Japanese Knotweed - battling in Morley with this invasive pest!

Japanese Knotweed threatens Morley

We often get involved in high profile issues - such as Travellers sites and affordable homes - but a lot of our time is focused on problems local residents face that are not necessarily seen as high profile by others.

This week I have been on a couple of site visits with residents to look at infestation of Japanese Knotweed. This invasive plant - which was imported by the Victorians over a 100 years ago as a plant to brighten up gardens - is an invasive pest and is now having a significant impact on many local residents lives.

The issue with Japanese Knotweed is that it invades everywhere if left unchecked and can damage buildings by seeping into and breaking up foundations. It has been known to break up garden walls and is a very difficult plant to eradicate. Many residents are now finding this plant creeping into their gardens and the costs to them of eradicating this plant are quite substantial.

But perhaps the thing that bothers me the most is the lack of clarity about the legal process to get the owners of infected land to accept their responsability and get the problem sorted. A good example is a present development site in Morley that has an application in to build houses on it. The area is overwhelmed with Japanese Knotweed and this is impacting on local footpaths but is also infecting the gardens of residents who live adjacent to the site. The owner - who is fabulously wealthy and owns large areas of land across Morley - is refusing to accept any responsibility for the problem and is failing to take any action to prevent his weed infested area infecting residents properties with all the expense that brings with it. I've contacted the Environment Agency and the Council to find out the correct legal process to make this landowner accept his responsibilities but it is still unclear how we achieve this.

The issue of Japanese Knotweed is a national one and many have been taken by surprise by its creeping invasion. We need clarity on the legal process for having it cleared and probably some national finance if we are to overcome this problem. The alternative could be more costly as properties infected with the stuff are often unsaleable.

I often talk about another invasive pest blighting Morley - the Labour Party - but Japanese Knotweed is no laughing matter. We need to take this threat seriously and have a clear plan of how we collectively get rid of it.

MARC pushes for more affordable homes

MARC campaigning to save Greenfield sites

MARC (Morley against Reckless Construction) is scheduled to meet a Developer shortly to discuss MARC's plans for more appropriate affordable homes for local people. Many people believe - rather erroneously - that we are against all development. This is not the case. As residents will have seen with Liberty View, Kirkness Court and new homes on Glen Road, we are interested in new affordable homes in the right locations.

And this leads us to a discussion with a local Developer where we will be exploring the options to bring more bungalows to Morley which could accommodate older and disabled residents - many of whom are presently over accommodated. We are told that there is not a market for bungalows but we know that many older folk are in bigger Council owned properties and want to move to accommodation which is more appropriate. In these cases (and we saw this with Kirkness Court) we had larger Council homes returned to us which were offered to families on Morley's Housing Waiting List. As over 2,000 are on that list then anything we can do to try and make better use of  our publicly owned housing stock must be a good thing.

What we need is more appropriate accommodation, preferably on brownfield sites, which deliver the maximum number of affordable homes for local residents. This must include homes more suitable to older and disabled residents who can be better accommodated.

We are not doing any deals with the Devil but we are having an open and honest discussion with Developers about the potential way ahead. It is inevitable there will be some new homes built across Morley. We need to make sure that as many of them as possible are affordable and contribute positively to offering better housing options for all our communities.

Success at Albert Road



Cllrs Shirley Varley and Judith Elliott on Albert Road

My colleagues Shirley Varley and Judith Elliott have been battling for many years with both Leeds City Council and Yorkshire Water to deal with flooding issues on Albert Road which has blighted resident’s lives for over a decade.

The problem related to a water drainage system which was not made big enough when Seven Hills School was built. The poor drainage system could not take the amount of water pouring into the system during periods of heavy rain and that left about a dozen homes struggling with flooding problems on a regular basis.

My colleagues took it up with the Council who claimed it was a Yorkshire Water problem. Yorkshire Water claimed it was down to the Council to sort it out and homes flooded regularly while responsibility was argued about. After over a decade of battling my colleagues finally persuaded Yorkshire Water to do the honourable thing and overhaul the water drainage system and this is to be done over the next month or so.

Often our campaigns are wide spreading covering hundreds and sometimes thousands of homes. In this case it about a dozen homes but we have pursued the right result with exactly the same vigour - pushing for a fair outcome for residents. Sometimes it seemed we were bashing our heads against a brick wall but - barring the occasional amnesia episode - we have finally managed to break the wall down and get things resolved. Congratulations to my colleagues and local residents for working together over the years to grind out a result.

On to the next campaign be it big or small!

A Public Inquiry and other curious tales!

The Cottingley Springs Public Inquiry finished this week

 The Cottingley Springs Public Inquiry finished yesterday after a 4 day hearing. The Inquiry follows a call in of Leeds City Councils planning proposals to expand Cottingley Springs by Eric Pickles which is their controversial plan to expand the already over large site in to the Green Belt. I have acted as advocate on behalf of local residents and the process has been a gruelling but most enlightening one!

Leeds City Councils case in brief is that they could not find any other site that could accommodate a small Travellers site of 12 pitches. This follows what they claim to be an extensive search of 214 sites in Leeds City Council ownership. It is beyond Hans Christian Anderson's Fairy Tales to believe that no other alternative site could be found across the whole Leeds City Council area but under further questioning Leeds City Councils case became clearer.

Both the Regeneration and Asset Management Officers confirmed the real position Leeds City Council have towards the Travelling Community by stating that Travellers had not been involved in any of the Regeneration Discussions and that the needs for more Travellers pitches was not incorporated into any Leeds City Council regeneration strategies. They went further to confirm that Developers perception of the introduction of a Travellers site anywhere in a regeneration zone would have a negative impact and reduce land values - even when they failed to evidence this view. The message was clear from the Council - not one site was available for a small Travellers site because it would have a negative impact on their wider plans.

This cannot be an acceptable way to resolve the problem of the lack of availability of Travellers Pitches across the City and expanding Cottingley Springs - which already has problems because of its size - will only make matters worse.

The big issue is the approach of Leeds City Council which is about placing a larger site in the same location of the City while doing their best to prevent sites that need regenerating from being used for a Traveller site! This curious position is one that sits badly with the Labour Party's view that it genuinely embraces everyone within the Peoples Party. The truth is somewhat different. The ruling Labour Group has had 214 alternative sites - many in Labour Wards - it could have used to provide a small Travellers site. A smaller site would satisfy new planning guidance at both local and national level and would be what most Travellers want. But Labour do their best to prevent their synthetic support for communities actually turning into action and use almost Fairy Tale approaches to prevent making a positive contribution to resolving the lack of Traveller pitches issue. Indeed at Sandon Mount in Hunslet the Comrades have managed to drag out a planning application for a small family site for almost 2 years with the three Labour Councillors and the local Labour MP objecting. So much for Labour solidarity!

I hope the Planning Inspector sees through the Councils Fairy Story like defence of the lack of any alternative sites across a City the size of Leeds. A refusal of Planning Permission for Cottingley Springs would be a good news story for all - including Travellers - as Leeds City Council would then have to adopt a realistic approach to identifying alternative sites which already exist, developing them quickly to reduce the problems all communities face with unauthorised sites.

Not lovin' McDonalds - a further chapter

The White Bear Pub at Tingley - site of the proposed McDonalds Take-away

The McDonald's Take-away proposal at Tingley has again raised its ugly head. The application has been well and truly refused planning permission on 4 separate occasions - with one being via a failed appeal to a planning inspector.

How do they get away with this outrageous behaviour? Apparently they have found a legal loophole they can exploit which allows them to try and grind down local residents by using their significant power and wealth to bully communities into submission. Their lack of respect for local people is as unacceptable as their greasy burgers and is just as difficult to digest.

But the most cynical of their actions is to launch this further dodgy application at the beginning of the summer holidays probably in the forlorn hope that  - as people are away enjoying the summer - no one will notice it has been put in and objections to this appalling application will evaporate.

There is no chance of that happening. We will be leafleting the 1500 homes around the area with new objections forms to make sure we maximise opposition to this proposal. It is difficult to get residents fired up again as many people think that opposition is futile and McDonald's will grind out planning permission sooner or later. We don't accept this. We can and we must prevent a McDonald's take-away blighting this residential area with all the associated problems a fast food take-away will bring.

Resistance is not futile. Let's gear ourselves up for yet another battle.