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And we are only now beginning to fight

Good Morning Nantyglo and Blaina.

It is the start of another day in our campaign to save Blaina Fire Station and I see that already Councillor Lisa Winnett is already active in reminding people that two officers from the Fire Service will be visiting Blaina Institute between the hours of 10:30am and 16:30pm today, to answer residents questions about their concerns.

Now obviously, these men are going to be pushing the agenda of their boss, the discredited Chief Fire Officer Huw Jakeway who submitted the proposal for the closure of our fire station to the South Wales Fire Authority, that is made up of 24 Councillors, who will have to make the decision to either accept the proposal and throw our fire fighters onto the dole and leave the people of Blaina without adequate Fire Cover or throw the proposal in the bin where it really deserves to be.

Now I have no idea of what these representatives will be saying to you at this stage but I ask you to be polite to them, it is not their fault that their McDonald eating, golf playing boss, does not have the courage to face the people of Blaina himself.

Just let them know that you totally reject the proposal and you demand adequate fire protection for your property and the lives of those you love.  Why else do you pay rates?

Tell you what, go make a cup of tea or coffee and then come back to read the rest of the article, because I have quite a lot to tell you.  I will do the same.  I work better if full of caffeine.

Right, all back?  Then lets roll.

In the first instance, Huw Jakeways job was simply to present the badly written proposal to the Fire Authority, not try and sell it to the world as he did by making a statement riddled with inaccuracies to the South Wales Argus.

As the Chief Fire Officer, he is well aware of how badly covered Blaenau Gwent is and should have been demanding more resources, not making the case for less. Talk about betrayal of the men he leads - what confidence must they now have in the Chief Fire Officer.  My guess, NONE.

Now, before I forget, let me slip this in.  A Fire Service document I have seen, reports that because of the aging population of South Wales, there is going to be increased risks to lives, as it is mainly elderly people who become fatalities as a result of fire.

Someone should run with that bit of information, because the Fire Service neglected to mention that fact in their proposal when they spoke about "decreasing" risk.

And that point leads nicely into the statistics for our website which continues to rocket.  Click on the image above to enlarge it and I will tell you what the information displayed means - incidentally the Alexa rankings shown on the bottom of the site always lags by a couple of days.

In under two weeks this site has gone from a site that none knew about, to one that is now ranked at 14,792 in the United Kingdom and 987,142 in the world.

• The Bounce Rate is an incredible 22.20 percent (above 50% and its really bad news).
• Each visitor to the site reads an average of 7.1 articles (this will be new readers playing catch up as they go through the sites earlier articles).
• The average readers spends 36.06 minutes on the site which shows they are not flying visits, they are taking their time to read the articles and absorb the information contained within them.

Now to make a comparison to highlight the success of this blog, let us look at a site that has been established for considerably longer, The South Wales Argus, that should not just be reporting on CFO Huw Jakeway, they should be investigating him and the deplorable lack of Fire Cover in the whole of South Wales.

We will overtake them if this closure is not stopped

True, they have a decent United Kingdom rank of 3,291 and again a reasonable global rank of 85,9114, both rankings that I know that this site will overtake by the new year, if this campaign is not ended to the satisfaction of the people of Blaina.

Believe me when I say, I know what I'm talking about and I really know how to achieve those results.

If I did not, I would not go public with such a statement that would come back and bite me big time.

• But look at their bounce rate - that is perilously close to showing that the visitors think the site is boring.
• The Page Views are just 3.1 - this is on a site that is supposed to be an online newspaper.  Ouch.  Would I want to advertise on a site with these figures, well the answer must be no.
• Daily time on their site is just over 4 minutes.  Why are people visiting the site?  To check the weather perhaps, because they are not reading it in depth.

Now I do not wish to embarrass the South Wales Argus with those figures, I only use them to highlight how important this website is becoming in our campaign to save Blaina Fire Station - once that fire station's future is secure, this site will vanish into internet history as I move on to the evil ATOS and the hateful Bedroom Tax on a new site.

I know that politicians across Wales are reading this site, along with almost every single Councillor with access to the internet and when they read it, they get pointed to the truth published on the Blaina Fire Station Community Page that gives the facts.

So hopefully, the movers and shakers will realise that they are not only being fed false information but they are also not getting the full facts to the increased risk to lives, should Blaina Fire Station be closed and treat Huw Jakeway's proposal with the contempt it deserves.

Now do not think that the decision to close the station is a done deal.  Read what Huw Jakeway said in his communication with Councillor Winnett.

Many thanks for your e-mail, for pursuing the issue of the closed meeting and for introducing yourselves last night. As you know, at this stage it is only a proposal and we need to engage with all stakeholders in a meaningful and structured way ensuring that all views are captured so that we can present back to the Fire and Rescue Authority in December

As you see, it is still only a proposal.

You can help by making sure that this criminal proposal to endanger our property and lives is rejected by the Fire Authority by filling in the Fire Service Survey and going to the Blaina Institute and letting the Fire Service know of your concerns and showing them that you are willing to fight to the death to stop them closing Our Fire Station.

Right, suppose I had better shave if I am to go and welcome Huw's messenger boys to Blaina.  If you feel like a chat meet me outside at 11:00am.