The Good News as the Cabinet meeting started was that they bowed to pressure and reason and withdrew the proposal to consult on moving Cragg Vale school down to Calder High school. Not a good idea at all – the government seems likely to give the Council a substantial grant to do remedial work on Cragg Vale school building but the Council appeared to want to use some of it on Calder High school building (also in a bad state of repair needing a lot of work doing to it). But Cragg Vale school is a small, rural, community school that parents have chosen to educated their child. And that’s it, I’m pleased to say, Not quite the end of the story because it’s important that the work is done and the money spent on the school.

The Bad News was that charging for testing private water supplies was called “esoteric” by the (Labour) Cabinet member. Not for those 1,863 households that are dependent on it (including us). I reminded him that it’s stuff of life for us and that we have to pay for it all ourselves but they’ve gone ahead and increased the charges anyway (and reserved the right, apparently, for the Director to change the charges if need be).

A number of items were recommended to Council for approval including the Medium Term Financial Strategy. Exempt items included the Council’s scheme to enable children in care to “stay put” in their foster placements after they officially leave care at 18.

I like going to conferences, seminars etc because I enjoy learning more and meeting and talking to people about the topic and just finding out more about what’s going on (so that I can take both some theory and practice back). And this conference was better than most because I really did learn more about an important topic, the speakers were all interesting, and the audience was very mixed. Thank you, Minding the Gap.

We assume that work is just a good thing in itself – but the most intriguing piece of research by the Work Foundation appears to show that while being out of work is bad for you, being in poor quality work isn’t as good as people might have hoped …. so the challenge is to put the Marmot “Reducing Health Inequalities” proposal to create fair employment and good work for all.

So the issue that I take back for us to work on in Calderdale is the Workplace Wellbeing charter as promoted by Public Health England.

At last the beginning of a response. The petition is being debated in Parliament today. I hope that Tim gets a chance to speak and I wait to see what the reaction is of our elected Parliamentarians. I hope that they’re listening to local people like those in my Council ward who, overwhelmingly, want the country to respond.

I’m pleased to say that Calderdale Council are responding to the new government intiative asking Councils to offer to take refugees from Syria – with the priority being children. I think that we can do more but this is a beginning.

The refugee crisis across Europe seems to be growing and continuous – and shameful that we seem to be doing so little to help here. So last week I signed the petition to Parliament: “accept more asylum seekers and increase support for refugee migrants in the UK”. This has escalated – 250,000 had signed when I did and now it’s over 400,000. And I am disapppointed that Cameron’s statement today was only about taking 20,000 refugees into the UK over 5 years.

I’ve been heartened by the number of emails over the weekend from local people urging me (and the Council) to do more. I raised this in a Leaders’ meeting with the Chief Executive today. It took a bit of pushing but I’m expecting the Council to start to get its act together. Key issues will be the need to prepare long-term for the refugees who come to live here – housing, schools, English language classes. Really important to work closely with local community groups and local people whose continuing support will be important.

I visited the collection of clothes and household good that some good women are organising in Hebden Bridge Town Hall – to take to people at Calais.

And I’m planning on going to St Augustine’s Centre on Wednesday to understand better what they provide. I was impressed by a presentation they did recently. I’ve been there before but it’ll be good to go back under the present circumstances.

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.

Having just been elected to the Town Council, it was my assumption that the newsletter is distributed to all households within Todmorden, letting them know what the Town Council’s doing. Labour axed the Working Group that oversees production of the newsletter and ran out of time to discuss it in detail at tonight’s meeting (as we predicted that they would). They’d asked for suggestions about it to be brought forward to this meeting – which we did – but then they wouldn’t discuss them but said they’d do as they normally do (produce 500 copies and put them in the “usual places” – the TIC, the library). When I asked for enough copies to distribute to each house in my ward they said that they wouldn’t do that and I think they tried to stop me doing it myself because of “copyright” and said that I can produce a LibDem newsletter myself (which, of course, we will do).

We want the Town Council to communicate directly with local people and encourage them to get involved.

Ar 9pm, the Chairman closed the meeting, deferring the remainder of the items to the next meeting, despite protests that there were some urgent and important issues that need to be discussed and decided upon (eg arrangements to hold a meeting of the Emergency Committee).

My next ward surgery is on Saturday this week (August 22) from 10 to 12 noon in the community room in Todmorden library. Just call in or ring me on 07711 583013

We’ve been talking to local shops and businesses – key concerns are about the impact on shops of moving the market – both on shops and cafes near the current market (on Valley Road) and close to Lees Yard (off St George’s Square in the middle of the town). If it’s moved, it could create traffic congestion problems especially at the end of the day. Generally pleased if moving the market would make the current site available for parking all day/every day.
So, at last week’s Working group, we went and had a look with a Council Officer who’s going to do a first draft of a plan/design for moving it. Shops etc were asking what it would look like and we’re expecting to know more about this at the next meeting in early October. Could this be some progress at last ?

My summary of key points from tonight’s meeting:

Business and Community Representation: At last Labour have agreed to include wider representation on the Board and to advertise this openly in Todmorden so it should be in Tod News next week, hopefully agreed at the next meeting (Sept 15th)

Business and Tourism Strategy: Looking into creating more visitor accommodation in the area to make it possible for people to come and stay (and enjoy Tod and the surrounding countryside !)

Tod market: Discussion of ideas about how to improve the market which should enable some substantial proposals to come to the next meeting

Taking action on derelict sites (s215): It seems as though it’s beginning to work with the fencing on Halifax Rd, Asda now apparently promising to sort out their site, and the issuing of the notice on Cinderhill Mill. But still little sign of positive development on any of them !