Councillor Graham Stokes Cabinet Member for Corporate Services

JANUARY 2005

HAPPY NEW YEAR
I have made my New Year resolutions; let's hope I can stick to them.

REFLECTION
As this is a new year I thought I would reflect on how we have moved forward as a council, and look at some of the services we have implemented or improved. Once I started to think about this I was surprised by the number of service changes that we have implemented that sometimes we just take for granted or forget that they are there. I hope that in the future we can take this as a foundation on which to build on, it is no good being self congratulatory or complacent, things can always be improved and developed, and there will be areas where we fall down at times, but at least we have a strong base to start from.

I find talking to residents helps to keep my feet firmly on the ground, quite often their experience of council services in reality, is not as we imagine it, this is an area we need to work on to ensure improvements that are agreed centrally permeate down and are seen to be operating throughout the district.

I see just some of our achievements (and the list is endless so this is just a snapshot) being around our "Fast Forward Community Strategy". We have delivered:

• 3 mobile neighbourhood action stations in the district and brought into service 19 neighbourhood patrollers,
• introduced an integrated enforcement service and a rapid response telephone line,
• removed 2800 abandoned vehicles,
• started to tackle illegal and off road motorcycling by seizing 32 motorcycles, 7 arrests and 135 warnings.

The Neighbourhood Action Programme of clean ups has removed 1,203,920 tons of general waste, 988 needle pick ups, and cleaned 193 separate instances of graffiti.

We have set up 13 Children’s Centres, 1 of which is to be based in Knottingley, developed Urban Renaissance programmes within the 5 towns area, over 2,500 residents have been able to access IT facilities through the Neighbourhood Learning Centres programme, we have provided a further 1,160 new childcare places across the district, set up a dedicated hotline for members of the public to report all environmental issues and nuisances operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The hotline has dealt with 4,000 calls in 9 months.

The emphasis has to be on providing quality services and gaining best value, because at the end of the day it is your money, the council taxpayers, that is being spent.

HISTORY OF FERRYBRIDGE
On the 2nd December I visited the Ferrybridge Iron Age Archaeological exhibition at Pontefract Museum. I had not realised previously just how many bodies had been found there and how much modern day science could tell us about them, there was information on their diet of meat, the fact that 1 woman had varicose veins and another male had been hit by at least two blows on the head. The earliest development on the site that we know of was the construction of Ferrybridge Henge, there are approximately 200 nationally but this is the only one to be found within West Yorkshire.

AGEING ROCKERS
It was last month that I found myself along with two of my brothers in Leeds at a concert to see The Sensational Alex Harvey Band. The band dates back to the early seventies and I still have the original tape of their best album called "Next", you may remember their version of Tom Jones Delilah. Their songs have amazing lyrics like "let me be your swamp snake until the real one comes along" imagine that as a chat up line!

There were 300, 40 to 50 year olds all trying to relive their youth squeezed into this venue like sardines, none of my brothers are taller than 5ft 7` so you can imagine what we felt when 4 blokes the smallest of whom must have been a 7ft basketball player decided to stand in front of us.

Alex Harvey himself died some time ago so the band have only recently reformed with a new singer, and are still playing the old songs. I must admit they were brilliant and well worth seeing, I will be watching out for them on tour again.

OLDER PEOPLE FORUM
I am involved in discussions on setting up an Older Peoples Forum, I recently read a study by Alison Burt on Local Government communications where she asks if local government communications was failing the over 50’s, this could equally be asked of the Health Service and government departments like the DHSS.

It is my hope to set up a forum run independently from the council that would be a place where all sectors can share information and pass on that information to the public.

Older people themselves have diverse needs, there are differences in age, health, and life styles which we need to recognise, older peoples issues are being taken seriously with "Better Government for Older People" aiming to improve public services for older people by listening to their views.

The Local Government Association (LGA) has a commitment to help older people to live independent lives.

The Government comprehensive performance assessment inspection of local council’s in 2005 will be looking at how we communicate withy older people and work with them to improve their quality of life.

One of the things I am trying to do is to build links between ourselves the Health Service and other organisations that work with older people like Age Concern and Help the Aged, and bring this sense of partnership into a wider forum.

At the meeting held in December between various agencies to look at setting up a forum, it was felt that we should be asking older people what they want, we need to identify and talk to existing groups and perhaps invite representatives from each organisation to a consultation meeting.

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT
The Freedom of Information act came into force on January 1st, this gives any individual the right to access various types of information held by public authorities such as the council. Once you make a written request for the information the council has a duty to respond within 20 working days. Information can only be withheld if it is considered to fall within one of 23 exemptions, which includes information provided in confidence, personal information, and information that may harm commercial interests.

SCRUTINY CHAIRS MEETING
In December I met with the Chair’s of Overview and Scrutiny Committees (OSCs) on Wakefield council. There are five OSCs, which are closely aligned with the challenges of 'Fast Forward' the Community Strategy for the Wakefield District. They are:

• Lifelong Learning (Investing In Our People)
• Liveability (Improving Our Places)
• Local Economy (Developing a Dynamic Local Economy)
• Social Care and Health (Looking After Ourselves)
• Crime and Community Safety (Feeling and Being Safer)

One of the items we looked at was their annual work programme, Some of the areas they will be scrutinising are

• Highways Maintenance
• Implementation of Greenspace and Woodland Strategies
• Housing Allocations Policy
• Deprivation in Affluent Areas
• Community Safety/Crime and Disorder Reduction Strategy
• Obesity in Children
• Early Years Provision
• Extended Schools
• Adult Education

If you feel that you can provide information or evidence you would wish them to consider please contact the Overview and Scrutiny Team on 01924 305957 or e-mail: scrutinycontact@wakefield.gov.uk or write to the team at Rooms 55-57, County Hall, Wakefield, WF1 2QW.

WAKEFIELD DISTRICT HOUSING
On 25th November along with Cr. Pat Doyle I attended the first meeting of the Wakefield and District Housing Local Management Committee, this committee covers housing in Knottingley, Pontefract and Featherstone, a total of 7,285 properties. The meeting was really an initial meeting to agree terms of reference etc, but we were given an update on the stock transfer and information on the improvement programme, the principles of how the programme will be delivered was approved by the main board in August, this involved 3 stages.

Stage1 – As a housing service we have just concluded a framework contract for all mechanical and engineering systems (central heating systems and rewiring), we intend to carry on with this contract for a further 2 years to deliver these improvements to houses, where this is the only aspect of improvement required.

Stage 2 – Where a property just needs new windows or doors we will have contracting arrangements to deliver a window and door improvement programme.

Stage 3 – Strategic Partners. Where properties require modernisation, which is the majority of properties, we intend to have a number of partners who will work closely with us to deliver a modernisation and improvement programme throughout the housing stock.

In the first 5 years following transfer in excess of £400 million will be invested in our properties.

Our next meeting is in January.

ASPHALT PLANT / FUTURE OF FERRYBRIDGE POWER STATION
I have recently attended a meeting with Roger Wynn the site director at Ferrybridge C Power Station along with representatives of AIRE the campaign group opposed to an Asphalt Plant at Ferrybridge.

It was a very useful meeting, Roger confirmed that unless Aggregate Industries the applicants can convince the local community of the value of an Asphalt Plant to the community then it will not be given permission to go ahead on their land, and RMG have been informed of this.

Aggregate Industries are still however progressing towards an appeal inquiry following the council decision to turn down their planning application, we still need to plan for and oppose the application at the Inquiry.

The inquiry will be held on Tuesday 14th June 2005 at 10 am in Castleford Civic Centre.

The venue has been reserved for 6 days and if we wish to speak we must attend when it opens.

Roger also confirmed the long term viability of the Power Station site he feels that Scottish and Southern who own the Power Station are committed to its future, he feels that in future we will see clean fuel energy produced on the site.

This is good news for the site, the workforce and the community, the Power Station have always maintained good links within the neighbourhood sponsoring CAB advice, work with the tenants association, many other local organisations and local schools, they are a good neighbour providing local employment, and I was pleased to hear that future viability is good.

A1 UPDATE
At a meeting I attended in December with RMS the contractor we were told that the work is currently 13 weeks behind schedule, so they have picked up a little since August, they are still hoping to complete on time by working through the winter.

Brotherton to Ferrybridge and M62 sections are still due for completion in Autumn 2005 – tie-in works likely from summer 2005 onwards. De-trunking works to follow the opening of the main line.

Brotherton to Hook Moor is behind programme with the southbound opening in January 2005 and the northbound in March 2005.

Bulk earth works with spoil removed from the Prince of Wales site has now been completed.

The widening of the A1 between Knottingley and Pontefract is progressing to programme.

Along the new road they are starting to put in the cement bound under layers and drainage works.

All the statutory undertakers (electric, water etc) have completed the diversion of services that were required.

The Lagentium Bridge that spans the river Aire has an 80-metre span, which is a massive feat of engineering.

The Brotherton to Hook Moor section is slightly behind schedule.

There are around 500 workmen and 140 staff working on the new road.

The Landscape Gateway Feature at Ferrybridge has been put out to all the local art colleges in West Yorkshire as a design competition with a cash prize, the designs will be returned in February.

The chariot burial continues to be investigated, it has been determined that the iron age body found was not local, he was either Scottish or Scandinavian, the cattle bones around the site are several hundred years younger, which indicates that he must have been really important for people to return to the site over such a long period. But who was he? what was he doing there, the plot thickens, further work is being carried out.

We are to hold our next update meeting in March.

Graham Stokes
Cabinet Member for Corporate Services

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