Cllr Harpreet Uppal comments after Council Meeting that approved the Universal Credit Motion

Annual Report 2018-19 Cllr Harpreet Uppal, Ashbrow

Annual Report 2018-19 Cllr Harpreet Uppal, Ashbrow

I am so proud to represent Ashbrow ward where I grew up, went to school and live. I work closely with my ward colleagues, Cllr Amanda Pinnock and Cllr James Homewood for the best interests of our local residents.

I have enjoyed my first year as a Councillor, although at times frustrating, it is a great opportunity to make a difference and campaign for the ideas and actions that will lead to change.

Ashbrow Ward Work

Community concerns meetings

With my colleagues James and Amanda, we have been working closely with our local partners to tackle the issues that our area is facing on community safety. We have been meeting with local head teachers, youth groups and community organisations to develop a local plan to tackle some of the issues we are facing. This has involved developing a community strategy, exploring pooled funding options and improving integrated partnership working. We have definitely seen improvements since we first and we look forward to continuing to work together.

The Big Local Conversation

As Local Cllrs in Ashbrow Ward we are conducting an engagement exercise with our local residents. We are asking residents some questions about how they feel about life in Deighton, Sheepridge, Fartown, Bradley, Cowcliffe and Fixby. We are using a tool called the Place Standard (which was developed in Scotland) to ask people about the place they live. We will use what we learn to help create a ward plan for whole of the Ashbrow ward. This will say what people think about the area now, recognising strengths and successes, and will make some suggestions for the future, based on the key priorities of people who take part. The results will be available in the New Year. Find out more here.

Ward Forums

As local Cllrs we hold ward and neighbourhood forms on a regular basis throughout the year. This includes a monthly Bradley neighbourhood forum and a bi-monthly Ashbrow ward forum. This is a great opportunity for us to meet with residents on a regular basis to tackle issues in the ward and neighbourhoods and ask residents about their views on council polices. We will continue with these in the coming year and plan to do some more focused work on communicating the meetings to our residents.

Casework and door knocking activities

As a Cllr, I deal with a large number of casework queries from local residents. These can vary from litter and traffic to adult social care and schools. I won’t always be able to get a satisfactory response for all residents but I always do my upmost to follow up their queries and represent their views as best I can. I have also organised a number of street surgery door knocking sessions across the ward as well as partner walkabouts with Safer Kirklees and local police officers. This helps as assess issues on the ground and tackle problems quickly.

Environmental projects

Some parts of our ward face real problems with fly tipping and littering. To try and tackle some of these issues we have worked closely with our green space action team and Safer Kirklees to highlight the problems and develop additional activities on intensive engagement and a number of community clean ups. The green space action team have also carried out focused work in our local area. There is still more to do and we will continue to work closely with residents, local environmental groups and council officers. We all have a responsibility to make sure that we look after the area we live in.

Council Meetings and Council Committees

Full Council meetings

This is where all councillors come to together on a monthly basis to debate council policies. I have delivered speeches on housing and homelessness, the Council’s budgetary process, social security and local government finance and austerity. I also introduced a motion on Universal Credit, a national policy, which impacts many residents in Kirklees.

Economy and Neighbourhood Scrutiny Panel

I chair the economy and neighbourhood scrutiny panel. With panel members we scrutinise Kirklees council policies on the economy, skills, environment, neighbourhoods and waste. The meetings also help to refine and develop policy.

Planning committee and licensing committee

I also sit on Huddersfield planning committee and the Kirklees licensing committee. At these committee we decide on planning and licensing applications.

Climate Change Emergency Working Group

I am delighted to sit on the Kirklees climate change emergency working group. Following a motion being approved by councillors, a working group was established under the chair, Cllr Richard Murgatroyd. As a working group we are establishing what we can do to tackle climate change. Our recommendations will be presented to the Full Council before the end of the year.

Kirklees Budget 2019 – Cllr Uppal’s Speech to Council

Thank you Madam Mayor. Can I firstly thank Officers, the Cabinet and the Leader for their work on the Budget.

I also want thank all our council teams and staff across the Borough. Our staff and teams are seeing the reality of austerity and the cuts.

They have faced increasing pressures on their services, resources and budgets and that means it’s not always been easy for them.  I want to thank them for all they do.

I do want to start off by saying something about the Local Government Financial Settlement. It is hitting the poorest and the most vulnerable the hardest.

The Government and the Tories in this room may say they are putting more money into local government - about £1.3bn in core spending power but over £1billion will be cut from the core government grant. And a lot of this additional funding is one off bits of money – we need a much more long term settlement and that is still missing.

Government Ministers have taken more out of the Communities and Local Government Department thank any other – leaving local areas to pick up the pieces.

After a decade of cuts you can’t say there are no consequences because of that.

The shortfall of funding in social care is impacting hospital admissions.

With homelessness figures rising the government has finally realised there is a problem but this has meant local welfare provision teams have been inundated and housing officers have been dealing with increasing pressures of homelessness and rough sleeping.

If we look at rising violent crime Sajid Javid and the Home Office have realised that we need more police officers on the beat and have kindly said we can pay for it by increasing the council tax precept.

And of course youth services have been impacted and we know what can happen when there is a void.

From 2020, Ministers no longer want to take account of deprivation when it comes to funding. We are already facing unfair cuts with Kirklees facing more drastic cuts than the likes of Surrey and Maidenhead.

House of Commons Library figures on core spending power show Kirklees, deprivation rank, 94 has faced a cut of core spending power of £420 per household while the Prime Minister’s local authority, Windsor and Maidenhead, deprivation rank 306 faced a core spending power cut of £205 per household.

It is a fact, unfortunately, that you are likely to die younger if you are poorer and we know in Kirklees we have an average life expectancy gap (between the most and least affluent areas) of 9 years.

The Government’s own research shows deprivation is one of the best predictors of the cost of basic services. So I really don’t understand what they are doing. It is really shocking.

We also have a 1 year budget because we don’t know how local government will be funded going forward. There are too many uncertainties with the fair funding review and spending review.

What do the cuts mean in reality?

increasing numbers of children in temporary accommodation

more request for social care support and child protection orders every day

and bus routes lost to communities across our borough

But despite all of this, Councils like ours are doing some great work. I am encouraged by our focus on placed based initiatives, additional funding for mental health initiatives and domestic abuse services and the investment in dementia services and youth provision.  I believe Labour councils like ours will make a difference for our communities.