Over the last year the Labour Group have had many
meetings with officers to discus the savage cuts which have been imposed on us
by the government. So far the public have not seen any difference to the day to
day work carried out by the council.
We have had public meetings to try and find out from the
public what they see as important services to keep. In total we have had about
4,000 responses which have been a big help. The next round of consultation is about
to start.
In the ward I and my colleagues have been working to get
the Bus hub off the ground with small amounts of work being done; the utility's
having been checked and the main work to start at the end of September.
A highlight this last year was the opening of a new extra
care home which has excellent facilities and the outside areas are superb. The
natural fill lake at the fish farm by the Ponderosa is now full; when a few of
us from the council went for a visit with the police commissioner to see the
work done by the Able 2 project, we found it hard to believe that we were in the
middle of Heckmondwike.
Another success this past year has been keeping
travellers out of the town. We have done this by having steel posts put in the
ground and by having a mound of earth formed from digging a moat.
The committees I have sat on this last year are as
follows:
- Licensing
- Planning and highways
- Huddersfield planning
- Heavy woollen planning
- Scrutiny resources
- Spen valley area committee (chair)
- Spen NMG
- Community first
I have also attended all full council meetings and have
done the yearly training for planning and licensing.
We had a successful election for Viv who doubled her
majority in May up to 1200.We are now working for Jo Cox our PPC for the next
general election in the Batley and Spen constituency and working with
colleagues in Dewsbury to hopefully get Paula Sheriff elected and hopefully get
rid of this vile coalition.
