So we're back again for another dose of Kevin and his Castleford project. Last week we saw how the council and local community could clash and pull together, in one episode, to build a much needed bridge in the town. This week it's all about three public parks in the area, all with a distinctly different starting point and execution, and their apparent need to be revitalised after "Thatcher pulled the plug" on these spaces...as Mr McCloud puts it (I may paraphrase slightly).

The question you instinctively have going in to the program is just how much simply building public recreational space can help a community, especially with regard to crime and perception of crime. Unfortunately the program never really answers this, merely alluding to a drop in delinquency in certain areas. Perhaps the program never could answer this question, at least not before a full generational turn over to see the effects of a new set of children on an area they have no real ownership over.

But what was amazingly interesting was how different parts of this same town took to these ideas and ran with them, with very different solutions.

The Liberal Democrats announced on Tuesday a "radical" new plan that aims to shake up transport policy in the country for the future. Unfortunately for them it really isn't radical enough, more accurately it is a collection of good ideas marred by not enough courage or vision to be truly radical wrapped up in a package who's most radical proposal is to fund and create one of the most illiberal transport legislature ever made.

Cutting fuel duty and abolishing VED over the next 10 years and introducing a cost-neutral road user pricing scheme on motorways and trunk roads. - Liberal Democrat Website

If you're interested in more of this debate amongst Lib Dem bloggers and other interested parties then head over to Lib Dem Voice now and take a look at what's been said. Otherwise please read on for more of my thoughts by following the link below!

A few days ago a story went largely un-noticed about Hazel Blears proposing that local councils and local communities could form a contract with each other about expectations put upon local government. The idea is that if the council fails to tackle things like drug dealing, graffiti and dirty streets, then local residents could be entitled to some of their council tax back...though it is keenly stressed this would only be in the most serious of failures, an as yet unquantified level of problems.