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Councillor Graham Stokes
Cabinet Member for Corporate Services
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MAY 2005
‘Effective leaders create communities out of words’
Martin Luther King
WAKEFIELD DISTRICT HOUSING
Picture the
scene, 100 staff, board and local management committee members all milling
around in a large room at Winston House in Wakefield, WDH’s new housing
headquarters, it was 6pm on 21st March and the lawyers and
solicitors were still wrangling over the fine detail right up to the wire
for the deadline of the housing stock transfer. Then at 6.50pm it was
announced the deal had been signed, 31,921 houses had transferred from
council ownership to Wakefield and District Housing, the largest stock
transfer ever to take place in this country. There was mixed feelings for
some of the staff who had worked for the council all their working life,
but also realisation that they now had the resources (£700m) to improve
every ex council house over the next 10 years. 31,921 is far fewer than
the 43,000 houses that the council owned whilst I was housing chairperson,
the council did have 46,000 houses at one time.
The sale of
14,000 homes has had an impact, I do believe in right to buy, it has
helped many young people get a foothold on the home ownership ladder, but
equally you cannot sell off 14,000 of your best housing without it having
an effect, we see that every Saturday morning at our surgeries with the
numbers of people living in lodgings or with family members increasing as
housing becomes more scarce. My hope is that now the stock transfer is
complete Wakefield District Housing will start to replace some of the sold
housing by building new ones.
It is an
exciting time for the future of rented housing within our district, the
job of renewal and repair is a large one and cannot be understated, but
the new company I am sure are up to the challenge and I wish them all the
success in the world as I and others will continue to monitor their
progress.
Left
to right - Councillor Phil Dobson, Deputy Leader, John Pitt,
Corporate Director Resources, Tony Reeves, Deputy Chief Executive, Cllr
Betty Rhodes, Cabinet Member for Housing, Cllr Graham Stokes, Cabinet
Member Resources, Colleen Adamson, Deputy Chair WDH, Kevin Dodd, Chief
Executive, WDH (back row) Lee Sugden, Director of Resources, WDH and
Ken Taylor, Chair WDH
FERRYBRIDGE COMMUNITY CENTRE
Good news for
Ferrybridge Community Centre, they had a shortfall in funding for the new
building of £23,000, which was guaranteed as a loan by Wakefield Council,
they have now been successful with a grant application to WREN. This means
that the funding package for the project is now complete with over
£630,000 being raised in all. As the grant has now been awarded, the loan
is no longer required; the Community Centre will now open with no debt.
The Community
Centre is a dream come true and most of it has been achieved through the
work of Mary Higgins and her small committee, she deserves a medal for her
dogged determination and dedication to getting the project completed.
WASH DYKE, FERRYBRIDGE
I have
recently been in contact with the Environment Agency regarding the
problems created by the Wash Dyke at Ferrybridge, they have said
"Since
Wash Dyke was designated a 'main river, it has meant that the Environment
Agency has the power to consider carrying out flood defence works. We are
currently looking at the potential for flood defence works along Wash Dyke
in Pontefract, Knottingley and Ferrybridge. Our study will examine the
issues with flooding and drainage, and look at possible solutions. It may
find that flood defences would not be feasible but, should the study
recommend a scheme, our funding structure means that the work is unlikely
to be carried out before 2009. The City of Wakefield Metropolitan Council
remains responsible for the culvert under the road. We would be concerned
that any increase in the culvert size could make flooding worse
downstream. Our team may be able to examine the impact better when we have
completed our mathematical model of the Wash Dyke river catchment.
These flood risk issues are complex and unfortunately there are no
immediate solutions to resolve the current flooding problems."
COMMUNITY CHEST
This
financial year some of the Community Chest Awards the 3 local councillors
have agreed include:
Knottingley
& Ferrybridge Carnival Committee £2,500.00
Ferrybridge Youth Group £500.00
Knottingley Silver Prize £1,250.00
Knottingley Town Hall Community Centre £2,000.00
Ferrybridge Newsletter Group £725.00
Ferrybridge Tenants & Residents Assoc £1,000.00
OLDER PEOPLES PROJECT
In my role as
an older peoples champion I do work and liaise with other organisations
like Primary Care Trusts and Mental Health Trusts, and organisations like
Age Concern and Help the Aged I do not pretend to be an expert on older
peoples issues and I do not have hordes of council officers queuing up to
support me in my role, but I do have the support of a part time member of
staff. It is an area I am continually learning about and most of my
information comes from meetings that I attend within the community, I
recently went along to talk to a community group in Wrenthorpe, I feel it
is important to ascertain how the public view the services we deliver
rather than try and glean that information from council reports. I do not
have responsibility for delivering council services to the elderly that is
the duty of councillor Peter Loosemore the Cabinet Member for Social Care,
the work I do is independent of Social Care, and not being part of the
service allows me to challenge and question the services that they
deliver.
We as a
council need to listen to older peoples views, and our challenge is to
improve and deliver more efficient services relating to issues like home
care and disabled facilities grants that will allow older people to remain
in their own homes independently for as long as they can or wish to, we
should be promoting health and active life in older age.
There are a
number of National initiatives around at the moment, some like the Better
Government for Older people, have been around since 2001, this and the
National Services Framework set the scene and introduce the concept of the
older peoples champion.
I often think
when I am reading many of the reports that we receive, that all the good
information received is absolutely useless unless you can communicate and
spread the message, because the vast majority of people who require the
services do not sit around reading difficult and often boring reports, you
have to be a sad individual like me or the officers to do that, recently I
have received information about direct payments for social care that is
available, I was sent a very useful pack on how people can obtain direct
payments to buy their own care in, rather than using what is provided by
Social Services.
I have also
learned of the 'Time for Me' service which essentially provides support to
Carers to get a real break from caring. It recognises that for many carers
getting a break that allows them to relax and pursue leisure or
educational or recreational pursuits may be expensive. It builds on the
fact that carers are often not able to work and as such may have economic
pressures that prevent them getting a proper break. It also builds on the
Carers and Disabled Children's Act and Government guidance in supporting
carers. The scheme is funded by the Council and administered by Wakefield
and District Carers.
The National
Services Framework says that person centred care requires us to listen, to
respect dignity and privacy, to recognise individual differences and
specific needs, to enable older people to make informed choices, and
involve them in all decisions about their needs and care, and involve and
support carers whenever necessary. It also mentions the increasing
dependency on others as we grow older, but disability and illness are not
an inevitable consequence of ageing, and we should focus on promoting good
health and quality of life and what we can all do to prevent or delay
frailty or disability. These are all laudable aims; we should be promoting
access to health activities on the basis of need for all our older people.
I along with
a number of other organisations am looking at a number of ways to involve
and consult with older people and I have attended discussions about
developing an older persons forum across the District to enable more older
people to have their say about all issues that affect them, we have held a
number of meetings to discuss different models of forums and what would be
the best model for Wakefield, the conclusion we came to was to ask older
people themselves how they would like to see an older peoples forum
develop, so we have got together all the information we could find on what
organisations currently exist within the district, and we are in the
process of inviting them to attend one of 5 local meetings we will be
holding in different areas across the district this summer to find out
their views. The one that may interest you will be held the Salvation Army
hall, Castleford on 6th July at 11am.
One of the
objectives of a forum would be that it would be a place where all the
interested sectors could meet together and share and pass on information.
A forum could involve councillors, officers, health, PCT and voluntary
sector partners, but most importantly older people, it would be a forum
for older people run by older people themselves, independently of the
council, PCT or the voluntary agencies so that it would have teeth to
campaign, it would need to be recognised to give it a voice and strength.
I recognise
that older people themselves are not all in the same circumstances, their
needs are diverse, for instance there is quite an age span between over 50
and really elderly, there are differences in health and lifestyles, some
people are financially well off others not so much, we need to be aware of
this diversity.
It is
surprising how much is going on within the district there are many social
events that older people are interested in, there are clubs, bingo, yoga
sessions, over 60’s groups, craft groups, Darby and Joan still exist,
painting groups and many more all over the district.
I have been
involved in the Older Peoples Project in Knottingley that developed from a
project started in Castleford the previous year by the PCT, this looks at
what is available in the area and hopes to produce a directory of
organisations and services for the public, they have invited a theatre
company to do a performance about distraction burglary and how to deal
with bogus callers, they are promoting local activities like local walks,
an archive group that puts old photographs onto a computer and shows old
films and slides of the area. The project has discussed what can be done
about crime and vandalism, transport; lack of community spirit and
bringing together disjointed communities.
I have been
invited to a meeting to consider developing Community Transport across the
district as transport is a problem for many of the elderly, we have
started by mapping what provision already exists, and some common themes
have come out of the first meeting around funding for vehicles and
replacement, no co-ordination of what exists, no strategic approach on
meeting running costs, and transport that could be made available being
stood idle at certain points in the day.
FERRYBRIDGE TENANTS ASSOCIATION
At their last
meeting in April, the elected position were Derek Cooper Chairperson, Pat
Towell Secretary, Keith Stone Treasurer, Pat Doyle Minute Secretary. The
Association are involved in planning for the A1 bridge celebrations on
June 12th, with a band concert and the opening of the newly
renovated church flags walkway to the old churchyard.
Inspector
Clarkson was also in attendance and spoke of the Police needing the
support of the community to assist in combating Anti Social Behaviour and
the proposed increase in community policing, he agreed to distribute
flyers to the tenants Association containing photographs and information
about people who had Anti Social Behaviour Orders (ASBO’s) against them.
KNOTTINGLEY CARNIVAL
A recent
innovative idea that may come to fruition in time for next years Carnival
has come from Phil and Katy Butterfield. They are hoping that we can have
a local Carnival Radio which would commence 3 weeks before the 2006
Carnival and end 1 week after, the radio station could involve local
schools and groups and help to raise awareness of Knottingley and
Ferrybridge groups, events and issues, sending out publicity to an
approximately 6 mile radius, the Carnival Committee are quite excited
about the prospect and have given it their support.
THE PLEASURE OF READING
One of the
great pleasures I have in life is reading, which is just as well when you
consider the endless amount of council reports that I read every week with
subjects as diverse as policies on gypsies and travellers, flood defences,
finance, personnel and a myriad of other subjects, the list is endless.
To relax I
like to read a good fiction book, currently I am reading a book of short
stories called "Jigs and Reels", by Joanne Harris, it begins
with a story entitled Faith and Hope go shopping, Joanne wrote about this
after visiting her grandmother in an old peoples home in Barnsley, it
start off with "its Wednesday so it must be rice pudding again."
I think everyone gets something different from a book as they view the
events described with their own personal circumstances in mind. For me,
although Joanne Harris writes pure fiction and much of it about France, it
does contain a lot of social comment, she has a very rare talent of
writing about the absurd and making it believable, Joanne has the ability
to let her mind wander and being able to document what she finds.
In Faith and
Hope go shopping she has written a story of two elderly ladies living in a
home, they dream of escaping to spend a day shopping, the descriptions are
exceptional and you can feel the fresh air with them, as they leave the
home where they have been confined for so long, Faith says I try not to
stare, mesmerised at the sky and the trees, she had not been outside for 6
months, the hesitation they felt, and the fact that a little girl smiled
at them and it struck them that they could not remember the last time they
saw a young face, it is all too realistic, exceptional stuff, well worth
reading, and it brings home that although this is fiction you can bet that
this is real life for some people.
MY DAY AT SCHOOL
On 11th
April I spent a day at Simpson’s Lane School in the classroom with Year
6, it was a very enjoyable experience, I was able to see at first hand how
much teaching techniques had changed since I was at school and how the
children reacted to these methods. The first change that could not be
missed is the use of Information Technology; the interactive Whiteboards
that replace the blackboards of our day are computers that open up all
sorts of possibilities.
We were able
to watch a video on the Whiteboard about Panda’s being kept in captivity
and to debate whether this was right or wrong, it did not matter whether
or not there is a right answer, it gave the children the opportunity to
explore ideas, to question, and to develop their own thinking and points
of view.
I found the
techniques used for working out sums were vastly different to what was
used in my day, and I could see a real logic behind why these techniques
are used, most of the children felt comfortable and at ease with the
systems that allowed them to do fairly complicated multiplication and long
division, they seemed to be doing more complex mathematics than I could
remember doing at their age, so things have moved on a pace for the
better.
ROYAL MAUNDY SERVICE
I mentioned
last month that I had been invited to the Royal Maundy Service held in
Wakefield Cathedral on Thursday 24th March, and to lunch with
the Queen after the service. The programme that we were given on the day
contains some really interesting information about Royal visits to
Wakefield, the first one in modern times was on April 30th 1891
when HRH The Duke of Clarence and Avondale, eldest son of the Prince of
Wales, opened the city’s Technical College. The programme goes on to
list and give information on all the Royal visits that have happened since
up to the present day.
The Maundy
Service is also explained; it states, " From the fifteenth century,
the number of recipients has been related to the years of a sovereigns
life.
At one time
recipients were required to be of the same sex as the sovereign, but since
the eighteenth century they have numbered as many men and women as the
sovereign has years of age. Recipients are now pensioners selected because
of the Christian service they do for the church and the community."
Two purses
are received; a red purse contains an allowance for clothing and
provisions formerly given in kind and a payment for the redemption of the
royal gown.
A White purse
contains Maundy coins, silver pennies, twopences, threepences, and
fourpences, as many pence as the sovereign has years of age.
The service
was quite impressive a large part being played by the Yeomen of the Guard
which added a lot of colour and grandeur to the parade. I was pleased to
be there as an onlooker, the service has never been held in Wakefield
before, and I do not anticipate it will be held there again in my
lifetime, so I witnessed a little piece of history.
Graham Stokes
Cabinet Member for Corporate Services
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