Author Archives: Jim Hardaker

Let us decide the fate of our open spaces

By Jim Hardaker | Wed 6th January 2016 - 2:58 pm

Across the UK, cash-hungry councils are selling off parks and open spaces to fill up their coffers.

We’re supposed to accept that in these times of diminishing government spending it’s necessary to sacrifice some niceties – but the loss of recreational green land that’s supposed to belong to us all is going too far.

To think that councils are using the funds from selling our parks to deliver services is optimistic at best. Land sale is capital. Services come out of the revenue budget.

Yet still it seems hard for the public to make a case that their parks should be saved. Councillors claiming to represent their constituents clearly feel that silent majorities outweigh the hundreds and even thousands who sign petitions, and perhaps they do. But something needs to change or we will never have a way to know for sure.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged parks | 7 Comments

Opinion: End this taxi madness

By Jim Hardaker | Tue 8th April 2014 - 11:33 am

I climb into the driving seat of a taxi to respond to a call.

I pick up my passengers; it’s a school run. Halfway to school the phone rings again. I have an earpiece so I answer it. It’s another job, so I grab the radio and send another driver.

We’re nearly at the school now. The roads are busy. I’m concentrating, but the phone rings again. This time it’s a booking for later today, and I can’t write it down at the moment so I try to keep it in my head.

While I’m trying to make a mental note of those details, I can see another call waiting in the background. I hang up and that call comes through. Someone wants a quote for an airport run, and since I can’t write their number down and get back to them, I try to recall the price from memory as best I can.