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Councillor Graham Stokes
Cabinet Member for Corporate Services
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DECEMBER 2004
"Be
the change you wish to see in the world"- Gandhi
HOW TIME FLIES
It hardly seems
like it but I have been writing this column for 12 months now, and I have to
say I quite enjoy doing it, I hope that you all get as much pleasure from
reading it, the one thing that I do feel about it is that there is so much
that happens around us that we never get to hear about, now that Michael
Norfolk has created this wonderful medium, information can be passed on and
shared, so I hope the Knottingley and Ferrybridge Digest goes from strength to
strength.
THE COST OF GRAFFITI
The Home Office
are consulting local authorities on graffiti removal - Anti Social Behaviour
Act 2003; Rollout of Pilot Powers to deal with Graffiti on street furniture,
the property of statutory undertakers and educational establishments
- The new
proposed powers will allow local authorities to clean graffiti from
certain types of property and recover their costs.
- In response to
concerns about the regulatory impact of these powers, the Home Office
piloted these powers to 12 local authorities before wider rollout on 31
March 2004.
The consultation
gives a number of costs and figures for the removal of graffiti;
- London
Underground estimates that it costs up to £10 million a year to replace
all the glass that is etched in addition to another £2.5 million annually
to remove other forms of graffiti (British Transport Police).
- Graffiti
across London costs £100 million a year to clear.
- Local
Authorities spent on average £75,376 removing graffiti between April 2002
– March 2003.
- Initial
financial information being returned by the pilots show a wide variation
in the costs for removal of graffiti and further research will be
undertaken during the 12 week formal consultation process. A very rough
scale indicated during the pilot that the mean unit cost of removal ranged
from £3.38 - £121.26 depending on the size and type of graffiti. In
total 1135 reports of graffiti were returned.
Currently, street
furniture owners do not have a legal obligation to keep their property clean
and tidy and local authorities do not have a power to remove graffiti from
street furniture or from private land and recover their costs from the owner.
In areas with a widespread problem, removal costs can be very expensive with
the pilot showing that over 60% of reported graffiti incidents were within the
two London Boroughs leading to a significant cost.
The MORI
Liveability survey in 2002 indicated that many citizens associate graffiti
with anti-social behaviour and crime and disorder. Work undertaken by the
criminologists James Q Wilson and George Kelling in America – ‘Broken
Windows Theory’ (and often quoted by the Prime Minister) demonstrated a
clear link between graffiti leading to more serious crime and a lack of
business and community confidence within an area.
HEALTH IS IMPORTANT - IF YOU HAVE IT, LOOK AFTER IT
In September I
found myself at the City Varieties in Leeds watching Gerry and the Pacemakers,
not usually my cup of tea, but they were surprisingly good, Gerry can still
sing after all these years. My son, who drags
me off to see entertainers, like the Levellers, Def Leppard, Travis, Katie
Melua, Bootleg Beatles, Deacon Blue, The Pogues and Jools Holland reckons I
would have to be drunk before I went in to watch Gerry and the Pacemakers. But the reason I
was there was that the tickets belonged to my brother who as a result of
childhood polio has had a heart bypass and is now on dialysis waiting for a
kidney transplant, due to complications he was in hospital in Leeds and unable
to go.
I have had a lot
of experience of hospital visiting in recent years; my son spent almost 2
years there, most of it in Sheffield Royal Hallamshire, before being
transferred to Pinderfields. I must say in my
experience I really appreciate the work done by the National Health Service,
they are doing a tremendous job usually in difficult circumstances and for
very little reward.
CRIME AND SOCIETY
I have probably
mentioned previously that Cr Glenn Burton and I are throughout this year
completing a community leadership course; the last session we attended had a
topic of crime. During the day we
had a discussion with someone from Government Office for Yorkshire and the
Humber, we visited a Mosque and New Hall Women’s Prison, it was quite an
intensive 12-hour day. I have had to
remove names from this contribution as the course is run under Chatham House
rules, which means that whilst we can use information gained from it we cannot
attribute it to named individuals or say where we got the information from,
this allows speakers to be open with us and discuss controversial items.
The Government
Office talked to us about Social Inclusion and what makes people feel excluded
from society, they defined Inclusion as being about choices, the ability of
people to participate, access to and quality of services, but it was also
about access to material things. They talked of
councils and other agencies like the police having to meet targets, but what
happens if the priorities of the public and what affects them are different to
the target areas. They seemed to
know quite a bit about the Anti Social Behaviour problems within Knottingley
and I agreed to talk to them at a later date about current problems we face
now, this fits in well with some work I have been doing with residents in
Knottingley recently.
The Chief officer
for Resources on Wakefield Council, John Pitt is currently doing a review of
liveability, which put in simple terms is how people relate to the council,
what dealings do they have, what works well, and what not so well, I invited
John to talk to a group of residents about problems they encounter in their
every day lives, I think he was surprised that not everyone thinks the council
are doing well, for some sections of the community times are still quite hard
and made more difficult by the behaviour of others.
In terms of local
government things are improving for Wakefield, there has been a 27% decrease
in under 18s teenage pregnancies, in education our key stage 3 results were
the best of 9 Neighbourhood Renewal Fund Areas, the gap is narrowing between
deprived wards and better off wards. In future we will
see less targets and more of an attempt to recognise local priorities as we
look for what works and who is the best provider.
I visited the
Neighbourhood Action Station (Mobile Police Station) at Airedale, and met a
Sgt there, based at the station were 2 PCs and 2 Police Community Support
Officers, the base was also used by the council’s neighbourhood patrollers. Wakefield has 3
mobile stations, this one moves around the 5 towns area staying in one place
for 3 months at a time.
I particularly
wanted to see the Neighbourhood Action Station as it is moving into our area
next when it leaves Airedale, it gave me an opportunity to talk to the
policemen there, they are quite well briefed about who is causing problems
within our area, and when the station gets here they will start to concentrate
on these individuals, the sergeant seemed very clear about his role in taking
criminals off the streets and protecting the general public, as local
councillors my colleagues and I look forward to working with them.
We also had a
discussion with someone from the Eastern Wakefield Primary Care Trust, he
talked to us about the Wakefield Drugs Intervention Programme, he told us that
the estimated size of class A drug use within Wakefield was 6,950 users with
2,800 suppliers, 1.4% of the population has a hidden drug problem, 94 people
were accessing treatment during September 2004 and there was a total of 520
people receiving treatment at the end of September. We were told that
this is not unusual; it happens everywhere, there is a growing trend towards
the use of Crack Cocaine.
Our visit to New
Hall Prison sparked off conflicting emotions, whilst we felt privileged to be
allowed to visit, it also felt as though we were intruding and should not be
there, it felt a bit like visiting a zoo and the prisoners must have felt like
saying what are you gawping at. It does have a
profound affect, Newhall is a prison in every sense of the word, and is not
unlike the impression you gain from television, the prisoners are not treated
any better because they are women, they are kept in tiny cells with a toilet
and a sink, there are steel barred doors and gates everywhere, I can assure
you it is not a place you would like to be. It made me wonder
what all these young women were doing here, but of course in most cases I had
no idea of the problems they had caused within society that had ended up with
them having to be locked up.
Many of the
inmates had mental health problems around 40% we were told, there are
attempted suicides regularly, this is not because of how they are treated,
there are so many young people who are already psychologically damaged before
they get to New Hall. To see the
prisoners altogether in this setting was quite stark, I was left with the
feeling that there must be a better way of dealing with people than this,
although at the same time I know there are many individuals who deserve to be
locked up.
KNOTTINGLEY CARNIVAL A.G.M.
The Carnival
Committee met on 1st November and elected the following officers,
Chairperson - Tommy Devanny, Deputy Chair - Glenn Burton, Secretary - Linda
Stokes, Minute secretary - Judy Colqhoun, Treasurer - Harry Ellis. The Carnival
would welcome more members, if anyone is interested in joining the committee
the next meeting will be held at Ferrybridge Tenants Office on 7th
February at 7pm.
COUNCIL EFFICIENCY SAVINGS
During the month
I attended a seminar regarding procurement (which is just another word for
buying), where Phil Hope MP was the guest speaker. His speech
concerned something that affects every authority, that is the government’s
drive for local authorities to have an efficiency review and lever out
efficiency gains and improvements to services that equate to 2.5% p.a.,delivering more and better, while lowering costs to
taxpayers. This is to be done by realigning back
office services into front line services. There are six
areas of potential efficiency savings that we as a council are now looking at:
- Procurement,
where we buy our materials and services
- Back office
functions
- Transactional
services
- Policy
funding and regulation (how much we spend regulating the public and
private sectors)
- Productive
time, more efficiency for the same or less money
- Other
These efficiency
savings are not another name for cuts because every pound released by Councils
stay with the Councils concerned, the aim is to free off resources to invest
in the services that matter to the public.
GREEN SPACE AND TREES
The Cabinet has
recently agreed the Council’s Green Spaces and Treescapes strategies, both
of these are excellent documents, the Treescape one in particular talked
affectionately of producing local Neighbourwood strategies, a term I quite
like. The strategy
refers to trees being a distinctive feature of our town centres and
neighbourhoods. In places they signify local distinctiveness – the limes of
Portobello; the Wakefield Prison Mulberry Tree of nursery rhyme fame; and the
woods surrounding Pontefract Castle. Both documents
contain action plans for how we will manage the environment, increase tree
cover, and improve the quality of our parks, playgrounds and greenspace.
Our vision is
"A Wakefield District enriched with high quality greenspace that meets
the needs of local communities and enhances our shared environments for
present and future generations".
The Greenspace
strategy contains a quote from Yvette Cooper MP, which states "We need to
reclaim our city parks and green spaces with good design, more investment and
better management – so that we have places for children to play, pensioners
to stroll and families to enjoy.
WAKEFIELD VICTORIAN MARKET
One of my more
pleasurable duties in November was to judge the stalls and the fancy dress of
stallholders at Wakefield’s Victorian Market. This was a
different kind of market to what you normally find, the market had quite a
Xmas feel about it with vendors in Victorian dress, donkey rides, a horse
chestnut seller, hot chocolate and brandy or Baileys, bottled beer, stalls
selling things not often seen now like whip and tops, choirs singing outside
the Cathedral and a parade. The German sausage
looked really inviting but I think that may be because I was on a diet. It has given me some Xmas spirit, I can’t wait now.
WAKEFIELD INTERACTIVE
Did you know you
could now get access to council services, local information and advice through
your TV Set, via the Interactive button? If you have Sky,
NTL or digital TV you can get Wakefield Interactive, this enables you to get
in touch with Wakefield Council, report any problems, find out about services,
and check out local information and events. Try it
out and see what you think.
XMAS AND NEW YEAR
It will soon be
Xmas which is a very religious time as Christ’s Birthday, as the year end
draws near I would like to give thanks for a good year, peaceful and without
too many problems, I hope for a year as good next year and wish the same to
you all. See you all in
the New Year.
Graham Stokes
Cabinet Member for Corporate Services
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