Councillor Graham Stokes Cabinet Member for Corporate Services

JUNE 2005

A VISITOR FROM PERU
We have recently had a friend of my sons from Peru staying with us. Susy is a systems analyst who lives and works in Lima. She brought along a bottle of Pisco, and showed us how to make Pisco sour with lemons, sugar, egg white and crushed ice. It is a refreshing strong drink, quite pleasant, for those summer days lazing in the garden.

Susy has taught us a lot about the culture and how people live in Peru, which is five times the size of Great Britain and has different environs including coastline, Amazon jungle and Andes mountains. We learned about the Incas and modern day living in different parts of Peru. Suzy visited parts of England and we all had a wonderful time.

GOOD NEWS ON THE PLANNING FRONT
I was in Bradford at a West Yorkshire Pensions Investment committee meeting trying to get to grips with investments in stocks, bonds, gilts and shares, when the good news came through to me that Aggregate Industries had withdrawn their appeal against the planning committee decision to reject their application for an Asphalt Plant in Ferrybridge. Wakefield Council’s Planning and highways Committee refused planning permission on 28th May last year, because of "the adverse impact on the amenity and quality of life of residents in the area." Over 1,000 objections to the proposal were received from local people in the Brotherton, Byram-cum-Sutton, Ferrybridge, Knottingley, Townville, Fryston, Burton Salmon and Fairburn areas. The reason given by the Appellants for withdrawing from the Inquiry, is that they have been unable to secure an agreement with the site owners that the land will be available should they have been successful in the appeal.

This is the best news I have heard in ages, it means the Public Inquiry which was to commence on June 14th, will not now go ahead. It is a victory for common sense and now means our battle to prevent pollution, noise and traffic from thundering through our village is complete. I would personally wish to thank all those who have been involved in the process, especially Scottish and Southern Energy for the support they have shown the community,  AIRE without whom this could not have happened, they have campaigned tirelessly raised money and employed consultants who were instrumental in getting the planning application rejected. I know they will continue to monitor our environment in the future and I look forward to working with them on this, but for now I am still celebrating.

We have also had notification of two other applications that have been refused. Cr. Burton and myself objected to a telephone mast being erected by Vodaphone opposite Ferrybridge Park on Kirkhaw Lane, this has now been refused.

The application for Hill Top (Tip Europe Ltd), Pontefract Road, Knottingley. New buildings for manufacture & maintenance of modular buildings; extensions to existing trailer workshop & office; additional car parking, lighting & fencing. Tip Europe was also refused.

It is difficult to see how the manufacture of modular buildings would have fitted in to any vision about the future of Hilltop and I welcome the decision to refuse this application.

PIGEONS RULE
We recently celebrated my sons birthday with a trip to Prague, a fascinating, beautiful city with buildings and architecture that is a must to see. Usually when you visit a city you seek out places and buildings of interest but in Prague every building seemed to have historical interest and style, with statues and different periodic architectural styles. I am now acquainted with terminology like New Rennaissance, Rococo, and Cubism.

In usual Stokes family fashion we were in a Market square drinking beer, when it was mentioned that it does not matter where you go in the world, wherever and whenever we have been in a Square within a city there has always been pigeons, this must make them one of the most prolific and widespread species that exist. If that premise is true then could this mean that if the human race was ever extinguished for whatever reason, the species that could be next to take our place in the world could be pigeons. What a chirpy thought!.

Not so much in the Stokes style was the ability for things to go wrong and returning to East Midlands Airport we made our way to the car at 11pm, only to find we didn’t know where the car keys were, so we had the suitcases open in the middle of the car park searching for them, but they were not there. After searching everything twice for a half hour they turned up in the hand luggage where we were supposed to have looked in the first place, I can say there was more than a little flapping and panic.

CARNIVAL
I would like to express my appreciation and thanks to Peter Greenwood from England Lane Estate. Peter compiled a Carnival brochure containing photographs from his own collection that date from 1932 to the present date. The brochure has given us a pictorial historical record of the carnival and the sale of them has raised over £200 for carnival funds, which is a fantastic individual achievement and will assist in funding this years carnival which is run entirely by voluntary contributions.

The Carnival Committee are currently planning for this years event, if you are interested in joining us the next meeting will be held at Ferrybridge Tenants Association Offices on 6th June at 7pm, everyone is welcome. At the time of writing we do not have a Brass Band to lead the Carnival parade, if anyone has any ideas or contacts I would appreciate hearing from you. We have already contacted most of the bands within the Wakefield District.

ELECTIONS

Yvette Cooper – Labour, 20,973 votes
Conservative 5,727
Liberal 3,942
Labour Majority 15,246
Turnout 53.33%, 32,947 voters

Councillors are advised not to mention elections in columns such as this one in the run up to an election, as it could be seen to be giving an unfair advantage to one political party over another, but now the election is over, I can comment that the result was an excellent one for us in Wakefield where we won all four of the district constituency seats.

The results for Pontefract and Castleford showed to me that local people have accepted Yvette Cooper as a hard working MP for this community, it also proved that in a democratic society you get payment by results, you either deliver expectations or you lose elections. Even nationally where we lost 47 seats but which still left the Labour Party with an overall majority of 66 seats, it was a good result when you consider that this was an election for a third term of office, and we have never won three terms of office in the history of the Labour Party.

I was made aware by voters that I met on the day that there were problems caused by not having a Polling Station at Broomhill and Knottingley Town Hall, which meant people had to travel long distances to vote. In the case of Broomhill the lack of a Polling Station was due to the Disability Discrimination Act, (DDA) which means all Polling Stations should be accessible to the disabled, clearly the portakabin on Broomhill could not meet the criteria and as there were no other public buildings nearby it was decided to relocate the Polling station to England Lane School.

Despite the problems, people still turned out to vote and I know Yvette was delighted with the result and would wish me to thank you all on her behalf.

The election also saw the retirement as an MP of William O’Brien, M.P. for Normanton. Many local people will remember Bill for the work he carried out over many years prior to becoming an MP as a Knottingley councillor. Bill has been a political force within Knottingley and Ferrybridge since his youth, being involved in the Carnival Committee, Trades Council, School Governors and most other organisations that were around at the time. Many people who visited him with problems have a lot to thank him for and he deserves some recognition for a lifetime of work and I hope that this is taken up somewhere.

FIRST FRIDAY
‘First’ is the development agency for the Wakefield District, and once a month on the first Friday they hold a seminar to give out information on the local economy, and also invite a guest speaker. I attended the meeting in May when the speaker was an authoress and entrepreneur named Preethi Nair. Preethi worked as a management consultant but gave it up to follow her dream and become a writer. She sent off copies of her manuscript thinking it would be snapped up by a major publisher, it wasn’t.

Jobless and having been rejected by most publishers, Preethi took the deposit out of the flat she was about to buy and set up her own publishing company to self publish her book Gypsy Masala. Not having the resources to rent an office and publish her book, she established an entirely fictional multinational publishing company, "Creative House", in her bedroom, and created a PR director, Pru Menon (her alter ego) to energetically promote her work. It paid off through the sheer belief, determination and not giving up and believing everything is possible.

We were given Key economic indicators on numbers employed within the district, and in what sectors, unemployment, financial assistance and business support that is available to businesses within the district along with major land use and business developments; it was a very interesting worthwhile event.

LOCAL DEMOCRACY
I was recently invited to talk to 250 year 9 pupils at Crofton High School about the importance of local democracy and voting. I gave them information on how Wakefield Council is structured, how many people voted in elections, and how their views can be used to influence council policy.

The pupils were organising their own mock elections. There are 9 form classes and each are to produce a manifesto and a candidate, and after a ballot one person would win an election. After I spoke to them about the importance of local democracy (non politically) they elected nominees and met together in their form classes to determine policy and come up with a name for their party. One class nominated someone called Ray and their party was called ‘Ray’s Standards’, which I quite liked.

A1 CLOSURES
The Highways Agency have arranged for the closure of the A1(M) Northbound between Barnsdale Bar A639 (near North Elmsall) to J33 at Pontefract and Ferrybridge. This closure is to take place at night on the dates below and is to facilitate essential highways works. I have enclosed a list of the dates when the work is to take place.

Dates for proposed closure listed below.

From Saturday 9th July 20:00 to Sunday 10th July 08:00
From Saturday 16th July 20:00 to Sunday 17th July 08:00
From Saturday 23rd July 20:00 to Sunday 24th July 08:00

The diversion route for this closure is via A639 and A645 leading the diverted traffic through East Hardwick and Pontefract.

ROYAL BRITISH LEGION, KNOTTINGLEY BRANCH
The British Legion are looking for a volunteer treasurer to assist them with their book-keeping, if you are interested in helping out please contact me and I will forward your name and address on to them. I can be contacted on 01977 675110, or by email at Gstokes@wakefield.gov.uk

CASTLEFORD TIGERS
It is a while since I have mentioned Castleford Tigers. They are doing OK so far within an unbeaten run of five wins within the Northern Premier League, but if they are to regain Super League status they will need all the help they can get this season. They certainly have the support of the fans, and over 8,000 were there to watch them play Hull KR, but they need financial help to pay for the type of players that can get us back into Super League, (any prospective sponsors out there, are you listening?).

Castleford Supporters Club have devised a squad builder scheme with the aim of raising £10,000 to purchase a player. This involves £25 tickets with the possibility of winning prizes including an opportunity to be the manager for a day, shadowing the coach Dave Woods.

This year is Castleford’s one and only chance to get back into Superleague, they have to grasp every opportunity with both hands. They can afford to retain a full time squad for one year only and next year two Super League teams will be relegated but only one will be promoted.

FLOOD ALLEVIATION SCHEME
The Environment Agency, Knottingley Flood Alleviation Scheme will be officially opened on Thursday 30th June, at 11.45am, at Gander Haven Farm. Invitees will be arriving at the site at 11.20am, to view the scheme beforehand.

Graham Stokes
Cabinet Member for Corporate Services

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