RSS scrapped - a good news story!

The Regional Spatial Strategy - agreed by the last Labour Government - is abolished today. This is a good news story for Morley as the figures proposed within the RSS have been an albatross around our necks as we battled to retain  Morley Greenfield sites such as Daisy Hill.

Indeed the RSS figures were behind the Leeds City Council decision to stop fighting appeals against developer's lodging applications on Greenfield sites across Leeds. This was a flawed decision because the figures they proposed of over 3500 new housing units was always unrealistic and could only be delivered by building on Greenfield sites. This meant developer's avoided regenerating Brownfield sites as they flocked towards Greenfield ones as the City Council failed to have the backbone to do anything about it!

As it stands today there are no RSS figures and the questionable targets proposed by LCC of over 70,000 new homes - with 7000 plus coming to Morley - has no legal significance as the Plan has not been through a public examination yet.

This means we should have new hope for keeping Morley's Greenfield sites green. We will direct Developers to the 22,000 planning permissions already granted for housing on mainly Brownfield sites across Leeds along with the 10,000 plus homes empty across the city which need to be brought back into use. That's over 32,000 homes which at a completion rate of 2000 a year will mean we have enough land supply for housing to cover us until 2028.

In the finals analysis we have an option to hold on to most of Morley's Greenfield sites and focus development on Brownfield ones. The question is will Labour exercise this option?

Morley School Numbers Crisis

New figures released to the MBI group by Education Chiefs on Leeds City Council show that all Morley Primary and Secondary Schools will be full by 2016. This is based on projections of actual births and children who already live in the Morley area.

What do these figures mean? They mean that new developments - such as Daisy Hill and Bruntcliffe Road - will generate so many additional children for primary and secondary schools that they will be overwhelmed and unable to cope!

Presently all of Morley primary schools are two form entries apart from Asquith Primary and St Frances. Both Asquith and St Frances are proposed to be extended (by an additional 30 places at Asquith and by 8 up to 30 at St Frances.) Newlands goes to a three form entry when the new school (delivered by an MBI campaign) is built in 2014. Even with those schools expanded there will be 420 available school places and 427 children presently in the system by 2016. If you add an additional 100 to 150 kids from new developments from Daisy Hill and Bruntcliffe then it doesn't take a mathematical genius to see that there is no room available for these additional children.

Indeed at a meeting this week Education Chiefs confirmed that there is no other Primary school in Morley than can be expanded for these additional children. Morley is indeed full up!

Labour continue to bang additional housing burdens on Morley as they force through Daisy Hill and Bruntcliffe Road against substantial local opposition. They seem to like to play the game of Buckaroo - the game I played as a kid - when you keep loading a mule bit by bit until it bucks off the whole lot. That's what Labour does in Morley. It adds additional burdens to creaking infrastructure and doesn't give a toss if it can cope as long as they protect Labour areas from similar problems.

We will use this new information to campaign against future large scale housing developments. We will see if Labour will now listen to good sense - but don't hold your breath!

Expansion of Morley Town Council?

A review of Town and Parish Councils in Leeds is to go ahead which could see the expansion of Morley Town Council. This is good news for the democratic process and will bring decision making down to a more local level as it does in Morley, Drighlington and Gildersome.

There is little doubt that the Councils in these areas have delivered real improvements with more policing and lower crime rates along with firmer planning scrutiny and support for local community groups. I am regularly asked by people outside the Town Council area, such as Tingley and East and West Ardsley what they can due to join the Town Council and be supported by councillors backing their communities rather than the Party Line.

Its clear that when it comes to campaigning - such as against the LDF, for better bus services or to Keep Morley Fire Station open that residents expect the Town Council and its councillors to support their concerns on these issues.

This review will give residents the opportunity to join a vibrant Council which puts their concerns the top of their agenda. I hope communities will get involved and join with us to expand the Town Council to cover the full Morley Borough Council area.

Newlands Primary School moves forward

I was delighted to formally move the resolution to grant planning permission for the new three form entry school at Newlands Primary at last weeks Plans Panel - a project bringing over £10 million investment to this part of Morley.

The delivery of this new school has been a campaign we have been running for many years. We believe we started the work in 2004 as we were horrified at the poor state of the present building and associated portacabins. Some of the temporary classrooms have been in since the 1970s when West Yorkshire County Council ran education and a local planner confirmed at last weeks meeting that they had over 10 planning applications over the years for temporary classrooms.

There in no doubt the local community and the wider school family deserve this new build scheme and their patience has been fabulous under very difficult circumstances. It is perhaps interesting to note that Labours Flagship - Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme failed to bring a penny of new investment to any of Morley's primary or secondary schools. Our campaign has successfully convinced the powers that be that financing the new school was inevitable.

I wish the new Newlands School every success. This investment has been a long time coming but I am sure parents and teachers alike will believe it was worth waiting for!

Churwell By-election result

Wyk Kidger, the Morley Borough Independent Councillor, won the Churwell By-election last Thursday with a 63% share of the vote with Labour coming a humiliating second over 270 votes behind despite busing in councillors and students from across Leeds.

Clearly Churwell Voters punished Labour for calling a second by-election within a year and wasting £15,000 of hard earned public money on a sad attempt to promote Labour and Ed Balls. At times there were teams of students flooding Churwell Streets attempting to persuade voters by door knocking them that Labour had the answer. Voters did not buy into this baloney rejecting Labour by a substantial majority. This is probably because of Labours support for over 2000 new homes on Laneside Farm contained within their LDF plan or to punish Labour for voting for development on Greenfield sites at Daisy Hill and Bruntcliffe Road.

Wyn is an additional useful councillor in Churwell and will join a fine and hard working team of Wenda Whitehead, Joyce Sanders and Janet Harrison. The by-election was called following the sad death of Joe Tetley who was a fine councillor and represented |Churwell well.

At a time when Labour moan constantly about cut backs their cavalier attitude towards wasting public money is contemptible. The hypocrisy of their criticism of the recent waste of public money on the recent Police Commissioner is also exposed as they blew over £15,000 on their own expensive vanity project.

My personal thanks goes to Churwell voters who despite the weather and the onslaught of Labour students still go out to the polling stations and lodged their votes for the MBIs!

All weather pitch success

We have been working closely with Bruntcliffe High School to bring Morley First All Weather Pitch to the area for several months now. The school has done an excellent job of working together with local sports clubs, residents and the MBI group to pull together the £600,000 needed to finance the school.

Under the excellent stewardship of Ryan Hirst local football and rugby clubs have come together to bring a workable and sustainable facility which will benefit everyone - students, local sports clubs, residents and especially young people. The scheme has faced significant challenges but finance has been provided by the school and the football foundation for a project that is genuinely groundbreaking in its community driven approach.

The last piece in the jigsaw - a grant of £100,000 - has been agreed by the Council from Section 106 funds - money from developers to improve local green spaces and sporting facilities. The work is underway and I hope to see this excellent new facility available for the locals community to use later in the Spring.

Congratulations to everyone involved!

Morley Fire Station and Daisy Hill Updated

Can I first start by wishing all readers - even Labour Party Members - a Happy New Year.

That out of the way lets get back to two contentious issues - Morley Fire Station and the Daisy Hill Housing Application.

I attended the West Yorkshire Fire Service meeting before Christmas where it was confirmed that the Fire Station will remain open. This issue was debated for 6.8 seconds before being passed - I timed it. Although the Station will remain open we still have significant concerns about the new proposed staffing structure which will only have the station staffed during the day. We are looking to get the Fire Authority to adopt the Close Call system. Close Call would construct accommodation on or near the Fire Station which would mean Firefighters on site 24 hours a day. The present system - where Firefighters have to respond to attend the Fire Station within 5 minutes from home - puts a further time delay on getting to a fire. We think this still puts communities at risk. We have asked for these concerns to be placed in front of the Full Council Meeting later this month and we will be looking for cross party support for our campaign. I have already raised the issue with the Chief Fire Officer who is not prepared to re-consider the staffing proposal. We will keep campaigning with the FBU on this to try and force a change. Ill report back after the meeting.

The second issue relates to the housing application at Daisy Hill in Morley. As readers will remember this was bulldozed through using Labour Councillors votes in October. We requested the issue was called in via the MP Ed Balls and the Secretary of State as we believe the decision was made on political and not planning grounds. Those requests were refused. We asked Legal Services on Leeds City Council to formally withhold planning permission on the second planning application pending the outcome of a Planning Inspectorate Public Inquiry. This was refused. Over the Christmas break Persimmons withdrew their appeal against non determination of the first refused application and planning permission is likely to be granted shortly.

Many local residents are disillusioned at this decision. They believe there was a dodgy deal done behind closed doors involving the Labour Party which led to them ramming this application through. Certainly it is a puzzle how Labour Councillors on Plans Panel East voted to refuse the first application but their more accommodating Labour colleagues on the second panel meeting voted - in isolation of all other political groups - and in total unity to hand over this Morley Greenfield site to the Developer. It was clear to many that the second panel was crammed with new and enthusiastic freshly elected councillors who were keen to show their record of loyalty to the Labour Party hierarchy presumably on the basis that future political promotions would be stymied if they didn't follow the Party Line.

We could just give in and refuse to battle other housing planning applications. Indeed we do have the option of allowing Labours LDF proposals for over 7000 new houses for the Morley area to overwhelm and swamp our communities. This would overwhelm local schools - which can barely accommodate the children presently in the system and could not cope with the thousands of new children this development will bring. It will overwhelm local roads with more congestion and other local infrastructure - such as health centres - will not be able to cope. Our communities deserve better than that. We may have lost this skirmish but we continue to battle against Labours LDF plan to swamp Morley with new housing.

My thanks for both the Fire Station and Daisy Hill campaigns goes out to several groups and people. The Fire Station campaign was led by Christine and Brian Guy and fully supported by the MBI Groups on Leeds City Council and Morley Town Council. We received backing from the Fire Brigades Union both regionally and locally and their support is most appreciated. On Daisy Hill  Dave Paul's efforts along with his MARC (Morley Against Reckless Construction) colleagues was brilliant and they should be thanked for all their efforts.

I'm looking forward to campaigning hard through 2013. We have the Churwell By-election to be held on 24th January where we will use the vote as a referendum on Labours LDF plan. I hope to see Wyn Kidger elected who will join the fine Churwell Town Council Team of Janet Harrison, Joyce Sanders and Wenda Whitehead. Joe Tetley will be sadly missed. His experience and support on many Morley and Churwell issues gave those issues real real credibility and momentum. His replacement will have alot to live up to!