HELP
Well , I had the much anticipated meeting with the Head of Regeneration his excellency Mr Bill Hill ( be afraid ,be very afraid ) and his staff and I've waited and waited and waited for them to contact me with offers of help and guidance for Rock Bottom Promotions .
I just don't understand it , maybe I didn't make a very good impression maybe they didn't like me (my fans do ) maybe touching my forelock wasn't enough ,maybe I should have backed out of his presence bowing . Who knows ? It was perhaps the comment I made about the fact that he had his tea in a fancy cup and saucer with pretty flowers and I was given a builders mug .
Anyway , I was put in my place quick smart ! I did all the wrong things like speaking before I was spoken to , being over passionate about what we were hoping to achieve for our community ,being honest and open , being friendly and informal but above all , being naive and trusting . If only I'd mimicked his staff and just sat there with hands clasped on laps and eyes to the floor . Oh god what a fool I was ! How different the outcome could have been . Oh well ,you win some ,you lose some .
There is however a glimmer of hope , Mr Bill did mention ( no idea why , unless it was to excuse his lack of understanding of our community ) that he was 65 .This coupled with the fact that he didn't have a clue about what was going on and was more concerned with his own importance leads me to believe he'll be put out to pasture soon .
Calm down ,calm down , I ' ve heard the next in line for his throne spent his formative years in the mountains of Appalachia until he was discovered by a TCBC fact finding holiday .
So here we are again approaching the start of a new year with nothing in the offing except the same old, same old of how the Community Strategy , the Corporate Plan , the Regeneration of Communities are all going to make a huge difference to our quality of life in Torfaen .
We'll have the same old Torfaen News Letter with it's stupid ' pie charts ' backed up with waffle of how much they're doing for us .
STOP IT ,JUST STOP IT !
For the love of God just don't say anything ! What is the point of building up our hopes only to have them come crashing down .
As a voluntary organisation set up to help the community climb out of the black hole it's in , Rock Bottom Promotions ticks the boxes defined within the Community Strategy ,the Corporate Plan and the Regeneration of Communities . This should mean that we are entitled to help , guidance and funding or at least advice on finding it . According to Mr Bill Hill this is not the case .
Local councillors and the " highly paid and very clever " employees of Torfaen Borough Council are aware of this site and so yet again I 'm going to put something to them and expect an answer .
Why aren't you helping us ? Why are we being ignored ? Why will you spend thousands repairing
a stupid clock in old Cwmbran but not give us funding to put on shows using local talent for our community .We could have put on a concert a month for the whole of 2008 and taken the cast on holiday to Disney for less than it cost to repair the clock . What bright spark gave the go ahead for that ?
Why are you giving thousands and thousands to a similar organisation in the north of the borough ( yes I've seen their accounts on the internet ) yet totally ignore us .
Mr Bill Hill seems to think it's me " you are a very difficult man " . I think he has difficulty in differentiating between difficult and persistent .
Anyway if you're all scared of me ,that can be sorted quite easily for the sake of the community ,but only if we get the help we are entitled to . Think of it , no more sarky emails ,no more phone calls , no more hiding in other people's offices . Think about it and let me know .
I realised many years ago that Torfaen is not a ' listening ' council , it's made so many cock ups over the years it's afraid to listen . I've explained many times and to many people that I'm aware of the fact we should be getting help but Torfaen Borough Council is under the misapprehension that they are solely in control of our lives and we can't seek help from a higher authority .
Here's part of our newsletter for 2008 !
Local voluntary community organisation Rock Bottom Promotions takes it's case to the European Parliament after years of lies and empty promises from TCBC .
UH OH !
Oh ,and a HAPPY NEW YEAR .