The council is at it again In a recent press release we have been informed that East Cambridgeshire District Council is going to spend £5,000 to bring the ‘wow’ factor to the visit Ely website.

In case members of this council haven’t already realised, their own website already has the ‘wow’ factor, and I don’t mean this in a positive way. To prove my point, I searched for ‘complaints’.

There was no sign of the information I expected. Oh yes, there were plenty of complaints about other people and institutions and plenty of instructions on ‘how to complain’ but no clear list of complaints about the council itself and how it had dealt with them.

Besides this, many of my other searches proved a waste of time saying: ‘I am sorry we are unable to provide detailed information regarding this question’ or the links suggested ended up with ‘I am sorry but the page you requested could not be found.’

I am sure this is a temporary blip, but if they’ve got £5,000, why don’t they spend it on making their own website easier to navigate and more informative?

The right girl for the job

Bridget Kendall, well known as a foreign correspondent for the BBC, has been appointed as the first female Master of Peterhouse College in Cambridge.

Hurrah! There is hope for us women yet!

Also, you might like to know, as far as I’m concerned, she has already proved her worth for when she came to Ely to give a talk many years ago, people were asked to write down questions they wanted her to answer.

In all innocence, one member of the audience asked Bridget if she knew Anna Politkovskaya whose assassination had just been reported on the news. None of us were expecting the reaction Bridget gave.

The shock on her face told us that this was the first she had heard about it yet in a calm voice she told us that she knew Anna very well and what an exemplary journalist she was. How’s that for composure?

A grave concern

It was interesting to read that the Bishop of Ely is leading a pilgrimage to Palestine this month. After he returns to East Anglia, I hope he will feel refreshed and motivated, for he might just be the man to sort out the problems at Witchford.

Now that Witchford vicarage has been sold (sadly without any of the funds returning to the parish) the gravedigger can’t take his digger down to the burial grounds in the usual way.

He is stuck – he can’t get the digger down the drove (offered as the alternative), for after a couple of journeys his digger will get stuck in the mud.

He could try going round the church but the path installed twists too much and is too narrow.

So, at the moment it seems that local people have to stop dying and are forbidden to have an epidemic. I wait with anticipation better solution(s).

Self referral

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust look eager to help the mentally ill – wonderful news. Unfortunately, they advertise for people to refer themselves.

How many psychopaths do you know would willingly refer themselves?

Many people I’ve come across needing help refuse to believe there is anything wrong and refuse to see anyone. They remain in their state and deteriorate until the emergency services have to be called.

Only recently, the police had been called out 49 times because someone was behaving dangerously. Surely once should be enough for the police to refer him/her to see a psychiatrist or counsellor regularly so that further costs for visits and hospitalisation might be reduced.

The buck stops at the top

At last it has been pointed out that the buck stops at the top and a lot of the problems in hospitals occur because the bosses need to be more efficient.

The chief inspector of hospitals Professor Sir Mike Richards is certainly making sense when he says bosses should stop making excuses and just get on with doing their job properly.

Not just hot air

Now I’ve heard it all. A UK business man is making a lot of money from selling bottled fresh air. In China and the Far East there are problems with pollution and people will pay £80 a pop. Now why didn’t we think of that? Surely there is something like this we can do – maybe bottled mud? – not very good for consumption but good for the complexion – yes?