Fortunately in twenty one years, not much has changed around here, no real development greenbelt. Thirteen houses and three farms, mostly dairy and sheep. Two of them now been organic for more than twenty years, as a result the hedgerows are alive with an amazing variety of wild flowers. Primroses have done especially well and now the bluebells creeping in.

For a couple of years we had skylarks in a large field not a mile away but huge works undertaken by Severn Trent has scared them off.  The curlews have returned having been absent for two years but their numbers like the Lapwings are well down. One critter that is multiplying significantly is the rabbit and the hedge rows on the lanes I walk Sam, our rescue Lab, are honeycombed with burrows. I gave up counting the number I see when I got to a hundred.

Around dawn I will see odd fox or badger and occasionally water voles and pine martins, they say there are otters on the river but I have never seen one. But twice I saw a kingfisher.  In abundance are Herons, buzzards, duck, snipe, geese, swans, and something I’ve missed. There are huge varieties smaller of birds unfortunately for them we have a pair of peregrines and in an explosion of feathers one took a ring collared dove in our garden, and the sparrow hawk is a regular visitor to the bird table.  After sunset tawny, little and barn owls and what I took to be a night jar. Sadly I have not seen or heard a nightingale since I lived at the The Boot in Willington, but we have hedgehogs.

Recently on our way home from Oswestry we saw a Red Kite, the first I have seen within forty miles of here.

Walk on the day £10 registration; sponsor yourself or others to walk. Give just a couple hours of your time, a great walk for all the family and, if you have one your dog. Start from through Duke’s drive and back along the river over the meadows, Chocolate stop! Juice stop! Bacon Butty stop! and Gin & Tonic at the end!

Sunday 8th May registration the Stand from 10am ief for parents with a severely handicapped child. Walk on the day £10 registration; sponsor yourself or others to walk.

This subject applies to all companies/businesses/organisation operating in the UK and I raise it wearing my fraud prevention hat, for further information about protecting yourself against fraud please see www.northwestfraudforum.co.uk or your own regional fraud forum

On the subject of Insider Fraud there is always a possibility when recruiting either permanent or temporary staff through an agency that the correct procedure/checks have not been carried out by the agency.

The recruitment industry has its fair share of cowboy agencies who to cut costs and do not even carry out even the most basic checks. Where this happens how can you be sure the person who turns up on you premises is even eligible to work in the UK, or is the person the agency said they have sent?

My wife’s company had a recent case in Liverpool where a large national agency were supplying temps for a major call centre. It transpired that five of the people that had been put forward to the client and who were accepted on face value, were part of a criminal ring who were expropriating customer bank details etc and selling them off. It subsequently transpired that these people had not even had their eligibility to work in the UK checked.

Preventing insider fraud starts by ensuring you know who is working on your premises and I would urge all companies/organisations that use agencies to do a thorough check on the agency, make a visit to their premises and demand to see their processes. These checks must include:

1. Identity check either a) Passport; or b) Drivers licence AND birth Certificate
2. NI Number
3. Proof of address with recent utility bill/bank statement
4. References
5. Eligibility to work in the UK where in necessary must be checked

Victims of Fraud

SMEs who have been victims of e-crime should contact Action Fraud

(www.actionfraud.org.uk). Action Fraud is at the heart of National Fraud Authority’s

strategy to make the UK a more hostile environment for fraud and encourages

small businesses and individuals who have been defrauded to come forward, call

Action Fraud and report the crime 0300 123 2040

TEAM http://www.jobsatteam.com/ is the largest network of independent recruiters in the UK and offers a unique range of services: Over 350 membership locations across the UK providing a Total Recruitment Service to clients and candidates both locally and nationally across a wide range of disciplines

The views/opinions expressed on this website are entirely my own

I always read my emails carefully before sending them, or so I think,  but no matter how I hard I try to get it right from time to time after I have pressed send and there is a sudden flash in my  WHOOPS, done it again. Or a day later on rereading, I will see the thing that I have overlooked staring out at me in ten foot high neon letters.

Am I losing the plot or is it just always trying to do things too quickly, everything seems to be moving too quickly. I am irritated by feeling the need to answer emails immediately, but I still do it. Why am I unable to slow down.

Is it me? That sounds like some old fart saying ‘I don’t believe it’.

Looking back I could cringe at the idiotic mistakes I have made, the most recent was writing  to a client about Tesco Nectar Card, association of ideas or getting my wires crossed. In the context of my email not good.

On the plus side with everything moving at such a pace in this increasingly mad world, I suppose these things are soon forgotten. I hope!

I can never say or write ‘Whoops’ without thinking of Le Chiffre to Bond at the card table  in Casino Royale, or docking in Genoa when the pilot hit another ship and with an almighty crunch and the Scouse quarter master at the wheel just casually murmured it.

Just 2 weeks to go

Just 6.5 miles to walk

Just 3 hours of your time

Just once a year

Just something you can do to help others

Just raising money for little, local charities

Just think how good you will feel

Just join us

Chester Business Club and Chester Rotary

Charity Walk Challenge

Sunday Morning April 25^th

Registration from 10am The Band Stand on the river

Just to make it easier we have stops for:

Chocolate – Fruit Juice – Bacon Buttys – G&T

Just call Kirsty Craig 01244 350700 now

Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over,
it became a butterfly.

Can you commit to walking 6.5 miles?

Sunday Morning 25^th April

Charity Walk

Chester Business Club and Chester Rotary

Registration from 10am The Bandstand

Chester Groves on the River

Help us to raise money for small local charities that receive no funding

A social event for family and friends

The kids, mum and dad, the dog and who you will

Stops on the way around for:

Chocolate, Fruit Juice, Bacon Buttys, G&T

Chocolate top – Stop – Fruit Juice stop – Bacon Butty stop – Gin Stop*
*Recommended at the end of walk not the beginning.
Venue for lunch, for those that want it, will be at The Hickory Smoke House, The Groves Chester. Contact: Duncan Falconer (who is providing Bacon Buttys)

The demise on local papers and journalists who covered local council meetings is also another great loss and a allows these petty little people even more power without accountability. This is definitely a book I will buy as soon as it is published.
Seems winter has returned and I have had to order yet more oil. We want to move the tank this Spring to make way for an extension, so I requested 300 only litres please but was told they cannot deliver less than 500 litres because Trading Standards, (not H&S sic), set that amount as the minimum. Can someone please explain that one to me?

The details of some MPs’ expenses claims – duck houses, moats, bathplugs and chandeliers – are now well known, but we would all still be in the dark were it not for the persistence of one campaigning journalist. Heather Brooke took on the Establishment in her battle to get access to MPs’ expenses but was met with secrecy, bureaucracy and obstruction from government officials. In her new book, The Silent State, Heather Brooke examines the extent to which the government collects information on us while refusing to make civic information available to the public. She talks about why public information, gathered at public expense, belongs to the people.

Tighten that Tum

Don’t Talk the Talk

Chester Business Club

Challenge You to

Walk THE Walk

Sunday morning 25^th April

And

Cough up for a good cause

The unsung under funded

Small Chester Charities

Registration starts at the Bandstand Chester Groves from 10am

Walk 6.5 miles, chocolate, juice, bacon butty and G & T stops on the way