The six weeks school summer holiday has been surprisingly busy …..

At Colden Junior and Infant school where I’m Chair of Governors, our new classroom has been completed and is now ready for the children to come back to school. The old Head Teacher has retired and a new one is taking up post. So it’s a new start ….I

I’ve been “walking my ward” in Hebden Bridge, asking local people for their views especially on parking (what can we do about it ? their ideas are largely the same as mine, reduce the number of cars around by encouraging people to use the trains, buses and walking, and provide more out of town parking) and health (largely satisfied with local services but concerned if hospital treatment becomes too far away to get to easily).

My real disappointment has been Calderdale Council’s decision to move the Customer First service out of Hebden Bridge Town Hall into the library where it seems that it’ll be delivered from the desk (not as confidential). This mustn’t detract from the Town Hall as the “community hub” for the area.

I spent a lovely afternoon at Wainsgate Baptist Chapel talking with the Historic Chapels Trust who own this important chapel. There’s a strong local committee who are passionate about getting more essential work done on the building. I joined in a photo of local people in Blackshawhead celebrating 200 years of the Methodist chapel. I’ve attended Wadsworth Parish Council to try and help them get an important local road improved, and make Keighley Road safer. I’ve been backwards and forwards along Lumbutts Road seeing local residents. I’ve participated in a site visit/Parish Council meeting in Heptonstall (more about that later).

I’ve had a number of meetings with other agencies (Council Officers, Police etc) about a number of local concerns – 4x4s on moorland, neighbourhood nuisance. We’re still working on designs for moving the market in Hebden Bridge and the implications of this for local shops and traffic congestion. I’ve been to Planning Committee several times with some disappointing results (is it getting to be more difficult for local people to have their real concerns listened to?). Most recently, we’ve got a decision deferred for a necessary site visit so members of the Planning Committee can see for themselves. But we did manage to get one application refused by Officers.

At last the Todmorden Development Board will have local people on it as well as Councillors – local people have expertise and experience to add to the role of Councillors and Officers. There’s still a lot to be done – there’s some progress with the Town Hall but, unlike Hebden Bridge, it’s not yet open all day every day. The controversy over the proposed sale of Rose Street continues. I’m pleased to see that Tod Pride has a list of issues that it wants to see tackled to improve the town – but at least there is some action on some of the derelict sites with Calderdale Council finally using its s215 powers.

On Calderdale Council, the Cabinet meeting in August was more interesting than some – concerns still about the future governance of Pennine Housing which the Council set up in 2000 and transferred its housing stock, but now they say they need to become more commercial. Strategies and Policies on Homelessness, Tourism (Visitor Economy) and Volunteering were agreed.

For Children and Young People, I’m pushing the Council to make sure that the Orangebox has a sustainable future. It should be a good place for young people. I’ve done two (reg 44) visits to a children’s home and sat on two Fostering Panels. We’ve started the recruitment process for a new Head of Learning and Schools.

Quite a bit of my time is also taken up as Chair of the Health and Wellbeing Board: in my former/professional life in social work, I’ve always spent a lot of time in inter-agency/multi-disciplinary meetings and enjoy partnership working. The Big Issue at the moment, of course, is the future arrangements for local and hospital health services. So I’ve been to all sorts of meetings and events principally about the development of Care Closer to Home. Undoubtedly a good thing, especially if we can base more services in the big building of Todmorden Health Centre. I’ve just come back from Expo2015 which was a really exciting “event” exploring new developments and ideas in health care.

And I’m enjoying the first few months as a newly-elected member of Todmorden Town Council: as Liberal Democrats, we’re trying to make sure that the Council involves and listens to local people, and takes a leading role in developing (and providing ?) services in Todmorden. It’s got an important role in standing up for local people. It’s got to press on with starting the Neighbourhood Plan to help realise the potential of the area.