Skelmersdale regeneration consultation feedback
By Steve Hanlon | May 13, 2008
This from the Council’s website about the Skelmersdale consultation over the past six weeks. I would be interested to see the details, which I assume will be in the papers for Overview and Scrutiny on the 5th June. The Labour group should be congratulated for promoting the consultation too.
I hope that the Labour group will be analysing the numbers, particularly in terms of Firbeck. It seems that a majority were in favour of demolition of Firbeck, but it doesn’t say where those respondents are from.
They also say that 93% were in favour of a pedestrian friendly high street. I hope that this ends the Councils insistence on slapping a road through the centre of the redevelopment and adopt a pedestrianised centre.
Skelmersdale regeneration plan gets thumbs up from local people
Multi-million pound plans to bring a new heart to Skelmersdale town centre have been given strong support by local people.
A total of 1,879 people responded to West Lancashire District Council’s invitation to give their views on the town centre masterplan, and the majority were in favour of the proposals.
The masterplan includes the features that local people have said they want in the town centre including a new high street, more shops, another supermarket, a new leisure centre, community facilities, improvements to the Tawd Valley, and housing.
A six-week consultation period was held to give people the chance to comment. A newsletter and questionnaire was sent to every house in the town and a special exhibition was held in the Concourse. The questionnaires have now been analysed and the results show that:
· The vast majority of those who took part 93% support the proposals to create a new pedestrian-friendly high street with a range of shops, cafes, bars, restaurants, a cinema and leisure and community facilities
· 86% are in favour of moving the college, library, swimming pool, sports centre and ecumenical centre to new purpose-built facilities in the town centre
· The proposal to develop parts of Tawd Valley for recreation and leisure won support from 91%
· 92% support for the proposals to create new routes, links and car parks to allow better access to the town centre
· 90% support proposals to move the bus station at the Concourse to a new ground-level location, and improve links to the town centre.
Proposals for new housing also won widespread support:
· 73% backed proposals for new homes in the town centre.
· The development of open areas of land near Yewdale - improving the Tawd Valley and funding the new public and leisure facilities in the town - won support from 80%.
· 68% of those who completed questionnaires are in favour of proposals to demolish the Firbeck estate to allow the town centre area to be planned and redeveloped, providing residents are fully compensated and given alternative accommodation options.
Proposals for new housing also won widespread support:
Les Abernethy, Deputy Chief Executive, said: “It is great that so many people took the opportunity to fill in the questionnaires and give their views on the masterplan. It’s clear that there is strong support for the regeneration plans. We are now looking closely at the results and will study the results of the consultation before we make decisions to finalise the masterplan.”
The masterplan will be discussed at the Local Development Framework Working Group meeting on 15 May. Following that, it will be on the agenda at the Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting on 5 June. Any views expressed by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee will be passed on to the Cabinet meeting on 17 June, when a final decision will be made on the masterplan.
Topics: West Lancs | No Comments »
Council - be nice to nettles week
By Steve Hanlon | May 13, 2008
From the council’s website: No sting in this nettle event!
To celebrate national ‘Be Nice To Nettles Week’, the Council is
hosting a special event at Ormskirk’s Coronation Park on Sunday
18th May starting from 2pm.Those who come along will be able to find out from the Urban
Park Ranger why this adaptable plant that is hated by many is
adored by wildlife.
Topics: West Lancs | No Comments »
you’re the future…
By Steve Hanlon | May 12, 2008
My two reasons for taking a break from local politics.
Topics: Personal | No Comments »
Human fertilisation, embryology and the kitchen sink.
By Steve Hanlon | May 12, 2008
I notice this evening an article on the gay news site Pink News about how the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill benefit lesbians,
Good to see because there is way too much discussion about Frankenstein children, saviour siblings and animal embryos. It’s really important to see that the bill has an impact across society, not just the traditional family unit which seems to have been filling the airwaves today.
I can’t help but feel that sometimes bills such as this become a collection of too many disparate issues that only loosely fit together. It’s not lazy thinking, there is a lot of business and so these issues have to be dealt with in the most appropriate manner. But debate about the legal rights of gay parents, for example, is drowned out by a completely different issue - which diminishes the importance of what’s being decided.
On top of this, we then have amendments about reducing the abortion time limit and you start to feel that the only thing missing is the kitchen sink.
There are many good things in this bill that ought to be supported, and which I expect will be given that the vote is whipped. The right for scientists to research cutting-edge genetics is, in my view, necessary if we are serious about taking the next step forward in medicine.
And the legal rights of gay parents is good and should be supported too. It’s just a shame that the two issues are conflated into a single bill, and that the embryology research and abortion debates should drown out the other good parts of the bill.
Topics: Personal, Politics | No Comments »
Human fertilisation, embryology and the kitchen sink.
By Steve Hanlon | May 12, 2008
I notice this evening an article on the gay news site Pink News about how the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill benefit lesbians,
Good to see because there is way too much discussion about Frankenstein children, saviour siblings and animal embryos. It’s really important to see that the bill has an impact across society, not just the traditional family unit which seems to have been filling the airwaves today.
I can’t help but feel that sometimes bills such as this become a collection of too many disparate issues that only loosely fit together. It’s not lazy thinking, there is a lot of business and so these issues have to be dealt with in the most appropriate manner. But debate about the legal rights of gay parents, for example, is drowned out by a completely different issue - which diminishes the importance of what’s being decided.
On top of this, we then have amendments about reducing the abortion time limit and you start to feel that the only thing missing is the kitchen sink.
There are many good things in this bill that ought to be supported, and which I expect will be given that the vote is whipped. The right for scientists to research cutting-edge genetics is, in my view, necessary if we are serious about taking the next step forward in medicine.
And the legal rights of gay parents is good and should be supported too. It’s just a shame that the two issues are conflated into a single bill, and that the embryology research and abortion debates should drown out the other good parts of the bill.
Topics: Personal, Politics | No Comments »
Supporting Tamsin Dunwoody for Crewe and Nantwich
By Steve Hanlon | May 8, 2008
The party in Crewe and Nantwich have set up a website for the by-election campaign. I’m showing my support with a copy of their website button, but more importantly the site is going to have updates of campaigning events. Click on the button to the left and it’ll take you there.
Topics: Local Politics | No Comments »
FC United v Skelmersdale
By Steve Hanlon | May 8, 2008
Came across this clip with the goals from last weeks play-off final. Tried to convince the family that we should go, but Lily’s operation meant that it wasn’t a go-er. To be honest it was one of those games where I’d prefer both teams to be promoted, but I was disappointed to see Skem beaten by such a margin. They did a fantastic job last season, so promotion next year, perhaps?
Am planning to take Joel to see Skem FC once he’s a bit older.
Topics: Local Politics | No Comments »
Leyland Labour Blog
By Steve Hanlon | May 8, 2008
Interesting blog being maintained by Leyland Labour. Might be a useful template for West Lancs to follow. I like the broader non-labour items: local people and the notice board.
My only criticism is that there isn’t the ability to post comments, which might turn some people off. A site like this would surely benefit if there was a visible dialogue with the electorate.
Topics: Local Politics | No Comments »
A longer view
By Steve Hanlon | May 4, 2008
I’ve been looking back over the results over the past eight elections (excluding the by-election in Up Holland a couple of years ago). I’ve plotted two sets of results below - first the share of the vote across the District and secondly the share of the vote across the constituency.
Firstly across the District:
For 2001 and 2005 when there weren’t District elections, I’ve put in the County election results instead. The differences in the trends are most likely due to the General Election being held on the same day.
For the West Lancs constituency area:
These show the total votes cast for each party in the District elections. For 2001 and 2005 the Parliamentary election results are shown.
Across the district there is a higher Conservative vote compared to the West Lancs constituency - that’s because the district includes the “Northern Parishes” which are in South Ribble constituency. The Tory vote in that area is proportionally much higher than in the rest of the District and consequently skew the figures.
For me, the interesting figures are within the constituency. Between 2001 and 2005 the two parties were virtually neck and neck. However, since 2005 there has been a much larger gap between Labour and Conservative - 10% in 2008.
The gap between the two parties isn’t enough to turn around the 14% lead from the last General Election, but if a strong third party candidate stood, then it could push things further away from Labour. As we saw this year - there were double digit swings in some wards to UKIP, Independent and in the case of Tanhouse, to the Conservatives.
The danger is twofold. If people want to protest and vote for a third party, then it makes a Tory victory a lot more likely. However, if they just switch directly from Labour to the Conservatives, as in Tanhouse, then Labour is in real trouble.
Topics: Local Politics | 1 Comment »
Election results - behind the headlines
By Steve Hanlon | May 4, 2008
Sadly, last Thursday was a bad day for Labour in West Lancs. We lost two excellent Labour councillors in Cynthia Dereli and Maggie Skilling. I’ve worked with Maggie for a few years - she was our local councillor when we lived in Up Holland and she was brilliant. Both Cynthia and Maggie worked tirelessly for their wards. They were well known and amongst those I’ve spoken to, there is genuine surprise in both Up Holland and Burscough that they lost.
No doubt, the local papers will just report the headline changes of the Labour losses, but the headlines hide some of the more interesting results. For me, the headlines were:
• The result in Tanhouse ward was the worst ever for Labour in Skelmersdale. Going to a recount, Labour won the ward by just 34 votes in the end. A swing of 21% to the Tories - right in the heart of Skelmersdale’s new town.
• The swings against us in Burscough and Up Holland were small but enought to count, around 2% compared to swings of 17% against us in Ashurst and 14% in Skem North. The collapse in support was in other areas, not necessarily where we lost the seats.
• Labour’s share of the vote dropped in all wards except Burcough East and Tarleton. In Burscough East the vote increased by 0.5% while in Tarleton there was an increase of 3.09%.
• Local Greens failed to capitalise on the drop in Labour support.
There is good news for Labour. Where there was a large swing away from Labour it generally didn’t go to the Tories. Instead it went to the local independent or to UKIP. If this is a protest vote, then Labour needs to listen and learn and rebuild trust with this electorate.
However, someone needs to take a long hard look at the result in Tanhouse. The last bad result was in Skem North when the independent lost by 58 votes against the then leader of the Labour Group. This year’s result is worse by an order of magnitude. The Labour vote held up, but the fact that a reinvigorated Tory vote made the result so close has to be a concern for all of us who want Labour to be winning in West Lancs.
Paul Cotterill, the Labour councillor for Bickerstaffe, has a clear view of what can be done to improve things, and I think he is right.
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