Police Numbers in Morley to be retained



Policing Numbers retained at Morley following Labour U turn



I'm delighted to report that Policing numbers in Morley are to be retained following confirmation by Leeds City Councils Executive Board who agreed that the 5 PCSOs per ward allocation would not be altered. This is a bit of a U turn by Labour who were discussing the options of moving PCSOs from the Outer Areas - such as Morley - to Inner City wards.

As you may confidently have predicted - Labours plan went down badly with local residents who have become used to the higher Policing levels and the inevitable decrease in crime levels that result from higher visibility patrolling on local streets. Morley's Neighbourhood Policing Team has the enviable record of being one of the highest performing teams in West Yorkshire with crime levels below most comparable places - including Wetherby! This is due to the hard work undertaken by and the good leadership within the Policing Team. Crime levels have dropped over the last decade and the Police - working closely with Communities via regular PACT meeings - agree crime fighting priorities in partnership. No-one is suggesting that the work is finished or that our streets are entirely crime free but most would accept that this important quality of life issue has improved significantly over the last few years.

Labours obsession with taking resources form Outer Areas to pump into their own Labour areas has been defeated on this occasion with the Police and Communities opposing the relocation of Policing Staff away from their present area of work. We ran with this issue during the local elections and pledged to campaign hard to retain the numbers we already have. Your support - along with your votes - has lead to this rethink and eventual U turn by Labour. 

A clear case of Power to the People!

 

Valley Road, a reduced Travellers site application and the Thought Police

Morley residents at the recent public meeting

The planning application for a Travellers site at Valley Road in Morley reached a new phase with a reduced application for a 35 pitch site replacing the previous one. This application is still unacceptable but because it is an amended application it has to go through the consultation process yet again. However all the 1500+ objections received last time (a local record in terms of objections!) will be carried over on to the new application which means people do not need to object again if they oppose this development.

The application remains unacceptable at this location because its size and the serious contamination at the site. It is also the case that Morley is again being asked to accommodate additional Travellers pitches while other areas across Leeds choose not to do so because of the concerns they have about Travellers sites in their communities. A decision was due to be made this month but is likely to run into next month because of this administrative device adopted by the Applicant to try and slow down the planning process. Two Stop Notices have been served on the Traveller Applicant and a court order has also been obtained to prevent any further demolition or earth works at the site.

And this brings me on to the Thought Police - also know as GATE or Gypsy and Traveller Exchange - a pressure group for Travellers that acts as apologists for their often poor behaviour especially on unauthorised encampments. GATE - who get taxpayers money form Leeds City Council, the NHS and West Yorkshire Police - are using the same cash paid by hard working tax payers to try and silence those who do not buy into their rosy view of the Traveller issue. GATE complained about my comments on this application to the Standards Board on Leeds City Council - who - after full consideration of their claim - confirmed it was bogus. But underneath is a sinister element where GATE try to use such bogus claims to suppress anyone who dares to stand up against the poor behaviour of many Travellers especially those on unauthorised sites. It is reminiscent of George Orwell's Thought Police portrayed in his book 1984. In the book the Thought Police attempt to use and manipulate language to try and prevent future opposition. This is clearly what GATE - with their bogus complaint - is attempting to do.

We will watch to see if a further complaint comes in from GATE. However a more important point is that we continue to work together to get a planning refusal of this inappropriate development on Valley Road.

Valley Road Public Meeting - what a turn out!



Hundreds attend MBI Traveller Meeting

 Hundreds of people attended our meeting on Monday to launch the campaign opposing the planning application for a Traveller site at Valley Road in Morley. The number of concerned citizens overwhelmed the Town Hall with people having to stand outside to hear the debate.

I set out our clear objections - both planning and community - to this application. The site is inappropriate for this use. It is too large an application, on contaminated land, to close to the railway line and is at an unsustainable location. It is industrial land and should be used to bring more jobs to Morley - not for a Cottingley Springs Mark 2 Travellers site.

Speaker after speaker backed our campaign including both Labour and the Conservatives. Concerns were raised about community safety and the impact the proposed traveller site would have on crime levels. One of the major points to come out of the evening was a clearly held view that Morley had already contributed to resolving the Leeds Traveller problem. With Cottingley Springs on our doorstep and several small family sites across the Greater Morley Area - we are doing our bit to accommodate the Traveller burden. Other areas need to take their fair share and not dump the problem on Morley Folk for them to solve!

My colleague Cllr Shirley Varley spoke passionately against the proposal which drew the largest applause of the whole evening!

We are WAGs not NIMPYs. That is We've already given not Not in my back yard types.Its time for other areas to take their fair share!

This was an excellent meeting and it is very humbling to see so many Morley Folk back the MBI Campaign. This is a unified campaign with Morley residents backing our position. It will be interesting to see if Labour buckle on the matter. After all our very own Labour Councillor Neil Dawson backed the expansion of Cottingley Springs as well as the £1.6 million financing package that goes along with it. It will be interesting to see if he can deliver his Labour colleagues to back the refusal campaign. After all Labours reputation in Morley is poor because of their voting record of backing Developers rather than local people.

Lets hope this time they have the backbone to back Morley and not the Party Line!

Building for the Public Meeting

Regular readers will know that we are building support for our public meeting on the proposed Travellers Site on Valley Road. The meeting, on Monday 12th May at 7pm in Morley Town Hall bringing residents together to campaign with us to stop this site being dumped on Morley.

Over 250 objections have already been received by the planning Department and it is our aim to push that over the 1,000 mark. Along with good planning reasons for refusing the application - such as loss of important industrial land and proximity to the railway - other reasons are equally as relevant as our communities already having contributed to resolving the Travellers problem with the citing of Cottingley Springs on our doorstep.

We believe we have contributed significantly to resolving the Traveller problem and now its time for other areas to take some of this burden. It would be clearly unacceptable to have over 100 Traveller Families in a limited geographical area and would lead inevitably to a Dale Farm problem - a problem which cost millions to solve.

Planning Rules say Travellers sites should be smaller family run sites of less than 15 pitches. This application clearly fails this test.

Its time for Morley Folk to stand up and be counted and to join our campaign to block this proposal. I hope as many residents as possible will join me on Monday to send a clear "No!" to this inappropriate planning application.

Campaign to stop 55 Pitch Travellers site at Valley Road



Cottingley Springs expansion opposed

Regular readers know we have always taken a firm line on Travellers sites across the Morley area. We have lead the successful campaign against the expansion of Cottingley Springs Travellers site and have had the Secretary of State call in the application for a Public Inquiry where it is likely to be buried because of its non compliance with Local and National Planning Policy. That Policy is to oppose large scale Travellers sites in favour of smaller family based sites - sites with fewer than 12 pitches.

This is why we were outraged to hear of a new planning application for a 55 pitch Travellers site on Valley Road in Morley. This is clearly an unacceptable application because it will overwhelm Morley with more Traveller families. Indeed Morley is the community more impacted upon by Cottingley Springs than any other community and the problems with that site are well documented and well understood by local residents.

It is clear that the Police can barely cope with the challenges of anti-social behaviour emanating form Cottingley Springs. Adding a larger Travellers site within couple of miles of Cottingley Springs would overwhelm local communities, undermine Morley Town centre and leave the Police with a problem it will be beyond their capacity to resolve.
In Planning Terms the site is inappropriate for this type of development. It is an industrial site which will be needed to support new businesses - creating the jobs we will need in the future. The road to the site is inadequate for caravans and the many industrial vehicles Travellers will bring to the site. It is isolated and too close to the railway line for any domestic use.
It's clearly not in the Travellers interest either. Many residents on Cottingley Springs will tell you that the site is too large and leads to all sorts of problems as different families continue to run feuds against each other. Smaller family sites avoid this problem.
The interesting thing will be the position of the Labour Party on this issue. They are renowned for being soft on travellers and - as long as they don't live in Labour Wards - they are quite happy to tolerate Travellers in other peoples Wards. Indeed for years they have bleated on about unauthorised sites but do nothing to share the problem across the City preferring to dump the problem on the Morley/Wortley area.
This cannot be allowed to go ahead and we have called a public meeting on Monday 12th May at 7pm at Morley Town Hall to form a campaign group to oppose it. I have had large numbers of e mails and phone calls opposing the site but we need to be unified to make sure we send a clear message that Morley will not become the dumping ground for Leeds' Traveller problem.

The potential carnage of Morleys Greenfield sites.



New figures released by the Planning Department show the full extend of the potential carnage facing Morley's Greenfields if Labours Housing Targets are to be reached.

Regular readers will be aware of Labours LDF target of 7,200 new houses across the Greater Morley area. The document received shows that a miserly 18% of this target can be found on existing brownfield sites. Even with my poor "O" level in Maths I can work out that a whopping 80% plus can only be reached by ripping up Greenfield sites across Morley. I'd go further and say Developers will choose these greenfield sites before it even begins to look at the brownfield ones as there is more profit in them!

And this pretty much undermines the Labour Party's position of bleating that new development is necessary but some how can be accommodated on brownfield sites alone. This is a lie and always was but it is one that Labour believe that - if it is used often enough - people will then accept as the truth.

The headline figures show over 500 proposed for Laneside Farm in Churwell with a whopping 1000 plus for Tingley Station. Clearly schools, health centres and roads cannot cope with this level of over development but the Labour Party Supported drive from Developers speeds along.

We will off course make this a big election issue next month. Labours position on this issue is feeble and the only other political players in the area - UKIP - have failed to turn up to any of the rallies or meetings to oppose this Developer led carnage of our Greenfield sites. We are the only political group that has had the backbone to take on the Developers and will continue to do so.

We all agree that we need more affordable homes on brownfield sites but this is not what the LDF gives us. We backed affordable homes at Glen Road, Liberty View and Kirkness Court - all affordable homes - all on brownfield previously developed sites. The LDF offers urban sprawl with an overwhelming offer of Executive style homes. That won't help anyone on the present housing list in Morley.

We will continue to battle with Labour and its LDF and hope that we get full support for our campaign in the forthcoming local elections.

Church Fields Victory!

Cllr Wyn Kidger leads the rally at Church Fields

Readers will remember that we have been battling with Developers to save a greenfield site at Church Fields in East Ardsley. We have campaigned hard with our MARC (Morley against reckless construction) colleagues and with the community in East Ardsley to put the strong case against housing development on this highly valued green field.

On Thursday we held a rally at the site prior to the Plans Panel site visit organised by my good colleague and Church Fields Campaign Co-ordinator Cllr Wyn Kidger. Over 50 people attended and it was great to see the community joining with us, waving banners and giving a clear message to Councillors on the Plans Panel about how important this Greenfield site is.

My colleague Cllr Tom Leadley sits on the Panel looking into this application. The Panel received a position statement report to consider which covers the areas of concern - such as traffic congestion and the impact on local services such as schools and health centres. I am delighted to say that the Plans Panel made a recommendation that the application should be refused. This refusal is likely to be confirmed in June unless the Developer voluntarily withdraws the application - therefore withdrawing the threat of development.

The issues from our point of view are clear. Local schools are full and have no space to accommodate the children generated form this development. Bradford Road is regularly congested and a further 600 cars contributing to this congestion would only make matters worse. The local health centre is already busy with servicing the health needs of people living in the area and a further 1000 plus patients feeding into it would make for longer waiting times to see a GP.

These arguments seems to have been accepted by the Labour dominated Plans Panel. How curious is it that the same arguments - which were relevant at Bruntcliffe Road, Daisy Hill and Owlers Farm - were rejected with Labour capitulating to developers on each and every occasion.

Some would say that Church Fields is in a Labour Ward and therefore gets special treatment. Others say Labour are so worried about losing the Ardsley and Robin Hood seat in the local elections in May that they needed to give the embattled Labour Councillors for the area a victory. Whatever the reason it is always gratifying to see a sinner converted to a better path. It will be interesting to see if this is a permanent or temporary conversion!

We are grateful to local residents for their support and Wyn Kidger has put her body and soul into this campaign working closely with the community in East Ardsley. They all deserve a great amount of credit for not buckling under the power of the large Developers wanting to concrete over this valuable site.

We will not be complacent. It appears we may have won this battle and retained this greenfield site. However we all know Labours propensity to u turn and capitulate to Developers when pressed as they did with Daisy Hill. We will battle on. There is no surrender when it comes to protecting the Greater Morley area from overdevelopment!