So I don’t talk about this much, mostly because I didn’t know how it was going to pan out, a recent google search means I have several legacies now attached to me. Some making a difference and some not.
For those wondering, I joined my local Parish Council, if you want to be nosey and look (trust me, its nothing to do with trains – well sort of does as we have a railway line where I am), have a look for my mug shot (hint, ginger hair, dead giveaway!). https://www.fishbourne-pc.gov.uk/the-parish-council/councillors/ . I just realised, I didn’t mention Trainz in that and none of the councillors know about my Trainz work, they do know about my IT work as I put a suggestion forward for IT equipment, because of GDPR reasons, FOI reasons, SAR reasons – there are loads of reasons. I use a VM for this task as I try to keep my personal and council work separate. My SWR work is kept separate using a different laptop that they provide.
This was suggested by my mum as she is on Southbourne Parish Council, which is not far from here, about 6 miles away, as my parents are divorced for 20 years, both ended up in different houses. Out of 3 children, one went to live a separate life and has 2 children of her own (my older sister), one went to live with my mum (younger sister) and one went to live with my dad (me). Both my younger sister and myself have been unlucky with relationships and housing, so we both ended up living with parents, both of us are now pretty much 40, so that’s how life went.
Anyway, my mum moved to Southbourne – I can’t remember the date from Fareham and had this idea of joining the local Parish Council in May 2025. She did, got co-opted (elected by the council not by the public) and has been getting involved in various tasks since. Then suggested I join the local parish council. What could go wrong? Well, they were looking for someone in June 2025, I put my name forward against another candidate, but I couldn’t join the meeting as I was “flying high” – to Northern Ireland for my leave. Fine, waited, prepared for the next meeting and the other candidate dropped out. Went to the next meeting, introduced myself and some things are unexpected, this was one of them. I thought I was going to be rejected and sat in the public gallery. Co-opted by nearly all of them. Yes… all of them.. I was shocked.
Took my seat, became part of the council and had lots going on. I mean lots. Had my first say which was about a development which is next to “Palace Crossing” Fishbourne (here: https://abcrailwayguide.uk/palace-public-level-crossing-west-sussex) which I raised serious concerns about the development, because of the level crossing impact. Considering either side is Automatic half barrier and that has no gates, no lights, the only warning you get is a horn blast and some of my photos are taken from there – the right side of the line.
Since then, I’ve done more and more stuff, representing my community, in my first year, I didn’t do a lot, attended meetings, put suggestions forward, etc.
However…
That changed in May 2026, I had loads put onto me and some of it was topical and what I wanted to do, so, since then, I’ve been trying to deal with crime.
It worked. The big issue we had is escooters and ebikes, which I’ve been hot on, so hot, in a magazine called the “village voice”, I wrote a short article on the train to work explaining the legal issues and the safety issues on these. For the record, not EPACs. In my first meeting with the police, it was a very hot topic. The previous meeting was actually fatal fives (driving).
For those wondering, fatal fives:
- Speeding
- Driving under the influence (drink/drugs)
- Driving while distracted (Mobile use)
- Not wearing a seatbelt
- Careless/inconsiderate driving.
So called, because one will lead to an accident and are more likely to be involved in a serious or fatal collision. Most of the time, its one of those 5’s involved. That will be an article in 3 months time, that I’ll be writing as the Village has problems with speeding, in particular Salthill Road as it is quite straight and those going to Goodwood Festival of Speed – in fact, quite a few events, use it as a race track. The mentality that some have on the road is that “I paid for the road, the road is mine!”. Actually, the road is a shared resource with everyone else, you lease your small slot on the road through VED (not road tax, doesn’t exist). Vehicle Exercise Duty (VED) is a duty levelled on the vehicle. You don’t own the road, if you did, you’d be paying billions for it and pay billions to maintain it. That is the difference between ownership and leasing.
As it is a shared resource that you lease, you got rules, they apply to everyone, like the highway code, what you can and cannot do, these rules are to keep everyone safe and help reduce or eliminate casualties. On top of that, you have driving licences, these are “fitness tests”. Are you fit to be on the road and do you possess the required knowledge to be on the road? Train drivers have their “competencies” renewed often for similar reasons, but if you drive on the road, you don’t. Work that out.
Cars have to have a fitness test, for similar reasons, what happens if you lose your brakes? Suddenly, that great big tree that you are heading towards looks very appealing! You can’t stop any other way, so that is the only place you can stop. Or someone else. Then you cause injuries or death. You think “Run, no one will find me”, then the law catches up with you and you have to compensate people out of your own pocket, because you didn’t have any form of insurance.
“But I’m poor, I cannot afford insurance” and take the risk… Ok, lets put the ball onto the other foot:
You get hit by an uninsured driver, the driver does the usual runner and cannot be found. You are in hospital for several months with serious injuries, with no income because you are off sick and getting statutory sick pay, which doesn’t pay a lot per week. Plus its an arse to apply for with loads of hoops and hurdles. You are now heavily in debt because you can’t pay for anything and you require specialist care. Who is going to pay? The other driver? The other driver goes “f _ _ _ off, I’m not paying anything.”, positively identified as the person in the collision and they use the same quote you used. “I’m poor, I have no money”.
Now what?
Demand they pay? They refuse, you take them to court, you got massive fines, lose the case, or win it and still get nothing? Then they go to prison and you are still in hospital in pain?
That’s a life. That is why insurance exists.
I also been co-ordinating deliveries with the magazine and contributing to it, organising it has been quite fun on tight deadlines, especially with work problems too, but I’ve managed it.
So, I do have a life outside of Trainz, even if Trainz is the main thing – or the railway these days, hopefully this gives you an idea what I’m doing and why and I’ll stop ranting about other drivers and their mentality. In fact, I did get a suggestion of standing as a councillor more recently. Yes really, because I made a change. Just don’t talk to me about Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) which got shelved the day before I wrote this. Thank god. Turning 2 tier councils into single tier councils (unitary authorities) in my PERSONAL view, wouldn’t deliver the savings they want, if anything, in my PERSONAL view, would cause more problems financially than it would solve.
