My Partners in Crime Hit me for my nickels and dimes

To the East Sussex Strategic Partnership and a curious dispute which has all the potential to significantly affect part of our work which might need to be scaled down as a result of a serious mistake on the part of either the Government Office, the County Council or both depending on whose version of events you accept – the e-mail battle between them is still raging as I write.

It is all a bit complicated to explain but think of it like this…

Imagine that the County Council, Borough Council and Government Office go out for a meal together. For the sake of argument in this analogy HVA is the bistro manager. A four-course dinner is ordered and the first course arrives and is enjoyed. Compliments are sent to the chef and all seems rosy. When the second course comes to the table a dispute arises about who is actually going to pay for the meal. Not us, say the Government Office, but you said you would say the County Council (waving it's LAA Agreement), oh no we didn’t and on it goes. The Borough Council say that we might have paid for the meal but we didn’t know that we would have to and the money we would have used is being spent on other things. HVA, by this time are playing the part of the waiter, trying to be patient but growing increasingly irritated by this unseemly dispute between the various layers of local and regional government. Eventually someone turns to the waiter “could you give us some really small portions for the remaining courses and maybe between us we might pay for it…if we can find the money”

You get the idea and for the remainder of the financial year it looks like salad rather than steak!! Part of me appreciates the problem and I want to work towards a constructive solution. Part of me also feels like placing the whole thing in the hands of the Local Government Ombudsman and letting them pick over the entrails of this little piece of maladministration. Anyway pleasing that the partnership saw it as very much a shared problem which should, hopefully break the log-jam.

Anyway by chance I join other members of the HVA team on the train as they are returning from another meeting before I duck out at Warrior Square and attend a meeting with Housing Services. This is a complicated discussions about how to preserve a service after a voluntary organisation closes. As it is to do with Bonds, rent guarantees and cash deposits it is all very complicated. Finally catching up with a member of the Neighbourhood Renewal team as we compare notes on the future of community engagement and preserving the best elements of all we have learnt through the njeighbourhood renewal process. Much change afoot and not a lot of it particularly positive. Tommorow another journey beckons but thankfully the Hastings LSP Cooridinator and her colleague come to the rescue with an offer of a lift. The County wide perspective - difficult though it may be appears to be is becoming increasingly important which accounts for my prescence in all parts of East Sussex this week.

Anyway two positive things happen in what is otherwise frankly a rather piss-poor day. Firstly outside a charity shop in a box for 50p is the Black Grape debut - and only - album proving that there was life after the Happy Mondays for Shaun Ryder and secondly I receive a box of chocolates as a thank you from the ESSP for facilitating a workshop at last weeks assembly.
Anyway thanks to the fans who responded with their own suggestion as to the lyric that best describes the East Sussex Strategic Partnership. I've gone again for Bob Dylan and here he is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-xIulyVsG8