Hembrigg Park Improvement Plan

My colleague Cllr Shirley Varley and I went to have a look at Hembrigg Park this week to look into concerns we had received from local residents.

Hembrigg Park is a much better park than it was when we first came into office but it clearly requires a little TLC to put it right back at its best. Several repairs were identified such as the facia to the changing rooms and the replacement of the football posts on the young peoples section of the park. Certain trees need to be pruned and other works- including better grass cutting and shrub pruning - need to be completed.

Recent reports have been received of people camping in the park and an abandoned sleeping bag was left strewed in tree branches. This will also be cleaned up.

We have agreed, via Area committee for additional Park Staff or “Site Based Gardeners” as they are called - who will be employed across the rest of the summer to attend parks - including Hembrigg, Lewisham and Churwell - on a regular basis.

Residents should see improvements in all parks shortly and along with new investment identified - to include a new skate park for Morley - should all be fully in place later this year. Our parks are something to be very proud of and our communities see them as a vital community asset. We need to keep working hard to continue to keep all our parks at their best.

Gildersome Scarecrow competition

Litterpicking in Gildersome last Saturday

This Sunday is the date for Gildersomes now famous scarecrow competition. The competition - which has now been going for years - means the village of Gildersome is flooded with local and not so local visitors who flock to see the hundreds of scarecrows made by Gildersome residents in a funday trail of spotting them all!

This is a fabulous event and all credit should go to the organising committee and Gildersome Parish Council for putting on an event that brings so much joy - especially to families and children.

Many people believe I spend my time campaigning against other political parties and I am often accused of forgetting the more local issues. Which is why is was a pleasure to join local residents in Gildersome last weekend to help with a litterpick of the area prior to the Festival. Litterpicking is a therapeutic pastime and gives you a positive buzz as it is something tangible you are undertaking which makes the communities you represent better places to live. You can sometimes forget that important aspect when on focusing on the bigger and longer term issues.

I hope the weather holds out for Sunday. Even if it doesn't the Festival grows year by year and is a favourite day out for local people. I can only wish it the best for the future.

New Campaigning Committee set up

We held a public meeting last Monday to try to draw together all the different groups campaigning against inappropriate development across Morley - especially on greenfield sites.

The meeting brought together groups from Bruntcliffe Road, Daisy Hill, Chidswell, Tingley McDonald's campaign as well as residents from Gildersome, East Ardsley and Churwell who are all campaigning to protect their local communities and defend Morley's greenfield sites.

It was agreed to set up a new group who will lead the community campaign against Labours LDF and proposal for over 7,200 housing units on Morley greenfield sites as well as supporting communities campaigning on specific housing applications on controversial greenfield sites.

The group was given news of an analysis of the recent consultation process on Labours LDF. The figures show overwhelming opposition form Morley. Over 70% of the representations came from Morley with most of the rest from Developers and other statutory consultees. Other areas in Leeds are sleepwalking into an overwhelming nightmare of over development - but not Morley!

It is curious how the Labour representatives who claim to represent Morley have reacted. Ed Balls - our beloved Labour MP - didn't make a representation so its a safe bet he is toeing the Party Line and backing the proposals. Solitary Labour Councillor on Leeds City Council Neil Dawson also failed to make a representations despite his claims at public meetings he was working to change it! This should come as no surprise as he voted for the plan earlier this year. Clearly Neil is a Party Loyalist happy to sell Morley out to Developers rather than oppose the crazy demands of his Labour chums.

Its clear that Labour Leeds City Council intends to attempt to punish Morley Folk for not accepting their demands to rip up Morley greenfield sites. Labour seems to believe that by bullying us and disenfranchising Morley Folk that we will meekly get back in line. Nothing could be further from the truth! Morley is an Independent thinking Town. This will only strengthen the resolve of Morley folk to explore further options to run our own affairs!

By-election result and Labour blunders!

Regular followers of this blog may have noticed that it has not been updated for a while. We have been busy campaigning in the Local Elections and also had a Town Council by-election added on for good measure taking up our team since March.

The local elections offered us a splendid series of results with both myself and Cllr Elliott being returned for a further 4 years. The Morley South result was quite spectacular and offered us the largest majority we have ever seen in the ward. Some of this is down to our solid campaigning stance on Knowle Manor, our opposition to Labours LDF promising 7,200 housing units in Morley and the rejection of Labours proposals to shave off £25,000 from the Policing budget in Morley. Labour's vote collapsed in Morley with their total vote and share of the vote decimated. No wonder Eddie looked disappointed when he attended the count in Morley Town Hall.

But this Labour failure - despite serous resources targeted to remove Judith (including visits to Morley from Cllr Keith Wakefield, Cllr Richard Lewis, Cllr James Lewis, Rachel Reeves MP and most of the Student Unions Labour Club!) did not stop Morley Folk backing the MBIs and holding Labour accountable for their many failures across the town.

Perhaps the biggest blunder from Labour was their mishandling of the by-election on Morley Town Council. This followed the resignation of Louise Bentley from the Town Council in April (which is the sixth time a Labour Councillor has resigned from the Town Council). Leaving aside the Labour Party's propensity for electing councillors who wish to avoid anything resembling work and who can't be arsed serving their office term - its the expense of holding a by-election which is really the outrage. Of course a by-election does not have to be held if it is not called and a seat can be filled by co-option. This would have saved local taxpayers £6500 in election costs.

But up steps Labour stalwart Frank Tighe - with his group of Labour buddies-  to call a by-election! That will be £6500 please to cover the call - money better spent on improving Policing or keeping our streets cleaner. But the most blundering blunder of all is the failure of the Labour Party - after calling the by-election - to get their nomination papers in on time. I'm reliably informed that Labour Leader Neil Dawson turned up with the wrong papers and too late in the day to lodge the right ones! It is perhaps easy to understand - with this level of Labour incompetence - why the Country's finances were left in such a mess by the Right Honourable Ed Balls and his colleagues!

The result was a straight race between Gareth Beevers for the Morley Borough Independents and our local right wing extremist Chris Beverley under the English Democrats banner. Gareth won by 305 votes to Beverley's 154.

Labours blunder seems to have reached both local and regional papers and perhaps offers an insight into Labours failure to make inroads in to Morley. Roll on the next elections in 2014 and especially 2015 when we will have the opportunity to evict Labour Loyalist Neil Dawson from his temporary position!

The LDF and more dodgy dossier figures!

Regular readers will be aware of our campaign against Labour LDF plans for 7200 new housing units on Morley greenfield sites. Readers also know Leeds has 26,000 planning permissions already granted for housing units across Leeds, mainly on brownfield sites.

But we are told that the new houses are required because of the expected increase in the size of the population in Leeds. Hysterical figures suggesting a mega city of 1 million residents was offered as "evidence" of the need to build an additional 70,000 across Leeds - stuffing Morley with 11% of the total.

Figures released today show a downgrading of the numbers and are based on figures released by the Office of National Statistics. Those claiming Leeds was to be imminently a City of 800,000 souls have had to downgrade their estimates to 780,000 little more than 30,000 higher than in 1974.

We have always questioned the accuracy of these figures and believe they are fundamentally flawed to provide Developers with a Developers Charter rather than a Local Development Plan.

Clearly these new figures dispute the evidence provided to support Labours LDF and make the whole process unsound. We will be challenging them at every opportunity!

A further piece of good news is that objections to Labours LDF from Morley has topped 500 - the highest from any community across Leeds. Residents are leading this assault and it is reassuring that they see the flaws in this seriously flawed process.

Watch out for a further public meeting to be announced shortly. The Battle goes on!

McDonalds - still not lovin' it!

It is said that you cant keep a Good International Corporation down but the silly burgers at McDonald's are again attempting to put their inedible fayre back on to the pub site at Tingley Roundabout.

We got news of a new application on Thursday when sharp eyed local residents spotted the new application on the Councils Website. By Thursday we had identified the site, requested the application be sent to Plans Panel (where the final decision is taken by Councillors and not Planners) and had started the process of arranging a public meeting to galvanise residents again to campaign against this application.

The new proposal, if anything, is worse than the last one with a two storey drive through proposed. The previous refusal decision, which McDonald's did not appeal, cited impact on residential properties and traffic generation as some of the reasons that led up to a refusal.

We do presently seems to be under attack from Developers on all fronts. The proposed public meeting will discuss this application but will also give residents an opportunity to debate Labours LDF proposals for 7200 houses for Morley - which could mean the loss of greenfield sites at Churchfields in East Ardsley and Dunningley and Thorpe Lane in Tingley as well as the proposed destruction of greenbelt land at nearby Chidswell. We believe the campaign is the same one as the proposals are for inappropriate development at all these locations.

Communities often get weary of continuously battling with Developers but, as we saw with the previous campaign, even McDonald's can be beaten if we get organised and campaign together.

This proposal may be as indigestible as a big Mac but we all need to unite if we are to beat McDonald's for a second time.

Huddersfield Demo and more LDF news

I attended the demo in Huddersfield last Saturday against the LDF proposed by Kirklees Council. As readers will know Kirklees are proposing a massive ripping up of greenbelt land at Chidswell for Industrial and Housing Purposes. We have formally objected to this proposal as its will inevitably impact on Dewsbury Road and delivers a substantial blight on popular greenfield sites used by Tingley and West Ardsley Residents.

The demo was a good one and alternative LDF options were proposed by people representing a wider political spectrum than you would normally expect for such campaigns.

Kirklees LDF was ratified at a full council meeting on Tuesday with Labour and Lib Dems ramming it through despite opposition from Conservatives and the Greens. Disappointingly the Huddersfield's "Independents" - who seem closely aligned to Labour - backed the proposal presumably because it left their area undamaged.

It is clear that Kirklees has not consulted Leeds on its Chidswell proposals as Leeds would not be proposing 7200 homes for Morley, many on their end of Dewsbury Road if it was aware of the high volume of traffic the Chidswell project will bring to Morley and Tingley.

The problem with all Councils LDFs is the lack of cooperation between Councils who all remain desperate to give up their greenbelt and greenfields in some bizarre attempt to attract the business sector. The fact of the matter is that there is only so much private sector cash around to bid for and Developers will go to the lowest common denominator.

Both Kirklees and Leeds LDF has to go through public examination for soundness and this is where we all need to get stuck in to the planning Inspector to confirm the foolishness and unsoundness of all these proposals.

Roll on the next demo!