30 August 2020
It doesn’t seem like well over a year since the Borough elections but a lot has happened since. I want to begin, however, by saying again that our success was a fabulous tribute to the work put in by so many members but especially Doug, Emma and Roisin.
I have been fortunate that, despite not being a member of any political group on the Council, having a good relationship with the Labour Group and its leader, Aidan Godfrey, has enabled me to put forward a motion at each of the Council meetings. I have also been fortunate in being a member of the Planning Committee which is one of the few committees that actually takes decisions and is not run on Party lines. From the time when Covid reared its head, there have been no full Council meetings, apart from one online one which was only held in order that they could say we had had a meeting and therefore we would not all be disqualified for not attending a meeting within six months. It is clear that meetings can be held online, as have the Planning Committee meetings, so there is no excuse for not holding them.
At the first meeting of the Council after I was elected, I moved a motion that the Council declares a Climate Emergency and begins to take immediate action in reaching zero carbon by 2030. The motion was watered down by the Conservative Group, changing 2030 to 2040, taking out the commitment to report on progress within 6 months and ruling out a ‘citizens assembly’. However, there has been a public consultation on what the Council itself should be doing and what it should be seeking to achieve within the Borough in order to achieve zero carbon emissions. As a Party we made a submission to this, and also to the consultation on the Local Plan.
At the second full Council, I put forward a motion on single use plastics which, somewhat to my surprise, was passed without amendment and the Conservatives even insisted on a named vote. I will be asking about progress in this respect when we next have a Council meeting.
At the last full Council, I put a motion on biodiversity calling on the Borough to work with other agencies, especially Staffordshire Wildlife Trust to create a plan to tackle the emerging biodiversity crisis caused by climate change, increased building activity and the onset of HS2. It also called for a tree strategy both for the Borough’s own land but within the Borough generally and including the idea of Tree Wardens, a voluntary system of recording and monitoring all mature trees which works well in Hereford. This was rejected on the basis that the Council were already doing all that was needed. Interestingly, a short while after this, it was announced that a joint board was being established to tackle the biodiversity impact of HS2 involving the Borough Council and the Wildlife Trust. We were told that the Council was going to produce a tree strategy as part of the revised Local Plan but the idea of Tree Wardens fell on stony ground. Maybe it is something we could start as a pilot project in Doxey and Castletown or the Gnosall and Doxey Division.
Members have helped leaflet parts of the Doxey and Castletown ward and the next day we have litter picked the area and looked out to see if any residents have put our leaflet in the window, asking for me to call to discuss a problem. We have covered the whole of the ward and are about to start again.
The Council organised a food provision service for those isolating. By ringing the Council’s usual number, residents could arrange for food to be delivered, either on a paid basis with Council officers helping deliver, or, if circumstances warranted, on a free basis with Rising Brook Church acting as a distribution centre. This has caused a little resentment among other food distributors as the Church was paid £70k to do this whereas others have had no funding. However, the County Store has had some funding from the general business support measures put in place.
I set up two networks of volunteers, one in Castletown and the other in Doxey and anyone asking for help got it within a short space of time.
Following leafleting in the Castle View estate, a steering Committee has been set up to try and get the old Universal cricket pitch classed as a local nature reserve. The County Council now own this land but it is part of the ‘Gateway’ project to redevelop land around the station. Mike Deegan prepared an excellent report which I shared with the Chief Executive of the Borough who seemed reasonably encouraging.
Progress has been held up because of Covid but I am intending to progress this in the next few weeks
I was recently asked to intervene in relation to large gatherings of young people on Sainsbury’s car park causing a lot of noise and contravening the rules about gatherings of people. The Chief Executive of the Borough acted very quickly and whereas the Police had, apparently, condoned these gatherings, they soon issued a statement saying they would arrest anyone attending.
An ongoing issue is the state of the Doxey Road (Confusing just called ‘Doxey’). Lorries are transporting waste from the old factory site to the motorway and damaging the road in the process. In turn, when the lorries go over the potholes, they cause noise and vibration which it is claimed is causing cracks in nearby houses. I have raised this with the County Council but with no real response so have set up an online petition about it.
Both these issues have been reported in the Express and Star
Can I thank all members of the Local Party for their support. Our focus at the moment has to be on the County elections but maintaining our support in Doxey and Castletown is a key part of that. Once the County elections are over we need to be thinking about our strategy for the next Borough elections. The Conservatives have a small majority at the moment, 22 seats out of 40. If we, and other parties could win a few seats they would be without a majority.
Tony
Cllr Tony Pearce
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