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Congraulations Cheshire East Highways (OR NOT) for deploying 5/6 men, 4 vehicles/Road Closure to fill in various potholes in Paddock Lane/Wood Orchard Lane on Monday 13th March, which have now reverted back to their original pothole state. Call this a repair? DO THE JOB PROPERLY PLEASE.

Having received Cheshire East Council Tax Bill 2023/24 I was shocked to find that Audlem Parish Councils charge has increased by a whopping 130.3 % from last year!!!
Does anyone know the reason for this increase??? Surely Audlem Parish Council should be notifying all Audlem residents as to the reasons why they have applied a huge increase??

I got very excited on Monday to see that Paddock Lane was closed for the massively overdue pothole repairs. I was excited because, in the previous 4 or 5 attempts to fill in these ever re-curing ever spreading potholes, I had never seen a road closure, so I assumed that this time the job was going to be done properly, once and for all, hurrah. However, the following day when I witnessed the work that had been completed I was gobsmacked, I have to say that a blind chimp with 2 buckets of play-dough could have done better, it is an absolute disgrace, is this the level of service that we pay our ever-increasing council tax for??? It wouldn't surprise me if leaving 50% of the potholes untouched is maybe a new brilliant council initiative to save money, what a bunch of incompetent plonkers they really are.

Coole Lane is to reopen at midnight on 31/3 according to Cheshire East today.

The United Kingdom last had compulsory national identity cards during World War II when they were introduced for security purposes. Wartime ID cards were finally withdrawn by the Churchill government in 1952 because of the tension they created between the police and innocent citizens.

We never seem to learn from history.

Unfortunately, Nick Smith, I think it's highly unlikely that everyone will abstain from voting as a protest against the new requirement to present a form of photo id when voting in person.
I'd respectfully suggest that instead people should bear this needless legislation in mind when deciding how to vote.
It is perhaps telling that whilst an Older Person's Bus Pass and Oyster 60+ card (both funded by UK government) are deemed legitimate photo id a students' photo id and an 18+ student Oyster photo card are not.

I agree 100% with the comments. As a protest I am not voting. If everyone did the same I think the government would consider scrapping this scheme and implement online voting, this is 2023.

This photo iD rubbish is just Big Brother again. Taken from the Electoral Commision website – 595 cases of alleged electoral fraud were investigated by the police. Of these, four led to a conviction and two individuals were given a police caution.

These figures are across the UK. 595 across how many millions for 2019. Just 4 led to a conviction.

Does anyone know the current approximate depth of the ford crossing at Swanbach. Thinking of a trip to Market Drayton.

I was unable to participate in the YMCA Big Sleep Out 2023 as I was recovering from Covid.
My apologies to all my generous sponsors.
Hazel Horton

I heard that Ralph was going to do a report on the England-France rugby but his calculator was low on battery.

Is it correct that Ralph is doing the match report tonight?

Always pays to have a read around before you start jumping up and down

Helpful for information.........Like alternative fuel payments......... https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/

Good morning Iain,
I checked my Eon.Next account again this morning and lo and behold the £200 payment had been made as Celia indicated on 12th February.
I replied back to the acknowledgement to cancel the application I made yesterday.
I had no advice of the award of the payment but nevertheless, there is was and gratefully received !
It is still worth checking.
Thanks again Iain for making us all aware of this.
Nigel.

Here we aregetting robbed left right and centre by energy companies , supermarkets , petroleum companies, corrupt and loony government . They could keep their £200 if we could get a fair crack of the whip .

Just to what a "tour de force " is the WH Auden poem revisited. Big thank you to the author. Truly sums up today's world

Hi,
I am with Eon.Next and no credit or payment or advice yet received. Maybe my application will shake the tree??
Nigel.

Thanks for all the interest in my original post and the experiences described. Maybe it's just my electricity company (Eon) that's being remiss and not advising me and there is nothing on their website to help either. Hopefully I'll get an answer soon! The purpose of the post remains, however, to make sure all of us keep an eye out for our payments if you're entitled and make sure you get it.

There was no need to claim, it just ended up in my electricity account.
We weren't even notified about it.
Apparently its anyone who doesn't have a gas account.

I live in Audlem with oil fired heating and electricity supplied by Octopus. Without me taking any action my Octopus account was credited with the Government's £200 on 14th February. Best of luck getting yours sorted.

I had an email from our electric supplier informing that we would be eligible for the £200 Alternative Fuel Payment, mistakenly we assumed it would be paid into our bank account, found out it goes as a credit on our electric account. I've now requested that it's paid to us rather than sitting in their bank.

As I understand it anyone who is not on main gas gets the payment automatically. I received mine from my electricity company (OVO) several weeks ago without applying for it. I did ring my electricity company at the end of last year, I think, and at that time they did not know how the payments would be allocated or made.

My electricity supplier is British Gas, and the £200 was paid into my electricity account at the end of February.

Ref Iain's post, we received. about a week ago, a direct payment of £200. Wasn't expecting it and hadn't claimed it, but gratefully received. (We have Calor Gas)