Map the Fallen

My professional specialism is mapping, and also the web, but from time to time I am amazed at the investment of time that people make, and what they can make happen for the rest of us.

To start with, there’s a site with the details of all the casualties in Afghanistan and Irag – it’s icasualties.org. It records the men and women from 22 countries that have died in the campaigns.

What then happened was that an American student (now an employee of Google) took that data and started mapping it. That lead to Map the Fallen. That’s got a link to a file that can be imported into Google Earth. You need Google Earth 5, though earlier versions do work to some extent.

Here’s a snapshot of the UK to March 2009:

Heroes, every one of them. If you want to help, join with others who are supporting Help for Heroes.

Re-elected

Each year the Parish Council holds an Annual Parish Meeting, and an Annual General Meeting.

The Annual Parish Meeting is for the Parish – yes, its organised by the Parish Council, but its a chance for residents to raise any parish related question, to look at (and challenge if they wish) our spending.

A small number of residents attended – and raised questions. Not on our spending, but on improving play equipment at the Recreation Ground, noise barriers (why are the travellers in Milton to get one when our residents won’t) and whether Anglian Water is doing everything it should (including upgrading pumping stations etc) to deal with “the drains”.

Good questions, we’re already working on an application for funding for the play area at the Rec, and will be following up the latter two. Whether anything will come on the subject of the noise barrier before the A14 is widened is another matter (we expect not). We’re working with others (Girton, Histon) on that – and meeting an expert in July who may be able to help.

After the APM, the AGM started with the annual election of the Chairman, and, as has happened for the last few years, I was re-elected, and Brian Ing re-elected as Vice Chairman. We will continue to serve Impington Council, and residents of Impington to the best of our ability.

Expenses

As our Parliament is going into meltdown, it can only be a matter of time before other areas where public money is spent come under scrutiny. Council Chief Executives appear to be the next to have to publish their claims.

Whilst I work in Local Government, and am part of that through the Parish Council, I have to believe that Local, rather than Central Government will come out of this rather better.

For one, local government accounts and books, whether they are at the Parish, District or County Council level are open for inspection by the public in the period running up to the annual audit.

Secondly, Councillor allowances and expense claims are published annually. County and South Cambridgeshire District figures are published online, as well as in the press. Some Councillors,  such as David Jenkins, have taken to publishing their expenses in detail as well!

Finally, at the Parish level, payment of expenses is always a decision taken by Councillors – and the Councillor claiming is never present when that decision is taken.

Yes, I do claim expenses – but apart from a nominal contribution to telephone and Internet costs only against receipts, or if travelling some way from the Parish. I’m a volunteer – I’m trying to make a difference for my community – I don’t get an allowance, and am happy to cover most of my costs!