• A revival of the cherry orchard
When a few trees died in the centre of Philip Neaves’ cherry orchard, he might have been tempted to fill in the gaps or even, like his neighbouring farmers, to grub up the whole lot and replace them with a fruit crop that is easier to mange.  But his Parish Council approached him with another idea, which has seen his orchard take on a different role.   Daily Telegraph, April 2007

• Life returns to a wasteland of war
Three o’clock’, just inside the M25 orbital, is an unlikely place to go bird watching, but nestled on the north bank of the Thames, bordered by flyovers and pylons, is a new nature reserve, an oasis of calm amidst sleepy suburban sprawl.  Daily Telegraph, January 2007

• Villagers mapped together
It’s hard to find Cleobury Mortimer and Crickhowell in an atlas. But the middling Marches towns are proudly boasting the success of their recent efforts to put themselves on the map. Daily Telegraph, April 2006

• Theatre group breathes life to career options
Vicky Pollard has not done her homework, and has a mouthful of excuses to explain why, and wheelchair bound Andy is his usual cocky self and thinks he knows all there is to learn. TES Teacher Magazine, April 2006

• 25 Fined every day for using phones in their cars
More than 16,500 motorists have been fined for using their mobile phones while driving in the Midlands. Around 25 people per day have been hit with £30 fixed penalty notices since the ban was introduced two year ago. Now cops are calling for tougher powers to tackle a number of irresponsible drivers who are still putting others at risk. Sunday Mercury, 15th January 2006

• Classics Clean up Co-op
‘See ya down the Co-op’ has become the parting exchange among many of today’s teenagers – on our post war housing estates at least. And no wonder, since the supermarket is often their last surviving retail outlet and its late opening hours and concrete forecourt enable floodlit football – not just shopping – ‘till late. Daily Telegraph, April 2006

• Top names line up for a celebration
How should we celebrate St George’s Day, on 23rd April? It is a question that has taxed many of us, and this year Whitchurch has the answer. Shropshire Star, 15th March 2006

• Sculptors gather to display works
The clocks go back 230 years next month when experts in cast iron descend once more on Ironbridge, the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution - but not builders and bridge makers as when the historic iron bridge was built over the Severn in 1779, but this time a gathering of contemporary sculptors and their work. Shropshire Star, 15th March 2006

• Sounding out modern
About three years ago a few friends of mine were wondering what to do one Saturday night. “Pub, pictures, or .. what does it say here, a contemporary classical music concert. In Bayston Hill? You must kidding!” Shropshire Star, 15th March 2006

• Making Maths Fun
Algebra and arithmetic scare some children off the subject, and probability and Pythagoras deter a few more, but with sport, magic potions and paper darts a retired teacher promises he can make maths fun! Teacher Educational Supplement Teacher Magazine December 2005

• Flounders Folly
The views from the top are incredible. “On a clear day you can see Cader Idris, Skirrid, at Abergaveny, the Malverns, and maybe even the Pennines,” says Sula Rayska, excitedly. “So its claims of being built in order to see the ships on the Mersey may not be so far fetched!” Shropshire Star October 2005

•  G is for giving … and group action
As leaders of the G8, the major industrial nations, gather in Gleneagles, secondary schools across the country will be making their own pledges to make the world a better place. The organisers of Giving Week - a celebration of all the charity work that goes in schools - are hoping their initiative will receive an added boost as a result of this year’s coincidental overlap with the international summit of world leaders here in Britain. Daily Telegraph July 2005

•  Fishing hits the curriculum
The sleepy Shropshire town of Wem – derided locally for being little more than the home of the sweet pea society – has hit the news after the town’s comprehensive became the first school in the country to put fishing on its curriculum. “And why not?” asks Lynne Edwards, the Year 11 Head Teacher whose energy is driving the initiative. “You need to keep making school interesting - particularly for the boys - and fishing has proved a way of doing so.” Daily Telegraph August 2005

•  Film talent is home grown
It may not be Star Wars: Episode III, or the latest Wallace & Grommitt, but the work of a Shrewsbury filmmaker is also on view at Cannes! Sam Moore, from Shrewsbury, is the town’s little-known but clearly talented rising star of a film director. On the back of other work commissioned and shown by Channel 4, her latest piece, ‘Doubled Up’, is currently on show in the British Council’s tent at the Cannes Film Festival. Shropshire Star May 2005
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Local history

•  Popping in for a pint
In the first of two articles on Shrewsbury’s pubs Robert Bullard takes a look at the changes that have taken place over the last 150 years, explains some of their curious names, and tries to identify which are the longest-running. Shrewsbury Times, 6th February 2006

•  Bridging the Severn
ROBERT BULLARD takes a tour of the town’s bridges Shrewsbury Times, 19th January 2006

•  Shrewsbury’s almshouses – helping those in need
How many almshouses are there in Shrewsbury – still operating ones, that is? More than you might think, probably. But to give you time to guess, let me start with a bit of background and history. Shrewsbury Times September 2005

•  The Sunnycroft Connection
Local people have been telling ROBERT BULLARD about their memories and connections with one of Wellington’s most prized Victorian houses. Wellington News September 2005

•  As old as the hills – but which one?
By a strange quirk of fate, 2005 is the major anniversary of several of Shropshire’s most distinguished personalities – and all from one family! Everyone in Shropshire, I suspect, knows The Column, in front of Shirehall, on the outskirts of Shrewsbury. Many will have wandered around the follies – or played golf perhaps – at Hawkstone. Or walked with family and friends through Attingham Park. But did you know that all three spectacular sites are memories to the same family, the Hills, whose links with Shropshire stretch back over 500 years? Shropshire Magazine February 2005

•  Bridging the gap
Two hundred years ago this year, a procession of canal boats drifted jubilantly along the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct – to the accompaniment of union jacks, ‘Rule Britannia’ and a 15-gun salute. It was a spectacular occasion. And there was good reason to celebrate. Ten years after it had first been proposed, the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct was finished and open to traffic. But all was not quite what it seemed. Country & Border Live April 2005

•  Kings of the wild frontiers
This month, people across Britain will be celebrating the 60th anniversary of Victory in Europe (VE) Day, 8th May 1945, and with it the end of the Second World War. But in Shropshire and the Marches people have an added reason to remember the heroic contributions played by thousands of soldiers who fought ‘For King, Queen and Country’ - and not just during WWII. Country & Border Life May 2005
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Real lives

•  Wheels of Change
Aylesbury is not Amsterdam, with its hundreds of bikes at every street corner, but the Buckinghamshire town does share one feature with Holland that makes it a good place for promoting cycling: it is fairly flat. Cycle Magazine, December 2006/January 2007

•  Close to the wind
The course description had me hooked. ‘Even if the winds are light,’ it read, ‘your cat will still be the fastest boat afloat.’ I knew immediately it was the course for me, and was already rearing to go. Daily Telegraph October 2005

•  No pane, no gain
Strong colours, symbolic figures, intricate detail and biblical stories – they are all part of the wonderful world of stained glass which can now be found in a beautifully renovated studio-barn at the foot of the south Shropshire hills. Shropshire magazine October 2005

•  Nikki up for African test
Nikki Jones relishes a challenge. “When I was in Africa a while ago, I fell in love with the light and the wide open spaces,” she says. “I decided that one day I would return, and climb Mount Kilimanjaro.” Now, after six years in the planning, eight months of fundraising and four months working on her fitness, she is ready to conquer the 6,000-metre peak. Shropshire Star January 2005

•  My link to Trafalgar
Thirty years ago Francesca Upton opened a bundle of papers that her in-laws had been keeping in their barn in Wollerton, North Shropshire. “I did not know what I was going to find”, she says. And to some degree at least she still doesn’t, because about one third of the papers still lie untouched, but are now relocated to a neatly arranged shelf in her study. “We knew my husband’s family had a link with Trafalgar, but that was about all. What was their involvement and what happened to them, nobody knew”. Your Family Tree magazine August 2005
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Social issues

Sealing the deal
Community charters can improve areas by engaging residents and setting out councils’ responsibilities. Robert Bullard reports on successful schemes. Local Government Chronicle, May 2008

•  Generation Game
Read the tabloids and you could be forgiven for thinking that older people live in fear of young people and anti-social behaviour. But Robert Bullard finds that councils can tackle tensions between the generations. Local Government Chronicle, February 2008

•  Brought to restorative justice
An imam and prison chaplain who draws on the story of Joseph is helping inmates comprehend how their crimes affect victims Guardian March2008

•  Perfecting Partnerships
Council services are increasingly being delivered through partnerships with the private sector. Robert Bullard looks at what makes them work – and why they might fail. Local Government Chronicle  February 2008

•  All around the houses
Three groups of visitors are wandering around Birmingham's Blakesley Hall, a timber-framed building more than 400 years old. There's one school group in red jerseys, another in blue, and a mixed group of 12 women - Pakistani, Indian, Bangladeshi, Arabic and Afro-Caribbean - with their young children.  Guardian June 2007

•  Sanctuary for the Suicidal
Based in an unassuming surburban London street, Maytree is a place for people who are considering taking their own lives to stay for a few days, to talk, rest and reflect - somewhere independent that does not offer medical treatment, nor is linked to mental health services.   Community Care November 2007

•  Older people: Knowsley Council's community engagement project
Like other community engagement initiatives before it, people were sceptical of the chances of the Knowsley Older People's Voice (KOPV) when it launched. They had seen community engagement projects come and go, and statutory organisations pay lip-service to consultation. But this hasn't been the case with KOPV in Merseyside, and the partnership that gave birth to it. Community Care November 2007

•  Tackling unpaid carers ill health
The health of the UK's six million carers suffers as a direct result of unpaid caring work. Indeed, according to In Poor Health, a survey of the impact of caring by Carers UK in 2004, the more hours a carer provides, the more likely it is that they will be in poor health. This is particularly so for those providing more than 50 hours a week, which is the case for nearly 21% of carers. Community Care October 2007

•  Councils respond to EU migrants
Migrants from new members of the EU - notably Poland - have settled in nearly every council across the country. But although their impact on the national economy is thought to have been generally positive, the repercussions on local councils have been more mixed. In addition to language difficulties, the workers are often vulnerable to exploitation in their employment and housing, and the presence of multi-occupancy households can create tensions with existing communities. Local Government Chronicle August 2007

•  Home Comforts
The place where people are cared for in their dying days is in direct contrast to their wishes, a survey published in 2003 found. So although most are looked after in hospital, only 11% would choose to be in this setting and whereas 56% prefer to die at home, only 20% do so, discovered researcher Irene Higginson, of the Cicely Saunders Foundation and National Council for Hospice and Specialist Palliative Care Services.  Community Care August 2007

•  Power to the people
With voter turnout at record lows, several councils are searching further and further afield for effective ways to address the democratic deficit. One idea, which comes all the way from Brazil, is called ‘Participatory Budgeting.’ Its name may not off the tongue, but the idea is simple - and it’s bringing a range of benefits to those bold enough to try. Local Government Chronicle, May 2007

•  Pioneer Care Farm
Lydia Otter’s career choice and lifetime passion was sparked as a teenager by watching a TV programme about music therapy. (Ecologist, June 2007)

•  Parents once again
Just when some grandparents believe their parenting days are behind them and they can enjoy occasionally spending time with their grandchildren, they end up permanently looking after them. Whether because the parent has died, is in prison, is abusing drugs or alcohol, has mental health problems, or has even abandoned their children, people in their fifties and sixties can end up becoming, quite unexpectedly, parents all over again.  Community Care July 2007

•  The therapeutic value of care farms
It has long been known that tending to animals and working the fields can be therapeutic for people, but only now has a movement to promote “care farming” begun to gain momentum in the UK. Robert Bullard reports  Community Care March 2007

•  More hands on the purse strings
A new approach is changing the involvement of local communities in the planning, participation and process of deciding what council budgets are spent on.  It comes not from the US or Scandinavia, or any of the usual sites of Western public policy innovation, but from Brazil. Guardian April 2007

• Border Relations
Breckland district council, in Norfolk, used to be one of the worst performing councils for assessing housing benefit claims. Residents waited an average of 122 days. That was four years ago. But the council has achieved a dramatic turnaround. As a result of merging its housing benefit and other revenue services with Forest Heath district council, in neighbouring Suffolk, claimants now wait only 16 days.  Guardian November 2006

• Gone, but not forgotten
When Kevin Sandiford died of cystic fibrosis in 2002, his widow, Gwen, decided to have a plaque put up in his name. As a way to remember their loved one and friend she and 32 others joined the Cystic Fibrosis Trust’s annual ascent of Ben Nevis, leaving behind a black plaque at the top. Daily Telegraph, November 2006

• Altered images
Five young people and five councillors in Norfolk have used their mobile phones in an effort to engage more young people in the region's democratic process. They have taken photos that illustrate their everyday lives and shared them online.  Guardian 19th July 2006

• Tooterin’ folk in Norfolk
Today’s street language is more colourful than most of us would like – but not if you live in Norfolk, where the old and the young are combining to safeguard the local dialect, and put real Norfolk back into the local natter. Telegraph, July 2006

•  Life in the workhouse
A plaque on the wall of the Wellington library – you have to be tall to read it since it is raised about eight feet high - says that the building was once a workhouse. But what were workhouses? Was this the town’s first or last? And does anyone have ancestors whose lives can shed some light? Wellington News November 2005

•  The Death March from Hell
On the 60th anniversary of VE Day a soldier from Trench tells ROBERT BULLARD of his 500 mile ‘Death March for Freedom’ at temperatures of -35°C, in which many of his comrades perished Wellington News April 2005

•  Helping after wave horror
“Our first clue that something was happening”, says Mary Oxley, “was a text message from a friend, who said she was evacuating and what were we doing! I hadn't a clue what she was talking about. But she quickly put us in the picture.” “We were a bit reluctant to leave our house at first”, he continues, “because of possible looting. But after we saw the first wave had come within 100 meters of the lane where we live we were in little doubt.” Shropshire Star January 2005
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Celebrity profiles

•  Off the wall
Politician and author Rt Hon. Ann Widdecombe MP, talks to Robert Bullard about some of her favourite paintings – rural landscapes and others. Artists and Illustrators, May 2006

•  Off the wall
Tony Benn talks to Robert Bullard about paintings and statues that remind us of our history. Artists and Illustrators, March 2006

•  A bright idea to design reflector
Cat’s eyes, which helped to bring safety to Britain’s roads, are celebrating their 70th birthday. ROBERT BULLARD looks back on the man who invented them. Shropshire Star June 2005

•  The origin of Darwin
We all know the statue outside the library and the man behind ‘The Origin of Species,’ but what do you know of the house where our most famous Salopian was born? Shrewsbury Times November 2005

•  Happy days? Not for us all
School days can be among the most formative of our life. All of us have memories of our times there. Of particular teachers, hobbies and friends. So, what can Shropshire-educated celebrities still remember about their early-life experiences? Shropshire Star March 2005

Education

•  Eco Homes
As our environmental awareness increases, many of us are prepared to insulate our loft or to invest in low-energy light bulbs. Other people – such as Colin and Pauline Ives, pictured – take a much more radical approach. They are building their own green home. Community Times February 2007

•  Victorian School Buildings
The Government's school building programme is putting 19th-century structures at risk. But campaigners are fighting back to save the 'wonderful' architecture. Independent September 2006

•  Lost in Translation
Today’s street language is more colourful than most of us would like – but not if you live in Norfolk, where the old and the young are combining to safeguard the local dialect, and put real Norfolk back into the local natter. Daily Telegraph July 2006

•  Getting to grips with geology
“Can you use your imagination?” says the geology guide, to a group of 10 year olds on their geography field trip. “I need you to close your eyes and cast your mind back 400 million years – days when there were no homework and no exams!” Times Educational Supplement June 2006

•  Making the most of mind maps
Mind Maps ‘are the Swiss army knife of the brain', once wrote Tony Buzan, their creator and promoter. But having cut into the education sector 10-15 years ago, the diagrams that once enthused us all have today diverged into different, disputing devotees.  Times Educational Supplement June 2006

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