Alleygating proposal for Tingley Crescent

Morley Borough Independent Councillors are working closely with residents in Tingley Crescent to explore the options to have a ginnel gated off with an alleygate.

The proposal follows concerns raised with MBI Councillors about high levels of anti-social behaviour and other criminal behaviour associated with use of the ginnel that leads through to Bradford Road.

The support from residents have been overwhelmingly positive and on a recent visit to the ginnel I saw for myself the high levels of destruction and graffiti that blighted this location. An alleygating scheme was successfully introduced into Siegen Close several years ago which has contributed to lower levels of anti-social behaviour and to residents feeling much safer and more secure.

We are taking to Council Officers about how we take the appropriate legal process to have the site gated off and we have identified the finance to support this project and we hope to introduce it as quickly as it is legally possible to do so.

Playground Progress

I am delighted at the progress being made at Scatcherd Park Playground. Much of the new play equipment is already in while the larger central play piece - a large scale climbing frame is going in to the present sand covered section.

The playground refurbishment follows hard on the heels of other schemes we have delivered including Hembrigg and Hesketh Lane and we have further ambitions which will cover improvements at Dartmouth Park as well.

We are presently out to consultation for further work at Hesketh Lane to see if we can provide goals posts and perhaps some activities for skaters and skateboarders. We have had several responses back - some supportive - others no so supportive so we will need to balance the wishes and concerns of the local community before any further work is completed.

I understand the skate park re drawn plans are presently out to consultation and I hope we can progress this project in the not to distant future.

St Marys Public Meeting

I attended the public meeting to discuss the Planning Application regarding St Marys organised by my colleague Cllr Terry Grayshon. The meeting was well attended and mainly good humoured as many people raised their concerns about the application.

The meeting was addressed by a planning officer from Leeds City Council and the architect for the Developer both of whom answered very difficult questions in a fair and honest way. It became clear that most (if not all) of the attenders opposed the present application. The planning officer accepted that the present plan was likely to lead to a refusal on Highways, loss of amenity and impact on the conservation area grounds and the architect was sent a clear message from the meeting that the present proposal is unacceptable for the same reasons.

The architect has agreed to go away from the meeting with residents concerns and to re-work the proposal which, I suspect, will be scrutinised equally closely.

Perhaps any future meetings need to focus on what would be acceptable for the building. It is clearly unacceptable to all for any access to come off coffin corner and for any large scale block which impacts on Troy Road. It is similarly unacceptable to most residents for any attempt to interfere with the graveyard itself although there seemed to be a reluctant acceptance that if the graveyard remains undisturbed, a sensitive placing of grave stones may be more acceptable.

A proposal is being prepared which could see a lottery bid to convert the church to a heritage centre. I wish the proposal the best of luck but having being involved with lottery bids before I know that it can be a difficult challenge to convince funding bodies to stump up the cash. Our own Shirley Varley attended a funding board several years ago in Todmorden to ask for finance to support conversion of the church to a heritage centre but was refused because the building is a grade 2 listed one and not a grade 2 star building which apparently meant no finance could be offered.

I hope whatever happens in the future will deliver a proposal that will retain the church and avoid the need for any disturbance of the grave yard. If this can be delivered within a sensible planning application then we need to consider it fully.

A final footnote about Morley's BNP Councillors. The BNP Town Councillor Joanne Beverley couldn't be bothered to attend at all while Cllr Chris Beverley attended for 40 minutes , said nothing at all and then disappeared! On this occassions he wasnt a "no show" Nazi but more of a "bail out early" BNP Councillor.

St Marys needs to be preserved to continue to positively dominate Morley's skyline for the next 140 years. I hope a proposal will come forward in the near future that achieves this aim.

St Marys in Morley

I have followed the campaign relating to St Marys with much interest.

Many residents will be aware that the Morley Borough Independent Councillors on the Planning Committee rejected the planning application for the church because of concerns relating to highways and loss of amenity relating to the hotel block. They deserve credit for the serous approach they adopted and the decision they reached after hearing about all the relevant aspects of the application.

Cllr Shirey Varley also deserves credit for maintaining the church and its associated heritage for many years and her attempts over the last few years to turn the site over to Morley residents as a Heritage Centre. Unfortunately, despite her best efforts, lottery and heritage funding was refused perhaps because of the initial £200,000 repair bill that came along with purchasing the property.

Much has been said about the sale of the church but I understand that the property was offered for sale through an estate agents but that purchasers were reluctant to purchase it because of the £200,000 repair bill associated with it. This process was open to anyone who had an interest but I am told there was little interest from anyone during this period.

The important principle as far as I am concerned is that the building is retained and the graveyard remains undisturbed. It is always possible that without a progressive approach the Church remains under attacks from vandals. It would be regrettable if such attacks led to the need to demolish the building as we will all lose out if the iconic skyline that includes St Marys is changed because of a failure to act positively.

I am interested in the community campaign to save the building but I hope that their actions so late in the day - which follows the valiant but unsuccessful work from Shirley Varley and her team to deliver this building to the community - are not doomed. Now is the time for plain speaking and to come up with realistic alternatives. It is not a time to play fantasy politics which will do little to protect the building and the graveyard in the long run.

The public meeting next week - organised by my colleague Cllr Terry Grayshon - is a welcome opportunity to explore a realistic alternative and I hope residents will attend and make their views heard.

Corporation Street New Housing - demolition starts

The new affordable housing for the over 55s seems to be moving forward positively with demolition crews taking out the old buildings for the significant new build to commence.

We have worked hard to deliver this scheme and we were the first - and only people - who suggested that this location could make way for homes to rent.

The old site was previously in Morley Borough Councils ownership and it appeared has been missed off Leeds City Councils asset book and was therefor available for this much needed social housing. The new 2 bedroomed properties will offer higher environmental standards and more appropriate accommodation for older residents - hopefully liberating other council homes for those on council house waiting lists.

The new homes should be up and available later this year.

Budget Meeting at Leeds City Council

Wednesday saw the debate to set a budget for Leeds City Council. The debate, that spanned over 3 hours, is often an opportunity for different parties to put alternative budgets to that proposed by the present Administration. Certainly the Labour Party always proposes an alternative as do the Greens. My own view is that it is purely a piece of political theatre and spent my allotted time discussing the main budget proposal and its impact on Morley. Both the Labour and Green budgets agree with the Administrations main proposals and they offer alleged alternatives amounting to less that 0.1% of the total budget so there is a great deal of consensus on budget priorities.

The main headlines for the budget are a 2.5% increase in Council tax levels - the lowest since the council tax was introduced with extra money going into Children's Services (additional social workers to keep children safe and prevent an Edlington event) and more into Adult Services (which means Morley Elderly Action are to get a substantial financial increase in this years budget.) The Morley Borough Independents backed this budget which brought extra money into Morley including the cash for the Morley Bottoms Regeneration Scheme, the Corporation Street affordable housing and the cash for the new Sports Centre and to improve our parks and playgrounds. Strangely enough our no show Nazi Cllr Chris Beverley voted against the budget and presumably doesn't support this spending across the Morley area. The bizarre things is that he gloats about his decision not withstanding it would mean reducing policing levels across Morley and the withdrawal of Morley CCTV schemes if the budget was not agreed!

Of course Cllr Beverley has little interest in Morley matters and sees his role as promoting the BNP national line and took the opportunity to do so in a later debate. The debate was suppose to be about protecting greenfield sites and what we could do to bring more affordable homes to local residents on brownfield previously developed sites. Cllr Beverley used the opportunity - not to defend the seven Morley greenfield sites under threat of development - but to promote BNP national policy on immigration. Its clear where his priorities lie while the MBIs backed a resolutions which will keep these greenfield sites green.

But perhaps the funniest thing at full Council was Cllr Beverley's refusal to admit to twittering during the Full council meeting. Twittering is a process where people connect to the Internet and leave short comments for others to read. Cllr Beverley was caught twittering during the full debate - clearly ignoring what other people were saying - smugly boasting about promoting BNP national policy. At the end of the meeting he was given an opportunity to admit to this activity and - like the spineless individuals the BNP are - refused to tell the truth! Unfortunately a Labour Councillor - who had also been undertaking the same activity - admitted his guilt - what an interesting contrast!

The budget is an interesting one and will mean we have a difficult financial settlement to cope with. It will not be the last and future settlements may prove even more challenging!

Bullying and Bullies

The revelations - or more accurately the allegations made about bullying at 10 Downing Street have opened up an interesting debate about the issue. While it is clear that bullying in any environment is entirely unacceptable, allegations need to be based on sound evidence and those who make false allegations need to be held accountable for making bogus complaints which are often made for personal gain.

I was recently involved in a bogus bullying allegation made by the previous Town Clerk for Morley Town Council. The allegation made was closely examined by an Employment Tribunal Judge and found to have no substance what so ever and her claim on this aspect was dismissed. Indeed the Judge commented that the previous Town Clerk was prone to hyperbole (which means obvious and intentional exaggeration) and took a combative approach to dealing with Councillors. This allegation made by the former Town Clerk was a pile of purulent pap and was backed by a previous Tory Town Councillor whose signed affidavit was rejected and whose evidence (and I use the word loosely) was dismissed as inaccurate.

The final outcome of this bizarre claim was that the Town Clerk received a payoff which - after clearing her legal bills - left her with a very small fraction of her original claim of £325,000.

And what about our own No show Nazis - the Beverley Councillors on this issue? Well Chris backed her claim by attending the Employment Tribunal and sitting in her interview room during the hearing. His wife refused to support putting a legal defence - presumably because she wanted to bankrupt the Town Council and pay out the £325,000 claimed on a bogus allegation! Of course this doesn't stop our BNP buddies making similar allegations at every opportunity, pretending that the claim cost a lot more than it really did. Perhaps the Town Clerk is not the only person who suffers from hyperbole - that is obvious and intentional exaggeration.

I generally have little sympathy for Gordon Brown whose judgement on many issues - Iraq, Afghanistan, the Banking Crisis should legitimately be questioned but many of these allegations seem to lack substance or evidence and are are being used as a political weapon for those politicians who have a clear political axe to grind. Ill watch with interest to see how this develops. Perhaps Ill pass on the details of the solicitor who was used to successfully dump the bogus allegations made against certain Town Councillor and suggest Gordy gives him a ring!