Tuesday, 3 February 2009

Even very recently, I took some pride in not being thwarted by the weather. I can remember walking through a desolated London park the morning after the great storm of 1987. There was only a little snow overnight and I had high hopes today of driving to work in Watford. I drove Jackie to her job in Welwyn Garden City town centre. But the roads were treacherous and when a car ahead of me skidded on the ice I decided that my nerves would not stand the drive to Watford and I returned home.

I spent my day reading through the reports we’ve received on the Holywell Community Centre. They make interesting reading. WCVS is currently based on Watford High Street close the epicentre of Watford’s social, commercial and political life. If we relocate to the Holywell Community Centre, we will be based in the middle of a park right on the edge of Watford with our nearest neighbours a few hundred yards away. But nevertheless, a move to the Holywell could be fantastic: we ought to be able to secure a long lease and the will be space and time to develop and implement some long-term plans – and the site has great potential. But there are also plenty of elephant traps to avoid. WCVS needs to take an “in principle” decision in 3-4 months. These reports highlight that at present there are still so many unresolved (and perhaps irresolvable) questions.

I also wrote to my Herts CVS colleagues about Hertfordshire’s emergency planning arrangements. Particularly I wrote about arrangements for humanitarian aid centres that might be set up in the aftermath of a disaster. Local authorities are responsibility for setting up and funding any such centre, but the centres should also engage voluntary agencies - including those from the local community. When establishing a humanitarian aid centre, a local authority will need a voluntary sector partner with considerable local knowledge and with skills at building effective partnerships. To me, it is therefore a simple and obvious conclusion that the local CVS should be the key voluntary partner. I have put this to the key emergency planners at HCC who seem convinced and I have written this into a draft Memorandum of Understanding between Herts CVS and HEVEC. Today I have sent this to my Herts CVS colleagues to see if we can get a common agreement on this.