Greening Kirklees

Flood Risk Management Group meeting - January 2011

2012-01-27T06:57:00.000-08:00

I had my first meeting as the new Chair of the Local Government Association’s Inland Flood Risk Management group this month. On the face of it a bit outside my comfort zone but some of the flooding issues experienced by householders in the Armitage Bridge part of the Newsome Ward have highlighted to me some of the real concerns people have who have gone through flooding events.

The attendees represented an array of Councillors for whom this area is a real passion and officers who grapple with flood related issues on a day to day basis including the National Flood Forum, the Environment Agency, DEFRA officials. So it was a very well informed gathering and an ideal place to get acquainted with the issues. I put the officers from DEFRA and the EA at their ease by telling them I was keen for us to have the meetings questions put to them and answered in a Select Committee fashion with lots of probing to get to the nub of concerns. They seemed suitably pleased by this and they defended the government as best they could.

One real bone of contention was the issue of how Insurance Companies approached flood risk. Insurance companies are approaching the insurance of properties for flood risk not on the basis of flood risk but on postcode. So you could have one property which could be at low/no risk of flooding and then further down the road a property at high risk. Both could be insurance blight areas. In fact this issue affects hundreds of properties in Runnymede which are completely unaffordable to insure for many householders and it would appear that their local MP isn’t desperately fighting their corner on this issue. Following flooding you would assume that Insurance companies would be keen to make areas ‘resilient’ to flooding in future by getting electrical sockets raised and having flood resistant flooring installed. You’d be wrong as Insurance Companies generally want things restoring to their previous state including low electrical sockets etc. Bonkers. I have suggested that there could be a 'green deal' type finance approach to paying for flood hardening measures for 'at risk' homes. A 'Wet Deal'?

The first actions I have asked for is a letter to the Association of British Insurers about the issue and a request for a meeting with the Minister along with other concerned Councillors and officials.

Stirley Hill - Dead and Buried

2012-01-27T06:14:00.000-08:00

Stirley Hill - Burial at sea?

Kirklees Planning Committee voted 7 votes to 6 yesterday against a new cemetery at Stirley Hill yesterday. A groundbreaking (maybe the wrong word) decision where the Committee went against Kirklees Councils own proposal to build there. Regular readers of my blog will be familiar with the issues where a site with poor transport links in a location which becomes waterlogged and bleak in winter. Tragically the poor road and weather conditions on the road leading up to the proposed site had resulted in a traffic fatality a few months ago. This highlighted the real issue that would have faced corteges of vehicles going up to the site. There was a massive petition of over a thousand signatures completed in favour of the cemetery but as Cllr Christine Smith pointed out many did not come from our area. In reality these were people who were anxious for a cemetery for religious reasons and were not related to the site or the planning application. They would most likely have been happy with a cemetery anywhere. I spoke up outlining my and the Green Party’s concerns about the site the one point I didn’t make that I wish I had was that because the site is often waterlogged and it is a high site with often frozen land that this could actually make it difficult to actually dig graves. The site was never really fit for purpose. So what happens now? There still remains an issue of a lack of burial spaces and it is not an easy position for the Council to be in but that does not mean it should have put forward a poorly thought out option that had some real downsides. Ultimately, forgetting the impact on the scenery around Castle Hill and the transport issues, it was a far from ideal location and the Committee were right to reject it.

Scrap - Would you credit it!

2012-01-25T01:45:00.000-08:00

Now Ronald Reagan is not one of my political idols but some rather good quotes are attributed to him one being this one,

"There is no limit to what you can accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit."

Somehow or other this sprung to mind this week when I read in The Huddersfield Examiner that Kirklees Council will be considering establishing a Voluntary Code of Conduct for Scrap Dealers Now regular readers of this blog will remember I spent a morning going round scrapyards with the police and environmental services back in September and raised the issue with them about establishing such a code. Later we met along with the British Transport Police and knocked some ideas backwards and forwards and a produced a draft code which I suggested was put to Cllr Khan as Leader of the Council but also because he has an interest in the issue of scrap at a national level in his role at the Local Government Association. Of course we'll need Kirklees Cabinet approval to get it adopted and quite rightly we're looking at getting the code adopted more widely in Yorkshire and I think through the Local Government Association we could get replication of the idea at a national level. I guess it will be character forming for me to sit at the sidelines and watch the idea take off and be adopted more widely.

On the Gogglebox - Look North 9/1/12

2012-01-12T14:13:00.000-08:00

2011/12 Green Party Boxing Day/ New Years Day Bus Service

2012-01-02T12:55:00.000-08:00

Yours truly took to the wheel for a couple of stints

Cllrs Derek Hardcastle and Robert Barraclough on the Boxing Day stint. I daresay the Tories will refer Derek to the Standards Board for wearing a jumper like that!

Mr Andy Storey driving on the first session on the New Years Day Newsome service

Karen Allison rode shotgun/navigation on both Newsome and Flockton services

Over a hundred people used the service in all. The last people to get off had been hospital visiting on New Years Day

Merry Christmas All

2011-12-25T12:17:00.000-08:00

Got the sprouts from the allotment Christmas Day morning.

Councillor Graham Simpson – 2011 Annual Report to Newsome Residents

2011-12-21T07:57:00.000-08:00

Councillor Graham Simpson – Annual Report 2011

I have had a period of illness this year and so have not been as active as I would have liked but I’m pleased to say I’m on the mend. Despite this I have still got a number of things to report back on in from the past year.

I spoke out at the Kirklees Council Budget meeting this year against the cuts which were being imposed on us by central government. I and my Green Party colleagues are opposed to the reductions in budgets and services for elderly and disabled people. Green Councillors engaged fully with the budget process to understand in detail what the implicatoions of the cuts were and what, if any room for manoeuvre there was and in truth there was very little. What disappointed me was real cuts in provision being presented by the Labour Party as ‘improvements’. We should be straight with people about the impact of decisions we make even if they are unpopular.

I was actively involved in the protest on the land between New Laithe Hill and High Lane earlier this year. It was great to see so many people turn out and the photograph of the crowd there has been used on a number of times in the Examiner highlighting our opposition. The land is used regularly by walkers,especially dog walkers & children as recreation area's If this land and the land adjacent to Jackroyd Lane and Newsome Road was developed Newsome would lose its individual identity and become an extension of the town centre.

I also spoke out at the scrutiny enquiry into the future management of council housing in Kirklees. I thought that the proposals to include non housing services in the new contract needed more work to see if they would benefit tenants and also that there had not been enough information or consultation with tenants on how the new proposals would affect them. I am pleased that this matter was then referred back to Cabinet and it has now been agreed that the management contract will continue on the existing terms until more information has been provided to tenants and that tenants and there representatives will be fully consulted to see if they agree with any proposed changes before they are implemented.

My main activity this year as a Councillor has been to take up local issues and concerns. Here are just some examples

• I asked Kirklees Highways to address an issue on Colne Street, Aspley by the carpet warehouse and the Flyboat Pub where the road surface was worn down to the cobbles in places and had numerous potholes.

• I sought to get a supply of grit for the residents of Aspley some of whom are unsteady on their feet.

• Another road issue I took up was potholes on Daisy Royd Newsome.

• Drains on Cross Lane Primrose Hill were overflowing at the bottom end of the road and I asked Kirklees Highways to get these cleared.

• I was contacted by local residents about Bankfield House in Taylor Hill. Planning permission was granted in 2008 and the site was secured, work started and construction materials were brought onto site. However nothing has happened for the last couple of years and residents are concerned that the site is not secure and boundary panels frequently fall over or are vandalised. I asked the Council to contact the owners to ensure the site was properly secured. This is an issue I’ll be keeping a close eye on

• I have taken up a number of complaints regarding empty properties around the Newsome Ward. At a time when we are under pressure by the Council and central government to build more houses it makes no sense that we have so many standing empty

These are the ‘bread and butter’ issues of being a local Councillor which affect people’s everyday lives.

I’ve played a key role in getting the thousands of leaflets out to you that we get printed and distributed using our own funds and legwork. If you’d like to help us with either this would be greatly appreciated.

I have joined my fellow Green Party Councillor Andrew Cooper at some of the Green Party advice surgeries at the Monkey Club, Armitage Bridge that we hold on the first Sunday of the month between 1pm and 2pm. Please come along if you have any issues you would like to bring to our attention.

A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all

Cllr Graham Simpson

graham.simpson@kirklees.gov.uk Mobile 07814 239317

Councillor Julie Stewart-Turner - 2011 Annual Report to Newsome Ward residents

2011-12-21T07:51:00.000-08:00

Councillor Julie Stewart-Turner – Annual Report 2011

This has been a year full of new and difficult challenges; here’s some of those challenges along with some highlights.

January: Andrew and I started the year being very heavily involved in budget briefings and debates. We weren’t willing to accept large reductions in care for vulnerable people, and so we took an opposing position (along with the verbal abuse from the 3 larger parties) We are confident we did the right thing.

February Kirklees successfully gained Fairtrade status, and many community groups, children’s centres and schools joined us in celebrating this achievement during Fairtrade fortnight. The Fairtrade Foundation was successful in gaining the world record for the longest length of bunting and it was all made from Fairtrade cotton. Many of the bunting triangles came from Kirklees. In February I was being re-elected as Chairperson of Newsome Ward Community Forum. The title of Chairperson gives the impression of leading on the work we do, and in some cases that is true, but in other cases, the team just tell me what to do now!

February included the ongoing debates over the budget and we continued to champion the needs of vulnerable people. We also had a visit from Caroline Lucas Green Party MP, and I hosted the public meeting where she addressed a large crowd, supported by our Andrew. The questions from the public were constructive and considered.

In March I went to a free conference provided by the Local Government Association about Localism. I know many people are anxious about the bits of information in the news and how it would affect local people. The conference didn’t help much, it focussed mainly on Social Enterprises and working with the voluntary sector; something I already do a lot of and is commonplace across Kirklees.

April I lead on arrangements for a street party in my neighbourhood for the Royal Wedding, and it was great to see so many people, from many different backgrounds, come out to celebrate just being British. April was also very busy with the build up to the local elections, but also very enjoyable, as I got to speak to many positive people.

May: What a great result in the Local Elections! I was delighted to have won so convincingly with over 50% of the vote. Thank you to all of you who believe in me – I won’t let you down.

Following the elections I was reappointed as Lead Member for the Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Panel for Resources. It oversees very complex fast moving issues due to the need to restructure the Council due to big reductions in Council budgets. Trying to save £83m without impacting on front line services will be difficult to achieve, e.g. front line workers need to do their own admin / office work as back of house staff are reduced, so they can’t be out doing their main role as much as they used to.

In June I was appointed to the Board of Trustees for the One Community Foundation. It was established in May 2010, to generate financial support for local community activities. Our role is to build and manage a series of endowment funds, so that we can make a lasting contribution across Kirklees, by delivering grants to local groups and the wider community. You can help raise funds by doing your on-line Christmas shopping via http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/onecommunity

In July, I made time to do a sponsored Dragon Boat Race for the Huddersfield Rotary, and I got to Captain their team. The majority of the money raised went to the two hospices, with a little of the profits going to their local charity funds. I also managed to do the Race for Life this year, I’d not been able to do it for a couple of years, and it was great to be a part of it again.

The Newsome Out To Play sub group of the community forum gained funding to develop local play opportunities for children of all ages, arrange training for volunteers, enable better co-ordination of activity, etc. One of the highlights of the year was the Play Day event on 3rd August; I was amazed by how many people joined in.

August: Newsome High School had tremendous GCSE results, and is going from strength to strength. I’ve been a Governor at the school for several years and I’m so pleased with the continual improvements and achievements.

September: Members of CPRE (Campaign for the Protection of Rural England) arranged for us to talk to local residents at a public meeting in Hall Bower Chapel, which was very helpful. Andrew and I were able to share our views about the impending Localism Bill and the National Planning Policy Framework, and listen to concerns of local people.

October: While I was Mayor of Kirklees, I chose to champion local farming and local food production, and this campaign had several lasting legacies. In October I was delighted to help present awards to several more schools who have achieved the Soil Association Food for Life Bronze Awards. We now have 24 local schools who have achieved this award and 25 more progressing towards it. The School Catering Service itself has achieved the Soil Association’s Bronze Food for Life Catering Mark for its healthy meals supplied to 184 schools across Kirklees. The March figures show that Kirklees Catering Service was the second largest local authority caterer in the country and the only one in the Yorkshire and Humber region to have achieved this award.

November:

There is a Special Meeting of Council scheduled for 23rd November regarding the LDF, which hadn’t taken place at the time of writing this report. We will do all we can to influence the LDF policies; to protect our valuable open spaces, to ensure there is space for agriculture, and to ensure development is targeted at the real needs of our communities.

December: We’ve arranged a Special Public meeting for 1st December to help raise awareness about Welfare Reform. Another huge challenge facing everyone is the cuts to benefits, there are 47 in total which are being introduced in stages until April 2013. One of the biggest changes will be the Housing Benefit changes which will be introduced in January. Council have produced an information booklet to try and help. Copies are available at Together Shop in Newsome, as well as Children’s Centres, Council Information Points and Job Centre Plus.

The Budget process starts again in December, meaning another series of briefings and debates on the best way to manage the huge reduction in funds provided by the Government. It’s a position no one would want to be in and some tough decisions will need to be made. I’m not looking forward to it, but I do take it very seriously and will be taking an active part in the process.

The ‘Kiddies Xmas Party’ takes place again on 10th December, all organised by volunteers of Newsome Ward Community Forum, and always a wonderful occasion; the start of the Christmas season for me. I’ll be doing the ‘Santa Dash’, organised by the Lions Club of Huddersfield, in Huddersfield the next day to help raise funds for the Mayor’s Charity Appeal – the ‘Forget Me Not Trust’; a very seasonal weekend.

Throughout the year, casework for individuals seems to be getting more complex; I’ve helped people with things that are common concerns e.g. planning, highways, cleansing issues, but this year there seems to be an increasing number of more personal issues, e.g. home care, care for people with dementia, domestic violence, and anti-social behaviour.

Despite this sad note to end on, I am looking forward to Christmas and wish you all warmth, health and happiness this Christmas and for the year ahead.

Cllr Julie Stewart-Turner

Councillor Derek Hardcastle – 2011 Annual Report to Kirkburton Residents

2011-12-21T07:43:00.000-08:00

Councillor Derek Hardcastle – 2011 Annual Report

Dear Resident,

This year has been one of the most challenging in my time as one of your local Councillors. We have had one of the toughest budget settlements the Council has ever had to face with central government slashing £80 million from Kirklees Council services over the next 4 years with no reduction in the Council Tax we have to pay. We have had the Local Development Framework which threatens green fields and spaces (and not just greenbelt) right across the district. It is against this background that the Green Party team have been continuing to take up issues at the Kirklees and Parish level.

In February this year the Green Party leader and MP for Brighton Pavillion visited Huddersfield and we held a well attended public meeting the evening before Kirklees Councils budget decision. I must say she is a real asset to our Party and has impressed many people with her insights into the actions of the government and the impacts of the cuts on ordinary families up and down the country.

In the Council Budget meeting the Green Party stood alone in opposing Council cuts to services for elderly and vulnerable people. The majority of the cuts fell on those in the greatest need. The budget for care for older people was slashed from £52 million to £40 million. Daycare services were cut from £5.3million to £1.5million. We believed as a matter of principle that to cut services for those who are in the direst circumstances is morally wrong particularly when the bankers who got us into this economic crisis seem to be able to continue to reap the same rewards as before. You don’t have to be a ‘socialist’ to see that this is wrong. The Green Party made these points strongly in the Kirklees Budget meeting in February and received a lot of abuse from the other Parties on the Council for making that stand. We still believe it was right that we spoke for those in most need. As it turned out some of the proposed cuts to day care services were withdrawn following a legal challenge which has at least brought respite for some people. What really annoys me is when cuts are characterised as ‘improvements’ to services. If we have to make cuts the least the Council can do is be upfront with people about the impacts on heir everyday lives.

This year was the end of my first 4 years as one of your Councillors and so I was up re-election in May. What I really enjoyed was getting round to seeing so many people in the run up to the election. It is a huge ward that stretches from Farnley Tyas to Flockton so we had a big area to get round. As usual it was a nail biting election count and I was re-elected by 82 votes but then I‘ve lost by 5 in the past so I was very pleased. I still can’t get used to the misinformation and half truths from my local opponents that I get during local campaigns. There were some very misleading statements about my attendance at meetings and dodgy montages of a wind turbine at Grange Moor (which I actually opposed at Planning Committee). All I can really say to people is that if you see some criticism of us in our opponents please don’t take it at face value please ring me or one of my colleagues and we’ll give you a straight story. Having said all that I found my Conservative opponent Amanda Shaw to be a pleasant and capable candidate and I’m sure she wasn’t responsible for much of the material in her leaflets.

The other elections that were held this year were those for the Parish Council and I was really pleased that the Green Party got the most votes and Parish seats of all the parties and that every village in the Kirkburton Ward has a Green representative. We are the only party that can make that claim. Our candidates topped the poll in Kirkburton/Highburton, Shepley, Grange Moor and Farnley Tyas and Thurstonland. Thank you to everyone who voted for us.

Of course the day to day role of a Councillor is taking up local issues. Here’s a small selection of the issues we’ve taken up this year:-

• Getting Moor Top Avenue resurfaced at Thurstonland

• Helping get funding for ‘The Hub’ at Kirkburton

• Helping get a new bench for Stocksmoor (then getting Kirklees to turn it round to face the right way!)

• Helping householders with planning advice for installing solar panels on their roofs

• New street lighting for Grange Moor on Bedford Avenue

There are issues which continue to frustrate me such as the need to get the footpath at Paddock Road in Kirkburton resurfaced. I must confess that it has been difficult to get this issue resolved been one voice among three local Councillors who don’t share my view on this. The other issue I really want to see progressed is traffic calming in Stocksmoor. We successfully worked with local people in Farnley Tyas and Thurstonland on their schemes now we need to get some impetus behind resolving issues in Stocksmoor. My Parish Colleagues Robert Barraclough and Andrew Cooper are helping me and liaising with the village association.

Wind turbines continues to be a concern for some householders and I and my Green Party colleagues have taken a balance approaching where we have opposed those that are poorly sited and intrusive and supported those that aren’t. I have opposed new turbines at Shelley and Grange Moor but supported 2 small turbines on farmland at Thurstonland. Sadly there was a rather political letter produced at Kirklees expense distributed in Thurstonland by the 2 Conservative Councillors on the subject of the wind turbines and the Green Party response to this. I have no objection to people putting their opinions in a leaflet and letter but no funded by the Council Tax. We have always taken the trouble to speak to the Thurstonland Village Association about local concerns and we had in this instance and I think actually talking through some of the issues we managed to address a number of concerns people had which were associated with much larger turbines.

My year will end very much like the last one. I will be driving a minibus on Boxing Day from Flockton to Grange Moor through Lepton and on to town. We have been running this free service for local people for 4 years now and I really enjoy it.

A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all.

Yours sincerely

Councillor Derek Hardcastle

PRESS RELEASE - Greens select Robert Barraclough to contest Kirkburton election next May

2011-12-14T05:12:00.000-08:00

Robert Barraclough

Following Derek Hardcastle’s successful re-election for a four year term as a Kirklees Councillor for the Kirkburton Ward last May the Green Party have selected Robert Barraclough as their candidate for the May 2012 elections.

Robert has been a Parish Councillor representing the Thurstonland and Farnley Tyas Ward on Kirkburton Parish Council since 2007 and in 2009 was elected Chairman of the Parish Council. He has lived and worked in the Kirkburton ward all his life and is a tenant farmer at Farnley Tyas. He became involved with the National Farmers Union (NFU) in 1994 becoming Local Branch chairman until 2003 holding office through both the BSE and Foot & Mouth crises. During this period he also represented the NFU on the Kirkburton Parish Council Environment Committee.

Robert said of his nomination as Green Party candidate,

“I will aim to make a real difference as a local Councillor for the Kirkburton Ward. It is an area I know well and have a genuine concern for, which goes beyond party politics. I already engage with local groups in the area and am always keen to see community involvement in the delivery of local projects. During my time as Chairman of the Parish Council I was able to meet and help a number of community organisations across the area so I feel well placed and up for the challenge of representing our area at the Kirklees level.”

Councillor Derek Hardcastle said,

“People who know Robert know he can be trusted, is straightforward and hardworking . He is a real asset to our area and I would greatly value his support on Kirklees Council.”

Green Party Council Leader Councillor Andrew Cooper,

“I’m really pleased Robert has been selected as our prospective candidate. His knowledge of rural and community issues is very strong and he brings a whole new set of skills to the Green Party Team.”

Councillor Andrew Cooper –Annual Report 2011 to Newsome Ward residents

2011-12-06T03:43:00.000-08:00

Councillor Andrew Cooper –Annual Report 2011

This has been my twelfth year as one of your local Councillors and almost certainly one of the busiest I can remember. Much of the beginning of 2011 was dedicated to the Kirklees Council budget as we grappled with the £80 million of cuts imposed on Kirklees by the Coalition Government. I spent hours in budget meetings going over proposals to come up with a solution which did not result in huge cuts to adult social care. In the end I and my Green Party colleagues were not prepared to vote for the Kirklees budget as a matter of conscience and principle. We could not vote for a budget which saw care for older people reduced from £52 million to around £40 million over the next 4 years and Day Care Services to drop from £5.3 million to £1.5 million and all this at a time when the demand for these services is likely to rise. All this is happening at a time when the banks are seemingly unscathed, benefits are being cut and services are disappearing all around us.

Planning was also a major item for me in this Council year. I was the only Councillor, not on the Planning Committee to speak against the proposed Tesco development to be built on the site of the current Sports Centre. Bizarrely many of the Councillors on the Planning Committee had huge reservations but ended up voting for it. Could it have been anything to do with the ‘bung’ Kirklees were getting from Tesco to build a new Sports Centre at Springwood? Also last month I attended and spoke at the Public Enquiry into the Tesco Planning Decision along with Barry Sheerman MP who spoke in favour of the Planning Decision being overturned.

Another key big issue this year was changes to planning policy both at the national and local level. The Coalition Government has introduced a new National Planning Policy Framework which in a nutshell makes it easier for developers to build on greenfield sites. I have spoke out regarding this issue at a number of meetings including a well attended one at Hall Bower Chapel. I have also used links with the Local Government Association to get some direct input into the Conservative Minister responsible Eric Pickles MP. As things stand I don’t anticipate much change. At the Kirklees level we have the Local Development Framework which will contain the policies which guide where housing will and will not be developed working with Julie and Graham we are continuing to press hard on the Labour led Council not to allocate greenfield land for development we have particularly mentioned land adjacent to New Laithe Hill and Jackroyd Lane on a number of occasions. We’ll keep people updated with developments.

I was particularly pleased this year to welcome Green Party leader Caroline Lucas MP to Huddersfield. She spoke at a meeting in February in the Hudawi Centre about her work as an MP and the impact of government cuts.

The Newsome Ward continues to be a national beacon for renewable energy and I was able to help Newsome South Methodist Church with sourcing funding to get solar panels installed on their roof. The Church did a lot of fund raising itself and the panels will help them save electricity costs and provide funds to keep this well used community building going.

When I first started knocking on doors in Newsome in 1993 I took up the issue of traffic calming on Hangingstone Road Berry Brow. This year we finally got the funding sorted out. I asked the Highways Engineer leading the project how old he was in 1993 and he told me he was just 5! In the end the real success of this was local people getting together to put their case strongly to Kirklees with me as local councillor providing help and guidance.

I continue to be a strong supporter of the Growing Newsome project and I share an allotment in Primrose Hill where I’ve grown food now for the last couple of years. I‘m especially pleased that the Stirley Farm project is up and running to support local food initiatives and it now has its own cattle in addition to its vegetable and fruit growing activities. It is important that the green land around the area is worked and useful to protect it from those would see it as ripe development land but it is also a great project in its own right and lots of local people are getting involved.

One issue which has affected a great number of people in the Ward has been Labour’s proposed £30 charge for permit parking. Many people in Aspley, Highfields and Springwood are on low or fixed incomes and even though many don’t have, or can’t afford, a car they are able to offer visitors, carers and relatives a car parking space. This proposed charge is effectively a £30 increase on the Council Tax for people who are generally on lower incomes. I have been very vocal on this issue in Council and have asked for an equalities impact assessment to be carried out on this decision.

I was originally a sceptic but now have a ‘blog’ www.greeningkirklees.blogspot.com which is basically an online diary of my views and opinions on things affecting the Newsome Ward and Kirklees in general. Again I was sceptical about Twitter but now I am an avid user of it. If you want to ‘follow’ me I’m at @clrandrewcooper

My New Year will begin as it did last year driving Newsome’s New Years Day Bus Service. This is now in it’s 19th year and thanks to everyone who helps with and uses this service.

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Andrew Cooper

Solar Downfall - Hilarious!

2011-12-05T10:54:00.001-08:00

Feed In Tariff letters in Huddersfield Examiner

2011-12-05T09:18:00.000-08:00

Another recent exchange of emails regarding the cut to the solar PV Feed In Tariffs in theHuddersfield Examiner. RJ Bray can be forgiven for taking some of the dubious misinformation from Government and in the papers about the cost of Feed In Tariffs at face value but maybe not on describing me as "Clr Khan’s friendly Green ". More research required R J! If he'd stuck 'occasionally' in front that would be fine! Anyway here's R J followed by myself

KIRKLEES Council leader Clr Mehboob Khan’s latest gripe is that money which he hoped to receive for a solar energy panel scheme which were to be fitted to 1,000 council properties has now been cancelled.

Clr Khan’s friendly Green Clr Andrew Cooper told the Examiner that it was a blow to the elderly and vulnerable people currently living in fuel poverty.

So does Clr Cooper’s statement mean that there are only 1,000 people in the Huddersfield area living in fuel poverty and all are currently living in council property? I think not.

Come the cold months myself and her that shall be obeyed will be wearing more layers than an onion has skins due to the criminally high energy prices.

Clr Khan and Clr Cooper I feel would have more credibility if they represented the collective rather than a select few.

Why do they not campaign for cheaper energy for everyone or more winter fuel allowance for those in more need?

Instead, they help create higher energy bills for people by having them fund through their meters the feed-in tariffs for those who have solar panels or wind turbines.

In this manner they also put more money into the energy companies’ pockets. In all fairness, is this right?

Alternative energy will never drive our country forward. It will have the reverse effect and send our country back to the Stone Age.

Industry along with our homes cannot be sustained by wind, solar or wave power. It’s a little like a dripping tap into an empty reservoir at the height of summer.

The country needs a nuclear project and it needs it now if we are to get away from fossil fuels and be less dependent on gas from overseas. Let’s not forget the madcap carbon capture process that is to get underway at the cost of billions of pounds to the taxpayer along with industry itself.

Maybe Clr Khan and Clr Cooper could ask for some money from that major worthless project called the European Union which drives these schemes.

I agree that we must pollute our atmosphere less and giant steps have been taken – but let us remember that this cannot be at the cost of the extinction of mankind, otherwise what has it all been for?

R J Bray

Shelley

Read More http://www.examiner.co.uk/views-and-blogs/reader-letters/2011/12/03/examiner-letters-june-2011-86081-29886400/#ixzz1fgGUnGIB

To the Editor

RJ Bray (Examiner 3/12) takes me to task for my dismay over the government cuts to the funding of the Feed In Tariff for solar panels and in particular the suspending of the Council scheme to install solar panels on the homes of 1000 Council Tenants. He says,

“does Clr Cooper’s statement mean that there are only 1,000 people in the Huddersfield area living in fuel poverty and all are currently living in council property?”

No I don’t, but it would be a start to help those people by running such a scheme which could then be expanded later. There are also currently schemes available for private householders where the panels are installed for free and the householders get the benefit of the electricity in return for handing the Feed in Tariff to the installing company. A number of households around Huddersfield have done this already. If he wants details I’ll pass them onto him. Of course not everyone can benefit from this scheme due to the orientation or size of their roof but many can. So the existing policy framework for solar is one which many people can take advantage of but changes by the government threaten its viability for everyone.

Mr Bray says that Feed In Tariffs,

“help create higher energy bills for people by having them fund through their meters the feed-in tariffs for those who have solar panels or wind turbines”

The actual impact of the Feed In Tariff policy on energy bills last year was 30p for the average household. This is less than a penny a week. The cost of a new nuclear power station, which Mr Bray is so keen on, can be a round £4.25 Billion and that doesn’t take into account the decommissioning costs and the costly handling of dangerous nuclear waste. This will have a much more significant impact on energy bills.

He asks of myself and Cllr Khan,

“Why do they not campaign for cheaper energy for everyone”

I don’t presume to speak for Cllr Khan but for my part I successfully proposed making insulation free for all householders in Kirklees, I was the trustee of a national fuel poverty charity for 8 years and have helped many householders reduce their fuel bills through advice on energy tariffs and by getting information out to householders on a number of ways to help reduce fuel bills. So I don’t believe I’m deficient in wanting to help people reduce their bills.

Mr Bray goes on to say,

“Industry along with our homes cannot be sustained by wind, solar or wave power.”

I agree to a point. In addition we are going to need greater levels of energy efficiency in buildings better controls and energy management, district heating systems, anaerobic digestion and a whole host of other actions to make the future of energy supply in the UK more secure. Althis l does rather beg a question why only Malta and Luxembourg in Europe have a worse proportion of their energy generated from renewable sources than the UK. What is technically possible on the continent seems somehow difficult here. The laws of physics are not different this side of the channel but some attitudes, prejudices and opinions among some certainly are.

Councillor Andrew Cooper - Green Party

FIT to drop! Solar PV - A question of priorities

2011-12-03T06:52:00.000-08:00

A ground mounted PV install in Brockholes where I live.
Will the flag be at half mast on the 12th of December when the FIT rate drops?

Somehow I can’t separate in my mind the cuts in Solar PV tariffs from other unrelated news items other than they are all outpourings of policy announcements from Government.

The basic mantra from Climate Change Minister Greg Barker is ‘Solar PV is expensive, the tariffs are unaffordable, capital costs are dropping so fast that the FIT is overgenerous that’s why we are cutting it. Its times not right yet for mass deployment, it’s a regressive tax on energy bills and adversely affects the fuel poor. Its like the poll tax and we all know how unpopular that was!’

This line doesn’t stand a lot of examination but it represents their expressed views and it would seem that DECC have pulled the drawbridge up on this one and are sticking their fingers in their ears to reasoned argument. So given it only cost a few million last year, the equivalent of 30p on the average energy bill what other things have the government been spending our money on? Well there’s the £600 million for Free Schools, a totally unnecessary support for a new school system usually parent led which will run parallel and in addition to local authority schools. There was the £250 million by Eric Pickles offered to councils to recommence weekly bin collections which actually nobody is much bothered about. Then there’s all the money for new infrastructure projects that has been announced this week. All this yet solar PV a technology that has been made available for the fuel rich and the fuel poor, that can be quickly deployed, that significantly reduces fuel cost and carbon emissions is regarded as too expensive (it isn’t). It simply doesn’t add up as an argument. You can’t really believe that they believe it. When we are talking about expanding nuclear generation this is couched in the terms of energy security and there’s no real reference to the impact on energy bills. The same arguments could be used for solar PV but they aren’t. So what is really going on? I’ll stick my neck out and say that it must be lobbying from the energy generators and suppliers. How would you feel if your monopoly over the provision of electricity was under threat from millions of people sticking solar panels on their roofs and then you have to pay them for the privilege. I’ve heard no mutterings, I have no proof but given the government’s position on FITs isn’t really credible this seems like a believable explanation. DECC Ministers may wag their fingers at the suppliers and generators but ultimately they’re going to need them to pursue their energy ambitions for new nuclear. May lord have mercy on us all!

Pensions Strike

2011-11-30T08:38:00.000-08:00

A really inspiring turnout today from Unions, staff and folk generally expressing their concern about the cuts. I couldn't stay too long unfortunately but I did make the mistake of telling Cllr Khan it was my birthday. Apparently after the video finishes they sang me a rendition of Happy Birthday. I wish I'd had time to see it. Thanks Mehboob - I think!

What I think was a real game changer for this March was that it wasn't just the usual suspects in the crowd. The crowd for one thing was a lot bigger which reflects the fact that the concern is more deeply routed than those who are permanently politically aware and motivated. It also recognises the links between large scale public sector cuts and the assault on public pensions. If this is the way things are now what are they going to be like in another 12 months, 2 years or the 6 months of pain we are told we have. The government haven't a mandate for these policies and their therefore legitimacy is highly questionable. I don't think I've ever see a government in this country that is more divisive than this. Thank goodness we've got the Lib Dems using their restraining influence - Ok that was a joke!

Greens join with Holme Valley Independents on Local Development Framework

2011-11-20T05:23:00.000-08:00

Grimescar Valley - saved from development by all Parties

Strategic Covering Note for Green Party/Independent amendment to the Kirklees Local Development Framework

The 16200 figure presented in the Green Party/Independent amendment has a strong
evidence base supported by economic projections, past performance on housing completions, the impact of Coalition Government policies on the construction and housing sectors and the Communities and Local Government Paper, 'Estimating Housing Need' (2010).

Current economic projections for growth show 1.5% this year and 2.5% next year according to the government's own Office for Budget Responsibility. Historically these figures have been highly optimistic. This projection compares to the an annual growth rates averaging 2.68% between 1992–2007 according to the IMF. The British Chambers of Commerce Economic Forecast in March this year said:

“Further forceful cuts in the budget deficit, the unresolved problems in the banking sector, and the financial fragility in the household sector will delay a return to pre‐crisis growth rates. Over the next 4‐5 years, growth of UK GDP is likely to average just over 2% per annum, considerably less than the 3.0% average growth recorded in the 15‐year period 1993‐2007”

Coalition Government cuts of 60% in the Homes and Communities Agency is going to significantly reduce the levels of social housing and shared ownership housing available. The viability of younger people being able to enter the housing market will be increasingly stifled due to the impact of tuition fees which will mean that when students leave college and start receiving the sort of salaries they would need to consider the purchase of a property they will start having to repay those fees.

While we recognise that there is an increasing social need for more housing, the mere projection of house building figures in the absence of interventionist social and economic policies will not create the construction of needed housing units. Rather it will give greater licence to the speculative builder of executive properties on green field sites. Without changes in government policy which will support the development of social housing, an open supply‐side private housing market cannot solve this problem, but only create distortions of excessive building on green field sites whilst leaving the overall stock of needed housing low.

Simply making land available in its own terms will not deliver new housing so the LDF’s own targets are not realisable due to the underlying economic conditions the UK is in and the lack of policies to stimulate an economic revival and develop social housing.

Past performance on housing completions does not support the targets given in the LDF document. The average number of completions between 2000 and 2010 was 1248 per year and even this level is skewed due to particularly high years. Expectations of mainly 1500 completions per year across the plan are clearly unattainable.

If our figures were to be adopted this would require no housing development on land that is currently in the greenbelt. We wish to see development in Grimescar, Honley, Meltham and Brockholes taken out of the plan. Just as the Local Development Framework has proposed to remove greenbelt status from nominated areas we would add land below Castle Hill bordered by High Lane and New Laithe Hill which is directly adjacent to greenbelt land and part of the backdrop to the historic and iconic Victoria Tower on Castle Hill.

Like the Government asserts we also believe in Localism and support the concept of Neighbourhood Development Plans where communities establish what land they would like to see developed in their area above and beyond those targets set in the LDF. Our fear is that the Government's belief in localism is only skin deep and that the Government through the Planning Inspectorate would favour developers rather than communities.

We believe that where previously undeveloped land is to be developed that this should be constructed to a higher environmental standard than those proposed in building regulations in terms of energy performance and sustainable urban drainage.

We recognise that there is value in the juxtaposition of new design and new technology with heritage assets such as modern glass atriums on church buildings and solar panels being utilised on older properties and we would expect the LDF to include policies that support that approach.

Overall the Kirklees Local Plan should not only consider the urban settlements on a quantitative basis, but qualitatively take into account their unique features of these different communities taking into account their urban, rural and environmental factors . Hence more detailed and specific polices should be developed for the Huddersfield Hub, Dewsbury, North Kirklees and the valleys in the South of Kirklees.

Huddersfield Tesco Public Enquiry - Barry and the Barrister

2011-11-05T00:08:00.000-07:00

Fortnum and Mason - where i believe Tesco's Barrister shops. Go on sue me!

You'd be forgiven for not knowing about the Tesco Public Enquiry. Not highly publicised they held it out of town in the Hudawi Centre this week. Just to recap Kirklees Council sells Huddersfield Sports Centre and surrounding area to Tescos for millions to allow them to build a huge store at the edge of the Town Centre to help suck more money out of the local economy. The money from Tesco's is then going to used to build a new Sports Centre on Springwood Car Park. The Planning Committee decision was highly dubious given the background and expressed reservations of Counciilors who then went on to vote for it. Barry Sheerman Huddersfield's MP (he managed to beat me in the General Election as did a couple of others) successfully called for a Public Enquiry. You should be up to date now.

Here's the Tesco Enquiry I spoke at on Friday. On your left is the Tesco Legal team mob. At the far end is posh Barrister. The Planning Inspector in the middle and Barry Sheerman on the left. I followed on from our esteemed MP

I managed to get there for half an hour to present my evidence. I arrived as Barry Sheerman MP was having a set to with Tesco's rather plummy Barrister. It seemed I had entered just as class war was breaking out between Barry and the Barrister. Barry gamely slagged off supermarkets and how much money was being drawn out of the local economy while the 'Tescos Toff' said Barry was biased against supermarkets and wasn't giving any planning reasons to oppose the application. So when I took the stand following Barry I decided not to go off on a Tescopoly tirade but to stick to the unsound nature of the planning decision itself. I pointed out the deep reservations expressed by councillors in the planning meeting who then went on to promptly vote for the application. I told the Planning Inspector about the seven fold increase in traffic at the end of an air quality management area on Leeds Road, the lack of a commitment to social housing, the lack of natural stone in the development despite Councillors wishes. I went on to point out the extraordinarily long time, 9 years, that Kirklees had granted Tesco to build their barn and the lack of trees and biodiversity about the site as well as the impact on the Town Centre. I finished giving my evidence and awaited the onslaught of probing questions from Tescos Barrister. The Planning Inspector invited him to respond but 'No questions' 'Cmon!' I said, 'there must be some questions' I had focussed on the Planning Decision after all. 'I've no questions but that doesn't mean I agree with what has been said'. During my evidence 2 of Barrister Posh's staff rushed up to him with bits of paper and conferred with him but whatever they said it did not seem like he wanted to engage. I counted about 8 Tesco's people there either legal or company people so they are certainly throwing some money at this lets hope Kirklees Planning's deeply dodgy decision on this ( with the honorable exception of Cllr Christine Iredale) is overturned.

Solar Sundown

2011-11-02T01:44:00.000-07:00

Many council and free solar schemes have checked into the Sundown Motel

A few weeks ago, and somewhat inexplicably,Winchester City Council in Hampshire cancelled its plans to install solar panels on their municipal buildings as they said that they did not stack up financially and that the prices they got back from their tender were not what they were expecting. To any informed outside observer this must have been nonsense. Up and down the country Councils had been pursuing schemes to install panels on their own buildings and council houses having done the maths and concluded their proposals were self financing. Possibly Winchester knew something the rest of us didn’t about the FIT cuts that were coming over the horizon.

The implications of the Governments rushed review of the Feed In Tariff rates for solar photovoltaics are significant and in many ways tragic. In Leeds the City Council had innovative plans to use the Feed In Tariff incomes from installations on Council houses to help finance free insulation for private homes. That great idea would now appear to be a total dead duck. In Kirklees we have/had a thousand house solar PV programme some of which are in the Newsome Ward. I’ve asked the Council’s Leader Councillor Khan and the Chief Executive to see what can be done to accelerate installations ahead of the cut. It’s going to be difficult and I anticipate a lot of weekend working to get PV systems commissioned and working ahead of the deadline.

So why are government making this cut? Well the first thing to say is that this is not public money we are talking about so this is not saving you and me tax. We do however all pay for the feed in tariff through a levy on our fuel bills along with a number of charges which subsidise nuclear and renewable programmes. The FIT element of this is reckoned to cost the average household around 30 pence per year or less than 1 penny/week. As the FIT is the result of public policy however it is counted in the governments Public Sector Borrowing Requirement and so Treasury has put a cap on it OR as Climate Change Minister Greg Barker refers to it ‘a budget’. Given the very low cost of the tariff the cap is obviously set very low demonstrating a very limited ambition by government for the solar sector. Government’s argument is that the capital costs for installing PV have dropped dramatically and therefore the FIT should drop. While this is true it is only half the story. Government are ignoring the fact that demand for PV has been generated by the level of FIT that has in turn helped generate the economies of scale that have enabled prices to come down. So if you reduce the FIT rate then capital costs are likely to start rising significantly. There is probably a reasoned argument for a limited FIT reduction but not one of over 50% that will put companies out of business and make thousands unemployed.

The cuts to the FIT rates take effect on the 12th of December yet the consultation on the review of feed in tariffs is due to close on the 23rd of December. So Merry Christmas everybody! This is just one of the reasons that solar companies are pursuing legal routes to challenge government over this abomination of a consultation. The other reason is that right now there will be many millions of pounds worth of solar panels and inverters on the high seas already bought and paid for by British companies on the understanding of a return based on current FIT rates. Some of these solar panels will have been destined for Council projects such as those planned for Kirklees, Leeds and York but NOT Hampshire.

Press Release - People urged to install solar panels while they can

2011-10-30T00:43:00.000-07:00

Andrew Cooper with the solar panels installed on Civic Centre 3

Greens urge people to install solar panels while they can.

Green Party Councillor Andrew Cooper has urged Huddersfield householders to install solar panels as soon as they can. Following newspaper reports and mistakenly leaked documents it has become clear that the Government has plans to halve the Feed In Tariffs for solar photovoltaic panels.

Currently people can claim 43 pence for every kilowatt of electricity they generate off their roof but the government now plans to cut this to around 21p from the beginning of December.

Councillor Cooper who has solar panels himself said,

“If people install solar panels now before the cut is due to take place in December then they will get the 43p rate for the next 25 years if they were to install them after that they would get less than half that.”

I recommend that people get three quotes from local companies. You can save significant amounts of money by comparing the prices of installers. A list of installers in our area can be obtained from the Yorkshire and Humber Microgeneration Partnership website www.yhmp.org

You should make sure your contractors and the components they install are registered under the Microgeneration Certification Scheme. All companies on the www.yhmp.org website should be.

It is also worth checking the warranty period on the solar panels and the inverter which converts the DC electricity from the panels into the AC electricity that we use in our homes. You can get warranties of over 20 years for solar panels but it can vary more with inverters.

If you can’t afford the capital cost of solar panels then there are companies that will install them on your house for free. They claim the feed in tariff and you get the benefit of the electricity generated of the roof saving you around £150 - £250 per year depending on the number of panels you have and the current cost of electricity. One such company is A Shade Greener who are based in Tankersley www.ashadegreener.co.uk another is Home Sun www.homesun.com

Commenting on these cuts Councillor Cooper said,

“These cuts by the government are nonsensical. Over 25,000 people are employed in the solar industry and these cuts are a threat to them. The cost of the Feed In Tarrif is very small less than 50p/year on the average fuel bill and a fraction of the cost of government subsidies of nuclear power stations. As always it is those on the lowest incomes who will suffer the most. This cut will jeopardise free solar schemes for people unable to afford the upfront costs of solar panels and planned schemes for council tenants properties which are self funding under current Feed In Tariff arrangements but may not be following the proposed cut. The government’s claim to be the Greenest Government ever is looking increasingly hollow and lacking in substance.”

Growing Newsome Grows and Grows -Autumn Gathering on Saturday

2011-10-23T08:00:00.000-07:00

Kim Warren of Stirley Farm.Pumpkin maker extraordinaire

Hardy winter veg and seedlings on offer for donations

Cut price fleece and netting for your allotment. We got 5 metres of good stuff for our patch

Cllr Julie Stewart-Turner dished out Pumpkin and Parsnip soup and bread to the masses

Stacks of people turned up throughout the morning

Cherry and Diane hard at work soup making in the kitchen

Stop Press - So did Labour and Tories agree to reduce their allowances in Brighton?

2011-10-21T14:03:00.000-07:00

Add caption

Of course they didn't! Following on from my last blogpost here's a post script. Just to recap, Cllr Khan had wrongly accusing the Green Party in Brighton of not keeping their commitment to reduce members allowances. However it now transpires that when Green proposals to reduce them were put forward yesterday Labour and Tory Councillors voted together to preserve them. So much irony here I don't know really where to start. For the full story here's Councillor Ben Duncan's Blog Brighton Green Cllrs blog on the meeting.

80's Plenty? - Last Kirklees Full Council Report

2011-10-21T13:10:00.000-07:00

80's Plenty?

The misinformation quotient was pretty high at last Wednesday's Kirklees Full Council meeting. We had Lib Dem Councillor James Blanchard with what I presume was a planted a question to Councillor Khan on the Green Party’s record as the administration on Brighton City Council. Basically the question was implying that the Greens there had broken a manifesto commitment to lower Councillors allowances and top executives pay. On the basis of past planted questions to Cllr Khan on the subject I was pretty sure this was a load of.... rubbish (that was the word I was searching for). I sent a quick email to Brighton Green Party Councillor and Cabinet Member for finance Jason KitKat for his view. The other point to make is that the question goes against the Councils Constitution in that it has nothing to do with the area of responsibility of the Leader of the Council nor was it anything to do with the Kirklees area. Of course if I’d made that point before the question was made or the dubious answer given then I’d have been accused of trying to hide what the Greens were doing in Brighton. So I let them have their fun then made a point of order pointing out the question was out of order and read Jason Kitkat’s email to me which conveniently arrived a couple of minutes before the question was put and said,

“Not true. Our Chief Exec reduced his salary by 5% and tomorrow we are voting on report to reduce the total cost of councillors allowances and expenses packages.” (see it on Kirklees Webcast here 2.22 in)

There’s a pattern of Green bashing and misinformation going on here from Mehboob (see Wrath of Khan) and its strange that Cllr Blanchard somehow or other gives credence to him. All good knockabout stuff of course but you do wonder what the point is.

The other source of misinformation in the Council meeting was Lib Dem Councillor Kath Pinnock. A debate was held on Kirklees proposals to outsource Adult Homecare provision as the result of 5000 signature petition. Independent Councillor Edgar Holroyd-Doveton spoke in support of the petitioners and also later proposed a motion to promote a public sector ethos for care homes and services. Councillor Pinnock decided that this meant the Holme Valley Independents wanted to bring all Homecare services inhouse (they don't) and tweeted,

“Holme Valley Independent Cllr now proposing action to raise council tax 12.5% costing every tax payer about £100 extra a year”

All pretty shameless stuff from Councillor Pinnock, but consistent with her usual approach and her dubious relationship with the truth.

The Lib Dems put forward a motion on restricting speed limits to 20 in residential areas on the basis that it will help road safety. All good stuff and not anything new in that we’ve all been pushing for this for a long time but Highways officers always block it on the basis that if there are no physical measures in place e.g. humps, ramps, chicanes then the speed restrictions would be ignored and unenforceable. I’ve disagreed with this approach for a long time and agree that we should send a message, even if it is just with signange, that residential areas are low speed zones. Unfortunately the motion was not put, due to time restrictions, but I would have pointed out that Lib Dem/Con Government proposals to raise the motorway speed limit to 80 will probably lead to more deaths and certainly more carbon emissions. I wanted to know if the Lib Dems had done the maths to work out if they would save more lives with the ‘20s Plenty’ policy than they lost on the ‘80s plenty’ policy.

There was another motion on the changes to constituency boundaries which is going to see around 50 Parliamentary seats going across the country. There are some fairly crazy new boundaries being proposed with Dewsbury being split between 3 MPs. Ultimately though you have got to ask why the Lib Dems agreed to this with the Conservatives in their coalition agreement without getting an agreement on some form of Proportional Representation. Instead they just got a referendum on an inferior form of PR, the Alternative Vote. They seem to have been taken to the cleaners in their negotiations on the coalition agreement. What a wasted opportunity.

As usual we didn’t get through the agenda and Edgar’s motion was curtailed at the 9.00pm deadline and despite me seconding the motion and reserving the right to speak the larger parties voted against our proposal to extend the Council meeting so we could debate the motion properly.

Jobs, Homes and Cows

2011-10-14T14:05:00.000-07:00

Jobs and homes and that's it!

I've long had an issue with the way Kirklees Council has approached the Local Development Framework. I remember sitting in a Kirklees Party Leaders meeting and seeing the proofs of the consultation document entitled 'Jobs and Homes'. Immediately I said that planning was about much more than simply 'jobs and homes'. It was about transport , agriculture, amenity, quality of life. Somehow it reminded me of one of those Labour Conference slogans in the 80s. Did they ever have one called 'Jobs, Homes and Peace'. I probably just imagined it. What is really striking (and frankly depressing) is how similar Council Leader Mehboob Khan's approach is to the Coalition Goverment is on planning policy. When Labour Cllr Khan and Conservative Communities Minister Eric Pickles see a field they see people building on it and pound signs. They both see a field ripe for development that once it has a house built on it has a monetary value, a quick bung for allowing development, some short term jobs in construction and a revenue stream to replace some of the central government cuts. It is a narrow, unimaginative and rubbish concept of land that devalues our local environment.

In planning policy at the national level I've had a very small victory recently in the Local Government Association's response to the consultation on the National Planning Policy Framework. It is a much reviled document and the Coalition Government has attacked some of the 'anti growth/anti capitalist' orgainsations that have had the temerity to oppose them. These include the National Trust, English Heritage and the Campaign to Protect Rural England. The LGA has to balance its responses to consultations against the competing views of different political parties and the ruling Conservative Group. I am the Independent Cllrs group rep on the LGA Environment and Housing Board (the Greens are included with Independents). Of course the LGA response is much more restrained than the Green Party's but I have got the following wording included:

"It should also be recognised that undeveloped land can have a sustained lasting economic value in terms of agriculture, tourism and amenity and can be strongly related to the quality of life of the people in the area."

Jobs , Homes and Cows

There can be real value in land which is not simply related to sticking some huge 'shopping shed 'on it erected by some monopolistic company which will take most of the economic value of their work out of the area (and probably out of the country as well via tax avoidance). These sort of developments are exactly the sort of rubbish approach that gives politics a bad name, creating cynicsm and alienating communities, but it doesn't have to be like this. We have a prime (beef?) example on our doorstep with Stirley Farm in Newsome. This council land was disused agricultural fields with derelict buildings. It is now managed by Yorkshire Wildlife Trust who are developing a community farm and local food projects on the farmland around Newsome and below Castle Hill. It enjoys huge local support, links well with the Growing Newsome group and is rapidly being embraced as part of the tapestry that makes up the Newsome community. It is 'development'. Jobs are being created in paid employment, training and voluntary work. Local food is being grown and through outreach work local people are being shown how to grow their own fruit and vegetables and thereby helping lower their household costs. This 'development' is preserving and improving the local area in harmony with the community in a way that simply 'bunging up' another Barratt estate or yet another sodding Tesco's never would or could. Stirley Farm has real value, is valued locally and today has cows. The first 3 beef shorthorns arrived today with another dozen on the way to help build the herd. This is a small part what a real 'Local Development Framework' that people could support and one that would enhance rather than threaten their quality of life.

Longley Tennis Club goes solar

2011-10-07T11:25:00.000-07:00

Longley Tennis Club has now got a solar PV system just under the magic 4kWp level. Yet another PV system in the Newsome Ward! The club has had a lot of investment in recent years with a new club house (where the solar panels are) and refurbished tennis courts. This is down in large part to the efforts of Mr Geoff Durrans who has dedicated a lot of time and effort into reviving the club and sourcing funding from a number of pots. With a lot of uncertainty at the moment regarding the Feed In Tariff and threats of unsympathetic government policy reviews it is important that we get as many systems on roofs as possible.

Growing Aspley

2011-10-05T05:42:00.000-07:00

Aspley is a small community on the edge of the Newsome Ward and the housing is a mix of Council and Chevin tenancies. Now they have six new raised beds for growing herbs and vegetables and the tenants I have spoken to are really pleased to have them and they are looking forward to getting stuck into growing stuff there. I must admit I was a bit sceptical about a similar raised bed scheme that started last year at the other end of the ward at Berry Brow flats but I'm happy to be proved wrong and the raised beds are now fully subscribed there by tenants and there's a waiting list. Growing projects in Newsome are going from strength to strength and the Stirley Farm project is linking well with Growing Newsome and wider community enthusiasm for food growing.

For my own part 100 winter onions will be going into our allotment shortly (only £2 for 50 onion sets from Wilkinsons)

Brookes Mill Heritage Exhibition opens

2011-10-05T04:41:00.000-07:00

Last night I went to the opening of a new permanent heritage exhibition at Brookes Mill, Armitage Bridge. There is certainly a lot of heritage to talk about with the original Brookes Mill business beginning in 1541 in the reign of Henry 8th, though not on the current site. As such Mark Brooke can justifiably claim to have the oldest family run business in Britain. The Spinning Mill on the Armitage Bridge site was established in 1828 and by 1846 they were were making woollen cloth right from the woollen bale right through to the finished cloth. Manufacturing ceased on the site in 1987 but as they say a 'phoenix has risen from the ashes'. The mills now are used as refurbished office space with a diverse range of businesses including an independent film studios, art gallery, conference facilities and cafe. They are also refurbishing one of the original forms of power on the site to generate electricity from hydro using an archimedes screw. This is due to be up and running next year and will mean that we will be utilising every microgeneration technology in some form or other in the Newsome Ward.

Mark Brooke officially opens the exhibition

Huddersfield University students have played an important role in researching the information for the exhibition and it really is worth a look at followed by cake and coffee in the cafe! One of the great things about this new exhibition is the opportunity it provides to bring alive local history for education of young people and the interest of the wider public and promotion of this new attraction and the Mills offer as a whole is something we need to get out there in the wider community so they know the facilities and the history that is on their doorstep.

Watering down SUDS

2011-09-28T14:03:00.000-07:00

I did wonder whether or not it was coincidence that the Annual Meeting of the Inland Flood Risk Management Group meeting was help on the top floor of the Local Government Association’s HQ in Smiths Square, London. Did they know something the rest of us didn’t or were they just being overly cautious?

Flooding in Armitage Bridge 2008

This was the first meeting of the group I had been to as their incoming Chair. The outgoing Chair for the last 4 years Cllr Mike Haines was leading proceedings and my role was very much to meet people and pick up the key issues and debate on current matters regarding flood risk. We started off with an interesting presentation on SUDS or Sustainable Drainage Systems to you and me. The basic issue is that due to climate change we are getting much more sustained heavy rain events. This coupled with the growth of impermeable concrete and tarmac surfaces (and less green fields for water to drain into) means that flooding events are becoming much more common. Events such as the Armitage Bridge flood is just one example among a growing number of flash floods that have affected communities. So flooding is not just about rising sea levels it is also about the capacity of our current drainage systems to cope with increasingly heavy rainfall. SUDS are techniques and methods of reducing run off of rainwater into conventional drainage systems. This could mean use of permeable paving or reed beds to aid slow release of rainwater into drains. This clearly is an issue for Planning Committees to consider and the draft National Planning Policy Framework also has things to say about SUDS. So I suppose you might expect SUDS would be used in all developments if we want to reduce flooding risk. Unfortunately it is not quite that simple. The message from DEFRA in the meeting was quite clear and it could be summed up as follows, “To promote growth regulation should not add cost”. So if SUDS are likely to make a development morecostly and so unviable then the developer could simply argue that they don’t want to do it and proceed with a conventional drainage solution. The question I asked was, “The National Planning Policy Framework has a ‘presumption in favour of sustainable development’. If the developer says it is unaffordable to put in a Sustainable Drainage System it is by definition ‘unsustainable’ does this make it fundamentally out of step with the principles of the NPPF?” Well the question got a few knowing laughs from those present as we all basically knew that arguments for economic growth are paramount in the NPPF and ‘sustainability’ is so ill defined as to be meaningless anyway. The truth is that SUDS can in many cases be cheaper to install and maintain than conventional drainage systems but my principle concern is that standards and principles of development and regulation itself can be set aside in the name of economic growth. As a Green it is a principle for me that we don’t compromise our environment as ultimately this does not make economic sense. In actuality how much of an issue will this be? I guess the proof of the pudding is in the eating so we’ll have to wait and see but my concerns were certainly shared by many of the local authority officers at the meeting one of whom without a trace of irony said SUDS appears to be being ‘watered down’. A local SUDS Advisory Board will decide what is viable/affordable but I guess the question is what happens if there is a dispute with the developer? Is there an appeal process?

Lord Chris Smith, former Labour Cabinet Minister and current Chairman of the Environment Agency, spoke about the separation of responsibility for surface water flooding and watercourses from them to Local Authorities. They have also been holding capacity building workshops for Local Authorities to help them with their new responsibilities and around 96% of Local Authorities have been involved in these which is pretty impressive. The key concern for the Environment Agency like many bodies is reduced funding and reduced capacity. It has a stretching target of giving 145,000 houses better flood defences yet has fewer officers on the ground and will be commenting only on high risk planning applications. The concern is that applications which might have been improved or benefitted from their input will now slip through the net.

All in all this was a useful primer for me to get a background in the key issues and test out some opinions on people who are much better informed than I am. I’m looking forward to learning much more about flood risk over the next year.

Green Deal - The challenge from Kirklees Warm Zone.

2011-09-27T05:34:00.000-07:00

Article produced for the Heating and Hot Water Industry Council Journal

How compelling an offer will Green Deal be?

With the Government’s Green Deal a year away it is a good time to look back at ‘what works’ in delivering large scale energy efficiency programmes and think about how Green Deal might match, or hopefully surpass, the very best practice.

Kirklees Warm Zone is something I know a lot about. I proposed the amendment that made this insulation scheme free to private householders back in February 2007. It has since gone on to win awards, be regularly referred to by ministers and has been held up as a beacon of best practice. A strong team of people worked on it and it is backed by years of experience of project managing energy efficiency programmes by the Council. DECC regularly updates statistics for local authority insulation levels and Kirklees remains at the top of that list with the highest proportion of housing stock insulated out of all local authorities in the country. The properties that didn’t receive insulation either already had it installed, were hard to treat with conventional insulation or there were access difficulties.

There’s plenty of impressive statistics in the Kirklees Warm Zone final report from the 3 and ½ years that the programme ran for:

• 51,155 properties received insulation (either cavity wall , loft insulation or both measures)

• 16,111 households received Benefits advice

• £1.6 million new benefits entitlement levered in (estimate)

• 111,174 households received free low energy light bulbs

• 602 households received central heating funded by local or regional schemes

• 2033 households were referred to Warm Front for central heating

• 106 jobs created directly for the schemes

• 200-250 jobs created indirectly

• 5.5 points increase in SAP

• 1,375 households taken out of fuel poverty

• £3.9 million fuel expenditure saving per year

• 23,000 tonnes CO2/yr savings average

There’s plenty to comment on here. The issue I mention most often in Council meetings is the economic regeneration benefits of Kirklees Warm Zone. For an investment of little over £10 million by Kirklees (and a similar amount by Scottish Power from CERT funding) around £4 million goes back into the local economy each year from savings on household fuel bills. Every time that the cost of fuel goes up, so also does the value of the energy savings. With the recent rises in gas prices the ‘payback’ on Kirklees Warm Zone has shrunk considerably.

Kirklees Warm Zone was certainly influential to an extent, though not as much as many of us wished. The Scottish Government’s Home Insulation Scheme was introduced as a response to the Scottish Green Party MSP’s unsuccessful attempt in 2009 to get the Kirklees Scheme replicated in the whole of Scotland. Energy Efficiency programmes run by the Greater London Assembly and also a number of small scale area based schemes have been strongly influenced by the Kirklees model. Interestingly very few have followed the ‘free insulation for all’ approach we pioneered. There are a number of reasons for this lack of replication of good practice not least of which is the severe constraints on public sector funding that has put paid to many worthy projects as Councils concentrate on cost cutting and trying to deliver basic services. Another important factor is the long policy hiatus as we await the Green Deal to begin. There’s not a lot of point beginning a 3 or 4 year programme to insulate all the housing in your area if the funding mechanism that supports it, in this case CERT, will be abolished in 2012 and the Energy Company Obligation that replaces it will not significantly help replicate Kirklees style insulation schemes.

One of the key challenges Kirklees Warm Zone offers to Green Deal is to match or exceed the rate at which carbon is saved. The scheme was limited to just over 3 years as part of a systematic, door by door, street by street, area based approach, with the aim of been able to say “job done” for basic insulation measures in the district by 2010. By the end we were able to show how quickly we could save carbon with a concerted, time limited, programme with a compelling offer. If Government policy truly recognises the urgency of addressing climate change then it is the speed of carbon saving that is important. Green Deal needs to rapidly ramp up into being a big saver of carbon, not a half hearted option for householders to consider, for only the committed to embrace and one which many will discount and ignore.

Green Deal is of course a much bigger proposition in terms of measures that will be on offer. It is not just cavity wall and loft insulation but solid wall insulation, internal dry lining, better heating controls , efficient boilers and microgeneration too. So in many ways the potential for Green Deal to exceed any other energy efficiency scheme to date is huge. Green Deal does not however lend itself easily to area based approaches. There could be many providers in an area all trying to sell pretty much the same product. Consumer protection and confidence in the Green Deal offer is going to be crucial if the scheme is going to get off the starting blocks without a hiccup and also for its long term reputation as a trusted energy efficiency provider.

Like many others, I want Green Deal to succeed and the lesson from Kirklees Warm Zone is that the offer to the householder has to be compelling. In this case the loan arrangements have got to be unequivocally a ‘no brainer’ for the householder. The ‘golden rule’ by which savings in fuel bills meet or exceed loan repayments needs to be guaranteed. The costs of the work carried out under Green Deal needs to match or be cheaper than could be obtained independently from a contractor. The interest rates offered for loans under Green Deal should be attractive and better than could be obtained on the High Street.

The role of the Local Authority is key to the Green Deal’s success. Local Authorities are generally trusted bodies, they are permanent institutions, where people can go when they need support with concerns and issues. Local Authorities have access to householders through a range of media including letters, websites and an array of publications. Local Authorities now need to realise their power in assisting the delivery of Green Deal and conveying that effectively to the potential providers. The resultant partnerships should be good for Councils, the providers, the Green Deal itself and most importantly the householders benefiting from it.

Scrap time

2011-09-26T09:50:00.000-07:00

Drain covers at a Huddersfield scrapyard

I had an interesting morning today with Kirklees Licensing and West Yorkshire Police doing spot checks of registered and unregistered scrap yards and dealer. The first visit to an unregistered scrap dealer lead to an arrest for a drugs offence. The other visits to scrapyards involved the checking of records against what we could see around the premises. We came across aluminium beer kegs which are not supposed to be sold as scrap, some very suspicious looking lead with no real explanation of its source and drain hole grates and covers. It was a good thing to do and sent a strong message that the authorities are keen to keep an eye on scrap dealers particularly with the number of lead and copper pipe and wire thefts going on out there. This is often linked, as so much crime is, to feeding drug addiction. It is an issue that many of us come across all the time. Burton Village Hall where we held our Parish meetings had the lead ripped off the roof three times. This is a community building run by volunteers and can ill afford this sort of crime. In Newsome the Roundhouse at Hall Bower Lane has also had similar lead thefts.

Police and Kirklees Licensing officers at a scrap yard

So what can the Council do to try and raise the standards in the local scrap dealers and stone merchants industry? My contribution to this question is to suggest a voluntary code of conduct for the industry which the Police, the Council and possibly Trading Standards would endorse. The code would ask scrap dealers and stone merchants to sign up to the following or similar:

to inform the Police immediately of any suspicious metal/stone presented to them on their premises
to not not accept drain covers and beer kegs as scrap
to commit to ask the people presenting scrap lead and copper wire where they have got the material from and to make a record of their response
to prominently display posters around their premises saying they will report any suspicious scrap/stone presented to them to the police
to refuse entry to anyone who turns up in a taxi to deliver scrap

In return Kirklees, West Yorkshire Police and Trading Standards would display on their websites lists of companies that sign up to the voluntary code of conduct. This will mean that law abiding people wanting to use a scrap merchant legitimately to recycle metals will be able to choose one which at least publicly says it opposes receiving stolen material. The Council could provide logos and signage for the scrap dealers to display around their sites. Of course a voluntary code has its limitations but at least people will know something about the companies that do sign up and importantly they will also know something about those who don't.

Lib Dems call for end to tuition fees - 11 years ago

2011-09-24T09:36:00.000-07:00

Kirklees Lib Dems in 2000

'Abandon loans'

While mucking out the cellar I discovered this classic Lib Dem leaflet from 2000. We see here Rana Younas Lib Dem Candidate (a nice chap as I remember him) standing with some students at Athene Court, Ashenhurst calling for tuition fees to be abolished. They had just been introduced by the then Labour Government. It does however get better than this on the rear of the leaflet they have a piece calling on the government to 'abandon student loans'. I'm not going to comment on this . The facts speak for themselves I think

They're on! - Newsome South Methodist Church Solar Panels are fitted

2011-09-22T08:47:00.000-07:00

They're on! After a jigsaw of fundraising and real commitment from the folks at Newsome South Methodist their solar panels are on. This is only part of the story. More insulation has gone into the roof and better controls. It is great to have yet another solar project in the Newsome Ward. Hart Street, Ing Lane Bungalows next!

Electric Dreams?

2011-09-21T08:57:00.000-07:00

Kirklees Councils Electric Vehicle Fleet

The EU Seminar I went to in Rotherham on electric vehicles yesterday was illuminating in many ways. The capital cost of electric vehicles remains a key issue. There is still a significant premium cost above that of fossil fuelled vehicles. That is going to remain a significant barrier for many. The benefit of electric vehicles is the low revenue costs with a full charge overnight costing anywhere between £1-£2 to give 100 miles or more of motoring. With the life of the battery for new vehicles of at least 10 years you can see that there are sums to be done to work out the financial benefit in whole life cost terms for electric vehicles over petrol /diesel ones. I'm not convinced this work has been adequately done. I'm not going to attempt to do that here, but of course every time there is a fuel price rise the economics will change so there needs to be a predictive element to any calculations that are made.

The issue of 'well to wheel' came up with regard to carbon emissions related to the electricity used by electric vehicles. My own view is that there is a lot of lazy analysis by opponents of electric vehicles which doesn't fully take into account the benefits of overnight charging using the spinning demand of the generators or the lower carbon mix from the use of wind energy generated at night. There are also the plans to decarbonise electricity generation anyway so it makes sense to start to develop ways of storing energy that could be produced from a range of renewable technologies. Electric cars are part of the solution to our energy and transport problems.

Each local authority involved in the EU Programme was asked to provide information on how many vehicles the Council used, including the 'grey fleet' (employees own vehicles). For Kirklees this was 1050 vehicles including 1 x Electric 3.5 Tonnes Transit Tipper truck. This vehicle was purchased for emptying all the street bins around Huddersfield Town Centre and is a familiar sight to shoppers and it has a nice 'Tackling Climate Change' livery. It was purchased as a result of one of our budget deals around 4 or 5 years ago and it is charged up every night at the Incinerator (sorry Waste to Energy Plant!) Effectively it is charged up by burning peoples household rubbish. Whatever your views about incineration , and my own are mixed, this is charging a vehicle at nil additional cost to the Council. Sadly the truck is still a lone electric addition to the Councils fleet.

One of the tangible frustrations Councillor Roger Stone of Rotherham had was the seeming reluctance/inability of the manufacturers present to lower the prices of their vehicles even with the 'tempting' carrot of the additional buying power offered by joint procurement. The story from the manufacturers is that there is not much if any margin on the product and production is not up to capacity yet anyway, so the opportunity to bring prices down is not high. The £5000 grant from the government obviously helps but there's still several thousand pounds above the costs of a petrol/diesel equivalent to find. Talking to one of the manufacturers I tried a different angle by asking what value they would place in marketing terms to a council that really went out of its way to promote electric vehicles. I suggested a package of measures:

lower fees for the licensing of taxis/private hire electric vehicles
Taxi ranks with electric charging points
Free on street parking for electric vehicles for the next 3 years
Charging points for electric vehicle at car parks
Section 106 agreements to install charging points on new developments
Promotion of the benefits of electric vehicles in council media and publications
More demonstration vehicles by the Council itself

These are just a few ideas but if Councils are to engage with electric vehicle manufacturers then joint procurement at this stage doesn't seem a very fruitful or easy route, so other ways have to be explored which can help create a buzz (hum?) ampong the populus. We need imaginative policies which are about engaging with the industry to grab their enthusiasm and interest. Councils need to show a genuine desire for a lasting partnership which goes on to deliver a significant concerntration of electric vehicle use.

Friend and relation

2011-09-20T14:11:00.000-07:00

Cllr Friend Cooper, Mayor of Rotherham 1976

Today saw me heading to Rotherham Town Hall for a seminar on electric vehicles as part of an EU project on action to address climate change. I'd never been to the Town Hall before but I did remember that my Grandad told me that his brother, Friend Cooper, had been a Councillor in Rotherham. I thought I'd have a nose round and see if his name was on anything around the place. So I was chuffed to discover this photo of him on the wall showing him in his Mayoral robes in 1976. He was of course an 'Old Labour' Councillor. A couple of people I spoke to knew him including Cllr Roger Stone who was hosting the event. I unfortunately never met him. He had a gift name for his election leaflet 'Vote Friend'.

I've never really considered my family to be very political really apart from my brother Richard (the Tory Cllr in Harrogate), my Grandad on my mum's side who was an Independent Cllr (Tory really) and now Cllr Friend Cooper. This 'non political' family argument of mine doesn't seem to be going too well!

Time is reversing. The signs are everywhere.

2011-09-17T13:33:00.000-07:00

Back in 2000. Eleven years ago the Green Group on Kirklees cut our first budget deal. We thought it was crazy that Planning Notices were anonymous bits of paper sellotaped to lamp posts. They could easily be missed by people and the implications could be a lack of objections to controversial applications . Decisions could be passed without comment leading to anything from an unsympathetic development on someones street to 'heaven preserve us' a wind turbine in a field. In 2000 we stopped that following our budget deal with Labour. Planning Notices were to be put on bright yellow corex boards saying 'PLANNING NOTICE' on them. Now quietly, without approval, this policy has been dropped. In Kirkburton today I saw this anonymous piece of paper on a lamp post, clinging on for dear life hoping a gust of wind didn't tear it away from the moorings provided for it. It was a relatively cheap policy but in these times of spending cuts (when bankers have been given 8 years to seperate their gambling and banking divisions) we have to make, penny pinching, but real cuts in small things which make society better, which inform people about things that affect their lives on a day to day basis.

Going back to the future here's what it used to be like. Here we see Kirkburton Greens Derek Hardcastle and Michelle Atkinson next to the old style Planning Noticeboard which stands out and won't be overlooked. OK this cut is not the same as the slashing of Housing Benefit, the clamp down on disability allowances. It is not as infuriating as the Tories, seriously, unbelievably and perversely considering cutting the 50% tax rate for the rich. It is however another nail in the coffin of progress and Labour have implemented it on the Council in response to teh Coalition Government cuts agenda. Is there anything worse than when politicians decide things go backwards in a society.

A rubbish decision lacking transparency forced on the Council by a rubbish government with a lousy sense of priorities who are kept in power by the Liberal Democrats. There is not nearly enough anger at the moment about this government.

Top Green Blogs - 7 UP!

2011-09-12T08:41:00.000-07:00

In the Total Politics Green Blog Awards ' Greening Kirklees' hits number 15 up from 22 last year. Real honours go to Kirklees Green Party member and former Kirkburton Parish Councillor for Grange Moor Adrian Cruden. Adrian writes his blog under the title 'Viridis Lumen' which comes in from nowhere straight to number 3. It's a good blog with more analysis and less bad jokes than this one so richly deserved. I'll have to up my game for next year! Over the next week or so we'll get the results of the Top Councillor Blogs so I'll see if I appear in that one.

Dead and buried?

2011-09-03T06:00:00.000-07:00

'Dead and buried' would have been a better headline but I'm glad it wasn't used with my photo by it! Maybe the Examiner are saving that one pending the outcome of the Planning Committee meeting.

Stirley Hill is an area is an area I know very well. I've delivered Green Party leaflets round there for years and also to the nearby houses and farms. I walk just below it on my way into town from Brockholes. It also is the only strip of land that has a shared boundary between the Newsome and Kirkburton Wards. On one side of the boundary I'm a Kirklees Councillor and on the other a Parish Councillor for Farnley Tyas and Thurstonland. It has a bleak beauty up there and great views over Huddersfield and across to the moorlands and is of course it is one of the backdrops to Castle Hill.

Local residents, 3 MPs, Kirkburton Parish Council and all 6 Kirklees Ward Cllrs either side of the site object to the proposal to put a cemetery there. The objections are not all about the visual impact of a site for 2700 graves, there are real concerns as to its suitability as a cemetery. There are issues with drainage on the site with standing water frequently seen on it (Kirklees say they can sort it). It is fairly inaccessible for many people and the rural bus services past the site are constantly under threat. Local roads up to Stirley Hill have poor sight lines and in winter snow can be standing on the ground for long periods. It is far from ideal and far from where most people live

As I said in the meeting (webcast here) the 'Elephant' in the graveyard here is the desire for some people to be buried when there are alternatives such as cremation. Often it's not just a desire but a religious requirement. I believe that religions , however conservative they may be, need to change with the times and in this case the reality of limits to land available for burial.

'Dead and buried' would have been a better headline but I'm glad it wasn't used with my photo by it!

Green Hols

2011-08-28T10:06:00.000-07:00

A photo from my walk along the Pembrokeshire coast

Just got back off my hols in Pembrokeshire, Wales. A good time was had by all and I got a couple of days walking in adding another 22 miles to my tally on the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path. It was a 'green' holiday too with the cottage we rented being heated with a wood burning stove and hot water provided by solar thermal panels (very reminiscent of home really). We also got some time under canvas at the Cambridge Folk Festival where my wood gasification stove saw some action. One of the great things about the Folk Festival is that they insist on wooden cutlery rather than plastic at the takeaways. So collecting these and burning them in my stove helps cook our bacon sandwiches in the morning. Okay I know it should be a free range organic egg and mushroom sandwich on homemade wholemeal bread but then no ones perfect! One of the real advantages is you don't need to buy propane or butane canisters just the occasional AA battery for the fan. It also saw action at the AGC Conference where I camped in Norwich. Anyhow heres a vid demonstrating how wood gas stoves work followed by a vid by the band Katzenjammer from Norway who played at Cambridge this year.

Planning meetings should be webcast

2011-08-18T23:34:00.000-07:00

The Lindley Moor Plaque. Could webcasting have saved the site from development?

Webcasting council meetings has been a very successful initiative that was originally proposed in a Green Party motion to Council a few years ago. The council certainly took its time implementing webcasting but we now regularly have hundreds of people logging on and seeing how their elected representatives are acting on their behalf. To a large extent they see it warts and all. Full Council and Cabinet meetings are webcast but not Planning Committee meetings. We have recently had some interesting and controversial items at Huddersfield Area Planning Committee such as the proposed developments of housing and a data centre at Lindley Moor. No doubt many people would have logged on to watch if it were possible. I guess the Councils main concern is that webcasting may aid applicants who appeal to the Secretary of State against decisions that are made against them. If those decisions were made on the basis of flawed logic, dodgy arguments and didn't show Councillors in a particularly good light then that is something the Council might not want displayed for all to see. My own view is that if we are to see standards rise then transparency through webcasting of Planning meetings can only make things better. If meetings aren't webcast then the only option for many who want a 'live feed' will be to follow those 'tweeting' from the Council meeting and you would certainly lose a lot of the drama and nuances e.g. the rapturous applause from the public for Cllr Khan as he supported building on Lindley Moor at the last Planning Meeting. Okay that's not the reaction he got, but if meetings were webcast you'd know that for sure!

The Wrath of Khan

2011-08-13T00:38:00.000-07:00

The last Full Council meeting saw Kirklees Council Leader Mehboob Khan attack the new Green Party Administration in Brighton in a response to one of the many planted questions he'd arranged for the meeting. His answer was riddled with inaccuracies and lies but I guess everyone has there own leadership style. If you want to follow the actual point in the meeting in the webcast it begins about 35mins 30 seconds in (my reaction to Cllr Khan's comments can't quite be made out on the webcast fortunately!)

The crux of his case was that the Green Party in the run up to the local elections had promised that cuts were unnecessary and wouldn't happen if they were elected. So I drew the Kirklees Webcast to Brighton Green Party's attention and Councillor Jason Kicat had the following comment to make,

"Cllr Khan is speaking complete nonsense. We never pledged not to increase council tax and we have never pledged not to implement a legal budget. He should be asked to withdraw such rubbish.

We pledged to resist cuts to maximum extent legally possible. Furthermore the council has an ongoing value for money (efficiency) programme which actually over-delivered last year and is continuing this year."

Jason's blog provides more details of dubious Labour and Conservative attacks on the Green Party's position on Budget setting in Brighton.

You do wonder whether Cllr Khan's comments are part of a general fear about the Greens in the Labour Party. At their next Conference in Liverpool they even have a fringe meeting entitled "Green to Red: How can Labour stop the Greens spreading?"

Of course Cllr Khan's 'wrath' is because we didn't join with the other parties in voting for extensive cuts to adult social care (which they have now been forced to backtrack on for legal reasons). He doesn't seem to recognise that for some of us voting for cuts to services for the most vulnerable when bankers get off scot free is a matter of principle and conscience. He may regard voting on the basis of your beliefs as a luxury or an indulgence. I believe by opposing the cuts we provided a greater service to politics as a whole by ensuring that people in the most difficult circumstances felt supported and that they had a voice.

Khan Plots his revenge. " He tasks me"

Vote Greening Kirklees. You know it makes sense!

2011-08-12T14:56:00.000-07:00

Its come round to the Total Politics blog Awards again. If you fancy voting for Greening Kirklees I'd appreciate it. If you don't that's OK too. It fits into the 'Green' and 'Councillor' categories. Here's the link

Walking the walk

2011-08-09T10:52:00.000-07:00

My preferred mode of travel

New Lib Dem Cllr and former Lib Dem Parliamentary Candidate James Blanchard tweeted the following a few weeks ago,

"Fact of the evening (according to Cllr Khan at least): #Green Cllr Andrew Cooper has four cars #doastheysaynotastheydo"

It's difficult to work out who to be more annoyed with, Cllr Khan for lying or Cllr Blanchard for repeating it.

The truth is that we have only one car in our household and went down from 2 about 2 years ago and have never had more than that. Also I generally don't use it as I either walk to Huddersfield or use the train or very occasionally the car if I need to go somewhere where I'd need a car or to trasport something heavier than I could carry any distance. I also use City Car Club if I need a car but my better half needs ours.

My advice to Cllr Blanchard would not to necessarily believe everything Cllr Khan says nor to repeat it without checking it out first. He could also have a look at Cllr Khan's car. Very nice and flashy with a personalised number plate.

Permit Parking – Kirklees to propose £30 charge

2011-08-09T09:44:00.000-07:00

Kirklees Councils proposal to charge households £30 for their parking permits is likely to adversely affect households in the Springwood, Highfields, Aspley and parts of Primrose Hill. Previously households got their parking permits for free. Over 8000 homes are expected to be asked to pay and it seems that smaller and lower income households could feel the impact.

£30 is not a lot of money for some people but if you are a pensioner on a fixed income or receive income support then it is effectively another tax on you at a time of rising food and fuel prices. For many people a parking permit is not even a guarantee that you can park on your own street as particularly in the Springwood area contractors and people working on behalf of Kirklees often take up these spaces. Though many low income and pensioner households may not have a car they value the permits to use for family and friends who come to visit them.

If Kirklees were to make concessions to low income households, as we would want them to do, this would reduce the amount of revenue the scheme would generate thereby making charging as a policy less viable. For that reason we want Kirklees to scrap the idea of introducing a charge for parking permits for all households.

Before any proposed charge is introduced all 8000 permit parking holders will have to be consulted by letter and allowed 21 days to respond. These responses will then have to be considered by Kirklees Cabinet.

The Liberal Democrats are also opposing permit parking charges currently in the Lindley area but were in favour of them during the budget process which set the wheels in motion on this proposal.

Greening Calderdale

2011-07-21T01:25:00.000-07:00

Scholes Farm in Calderdale. That roof's looking a bit bare!

At first glance you might think Calderdale didn't need much 'Greening'. It is indeed a green and pleasant area and a Council I worked for for a while as their Home Energy Conservation Officer. They pioneered universally free insulation for the over 60s regardless of income before any other Council in the country and did so for around 8 years before funding constraints took hold. Calderdale has Hebden Bridge with the Alternative Technology Centre and more 'right on' folk than you can shake a stick (that may be later used as biomass) at. It also has Todmorden which pioneered the food growing revolution that is 'Incredible Edible'. The Council is also doing some pioneering work on new social housing with high Code for Sustainable Homes standards. So there's a lot for them to shout about on the green front but even the more proactive areas have a blind spot and Calderdale's is their Planning Department's approach to solar PV on listed buildings.

A recent planning application for a solar PV panels on a listed farmhouse at Scholes Farm is a case in point. The applicants wanted to put their panels on a section of roof that was on a new extension to the listed building that could not be seen from the road or particularly easily from anywhere else. Calderdale Planning however reckoned that this was still adversely impacting on the buildings listed status and recommended refusal. All I could imagine that the applicants could have done to make the panels more acceptable to planners would have been to bury them in the garden but this would have rather negated their purpose in life.

St James Piccadilly Solar Panels

Having listed status does not mean you can't have solar panels. There are many examples from around the country including St James Piccadilly, a 17th century church designed by Sir Christopher Wren of St Pauls Cathedral fame no less. These panels are on a grade 1 listed building and again can't be seen from the road. I've been in the church and very nice it is too it even has a meter in the lobby to show how much electricity is being generated by the 'eyesore' on their roof. In Calderdale itself they have an even better example in Gibson Mill near Hardcastle Crags. This National Trust Visitor Centre is a converted listed mill and proudly displays its solar pv panels for all to see at the front of the building. It also uses hydro and biomass as other power sources for the building. So looking in the context of these 2 examples it makes Calderdale Planning's approach to this application look rather harsh.

I advised the applicants of their right to ask one of their local councillors to refer the matter to the Planning Committee for a decision rather than be decided by officers. Fortunately the Councillors could see that the interpretation of government planning policy in this instance was not being regarded as an enabling one but in a more restrictive light. Evidence was ably provided by Mr Adam Gillespie of the Energy Saving Trust on behalf of the applicant. The Councillors wisely approved the application.

Down on the farm

2011-07-17T03:28:00.000-07:00

Kim Warren in the foreground with David Browning of KEP

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust's project to establish a community farm at Stirley Farm is coming on leaps and bounds. A few of us hardy souls went to see progress on the site on land between Newsome and Castle Hill on Saturday morning. The plans are to make it into a working farm with an educational and community focus.

It enjoys strong support in the Newsome Ward as perceived insurance against housing development as well as being a good use of the land in it's own right. There is also a strong link with the Growing Newsome project and it was with their movers and shakers that I was out in the rain on Saturday morning. Many of the buildings on the farm site are in a pretty ropey state so there is going to have to be a major refurb which gives an opportunity to have some 'wacky do'' eco and energy features.

Diane Sims central behind some peas. Oh look there's David Browning again!

At present the staff on the site are working out of a temporary container style office unit without electricity. We were shown round by the Food Education and Training Officer Kim Warren who has a wealth of knowledge about food growing and used to be Jamie Oliver's gardener but has now taken on the challenge iof getting our local communities interested in growing and eating their own food. She is already making links with local schools.

I got some curly kale from the farm to put in a stew. After my recent experiences with the allotment this was a much needed morale boost on the local food front.

Shepley First School 'Eco Lodge'

2011-07-16T07:14:00.000-07:00

Shepley First School has opened a new Eco Lodge for its pupils. It incorporates a solar PV panel, a sedum roof, a mini wind turbine, water recycling and a mini greenhouse to the rear. It was erected by Timberline who have put a case study up on the web. Myself and Green Party Parish Councillors Michelle Atkinson and Vanda White attended the opening on Friday.

Also helping open the Eco Lodge was Miss Eco Earth 2009 who was wearing a dress made out of plastic bags

Growing pains

2011-07-16T06:48:00.000-07:00

We've had a theft on our allotment. A dozen onions and half a row of spuds. The chap who nicked them wandered through the gate which was unlocked and merrily dug up our produce while talking to the new plotholders opposite telling them what ' hard work' it was having an allotment. A blond chap in his forties apparently.

We put this sign up opposite. Normally I'm against capital punishment but there must be exceptions to the rule!

Kirkburton Parish Walks

2011-07-10T14:13:00.000-07:00

The Kirkburton Parish Walks project part funded by the East Peak Innovation Partnership and Kirkburton Parish Council is beginning to take shape. Hand sculptured stone guidestoops will be a key feature of the walks. Parish Cllr Michelle Atkinson is leading on this exciting project which will leave a lasting legacy on our local landscape.

They're carved by Shepley sculptor Dave Bradbury and they truly are things of beauty. The great thing is that they will most likely be still around in over 100 years time and then who knows how long they might still be around pointing the way along our beautiful pathways.

I wandered down a path at Farnley Hey this evening on a hunt for the latest guidestoop which I came across about half a mile from the main road. There should be around ten of these dotted around the Parish which covers around 22 square miles. Once they're in it would be good to arrange a walk where you can visit them all in one day.

Solar PV - Kirklees slips down the rankings

2011-07-10T10:35:00.000-07:00

The Microgeneration Top 10. Kirklees isn't in it!

AEA Technology are providing a valuable service monitoring the take up of microgeneration technologies through the Feed In Tariff. This is broken down by region and local authority with top tens for microgeneration as a whole and also broken down by technology. Kirklees has slipped out of the top ten for Microgeneration as a whole. The top six local authorities make a lot of sense intuitively. 3 scottish authorities with a good wind and hydro resource. Sedgemoor scores highly with its anaerobic digestion facilities. The large new authority of Cornwall also features with its high PV resource with the best solar potential in the UK. Then coming in at 7th, 9th and 10th places respectively we have Barnsley, Sheffield and Rotherham. 'Er what!' I hear you say. Well much as there's some good work going on in these local authorities this uptake in PV is largely due to a company called 'A Shade Greener' based in Tankersley who are offering free solar PV to householders in return for signing over the feed in tariff. Properties have to have reasonable sized roofs and be southerly facing.

Kirklees doesn't do so badly when you look at the solar PV top ten coming in at a respectable 9th with 1 megawatt of installed microgeneration capacity. Much of this will be due to the award winning RE-Charge scheme a Green Party initiative that is now completed and ' A Shade Greener' has done some installs in Kirklees as well. There was a time when we could claim to be producing 5% of the UKs solar PV capacity but not anymore. We can now only claim to have 0.933% of the UK's microgeneration resource.

So what are future prospects like for Kirklees in the microgeneration league? There are plans for putting solar PV on a thousand council houses and a lot on Council buildings so this looks good doesn't it? Maybe but procurement rules, as interpreted by Kirklees, seem to be slowing things up and of course other authorities have plans as well - we're not operating in a vacuum. Now RE-Charge is over the Council has no strategy or plans to promote the take up of microgeneration in the private sector at present, but is looking to link in with the Green Deal which is over a year off . There remains uncertainty as to whether or not it will be a compelling offer anyway (see previous posts). Of course if the government imposes its cap on the feed in tariff all plans to increase take up of microgeneration could come to naught.

Review - 'Behaviour Change and Energy Use' by the Cabinet Office

2011-07-10T04:40:00.000-07:00

The secret Cabinet Office Briefing Room where national emergencies are coordinated from. It probably has nothing at all to do with this report which most likely was written a few floors up from this (probably) armoured basement.

I've just been a reading a rather annoying document entitled 'Behaviour Change and Energy Use' just published by the Cabinet Office. It is principally annoying because it presents information on how people and organisations react to exhortations to save energy as if they were startling revelations rather than things that are well known and widely understood in the energy sector. The other annoying element is the way the laudable 10% reduction in CO2 emissions is presented. It states (overstates?), "The Government has led the way on showing that it is possible to reduce emissions rapidly and cost effectively". OK its good but government has hardly 'led' on this. The very fact that it has been relatively easy to acheive shows that government must have ben fairly inefficient in the first place. This agenda has been led by local government, which at its best has made significant reductions based on a combination of belief in reducing emissions linked with financial necessity.

Another revealing aspect of the report is how it addresses reluctance to take up energy efficiency measures by householders. While praising the Green Deal mechanism they are creating (and which many are sceptical of) it goes on to say "we also recognise that households may need additional prompts and encouragement in order to overcome their natural inertia". It then goes on to reveal trials which include incentives such as B&Q and Homebase vouchers and loft clearance services etc. All these trials are based on the lower cost measures not the higher end measures such as solid wall insulation. There is a tacit acceptance that Green Deal on its own is not going to be enough of an attractive and compelling an offer. The other measure mentioned was the possibility of a month's Council Tax 'holiday' for people taking up energy efficiency measures. One question you always have to ask with this government, (which knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing) is 'where is the money coming from?'. The obvious one is the Energy Company Obligation. Its not taxation so will be recycled from our energy bills. That is not my principal concern (though we need to keep an eye on the impact on low income households) The ECO is an increasingly called upon pot in terms of supporting Green Deal with subsidised high cost measures and supporting those on low incomes so if it is to be used as an incentive mechanism then its impact must be transparent and understood. No mention is made in the document about area based approaches to insulation schemes such as Kirklees Warm Zone. It's proven, it works, therefore Government are ignoring it. Because it doesn't fit at all well with the Green Deal, an unproven mechanism requiring additional incentives?

Attack of the Mutant Potatoes

2011-07-09T10:00:00.000-07:00


Ms Karen Allison with our mutant spuds

Down on the allotment I share with Karen Allison in Primrose Hill it has been harvest time. A bit early but we've had some good spuds and onions. The spuds as you can see are a bit misshapen but I guess they'll taste OK. We also grow beetroot, broccolli, courgettes, leeks, lettuce, parsnips, swedes, turnips. The inconvenient element of all this is so much of the work needs to be done in the run up to the local elections so as you can imagine it has been a bit manic this year. It's our second year of growing and we're looking to expand the plot more next year and do more growing from seeds.

A Tale of Two Community Gardens

2011-07-04T12:38:00.000-07:00

The community came together.

There was a disused, council owned play area near their homes.

They wanted to create a place to relax, to come together, to grow vegetables, fruit trees and herbs.

You may be thinking this is another blogpost about Highfields Community Orchard in Huddersfield but you would be wrong. At the weekend I went to the Association of Green Councillors Conference in Norwich and on the Friday night (before the beer and curry) we went to see a successful project to transform a forgotten patch of land to the rear of some houses into a community garden. Grapes Hill Community Garden was truly inspirational with a project where local people can collect herbs and fruit and disabled wheelchair users can grow their own vegetables in raised beds. We got a special pre-opening tour of the garden which will officially open in August.

The parallels with Highfields are significant. Both Council owned land, both former play areas, both are near the town centre, both have local people coming together in common cause to improve their local community. That is where the parallels end. In Norwich the Council has supported the project and funding has been found from external sources to bring the project to life. In Kirklees the Council still sees the future of this land as a lucrative development plot rather than a community resource. The Highfields Community Orchard folks have permission from Kirklees to be on the site for the next 6 months or so and this may be extended but a political steer has not been forthcoming.

Ironically, the local Councillors in Greenhead Ward are supporting the establishment of a village green on Clayton Fields a mile up the road. This is something I very much support not least because I used to go sledging down there as a kid when I lived on Imperial Road. The irony is that the council owns the Highfields land at Wentworth Street. With the smallest amount of political direction it could allow local people to have a community orchard in a built up area with all the social benefit that would come from that. This, unfortunately, is not forthcoming.

Sun sets on public funding for solar on community buildings

2011-06-20T14:21:00.000-07:00

I had cause to read 'The Feed In Tariffs (Specified Maximum Capacity and Functions) (Amendment) Order 2011 document. I should get a good book you might say, but my reason for reading this was because I'd been informed that it would prevent small community organisations installing solar PV panels benefitting from the Feed In Tariff if they had received public money. This was particularly important in Kirklees due to the Community Buildings Energy Grants which had appeared due to a Lib Dem amendment to the council budget last year (for details see this blogpost from Feb 2010). Ironically the Con/Lib Dem Government now threatened to pull the rug from under the scheme taking all the lasting benefits and making the 'Big Society' somewhat more difficult to acheive. Schemes like the solar panels for Newsome South Methodist Church were under threat.

I spent a good hour or so reading, and re-reading the document to make sure I was right but could see that according to the 'Amendment to article 8' on page 4, that if grants were paid to community organisations before the end of June and the solar panels fitted before October then the Feed In Tariff would remain intact for those churches, sports clubs and community groups seeking funds from the Community Buildings Energy Grant. I made the relevant officers and the Leader of the Council aware and soon the Chief Exec was geting involved finding ways to fast track the grants. Hopefully many schemes which were under threat will now proceed but this is a one off loophole which will soon close. With further reviews of feed in tariffs on the cards confidence among the renewables industry is not exactly at an all time high.

'Huddersfield Conservative' attacks the Green Party

2011-06-19T05:05:00.000-07:00

Syringa . The flower which gives it's name to the street where I used live with 'Huddersfield Conservative' Bernard McGuin

Here's a string of letters from Bernard McGuin (Huddersfield Conservative) and responses from me in The Examiner. Funnily enough I used to live next door but one to him about twenty odd years ago in Syringa Street, Marsh. Since then he's found politics and stood for the Conservatives in Newsome in 2010 and was their campaign organiser in 2011. The usual target for Mr McGuin was the Labour Councillors for where he lives in Marsh and Mehboob Khan in particular. More recently he's taken a dislike to the Green Party and he tends to write fairly ill informed letters in the Huddersfield Examiner which tend to demonstrate his prejudices rather than any real knowledge about the issues he raises. It's a pity really that he does this but it does give me an opportunity to put the record straight. Here for your entertainment is the latest string of letters.

Cost of ‘green’ policies

THE true cost of renewable means of producing power are now being exposed.

As I have said in the past, the power companies pay four times the value of any electricity produced by wind and solar means. The cost is passed on to the consumer in hidden subsidies. It is effectively an extra tax on already heavily burdened ordinary hard working individuals.

The fact that energy prices themselves are screaming ahead of inflation means that effectively we are putting a brake on economic growth and ultimately economic recovery.#

To all those people who voted Green in the last local elections, the message should be, do you really support policies that harm the British economy?

To the coalition government I would ask – do we really have to follow every edict from Europe on cutting carbon emissions and do you think all our competitors put so-called climate change policies ahead of economic growth?

Bernard McGuin

Huddersfield Conservative

Blaming the wrong folk

A RATHER bizarre letter from Conservative Bernard McGuin blames the Green Party for taxes on energy bills.Last time I checked it was the Conservatives who were running the country with their Lib Dem helpers, not the Green Party.

He says these taxes support renewable energy. Yes they do – but nuclear energy is very heavily subsidised too.

It is also worth noting that half of the £20m budget for Kirklees Warm Zones free insulation scheme came from these sources, which is saving energy and money for Kirklees householders to the tune of about £4m each year.Mr McGuin would be quite correct in blaming the Green Party for the free insulation scheme which was the result of an amendment we made to the Kirklees Budget in 2007.

Clr Andrew Cooper

Leader, Green Party, Kirklees Council

Energy subsidies

IN REPLY to the Clr Andrew Cooper, (Mailbag, June 17) who thinks I wrote a bizarre letter regarding renewable forms of energy, may I just remind him that on his website that he acknowledged that the Feed In Tariffs, that rewards producers of such energy with a 41p per unit payment as opposed to the market price of 11p per unit, is a form of indirect taxation?

I was careful in my letter to say that it was a subsidy which was being paid by us in our electricity bills.
On average we are each paying £200 plus a year to pay for this and other forms of ‘green taxes’ in our annual expenditure on energy.

The coalition has been saddled with the last government’s zeal to expand wind and solar power.
Those that can afford the cost of solar panelling, the comparatively rich, will make a good return on their investment, around 10-12%. Paid by us poor folk who can’t afford it.

If you want to rent out your roof for solar panels, beware! You must have room for 16 panels and those in terraced housing, most of us in Huddersfield, won’t qualify.

Although insulating one’s house is a good thing, the cost is again taken by the taxpayer.The warming Kirklees scheme was undertaken by a Conservative administration. I have heard all four political groups take credit for this scheme. Of course it is possible the three green councillors outvoted the other 66.

The main thrust of my letter was to ask whether the ‘taxing’ of energy would put a brake on economic growth. It is only that which will get us out of the debt that the country faces. In the General Election 2010, there was a move towards a rejection of tax and spend policies. Do the people who voted for Green councillors in Newsome and Kirkburton want a return to that?

Bernard McGuin

Huddersfield Conservative

Response to Bernard McGuin

Conservative Bernard McGuin states the impact on energy bills of policies to tackle fuel poverty and reduce carbon emissions (or ‘green taxes’ as he puts it) is £200. The figure he gives is one from a right wing newspaper parroting a dubious report from a right wing policy group. The actual figure given by the Department of Energy Climate Change on behalf of the right wing Conservative Government is £42 per year. I can direct Mr McGuin to the appropriate part of his government’s website if he wants.

He says the coalition has been ‘saddled with the last government’s zeal to expand wind and solar power’. Actually there was consensus among the Westminister parties about the need for a feed in tariff for renewable energy before the General Election. If he can show me anything at all which contradicts my view I’d be interested to see it.

Mr McGuin also attempts to take credit away from the Greens for gaining free insulation for households in Kirklees through the Warm Zone scheme. The Green Party amendment to the 2007 Council budget which made the scheme free is a matter of public record. The emails I have between myself and the then Conservative leader and the official notes of discussions of meetings on the budget further confirm free insulation as a Green Party initiative. I’m more than happy to show Mr McGuin the evidence.

He asks whether the taxing of energy would ‘put a brake on economic growth’. As much of the money goes towards schemes that help reduce peoples fuel bills and projects which create employment and economic activity that is highly unlikely.

It is easy for Mr McGuin to write letters to the paper repeating misinformation he may have read in the national tabloids but he would do better to direct his concerns regarding fuel prices to the government which is lead by the Conservative Party, which for reasons best known to himself, he supports.

Councillor Andrew Cooper

Leader of the Green Party group

More Solar for Newsome

2011-06-18T02:28:00.000-07:00

Ing Lane - solar panels coming soon!

Council bungalows on Ing Lane and Hart Street are to get solar panels in August. This is adjacent to Castle Grange Residential Home also to Hillside School so we'll soon have a new concentration of microgeneration technologies in Newsome as well as Primrose Hill Solar Village and Croftlands.

Kirklees Council plan to install 1000 by March 2012. Possible if they can get past Kirklees legal services and procurement people who seem to have slowed the process down to a snails pace.

New traffic calming scheme in Berry Brow

2011-06-11T06:28:00.000-07:00

Junction of Park Lane and Hangingstone Rd, Berry Brow

OK after a run of Beer Festival stories back onto other local issues. After years of campaigning by Councillors and local people it looks like we will finally have some traffic calming coming on Hangingstone Road, Robin Hood Hill and the bottom of Park Lane at Berry Brow. It will be ramps going in rather than humps or chicanes. The work is due to commence in August following the replacement of a gas main which will close the road for a week or so. There's been good consultation with local people with well attended meetings at the Golden Fleece to discuss options.

The road is frequently used as a rat run for traffic seeking to save a few yards in Woodhead Rd when there's traffic queueing and it makes the road, which is quite narrow in parts hazardous. It's great because we've finally got this sorted after many years of knocking this issue backwards and forwards with Kirklees Highways.

Hall Bower Beer Festival - 23rd/24th July

2011-06-10T23:14:00.000-07:00

At Newsome Ward Community Forum on Thursday night I was told of another Beer Festival occuring over the Summer in the Newsome Ward at Hall Bower Athletic Club and this time I'll be able to make it. It's on the weekend of 23rd and 24th July and like The Monkey Club, Hall Bower Athletic Club is community owned and managed so well worth supporting. The bar staff are all volunteers on a rota and the club is open every night from 8.30pm onwards. The great thing, of course, is the setting in Hall Bower village surrounded by fields with Castle Hill in the background and its a nice walk from my home in Brockholes.

MonkeyFest!

2011-06-03T23:28:00.000-07:00

The Armitage Bridge MonkeyFest is due again on the 2nd/3rd July and I'm going to miss it! Little did I know when I put myself forward to be the Chair of the Association of Green Councillors last year that the next Conference would clash with one of the best weekend events of the year. The Monkey Club in Armitage Bridge is a great community owned and managed club officially known as the Armitage Bridge Working Mens Club. It is much loved by it's members (of which I am one) and each year holds a beer festival with a barbecue and music.

Could there be anything better than sitting beside the stream on Dean Brook Road, Armitage Bridge drinking fine ales listening to music and tucking into a burger? The Green Party is sponsoring one of the barrels of ale this year as part of our contribution to the event. So if you don't have to be anywhere else make a date with MonkeyFest next month - you lucky folks!

Zombie Posterboards!

2011-06-03T22:54:00.000-07:00

The Zombie Posterboard

Its time is over. Long past its sell by date it still haunts our streets - the zombie posterboard! All around, the lamp posts are bare now, but it clings onto existence, you could hardly call it a life. What is its purpose? To mock the one that bears its name? To remind us that in life it failed in its task? Now it is forgotten by those who put it up. They have long gone back to whatever accursed place they came - Birkby I think.

It was doomed from the start. Put on a telegraph pole against the very fundamental laws by which posterboards are supposed to abide. Is there be any doubt that having transgressed in such a way that it would be doomed to hang over us for all eternity?

The Zombie Posterboard can be found at the junction of Stile Common Road and Malvern Rise, Primrose Hill

Independents on the Council

2011-05-29T12:12:00.000-07:00

Should read 'Independents'

We've had a number of Independents on Kirklees Council over the years. The first I remember were discontented members of the larger parties who either left or were ejected from the parties they were originally elected for. Rarely if ever were they ever re-elected with the 'Independent' badge. So when Terry Lyons got elected for Holme Valley North (my local Councillor) he was a fair bit of a rarity and it was down to good old fashioned graft and getting round meeting the people. So plenty of respect there for that. He's had a few fellow travellers with the Independent tag over the years. Jackie Grunsell was elected as a 'Save NHS Huddersfield' Candidate and rode the wave of discontent over maternity services being moved to Halifax. She was heavily plugged by the Huddersfield Examiner which gave a considerable boost to her campaign. Jackie was part of the Socialist Party/Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition/Trade Unionists against the cuts, so when her and Terry formed a group it did appear to be a marraige of convenience rather than a meeting of minds. Without a media backed campaign Jackie was always going to struggle and failed to be re-elected. Khizar Iqbal a Conservative Councillor fell out with his group following the selection of a posh barrister Tory for the Dewsbury Parliamentary Constituency rather than himself. He sat as an Independent for a while but didn't form a group with Terry and is now back in the Tory fold ( poor chap!). This May the second Independent Councillor was elected to Holme Valley North Edgar Holroyd -Doveton beating the Liberal Democrats. They sought to 'out' him as a 'socialist' (never been a scary word for me) but Edgar's campaign was built on the same lines as Terry's with his support and the necessary graft. So now as a group the Independent Two seem much more coherent than they have in the past. Kirklees hasn't quite got the idea that they are a group yet and Terry wasn't invited to join the Mayoral Party with other Party leaders at the Mayor making but I guess they'll catch up pretty soon.

A Coalition Cold Front descends on Warmfront

2011-05-20T02:58:00.000-07:00

In the spirit of ‘all in this togetherness’ the government has cut funding to the Warm Front scheme that provides heating and insulation to the vulnerable and people on low incomes. The Budget has been reduced £300 million last year to £110 million this year and £100million in 2012/13. Of course it is bad enough that people on low incomes will have less opportunity to get their homes properly heated and insulated but the government have put some of their own special touches in that will make matters even worse.

Benefit Entitlement Checks, which were part of the old scheme, have been cut. These helped people who were unaware of the benefits they could claim or perhaps were too proud to claim. This not only helped improve their incomes ( on average by £1850 in 2009/10) but also meant they could become eligible for a Warm Front installation that they previously didn’t qualify for (over 11,000 in 2009/10). It made the scheme a more holistic approach to tackling fuel poverty as it addressed both income and energy efficiency. The Government clearly are wanting to not only restrict the funding on warmfront but also on people who can legitimately claim benefits they are entitled to. Something the Government have done which I won’t argue with is cancelling the voucher scheme for reductions off the cost of central heating to pensioners. This never had any real validity wasn’t based on income and was never properly policied to ensure heating companies weren’t simply profiteering off it, but this is a small consolation compared to the decimation of a valued scheme like Warm Front

On occasions the costs of central heating jobs under Warm Front may not be covered by the grant maximum and so customers are asked to contribute towards the costs. So people in the direst circumstances could be asked to find £300, £500 or more. Sometimes this money can be found from a variety of pots, some local authority monies, though this is becoming limited, Royal British Legion or charities. What the government have done now is to limit the customer contributions ‘offer’ to 30 days meaning that many people may not be able to get the money together in time to arrange to pay for an installation and they will lose out.

When the Warm Front scheme first started a few years ago now there were significant issues with quality of workmanship which I and others took up with DEFRA. Many householders suffered with substandard, dangerous and illegal gas installations. As a result a strong inspection regime was brought into place which helped raised standards. This was vital when many customers are vulnerable and may be reluctant to speak up for themselves. All gas jobs were inspected now only 10% will be inspected.

Low Carbon technologies have been dropped from the scheme offer, though to be fair this was a bit of a shambles in the old Warm Front scheme with very little drive to make this a real offer

The big change is with the eligibility critera. Less people will now be eligible for Warm Front and there will be virtually no promotion of the scheme. This is supposed to demonstrate better targeting of the scheme. Only houses with an energy efficiency SAP rating of under 55 are supposed to be helped by the scheme which may sound reasonable but there will be no proper measurement of this it will be based on assumptions based on some basic questions. For all these reasons I‘ll stick my neck out and say they have restricted the Warm Front scheme so much that I believe it will underspend in 2011/12.

What have the Greens done for us?

2011-05-09T12:07:00.000-07:00


Labour's 2011 Kirkburton leaflet

It's always interesting, waiting in anticipation to see what the opposition decide to throw at you. With Mike Greetham in Kirkburton this year it was 'What have the Greens done for us?'. The great thing about it is that it begs the pythonesque response, "Well there's the free Boxing Day Bus Service" "Yes well they 've done that for years" "and then there's the thousands they've saved by abolishing water coolers, free insulation for thousands of households etc etc". I could go on on this tack for quite a while and oddly enough for a number of years we did run a page on our main election leaflets entitled "What have the Greens ever done for us?" and then went on to list our achievements.

On this occasion Mike's on about the Kirklees Budget and the fact that we were the only party not to sign up to slashing millions off the social care budgets. He says that we,

' had no alternative budget and said the Council should spend at the previous levels. The Greens would bankrupt the Council just as Lambeth and Liverpool did in the 80's'.

Leaving aside the fact that these were Labour Councils that he is criticising, the Green Party did actually go through the whole budget process and felt that to support the cuts as the other Parties had done was something that we could not do as a matter of principle. We never said the Council should spend itself into debt. We disagreed with the rules of the budget game laid down by central government and we saw no reason to put our hands up for a budget that we fundamentally disagreed with. Ultimately government should take more from the rich and the banks and give it to those in the direst need. 'We are all in this together' is not an acceptable statement for a millionaire to make to a pensioner on a low income needing personal care. If you don't buy into the Coalitions programme for cutting the deficit you cannot support this by proxy by voting through cuts at the local government level.

The politics of posterboards

2011-05-07T13:00:00.000-07:00

Nailed!

We've been putting posterboards on lamp posts for a number of years now since Kirklees approved us being allowed to do so. Early on we had a few problems. Not making our wall paper paste thick enough was one irritating early problem. When our posters start flapping off their boards in Kirkburton one year the Tories put out a pre-poll leaflet with an article entitled 'Green campaign comes unstuck'. You've got to hand that one to them! The other occasional problem was making sure they're the right way up. Just because they're the right way up on one side of the lamp post doesn't always mean they are on the other side!

There are of course rules that Kirklees make which are often ignored by certain parties such as don't put them on lamp posts with other signs attached which they could obscure if they slip. Another is that they should not be nailed into trees or telegraph poles. All these rules were ignored by the Conservatives in the Kirkburton Campaign. Another irritating thing was that we were given permission to put up our boards on land around Farnley Tyas by the landowner and so were the Conservatives. One morning our boards had disappeared and were replaced with Conservatives ones. Now I'm not implying anything, well maybe I am.

There are benefits to getting your posterboards up first but the downside is that the opposition can come by afterwards and turn your boards sideways while they're putting there's above yours. We've always prided ourselves on getting ours down early and usually Derek Hardcastle is getting them down in Kirkburton the next morning. One year we were a bit slow at getting them down and found some of ours pushed higher up the lamp posts presumably by the oppostion while taking there's down. Nice!

Four more years!

2011-05-06T22:43:00.000-07:00

Yes indeedy!

The votes have been counted, the beer has been drunk and it hasn't been a bad election for Kirklees Greens. Julie Stewart-Turner returned with a majority of over a thousand in Newsome and Derek Hardcastle won Kirkburton with 82 votes over the Conservatives (Kirklees Results). The Kirkburton Count was as unpleasant as usual from the usual source unfortunately but we got the result at the end of the day. There seemed to be an assumption by the Conservatives that they were going to romp home due to their 1100 majority last year but they failed to take into account the fact that their vote was boosted in a General Election year with voters turning out who may not be as engaged with local and community issues. Derek worked incredibly hard during the campaign getting out and about seeing people and was a worthy winner.

We also had a good showing in the Kirkburton Parish elections with 12 Greens being elected onto a Parish of 25 (Parish Results). The really satisfying thing is that we now have at least one Green Party Parish Councillor in every Parish Ward in the Kirkburton Ward which bodes well for the future. It was a shame that we didn't get the rest of our 6 Parish Candidates elected but hopefully better luck next time. The important thing now is to turn that result into more successful local action at the community and Kirklees level.

Greenbelt letters

2011-04-28T01:51:00.000-07:00

Also available in pork!

Following the Lib Dem Manifesto Launch I wrote to the Examiner pointing to the contradiction between Coalition Policy on development and the professed desire of Lib Dems and Conservatives to want to protect the Green belt. Here's the trail of letters to date with a response from Conservative Councillor Christine Smith who seeks to foam at the mouth at the mention of the Green Party or me in particular.

Green view of Lib Dems - Examiner - 26/4/11

I SEE the Lib Dems’ claim to aim to protect the green belt in their manifesto.

This at odds with Lib Dem and Conservative Policy in government where brownfield quotas for building land are being abolished, putting more pressure on the green belt.

They also claim to want to protect services for the vulnerable, having voted with the Conservatives for huge cuts to these services in Kirklees.

People are not stupid and the Lib Dems and Conservatives should not only be careful in their public statements, but should also aim to be credible in their stated policies and not try to mislead people. Otherwise the view many people have of them following the tuition fees fiasco will be reinforced and politics as a whole will be further devalued in the minds of the general public.

Clr Andrew Cooper

Leader, Green Party Kirklees Council

We protect green belt - Examiner - 27/4 /11

I SEE that Clr Andrew Cooper is once again castigating the Lib Dems and Conservatives over green belt policies (Examiner Mailbag, Tuesday April 26).

One of the most effective ways of protecting the green belt is by sitting on Huddersfield Planning Committee or the Heavy Woollen Planning Sub-Committee where decisions about green belt and brownfield sites are made. Yet no Green Party councillor will sit on any planning committee.

So, when Clr Cooper talks about responsibilities, policies and green belt, he needs to look to his own party first, particularly here in Kirklees.

Perhaps the electorate, whom he purports to represent, should start to ask questions as to why the Greens will not sit on any planning committees where decisions concerning green belt are made.

Clr Christine Smith

Chair of Planning and Highways Committee, Kirklees Council

And my response...............

Councillor Christine Smith , Conservative , criticises the Green Party for not having a Councillor on Planning Committee. As she well knows despite not being a member of Planning Committee I have been a regular attender of it, referring applications for decision and representing views of constituents. I was the only Councillor who was not a member of Planning Committee to make representations regarding the Tesco’s Development and the proposed replacement Hotel on Castle Hill. The real scandal here is that the larger parties rarely send anyone to Planning Committee to represent the views of constituents. As Cllr Christine Smith also knows being a member of Planning Committee restricts the ability of its members to represent local people effectively as they are bound by planning protocols. Ironically you can be a much more effective at protecting your local green spaces by not being a member of the Planning Committee and she knows this as someone who has voted for development on Lindley Moor.

I do notice however that in her criticism of me and the Green Party she does not contradict my view, and the Campaign for the Preservation of Rural England’s view, that the latest Coalition Planning Policy statement made during the budget is a significant threat to our green belt and greenfield sites. I would be really interested in her role as Chair of the Planning Committee how she responds to CPRE’s and my concerns.

Councillor Andrew Cooper

Green Party Leader – Kirklees Council

Green Party Local Election Broadcast

2011-04-21T05:15:00.000-07:00

A good straightforward message from Caroline Lucas who is a real asset to the Green Party.

Going through the literature from the larger parties I have been struck by the dodgy graphs, the photographs implying local action when there is none, partial information to support an assertion they know is wrong, half truths and the downright lies. There is a lack of standards by political parties in their own election campaigns that would not be tolerated for the advertising of a product to purchase. When confronted by this sort of thing politicians from these parties often just shrug and say' that's politics' as if it were an answer or an excuse. Lib Dems are often the worst and most shameless offenders which I always found ironical given they used to portray an image of being above that sort of thing and agianst 'yah boo' politics. Rant over for the time being.

On the Gogglebox

2011-04-16T14:36:00.000-07:00

I'm on the gogglebox tomorrow for the Yorkshire and Humber edition of the Politics Show at 2.30pm-ish.

It was cold, the BBC were late and it was my sons 13th birthday bash but TV coverage is important stuff. Here's the link for a sneak preview. I'll be out on the doorstep so will probably miss it.

Tories up to no good in Kirkburton

2011-04-15T11:24:00.000-07:00

Election time is here again and so Kirkburton Conservatives have produced a leaflet. You can tell its election time because it is full of half truths and untruths in pursuit of votes.

They refer to a motion on the siting of wind turbines they put to the Council in January where they state that my colleagues Councillors Derek Hardcastle and Julie Stewart-Turner abstained on the motion.They did in fact vote for the motion. They correctly state that my other colleague Councillor Graham Simpson voted against. In the Green Group we are comfortable with people having differing views unlike the other political groups. They then go on to make great play of my non attendance during their motion. The fact is that there was a large public meeting in Newsome that evening regarding the possibility of greenfield land below Castle Hill being allocated for building under the Local Development Framework and at least one local councillor needed to attend, which I did. They went on to imply that because I work for a company that promotes energy efficiency that I have some sort of interest in the promotion of wind turbines. The company I work for does not sell or install wind turbines and never has.

Also in their leaflet is a very dodgy montage of a wind turbine on Ben Booth Lane near Grange Moor with the implication that the Green Party would support incorrectly sited wind turbines. What the Conservatives fail to mention in their leaflet is that Derek Hardcastle represented the views of residents opposing the siting of the wind turbine when it came to the Planning Committee earlier in the year.

Another misleading statement is about Councillor Derek Hardcastle’s attendance at Neighbourhood Management meetings. Leaving aside the fact that these are not actual meetings of the Council, Derek has asked if these can be moved to a time when he can attend but the 2 Conservative Councillors are quite happy with the times as they are. Much of the information from the police at these meetings is repeated, anyway, at Parish Council meetings of which Derek is a regular attender at, as he is for Area Committee, Licensing Panel, Standards Committee and Full Council meetings. There is no mention of Kirkburton Parish Council in the Conservative leaflet. Perhaps this is because of the 8 Conservative Parish Councillors elected 4 years ago only 2 remain, many of whom resigned or lost their seats due to non attendance. It is also noticeable that the Conservatives have been unable to find people to stand for them in all the Parish seats in the Kirkburton Ward unlike the Green Party.

Threat to greenfield sites from the Liberal Democrats

2011-04-05T11:28:00.000-07:00

A bulldozer in Lib Dem yellow livery

Here's a letter I sent to the Examiner in response to a Lib Dem Councillors letter praising the total hash the goverment seem to be making of planning policy at the moment. On the one hand offering 'localism' on the other making it easy for developers to build on green spaces:-

Lib Dem Councillor Tony Woodhead amazingly makes a virtue of the Coalition Governments relaxation of planning rules (Examiner Letters 4/4/11). He quotes proudly from the Government Website 'Councils must ensure that they are not imposing any unnecessary burdens in the way of development'.

Theses so called planning 'reforms' were announced recently as part of the budget statement. There is to be a presumption in favour of development, quotas for bulding on previously developed 'brownfield' land are to be abolished placing more pressure on greenfield and greenbelt sites. Councils are to be encouraged to auction off land in their ownership. I find it unbelievable that the Lib Dems and their Conservative masters regard this as good news. Are these the same Lib Dems and Conservatives who are saying how keen they are to protect the greenbelt in their rather misleading leaflets?

The Campaign for the Protection of Rural England said of the Coalition Government planning statement,

"The planning measures present a potentially devastating threat to the countryside and are unlikely to boost long-term economic growth. To suggest, as successive Governments have done, that planning is a key impediment to growth is just wrong. The planning system exists to prevent unsustainable, unwanted and environmentally damaging development".

Councillor Woodhead and the Lib Dems/Conservatives cannot have their cake and eat it. They cannot claim to be in favour of protecting our local environment and be part of a government intent on selling it off for development.

Councillor Andrew Cooper

Green Party - Newsome Ward

Link to CPRE Website for referennce - http://www.cpre.org.uk/news/view/736

Threat to green field sites from Conservatives

2011-04-01T14:31:00.000-07:00

There will be more people standing in front of bulldozers under the Coalition

The Green Party today highlighted new threats to our greenbelt and greenfield land announced in the Budget

We have significant threats to the green spaces around our villages due to housing targets being proposed by Kirklees Local Development Framework. Kirklees Planners have made clear that Greenbelt and Greenfield land could be designated for development but recent announcements by the Government have made this situation much worse.

Kirklees Green Party Leader Councillor Andrew Cooper said,

“The targets that have been indicated by Kirklees Planning are already proving to be unachievable due to the downturn in the housing market. The market may pick up again but it is more helpful to developers and communities if there is certainty over a priority being given for development on previously developed brownfield land. The Government has now removed quotas for building on brownfield land."

The announcement in the budget from the Government has made matters much worse. In the recent budget the Conservatives announced a liberalisation of the Planning System to make it easier for developers to get around the planning process. CPRE – the Campaign to Protect Rural England said of the Conservatives Governments proposals, “The triple whammy of scrapping national brownfield targets, introducing a default yes to development, and pursuing half-baked proposals for land auctions could be devastating to treasured countryside”

Neil Sinden CPRE’s Director of Policy said,

"The planning measures present a potentially devastating threat to the countryside and are unlikely to boost long-term economic growth. To suggest, as successive Governments have done, that planning is a key impediment to growth is just wrong. It is disappointing that George Osborne is repeating the mistaken assertions made by Gordon Brown".
“The planning system exists to prevent unsustainable, unwanted and environmentally damaging development. Today’s Budget is likely to undermine its ability to do this.”

Councillor Andrew Cooper, " How can the Conservatives locally speak with any legitimacy about wanting to preserve green space from development when their government is doing everything it can to do the opposite of that."

CPRE PRESS RELEASE

http://www.cpre.org.uk/news/view/736

1000 Fruit tree project - Phase 2

2011-03-20T09:01:00.000-07:00

The 1000 Trees Project is collaboration between Kirklees Streetscene Service (Parks and Open Spaces) and Newsome Councillors, funded through the Area Committee. The object of the project is to plant 1000 fruit trees across the ward. These trees will bring many benefits to the area including improved landscape quality, improved diets for locals who pick the fruit, (including improved levels of physical activity), additional wildlife habitat for some endangered wildlife species and also reduction in pollution levels.

Phase 1 involved the planting of fruit trees across Newsome Ward on council owned open green space. Phase 2 will involve 100 apple trees being planted in house gardens across Newsome Ward by the householders. Any Newsome resident will be offered one apple tree at the reduced price of £5. This will also include a tree stake, tree tie and planting /care instruction sheet. The money collected will then be used to provide plants for a proposed herb corridor along a public footpath in the Newsome Ward.

Julian Faulkner, Kirklees Social Forestry /Allotments Officer and Councillor Andrew Cooper will be at the

Growing Newsome Seed Swap on Saturday 26th March, 10am to 12 noon at Newsome Scout Hall

to distribute trees and to offer advice to those wishing to take part.

For further information on the seed swap visit

http://growingnewsome.wordpress.com/2011/03/16/seed-swap-saturday-26th-march-2011/

Newsome green fields under threat

2011-03-19T23:59:00.000-07:00

Great turnout for our demo to protect land in Newsome and below Castle Hill from development

A great turnout yesterday for our demo against the threat of development to green field sites in Newsome and below Castle Hill. We reckon over 150 turned up. You might have thought these fields would have been safe as they are owned by Kirklees. OK maybe you wouldn't but we are currently going through the Local Development Framework process and it is vital that local opinions about maintaining our open spaces are not only expressed but listened to and acted upon. There are significant brownfield sites which are under utilised. Allocating greenfield and greenbelt land for development will be disincentive to develop our derelict areas and therefore stifle regeneration.NIMBY is often used as a disparaging term for those who don't want building on land in their backyard but this land is everybody in Huddersfield's backyard. It is the backdrop to Castle Hill which is part of the DNA of the people of Huddersfield. The image of the Victoria Tower on Castle Hill surrounded by fields is ingrained in the local consciousness. To see it threatened by encroaching development is something everybody in Huddersfield should care about.

Bring on the wall!

2011-03-19T14:38:00.000-07:00

Our Cllr Julie Stewart-Turner has being having the devils own job trying to get Kirklees to help out Primrose Hill Bowling Club who found they had responsibility for £20k to £40k of wall repairs to a wall that could fall on pedestrians with tonnes and tonnes of soil behind it. In the end it went to the Town and Valley Committee at our request and was passed by all Cllrs there. I wasn't at all sure how this would go and I do wonder whether we'll have something in Labour leaflets in Newsome taking credit for this one. They do have form in this regard. Here's our press release

Council steps in to help with dangerous wall

A dangerous wall in Primrose Hill is to be repaired thanks to action by Kirklees Council.

A high retaining wall holding back tonnes of earth on Malvern Road, Primrose Hill is badly bowed and could fall onto the pavement and road with potentially fatal results. Due to lease conditions with Kirklees the wall is the responsibility of Primrose Hill Bowling Club. Quotations for repairing the wall and making it secure ranged from £20,000 to £40,000 for a complete rebuild which was beyond the resources of the club.

Newsome Green Party Councillor Julie Stewart-Turner took up the issue with Kirklees on behalf of the Bowling Club,

“This is not a small project and the club simply didn’t have the funding to resource it. The club’s future as a community facility was threatened by the unexpected responsibility of repairing the wall.”

Julie asked for the issue to be taken up by Huddersfield Town and Valley Committee.

“It has been a real struggle to get this issue agreed with Council officers, trying to get them to appreciate the financial realities of a small community organisation like Primrose Hill Bowling Club having to find such a huge sum but I am pleased that Councillors on the Huddersfield Committee have backed us on this one”

“Ultimately lives could be at risk here and we can’t be arguing about where responsibility lies when the consequences of not taking action could be fatal.”

International Feltmakers Exhibition - The Climate is Changing

2011-03-19T11:13:00.000-07:00

The International Feltmakers Association have a worldwide touring exhibition on the theme of Climate Change and it will be at the Northlight Gallery until May. Myself and Cllr Julie Stewart Turner went there today. Julie said a few words at the opening, easily falling back into Mayoral mode. My knowledge of feltmaking was somewhere near the level of my knowledge of the Guatemalan Fishing Industry but this was an interesting exhibition with contributions from as far away as Australia and Germany and all in the Newsome Ward. How did they know. The Northlight Gallery is also a good place for a meal or a cuppa so please go along

Cllr Julie Stewart-Turner - some frogs and princesses caption here I guess

Response to 'Disgusted of Holmfirth'

2011-02-26T05:03:00.000-08:00

What time do you call this?

I got a bit of stick from a Tesco loving chap in Today's Huddersfield Examiner. Below is his letter and my response

Turn up on time

ON Thursday, for the first time in my 70 years, I went to a planning meeting at Huddersfield Town Hall to discuss the proposed Tesco’s new store and I declare I am in favour.

The meeting started on time with people address the meeting both for and against. At 11am – one whole hour after the meeting started – in storms Clr Andrew Cooper waving his papers to attract the chairwoman’s attention. After the person that was speaking had finished he was allowed to make his speech to the council.

He was against the proposal. The meeting continued with councilors given their views and raising points. This was done with caustic comments by Clr Cooper who had to be told by the chairwoman to desist on at least three occasions.

My comment to this councillor if you feel so strongly about something being discussed by the council have the decency to turn up on time and listen to all the points raised both for and against.

George Senior

Holmfirth

And here's my response..........

Mr George Senior ( Examiner letters 26/2/11) criticises me for turning up late to the Planning meeting which agreed the Tesco development. What Mr Senior may not know is that the meeting was originally advertised as being at 1.00pm but was brought forward to 10.00am. This clashed with a work meeting I had pre arranged but I still managed to get time off work to attend the meeting at 11.00am.

Mr Senior goes on to criticise my 'caustic comments' and that the Chairwoman had to tell me to 'desist on at least three occasions'. Well I counted two occasions but the real point is that this was perhaps one of the most frustrating Planning meetings I have attended. Councillors were placing 'conditions' on Tesco with absolutely no guarantee that Tesco will take any notice of them whatsoever. If Mr Senior really expects me to sit meekly by and watch this disastarous decision for our town to be taken without comment then I'm afraid he's got the wrong man.

The Planning Meetings should really be webcast like Full Council meetings so then people could see how Councillors perform in these meetings. I wonder why they are not?

Perhaps Mr Senior ought to be criticising all those Councillors who were not members of the Planning Committee for failing to turn up to express any opinion whatsoever. At least as a Green Party Councillor I made the effort to turn up to express a view. No other Party fielded anybody to represent their views to the Committee. That is the real scandal here.

Councillor Andrew Cooper

Tesco gets away with it!

2011-02-25T07:43:00.000-08:00

Yesterdays Kirklees Planning Committee approved the Southgate Planning Application. They gave them 9 years to complete the build instead of 3 which means if building regulations impose higher energy efficiency standards in the next few years they'll still be covered by the 2011 laws. In any case Tesco backtracked on earlier commitments to build a high environmental spec store. The plan was approved with no signed commitment on social housing or using local apprenticeships or ensuring the existing Tesco site doesn't remain in use. Traffic will increase almost seven fold at the end of the Leeds Road Air Quality Management Area. The Retail Capacity Study which was conducted as part of the application indicated a 1.8% drop in trade in Huddersfield as a result of the Tesco development. It doesn't sound much but nor is it necessarily believable. The Tesco store being built has capacity for a large mezzanine which could expand it to be one of its largest stores in the country.

Some of the comments by the Councillors on the committee were disappointing. There was the Councillor who remarked at all the shabby empty buildings around the area and how Tesco would improve this. All the properties have been bought up by Tesco so of course they are empty and shabby. Then of course there were the 'you can't stop progress' comments as if this represents any measure of progress for the town. The store isn't needed, we have plenty of supermarkets, it will destroy jobs as well as create them and have a detrimental impact on our local environment. I'm trying to work out whether it was the Kirklees Budget meeting or the Kirklees Planning meeting that I found must disturbing this week. One thing you could definitely sense at the meeting was the total lack of enthusiasm for the application from Kirklees Council officers and the row of Tesco officials almost rubbing their hands in glee as the Planning Committee rolled over for them to have their collective tummies tickled (with the honorable exception of Clr Christine Iredale). There was a bit of gentle growling about 'conditions' and such like but Tesco know they won't get bitten.

Here's the relevant article in The Examiner

Kirklees Budget Meeting

2011-02-24T15:02:00.000-08:00

The Council Chamber, just add Councillors.

The Council Budget meeting was a predictably difficult meeting. There was a mass protest outside but amongst the peaceful protestors were some who were intent on trouble, who stormed the reception area seeking to gain entry to the chamber and apparently assaulted a member of staff. Rather shamefully Cllr Khan sought to imply this was something to do with us. Of course it wasn't. He has since sent me a text sort of apologising. During the meeting itself Cllr Pinnock sent the usual misleading tweets saying we would massively increase Council Tax and shut Public Libraries. All untrue. Acually we voted against the budget to highlight the fact that there are alternatives to the Coalition govt assault on public services and the vulnerable. Labour had to support the budget because they are the Administration. The Tories and Lib Dems had to vote for it because it is there lousy government that are putting us through this nightmare of redundancies and reduction of services. Here is the link to the Council webcast. I appear at 56 minutes in and Graham Simpson appears at 1 hour 22 minutes (use the index points tab). Cllr Khan appears at the end implying we encouraged the assault on council staff. Unbelievable. My speech is below and at the end the excellent Captain SKA and "Liar Liar"

Councillor Andrew Cooper, Leader of the Green Party Group speech at the 2011/12 Kirklees Budget Meeting

Green Party Councillors will vote against this budget.

We all know the background to these cuts. A lack of regulation of financial institutions by successive Conservative and Labour Governments and the almost collapse of the banking system.

We know the consequences for us as a Council. £80 million cuts over 4 years up to 2000 Council jobs can and are being lost. We know that Tory Councils in the leafy south such as Dorset actually got an increase in funding. We know that Eric Pickles sought to mislead people about the scale of the cuts by referring to Council cuts in ‘spending power’ rather than the harsh reality faced by many councils.

Through the budget meetings and process the Green Party have held one principle firm throughout . Whatever we did we would not sacrifice social services for solar panels. It became clearer and clearer throughout, that the funding available via central government made that impossible to achieve over the 4 years of the Comprehensive Spending Review. So consequently we have seen the budget for Care for older people reduced from £52 million to around £40 million over the next 4 years and Day Care Services to drop from £5.3 million to £1.5 million and all this at a time when the demand for these services is likely to rise due to demographic change. I don’t really know what a Big Society is but I know what a civilised society is and this cut in funding for those in the most need should not be regarded as civilised by anyone.

There is a real question mark over whether or not the councils stated priorities of supporting older people to be ‘healthy, active and included’ and ‘Enhancing the life chances for young people’ will be achieved through a budget such as this. If you don’t really believe that so much more can be achieved with so much less funding will Kirklees be really doing what it says on its Corporate Priorities tin and if not is this a budget that any Councillor should support?

So, at a national level, what have the ‘conscience of the coalition’ the Liberal Democrats done to help. Over 90 Lib Dem Council leaders and Group leaders wrote an open letter to Eric Pickles in The Times. And a very polite letter it was too. The letter was not so much focussing on the scale of cuts but more on the phasing of them. Somehow or other even this mildest of mild letters was beyond the pale for any Lib Dem Councillor in Kirklees to sign.

Of course I am more than expecting cries of derision from the larger parties on the council asking ‘Where is your alternative?’ and it is a valid question.

I could point out that this is the first time in the 12 years that I’ve been a Councillor that the Green Party has not put an amendment to a Kirklees Budget. We have always sought to use the opportunity that being members of this council brings to improve the quality of life of residents of Kirklees. It is however the third time the Conservatives have failed to produce an amendment. 2 of those occasions were in much less difficult times than this. So I will take no lectures off them.

I could show that there is an alternative to the Government’s austerity package being inflicted on people locally and nationally. That we don’t need to make 2000 people redundant that the government doesn’t need to force a million people into unemployment across the country. Tackling Tax evasion and avoidance could raise £10 Billion /year yet the government is laying off staff at HMRC, a tax on international transactions could raise £10Billion year, putting a higher rate of tax for those earning over £100,000/year could raise billions as could of course taking proper action to tackle the banks who have quite frankly got away with murder . The recent changes to Corporation Tax will mean that Banks will be perversely better off at a time when they openly pay huge bonuses to staff. You have to ask ‘How is it that a Cabinet packed with so many millionaires and stockbrokers could act in such a way?’. The answer is of course very, very easily!

And of course people have an alternative. In a very real way locally they have an alternative vote already. You don’t have to read the report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies to see that is the people in the most dire circumstances who suffer the most under this government. People have the alternative not to vote for parties who penalise the poor to the benefit of the rich. They can send a message to the government and vote out of office Councillors from Parties in the coalition who have put Kirklees and other Councils in the country in this position.

The Green Party will not support this budget it is a matter of principle and conscience. We will not compromise our principles or the people of Kirklees. We leave that to others.

Another Coffee Shop on New Street

2011-02-20T09:01:00.000-08:00

A Costa Coffee House will soon open on New Street just across from Cafe Nero and a few yards from the Merrie England and Coffee Republic. No one is going to be short of a coffee in Huddersfield. Apart from the Merrie England these are all national multiples and now, therefore, a common feature of the clone town. Merrie England has been in Huddersfield for as long as I can remember. It has many common charactaristics, mock tudor beams, horse brasses, frothy milky coffee. For me Merrie England is as 'Huddersfield' as Castle Hill, Castlegate and Roy Castle. It is part of the DNA of the town and it would be a shame indeed if the latte army of the national coffee chains threatened the future of the Merrie England. Having said all that you can usually find me at 7.00am in Cafe Nero reading my papers (the Merrie doesn't open till 7.45a.m.) and having an 'Americano' with milk. As I'm a bit of an early riser I tend to favour mock italian over mock tudor. I like the comfy chairs and the classical music and the whole 10th cup 'free' thing. Cafe Nero have a formula which obviously travels well and they have over 400 shops across the UK. I'm sort of pleased in a way that the Merrie England franchise is limited to the 5 shops in Huddersfield and the one in Brighouse and the one in Halifax. It means it is definitely part of our identity and one which, either by lack of ambition of the company or attractiveness to other areas, has not managed to travel beyond our corner of West Yorkshire My personal support for the Merrie England is purchasing occassional bacon and tomato baps. Mmmm very tasty.

As yet Huddersfield does not have a Starbucks. This I regard as a good thing. We must have reached the coffee shop saturation point by now.

Thoughts on helping out churches

2011-02-16T14:35:00.000-08:00

New North Rd Baptist architectural treasure?

I've had a bit of stick recently in the local press from an ex Newsome Tory Candidate about helping Newsome South Methodist Church get solar panels for its roof. It set me thinking about some of the work I've done in recent years to help church buildings and their congregations. As a very convinced athiest there must be some irony here. The Methodist Church example is one where the building is very much a local community hub with pre school clubs, nursery groups and is in pretty much constant use during the week. As an old building the Church requires ongoing maintenance which can be costly. So the £5000 grant from the Area Committee will help the Church realise around a minimum of £2000/year income over the next 25 years so a total of £50,000 or ten times the value of the grant. That has to be a good use of public money and a real investment in the 'Big Society'.

.......and with the cafe extension complete with cross.

I've also helped New North Road Baptist Church who were to be refused planning permission for an extension as officers did not believe their extension for a cafe would be in keeping with the rest of the 70s built building. I referred the application to Planning Committee so Councillors could make the decision. They wisely recognised that the extension would not look at all out of place and that the original building was not exactly an architectural masterpiece in any case.

At the other end of the architectural scale Huddersfield Parish Church in town wanted to put a 2 storey glass extension which would allow them easy access to the upper floors which are currently inaccessible to the elderly and those with poor mobility. Again Planning opposed the application on aesthetic grounds and I referred it to Planning Committee and Councillors approved it. The argument I put, as well as enabling them to actually use their own building, was that the glass extension would actually enhance the building and that the juxtaposition in architectural styles would actually be a positive thing.

I've also helped the church at Thurstonland in my Parish Council patch, by putting them onto a low cost loan to help them refurbish their building. I feel I need to make clear that all this work on behalf of religious bodies is by no means a form of insurance just in case my atheism doesn't turn good in the end but a recognition that churches actually fulfill a valuable social role in our communities. There was once last year that a vicar suggested he might turn me on to christianity. I think I manage to convince him that in religious terms at least that I was a bit of a lost cause.

Green Party Leader to visit Huddersfield

2011-02-12T18:39:00.000-08:00

Green Party Leader Caroline Lucas MP is to visit Huddersfield this month.

Caroline was elected as MP for Brighton Pavillion in May this year and is the UKs first Green Party MP. Prior to being elected to Parliament she was a Green Party MEP and has also been a Councillor on Oxford Countyy Council. She will be addressing a Public Meeting at the Brian Jackson Centre, New North Parade Huddersfield on Tuesday 22nd February at 7.30pm. Also speaking at the meeting will be Kirklees Green Party Leader Councillor Andrew Cooper. The Public Meeting is being held on the evening prior to the Kirklees Council Budget meeting where the Green Party Councillors will oppose the Budget being proposed bythe Labour Party, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.

Councillor Andrew Cooper said,

"We're delighted that Caroline is coming to Huddersfield. She is a distinctive and powerful voice in Parliament, not just for the Green Party but for the millions who are suffering cuts to jobs and services as a result of the policies of the Coalition Government"

Speech at Renewable Energy in the Public Sector Event (2 parts)

2011-01-30T02:41:00.000-08:00

Local Government Group - Economy and Transport Board Report

2011-01-21T00:08:00.000-08:00

Wot no Bus!

One of my roles is as the Independent Group representative on the Local Government Group's Economy and Transport Programme Board. The Green Party with our 130 or so Councillors is linked with the Independents on what was the Local Government Association. Yesterday's Programme Board had an interesting agenda which was, as you can imagine, dominated by the impact of the Coalition Government's cuts agenda.

The first major item was on Investment and Growth and the demise of the Regional Development Agencies. The area I highlighted was the increase in the interest costs of prudential borrowing for Councils. Just as Government is saying to the banks that they should make it easier to lend money (and are largely being ignored) Government itself is raising the costs of public sector borrowing making it more expensive to get economic regeneration projects off the ground.

The next area we looked at was the localisation of Council Tax. One possible impact is that adjoining boroughs could have differing policies on Council Tax Benefit. This is clearly bonkers and inequitable and not in the least fair. The reality however may be that there is so little financial flexibility anyway that varying policies may become more difficult but peraps not in Dorset!

Responsibility for Consessionary Fares is being transferred to Councils but surprise, surprise the funding allowed from central government may not actually cover the costs. I did wryly point out that the cuts in funding to the PTEs will mean less subsidy for rural and off peak services. These are the very services that many pensioners use and as such the opportunity for them to take advantage of free public transport might be more limited anyway. Less public transport , less concessionary fares. So perhaps this is a well thought out Government policy!

Windmill Madness

2011-01-16T07:12:00.000-08:00

An Industrial scale wind turbine !

Misinformation is rife from the foaming mouth brigade when it comes to wind turbines. They give people epilepsy, make bats explode, decapitate people, explode, don't work and on and on it goes. These same 'issues' with sometimes a small grain of truth don't tend to arise in Europe where most countries get more renewable energy installed where the laws of physics obviously work differently. Here's one such letter from Dr David Hill who's standing as an Independent at the next election. Interestingly he's anti nuclear as well. My response follows (but it's not quite as long)

Windmill madness

I HOPE that Clr Andrew Cooper and all those who believe in wind power took notice of Look North’s recent exposé which showed that over the past two months wind turbines have provided virtually no electricity.

Added to this, international studies have determined over the years that, on average, these monstrosities at their maximum only work 23% of the time.

When we consider that international research also determined that these white elephants need completely replacing in less than 20 years from being built (wear-out of components is high), we the taxpayers will have to pay out billions again over the next 20 years to simply keep them going.

This strategy devised by the former Labour government and continued now by the present coalition government is sheer madness.

It is also remarkable that the so-called wise men of Whitehall, who advise government, are proposing to commit £10bn to the construction of a single nuclear power station.

This new station will have major nuclear waste problems in the years to come, most probably costing the taxpayers again another £10bn to get rid of it, and will only provide at the best, 5% of our future electricity needs.

For in this respect, a scheme put forward to government for a hydro-electric scheme that would cut shipping costs substantially, has the same cost but will provide the UK with 10% of its electricity needs in perpetuity.

This would have been clean energy with no toxic waste and would have lasted forever once built with very little maintenance at all.

Are we crazy in this country and just like throwing taxpayers’ money away as though it was going out of fashion?

It certainly seems that way to me or is it there are some very powerful lobby groups doing very nicely indeed out of this old codswallop?

The Green Party should be backing this hydro scheme, not stupid wind turbines that have a bottomless pit and appetite for continual finance.

Our town planners and Kirklees councillors should take note of all these facts when giving the ‘green’ light to these schemes, as they invariably do!

But I have to say that I was happy to see that at least David Brown’s is getting some work out of this stupidity (Examiner, January 8).

For if politicians are so stupid to see wind as the Holy Grail, at least Huddersfield is getting something out of it.

A sane world? I think not when it comes to spending our hard-earned tax.

It’s about time our central and local government politicians started to do a bit of their own research for all our long-term sakes.

Dr David Hill

Prospective Independent candidate, Golcar

Dr David Hill highlights the Look North ‘expose’ on the recent lull in windpower and on that basis says windpower is a waste of money. The reality is that the UK produces one of the lowest percentages of its energy from renewable sources of any country in Europe. Only Malta and Luxembourg produce a lower proportion of their energy from renewables. So if you don’t have a lot of wind turbines, onshore or offshore, in the first place it is hardly surprising that the potential to produce electricity from wind is limited. The truth is that we have one of the highest and most predictable wind resources in Europe particularly offshore but have been very tardy in investing in it compared with other countries.

Dr Hill goes on to say that the Green Party should be supporting hydro power schemes. Actually the Green Party does support large scale hydro and I don’t know why he believes we don’t. Hydro projects can store energy to be released at times of high demand. The truth is that we need a mix of energy sources renewable and non renewable hopefully using the developing carbon capture and storage technologies. Crucially though we need to be wasting less energy and using it more efficiently in the first place.

Councillor Andrew Cooper

Thoughts on 2011

2011-01-09T14:24:00.000-08:00

Labour off the hook due to the short memories of many.

2011 is going to be a pivotal year for the Lib Dems. The Oldham and Saddleworth Bye -election is not looking particularly good for them and its seems the Labour Candidate, the very pleasant, Debbie Abrahams (who stood in the Colne Valley in the General Election) is probably in with the best shot. The Lib Dems got the bye-election on the basis of Labour's Phil Woolas lying in his election leaflets. As people in the political scene know the irony is heavy given the many examples of lying in Lib Dem leaflets. Of course since then we've had the student tuition fees vote and the Lib Dems are now dubbed the 'Fib Dems' by people outside the political mainstream.

Labour appear to have got 'off the hook' with many people which is odd given they introduced tuition fees in the first place against a manifesto promise. Many appear to have the memories of goldfish where Labour is concerned and of course we'll never know what the alternative universe would be like if Labour had won the General Election but I reckon it would have still been a slightly different but still the unpalatable cocktail of cuts that we are experiencing right now.

So now we head into May, the local elections and the Alternative Vote Referendum. This I think was the Lib Dems single biggest error during their coalition agreement negotiations. The inequities of the first past the post electoral system are well known. Governments can be chosen by a minority of the electors and most constituencies are 'safe seats' so it is only the votes in a minority of constituencies that decide the election. This is not a matter for a referendum it is about what's right. Either the Tories should have simply agreed to a system of proportional representation or there should have been no deal, this should have been a 'red line' for the Lib Dems. Instead we have a question on an inferior version of 'PR' on offer which is acually not even proportional. A binding agreement to support the introduction of the Single Transferable Vote was what the Lib Dems should have insisted on. Of course we need to back the improvement that AV offers in the referendum but it's association with the increasingly unpopular Lib Dems might ironcallly work against it in the ballot. The word 'fair' has been so contaminated and misused by this government that valuing 'fair' votes and been seen to be rewarding the Lib Dems by supporting AV might not sit well with many people. I mean how do we feel about putting the duplicitous Nick Clegg in a position of power after the next General Election? Though electors may have the memory of goldfish where Labour are concerned I don't believe they are going to forget the broken Lib Dem pledges for a long, long time.

Greens to run volunteer Bus Service for 18th year in a row.

2010-12-29T06:51:00.000-08:00

The Green Party will be running a free volunteer Bus Service on New Year’s Day for the 18th consecutive year. The first service was run in the early 90s when Bus Services were drastically reduced over the festive period.

Green Party Councillor Andrew Cooper said,

“This is now one of the longest regular volunteer bus service in the country. We have seen some progress in recent years with Metro and First reintroducing services on Boxing Day on many routes, but unfortunately not all. There is a lot of talk these days about a ‘big society’ and about volunteers running services. This is an example of where we have been doing exactly that long before the words ‘Big Society’ were ever used. Our aim has never been to replace existing bus services but to encourage bus companies to reintroduce regular services during holiday periods”

The Newsome Bus Service starts at 11.00a.m and runs for 8 hours allowing people to go to Town do their shopping, visit friends and loved ones in Huddersfield Royal Infirmary or just to simply to go for a festive pint in the Town Centre.

The Greens ran a Bus Service on Boxing Day this year linking Flockton and Grange Moor with Huddersfield. Kirkburton Green Party Councillor Derek Hardcastle who drove the bus said,

“It was a huge success and we had over 70 people use the service to visit relatives. People were really enthusiastic about it and it allowed people who don’t have access to a car and can’t afford Taxis to get out of the house. These are villages that are often poorly provided for in many ways so it was good to be able to provide this service.”

Green Party New Year’s Day Service

                                         1st Bus       on the hour        last bus

Berry Brow                       11.00              00                18.00

Newsome Church             11.02               02                18.02

Huddersfield Westgate      11.10              10                 18.10

Huddersfield Infirmary       11.15              15                 18.15

Mount                               11.30              30                 18.30

Huddersfield Infirmary       11.40              40                 18.40

Huddersfield Westgate      11.45              45                 18.45

Newsome Church             11.55              55                 18.55

Berry Brow                       12.00              00                 19.00

At the Kirkburton Parish Pump

2010-12-28T09:13:00.000-08:00

I don't say much if anything about Kirkburton Parish Council on my blog and really I should because it's a real positive story. We have 12 Greens out of 25 Parish Councillors which though not quite a majority due to the non attendance of Conservatives we do tend to hold sway. I first got elected to the Farnley and Thurstonland Ward of Kirkburton Parish in 2007 along with Robert Barraclough. It is a complete contrast to Kirklees Council. Kirklees has budgets running into the hundreds of millions with responsibility for social care, housing, environmental services, highways etc etc. Kirkburton Parish Council has a budget of just over £100k with ownership of a Village Hall, responsibility for allotments, a graveyard and a grant pot for numerous groups within the Parish. So does this mean that at a small scale politics doesn't feature? Well it didn't start out that way. There were certain individuals in the Tory group who went out of their way to give the Greens a hard time and were unnecessarily unpleasant and for at least the first year and it was hard going but we seemed to work our way through that particular pain barrier to get on with the job. To be fair some of the Conservatives were quite reasonable and eventually seemed to become sick of the antics of their colleagues and worked cooperatively with Councillors of all parties.

Past Chairman Robert Barraclough and current Chairman John Hirst

So what's been acheived? A Parish Walks project drawing in external funding, a training course giving teenagers a City and Guilds in Energy Advice, the repair of Kirkheaton Cemetery Wall (a long standing bugbear), solar panels on Burton Village Hall, winning the 2008 British Renewable Energy Awards with the judges comment, "this small Parish Council appears to be doing more than our national government". These are just some highlights there's plenty more but as with all things it comes down to a good team of people, Michelle Atkinson, Chairing the Environment Committee and introducing the popular Environment Fayre and Sunflower Competition, Geoff Hickey and Robert Barraclough ably chairing the Parish Council during some difficult times. The current Conservative Chairman elected with all Party support plays with a straight bat and across party divides. A special mention for Lin Holroyd, Independent who chaired the Parish in the 2007/8 year which was not an easy year at all which she handled with a determination to ensure no one got to far out of hand. I guess even myself on occasions!

Thank Goodness it's not too bad in Surrey!

2010-12-13T15:09:00.000-08:00

Today the Government revealed the impact of it's cuts on Local Government across the Country. As you can imagine I've been concerned about how leafy Tory Surrey might fare under a leafy Tory Government. I needn't have worried just a 0.3% decrease. Naturally I also was wondering what might happen to Dorset fortunately the Government saw sense and actually raised their funding by 0.25%. The good news just kept coming with Hampshire, West Sussex, Buckingham and Richmond Upon Thames all escaping the worst of the cuts.

You can imagine what would have happened if these Councils had received the same level of funding cut as Kirklees or Leeds or Bradford with all the job losses, cuts in services and closed libraries and facilities that these Councils are likely to face. Fortunately for us Northern types there is an answer for the jobless provided by David Shakespeare Conservative Leader of the Local Government Association. David suggests we could all come down south and pick fruit on their farms. This would have the added benefit of taking jobs away from Romanians. Smart eh! David is also the Leader of Buckinghamshire County Council with a very reasonable 0.6% cut so naturally he's fairly pleased and feeling generous enough to let us help out on their farms.

So are the Conservatives and their Lib Dem 'pets' out of touch? Well we are 'all in it together' but in the North we are up to our necks in it while in the south it barely reaches beyond the soles of their green wellies.

December Full Council report

2010-12-09T00:26:00.000-08:00

Yesterdays Full Council was I think the first 'full on' Tweet Council with myself, Kath Pinnock from the Lib Dems and Leader of the council Mehboob Khan all participating on Twitter (plus 'LibDemKitty' I think I've worked out who that is!). Was there a value in it? Yes I think so. You could certainly get an insight into our meetings you wouldn't have had otherwise. Take for instance the Lib Dem amendment on opposing the cuts to provision for Schools Sports Partnerships. The Greens supported their amendment. When I tweeted to this effect the twitterfeed from Kath Pinnock rather churlishly said 'Shame that 50% Green Group absent from Council'. For those of you who don't know there are only 4 us. One of our 4, Cllr Julie Stewart-Turner had to leave the meeting as she was a Governor for Newsome High School, a Specialist Sports College and had an interest in the motion, and Cllr Graham Simpson was late because he was attending a Tenants Association meeting. So a rather unpleasant attack on the Greens who were actually supporting a Lib Dem Amendment. I thought they could do with all the support they could get at present.

Another Lib Dem Amendment we supported was one on Planning Protocols. The amendment insisted that Cllrs on the Planning Committee attend training on Planning (what else). The Conservaties were opposed to this as many of them hadn't gone to training and were quite happy to spout away in an uninformed fashion at Planning meetings potentially leaving the Council open to challenge during an appeal process. My contribution to the debate was to point out that decisions backed up by knowledge should be more important than simple opinion on planning matters. This provoked a rather unpleasant verbal barrage on me by Conservative Councillor Mrs Christine Smith which I found fairly amusing to be honest. I'm not on her Christmas Card list!

During questions I asked the Labour Cabinet Member Councillor Mr Ken Smith what his opinion was of the impact of the rise in Tuition fees on young people in Kirklees. He gave his view that it was potentially disastrous and agreed to my request to write to the Government to express this view. This provoked much comment from Lib Dem Cllrs who defended the tuition fees policy. This directly contradicted the expressed opinions of Lib Dem Candidates during the General Election which I pointed out (and they ignored). I also asked Cllr Peter O Neill what his views were on 'The Big Society'. He gave me a very full response. So much so that I was unable to get my supplementary question in before time was up unfortunately.

Over 600 people watched the Council meeting on the Web but according to Kath Pinnock webcasting of Council meetings 'doesn't work'. Yes there have been some technical issues that some people have encountered but generally it has gone pretty well. I think the problem for Kath is that it was a Green Party proposal and that gives her a rather jaundiced view on the subject. Cest la vie.

After the meeting I collected a large sealed envelope with the papers for the 'Star Chamber' meeting on Friday and Monday to discuss the Kirklees Budget for the next year. In the envelope are the officers views of how we will acheive the Lib Dem/Con Governments spending cuts. This will not make pleasant reading.

Snowlar Panels

2010-12-05T00:00:00.000-08:00

Snow has had a not unexpected impact on my solar panels. A thick covering of snow does not make for a good flow of solar electricity. At lower temperatures photovoltaic panels generally operate more efficiently but as there is less available light during the winter months the benefit of the increased efficiency is negligible.

Among the usual letter writers in the Examiner last week was one Bernard McGuin ex Tory Candidate for Newsome. He focussed on my support for renewable energy and the financial subsidies for it. Amongst the ramblings and many inaccuracies (photovoltaics do not heat houses Bernard they create electricity) was the assertion that solar photovoltaic panels need a lot of maintenance. As there are no moving parts and it is a solid state product that's clearly not the case. Some of the first panels installed in Japan 40 years ago, on lighthouses, are still working. Panels do slowly lose efficiency (as all things do) over time but are warrantied for up to 25 years.

Clearly Mr McGuin is no expert but he does have opinions and that's important. So above is my demonstration of some of the maintenace requirements of solar panels

sNOw Insulation

2010-12-02T07:40:00.000-08:00

Thermal imaging cameras can cost thousands of pounds but everytime it snows we have the opportunity to do a check of how effective our loft insulation is. I went down the street in Newsome today knocked on a couple of doors with clear roofs and referred them to the Kirklees free insulation scheme. Wish I'd tucked my shirt in!

Here's the Press Release from work.

http://www.yorkshireenergyservices.co.uk/news.html?newsId=48

I wish I'd said..........

2010-11-29T13:35:00.000-08:00

I was on the gogglebox on Sunday for the Yorkshire and Humber bit of The Politics Show. My brief was well, 'brief'. I was told that I would be talking about transport policy. There was to be Lord Lucas (not Lucan mores the pity) down the line from London who would talk about the fact that Councils are wanting to charge more for parking tickets and about the possibility that in addition to the cuts that Councils could be asked to repay millions in parking fines due to poorly painted yellow lines and incorrect signage. This is just what we need more money taken off councils when we're being asked to make huge swingeing cuts. I was to come in after the Lord when they widened it out to a more general discussion about transport. In reality there was very little time for that and I just made the link between this policy and the lack of revenue Councils had for jobs and services following government cuts. As I wandered home towards the station after the interview I realised the line I wanted to say,

"Don't you realise that Councils have to raise these fines and cut jobs and services for local people. I mean otherwise how are the banks going to be able to afford to pay some of their staff huge bonuses if we were to tax them instead."

Supermarket Sweep?

2010-11-27T13:31:00.000-08:00

Dale Winton of Supermarket Sweep fame.

The Con Dems (Greenest Government Ever?) have made a good decision regarding their developing Green Deal. This Coalition Government programme will be delivering energy efficiency measures to householders commencing in Autumn 2012. According to the DECC Minister Greg Barker Local Authorities will have a strategic role in the delivery of the Green Deal in their areas they will also be able to bid to become Green Deal Providers in their own areas and deliver their programmes on a street by street basis. Previously Barker had repeatedly referred to Supermarkets as the deliverers of choice despite their lack of experience in delivering these programmes and some fairly lacklustre attempts to deliver insulation to householders. There now seems to have been a bit of a change in tack. As always the devil is in the detail and there remains the issue of whether or not the Green Deal will actually be a compelling offer to householders.

We need to understand how 'the Golden Rule' will work, which says that any savings made will greater than the cost for paying back the measures. With so many different house types, with different usage patterns, different heating requirements this is going to be a tall order and if the golden rule isn't convincing for all householders whatever their circumstances then confidence in the Green Deal will be severely shaken. The other good news is that Private Landlords could be fined if they don't improve the energy efficiency of their dwellings, with Local Councils being able to penalise them up to £5000 for non compliance.

This is all good stuff and credit where its due. I don't however believe that Greg's yet given up on his supermarkets as a major deliverer. Lets hope its not a clean (supermarket) sweep when it comes to who actually does the Green Deal and Local Authorities that demonstrate the capability to deliver also get the opportunity.