West Lancs Labour Councillors have kicked off their "Taking a stand" campaign to raise awareness of the new powers available through the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003.
There is more information at the West Lancs Labour website (http://www.westlancslabour.org.uk).
After contacting both the County and District council (and being directed to the Lancashire Road Partnership!) I’ve finally got an assurance from the District council that the wall is to be rebuilt and strengthened.
It was the opening of the Digmoor Community Centre today, which was a brilliant event and Margaret, Ann and everyone involved have worked hard to get the community centre open and looking so good. We just need to make sure that the rest of the parade can be improved to match it! Hopefully fixing the wall will be a small step towards that.
The District Council are placing skips, fortnightly around Holland Moor and Digmoor. They can be used for old furniture, garden waste or any domestic waste that you need to get rid of.
The skips will be placed at the following locations:
The dates for the Hare and Hounds and Carfield skips are:
The Digmoor Community Centre and Banksbarn skips will be available on:
I’ve put these dates into the Calendar.
My first speech at the district council was overshadowed by confusion
after the meeting had been adjurned. The Chairman stopped the meeting,
giving no indication of whether the meeting would resume and
consequently most Labour councillors left. I stayed on to speak about
leisure services, and was joined by two other councillors.
I stayed because I’d invested a lot of time going over the reports
about the proposed Leisure Trusts and the privatisation of the leisure
management. I wasn’t on the Council when the decisions were taken last
March, and so there had been plenty of background reading to do.
The wall between the Duck Pub and Digmoor Road is in a poor state of
repair. There are holes that have been knocked though and it’s clearly
dangerous for children who could get down to the road.
The wall runs up the side of the carpark to the Community Centre. The
two holes shown above are near the Duck and the Community Centre
respectively. I’ve reported this to the Lancs Highways
Partnership who are the people that are supposed to do something about
things like this. They say that it will be looked at in the next couple
of weeks. If there’s no action I’ll chase it up.
On passing Castlehey last Sunday there was a fridge, sun-bed and other odds and sods left on the corner of the road.
After a meeting with the officers in charge of waste collection, it seems that there are skips that go out every two weeks where this stuff could have been taken. There’s absolutely no need for fly-tipping and the council collection and enforcement officers are working to try and stop it.
However, from the complaints that I’ve had, many people don’t know that there are skips available. Once I get a list of dates and locations I’ll post them up here and Pat and I will try to get a leaflet out with the information on.
I understand the bench in front of the co-op has been replaced. It takes so long to get these things through, it’s unbelievable. But it’ssorted now. If I get the chance I’ll get some pictures of it.
The past couple of months have been tied up with elections and all the hullabaloo that goes with it. In the end the results were bitterly disappointing, but not as bad as in neighbouring areas. Although it feels nice to say that we did OK comparatively, the idea of another two years in opposition doesn’t fill me with excitement.
There was something positive… I am now a District Councillor for Moorside, and as such I hope that I can contribute something locally.
I’m going to hold surgeries at Digmoor Community Centre on the first and third Thursday of each month at 5.30pm. First one tomorrow, but I’ll send something to the local papers to get the word out – and perhaps some A4 posters for local shops, etc.
In writing the last entry, I noticed this report on the Electoral commission website. It looks like they’re proposing all-out, four yearly elections for all local elections.
I used to be very much against the four yearly elections. There is always the possibility of winning back control of a council if there are elections each year. It also means that a party can keep campaigning on local issues during the quiet years. However, having seen it close up in an area where Labour is in opposition but with a difference of one or two seats, it strikes me that four year elections are a good idea.
For one thing, it would bring more consistency to the council administration, whatever party were in control. It would also give space for the opposition to find it’s feet and to work with the council rather than be on an election footing all the time.
I think it should be welcomed. I can’t see the government wanting to do much with it before the regional assembly referendums, but you never know. It might be that they try to bring in the two things together should there be a “yes” vote.
The house of lords voted to remove the North West from the list of trial regions in June.
The reasons given range from the risk of fraud to the fact that ballot papers are sent out a couple of weeks before election day, apparently before people have made up their mind. Mainly the excuse seems to be that the electoral commission had only proposed two areas and then the government wanted to run the trials in four.
The commission also said that local elections should be run as postal votes, and that the government should change the law to enable this. So it follows that they don’t think that fraud is an issue.
The LibDem MEP locally said that postal votes were only “for the lazy”. Ignoring the fact that this chap uses such stories just for self promotion, it sums up the true position of the Liberals and Tories who prefer their safety in small numbers.