Annual Report 2016-2017: Cllr Gwen Lowe

Hello

 

For those of you who took the time to read my last Annual Report you’ll recall it had a very sad ending, an ending that I never ever expected or indeed wanted. We lost a wonderful, unique, loving lady. Not just an inspirational lady, not just a great MP, but my very dear friend – Jo Cox. Along with Jo, I set up FOBS, the Friends of Batley Station. Jo was, and will always remain, the Vice-Chair of FOBS. And please remember as herself Jo said……

 

“We have far more in common than that which divides us”

 As a Councillor I do have a unique and privileged position, with the potential to make a real difference to people’s lives. I always state that I wanted to be a Councillor to help people and keep my feet on the ground, embedded in my communities. I also contribute within the Council to the development of policies, strategies, and of course the budget. Whilst engaging with residents or groups on a very wide range of different issues I do have many different roles to balance. I also work part-time and look after my family – although I think my family do an excellent job caring and putting up with me!

 

2016-2017, my how this year has flown! I’ve done so much that it will be nigh on impossible to include everything and everyone. So please forgive me if I’ve missed anything out. So here’s just a whistle stop tour through the last twelve months…..

Throughout the year I attended Full Council, Labour Group (continuing as Chair) and our Batley West Branch and Batley & Spen Constituency Meetings. 

 

I continued on the Appeals Panel and also other Committees I have had the pleasure of working with this year have been Kirklees Church Partnership Trust, Kirklees Historic Buildings Trust, Batley Girls(Rae, Taylor, Hirst and Talbot) School Leavers Scholarship Fund, Batley Cricket, Athletic and Football Club (which includes Batley Bulldogs who I’ve supported since being a teenager.)

 

CHAIR OF BATLEY and SPEN DISTRICT COMMITTEE

 

It has been my pleasure to Chair the Batley and Spen District Committee and work collectively and effectively with colleagues, for the benefit of communities, across the 6 Batley and Spen wards. We enabled 76 projects through district committee support and funding this year. 58 grants were made to community groups including 39 small awards through the 5 ‘You and Your Community’ events held across the district. We held 5 meetings in public, enabling residents to contribute to debates with Councillors and partners, shape local provision and influence decisions. Through these meetings we explored the ongoing work to tackle poverty; Dementia Friendly Communities (we trained around 35 new Dementia Friends at this meeting!); Comoodle - sharing stuff, space and skills; West Yorkshire Joint Services work to help us avoid scams & frauds; Mid Yorkshire Hospital Trust changes to Maternity and Children’s Services; the Community Safety Partnership Plan; active leisure and the facilities and activities to improve our health and wellbeing; the service standards for our parks and the work of Natural Kirklees. We also highlighted and celebrated the fantastic voluntary contribution which is so essential to delivering and sustaining the rich and varied programme of community activity and events we see across our district. Through our working groups we addressed Batley and Spen issues and priorities in greater detail. With partners we have laid the foundations for further potential activity including: a Money Matters event to assist people in maximising household income and making savings; Mental Health First Aid Training to help people to spot signs of mental ill health and signpost to support; developing our response to the Joint Strategic Assessment of health and wellbeing; and working with young people, celebrating their contributions and increasing their understanding and engagement in local democracy.

Thank you to all Councillors, officers, partners, community organisations and residents who have been involved and contributed to our District Committee activity this year! Though we are in challenging times, I am sure that positive collaborations and outcomes will continue as we move to new local arrangements next year.

CHAIR OF BATLEY NEIGHBOURHOOD MANAGEMENT GROUP

 

Having been the Chair since its origin this remains my favourite role. Through excellent partnership working with the council services (e.g. StreetScene, Young Peoples Services), KHN, police and fire authority, Lifeline, we tackle varying degrees of anti-social behaviour and environmental issues. Over the last year we have achieved so much to make our communities safer, cleaner and greener. 

 

“The public rightly expects to live in neighbourhoods free from the corrosive effects of intimidation and harassment. I want to see both police and local authorities using the powers they have been given in a way that is effective and responds to peoples’ needs at the right time.” Rt. Hon Alan Johnson MP

WYCA KIRKLEES DISTRICT CONSULTATION SUB-COMMITTEE 

I used to Chair this Committee and loved it but due to being given other duties I’ve attended as a Council representative. We’ve discussed many issues including Rail Franchise, Bus Strategy, Low Emissions Strategy and Dementia Friendly Transport.

WARD WORK

In my Ward is where I just love to be! Be it meeting individuals, community groups, local businesses, visiting schools, regular walkabouts to identify issues of concern e.g. fly-tipping or overgrown vegetation. It’s rewarding to work closely with Kirklees Neighbourhood Housing accompanying officers on walkabouts/estate inspections, helping and supporting residents to make their area safer and cleaner. It’d be nice if more residents joined us on these walkabouts…… I love engaging with everyone to take up their concerns as appropriate and be their voice in the Council. I could go on and on and on….you’d be amazed by some of the issues you are asked to deal with as a councillor! It’s rewarding to get feedback from local residents letting me know that there has been an improvement.

Some issues have included:-

• Unlawful burning of items on land adjacent to a bridle path
• Overgrown vegetation from Council owned land into KHN resident’s garden
• Blocked KNH drain – no calling card left by KNH Building Services when resident was out so wasn’t aware anyone had been to look at the problem so I requested better communication was needed.
• Unfortunately I’ve had to deal with two separate dog attacks where sadly both small dogs were killed.
• Mr P. disabled in wheelchair, KNH wanting to fit new electrical sockets which he wouldn’t have been able to access because of his physical disabilities!
• Dog fouling problems continue
• The biggest bane of my life – FLY TIPPING! Why oh why oh why do people do this??!!

Referrals for people to Batley Food Bank are still on the increase. I’m very proud of the work they do to help families in crisis and ever grateful to those who kindly donate food, toiletries etc. 

 

In 2007 I founded The Friends of Staincliffe Park, the park I played in as a little girl. This year I have the great pleasure of being Vice Chair. We keep the park safe, clean and a place to be enjoyed and respected. In December 2016 we again arranged for our park to have a real Christmas. It was a perfect evening and we were astounded when again over 200 local people turned up. It’s great to see Community events like this organised by local folk – what a team! Our thanks to PPG for donating paint for our community room.

 

 

 

 

 

MY MAIN ACHIEVEMENT over the last 2 years continues to grow from strength to strength has to be F.O.B.S. – The Friends of Batley Railway Station. The station had been neglected by Northern Rail and Network Rail for many years and when a V.I.P. I was greeting there said it was a depressing station, it was time for someone to take action and that someone was ME! Our F.O.B.S. mission is to “To promote practical environmental enhancement works to our station for the benefit of our community and train passengers.” All Fobsians are so dedicated to this great cause and the improvements we have made so far are incredible. It’s amazing what a bit of my nagging can do!

We were successful in a bid to PPG who did some fantastic painting for us including an amazing mural. Wish I could share more photos with you!

 

I really enjoy meeting and working with you wonderful people and again have many happy memories of times spent with Local Community Groups and Organisation, and also with individuals. Whether I’ve known you for many years or a few, in some way you’ve had a part in shaping things I do. Just to name a few……

• Andrew Marsden’s Vintage Day
• Batley Cemetery Support Group
• P.K.W.A.
• I.M.W.S.
• Staincliffe Church
• Batley Bulldogs RLFC
• Central Methodist Church Annual Daffodil Rally
• Local schools/children’s centres
• Stancliffe Junior School – talk on Democracy and the Voting process 
• Carlinghow Neighbourhood Watch – Kirklees AGM with local resident Pat Crisp taking the Chair
• Mount Cricket Club Young People’s Awards Evening

  

As a member of The Council Commissioning Group we discuss a new look to how Councillors and Officers can improve their working relationship; how we can better support local people, and manage growing demand for services by focussing on early intervention and prevention. As Councillors we’ve held important workshops including ways in which digital approaches can support Councillors in their community leadership role – I’m a dinosaur who is now learning how to use Facebook and Twitter. I prefer face to face chat and often blame modern technology for those who find it difficult to talk with others. Learning about the fantastic work that has been carried out by the Democracy Commission is inspirational. Research has been carried out locally and nationally. There have been road show events across Kirklees for residents to attend as well as an e-panel survey and online debates. The Youth Council gave an excellent presentation to Full Council and I was proud to speak in support and to describe the report as being ‘Strong and Stable.’

 

 

 

 

 

TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT

  

Our Labour Group Meetings offer us regular Policy updates and I’ve also undertaken other training:-

• Planning updates
• Child Protection including CSE & Safeguarding of Adults
• Dementia
• Communicating Confidently & Effectively
• Social Media

 

At this very moment the Council has to implement cuts of £1 million pounds per week! Public services are undergoing fundamental change and resources continue to diminish. There are huge risks attached to transforming the day-to-day services that people have come to rely on such as Adult Social Care. We need to ensure that we maintain good dialogue with residents and secure mutual trust between the Council and the local community needs to be part of the whole Council’s DNA.

 

Thank you to the Councillor Support Staff and all my Labour Comrades for their help and support.

 

THANK YOU to my wonderful husband Ken and my family for their continued support and love. And WELCOME to my newest fan – my first Grandchild Max born March 1st 2017