Kirklees Labour: Cllr Manisha Kaushik

Monday, 12 August 2019

Annual Report 2018-19 Cllr Manisha Kaushik, Crosland Moor and Netherton

I continue to meet as many people as possible in the ward with weekly door knocking walkabouts and via community groups and street surgeries. This allows me to meet residents and engage with them directly. A lot of my casework is received this way. I find I get much more information from residents about the issues they face and so address their concerns more efficiently. I have dealt with a variety of different case work:

· Bin collections

· Planning applications

· Street cleaning

· Pot holes –repairs

· Overgrown bushes

· Immigration issues

· Fly tipping

· Anti-social behaviour

· School admission issues

· Parking

· Funding for community groups

I regularly attend community centres, school events and community event forums. I am in touch with organisations throughout the ward. I regularly work with West Yorkshire Police and the Highway’s department to address residents’ concerns related to speeding, anti-social behaviour and road safety. Some of the community groups and organisations I have supported are:

· Netherton Football Club

· Huddersfield RUFC

· Thornton Lodge Community Centre

· Netherton Community Centre Luncheon Club

· Natures Footprints Forest Play & Education Community Project

· Be Moor Outdoors

· Summer Clubs

I have been in touch with doctors and nurses campaigning to protect our NHS services and I continue to support the Hands Off HRI campaign, attending both their meetings and rallies to lend my support.

I am an advocate of increasing funding for Social Care particularly for families with an elderly person suffering from Dementia. It is ridiculous that patients should have to spend their life savings and sometimes lose their homes to pay for care despite, contributing throughout their working lives and in their hour of need receive little help. I hear from my ward residents how family members are having to stop working in order to look after relatives as they are unable to afford to pay for care workers.

In my capacity as Deputy Chair of West Yorkshire Combined Authority Transport Committee, I have advocated for the improvement of both bus and rail services, which have suffered from lack of funding and resultant cuts to services in the past. I have supported measures to reduce the impact on climate change and the environment with the introduction of more cycle lanes in our towns and the installation of free to use (for 2 years) electric vehicle charging points in our region. This electric vehicle rapid-charging network will have chargepoint sites with dedicated bays for both private hire vehicles and another for other users.

I am pushing for faster road repairs as the damage done by years of austerity has left a huge backlog of repairs requiring attention. New repair methods introduced by Highways have helped and I managed to get many pending repairs expedited in the ward.

I have successfully gained funding to help our young people participate in more sports in our ward. I will continue to support groups and organisations involved in projects in youth work.

Huddersfield is due to be one of the most digitally connected towns in the country, transformed by a fast fibre network by 2021 with many areas connected by the end of this year. I have attended meetings with providers and advocated for affordable connections being available to people and community organisations in our ward.

Due to the ineptitude of the government’s handling of Brexit, many challenges lie ahead such as the real danger to our NHS being the target of big US pharmaceutical companies. I am campaigning to protect our services both locally and nationally to impress upon lawmakers our opposition to such policies.

Attendance of Local Community groups and organisation

· Netherton Community Centre

· Thornton Lodge Community Centre

· Friends of Beaumont Park

· Crosland Moor and Netherton Ward Labour Party Branch meetings

· Colne Valley Constituent CLP

· Huddersfield CLP

· Greenhead Branch Labour Party meetings

· Moorend Academy Awards Ceremony

· Mount Pleasant Primary School Open Day event

Full Council and Committees meetings – attendance

· Council meetings

· Labour Group meetings

· Huddersfield District committee

· Licensing and Safety committee

· Fostering Panel

Training and Development sessions – attendance

· Planning Committee Training

· Licensing and Safety Training

· LG Development Seminar

· LG Democracy Commission Seminar

· LG Development Forum

· Early Intervention & Prevention Session

· Transport Committee Workshop

· LGA Leadership Academy

Committee appointments

· Annual Council

· Appeals Panel

· Council

· Licensing and Safety Committee (Reserve)

· Licensing Panel

· Huddersfield Planning Sub-committee

Appointments to outside bodies

· West Yorkshire Combined Authority – Kirklees District

Consultation Sub-Committee (Chair until May 2019)

· West Yorkshire Combined Authority – Transport Committee (Deputy Chair)

· Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Substitute)

· Transport for the North

· West Yorkshire Combined Authority - Walking and Cycling Committee (Chair)

· C & K Careers Ltd (Board of Directors)

Monday, 14 August 2017

Annual Report 2016-2017: Cllr Manisha Kaushik

I was elected for the first time as a Labour Councillor, in May 2016, representing the Crosland Moor and Netherton Ward which includes the areas of Netherton, Crosland Moor, Beaumont Park, Thornton Lodge, Park Road, Park Road West and Lockwood. The Ward has a population of 18,723.

Before I talk about my own work, I would like to express my gratitude to Ex Councillor Molly Walton who retired in May 2016. Molly was my election agent and worked tirelessly to help ensure that I was successful in the election. I am grateful for having the opportunity to carry on with the work she has done for over 26 years in her Ward. She is a source of encouragement and continues to provide guidance when needed. Thank you Molly.

I would also like to single out Alan Shepherd for praise. Alan was indefatigable during the election campaign, and afterwards, due to Molly’s ill health, served as secretary of the branch in all but name. Generous to a fault, he championed my cause and without his kind advice and guidance I would not have been able to succeed. His decency and compassion and ability to inspire remain undiminished. His humour and wit keep me grounded and on my toes. I am proud to call him my friend and mentor.

Thanks also to my excellent Ward colleagues, Councillors Mohammad Sarwar and Erin Hill and to the other councillors from different wards from Huddersfield and Colne Valley Constituencies, as well as Labour Party Branch members, for all their support and assistance.

Thank you too, to all the Ward residents who elected me with a large increased majority. I am honoured to be able to represent them and promise to continue to work hard and advocate on their behalf.

Case Work

Since my election last year I have dealt with numerous cases of individual enquiries. I have made many site visits, including Saturdays and Sundays, to resolve issues such as:

Missed bin collections
Dog fouling
Planning applications
Street cleaning
Pot holes – road repair
Damaged pavements, overgrown bushes
Immigration issues
Several passport, driving and licensing applications
Fly tipping – and its prompt removal
Noise and anti-social behaviour

I have been working throughout the CM & N Ward, door knocking and attending community events. This allows me to get to know people and raise their concerns.

With the prospect of HRI’s closure on the horizon I have been actively supporting the campaigns to keep this essential facility open in our town.

I also attended events to support the City Connect consultation event to improve the Huddersfield Narrow Canal at Crosland Moor Community Centre.

As part of last year’s Huddersfield District Committee I supported the funding for the Crosland Moor Community Centre.

With Deputy Leader, Tom Watson

Despite big budget cuts, my fellow ward councillors, Erin Hill and Mohammad Sarwar, and I was successful in enabling the traffic flow to be improved at Thornton Lodge: a junction on the busy Manchester Road which was a great cause of concern amongst both drivers and pedestrians in the area. The installation of a budget friendly road side detector working with the current Pelican Crossing should make it much safer for drivers to emerge onto the main road.

In this year’s June snap General Election I have campaigned with my colleagues in the Colne Valley and Huddersfield Constituencies and helped the successful campaigns of Thelma Walker, Barry Sheerman and Paula Sherriff respectively.

Challenges Ahead

The drastic budget cuts being implemented by the Tories has affected Kirklees badly with the resulting challenges being faced by our Ward.

One area that is being hit hard is education. School Admissions are oversubscribed and parents are increasingly worried about getting their children into decent schools. To address this problem in our ward, a new Primary School at the fields of Moorend Academy School is under construction and will be ready to take in children by the end of 2018 or early 2019.

Antisocial behaviour is high and there have been some drug related issues in my Ward but I am working very closely with multi agencies and local people to make sure that our community is safe.

There is lack of accessible leisure activities mainly in Thornton Lodge and Walpole areas which needs addressing.

There is a pressing need for consideration of the health and wellbeing issues faced by these local communities. They affect everyone in the Ward but these two areas have particular health issues with very high rates of Type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

To help these local communities it is important to get out targeted information, raise awareness and have access to leisure/sport facilities which are lacking.

Pressures resulting from budget constraints make it difficult to obtain funding for community projects, business growth initiatives and environmental issues. However, along with my two ward colleagues I will continue to work hard to secure services in the Ward and address the concerns of all our residents.

I try to meet as many people as possible in the ward and, in addition to regular door knocking, I attend community events and groups throughout the ward. Some of these are listed below, along with the training and development sessions I have attended. Finally, here are my Kirklees Council Committee appointments and outside bodies.