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!