There is a public meeting this evening at the Ormskirk Community Centre, Chapel Street – 7pm.
Steve Igoe, the Pro-vice Chancellor of the University will be speaking about town and gown issues (our future together). It will be followed by questions and a discussion.
The meeting has been arranged by the Ormskirk Community Partnership.
Last year I stepped down as a Skelmersdale councillor having moved to Ormskirk, so attending tonight’s Full Council as a member of the public was an eye opener. I don’t know if things have got worse or if one just becomes immune to the behaviour of Council members after four years, but the level of disrespect and contempt between the two groups seems to be plumbing new depths.
Cllr Ainscough who chaired the meeting seemed intent to make matters worse. Tearing up the constitution and running the meeting to a set of rules that he hadn’t had the courtesy to let anyone else know just led to frustration and anger on the Labour side and casual contempt from the Tories – talking to each other in full voice while Labour members tried to speak (without being stopped by the Chair).
However, I wasn’t there to study the behaviour of the Tories, I was there to observe the debate regarding the provision of noise abatement officers during freshers week.
To start with, Cllr Ainscough (Con. Ormskirk Scott Ward) wouldn’t let Cllr Paul Cotterill introduce the resolution and insisted that instead Cllr Pendleton should speak first. This is important because it meant that Paul wasn’t able to sum up. When he queried the procedure it was dismissed, but then the Chair took all that procedural discussion out of Paul’s time to speak – leaving him with about 90 seconds to introduce and explain the resolution. All this done over a constant chatter of Tories who were not listening.
The portfolio holder, Cllr Fowler (Con, Scarisbrick) stood up to tell councillors that there were only a handful of complaints through the year and so 24 hour noise abatement officer coverage during freshers week was “disproportionate”.
We then got to hear Cllr Kay (Con, Tarleton) explain about how many years ago he was a bobby in Ormskirk long before Edge Hill (I think he meant long before the expansion started). From his age, I expect that this was some time in the late sixties, early seventies. He went on to explain that in his experience there was very little noise nuisance in Ormskirk and that there was no difference between freshers week and any other week of the year.
Really, in all seriousness this man addressed the other members of his group: said that forty years ago there wasn’t a problem and that therefore they should vote against the motion… and was taken seriously.
Apart from a sensible question from Cllr Greenhall (Con, Ormskirk Derby ward) regarding employment contracts and how such a measure would be paid for, that was the sum total of the debate.
Cllr Pendleton (Lab) summed up and quite rightly pointed out that there ought to be 24 hour noise abatement cover throughout the year, but that to ask for it for one week was quite reasonable. Of course, it was far too unreasonable for the Conservatives who overwhelmingly voted against the resolution leaving it defeated.
Sadly the vote wasn’t recorded, but I noted the voting for the Ormskirk councillors as follows:
You’ll see that all the councillors for Ormskirk are Conservatives and none of them supported the proposal of more noise abatement cover during freshers week. To be fair, Councillors Owens, Greenhall and Bailey abstained from the vote – i.e. they didn’t vote for or against. In Cllr Greenhall’s case I think he saw some merit in the motion but couldn’t vote against a group decision. At least he stood up to speak and ask a question.
I was disappointed, but not surprised by Owens and Bailey who chose to sit on their hands.
I know that Cllr Owens has been fully briefed by the same residents that I’ve spoken to and is aware of the problems. Yet he didn’t even speak to the resolution. This from the man who wants to be the next MP for West Lancs.
The debate showed that there is a reality gap between those residents affected by the impact of the University’s expansion and the Councillors who are supposed to represent them.
Everyone I speak to wants the University to thrive and succeed in the town. The economic benefits are understood by most people and the vast majority of students themselves are well behaved, a credit to the Uni and appear to enjoy studying in the town. When we talk about anti-social behaviour we are talking about a minority of students and non-students – some who travel into town for “student nights”.
However, many of those people who support the University also have genuine problems with the noise nuisance, litter, parking and loss of community that comes with a large number of multi-occupancy housing in a small area. The fact that Conservatives on the District Council absolutely refuse to acknowledge it demonstrates yet again that they are completely out of touch.