Morley Elderly Action cash boost.

Morley Borough Independent Councillors are celebrating the decision to finance Morley Elderly Action for a three year project to provide gardening services for older and disable people who are unable to keep up to their gardens. The project, which provides a subsidised gardening service, was agreed at last Mondays Outer South Area Committee when councillors voted to support the project for the next three years.

Cllr Shirley Varley, who is a member of Morley Elderly Actions Management Board, said “This is good news for local pensioners. This scheme has operated very well over the last few years and hundreds of pensioners have been helped to keep their gardens manageable with the support of the scheme. This subsidised service has shown to be one of the best value for money schemes across the Leeds City Council area. I am delighted the amount of help and support we can give to pensioners will now increase.”

Councillors agreed the £32,000 package which will cover the Morley, Tingley and East Ardsley areas. Morley Elderly Action administers the scheme and use gardeners who have a good local reputation and are crb checked.

Cllr Tom Leadley said “We received numerous positive testimonials form pensioners who have been pleased with how the scheme has worked in the past. The project will now cover more hours which will mean more local residents will get the help they need to keep on top of their gardens.”

Campaign against Churwell Litter Louts

I have launched a campaign to crack down on fly tippers who are blighting a roadway in  Churwell. Local residents have raised their concerns about the high level of fly tipping that is blighting the Churwell section of Rooms Lane. We have had to spend thousands clearing this mess up. We need to look at ways of reducing this anti-social behaviour.

I have asked Leeds City Council to explore the options of blocking access to Rooms Lane as most of the fly tipping comes from litter louts dumping rubbish from the back of vans.

We cannot just continue clearing up this mess without seeking a permanent solution to these litter louts. This is an option we are exploring to see if blocking access is affordable and practical.

 

Owlers Farm campaign begins!

MBI Flyer opposing Owler Farm Development

Morley Borough Independent Councillors have commenced their campaign to prevent development on a greenfield site at Owlers Farm off Wide Lane in Morley. The large greenfield site has been proposed for housing development by Persimmons and local residents have raised their outrage about the application. Its our job to oppose it as fully as we can and a flyer will shortly be circulating encouraging residents to formally lodge objections to the proposal.

Readers of this blog will know that Morley Primary and Secondary Schools will be full by 2016 with children already living in Morley. The additional children this application will generate have nowhere to go to school if planning permission is granted. If we add to this the congestion on Wide Lane, the poor drainage and flooding record at this location and the inability of other infrastructure services - such as local health centres - to cope with this level of development then it is clearly an unsustainable site and contrary to the Governments new NPPF document.

Labour already seem to be throwing in the white flag and don't appear to want to battle with the Developers on this application. This is perhaps no surprise as local Labour Councillors - including Morley's only Labour City Councillor Neil Dawson - voted for the LDF and its targets of 7,000+ houses across Morley which can only be accommodated by ripping up our greenfield sites.

The need to rip up Morley Greenfield sites is questionable as Leeds City Council has already granted planning permission for over 21,000 housing units - mainly on brownfield sites - which have not yet been built. At an annual completion rate of less than 2000 units a year there is already enough planning permissions to cover present housing demand for over 10 years without disturbing a single blade of grass on any Morley greenfield site.

It will be interesting to see if Labour look both ways on this - voting for it at Leeds City Council while claiming to oppose it locally. We will see if Labour again capitulates to the Developers.

What this space!

Morley Fire Station - new campaign!

Morley Borough Independent Councillors have launched a new campaign aiming to block the introduction of staffing changes at Morley Fire Station which will mean no staff will be on site from 5pm at night through to 8am the following morning. This follows our successful campaign to prevent the closure of Morley Fire Station which was proposed by West Yorkshire Fire Authority late last year.

We have been regularly in touch with local firefighters and we share their concerns that daytime staffing will put local communities at risk. This will mean that should there be a fire incident or a road traffic accident between 5pm and 8am then Firefighters will not be on site at Morley Fire Station and will have to be called in from home. That would clearly put local communities and motorists at risk.

Figures provided to us show that West Yorkshire Fire Service has an additional £2.5 million to spend following the agreement to raise an additional £5 a year from council tax payers.

We have significant concerns about this new staffing structure and we believe that there has been no meaningful consultation around these new proposals. The last consultation closed before this new staffing arrangement was proposed. We are calling for meaningful consultations with local communities who will be put under threat by these arrangements.

We were to meet Firefighters at Morley Fire Station but the meeting was cancelled by Fire Chiefs without an explanation being offered. The Morley South Ward is regarded as high risk from fires by the Fire Authority. Morley Fire Station also covers the M62 and M621 corridor which has significant numbers of road traffic incidents.

This is almost like the closure of Morley Fire Station by stealth. It will be closed for 13 hours a day – over 50% of the time! We believe this will put local communities at risk. This decision can be reversed as new funding has been found which would allow the Fire Authority to continue with 24 hour a day staffing of Morley Fire Station.

We are due to meet the Fire Chief shortly and we will make sure we campaign hard to try and get this daytime staffing dumped!