Thursday, 15th May 2014

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Speccy's Blog

Ok, we've got the weekly newspaper, some of the best stories of the week on this website, and a Facebook page for daily posts. But sometimes we just want to write some stuff and get it on the web. Nothing in particular and could be anything, but definitely worth checking in for...

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Posted by on in General Blog Posts
That will be a phrase that will have to be remembered over the next two years as the work to bring the public realm improvements to life in Bangor and Holywood exerts a squeeze on the town centres.You can rest assured that the contractors will be doing their best to keep disruption to a minimum but as anyone who has had to travel through either town centre - during morning or evening when the so called ‘rush’ hour takes place - will know, it takes very little to create large tailbacks and frustrated drivers.Two incidents in Bangor town centre recently showed just how a little can have a huge effect and how logjams in the town centre can generate significant ripples as far away as the ring road. The roadworks at Castle Street admittedly caught many people by surprise but it was striking just how long many motorists were trapped by...
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Asbestos occupies a peculiar place in the nation’s psyche. Simply mention the word and there will be gasps of horror and introduce it to the atmosphere in any way and reactions will be not short of panic.This is understandable given the horrors that have been inflicted on an unwitting population in the past; public memory of the experiences suffered by family members years ago still fresh as new generations learn of the mistakes of the past. Given that the real dangers that currently exist from asbestos are minimal since asbestos has by and large already been removed as new buildings have replaced old.That may mean that it is not factored into the thinking of those who plan the demolition of properties built years ago but it should be an automatic consideration when dealing with buildings of a certain age. And those who should know about these things would do better to...
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The eagle-eyed and truly cyberconnected among you will have noticed that we've been recently trialling a new polls and surveys app on our Facebook page over the last couple of weeks. What's the point? Well, here at 'Speccy HQ' we believe that the bigger point about all of our new digital gizmos is not so that we can say more to you our readers, but that we can provide new platforms for you guys to be able to express your opinions. One of our regular hot topics is of course the 'goings on' of the fine chaps & chapesses in North Down Borough Council. Councillors are those people we elect from time to time to make the important decisions on how the local towns should be run - as paid for by all our rates of course. Traditionally we elect these people and tend to just let them get on with...
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It's something that we all love to moan about. Go into any social gathering and you are almost guaranteed that within ten minutes someone will be sounding off about how roadworks are created especially to torture them particularly.That will unleash the rest of the other horror stories about traffic delays and seemingly aimless detours.The fascination with all things traffic is not new of course. No doubt ever since the invention of the motor car there have been conversations and outpourings about the iniquities suffered by travellers on the roads.It is probably fair to say though that with more cars than ever on a road network that was created to serve the society of over 30 years ago there is bound to be added pressure on all aspects of transport - and not just drivers. Road junctions that were ideal for traffic volumes years ago cannot cope both with the additional vehicles...
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This week has seen much better news all round on the jobs front. A new dementia and care home to be built between Donaghadee and Millisle will lead eventually to at least the equivalent of 60 full-time jobs and there could well be further benefits for local suppliers leading to further job security and possibly even more posts created.That is particularly welcome for the Ards peninsula which has been bereft of significant numbers of job opportunities for some time. Meanwhile in Bangor, there is the opening of a local branch of a national DIY retailer. That is leading to a minimum of ten posts and, as important, is also a sign of confidence in the economic abilities of the area.Then yesterday came the news that unemployment in Northern Ireland had dropped for the eleventh month in a row with similar trends being reported for both Ards and North Down council areas....
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Happy New Year everyone! Speccy hopes you and yours all had a great Christmas holiday and I’m sure you’re all girding your loins for the year ahead with excitement and enthusiasm – or not! So what will the year bring us? Probably very like what we had last year to be honest, nothing really changes very much… ;) Last year was the first for this new website and the Spectator’s new digital channels generally and it’s been an interesting learning curve for us all here at “Speccy HQ”. We learned for instance that the people of North Down just LOVE Facebook and so we’ve enjoyed getting to know you all a bit better by using our new page to get a bit of banter going. We say stuff and you tell us what you think – simple really! You told us all about your local heroes, villains, stuff that matters and...
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This week we published a story in the newspaper about Bangor’s weekly market and, in particular about how the local Council may or may not be affecting what appears to be a steadily declining interest from customers and traders alike. Now, keen readers of our Tweets will have noticed over the weekend that there was a wee bit of banter about the story between representatives of NDBC and ourselves and of course that’s how it should be; we say stuff – based on our journalistic research skills – and the people affected have the right to reply, and I suspect that this one will rumble on for a bit longer yet. But there is a big fat elephant in the room and it is this – just because Bangor has always had a market, do we still need or want one and would anybody miss it if it wasn’t there? Have...
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So, Bangor's to get its new theatre after all eh? Fandabedozee! (sic) If true - and Speccy sincerely hopes that (this time) it is - then that's fantastic news for the town. It's been a long time coming and should hopefully provide excellent new facilities for the production and performance of the performance arts locally. Speccy used to tread the boards you know - really! Long ago in the days of our beloved Little Theatre you would see him often, falling down, forgetting lines, singing out of tune, snogging ladies that he really shouldn't have.... ah, those were the days.... There's no doubt that we've missed having the social 'hub' that a theatre can be but there's no guarantee, now we're getting one*, that the current generation will go to it or know what to do with it. Certainly trudging along dutifully to the annual dodgy pantomime and the spring musical...
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Speccy has read (with interest) that along with our English neighbours Northern Ireland's young people are supposedly 'trailing the world' in literacy and numeracy - that's words and numbers to you ignorant sodafarl-eating peasants! ;) Ok, so I secretly suspect that we've been lumped into that story just to take the bad look off the English, but even at that it raises a wee small question in my overly suspicious scone. And it goes like this... Norn Iron still has the 11+ (not officially, but it does....) As a result we routinely achieve the highest regional GCSE & A-Level scores in the UK every year compared to the English, Scots and Welsh. However, if we're honest, we also know that those outside the grammar school system tend to have low english & mathematics skills and of course it is this division between the 2 groups that tends to be used as...
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Hi all, just a quick wee bit of technical nonsense for you... The eagle-eyed will have noticed that we actually, subtly, went live this week but some of you might also have experienced a tiny wee bit of downtime on the website. The reason? Well, we built the sites and then tested them and then invited friends and family to test them some more and, when everything looked to be working, we let her rip. Then of course we had a couple of thousand of you want to see a photo of a dead cat on our sister newtownardschronicle.com website and the webserver promptly fell over! Brilliant... Anyhoo, the upshot is that the good boys and girls at our webhosting partners have upweighted their systems and all is seemingly good once more. Apologies to anyone that was affected or inconvenienced and if any of you see any other problems please drop...
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Posted by on in General Blog Posts
Wow, that was a busy week all right! We had 6 newspapers to put out and that meant a lot of midnight oil added to the ink, blood, sweat & tears! But what a week! Some big stories out there - horrendous assaults against young women, the potential (probable?) closure of Exploris and the sad passing of Pat Milliken, amongst many other things... Probably the story that raised most hackles amongst our Facebook readers though was the news that primary school funding is to either cut or boosted according to the social/financial standing of its pupils. Ok, that's a simplification, but in effect it means that if the school doesn't have a lot of kids receiving free school meals then that school will have its budgets cut from the Government. In North Down, like everywhere else, we will have winners and losers of course but the pain looks likely to be...
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Posted by on in General Blog Posts
Hi everyone, this is the first blog post from me, Speccy! As you know, Speccy is the short nickname for the paper and is kinda how you people have been referring to us here for a long time but the point of this blog is to bring the guy to life, give him a bit of a stage and a voice to talk back with. So, just as the County Down Spectator has its traditional role and way of telling the local news - with professional journalists and editors and clever people like that - this blog is a different way of talking about what's going on around these parts, putting a different and less formal personality on the thing... Speccy is no one and Speccy is all of us! This blog is going to be where some personal views are going to be written - not as a part of...
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