There are several award categories including positive role model, community organisation and entrepreneurial of excellence awards which will be split into five categories including race, age, disability, gender and LGBT.  

Other awards include Diverse Company Award and Lifetime Achievers Award.

 The National Diversity Awards celebrate excellent achievements of grass- root communities that tackle the issues in today’s society, giving them the recognition for their dedication and hard work that positive role models, charities and community organisations do on a daily basis. They are designed to showcase the efforts of those who have demonstrated an outstanding devotion to enhancing equality, diversity and inclusion within today’s society; thus embracing the excellence of all our citizens irrespective or race, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability and culture.

For more information regarding the work of Norfolk’s Disability Advisory Forum follow the link.

Special too is that it traverses both the Norfolk and Suffolk borders (which makes it complicated for the local authorities) but this is a charming irrelevance to the walker!  The views across the Waveney Valley can be viewed from both north and south – ideal.

To promote this walk better and also to manage it in a sensitive way the Friends of Angles Way has been created……….this is a loose group of local walkers/volunteers who will keep and eye on a particular stretch of the walk to ensure stiles, gates etc are in good order, but also to ensure signage is correct and easy to use as well as creating tourism opportunities along the route.  Be it places to a cuppa or overnight stay or points of interest along the way, or close by etc.

There will be no limit to the number of Friends, – the purpose is to  create a social group too.

I will update this page as I get additional information, but any comments, links or suggestions please let me know…….

The council is still petitioning central government to increase the amount being granted to our county, where we feel that the extreme rurality of the county, in particular, has not been acknowledged and therefore omitted from the calculation.

If you have been following the debate their objections were recently thrown out by the judge overseeing the judicial review, but even so they argue that he was not in the possession of all the facts and therefore had made an incorrect decision!

It really is a case of what part of the word NO is it you do not understand?!!

In the meantime, the delay in not getting on with the build means more and more rubbish needlessly being dumped into man-made holes in the ground and costs mounting up for doing so.

Last May NCC was successful in its bid to secure Government funding to help provide improved broadband speeds and access across Norfolk.   

We’ve now launched our ‘Say Yes to Better Broadband’ campaign which means residents and Businesses in Norfolk can now register their interest in receiving the broadband services provided by the Better Broadband for Norfolk project. 

We know that large areas of the county lack access to even a basic broadband service but in order to attract competitive bids from a number of telecoms partners we need to show them what the actual demand in Norfolk is – not just where broadband services are currently lacking.  

The more people who register their interest now, the more attractive Norfolk will be to potential private sector partners and this means we will be in a stronger position to provide superfast broadband in as many areas as possible.

When you register there is no obligation to buy a broadband service – you will simply be helping to demonstrate to potential private sector partners that demand for better broadband really does exist.

Please go on line to the http://sayyestobroadband.co.uk site to register your interest. There are 2 forms, one for individuals and one for businesses.  Both can be completed if relevant to you! 

 The website also includes links to further information, but you need to register your interest no later than 31st March 2012.

Please encourage others to register too. Tell your friends, family and neighbours.  Campaign posters are also available on the website so why not print one off and put it on a community notice board!

Did you know you can also borrow console games, DVDs and CDs at reasonable rates and return them to any library?  An ebooks service was launched recently, allowing you to download and borrow ebooks and eaudio books for free from the comfort of your own home. And there are always events, activities and clubs for both children and adults going on in libraries.

It’s completely free to join the library and really easy and if you sign up during January you will be entered into a prize draw to win an eReader. You can join it online here or drop into your local library and staff will take down your details and get you and up and running in just a couple of minutes.

With libraries it’s free to:

• borrow books and magazines

• use public PCs

• borrow ebooks from your own home

• attend lots of events including children’s activities and author visits

• learn how to use the internet if you’re over 60 with Surf’s Up classes

• access information from your local councils and other organisations

And to make life easy you can sign up to receive email alerts which notify you just before your books are due for renewal so avoiding overdue charges. Also items borrowed can be renewed over the phone, via the website or taken to any Norfolk Library.

Also, as part of this second annual Join up January campaign, residents won’t have to be competing in London in order to win gold – they will be able to take it in the form of a limited edition library card.

120 gold cards will be awarded to a select lucky few in July to the one adult and one child member at each of the County Council’s 47 libraries and 13 mobile libraries who have made the most of their library membership and borrowed more items than anyone else in the first six months of the year.

In addition, one adult and one child ‘champion of champions’ – the most prolific borrowers in Norfolk between January and June – will also be announced, with the adult winner receiving an ereader and the children’s winner receiving £30 of book vouchers.

Fewer evening journeys after 1900 from Long Stratton to Norwich and fewer Sunday journeys from Long Stratton to Diss.

As with all things USE it or LOSE it.

Do let me know if this is a service you use or would miss?

We are now beginning our pre budget conversations in preparation for our full council meeting on Monday 13th February which will be when decisions are taken to set our budget for the forthcoming year.

The Council Tax last year was agreed at 0% increase and we intend to maintain this for 2 more years.

We are running a transformation Norfolk programme and have already made savings of £60m. 

We worked hard to prove to Government that we needed a financial boost to secure high-speed broadband coverage around the county and they came up trumps with a promise to match fund our own intention to invest £15m

We “saved” Marham and proved our bid to get the A11 dualled through successful campaigning.  Work has already started.

Importantly, we managed to get £86.5m to help us build the Northern Distributor Route around the north of Norwich.

In Diss, we finally got the ramp built on the west side of Diss station and we are plugging away for toilet facilities there too. 

The footpath along Chapel Street should be completed before summer too, – some may have noticed the site notice up advertising the work to be done.

There has been quite a difficult task for our Highways Team to convert the many hundreds of little traffic orders which apply in Diss into a comprehensible electronic system.  Hopefully we will all know where the yellow lines stop and start and especially when and indeed if you can at any time drive along Mere Street.

We have been successful in a bid for a new vehicle activated sign (flashing sign) to be placed at the crossing near the junction of Louies Lane/Shelfanger Road and the Athletic ground.

An amazing boost to the Town has been the transfer of the old Youth Centre to the people of Diss, thanks mainly to the anonymous gift of the capital cost.  Lots of work still to do, but the Management Team are working hard to get increased use by youth and community groups. 

The Corn Hall also now has spent its £50,000 grant and we have weekly film showings and an increasing number of Saturday matinée showings.  I am hopeful that an off-shoot can be started at the Youth Centre. Films that they want operated by themselves, but we’ll have to bid for a bit more money for that.

Our Cabinet Member for Finance and Performance has promised an £8.6m boost for worthwhile projects and in particular for youth, so I’ll have a go at that.  He is looking for any good ideas, so don’t hesitate to let me have your views as to how it could be spent!

Should have been at one of these myself for some practice having (nearly) got stuck at Henham leaving the Latitude Festival last year.  Fortunately, nerve, a good second gear plus a couple of guys who seemed not to mind getting sprayed with mud got me out………

The Queen celebrated her Silver Jubilee (25 years) in 1977  and her Golden Jubilee (50 years) in 2002.   The only other British monarch to celebrate a Diamond Jubilee was Queen Victoria in 1897.

The celebrations will centre around the first week in June (2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th).   The Government has announced its plans for a special four-day Jubilee weekend which will allow communities time to come together to celebrate and commemorate the events of the last 60 years.  This has entailed putting back the late May bank holiday to Monday 4 June and adding an additional Jubilee bank holiday on Tuesday 5 June.

The Lord-Lieutenant has set up The Diamond Jubilee Committee made up of Deputy Lieutenants and other civic representatives from across the county to oversee the celebrations in Norfolk.

If you are planning an event in your community such as a street party, exhibition, or fete, please let the Lieutenancy office know. We plan to keep a record of events across Norfolk and we will publicise events if the organisers agree.

If you need any further information on the Diamond Jubilee, please email diamondjubilee@norfolk.gov.uk or call 01603 222208.

Click here for the link to the official Diamond Jubilee Website 

Click here for the latest news from Buckingham Palace on National events taking place over the Jubilee weekend 2-5 June 2012.