The following was posted to the Town Council mailing list today, but uploaded as a file, so not many people will see it. (I did though!)
Britannia Quarry
As we are heading towards this years elections, there is the usual blatant electioneering propaganda from the Morley Borough Independents (MBI). A recent press release says: Cllr Robert Finnigan, as chairman of the Quarry Action Group which oversees the quarry... The question to ask here is: how could the quarry be overseen by Councillors who didn't attend for at least 13 months? It is noted in the quarry minutes of 27th September 2005, that neither Cllr Finnigan or any Leeds City Council officers attended the quarry meeting, or sent their apologies. Only one resident and myself turned up on 27/09/05 so the Director of Woodkirk Stone said there was no point in him arranging another meeting date.
Let us move on nine months to the 15th June 2006, when Leeds City Council took Woodkirk Stone to court over a breach in section 151 of the 1980 Highways Act. Once again, I was the only councillor who bothered to attend the court hearing, it appeared Leeds Council officers and the MBI party didn't consider the issue important enough to merit their time. I rallied round to get some non Rein Road residents to attend the court to show support for the council's action. I was asked at court by the Director of Woodkirk Stone if I was prepared to attend any future meetings at the quarry and I said I certainly was!
Move on another three months to the 13th September 2006, I was the spokesman of a three man deputation entitled 'Local Residents concerned about Britannia Quarry Morley' to the full Leeds City Council meeting on 13/09/06 at Leeds Civic Hall, complaining about dust, mud and stones falling from wagons, also the non attendance of Cllr Finnigan, Council officers and other MBI Morley South Councillors at the court or Britannia Quarry meetings.
Cllr Judith Elliott seemed more concerned about keeping face with Woodkirk Stone and her colleagues at Leeds Civic Hall than representing the interests of Rein Road residents as a whole. Cllr Elliott was aided and abetted by Cllr Terry Grayshon, who condemned my neighbours for supporting the deputation and clearly let all the Rein Road residents down by abstaining from voting on the deputation with her saying the quarry issue should never have been brought to Leeds Civic Hall.
Cllr Elliott, who is a Rein Road resident, sent me an invitation letter to attend her first quarry meeting on 25th October 2006, using Morley Town Hall as her contact address. I fail to remember seeing her at any Woodkirk Stone quarry meetings before this date, so it is a travesty for Cllr Elliott to say: We will continue to work with residents and the company with regular meetings to address the legitimate concerns raised.
It seems the Government and Councils aren't the only ones running Private Finance Initiatives (PFI) the MBI party are operating their own PFI scheme but in their case it reads: Propaganda From Independents!
I remember a few years ago some people felt so strongly about an issue printed in the Morley Advertiser that they went round and collected all the offending papers, tore them to pieces, then dumped the lot in front of the Advertiser office in Queen Street.
May I kindly suggest an apology is made by the Morley Borough Independents to the other election candidates, including myself and all those people concerned who have been offended by this electioneering propaganda please.
That by the MBI they did everything - without them they did nothing!
Albert Slingsby
Tuesday 24 April 2007
Trouble at mill...
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7 comments:
I've just read this blog entry and must say this...
It would be so refreshing if political parties and candidates would refrain from the mud-slinging, the politcal point scoring, and the back-biting, and just get on with concentrating their resources and efforts towards getting their election manifestos for Morley out to the public.
Think for a moment how much time this would free up. Time that could be spent more productively by actually getting the job done.
Maybe this sounds naive, or idealistic, but my views are certainly not unique, or solitary.
Is it any wonder there is a complete apathy at the ballot box, when a large core of voters actually have little faith or interest in the candidates, their promises, or their ability to deliver, or (dare I say it) democracy in this country anymore?
None of the Above
Anon, Albert hasn't made any associated posting on the Morleylist. I imagine he sent it to the Obtiser as well, though.
It is the nature of the beast that the Lib/Lab/Con-census will always snipe at each other and the MBIs have fallen into the same trap.
I think that the apathy at the voting box is that far too many people don't see the mainstreamers as engaging with any form of reality. The backlash is in the votes for minority parties etc, or indeed, as you say, none of the above.
Agree with your sentiments, the public would really respect politicians more if they remained exclusively focused upon their local responsibilities, and not squabbling and sniping with the opposition.
Have to say that this is a great blog, and although I may not agree with everything said on it, there is no denying it is an excellent and unique resource of the political goings on in Morley.
Keep up the good work.
None of the Above
Anon, the nearest we have to the utopia of Councillors "getting on with it" is Stewart McArdle, although it is an uncomfortable truth he makes in his leaflet (go back a few posts to April 17th) that as an individual he has no position of power or status, although he has earned some influence and status (but wouldn't have if he had stood as independent right at the start).
Well, I have to say I have never really been that interested in politics, I'm not by definition a political animal, but have always voted.
I have gained a recent closer interest specifically because of the local issues we as residents have been experiencing on the Magpie Lane (Bird) estates.
A few months ago, a decision was made to remove some playareas from this mostly new build area on Magpie Lane. This decision was primarily based upon removing anti-social behaviour from these local pockets of land, and was supposedly backed up by a resident’s survey (which incidentally did not include our area on Millbeck Approach).
Unfortunately, as well intended as these plans were, no consideration was made for the consequences of such action on the remaining playareas. These were also areas that were experiencing the same anti-social problems, also in the same state of rapid decay, and similarly located very close to residential properties.
The fairly predictable outcome was that the anti-social behaviour problems have not been eradicated or solved (despite what some political commentators may claim).
The reality is that the problems have simply just moved down the road to the remaining playareas leaving them and the surrounding area heavy in graffiti, damage, and experiencing even greater problems than before.
For the last few months, I have been lobbying some councillors and council personnel for some remedial action to our local playarea. This is to either get our local playarea removed, or get commitment to bring it back up to standard and fit for purpose, and to ensure better future care and response from the authorities to anti-social activities to prevent it falling into such a state again.
It slowly looks like some progress is being made, but I've had to constantly chase this issue, more than I should have to. This is OK, as I consider myself to be a persistent individual, but it does make me think that less tenacious individuals would simply give up in frustration, hence my previous comments about apathy and lack of faith.
There is still much to do, but thought I would give you an insight into why I feel that all of the political campaigners from whatever political backdrops in Morley shouldn't be spending too much of their time mudslinging, when their are clear and real local public interest issues right here on their doorsteps that have real potential to secure votes.
None of the Above
I' suggest posting your comments at the Town Council mailing group site, Morleylist.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/morleylist/
Grateful for the link.
Will take a look.
None of the Above (aka kingcraftwash)
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