League tables (Hull In Print, 10.2.7)
England & Wales have Hull at the bottom of the education league. The hundreds of millions of pounds that could be blown on the high profile schemes below will not improve the quality of education one iota, nor the life of any child. This should be our priority.
Feb 15th: Willie Rodriguez, LAST MAN OUT 9/11 hero survivor suing Bush. Hull.
Castle Street Tunnel 9.2.07
In a week for white elephants, Hull City Council wants to pursue its visionary tunnel at Castle Street under the River Hull. The last time, Yorkshire Water tried a tunnel near the Humber they lost their drilling machine, Big Bertha! Before that, at Sutton Road Bridge, the tunnel dug flooded and had to be abandoned. Can we please take the hint - drop the tunnel!
instead: incentivise leaving cars, improve public transport, expand bus shelter messaging system, promote a reliable service, make cycling easier, safer and better tolerated, bus vouchers with parking fines, subsidise bus passes...
It will make the proposed Quay West disruption look like a picnic.
Quay West - (See Hull In Print, 10.2.07)
Another new development on the way for Hull will cost £300 million and be an add-on to the existing Princes Quay site. Isn't St Stephen's enough? Why are we building more shopping centres? People buy enough in Hull and have quite sufficient to do with their money. Neither do we need to dig ourselves deeper into debt. More of what hasn't worked, won't work!
And yes, there will be disruption. QuayWest proposals
Incinerator approved 8.1.07
The contract is still unavailable for public scrutiny. We don't know what conditions WRG can hold the Councils to. Incineration is not the example to give Hull people who have just doubled their recycling rate (2005:11.5%, 2007:21%). In 20 years we can expect cancer clusters in the area. The thousands of tons of "waste" which should be recycled and reused will cause further gridlock on stretched roads.
How long did Hull people fight incineration in all its guises? For years. This should not have happened.