Once more another difficult year as we didn’t get the
message that Eric Pickles had realised he had made a mistake and he didn’t mean
to penalise Local Authorities in the North.
Three quarters of the year I was Deputy Leader of the
Council and for the rest of the year I became Leader, my portfolio in Cabinet
did not change, mainly Resources with other odd bits and pieces added on. The
biggest disappointment involved the budget debate, it is extremely difficult to
see how anyone can believe that cutting £140m from our budget (about 30% from
the bits we actually have control over) can be done without change.
Unfortunately the Lib/Dems (who do know the scale of the problem) decided to be
parochial and suggest extremely expensive projects in the wards they have
members in, the Conservative Group (who despite having a spokesperson who
claims to understand finances) decided there is no deficit and they too put in
parochial bids for their wards.
In the Spen Valley the Area Committee continued to work well
as did the Neighbourhood Management Group (NMG) that I chair. The NMG is a
regular meeting involving councillors and local based enforcement and
management agencies who meet to share intelligence and try to solve local
problems, including particular individuals, buildings and areas.
In Heckmondwike the issue most on peoples minds
(understandably so) is when are we to get our Bus Station, at the back end of
the year the finances and plans all fell into place, but I am reluctant to
celebrate until I see a bus being boarded in Heckmondwike Bus Station (whatever
it is called).
The Market’s future was questioned again, we did ward off
the prospect of closure, but I am sure the question will rise again. We saw the
creation of a lake on the old Heckmondwike Goods Yard, part of the ABLE project
that like many others has been held up in the financial downslide; let’s hope
the rest of the project can get off the ground, along with the reclamation of the
sewage works. The Graveyard chapels still pose us a problem but we did continue
the development of Firths Park, upgrading the pavilion and expanding the Petanque
courts, unfortunately we have not yet got CCTV installed.
We also saw the completion of works that improved the
housing in Brighton Street (hats off to Viv who was closely involved in that
project) with new insulation and pitched roofs. We saw a massive environmental
improvement to the rear of Tower Buildings and a new roof on the houses on Strawberry
Square; we (local councillors) still find the inspections of estates with
Kirklees Neighbourhood Housing extremely useful.
We used the local Highway Budget on addressing the areas we
saw as the main problem, as money gets tight we have had to put our unmade road
program on the back burner unfortunately.
As far as casework was involved, planning once more
presented more often than other work that included such things as vandalism,
aids and adaptations, funfairs, litter, stolen goods, late night shopping and
many more personal problems, not all council ones. It is much easier with three
Labour councillors in Heckmondwike; we continue to work together both on
individual and wider problems.
