Protecting Morley Policing Team

As readers will know I have been a big supporter of Morley Policing Team and especially the PCSOs who contribute greatly to the teams success. Although a sceptic when PCSOs were first introduced I am now utterly convinced that they have been a great thing and have materially contributed to falling crime levels. A new report from the Police is again showing a fall in crime levels over the last year - despite severe financial challenges - and that work is a tribute to all the Policing Team who are doing an excellent job.

And that is why I am cocnerned at Labour Leeds City Councils proposal to reallocate PCSOs away from Morley. A present proposal doing the rounds it to shift one of the five PCSOs paid for by Leeds City Council to other areas - presumably Labour areas with higher crime rates. This would mean a 20% cut back in the number of PCSOs paid for by Leeds walking the streets of Morley.

We are opposing this as it seems to us utter madness to stop providing the level of support that will mean we can keep on top of crime levels. The PCSO story is a successful one in Morley and that's because they are a strong visual presence on local streets. Their presence and the intelligence they pick up contributes in a big way to making our streets safer and also contributes to higher detection rates. That keeps criminals where they belong - behind bars!

We will resist such a cut back. It will be interesting to see if our local Labour Colleagues will do the same or if they follow the Party Line and capitulate to those lower Policing levels. As ever - we will report back their voting record!

Cottingley Springs - Pickles calls it in!

The controversial decision by Labour Leeds City Council to grant Planning Permission to expand Cottingley Springs Travellers site has been called in by the Secretary of State - Eric Pickles MP - for a final decision. This means that planning permission has NOT been granted for expansion and that Labour Leeds City Councils £1 million windfall to finance the expansion plan now hangs by a slim thread!

What are we to make of this call in decision?

We have consistently said that the application breaches both National and Local planning policy. It breaches the NPPF. Labour Leeds City Councils policy for Travellers has been thrown out by the Inspector examining Labours LDF as he found it incoherent! Labour has no plan B and their plans don't even have the full support of Travellers themselves or of GATE - the Travellers campaign group.

Everyone now appreciates that Labours Dumping Policy - in areas that aren't under Labour control - is flawed. Even the Travellers themselves are arguing for smaller family run sites across Leeds as the expansion of Cottingley Springs is likely to make the problem worse for many of the residents already living there.

Its is therefor clear that Labours attempt at a political stitch up is coming apart at the seams! As they have no Plan B then money that could have been used for smaller family run Traveller sites is likely to be lost and the additional costs of unauthorised sites dumped on local Taxpayers because Labours is obsessed with keeping Travellers out of Labour Wards.

Just as an interesting postscript on a similar relevant planning matter. A small Family run Traveller site proposed for Sandon Mount in Hunslet - which was due to be approved earlier this month - was pulled by Planning Chiefs on the day it was to be discussed. Hunslet is a Labour Ward. Who could have predicted that!

Eric Pickles will have the final say on this application after it is considered by a Public Inquiry. He is likely to refuse it as it is development in the Greenbelt and even some Planning Department Insiders can't see how it can possibly get through.

We need a Plan B and that means Labour Wards taking some of the new smaller Family run Traveller sites. We in Morley have already taken our fair share - its time for Labour to do the same!

McDonalds Defeat - a victory for people power!

Campaigners against Tingley McDonald's

This week the news was released that the application for a McDonald's take-away at Tingley had been refused Planning Permission by a Planning Inspector.


This is stunning news and a brilliant victory for Vicki Smith and her campaign team who have battled the Fast Food Giant for almost 3 years to prevent the application going ahead. It is also a victory for local residents who came together with a united campaign to prevent the blight McDonald's would bring to this Tingley residential area. This victory over McDonald's shows that local communities can take on large multi-nationals and defeat them even if McDonald's and others have deep pockets and political influence. This is a real victory for people power and a well earned reward for Vicki, her team and the local community.

This campaign was not against McDonald's specifically but against this location as its was clearly going to have a significant negative impact on local residents. We did propose that Capital Park - across the road - would be a better location but McDonald's refused to enter into any dialogue with us about alternative sites.

Is this the last we will see of McDonald's at this location? Probably as a refusal at the Planning Inspector level is hellishly difficult to overturn and prevents any such development for years and years.

We are now looking at working with local residents, MARC and the owners of the site to explore alternative positive uses of this site. This will be community led as we want to see the site redeveloped in a sensitive way which takes into account adjacent residential properties.

This is the third victory in as many weeks coming hard on the heels of confirmation that Cottingley Springs Travellers Site expansion plan is being called in by the Secretary of State and news that the development proposal at Ardsley Reservoir has been withdrawn. It just shows that People Power can win if we all stay united!

Stop Notice on Persimmons requested



 Mud on the road - just another breach by Developer Persimmons

 Readers will remember our long campaign to prevent the development of the greenfield site at Daisy Hill in Morley. This sight was a controversial one and was only granted planning permission when Labour fiddled the planning process by packing a plans panel with Labour Councillors who - like the man from Del Monte - like to say YES where Developers are concerned!

Residents wholly opposed this site and raised concerns that it was a tough site for Developers to develop because of its location. We were told that conditions imposed by the planning permission would prevent problems and that issues such as blocked drives, heavy lorries blocking roads and mud on the road would not occur. We were offered a Disneyland vision where Persimmons would work hard to minimise the impact on local residents with promises they would be a good neighbour.

Promise after promise was broken and residents have had enough living in a Persimmons inspired hell hole!

I have formally requested that a Stop Notice is served on the Developer by Planning Enforcement. These are serious notices that are imposed when Developers refuse to comply with the conditions that are part of the legal agreement that comes with the granting of planning permission. The constant disregard for these conditions and the utter contempt Persimmons have for the local community is entirely unacceptable. We need to send the clearest and firmest of messages that such anti-social behaviour cannot be tolerated.

The stop notice has been requested. It will be interesting to see who Labour Leeds City Council put first - residents or the Developer!

Church Fields revisited

Readers will remember the controversial application for 370 houses proposed for Church Fields in East Ardsley. MARC (Morley against Reckless Construction) has been campaigning against it and we held a very well attended public meeting to raise opposition to it.

The site was due to be visited next Thursday with a debate on the proposal to take place the same afternoon. This has been postponed because the Planning Inspector examining Labour Leeds LDF document is unhappy with the figures they are proposing and questions whether they have a credible policy on a 5 year land supply.

This is where we get into Fantasy Planning area. As readers will remember the previous Labour Government - under their Regional Spatial Strategy - proposed a housing target of 4,300 new homes every year. The amendments proposed by the Planning Inspector is again suggesting a similar figure of 4,800 - more or less the same. We argue that as Labour Leeds City Council has granted planning permission for over 18,000 housing units on mainly brownfield sites and in a good year 3000 new housing units are built - then 18,000 divided by 3,000 would show enough land supply for 8 years.

But in Fantasy Planning world - occupied by all three major parties - they ignore reality and pretend such targets of 4,300 housing units are achievable and even a good thing! Real people know this level of over development means local schools, health centres and roads are overwhelmed with communities picking up the difficulties well after Developers have buggered off leaving us to deal with the mess they have left.

We will campaign robustly to defend this precious Greenfield site but the game of Fantasy Planning played by the Labour Party and others makes our job much harder!

Town Centre Puzzle!

Morley - a thriving Town Centre

I received a phone call from Channel 4 news this week to discuss Morley Town Centre and the economic upturn. The Director wanted to get some insight into how Morley was doing during these difficult times. I was delighted to give a full report on how well Morley Town Centre is doing in relation to other local towns such as Dewsbury and Batley. I also confirmed that we are expecting new investment such as Wetherspoons and the regeneration of the Pavilion at the end of Queen Street.

The Directors aims were not clear and I spouted on about how we had worked on regenerating Morley Bottoms and how we have the fewest number of empty shops for a decade! I'm not sure if he was disappointed with my reply but he did agree with me that unemployment was lower in Morley than in other surrounding areas.

I waxed eloquently on our partnership with the White Rose and the additional 1000 jobs coming the way of local residents.

I guess it was not what he was looking for but even he had to admit that Morley did not seem to be a Town Centre that was failing. I suspect that as Morley is in the Shadow Chancellors constituency he was wanting someone to portray doom and gloom. He clearly didn't get that from me and that's probably why he rang off rather quickly having thanked me for my background information.

It is important we do all we can to keep Morley Town Centre thriving and I believe we must be doing something right if a multi million pound investment by Wetherspoons and the Pavilion Developer is anything to go by. They clearly see a successful Town Centre worth investing in.

Churwell Lighting Problem Resolved!

New Street Lights coming to a darkened area in Churwell

We often get approached about a specific issue and sometimes it can take many years to resolve it. This has included bringing impoved street lighting to a darkened area and alleyway at the Old Road and Manor Road location in Churwell.

This was initially raised by residents as a community safety issue as the ginnel was very dark and the general area - close to the viaduct - remained dark especially in winter. Street Lighting confirmed that they had no legal responsability to light it and the ownership fell between diffrent council services which made it difficult to find a solution.

Towards the end of last year another resident raised his concerns. I arranged a site visit by the Lighting Engineer who confirmed a solution could be found but he had no cash to finance it. After further discussions between different funding partners it was agreed that we would find the finance with Outer South Area Committee and Morley Housing Office finding the cash to sort this out.

Often the most satisfying part of being a councillor is to resolve practical problems residents face. In this case - with good will from all sides - we were able to shed light on the problem.

Residents on Manor Road and Old Road literally have a brighter future!