Ideas for your new local site?

Just a few thoughts,a selection of play schemes for the summer holidays we can take our little ones during the school holidays and librarys who are doing story time etc.
A list of local farmers markets to help us buy small amounts of fruit and fresh veg and nice preserves.
A local list of tradesmen so we can get any help we require at a reasonable cost : ie decorating garden maintenance and odd jobs.

free things to do for adults and for kids
reviews of local days out
reviews of things like "soft play" area or child/gransparent friendly cafes

Yes, meeting up might be easier if we keep each other in the loop on a local site.

I would love to share hints about reliable plumbers, electricians etc.

How about book swaps? I have loads of books I would like to pass on to other Gransnetters.

Lists of reliable tradesmen would be invaluable.

Recomendations of restaurants

Meeting up locally would be good although I'm still up for us all going to Downing St to behead the politcians! (another thread)

Somewhere we can post anything of interest happening in our area.

Are we doing a GransAbroad site?

This is a useful website for "reliable tradesmen" :

www.checkatrade.com/

Keeping touch and meeting up locally

checkatrade is OK but tradesmen can recommend themselves! Prefer a personal independent recommendation whenever possible so a tradesperson list would be good! I agree with previous suggestions re 'what's on' locally..maybe a walking group / local book group etc!

This site is also good for local tradespeople:

www.ratedpeople.com/

Be careful about rated people. One of the people I got was excellent, the other didn't know what he was doing and the decorating not by any means up to standard.

Me, too Annobel. Very unreliable, so I left feedback to say I had been let down and gone elsewhere. Cheeky so and so turned up out of the blue whilst I was having my kitchen fitted, saying he was the man fitting my new back door and it took me a few minutes beore I cottoned on and sent him packing.

I like the sound of a walking group and meeting up and would love free things to do and visit for the family OH and E and for the young teens during holidays etc...and book swaps and club

Walking. Group? Would a grandad push my wheelchair?

Thanks, Anno and when - I'll be wary! Only posted the link because it was recommended by a friend who'd found a good gutter-cleaner through them. I suppose all these sites (especially the ones about hotels and restaurants) are open to false testimonials.

I'll give you a virtual push jeni

Could be useful for campaigning about local issues related to grandparenting such as the state of local playgrounds, access etc. As well as my own lcality, I'd want to join the site for the locality of where I do my grand-child care. I'm not so sure about meeting up - I've valued being able to air, & especially test out, views incognito as I needed to get away from some unpleasant local group dynamics!

Local sounds good to me .. Jeni I'm sure someone would be found to assist you .. I have a friend (in Cromer area), I have pushed her chair round Warwick, Birmingham, Stratford, Fountains Abbey, Ely Cathedral, Coventry Cathedral, and others .. and we've had some great fun days out seeing the sights and taking photos.

GadaboutGran, you make a valid point .. sometimes in order to explore viewpoints which may be seen as controversial or antagonistic, possibly whilst not completely endorsing said viewpoints oneself, it is useful to remain anonymous .. in this way personal politics and partialities are eliminated.

Not sure what you mean by that, Geraldine. D'you mean we should use our real names on the local site?
Surely anonymity would be compromised anyway - we'd soon be able to work out who was who! And it could get very confusing....
What do others think?

nag I agree, not sure it would work.

glass there is every possibility that I would forget what my new identity was

I agree Anagram .. it could all get very messy if members were asked to use a second identity to mask their first .. I do feel it would all be quite useless too.